CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

According to Sonia Firdaus (2012, p.277) in her article “Evolution of Translation Theories & Practice”, the process of translation started when the first human couple interacted with each other. She further asserts that, “translation became an organized discipline when the first translator, a French Humanist Etienne Dolet, formed rules for rendering of meaning of a text into another language. From then, various paradigms have provided the base for modern complicated investigation.”

From the above stated, it is obvious that translation has been practised in human interaction for ages and may continue to be relevant to human activity until the end of time. It is therefore necessary for one to understand what translation is, as well as understand the linguistic tools that may impact positively on translation.

In Larson’s opinion,

“Translation is that which consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language text, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, and then reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the RECEPTOR LANGUAGE and its cultural context” (Larson, 1984 p.3)

For Seleskovitch and Lederer,

To translate is to “Restituer le sens dans une autre langue, c’est le rendre intelligible sur deux plans, c’est le faire comprendre sans rendre brumeaux ce qui était clair ni ridicule

ce qui était digne” (Restoring meaning in another language is to render it intelligible at two levels: to make it comprehensible without rendering obscure that which is clear, nor ridiculous that which is worthy (translation rendered by Ajunwa). Seleskovitch and Lederer (1986, p.62) cited in Ajunwa (2015).

According to Newmark (1988, p.5) in his book “A Textbook of Translation”, translation “may mean the rendering of meaning of a text into another language in the same way that the author intended in the text”.

Wright and Budin (1996, p. 16-17), posit that, though various writers in the field of linguistics call many different kinds of multiword strings collocations, purists argue that this term should be reserved for so-called combinatory phraseological units. Wright and Budin (1996) further state that combinatory forms are made up of words that frequently co-occur (i.e. “co- locate”), even if they don’t always follow each other directly in sentences. They insist that the principle of potential dislocation within the stream of discourse constitutes the essential property of combinatory forms, hence of co-location. They also make a distinction between the concepts “term” and “collocation”. They assert that “tems designate individual concepts … whereas technical collocations identify situations or propositions that are for the most part made up of several mutually related concepts”.

Budin and Wright’s designation of collocation, makes collocation relevant as a tool for the rich development of translation since “the purpose of the element of collocation “ is to firmly delineate the conceptual and linguistic space occupied by strictly defined closely associated concepts and units of knowledge”.

Murici (2016) in her article, “Issues in translating legal texts” asserts that we live in a world which is globalized and where international relations are much more active than ever. As a result,

close contacts among states, societies, people and businesses through mediation of translation has become crucial and is playing a very important role in human relations. We know that human interaction is ordered by law; therefore any transaction should consider legal implications. It is therefore necessary to examine collocations and their impact on translating legal texts, such as the source text being used for this study. The examination of collocations may ultimately minimize litigation over translated texts.

AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATING COLLOCATIONS: A TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH INTO ENGLISH OF AN EXTRACT FROM ‘GUIDE JURIDIQUE ET FISCAL DES ASSOCIATIONSAU TOGO “TOME II