Some collocation related pitfalls and problems in translation

Confusing source and target patterns is a pitfall that can easily be avoided once the translator is alerted to the potential influence that the collocational patterning of the source text can have on him/her.

A good method of detaching oneself from the source text is to put the draft translation aside for a few hours.

These collocations reflect a cultural reality in the English-speaking world.

A large number of English speakers have fine, flyaway hair, which also tends to be brittle.

In Arabic, 'sharp pen' is a common and typical collocation. However, both its propositional and expressive meanings are quite different from those of crisp writing in English.

A writer is described as having a 'sharp pen' in Arabic if he or she is a fierce critic.

One can then return to the target text with a better chance of responding to its patterning as a target reader eventually would, having not been exposed to and therefore influenced by the source-text patterning in the first place.

At any rate, translators are well advised to avoid carrying over source-language collocational patterns which are untypical of the target language, unless there is a very good reason for doing so.

وقد رأى فيه رجل الصناعة شخصا ينم مظهره من التواضع والبساطة

Back-translation: The industrialist saw in him a person whose appearance suggests modesty and simplicity.

Similarly, the nearest acceptable collocation which can replace 'hard drink' in Arabic is 'alcoholic drinks'.

But 'hard drink' refers only to spirits in English, for example whisky, gin, and brandy.

Back-translation:

But the fact is that this money had come from the Sultan of Brunei and he is a naive person who believes imaginary, fake stories, and the false charm of Mohammed Fayed tempted him.

The above extract is taken from an instruction leaflet which accompanies a hair conditioner.

Common collocates of 'hair' in English include 'dry', 'oily', 'damaged', 'permed', 'fine', 'flyaway' and 'brittle', among others.

Back at the dull mahogany tables of the Commission, I found myself again seated opposite the familiar, tall, languid figure of Sir Godfray Le Quesne, rocking gently on his chair, with his hands clasped behind his head, and his eyes closed as he listened or slept through the hearings.

He'd been looking into us for four years, and knew our business backwards.

Translators sometimes get quite engrossed in the source text and may produce the oddest collocations in the target language for no justifiable reason.

Here is an example from "A Hero from Zero".

The collocation 'modest means' suggests lack of affluence in English. The equivalent of 'modest' in Arabic [mutawaadi'] can suggest a similar meaning in some collocations such as 'dakhl mutawaadi' ['small income'].

However, both the adjective 'mutawaadi' ['modest'] and the noun 'tawaadu' ['modesty'] used in connection with a person usually mean that he or she is unassuming.

Unusual combinations of words are sometimes used in the source text in order to create new images.

Ideally, the translation of a marked collocation will be similarly marked in the target language.

All this represents only a part of all that Forbes Magazine reported on Fayed in the March issue mentioned before.

In 1983, he had approached the industrialist Robert O. Anderson under the cover of a commission agent.

To describe someone as having 'oily charm' in English means not only that they are insincere, but also that there is something particularly unpleasant, even sickening, in the way they show excessive politeness or flatter people.

In Arabic, 'false charm' merely suggests that someone who appears charming at first glance may not turn out to be as good as they think or claim to be.

The French translator of "A Hero from Zero" [a document produced by Lonrho Plc. about the acquisition of the House of Fraser by Mohamed Fayed] rendered 'shoe repairs as réparer ses chaussures' ['to repair his shoes'], which is a literal translation from English.

In French, réparer collocates with things like 'fridges', 'cars', and machines in general, but it does not collocate with 'chaussures'.

Source text (A Hero from Zero, p. 13):

In fact, the money came from the Sultan of Brunei, a naive individual, easily romanced and seduced by the oily charm of Mohamed Fayed.

Sometimes, translators opt for accuracy of meaning, or for what appears to them to be accuracy of meaning, at the expense of all else.

It is unfortunate that some translators still feel that their job is to reproduce everything in the source text, come what may.

Source text (Kolestral Super):

KOLESTRAL-SUPER is ideal for all kinds of hair, especially for damaged, dry and brittle hair.

Back-translation:

Kolestral-super is ideal for all kinds of hair, especially for the split-ends hair, harmed or damaged hair and also for hair which is dry, of weak structure or liable to breaking.

Such culture-specific collocations express ideas previously unexpressed in the target language.

Like culture-specific words, they point to concepts which are not easily accessible to the target reader.

The collocations and the lengthy explanations given in Arabic 'mean' very little to the Arab reader.

Moreover, it is doubtful whether 'damaged hair' and 'brittle hair' would, in fact, be seen as problems by the average Arab.

The industrialist had been struck by his appearance as someone with modest means.

Mr. Anderson was therefore astonished by his sudden acquisition of a considerable fortune.

Source text:

New Tradition offers a fascinating series of traditional patterns in miniature using rich jewel-like colours that glow against dark backgrounds.

Source text:

Papers relating to the lesser-known languages will be particularly welcome.

In English academic writing, it is common and acceptable to talk about 'lesser-known languages', as well as 'major languages' and 'minor languages'.

Russian has no equivalent collocations.

Differences in the collocational patterning of the source and target languages create potential pitfalls and can pose various problems in translation.

Some of these problems are more difficult to handle than others.

Back-translation:

The 'New Tradition' collection presents a number of fascinating designs in a reduced size, in dazzling colours like the colours of gems, the glowing of which is enhanced by the dark backgrounds.

It does not include other alcoholic drinks such as beer, lager, or sherry.

The Arabic collocation, however, refers to any alcoholic drink, including beer, lager, sherry, as well as spirits.

Here are some examples of translations which have opted for naturalness at the expense of accuracy.

The change in meaning involved in the following examples is not significant enough to justify cluttering the text with additional explanations or using untypical target collocations:

The English collocation which poses a translation problem is underlined.

