Dynamic and formal equivalence
Encyclopedia
- The term "dynamic equivalent" is also used in electrics, physics, economics and yoga.
In Bible translation dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence are two approaches to translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
. The terms are not found in general linguistics or translation theory but were coined by Eugene Nida
Eugene Nida
Eugene A. Nida was the developer of the dynamic-equivalence Bible-translation theory.- Life :Nida was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on November 11, 1914...
. In later years he distanced himself from the former term and preferred the term "functional equivalence."
Dynamic equivalence (also known as functional equivalence) attempts to convey the thought
Thought
"Thought" generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's subjective consciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arrangements of ideas. Similar concepts include cognition, sentience, consciousness, and imagination...
expressed in a source text
Source text
A source text is a text from which information or ideas are derived. In translation, a source text is the original text that is to be translated into another language.-Description:...
(if necessary, at the expense of literalness
Literal translation
Literal translation, or direct translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another "word-for-word" rather than conveying the sense of the original...
, original word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
, the source text
Source text
A source text is a text from which information or ideas are derived. In translation, a source text is the original text that is to be translated into another language.-Description:...
's grammatical voice, etc.), while formal equivalence attempts to render the text word-for-word (if necessary, at the expense of natural expression in the target language
Target language
Target language may refer to:*Target language, in applied linguistics and language education, the language which a person is learning, also called second language*Target language, in translation, the language to which a source text is translated...
). The two approaches represent emphasis, respectively, on readability
Readability
Readability is the ease in which text can be read and understood. Various factors to measure readability have been used, such as "speed of perception," "perceptibility at a distance," "perceptibility in peripheral vision," "visibility," "the reflex blink technique," "rate of work" , "eye...
and on literal fidelity
Literal translation
Literal translation, or direct translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another "word-for-word" rather than conveying the sense of the original...
to the source text. There is no sharp boundary between dynamic and formal equivalence. Broadly, the two represent a spectrum of translation approaches.
The terms "dynamic equivalence" and "formal equivalence" are associated with the translator Eugene Nida
Eugene Nida
Eugene A. Nida was the developer of the dynamic-equivalence Bible-translation theory.- Life :Nida was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on November 11, 1914...
, and were originally coined to describe ways of translating the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, but the two approaches are applicable to any translation.
Theory and practice
Because dynamic equivalence eschews strict adherence to the grammatical structure of the original text in favor of a more natural rendering in the target language, it is sometimes used when the readability of the translation is more important than the preservation of the original grammatical structure. Thus a novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
might be translated with greater use of dynamic equivalence so that it may read well, while in diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
or in some business settings people may insist on formal equivalence because they believe that fidelity to the grammatical structure of the language equals greater accuracy.
Formal equivalence is often more goal than reality, if only because one language may contain a word for a concept which has no direct equivalent in another language. In such cases a more dynamic translation may be used or a neologism may be created in the target language to represent the concept (sometimes by borrowing a word from the source language).
The more the source language differs from the target language, the more difficult it may be to understand a literal translation. On the other hand, formal equivalence can sometimes allow readers familiar with the source language to see how meaning was expressed in the original text, preserving untranslated idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
s, rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
al devices (such as chiastic structure
Chiastic structure
Chiastic structure is a literary device for chiasmus applied to narrative motifs, turns of phrase, or whole passages. Various structures of chiasmus are commonly seen in ancient literature to emphasize, parallel, or contrast concepts or ideas...
s in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
), and diction
Diction
Diction , in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story...
.
Bible translation
Translators of the Bible have taken various approaches in rendering it into English, ranging from an extreme use of formal equivalence, to extreme use of dynamic equivalence.A predominant use of formal equivalence
- King James Version (1611)
- Young's Literal TranslationYoung's Literal TranslationYoung's Literal Translation is a translation of the Bible into English, published in 1862. The translation was made by Robert Young, compiler of Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible and Concise Critical Comments on the New Testament. Young produced a "Revised Version" of the translation in...
(1862) - Revised VersionRevised VersionThe Revised Version of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. It was the first and remains the only officially authorized and recognized revision of the King James Bible. The work was entrusted to over 50 scholars from various denominations in Britain...
(1895) - American Standard VersionAmerican Standard VersionThe Revised Version, Standard American Edition of the Bible, more commonly known as the American Standard Version , is a version of the Bible that was released in 1901...
(1901) - Revised Standard VersionRevised Standard VersionThe Revised Standard Version is an English translation of the Bible published in the mid-20th century. It traces its history to William Tyndale's New Testament translation of 1525. The RSV is an authorized revision of the American Standard Version of 1901...
(1952) - New American Standard BibleNew American Standard BibleThe New American Standard Bible , also informally called New American Standard Version , is an English translation of the Bible....
(1995) - New King James VersionNew King James VersionThe New King James Version is a modern translation of the Bible published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. The New Testament was published in 1979. The Psalms in 1980. The full Bible was published in 1982. It took a total of 7 years to complete...
