Cele Mai Frecvente Erori In Traducerea Textelor Specializate

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Cele Mai Frecvente Erori In Traducerea Textelor Specializate

Byadmin ianuarie 1, 2024

PROIECT DE LICENȚĂ

Cele mai frecvente erori în traducerea textelor specializate

(studiu de caz)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The practice in translation has been performed from November 10, 2014 till December 12, 2014 at the International Cooperation Centre, ULIM, Chisinau as a translator of the English and Romanian languages. The International Cooperation Centre acts as a central structure in the management of the international activities of the universities.

During this practice in translation I noticed difficulties that many translators are dealing with, one of which being the problem of the use of synonyms. It is important for the translator or interpreter to use the right synonym in the right situation. Synonyms can be used successfully in one context and fully spoil another context.

Another difficulty is the reliability and accuracy of the translation. The translators are not the authors, and the message is the most important and must not be changed at all. In order to avoid these kinds of mistakes the translators must work hard both at his theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Also, they need a background in the field they translate in, and particularly they need to master the relevant terms used in the field. This job is not easy to perform. Many things can happen at a conference and the interpreter must know how to get out of such situations. There are few professional translators and interpreters who can deal with this pressure and high sense of responsibility.

The texts I was given for translation contained a lot of terms and professionalisms from the field of politics. It was not easy for me to translate these texts because I am not a professional translator but I did my best to translate the texts in a reliable and accurate way.

Based on this practice in translation I carried out a search into the topic of my licence project, which is “Most Frequent Errors in Translation”. This case study will be my first project and will include my knowledge that I gained during all these three years of studying foreign languages. In this project I will speak about the mistakes in performing a translation. My case study is divided in two sections. The first section – The Definition of Translation and the Errors in Translating – is the theoretical part, where I am talking about the errors that the translator must avoid in the process of translation. The second section – Analysis of Most Frequent Errors in Translating – is the practical part. That section is based upon the texts I translated during my practice in translation. I will give sentences as examples and then I will explain in more detail certain words or terms that were used in context. At the end, I will end my case study with a Conclusion, the Bibliography and Annexes. In the Conclusion I have summed up all the experience that I gained during this time and I will speak how this project influenced me.

The objectives of my licence project were the following:

Applying the theory studied at the university into practice.

Thanks to the classes and seminars attended at ULIM, such as Theory and Practice of Translation, TAM, Translation Science, Consecutive Translation. I was able to write my first section of this project.

Improving my skills in making a sentence analysis of a meaning of word.

The second section of my licence project is where I bring examples and explain the reason of using a specific word instead of its eventual synonyms. At the same time, I will present other mistakes which are made during the translation process and must be avoid by translators.

The goals of this case study included the following tasks:

to improve my translation abilities;

to work with new terms from various fields, such as: politics, economics;

to put into practice my knowledge achieved during the classes and seminars;

to improve the quality and accuracy of translation;

to develop the skills of a quick and qualitative translation in various types of texts.

As a result of this activity I have learnt how to:

follow ethical codes that protect the confidentiality of information;

identify and resolve conflicts related to the meaning of words, concepts, practices or behaviours;

translate messages simultaneously or consecutively into specified languages, orally or by using hand signs, maintaining message content, context and style as much as possible;

proofread, edit and revise translated materials;

check the translations of terms and terminology to ensure that they are accurate and remain consistent throughout translation revisions;

read written materials, such as legal documents, scientific works or news reports, and rewrite material into specified languages;

refer to reference materials, such as dictionaries, lexicons, encyclopaedias and computerized terminology banks, as needed to ensure translation accuracy;

compile terminology and information to be used in translations, including technical terms such as those for legal or business material;

listen to speakers’ statements to determine meanings and to prepare translations, using electronic listening systems as necessary.

To review the results of this licence project I would say that translators are the closest readers – the ones who pay the most meticulous attention to every shade of meaning of every word. To translate, one must have a style of his own, otherwise the translation will have no rhythm or nuance. The major strategy in translation is to retreat to a simpler tenor of one’s own style and creatively adjust this to one’s author. Only by practicing the translators can achieve the aptitude to perform a quick and reliable translation and may someday become a professional one and make a career in this domain.

