A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN SIGHT TRANSLATION

Celal Bayar Üniversitesi CBÜ SOSYAL BİLİMLER DERGİSİ Yıl : 2014 Cilt :12 Sayı :3 YAZILI METİNDEN SÖZLÜ ÇEVİRİ SÜRECİNDE KARŞILAŞILAN SORUNLAR ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA1 Yrd. Doç. Dr. Pelin ŞULHA Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Edebiyat Fakültesi, Mütercim-Tercümanlık Bölümü ÖZ Bu deneysel araştırmada anadil (Türkçe)’den yabancı dile (İngilizce) yazılı metinden sözlü çeviri yaparken karşılaşılan sorunlar ve bunların sebepleri incelenmiştir. Çalışmada dokuz adet 2.sınıf öğrencisinin çevirileri anlama sadık olma, kaynak iletinin amacı, ifade, sözdizim ve dilbilgisinin doğru kullanımı, belirli bağlama ait art alan bilgisi ve sorun çözme becerileri gözönüne alınarak değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre, kaliteli çeviriler üretebilmek için öğrencilerin farkındalık kazanmaları ve bilişsel becerileri içselleştirip, yapıcı motivasyon ve algı kontrolünü sağlamaları çok önem teşkil etmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Yazılı metinden sözlü çeviri, Çeviride kalite, Bilişsel Süreçler, Sözlü çevirmen eğitimi, Çaba modelleri. A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN SIGHT TRANSLATION ABSTRACT This experimental research presents the problems and their underlying reasons in sight translation from one’s native language (Turkish) into a foreign language (English). The study analyzes the performances of nine sophomore students, as regards faithfulness to meaning and the purpose of the source message, proper use of expression, grammar and syntax, background knowledge about the specified context and problem solving skills. Results reveal that to produce high-quality translations, students’ awareness and internalization of cognitive skills and constructive control of perceptions and motivations is necessarily significant. Keywords: Sight translation, Quality in translation, Cognitive processing, Interpreter training, Effort Models. 1 Makalenin geliş tarihi: 17.07.2014 Makalenin kabul tarihi: 20.08.2014 1 Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, Cilt:12, Sayı:3, Eylül 2014 Beşeri Bilimler Sayısı I.Various Aspects of Sight Translation Sight Translation is a hybrid act performed on the territory between translation and interpreting as it involves the verbal rendering of the written source text in the target language. It has been defined in various ways but generally is considered as a useful exercise practiced in the early stages of the interpreter training program to improve students‟ oral language skills and techniques and hence prepare them for consecutive and simultaneous interpreting (as cited in Agrifoglio, 2004: 43). Although the interpreter‟s overall translational product is the same for all sight, consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, for each mode he needs to complete a variety of specific tasks as regards information reception, processing and production. The basic difference between sight translation and interpreting relates to the process of reading and listening since the sight translator translates the text he reads whereas the interpreter performs the same task on the text he hears. This means the sight translator has the text in front of him until he finishes translating, but the interpreter‟s actual auditory exposure to the oral text lasts until just after the source segments are uttered by the speaker. Although sight translation has been used as a subsidiary tool to prepare students for interpreting, it actually should be deemed as a technique on its own since it differs from both consecutive and simultaneous interpretation due to its particular working conditions that affect the interpreter‟s use of cognitive resources and strategies and thus raise specific problems and issues of a different nature to those encountered in other types of oral translation (Agrifoglio, 2004: 43-44). As the cognitive effort required in sight translation should be partially distributed between different types of operations, more problems related to the comprehension of the source text is commonly observed when compared with written translation. The disruptions occurring as a result of these problems have strong influence on cognition. The design of experiments which include the translation of linguistic structures varying in terms of syntactical complexity proves helpful in revealing the change of cognitive effort and the visual interference stemming from the constant presence of the source text before the translator. Sight translation, which involves the “input medium” of written translation and the “output medium” of interpreting, is sometimes conceived as a simpler process requiring less effort when related to other modes of either translation or interpreting. The task of the sight translator is to produce verbal output in a normal reading out-loud tempo while decoding the visual input from a written original text (Shreve; Lacruz, 2010: 63). As some mental processes involved in sight translation resemble those in simultaneous interpretations, it would not be wrong to state that these forms of language mediation are equally hard in practice. Difficulties specific to sight translation arise not just from processing the meaning of the source text and producing its equivalent in the target language under real-time limitations as in interpretation but also from repeating the same operation for all linguistic 2 Celal Bayar Üniversitesi segments visually flowing one after the other before the translator. During sight translation since the sender‟s message is in written form, it constantly interferes the ongoing translational act and thus some translators find it hard to concentrate on meaning rather than words on the page. Actually, the difference between the process of reading and listening, which emerges the need to deal with texts of different nature, cause the overall complexity; unlike the interpreter who listens to an oral source text, the sight translator reads a written source text for target rendering (Mikkelson, 1995). Efficient delivery of sight translation is critical to ensure the smooth running of communication as …it is very important that the interpreter speak loudly and enunciate clearly, with proper intonation and voice modulation. Smooth pacing is also essential; sudden starts and stops and long pauses while the interpreter figures out a difficult translation problem are distracting to the listener. Ideally, a sight translation should sound as if the interpreter were merely reading a document written in the target language (Mikkelson, 1995). Oral and written languages employ a variety of different linguistic mechanisms to communicate the intended message to the receiver. Through writing one can make use of language in many ways and adds significantly to his linguistic repertoire since written texts tend to be more complicated than oral ones in terms of their syntax, vocabulary, style and textual features such as cohesive devices and rhetorical structures involved. 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