74
CUTTING- EDGE SCIENCE
August | 2020
ABOUT DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE CONCEPT OF
EQUIVALENCE IN TRANSLATION IN 1990S
Azizbek Mukhamedov
Jizzakh State Pedagogical Institute
Faculty of Foreign Languages
e-mail: azizbek-uzb@mail.ru
Abstract:The article investigates approaches to the concept of equivalence in the 1990s
and analyses various views of scholars such as Maria Calzada-Perez, Mary Snell-Hornby
and Hans J. Vermeer.
Keywords: translation process, equivalence, translation's identity, interpretation, literary
translation, cultural transfer, translator.
Scientific literature and publications of the last decade of the 20th century devoted
to "equivalence" and its interpretation shows an attempt to overcome existing norms of
this concept. A salient example is an article "Trusting the translator" (1993) [1,158-178]
by a Spanish scholar Maria Calzada-Perez. The article was published under the long
sarcastic subtitle: "Theoretical and descri ptive study of different approaches to the
concept of equivalence and speech, with some deviations from these approaches". Relying
on number of eminent scholars' opinions (including Eugene Nida), the author analyses
several interpretations of "equivalence" and considers even the most successful ones to
be completely imperfect.
Performing her brief critical analysis (and quoting Andr? Lefevere and Susan Bassnett),
Calzada-Perez concludes that translation process is not determined only by searching
for equivalence, but it is also defined by the translator's identity, and whether we
should trust the translator or not. Thus, equivalence is deprived of an objective criterion,
and it becomes a subjective concept related to the identity of whoever translates. No
translation can be evaluated identically or equally and various translations should not
be contrasted. "On the contrary, they should be seen as the translations that complete one
another. After all, the more frequently a book is translated, the better it will be realized
and accepted in a different cultural environment and setting. There is no perfect translation,
yet a translator should strive to achieve the goal as completely as possible." [2, 170,171].
The dispute over the legitimacy of the concept of equivalence led to the development
of two directions in the field of general translation theory that had severed the absolute
connection with linguistics. This phenomenon, as it turned out, could resemble a powerful
mutiny on board of an academic shi p.
One of such directions was founded by a British-Austrian
translator and scholar
Mary Snell-Hornby and her colleagues, mainly from German-speaking countries. They
viewed translation as a "cultural transfer" in a broader context. According to this view, key
aspect of understanding translation is to analyze its performance and how it operates in
a new cultural environment. They expressed current rule as "the dominant (primary
basis) of any translation is the goal. "Such a primary basis for the "Skopos-idea/theory"
(Greek skopos - goal) was developed by Katharina Reiss and Hans Josef Vermeer in
their "Groundwork for a General Theory of Translation" [3].
The author of "The Turns of Translation Studies: New Paradigms Or Shifting
V iewp oi nt s? " Ma ry S nell-H or nb y st at ed t ha t
tr an slat ion sc ienc e
("?bersetzungswissenschaft") should not be considered as a "private branch of linguistics"
(ie, not included in "practical linguistics"). Contrastingly, it should be, by its very
nature,
an independent, interdisci plinary, and multi-perspective disci pline. It is also