(1982) - English Standard VersionEnglish Standard VersionThe English Standard Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible. It is a revision of the 1971 edition of the Revised Standard Version...
(2001) - New Revised Standard VersionNew Revised Standard VersionThe New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is an English translation of the Bible released in 1989 in the USA. It is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version .There are three editions of the NRSV:...
(1989) - Douay-Rheims
- Green's Literal TranslationGreen's Literal TranslationGreen's Literal Translation is a formal equivalence translation of the Christian Bible by Jay P. Green, Sr. First published in 1985, it became integrated into the 1986 edition of his Hebrew-English-Greek work called "The Interlinear Bible"....
(1985)
Moderate use of dynamic equivalence
- New International VersionNew International VersionThe New International Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible. Published by Zondervan in the United States and by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, it has become one of the most popular modern translations in history.-History:...
- Today's New International VersionToday's New International VersionToday's New International Version is an English translation of the Bible developed by the Committee on Bible Translation. The CBT also developed the New International Version in the 1970s. The TNIV is based on the NIV. It is explicitly Protestant like its predecessor; the deuterocanonical books...
- Holman Christian Standard BibleHolman Christian Standard BibleThe Holman Christian Standard Bible is a modern English Bible translation from Holman Bible Publishers. The first full edition was completed in March 2004, with the New Testament alone having been previously published in 1999.- Beginnings :...
called "optimal" equivalence - New American BibleNew American BibleThe New American Bible is a Catholic Bible translation first published in 1970. It had its beginnings in the Confraternity Bible, which began to be translated from the original languages in 1948....
- New English TranslationNew English TranslationThe New English Translation is a free, "completely new" on-line English translation of the Bible, " with 60,932 translators’ notes" sponsored by the Biblical Studies Foundation and published by Biblical Studies Press....
- Modern Language BibleModern Language BibleThe Modern Language Bible carries the subtitle, The New Berkeley Version in Modern English; however, only the New Testament was revised.According to the preface: Approximately twenty-five years have passed since The Berkeley New Testament first appeared in 1945. During this quarter century, the...
Extensive use of dynamic equivalence
- New Jerusalem BibleNew Jerusalem BibleThe New Jerusalem Bible is a Roman Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd and Les Editions du Cerf, and edited by the Reverend Henry Wansbrough.- Contents :...
- New English BibleNew English BibleThe New English Bible is a translation of the Bible into modern English directly from the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts . The New Testament was published in 1961...
- Revised English BibleRevised English BibleThe Revised English Bible is a 1989 English language translation of the Bible and updates the New English Bible, of 1970. As with its predecessor, it is published by the publishing houses of both Oxford University and Cambridge University....
- Good News BibleGood News BibleThe Good News Bible , also called the Good News Translation , is an English language translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society, first published as the New Testament under the name Good News for Modern Man in 1966...
(formerly "Today's English Version") - Complete Jewish BibleComplete Jewish BibleThe Complete Jewish Bible is an English translation of the Bible by Dr. David H. Stern. It consists of both Stern's revised translation of the Old Testament plus his original "Jewish New Testament" translation in one book. The Old Testament translation is a paraphrase of the 1917 Jewish...
- New Living TranslationNew Living TranslationThe New Living Translation is a translation of the Bible into modern English. Originally starting out as an effort to revise The Living Bible, the project evolved into a new English translation from Hebrew and Greek texts...
- God's Word Translation
- The MessageThe Message (Bible)The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language was created by Eugene H. Peterson and published in segments from 1993 to 2002. It is an idiomatic translation of the original languages of the Bible.-History:...
- Contemporary English VersionContemporary English VersionThe Contemporary English Version or CEV is a translation of the Bible into English,published by the American Bible Society...
See also
- Lexical markup frameworkLexical Markup FrameworkISO 24613:2008, Language resource management - Lexical markup framework , is the ISO International Organization for Standardization ISO/TC37 standard for natural language processing and machine-readable dictionary lexicons...
- The Bible version debate
- TranslationTranslationTranslation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
- TextualismTextualismTextualism is a formalist theory of statutory interpretation, holding that a statute's ordinary meaning should govern its interpretation, as opposed to inquiries into non-textual sources such as the intention of the legislature in passing the law, the problem it was intended to remedy, or...
in jurisprudenceJurisprudenceJurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
:- Original meaningOriginal meaningIn the context of United States constitutional interpretation, original meaning is the dominant form of the legal theory of originalism today...
(cf. formal equivalence) - Original intentOriginal intentOriginal intent is a theory in law concerning constitutional and statutory interpretation. It is frequently—and usually spuriously—used as a synonym for originalism generally; while original intent is indeed one theory in the originalist family, it has some extremely salient differences which has...
(cf. dynamic equivalence) - Purposivism or purposive theoryPurposive theoryPurposive theory is a theory of statutory interpretation that holds that common law courts should interpret legislation in light of the purpose behind the legislation. Purposive theory stands in contrast to textualism or statutory derogation, two other prominent common law interpretation...
(cf. balanced/"optimal" approach)
- Original meaning