Five Types Of Equivalence In Translation

Translation is a process of transferring texts from one language to another, from one culture to another. In the process of carrying this process, it carries deep layers shaped into cultural and traditional aspects. In translation process, it involves equivalence which is relating the Target Text (TT) from the Source Text (ST). Equivalence is relied on text and its meanings related to specific cultures.

Equivalence has a major factor in translation, since it relates between the Source Text (ST) and the Target Text (TT). There are two main types of equivalence; qualitative and quantitative. In qualitative there are five types of equivalence; Referential or Denotative, Connotative, Text-Normative, Pragmatic or Dynamic and Textual Equivalence.

The first type of equivalence is only transferring the word in the Source language that has only one equivalent in the Target language or text. However, equivalence might problematic because it is triggered due to cultural, social and historical differences. The second type of equivalence is when one word has different meanings. For instance, the word ‘mobile’ can mean a ‘phone’, ‘movement’ or ‘flexibility’, here the Source Language or Text covers a wide range of meanings. Thus, the translator must choose the most vital meaning to maintain the spirit of the text after its translation. The third type is quite the opposite of the second one since many words translated into one text. Last but not the least, the fourth type which is null equivalence or ‘nothing’, which means a certain text has no equivalence in translation, thus it leads to a new definition known as transliteration. Transliteration is the conversion of one text to another. For instance, the word ‘Majd’ is a name which has no meaning in English, while in Arabic it means ‘glorification’. Thus, this word is transliterated to have the same pronunciation as the original language.

In my thesis, I will mainly emphasize on how important equivalence is in translation and the five types of qualitative equivalence that

The Target text: The bronze lions sculpted by Alfred Jacquemart, a French sculptor, were originally made for Mohammed Ali’s Statue in Alexandria and were supposed to be much smaller and more modest than those seen today.

Here, the equivalence in the text is referential since both languages refer to the same things in the real world as it talks about how the lions were sculptured. Also, text-normative equivalence is used as the order is different. For example, in the Arabic text begins with artist and the sculptured lions, while in English text it begins with the sculpted lions first. Pragmatic equivalence was also used in this text, as both sentences have the same effects on the