Source Language Text and Target Language Text
Translation is a multilayered and complex activity. It focuses on two languages- the source
language (SL) and the target language (TL). The act is that of recoding the encoded message,
where the meaning component is very important. Eugene Nida speculates that it is likely that the
message of language ‘A’ is decoded into a concept and that this concept then provides the basis
for the generation of an utterance in language ‘B’.
A source language text is the language in which the text is originally written by a writer. The
target language is the language in which a text is translated from the original language.
Translation involves rendering of a source language text (SLT) into the target language text
(TLT) to ensure that the surface meaning of the two will be approximately similar. In this
process, the structure of SL will be preserved as closely as possible in TL. But the meaning
should not be distorted.
Translation is a means for carrying the message by transferring the source language text into the
target language text. The most important aspect of this message is its inherent meaning. The
meaning is to be interpreted first because interpretation is prior to the act of translation. To
interpret is not simply to translate a text word for word, it is to transpose it with its entire
semantic, emotional and aesthetic baggage into a language using completely different means of
expression. To interpret is initially to comprehend the message perfectly so as to be able to
detach it from its verbal support and to reconstitute it subsequently with all the nuances in
another language.
The translator has to look for formal, semantic, stylistic, rhetorical, pragmatic and associative
equivalence in the target language. He should analyse the surface and the deep structures of the
SL text and the TL text to reach the inner core of the meaning of the text. It is a challenging task
since translation demands the maximum reservation of the meaning of the original text and the
faithful rendering of this meaning in the TL text.
Newmark focuses on the pragmatic aspects of the text to do justice to the meaning of the
message in TLT. So, to comprehend the SL text, we have to translate the text in a pragmatic way
in the SL too. For example, take the phrase in the SL ‘No Admission’. To understand the
message, we have to translate it in the SL as ‘Admission is not allowed’. This makes it
comprehensible and this is how this message is re-encoded in the TL.
The act of translation from source language text into target language text is complex because of
the lack of total equivalence between two languages and two cultures. Even in languages like
Marathi and Hindi, where the main culture is the same, translation from one into another is not
easy. But it is not impossible because of the concept of ‘language universal’. The creative
process involved in target language translation is also an important element to be considered.
Thus SL and TL are part and parcel of translation process.