I. THE DEFINITION OF TRANSLATION AND THE ERRORS

IN TRANSLATING

I.1. The concept of translation

The word ‘translation’ has French origins and for the first time it was used in 1540 by Etienne Dolet. He wrote the first treaty about translation in the French language: “La Manière de bien traduire d`une langue en autre”. As outlined by V. Ungureanu, the French linguist identified five basic translation rules. In his opinion, a translator is to:

carry on the meaning initiated by the author;

know perfectly two languages;

avoid word-for-word translation, but keep the discursive intentionality;

avoid neologisms, and to place them closer to the common language;

carry on the coherence and the harmony of the language [7, p. 6].

The Toledo School – the first school of translators – was founded by Raymond Tolede in 1125 – 1151, Spain. This school trained translators in all the classical and oriental European languages. The activity of Tolede brought to the popularization the translation activity. Among the school’s great scholars were Gherard of Cremona, John of Seville, Adelard of Bath, Robert of Bruges, Hermann of Carinthia, and Michael Scot. The Age of Translation came to be known in the 20th century.

As any other notion, the term ‘translation’ can be defined depending on the criteria and principles based on its conceptualization. Translation is a term with a widely semantic volume that encompasses five meanings:

translation as process, activity;

translation as means of communication;

translation as interpretation;

translation as transformation of the message or text.

Translation is a conversion of a written text into another language. In such a way, the translated text reflects the content of the source text (ST) and corresponds with the customs and perceptions of the target audience. Translation is not only a process of finding the equivalent word from the source language to the target language. On the one hand, there are no equivalent words and on the other hand there are many equivalent words and the translator must choose the correct equivalent to make an appropriate context. Translation makes possible communication among those who have different languages and different cultural inheritance.

Over the centuries, many linguists had defined translation in different ways. E. Nida defines the concept of translation in a more systematic way: “Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. But this relatively simple statement requires careful evaluation of several seemingly contradictory elements” [5, p. 12].

P. Zabalbeascoa defines the translation term as a communication act and a social and human activity: “La traducción es un acto de comunicación y una actividad humana y social, y como no existe comunicación, ni actividad humana ni social que sean perfectas no es ninguna tragedia admitir que la traducción perfecta tampoco existe” [8, p. 175].

A translator is the person who converts the idea and information of a text written in the source language (SL) into the target language (TL) and must have very good knowledge of two or more languages. Moreover, translators must understand the author’s intentions, so that they are able to convey the intended ideas and messages. Translators must be familiar with the subject matter of the ST, including vocabulary, definitions, and common terms. Also, the translator must fully understand the meaning, the idea and the message, then translate the ST into the TT.

The translators who provide their services can be grouped based on their translation work. Therefore we distinguish the following categories of translators:

interpreters (provide interpretation during the conferences);

professional translators (work with the specialized text in the framework of organizations or economic units);

literary translators (translate literary works);

University translators (teach languages and translation, and produce translations to maintain the professionals to a required level).

V. Ungureanu claims that ethics is a fundamental tool in the work of the translators. The translator is responsible for the information which is transmitted to the audience. The information is the key to success. The translator who possesses it can use it in different ways: positive and negative [7, p. 13].

I.2. The most frequent errors in translating

Knowing the most frequent errors in the translation process, kelps avoid them during the process. The most typical errors are as follows:

leaving out some of the text;

misinterpreting the content of the text;

indentifying incorrectly the abbreviation and misunderstand specific terminology;

including text/fragments or examples that are not in the context;

making spelling, grammar or punctuation errors.

In what follows, I will enlarge upon the above – listed typical errors made in the translation process.

