The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022 - 36

CERTIFICATION FORUM By Holly Mikkelson and Larry Bogoslaw
of the source language text
in the natural forms of the
receptor language " 1
(See
Demystifying ATA's Certification
Exam: Better Off " Literal "
or " Free " ?
A common misconception about ATA's certification exam is that candidates
must translate literally or word-for-word to be successful. Even those
who aren't susceptible to this myth might wonder how much latitude they
have when translating a given text. This column will clarify the difference
between an excessively literal translation and a precisely accurate one,
and between an overly free translation and an idiomatic one.
What Makes a
Translation " Good " ?
T
heories about what
makes a good
translation have
evolved tremendously over
the centuries, bouncing back
and forth between strict
adherence to the sourcelanguage
structure, especially
in sacred texts, and a
sense-for-sense approach
that paid more attention
to usability in the target
36 The ATA Chronicle | March/April 2022
language. In her 1997 book
Meaning-Based Translation:
A Guide to Cross-Language
Equivalence, Mildred
Larson, an international
translation consultant and
international coordinator
for academic publications,
represents translation styles
along a continuum with
several gradations. Her ideal
target text is an " idiomatic
translation, " defined as one
that makes " every effort to
communicate the meaning
Figure 1 on page 37.)
The notion of a continuum
is important because it
implies there's room for
flexibility, depending
on the text type and the
purpose of the translation.
ATA certification exam
passages tend to be drawn
from periodicals, textbooks,
or reports published by
governments and think
tanks. They're factual in
nature and occasionally
persuasive, so they should
be translated idiomatically
but also precisely, with no
omissions or additions
of meaning.
How do you know what
the graders for ATA's
Certification Program will
consider " too literal " or " too
free " ? The descriptions of
error categories, available
http://www.atanet.org
The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022

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