Order For This Paper, Written Essays or Similar Assignment Help Services.

Fill the details/instructions form and checkout for your essay - pro writers; top college graduates only in less than 5 mins, NO AI—Plagiarism-free!.

Posted: January 16th, 2025

The Importance Of Translating Messages

One of the main concerns of translation studies is the problem of accuracy: how much freedom the translator is allowed when interpreting a text from one language into another; whether he/she has to concentrate on the content or on the “atmosphere” of the piece of literature. In this paper, by comparing and contrasting the theory of Noam Chomsky (as presented in Syntactic Structures, 1957) and the one emerging from it by Eugene A. Nida (in Toward a Science of Translating, 1964), the core message of a text will be proven to be one the most important features.

First of all, according to Edwin Gentzler (1993), despite the fact that Chomsky’s work was not specifically meant to be a part of translation studies, Nida adopted several aspects of it into his own, as, in the words of Gentzler (1993), “Chomsky was literally a Godsend for Nida” (p. 46) – “literally”, because the main field of Nida’s research involved the translation of the Bible. To get a clearer impression about their theories, it is essential to become familiar with them.

As Gentzler (1993) points out, Noam Chomsky was more interested in the rules and structures of grammar than deep structures. His “theory involves three levels of conceptualization: (1) a base component made up of ‘phrase structure rules’ that generate (2) a deep structure, which in turn is changed, via transformational rules into (3) a surface structure” (Gentzler, 1993: 46). This concept was significantly altered in Nida’s adaptation.

As Snell-Hornby (1988) describes him, “in the United States the most influential scholar was undoubtedly Eugene A. Nida” (p. 14) who was originally engaged in the invention of a methodology for Bible translations in order to help missionaries deliver the core message of the book. According to Gentzler (1993), he was appalled by nineteenth-century tendencies of preferring literal translation to the meaning. As cited in Gentzler (1993), he claimed that “the words [of the American Standard Version of the Bible] may be English, but the grammar is not; and the sense is quite lacking” (p. 45). To solve the problem, he took Chomsky’s theory and, to make it fit into his own invention, simplified it by omitting the first component. In this way, he created a system from generative grammar exclusively for translation practice, and it became quite popular.

As Gentzler (1993) points out, both Chomsky’s and Nida’s model agree on a “deep, coherent, and unified entity” which is the same in every language, and only changes in the surface structure, i.e. when presented in different languages (p. 46). However, the two theories take disparate ways in analysing the “core”: Chomsky is more concerned about “universal rules of grammar and universal lexical forms”, whereas Nida tends to discover “an original divine message” (Gentzler, 1993: 47). Despite the religious undertone, Nida’s viewpoint seems more relevant for translation studies than Chomsky’s: it is the exact interpretation of the message that should be considered as priority, not the pursuit of creating sentences in the target language grammatically as close as possible to the ones in the original text – but then again, Chomsky’s model has not been developed for the field Nida uses it.

Actually, as mentioned by Gentzler (1993), Nida ventures further into the matter, and states that “the core message” is so important that it must be delivered in any case – even by sacrificing the original sentences to bend them to the needs of the cultural peculiarities of the target language. For instance, he translates the phrase “Lamb of God” as “Seal of God” for Eskimo language, since for the Eskimos, the seal is the animal equivalent of the lamb in regards of sacrifice (Snell-Hornby, 1988: 19). It is one of his “techniques of adjustment” (Chesterman, 2005: 20). For him, it is not the sign that matters, but “the response to the sign” (Gentzler, 1993: 53), because as long as it makes people behave the way God wants them to, his interpretation is correct, regardless the changes in the text. He calls this kind of translation “faithful”, which is somewhat ironical, since the word has “traditionally […] been reserved for literal translations” (Gentzler, 1993: 58). However, since he privileges the meaning above the form, it fits into his theory quite well.

Gentzler (1993) mentions another difference between Chomsky’s and Nida’s model: the methodology. Although Chomsky agrees with the crucial role of the “core” or deep structure, it is antithetic to his views to execute such practices that Nida does who demolishes the sentences into deep structure, carries it into the target language, and then finally, uses it to rebuild the sentences in the target language. It is true that in regards of the method described above, Nida clearly diverges from Chomsky, but translation-wise, it seems rather efficient (like the example with the Eskimos).

There is one aspect in which Gentzler (1993) clearly disagrees with Nida: he claims that Nida’s advices for translators to agree with or even “admire” the original author of the text is a considerably dangerous one, because they could fall prey to the so-called “intentional fallacy” (p. 57). Unfortunately, his fears seem valid: however beneficiary it is to understand the tiniest subtleties of the writer as a translator, one should rather not let his/her very self and opinions flow excessively into the work of another person, since he/she is only a chain which connects the original text and the translation. Too much self-identification may result in the alteration of the core message.

In conclusion, it can be clearly seen that, according to the theory of Eugene A. Nida, in order to present a text to a language whose speakers live in a completely different culture than the speakers of the source language, a translator is permitted to take liberations when interpreting the sentences. Naturally, the occasions at which the cultural gap between the nations is so vast that between English and Eskimo occur quite rarely, but the subtleties are always present when a text is translated from one language to another – and even one mistranslated word can cause tragedies.

Order | Check Discount

Find The Best Writers, Tutors & Assignment Experts!

2025 Special Offer! Get 20-25% Off On ALL Your Orders!

Why trust us?

Every student wants the best grades and that’s our Focus

Graduate Level Writers

Our team consists of outstanding writers who have specialized knowledge in specific subject areas and professionals experienced in academic research writing. They hold at least a graduate degree—230 with Masters and MSN qualifications, experts carefully selected and trained to ensure the best quality of our work. .

College Students Prices

We’re dedicated to bringing on board top-notch writers who can provide excellent work at prices that make sense for college students; affordable papers. Our goal? To give you the best bang for your buck without ever compromising on the quality of our essay writing services—or the content of your paper. #Don’t forget to use the DISCOUNT code in the COUPONS section of the order form before you pay!.

100% Human Written

The service guarantees that our final work is 100% original, rearched and human written expertly. We are committed to delivering plagiarism-free and AI-free work to each university/college student's 'write my paper' request. To uphold this promise, we check every draft for any possible instances of duplication, wrong citation, grammar errors and artificiality before we send it to you. Thus, you can always rely on us to write genuine and high-standard content for your essay assignments.

How it works

When you trust to place an order with Homework Ace Tutors, here is what happens:

Complete the Order Form

Please fill out our order form completely, providing as much detail as possible in all the required fields.

Assignment of Writer

We carefully review your order and assign it to a skilled writer with the specific expertise needed to handle it. The writer then creates your content entirely from scratch.

Order in Progress and Submission

You, along with the support team and your assigned writer, communicate directly throughout the process. Once the final draft is delivered, you can either approve it or request edits, paraphrasing, or a complete revision.

Giving us Feedback(review our essay service)

Ultimately, we value your feedback on how your experience went. You can also explore testimonials from other clients. Additionally, you have the option to recommend or select your preferred writer for any future orders.

Write My Essay For Me