One of the frequent mistakes made by the translators is leaving out some of the text when he/she performs a translation. It is important to translate accurately the ST and not to miss any ideas. If the translator leaves some of the text this means that he/she can change the message and therefore cause a misinterpretation of the intentions of the author, in such a way the target reader may misunderstand the message. Conveying the content of the ST is very important in a translation. It is the fundamental key to the ideas and messages of the author. On one hand, the translator may leave out some of the text on condition not to change the message (in the case of conference interpretation, the interpreter may leave out some text, which is not a key unit even and thus is not necessary). On the other hand the translator must translate word-by-word, if it is required by the client; in such a way, the TT could be understandable to everyone. I consider that this is the most important point to perform a successful interpretation/translation of a text. The meaning and the idea of the ST, the intentions of the author must be conveyed properly. If the translator or interpreter fails to convey the author’s intentions, the audience will not understandunderstand anything of what the author wanted to bring to the attention of the target readers. Sometimes what is often seen as “lost” from the original context may be replaced in the target context.

Another misapprehension is when the translator misinterprets the content of the text. As I mentioned before, the interpreter must be absolutely fluent in two or more languages to such an extent that he/she be able to perform the translation even after the first reading of the ST. This point is not allowed to the professional translator; they are not allowed for make any mistakes. The translators/interpreters take a huge responsibility when they agree to perform a translation. A translator is the fundamental key to the audience; it is like the twin of the author.

When the translator agrees to translate specialized texts in different fields, such as economics, medicine, politics, technology and other fields, he/she must have a strong command of their terminology and abbreviations. Some words may have one meaning in the economics domain and a different meaning in the medicine domain. The translator/interpreter must choose the correct meaning of the word in the adequate context.

Every language has its own word-stock which consists of three main layers: literary, neutral and colloquial. The literary layer of words is used when the translator deals with poetry, novels. The colloquial layer of words is used in our daily life. And the last layer, the neutral one, has a universal character which means that it is used in all the spheres of human activity and in all the styles of language. This layer is the most stable of all. The neutral words are the main source of synonymy and polysemy. And also, this layer of words has a prolific production of new meanings. If the translator works with educated people or scientists he/she should use literary style; if he/she works with lay people he/she should use neutral or colloquial style; in such a way his translation will be clear to everybody.

The translator must respect the intentions of the author and not include any of his/her own words or text. His/her job is to translate a text and not to make its own. No matter how bad the information is received by the translator/interpreter, he/she must know how to deal with such situations. Including or excluding some text may produce a huge change in the content of the TT. As I mentioned before, the content is the key to a successful translation and the translator must bear it in mind. Including or excluding some information will not produce a reliable and perfect translation, it can make it much worse than it seems.

The translator/interpreter must avoid making spelling, grammar or punctuation errors. Moreover, when an interpreter works at a conference, he/she must expect that the author can have a difficult accent or even a specific background. The spelling and the grammar is very important in a translation. Having a good accent and a rich vocabulary, the translator can make any translation at any time. The punctuation errors are the most frequent mistakes in a written text. A comma and a semicolon are the nightmare for a translator. To put a comma or a semicolon into the right place means that the translator must know the grammar rules of the SL and TL at a high professional level. The different grammatical structures in the SL and TL may cause remarkable changes in the process of translation. These changes may induce, add or omit information in the TL.

Synonyms are the similarity of meaning between two or more words. G. Persson claims that “true synonyms differ from co-hyponomy in not having a relation of contrast. Their semantic relation may rather be called ‘mutual inclusion’, which is sometimes regarded as a special kind of hyponomy” [6, p. 112]. A. Cruse states that there is “no neat way of characterizing synonyms. (…) synonyms must not only manifest a high degree of semantic overlap, they must also have a low degree of implicit contractiveness” [2, p. 266].

Synonyms can be divided into two major types:

absolute synonyms;

near synonyms.

According to Lyons, there are three features of the absolute synonyms:

all their meaning must be identical;

they must be synonyms in all contexts;

they must be semantically equivalent in all dimensions meaning [3, p. 60].

Absolute synonyms are very rare to be found. In the field of biology there are absolute synonyms, e.g. furze – whin. The Free Dictionary defines this pair of synonym as a very spiny and dense evergreen shrub with fragrant golden-yellow flowers [15, online]. Their meaning is identical in all contexts.

Near synonyms or plesionyms are the words that are close in meaning. It is hard even for a native speaker to find the differences between near synonyms and also, using them in the appropriate context, e.g. mist – fog.

