Step by Step: A Course in Contrastive Linguistics and Translation (Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics)

This book is a course in contrastive linguistics and translation which introduces the basics of linguistic analysis as applied to translation. Translation is presented as a problem-solving activity and linguistic analysis is proposed as a useful methodological tool to identify a wide range of translation problems. The course adopts a method which starts with the translation of words and goes up, step by step, through the different levels of linguistic structure to the level of pragmatic context. Myriad examples and a wide variety of exercises enable readers to acquire and practise some of the most common strategies translators use to solve the problems encountered at the different levels of linguistic analysis.
The book aims at providing students with the theoretical and methodological tools needed to reinforce their linguistic and textual competence in the languages involved and make adequate progress along the translation process. As theoretical tools, students are given an overview of basic translation concepts and linguistic tools central to contrastive linguistics and textual analysis. As methodological tools, students are presented with a working method that, at the beginning, will allow them to grasp the principles and strategies that govern general translation, and which they could later extrapolate to specialised translation.