Didactics of Translation: Text in Context

Non-text-based translation approaches

Non-text-based approaches refer to the grammatical and cultural models mentioned above where the main concern is with minimal units and decontextualized sentences.

1. The Grammatical model:

According to Chau, this model can be divided into two methods:

1. 
   The traditional grammar method
   
2. 
   The formal grammar method
   

The main feature of the first method relates to its prescriptive character, translating being nothing more than finding equivalent TL words and sentences based on the assumption that “language is grammar and translating is the mechanical substitution of lexicon and conversion of syntax” (Chau 1984: 122).

Underlying this conception of translating is a vision of language as a universal phenomenon and of language users as having a similar way for dissecting and segmenting reality outside (Ibid: 122). Building on this conception, the idea of a model grammar has emerged as “an exemplary set of categories to classify forms”. This model was embodied in the grammar of Greek which was “studied directly or indirectly through its Latin adaptation” (Ibid: 122). Thus, all that grammarians have had to do was to locate the meanings in their languages which corresponded to those forms and categories of Greek grammar (Ibid: 123).
The main feature of the formal grammar method lies in its descriptive character. Thus,
while traditional grammar subjectively defines classes and assigns rules for language based on meaning, formal grammar does so objectively based on a structural analysis of the phonology, morphology and syntax of a language. (Ibid: 127)
Comparing the two methods, Chau concludes that both adopt a “static” approach as they focus on translating langue rather than parole. In other words, they both do not allow “the gaps and deviations of a text (parole) in relation with the norms of the system (langue)” (Mehrach 2003: 16).
Mehrach (2003) draws further comparisons between the two methods; they both “require that a standard reading be achieved by the translator; i.e., that there is only one reading to the text, even though it may yield a number of interpretations”. In addition to this, they both take the word and phrase as the most important units in translating.

2.