The translator/interpreter needs to be aware of the several points about synonyms. Synonyms may share some meaning but may differ from each other in a number of ways. Thus they can:

be regional variations;

be appropriate to different styles;

differ in emotive meaning;

have different collocational restrictions.

Perfect synonyms probably are quite rare. Most of the synonyms are equivalent in some contexts only. Synonyms are in such a way seen to be a matter of degree depending on the number of context in which the words share the same meaning.

The antonym is the opposite meaning to that of another word. There are three main types of antonyms:

gradable antonyms;

complementary antonyms;

converse or relational antonyms.

Gradable antonyms are based rather on a more-less relationship. They allow comparison only if they are gradable, e.g. beautiful-ugly, fast-slow, rich-poor.

A different subtype of antonymy is complementary antonyms: you are the one, you cannot be the other; there are absolute opposites. These kinds of antonymies are not gradable, so they do not allow comparison, e.g. dead-alive, on-off, asleep-awake.

Sometimes converses are called relational opposites. All of the antonyms express relationships between two or more people/things. Lend is the converse of borrow and vice versa, if substituting one word with the other the meaning if the sentence does not change.

On the other hand, the translators must not be afraid of translating literal works or of using a TL word which looks the same or close to the SL word. Peter Newmark claims that “the translation of objects and movements is usually more literal than that of qualities and ways of moving” [4, p. 74]. Most of the theorists are convinced that translation is more a process of explanation, interpretation and reformulation of intentions than a transformation of words. Everything is translatable, and linguistic difficulties do not exist. Each language has its peculiar grammar, vocabulary, terminology and idioms. While translating a literal work the translator must have a rich background in the domain of synonymy, antonymy or idioms. I consider that it is very difficult to identify and translate the idioms for the reason that in the ST can consist of two or more words while in the TT can consist of only one word. I consider that everything can be translated up to a point, but that there are often enormous difficulties while performing a translation. There will always be obstacles in the grammar unit because every language has its own way of expressing the action in different tenses. For example, in Romanian grammar there are no present, past or future continuous tenses as it is the case in English grammar; during a translation from English into Romanian these tenses are translated as present, past or future. So, it is required for a translator to know these differences between two or more languages and not only when he/she accepts to perform a translation/interpretation.

I. ANALYSIS OF MOST FREQUENT ERRORS IN TRANSLATING SPECIALIZED TEXTS

II.1. The translator’s mistakes in performing a translation

The translation process cannot be done without consulting sources, such as dictionaries, searching for appropriate terms and of course there will be small mistakes done without intention. My intention is to give some sentences below which I will examine and give my opinion upon the specific aspects related to the translation process.

First of all, I want to say how important and responsible is to perform either a translation or an interpretation. Nobody is perfect, and sometimes even the translators make some mistakes in their works.

Leaving out some of the text in the process of translation can have its advantages and disadvantages. Leaving out some text can change the message of the author. If we take a key word from a sentence, the meaning will be different, for example:

ST: The Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Moldova, H.E Keith SHANNON, visited ULIM on Tuesday, November 27, 2012.

TT1: Ambasadorul Marii Britanici în Moldova, H.E Keith SHANNON, a vizitat ULIM marți, 27 noiembrie, 2012.

TT2: El Embajador del Reino Unido en Moldovia, H.E Keith SHANNON, realizó una visita a la Universidad Libre Internacional de Moldavia, martes 27 de noviembre de 2012.

It is a simple but a complex sentence. If we take out the English noun ‘ambassador’ the meaning of the sentence would not be the same. If we are at a conference and the translator takes out this word, some people may not now that Mr. H.E Keith SHANNON – is the Ambassador of the United Kingdom and may confuse them. If we take out the acronym ‘ULIM’ the audience would not understand where the Ambassador paid the visit. My point is that every word which is in a sentence is important even if it is an article. All the words must be translated so that the meaning of the sentence could be accurate and understandable.

In some cases, most of the freelance translators and very often the professional translators misinterpret the context. This is happening because of the terminology. Each field has its terms but sometimes the term from economy field may have another meaning in the medical field. That is why the translator must know not only the terminology of a specific field but also of various fields.

