Techniques /strategies (of translation)

Translation techniques or strategies are an instrument of textual analysis that, together with others, can be used to study how translation equivalence works. They make it possible to identify, classify and name the options translators choose to translate micro-units of texts.

The use of a particular translation technique is the result of a choice made by a translator, and the validity of the chosen technique is determined by various factors related to context, to the purpose of the translation, to readers’ expectations, etc. Translation techniques are thus functional and dynamic in nature, in keeping with the dynamism of translation equivalence. The translator selects one technique or another on the basis of different variables that depend on the specific circumstances of the term or expression to be translated in the contexts of the source text (ST) and the target text (TT), as well as on the degree of asymmetry between the two.