The Importance Of Word Translation In Children's Literature

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1. Introduction It is not an easy task to define word translation. Debates were lead through centuries with some theorist saying it is a form of art, some saying it is a craft, and some saying it is a science. The truth could possibly be found somewhere in between. (Bassnett, 2005, pp. 12 - 14) Even today this debate exists. It is mostly connected to the way people define translation. If one has been asked to define the word translation, it would most likely been something like translation implies finding equivalent words in another language(s). What is implied is that translation is commensurate with a literal interpretation of means of one language, whether written or spoken one. Thus, it is perceived as more mechanic rather than the creative process. So, how difficult can it be? However, there are those who do not agree with this. It is generally known that meanings of some words depend on the context, and often some words do not have their equivalents in the other languages or even …show more content…

The one which brings children’s literature authors and translators into a completely different perspective and it is called a picture book. A picture book is defined as a written narrative formed by words and pictures. Words and pictures, as Sipe (1998) said, work in a synergy. It means that the meaning of a picture book depends not only on the both words and pictures, but also on the interaction and transaction between them. Sipe’s synergy corresponds to term multimodality. Exploring multimodality of picture books means to explore how the text relates to the pictures and vice versa, how they interact, how they ‘communicate’, in other words, how elements of the layout are combined to form the complete image. Therefore, translator of picture books is required to know and to recognise the elements of the picture books and the relationships between

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