ST: The board of the University expressed their certainty that Mr. Pyrozhkov will carry on as a faithful friend of the Republic of Moldova and ULIM.

TT1: Consiliul de administrație a universității și-a exprimat convingerea că Dl. Pyrozhkov va continua ca înainte să fie un prieten credincios al Republicii Moldova și ULIM.

TT2: La junta directiva de la Universidad expresó su certeza de que el Sr. Pyrozhkov continuará como un amigo fiel de la República de Moldova y ULIM.

In the above sentence, the English noun ‘board’, The Word Reference Dictionary defines this noun as an official group or committee that directs an activity [14, online]. Additionally, this noun has other meanings, such as:

Table 1. Semantic aspects and translation of the English noun ‘board’

Every translator may understand differently the English noun ‘board’ but he/she must search and find the adequate meaning for the content of the sentence. As I mentioned above, the translator must have a background in each field and it is not necessary to know all the terms, beside the main ones.

M. Bázlik and P. Ambrus posit that “we can hardly keep, for example, the word order unchanged when translating to/from English. Bad grammar may cause the necessity to ‘guess’ at what the structure should have been, each structure being associated with a certain meaning. A wrong guess may lead to a wrong interpretation of the message” [1, p. 15].

In English grammar there is no use of grammatical gender for its noun whilst in Romanian grammar there are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter, and can take either the singular or plural form. In Romanian grammar the neuter gender in the singular form only is represented by masculine nouns and in the plural form by feminine nouns. This rule is implied only in the neuter gender.

ST: Am citat doar câteva dintre cuvintele rostite din inimă de către profesorii și studenții ULIM.

TT1: I quoted some of the words spoken from heart by ULIM teachers and students.

TT2: Mencioné algunas de las palabras que se han hablado desde el corazón por los profesores y estudieantes ULIM.

In the above sentence, the Romanian nouns ‘profesor’ and ‘student’ can be of both masculine and feminine gender:

Table 2. Singular and plural forms of the Romanian nouns ‘profesor’ and ‘student’

As I mentioned above, in the English grammar there is no gender distinction between nouns, except for personal pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘his’, ‘her’ and ‘hers’. The English noun ‘teacher’ can be both a male and a female teacher. So, in such cases, it is easy translating from Romanian into English considering that English nouns do not have a gender and do not require declension.

In Spanish grammar, all nouns are either feminine or masculine and there is no neuter gender. In Spanish grammar, every noun has a specific article that denotes the gender. The Spanish article can be either definite or indefinite, both articles having four forms.

This is one of the problems which the translator will deal with during the translation process. There are other nuances that might mislead a translator, such as adjoining the adjectives after the noun in Spanish, whilst in English they are placed before the noun..

II.2. The false friends of the translator

As G. Kon drak stated, “false friends or faux amis are pairs of words across languages that look or sound similar but have different meanings” [12, online]. The mistakes usually appear when we translate from the SL to the TL that is when we deal with bilingualism, when the meanings of the words are confused.

The false friends may mislead not only the beginner translators. The researchers of this lexical category came to the conclusion that the false friends can mislead those who are confident that they know both the L and the TL. They do not consult very often the dictionaries, being confident that they know the word and yet – they make mistakes. So, “false friends” words may disorient not only the ordinary speakers but also the specialists.

ST: Chiriac mentioned actual examples of Korean products that had success in the European market.

TT1: Chiriac a menționat exemplele existente ale produselor coreene care au avut succes pe piața europeană.

TT2: Chiriac mencionó ejemplos reales de los productos coreanos que tuvieron éxito en el mercado europeo.

When translating the ST sentence into TT1, the translator has to be very attentive because the English adjective ‘actual’ is misleading. In the Romanian language there is an adjective ‘actual’ which means ‘current’, ‘modern’. In the English language ‘actual’ means something existing in reality or a matter of fact, also real or genuine; a definition giving by Word Reference Dictionary [16, online]. These adjectives have the same roots but in each language they have different meanings. In the same train of thought, for instance, the English adverb ‘actually’ may induce a problem in the process of translation. ‘Actually’ means ‘in fact’ or ‘surprisingly’ and, may be confused with the Romanian word ‘actual’; such English and Romanian words have the same root and the translator may be inclined to consider that the words have the same meaning in the both languages. So, this may mislead the translator. In order to avoid such misunderstanding, the translator should consult a dictionary to find the right and appropriate equivalent.

