Mona Baker & Gabriela Saldanha. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edition)

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functioninitsownrightasasignificantfactorinagiventext,andhenceinthe

translationofit.Technically,scriptestablishes,ifnothingelse,areadingorder

anddirectionwhich,asinthedifferentcasesofChinese(downwards),early

Greek(alternatelylefttorightandrighttoleft,orboustrophedon),Arabic

(righttoleft),andEnglish(lefttoright),maymuchcomplicatethetaskof

interlinearorparalleltranslation.Inideologicalterms,itmaybeactivelyset

againstanyformoftranscriptionortranslation,asinthecaseofthedivinely

arrangedcharactersoftheQUR’ĀN.

Theuseofvisiblelanguagemerelytoconveyspeech,inwhatJakobson(1959)

hastermedacognitivefashion,isofcoursemostpronouncedinalphabetic

systems;yetitispresentwhereverthereisphoneticism.Hence,facedwith

ancienthieroglyphicscriptslikethoseoftheEgyptiansandoftheMaya,which

makeanundeniablevisualstatementintheirownright,decipherershaveaimed

primarilyattheirphoneticelements,seekingtocracktheirlinguisticcode(Coe

1992)asifitwereacaseofartificiallanguageusedformilitaryintelligence.At

thesametime,thecharactersofanyscriptmayhaveorbeaccordedanon

phoneticvalueoftheirown,afactwhichdemandsadifferentorderof

decipheringortranslation.Suchisthecasewiththebrushstrokedideogramof

atypeofJapanesepoemknownashaiku,orthealphabeticletterintegrated

intoaconcretepoembyIanHamiltonFinlay(Henderson1958;Bann1977).

Theclearestandcommonesttypeofvaluethatmayinhereinawritten

character,regardlessofanyphoneticmessage,isvisualorpictorialimage,the

properreadingofwhichhasprovokedintensedebateamongtranslatorsof

Chineseideograms.Besidesbeingimage,acharactermayalsobeacipherand

havenumericalvalue,likethesyllablesofHebreworthealphabeticlettersof

Greek.Andfinally,acharactermayconventionallyconveyaconceptthroughan

attributedname,likethoseoftheGermanicrunes.Inordertoexplorewhatis

atstakehereforthetranslator,wemayinthefirstinstancebestrefertoscripts

fromtheOldWorld,sincetodatethesehavebeenfarmorethoroughly

analysedandinterrelatedthanhavethoseoftheNew(Diringer1968;Gelb

1974;Harris2001).

OldWorldscripts:image,cipherandname

Characterasimage:thepictorialelement.AsGardiner’sGrammar

confirms,Egyptianhieroglyphs,beingphonetic,cangenerallybetranscribedinto

thealphabetandtranslatedwithoutparticularloss.However,earlyhieratictexts

usedbypriestsinancientEgypt,forexamplethemuralsintheThebantombs,

deliberatelybringouttheirpictorialoriginandqualityaswater,bird,humanface

orfish,tothedegreeofsettingupanalternativevisualreading(Gardiner1973).

Further,certainofthehieroglyphsinanycaseprimarilyserveaspicturessince,

thoughformallyindistinguishablefromtherest,theyarenotphoneticatall.

Thesearethegenericdeterminativesthatindicateanareaofmeaning,for

example,canalsofirrigatedland,mountainsofforeigncountry,sun,thesailing

boatofthegodsandkings,acup,theraisedarmsofheight,thegnawingofa

tooth,ortheageofanoldmanleaningonhisstick.IntheBookoftheDead,

thepictorialmessageisstronglyreinforcedthroughthevisualechoingofthese

determinativesinfiguresandotherelementsfeaturedinthevignettesorscenes

thatintroducechapters.Overall,theseimagesvividlyconveythelogicand

beliefsassumedinanotherwise(forus)remotedialoguewiththeworldofthe

dead.InhiseditionofthisworkfromthePapyrusofAni,WallisBudge(1967)

offersboth‘aninterlineartransliterationandtranslation’,whichincludesthe

hieroglyphicoriginalcompletewithnonphoneticimages,and‘arunning

translation’,whichdoesnotincludethehieroglyphicoriginalandattendsonlyto

phoneticmeaning.Comparingthemevenforamomentmakesclearthehuge

losssustainedinthesecondversion.

AuthoritiesonChinesescriptinformusthatwhenitscharactersarereadrapidly

theyfunctionaslogographs,meresignsforwordsandnomore(Needham

1958;Cooper1978).However,withtheponderedreadingrequiredbypoetry

inanylanguage,themakeupofcharactersmayassumesomeimportance,so

thatinastanzaaboutmountainsawholeseriesofcharactersmayoccurin

whichthemountainelementispresent(Teele1949).Thedistinction,inother

words,againdoesnothavetodowiththeputativenatureofthecharactersbut