Nida E.A. Toward a science of translating: with special reference to principles and procedures involved in Bible translating

Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1964. — 331 p.This volume, Toward a Science of Translating, has been largely prompted by the nature of field work in which I have been involved during recent years in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. An earlier book, Bible Translating (Nida, 1947a), though very useful to the Bible translator, is essentially only a practical handbook, with a kind of rule-ofthumb orientation. Increasingly it became obvious that in order to assist translators more satisfactorily it was necessary to provide something which would not only be solidly based on contemporary developments in the fields of linguistics, anthropology, and psychology, but would also relate the specific area of Bible translating to the wider activity of translating in general. The present volume is an attempt to fill this need. As the title of this book implies, it makes no pretension to be a definitive volume, for in the present state of development in the field of semantics it is impossible to contemplate writing such a final work. However, there have been a number of important and fruitful developments in linguistics, both in the structural as well as the semantic areas, and these have contributed very significantly to the organization of this book.
Though the scope of translation theory in this volume is all-inclusive, the illustrative data are drawn primarily from Biblical materials, and especially so in the later chapters. This is not as great a disadvantage as it might appear at first glance, for no other type of translating has such a long history, involves so many different languages (at present more than 1,200), includes more diverse types of texts, and covers so many distinct cultural areas of the world. But though the examples are drawn primarily from Biblical data, this volume is not prepared with the average Bible translator in mind, for it is rather too technical in orientation. Nevertheless, it should serve as an important help to such translators as may have some background in present-day linguistic theory and it will be the basis of other more simply written books now in preparation, which will be aimed at teaching translation methods. Very important help on this volume has been received from a number of colleagues and friends.