When the translator translates the ST sentence into TT2, he/she also needs to choose carefully the semantic aspects of the words. As it is known, the English language belongs to the Germanic language groups while the Spanish language belongs to the Romance language groups. That does not mean that these languages may not have words with the same root. The ST sentence above contains the English noun ‘success’ which means a favourable result of something attempted. In the Spanish vocabulary there is the noun ‘suceso’, The Free Dictionary defines this noun as an event or happening, sometimes a crime [15, online]. In fact, the proper equivalent for the noun English ‘success’ is the Spanish noun ‘éxito’. If we have to translate this sentence from Spanish to English there also would be words that can induce the translator into semantic traps. For example, the same noun ‘éxito’ may put the translator in difficulty. He/she may confuse this noun with the English noun ‘exit’, Word Reference Dictionary gives a definition of an act of leaving or a right to leave a particular place [16, online]. Annex 1 hereinafter displays a list of the most common Spanish-English false friends.

ST: This name, known far outside the country, is the Free International University of Moldova, where thousands of juveniles have found its purpose in life.

TT1: Acest nume, cunoscut departe de hotarele țării, este Universitatea Liberă Internațională din Moldova, unde mii de tineri și-ai găsit rostul în viață.

TT2: Este nombre, conocido fuera de sus fronteras, es la Univesidad Libre Internacional de Moldavia, donde miles de jóvenes han encontrado sus objetivos en la vida.

In the example above, I will analyse the usage of the English adjective ‘far’. Oxford Dictionaries define this adjective as the fact of something/somebody situated at a great distance or remote in time or place [14, online]. This adjective may confuse the translator when translating it into Romanian because of the Romanian noun, ‘far’, The Romanian explanatory dictionaries available at www.dexonline.ro give a definition of a tower where a powerful projector is installed, intended to serve as a navigational landmark [11, online]. Annex 1 includes a list of the most common Romanian-English false friends.

During the translation process, the translator is under the linguistic influence of the SL. Sometimes this influence is so strong that even when the TL it is its mother tongue, the translator may involuntarily introduce in translation lexical, grammatical or stylistic elements which exist in the SL. The translator is focused on the ST and losing confidence in the handling of the TT. At the some point, certain words, especially expressions or grammatical constructions from the ST starting to seem natural in the TL.

Therefore, any translator should reread the performed translation after a certain interval of time. If we are to compare the vocabulary of the Romanian language with the vocabulary of any Romance languages, we can observe that many words of a one language are strikingly similar with other languages. Frequently, the similarity between languages, in principle, makes easier the translation process but in many cases these similarities induce the translator to make such mistakes.

ST: ULIM library rooms are special.

TT1: Sălile de bibliotecă la ULIM sunt speciale.

TT2: Las salas de la biblioteca de ULIM son especiales.

Another word that might induce the translator is the English noun ‘library’. Word Reference Dictionary defines the English word ‘library’ as a room or a set of rooms where books and other literary materials are kept or a collection of films, CDs or children’s toys are kept for borrowing or reference [16, online] But the Romanian explanatory dictionaries give a definition for the Romanian noun ‘library’ of a store where the books are sold [11, online].

ST: During the meeting the interlocutors appreciated and greeted the effective collaboration between ULIM and the Francophone University Agency, Antena which has its head office in ULIM…

TT1: În cadrul discuției interlocutorii au apreciat și salutat colaborarea eficientă dintre ULIM și Agenția Universitară a Francofoniei, Antena căreia își are sediul în incinta ULIM…

TT2: Durante la reunión, los interlocutores han apreciado y saludado la colaboración eficaz entre ULIM y la Agencia Universitaria de la Francofonía, Antena que tiene su oficina principal en ULIM…

In the sentence above, the English adjective ‘effective’ may confuse the translator when translating into Romanian because in Romanian there is also an adjective – ‘efectiv’- which The Romanian explanatory dictionaries define as concrete, real or a number of persons who form part of a community, especially from a unity or a military unity [11, online] The translator may be confused while translating from English into Spanish. The Spanish noun ‘efectivo’ means ‘money’, ‘cash’ while the Spanish adjective ‘efectivo’ has the same definition as the Romanian adjective.