The collocation or expression which substitutes it in the target text is highlighted in bold.

Crisp writing is clear, concise writing.

The collocation suggests approval.

A certain amount of loss, addition, or skewing of meaning is often unavoidable in translation; language systems tend to be too different to produce exact replicas in most cases.

The degree of acceptability or non-acceptability of a change in meaning depends on the significance of this change in a given context.

I am assuming here that the professional translator would normally be working from a foreign language into his or her native language or language of habitual use.

The following example is also from "A Hero from Zero".

On the other hand, it may be significant; for example, a 'good or bad law' in English is typically a 'just or unjust law' in Arabic.

The significance of this difference in meaning depends on whether the issue of 'justice' is in focus in a given text and whether the context favours avoiding explicit reference to justice.

The collocations 'damaged hair' and 'brittle hair' have no close equivalents in Arabic.

The translator of the above extract nevertheless feels obliged to reproduce every possible aspect of meaning conveyed in the source text, regardless of whether the source collocations are likely to have any significance in the Arabic context.

Furthermore, the political and social setting of Russian makes it potentially offensive to draw a distinction between better-known and lesser-known, or major and minor languages.

The translator of the above extract seems to be aware of the oddity of such associations in Russian and their potential for causing offence.

This interpretation is further reinforced by the addition of 'basaata' ['simplicity'].

The translator of the above extract seems to have confused the collocational patterns of English and Arabic, thus misinterpreting the source collocation and communicating the wrong meaning in the target text.

Accuracy is no doubt an important aim in translation, but it is also important to bear in mind that the use of common target-language patterns which are familiar to the target reader plays an important role in keeping the communication channels open.

The use of established patterns of collocation also helps to distinguish between a smooth translation, one that reads like an original, and a clumsy translation which sounds 'foreign'.

A Japanese, Arabic, or Danish translator, one might assume, would not hesitate to make the necessary adjustment since, to all intents and purposes, the English/Japanese, English/Arabic, and English/Danish collocations have the same meanings, respectively.

There are, nevertheless, many published translations which testify to the contrary.

Common collocates of 'hair' in Arabic are mainly 'split-ends', 'dry', 'oily', 'coarse', and 'smooth'.

These collocations also reflect the cultural reality of the Arabic-speaking world.

The nearest acceptable collocation in the target language will often involve some change in meaning.

This change in meaning may be minimal, or not particularly significant in a given context.

A translator can easily misinterpret a collocation in the source text due to interference from his or her native language.

This happens when a source language collocation appears to be familiar because it corresponds in form to a common collocation in the target language.

In rendering unmarked source-language collocations into his or her target language, a translator ideally aims at producing a collocation which is typical in the target language while, at the same time, preserving the meaning associated with the source collocation.

This ideal cannot always be achieved.

Note that the translation of culture-specific collocations involves a partial increase in information.

This is unavoidable inasmuch as unfamiliar associations of ideas cannot simply be introduced in a target text without giving the reader some hint as to how to interpret them.

Like individual words, collocational patterns carry meaning and can be culture-specific.

This, in addition to their largely arbitrary nature, gives rise to numerous pitfalls and problems in translation.

Back-translation:

Tiny Rowland has a sharper pen than Peter Wright's, and also the story which he is narrating is much stranger.

Source text (The Independent):

Tiny Rowland is a crisper writer than Peter Wright and has an even stranger story to tell.

Target text (back-translated from Russian):

We intend to discuss separately questions concerning the socalled 'small', i.e. less widespread and 'big', i.e. more widespread languages.

The following are some of the more common pitfalls and problems that are often encountered in translating non-literary texts.

Where applicable, examples are given of strategies used by professional translators to overcome the problems under discussion.

The meanings of the two collocations therefore do not map completely.

Whether the translator opts for the typical Arabic collocation or tries to translate the full meaning of 'hard drink', possibly by a circumlocution, will depend on whether the distinction between hard and soft alcoholic drinks is significant or relevant in a given context.

To conclude our brief discussion of collocation, I would reiterate that language is not made up of a large number of words which can be used together in free variation.

Words have a certain tolerance of compatibility.

For example, 'strong tea' is literally 'dense tea' in Japanese; 'break the law' is an unacceptable collocation in Arabic, the common collocation being, literally, 'contradict the law';

likewise, 'keep a dog/cat' is unacceptable in Danish, where the usual expression is 'hold a dog/cat'.

It is easy to assume that as long as a collocation can be found in the target language which conveys the same or a similar meaning to that of the source collocation,

the translator will not be confused by differences in the surface patterning between the two.

Some collocations reflect the cultural setting in which they occur. If the cultural settings of the source and target languages are significantly different,

there will be instances when the source text will contain collocations which convey what to the target reader would be unfamiliar associations of ideas.

Target text (Arabic):

تقدم مجموعة "نيو تراديفين" عدد من التصميمات التقليدية الممتعة بحجم مصغر فى الوان باهرة كألوان الجواهر، تزيد الخلفيات الداكنة فى توجها

Target text (Arabic):

كولسترال السوبر هو مثالى لجميع أنواع الشعر خصوصا للشعر المتقصف المتأذى او التالف وأيضا للشعر الجاف أو الضعيف البنية والقابل للتكسر.

Target text (Arabic):

وتاينى رونالد أحد "قلما" من بيتر رايت، كما أن الحكاية التى يرويها أغرب بكثير

Target text (Arabic):

ولكن الواقع ان هذه الاموال قد جاءت من سلطان بروناى وهو انسان ساذج يصدق القصص الخيالية الملفقة، وأغراه السعر الزائف لمحمد الفايد