An Initial View of Investigating Roman Jakobson’s Semiotic Theory in Translation

Abstract

This article introduces a model for bringing semiotics into English-Vietnamese translation research based on Roman Jakobson’s theory. It is a semiotic translation known by the name “cultural translation” or “cultural transposition.” Through the pioneering theory of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles S. Peirce, it examined the connection between translation studies and semiotics around the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is Saussure, who is the first of many people not to follow the approach to semiotics, suggesting the role of semiotics as an independent science, exploiting aspects of semiotic thinking, and not relying on structure. This article also mentioned that Charles S. Peirce and Roman Jakobson advocated  for and developed the theory of semiotic translation (1959–1969) because of its helpfulness  in translation. Therefore, the universal mechanism of semiotics embodies the application of semiotics to translation, and vice versa. Furthermore, Jakobson’s research uncovered  many differences between  semiological languages. Jakobson devides this form of translation  into three types of semiotic translation (tripartite divisions of translation): intralingual translation, interlingual translation, and intersemiotic translation. This article delves into the advantages and disadvantages  of this theory, which can greatly aid  in translation. For instance,  it explains how one can use “another word, more or less synonymous, or resort to circumlocution” in intralingual translation. This article aims to introduce translation professionals or graduate students majoring in translation to the initial concept of semiotic translation which is  a helpful solution to the problem of untranslability and translation difficulties compared to traditional methods. It is very important to explore and learn this method to be able to innovate in the English-Vietnamese translation industry and vice versa.