Translation theories History

  • Second period

    This period, according to Steiner, runs up to the forties of
    the twentieth century. It is characterized as a period of theory
    and hermeneutic inquiry with the development of a vocabulary
    and methodology of approaching translation. ‘Hermeneutics’ is
    an interpretive approach developed by German Romantics, and
    named after the Greek word hermeneuein, meaning ‘to
    understand’.
  • First period

    This period starts with the Romans. Eric Jacobsen goes so far as to hyperbolically propound that translation is a Roman invention though
    translation is as old as language itself.
    From the above definition, Tytler introduces three ‘laws’:
    1.The translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas
    of the original work.
    2. The style and manner of writing should be of the same
    character with that of original.
    3. The translation should have all the ease of original
    composition. (Ibid)
  • Third period

    starts with the publication of the first papers on machine
    translation in the 1940s, and is characterized by the introduction of structural and applied linguistics, contrastive studies in morphology and syntax among others which help the translator identify similarities and differences between NL and FL, and communication theory into the study of translation. It comprises
    two eras: first the pioneering era; the second the
    invention of the first generation of machine translation.
  • Fourth period

    The last period coexists with the third period as it has its origin
    in the early 1960s, and is characterized by a recourse to
    hermeneutic inquiries into translation and interpretation.
    The theory offers ageneral model for understanding, analyzing and describing the functions and evolution of literary systems, its specific
    application to the study of translated literature.
  • Translation Computerization Era

    The invention of computer has led to aspire after an automatic
    machine translation wherein the computer is provided with
    the ST to be reproduced automatically or with the assistance of man as a semantically equivalent and well formed text in the TL Translationoriented computerized technology in general and
    machine translation in particular can be described as a complex and diverse field in which a wide range of
    ‘actors such as translation theorists, linguists, engineers among
    other researchers