Dynamic Equivalence in Translating

The most important thing in translating is the message received by the audience. Messages are significant in both form and content need not only to be understood but also to be appreciated. And only when the translator could state the original features, he can achieve "dynamic equivalence" or better to say "functional equivalence".

 

There are maximal level and minimal level of equivalence in translation. The maximal level means the receptors of the translated text could respond to it with comprehension and appreciation in essentially the same manner and to the same degree as the original receptors of the message. But the maximal level has never been realized. The minimal level of equivalence is that receptors of the translated text would be able to understand and appreciate it to the point stood and appreciated the message. Most translations now lie between the tow levels.

 

Because of the difference in languages and cultures, translating process became more complex. It is often necessary to introduce the background clearly by using foot-notes or to change the original text to the target language text, which bear the same meaning in the environment. Because there are no two words in any two languages which are absolutely identical in meaning nor are there two languages in which rhetorical patterns have precisely the same functions. The term "equivalence" must be understood in a broad sense of "having essentially the same function".

 

Functional equivalence has gotten much profit from insights out of sociosemiotics. First, there is no universal system of signs or meanings to which all specific signs can be compared or evaluated. Second, signs all have indefinite boundaries and are parts of fuzzy sets of meanings. As a result there are no one-to-one words and even one-to-many, but many-to-many in tow languages. Third, signs not always have meanings. Languages are special codes in that they have signs to represent parts of

themselves. Fourth, verbal signs may have quite distinct levels of meaning.

 

Discourse structure is another aspect of translating equivalence. Different languages have different customs to spread discourse, and different even in the same language, different people have different ways.