Translation problems and translation difficulties : tools for teaching specialized translation

Abstract

[ENG] This article and the exercises proposed below make use of the distinction between translation problems and translation difficulties. Many authors seem to equate these terms in their writings, but severa! authors have used the distinction in very helpful ways. Peter Newmark has used the term "translation problem" more or less as a unit of translation. Newmark defines translation problem as an instance when literal translation becomes inadequate ( 1988: 30-31 ). When this happens, the translator must make a concerted effort to enact all of bis or her skills in order to render the source-language sentence into an adequate target-language sentence. However, he uses "problem" and "difficulty" almost in the same breath. Christiane Nord makes ':l more practica!, pedagogical distinction between the two, first in a short article . ( 1987), and then in her Text Analysis in Translation (1991). She defines "translation problems as those points which prove a challenge for all translators in a pru1icular language combination, while she regards "translation difficulties rooted in the individual t:ranslator as they may arise from his or her educational or cultural background and experience (1991: 150-160).