Belief structure Thread poster: Masoud Kakouli Varnousfaderani
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I was studying translation theories that I came across this sentence and I wondered what does it mean?
They agree that equivalence is belief structure.
Can you clarify the meaning of aforementioned sentence for me?
Thanks in advance!
[Edited at 2013-12-10 07:45 GMT]
| | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 06:20
Dutch to English
+ ...
| More context | Dec 10, 2013 |
Impossible to know what it means without more of the text, at least the whole paragraph that this sentence appears in.
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 14:20
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Here, perhaps... | Dec 10, 2013 |
Tina Vonhof wrote:
Impossible to know what it means without more of the text, at least the whole paragraph that this sentence appears in.
Page 20 of this PDF contains the sentence: "Gutt, Toury and Pym might thus fundamentally agree on equivalence as a belief structure that has to be analyzed as such."
The author means that what these three linguists said about equivalence boils down to the idea that a translation offers equivalence simply because the reader believes it offers it, that true equivalence does not exist except as an ideal which is never attained.
| | | | Diana Obermeyer
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:20
Member (2013)
German to English
+ ...
| same value (equi-valence) | Dec 10, 2013 |
"The term “equivalence”, in various European languages, became a feature of Western translation theories in the second half of the twentieth century. Its heyday
was in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly within the frame of structuralist linguistics.
The term roughly assumes that a source text and a translation can share
the same value (equi-valence) on some level, and that this assumed sameness is
what distinguishes translations from all other kinds of texts. Within th... See more "The term “equivalence”, in various European languages, became a feature of Western translation theories in the second half of the twentieth century. Its heyday
was in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly within the frame of structuralist linguistics.
The term roughly assumes that a source text and a translation can share
the same value (equi-valence) on some level, and that this assumed sameness is
what distinguishes translations from all other kinds of texts. Within that paradigm,
to talk about translations was to talk about different kinds of equivalence."
Quoted from
Natural and directional equivalence in theories of translation
Anthony Pym
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain*
http://www.ualberta.ca/~ivashkiv/translation/PYM%20on%20equivalence.pdf
EDIT: I see I'm not the only one to google this... timing does it...
[Edited at 2013-12-10 21:15 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| Correct sentence | Dec 11, 2013 |
Samuel Murray wrote: Tina Vonhof wrote:
Impossible to know what it means without more of the text, at least the whole paragraph that this sentence appears in. Page 20 of this PDF contains the sentence: "Gutt, Toury and Pym might thus fundamentally agree on equivalence as a belief structure that has to be analyzed as such." The author means that what these three linguists said about equivalence boils down to the idea that a translation offers equivalence simply because the reader believes it offers it, that true equivalence does not exist except as an ideal which is never attained.
Your sentence that was quoted from that PDF is correct! Thanks for replying! So in this sentence belief structure means a structure that originates from an abstract base which is the belief is someone's mind.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 14:20
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Masoud Kakoli wrote: Samuel Murray wrote: Page 20 of this PDF contains the sentence: "Gutt, Toury and Pym might thus fundamentally agree on equivalence as a belief structure that has to be analyzed as such." So, in this sentence "belief structure" means a structure that originates from an abstract base which is the belief [in] someone's mind.
No, I think "belief structure" is simply academic disverbosity for "it is based on belief". A belief structure isn't really a structure, in other words. Saying "equivalence is a belief structure" simply means "equivalence is based on belief". That is how I see it.
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Samuel Murray wrote: Masoud Kakoli wrote: Samuel Murray wrote: Page 20 of this PDF contains the sentence: "Gutt, Toury and Pym might thus fundamentally agree on equivalence as a belief structure that has to be analyzed as such." So, in this sentence "belief structure" means a structure that originates from an abstract base which is the belief [in] someone's mind. No, I think "belief structure" is simply academic disverbosity for "it is based on belief". A belief structure isn't really a structure, in other words. Saying "equivalence is a belief structure" simply means "equivalence is based on belief". That is how I see it.
When I was reading that book and ran into this sentence, I guessed that this means "equivalence is based on belief"! However, to get sure about it, I decided to post it here.
Thanks!
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 14:20
Spanish to English
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| Now that it's out of the bag... | Dec 12, 2013 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
... No, I think "belief structure" is simply academic disverbosity for "it is based on belief".
I didn't like to say anything earlier for fear of offending anyone, but I tend to agree - in fact much of linguistic or translation theory seems to me to be merely posturing and often unnecessarily complicated. I'd put it this way: "Equivalence is like Tinkerbell - if you believe in her/it... then it exists."
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