I have presented all the above examples in order to show that translation is not easy as it may seem. It needs time, concentration and working with a lot of dictionaries. There are many examples to give in regard to this topic. A sound, a vowel or a comma may change everything in the process of translation.

II.3. Synonyms and Antonyms

Synonyms are those words with an identical meaning. Some of them may substitute others so that the context of a text is not changed. It is important to take into consideration the connotation of the word because some synonyms can introduce an additional meaning than the one intended. Each translator deals with the problem of synonymy and antonymy. For example, if we take an ordinary sentence and change the words with their synonyms, the sentence would not have the same meaning:

ST: The goal of this Forum was to improve bilateral relations and to open new opportunities of collaboration in the field of economics.

TT1: Scopul acestui forum a fost să îmbunătățească relațiile bilaterale și să deschidă noi oportunități de colaborare în domeniul economic.

TT2: El objetivo de este foro era mejorar las relaciones bilaterales y para abrir nuevas oportunidades de colaboración en el ámbito de la economía.

It is worth taking into account that some of the synonyms may not change the meaning of the sentence, and it is important to search for the right equivalent of the word. The English nouns ‘goal’, ‘aim’, ‘intention’, ‘purpose’, ‘end’, ‘object’ are synonyms. So, the nouns aim, intention and purpose are interchangeable with the English noun ‘goal’. On the other hand, the English nouns ‘end’ and ‘object’ may change the idea of the author, because the noun ‘object’ may mean a thing, an article, and also, a target, a receiver. It is true that this noun has the sense of a purpose but I consider that in the above sentence, it is not an adequate equivalent to interchange with, just as well as the English noun ‘end’.

Table 3.Romanian and Spanish translations and English synonyms of the English concepts

If we interchange the words we will get the following sentence in English: The object of this Forum was to educate bilateral relations and to open original opportunities of collaboration in the discipline of economics. These kinds of mistakes are not allowed to be done by a translator. The same thing happens with the antonyms as well but the antonyms are seldom used in the process of translation. Each translator has its own style of translation and he/she uses the synonyms or antonyms that are adequate to a certain context. If we have ten translators then we will have ten different texts.

CONCLUSION

My practice in translation has been performed at the International Cooperation Centre, ULIM. During this practice I have been faced with difficulties in translation. This was my first project to perform. As E. Nida stated that “translating is essentially a skill and depends largely on a series of disciplines, for example, linguistics, cultural anthropology, philology, psychology, and theories of communication” [13, online]. All the knowledge that I received upon completion of these three years of study, I have tried to make it work in this project.

In this thesis I analysed the most frequent errors in translation. In the first section of my search I wrote about what translation and translator mean, and about five basic translation rules. More than that, I put down some of the mistakes that are made during the translation process. In the second section of my research I gave examples based on the topic of the first section.

As it is known, the translation process is not easy but it is seen as an effortless job. So, in this project I wanted to demonstrate that a simple word may mislead a translator. In commenting the provided examples, I have tried to show and argue my point of view in regard to the identified mistakes and difficulties, as ell as in regard to the similarities and discrepancies between the grammar rules applied in ST, TT and TT1.

The Romanian and Spanish languages are part of Romance language family, whilst the English language is a West Germanic language. Every language has a period of transition and during the centuries all these three languages had a history behind. Of course, there are similarities and differences because every language has its unique style in grammar, spelling, lexis, stylistics.

Moreover, the false friends are the traps of the translators. They mislead them, put them in difficulty or may induce them to misinterpret the message of the author. In my project I have provided examples and I have explained the meanings of each false friend in ST, TT and TT1, and I presented a list of the most common false friends in English-Romanian and Spanish-English in Annex 1. Annex 2 sets out a glossary which consists of 100 terms that I worked with during the practice and my work on this project.

