Literal translation
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Literal translation, also known in everyday usage as direct translation, denotes the rendering of text from one language to another "word-for-word" (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") rather than conveying the sense of the original. However, in translation studies, literal translation denotes technical translation of scientific, technical, technological or legal texts. Another term for literal translation, in translation theory, is metaphrase; and for prasal ("sense") translation — paraphrase.
When considered a bad practice of conveying word by word (lexeme to lexeme or morpheme to lexeme) translation of non-technical type literal translations has the meaning of mis-translating idioms , for example, or in the context of translating an analytic language to a synthetic language, it renders even the grammar unintelligible.
See also
- Metaphrase
- Translation
- Dynamic and formal equivalence
- Calque
- Young's Literal Translation (of the Bible)
- All your base are belong to us
