Interpretation vs Translation: Definitions, Types & Terms
Interpretation, Translation, Transliteration and Transcription
Longman Dictionary
LONGMAN DICTIONARY
Interpret (always verbal): understand someone’s action or statement; place a meaning on (e.g., interpret someone’s silence); put into the words of another language (e.g., interpret a sentence into a foreign language).
Translate (usually written): move speech or writing from one language to another (e.g., translate a book); to change from one form to another (e.g., “If we get elected we’ll translate our promises into facts”).
Transliterate: to write a sentence, name, or word in the alphabet or written system of a different language.
Collins COBUILD Dictionary
COLLINS COBUILD DICTIONARY
Interpret: If I interpret what someone is saying, I translate it immediately into another language so the recipient can understand the speaker’s message.
Translate: If you translate something that someone has said or written you say it or write it in a different language; you express it in a different way using a different alphabet; you start to put an idea into practice; you give the meaning that you think to a gesture or an action (e.g., when you help someone and they smile at you that means “thank you”).
Transliterate: change the letters. Example: if I don’t know Greek I will write the Greek letters with Latin letters. This implies a problem, because some sounds or letters in other languages are not present in my language. For example, the sound represented by the Greek letter often transcribed as ch (/x/) is not in Latin or English, so the Greek one was transcribed as “ch” → Psychology.
Transcription: I take verbal information and use a phonetic system to reproduce it; I write down what is said.
Collins English Dictionary
COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY
Interpret: clarify or explain the meaning (e.g., of a sound); deduce the significance or intention (e.g., of a smile).
Translate: to be capable of being expressed in another language or dialect; to express or explain in simpler or less technical language (e.g., in a medical situation say “cancer” instead of “neoplasia”); to interpret the significance of gestures or actions (smiling = thank you).
RAE (Real Academia Española)
RAE
Interpret: to translate from one language to another orally; to express actions, facts, or events that can be understood in different ways; to concede, to order, or to express reality in a personal way.
Translate: to express in one language what is written or said in another language.
The RAE distinguishes between four types of translation:
- Direct translation: made from a foreign language into your own.
- Inverse translation: made from your own language into a foreign language.
- Free translation: one which, adjusting to the meaning, sometimes departs from the original expression.
- Literal translation: one which adheres to the original meaning, departing only when really necessary.
María Moliner Dictionary
MARÍA MOLINER DICTIONARY
Translate: to express something that is said or written in one language in another language.
In addition to the RAE’s distinction, the dictionary of María Moliner proposes two more types:
- Interlinear translation: made between the lines of the original text according to the same placement of words or expressions in both texts.
- Juxtalinear translation: placed near the lines of the original text.
Philological Terms Dictionary — Lázaro Carreter
PHILOLOGICAL TERMS DICTIONARY LÁZARO CARRETER
Interpret: an amplification method which consists in reiterating with other words what was said.
Hartmann & Stock
HARTMANN & STOCK
Interpreting: an oral translation carried out by a person who is proficient in both languages and conversant with the terminology of the subject under discussion.
Consecutive interpreting: done at small private or business meetings or guided tours where the interpreter renders his or her version of the original talk to the recipient while the speaker pauses periodically.
Simultaneous interpreting (including cuchotage): done via headset or by whispering; the interpreter renders the original to the recipient at the same time without making pauses.
Translation: the result of converting information from one language or variety into another with the aim of obtaining an accurate end result.
Depending on how close the grammatical features of both languages are, we can distinguish:
- Word-for-word translation: words are rendered one by one from L1 to L2 (example: “It’s pouring” → Es gießt).
- Literal translation: few adjustments at the phrase level (example: Es gießt).
- Free or idiomatic translation: larger changes to achieve natural expression in the target language (example: Es gießt / Es regnet).
Depending on the subject matter of the text we can distinguish:
- Literary translation: poetry or drama, where the emphasis is on the emotive tone.
- Pragmatic translation: technical or commercial, where the emphasis is on rendering factual information. (Oral: interpreting / by computer: machine translation).
- Commercial translation: advertisements, where the emphasis is on information that persuades people.