It is impossible to perform a translation without consulting a dictionary. Nowadays most of the translators use online dictionaries because it is more comfortable. In my research I have used only online dictionaries to find the meaning of the words, to find synonyms or the appropriate equivalent. I have demonstrated that even the synonyms can change the intentions of the author. Antonyms are not usually used in a translation.

During this search I understood many valuable aspects, such as: the importance of consulting a dictionary even if I know the word. Each word has two or more meanings, and the translator must identify the right equivalent for the word or idioms at issue. Sometimes the SL word must do not exist in the TL and the translator must find an equivalent despite such obstacles. Every word is translatable. A translation is reliable and accurate only in the case the ST is read carefully one and more times until then the translator understands the message and intention of the author. My method of translation relies upon reading the ST several times, highlighting the unknown words and searching for the appropriate equivalent. Thus, the process of translation takes times.

There will always be mistakes in a translation. A comma, a wrong equivalent may ruin a perfect translation. This profession needs time, concentration, a rich background in several fields, resources such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries.

As for me, the process of translation requires time, research, attention and patience. In conclusion, this has been a most valuable experience for me that prepared me for the professional career of a translator.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bázlik, Miroslav; Ambrus, Patrik. Legal English and its Grammatical Structure. Warsaw: Wolters Kluwer: 2009. 15 p.

2. Cruse, Alan. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 266 p.

3. Lyons, J. Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, 60 p.

4. Newmark, Peter. A Textbook of Translation. New York/London: Prentice Hall, 1988. 74 p.

5. Nida, Eugene; Taber, Charles. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: Koninkljke Brill BV, 1982. 12 p.

6. Persson, Gunnar. Meanings, Models and Metaphors: A Study in Lexical Semantics in English. Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Umensis, 1990. 112 p.

7. Ungureanu, Victoria. Teoria traducerii. Bălți: Moldpresa, 2013. 613 p.

8. Zabalbeascoa, Patrick. La traducción de la comedia televisiva: implicacion esteóricas. Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 1996. 175 p.

Dictionaries

9. Bantas, Andrei. Dictionar englez-român și român-englez. București: Teora, 2008. 113 p.

10. Focșeneanu, Eleodor. Dictionar spaniol-român și român-spaniol. București: Teora, 2007. 489 p.

Internet sources

Dicționare ale limbii române, available at http://dexonline.ro/definitie/departe (visited on 12.05.15).

Kondrak, Grzegorz. Algorithms for Language Reconstruction, available at http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~kondrak/papers/sweden.pdf (visited on 01.05.15).

Nida, Eugene. Theories of Translation, available at http://www.pliegosdeyuste.eu/n4pliegos/eugeneanida.pdf (visited on 15.05.05).

Oxford Dictionaries, available at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com (visited on 10.05.15).

The Free Dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ (visited on 10.05.15).

Word Reference Dictionary, available at http://www.wordreference.com/ (visited on 12.05.15).

ANNEXES

ANNEX 1. The false friends of the translator

(English – Spanish)

Nouns:

Verbs:

Adjectives:

ANNEX 2. Glossary of terms from specialized texts

STATEMENT*

regarding the originality of the contents of the Licence’s Project

I, the undersigned …………………………………………… in my capacity of graduate of Free International University of Moldova, Faculty of …………………………, specialty………………………………………………, year of graduation……………………………………, declare on my own responsibility that the Licence’s Project entitled ……………………………………………… ……….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………, which has been elaborated under the supervision of Mr. / Mrs. ………………………………… and is to be presented to a committee, is original and I am the sole author.

I hereby declare that I have not plagiarized any Licence Projects, monographs, specialized works, articles, etc.; published or posted on Internet, as well as other biographical sources consulted in the process of the thesis elaboration for awarding Licence Title.

I declare that I agree to my Licence Project being checked in any legal ways in order to assess its originality, thereof its content being introduced in a database for such purpose.

Date………………………………. Student’s signature………………………………

*The student shall fill out this statement form in blue ink with a ballpoint or fountain pen. This statement form shall be inserted at the end of the student’s final paper as an integral part of such paper.