Glossary-i

Idiom

An idiom is an expression which is unique to a language and cannot be understood simply from the meaning of its individual words. In other words, the actual meaning of an idiom is not the total of the meaning of its individual parts. An idiom is a figure of speech. English has many idioms, such as:

It's raining cats and dogs.
He's the top dog around here.
It's time to hit the sack.
He spilled his guts.
She had a cow when I got home late last night.
I'm just pulling your leg.
They're horsing around.
It's still up in the air.
I punched his lights out.
You hit the nail on the head.
He's still wet behind the ears.
He's sicker than a dog.
He bit off more than he can chew.
His eyes are bigger than his stomach.
He broke my heart.
It's raining cats and dogs.
He's down in the dumps.
You're skating on thin ice.
He fell off the wagon.
He's beating around the bush.
He let his hair down.
He passed the buck.
He skunked me.
Can I chew on your ear?

These websites feature English idioms:

There are many idioms in the Bible. If they are translated literally, their original figurative meaning will not be preserved accurately in many languages:

New Testament Greek idioms (see also New Testament figures of speech)

These websites feature Biblical idioms:

Following are some English idioms with the common verbs "give," "take," "have," "make," "catch", and "got." Probably most of these could not be translated literally to any other language. Notice that the idioms are acceptable with some object nouns but not others. Nouns which are not acceptable with these verbs are marked with the asterisk (*). In some cases we abbreviate a total idiom to save space, for instance, "give a hand" would normally be used as "Give me a hand!" or "Let's give him a hand" (which happens to two different meanings in English, one meaning to help him and the other to applaud him by clapping your hands).

GIVE

give a hand
give an *ear
give a break
give a speech
give someone the boot
give someone the *shoe
give someone the shaft
give a cold shoulder
give a *warm shoulder
give an earful

TAKE

take a bath
take a shower
take a walk
take a hike
take a trip
take a look
take a peek
take a *hear
take a *smell
take a picture
take a bite
take a nap
take a *sleep
take a *snore
take a chance
take a seat
take a chair
take a *bed

HAVE

have a drink
have an *eat
have a cow
have a *horse
have a meeting
have a chat
have a talk
have a cold
have a cough
have the flu
have gas
have cancer
have nits
have a fit
have an *anger
have a *rage
have a job
have an idea
have a *joy

MAKE

make sense
make love
make *hate
make do
make fun (of)
make trouble
make a fuss
make peace
make war
make the bed
make a puzzle
make time
make a payment
make it

CATCH

catch a cold
catch the bus
catch the train
catch the *car
catch someone's drift
catch someone's eye
catch someone's *hand
catch someone's fancy
catch a ride
catch a mistake
catch an *answer
catch his breath
catch a *trip
catch a *walk
catch the meaning

GET

get someone's goat
get the show on the road
get the ball rolling

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Idiomatic translation

Idiomatic translation is where the meaning of the original is translated into forms which most accurately and naturally preserve the meaning of the original forms. Idiomatic refers to being in the common language of average speakers, using the natural phrasings and idioms of the language. The terms idiomatic translation, dynamic translation, and free translation are essentially equivalent, and the non-technical term thought-for-thought translation probably is, as well. The term functional equivalence is a subcategory of idiomatic translation. A newer term, meaning-based translation, is also a synonym for idiomatic translation. Compare Literal translation.

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Illocutionary force

Illocutionary force is what speakers/authors intend when they say/write something. In many languages the typical function assumed to belong to a certain form, such as a question, may be quite different from what a speaker intends when he utters a particular question in the speech context. For instance, if I ask my child, "Why did you color on the walls of your bedroom?" my intention may not really be to learn the reason for his behavior, but, rather, to scold him for coloring on his walls. See this Illocutionary force webpage. And see Intention in this glossary. When translating, it is critical that the original illocutionary force of an author is accurately communicated in the translation. This may require changing syntactic form if the same or similar target language syntax does not communicate the same illocuationary force as did the source language syntax in its context.

Compare Perlocutionary force.

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Implicature

See the following website:

Grice's "Implicature" and Literary Interpretation: Background and Preface

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Implicit information

Implicit information is not overtly stated in an utterance but is nevertheless communicated in its meaning. It is information which is understood to be part of that utterance by its original hearers. Such information may be implied within the passage by the syntax, semantics, pragmatics, logic, or culture of the speakers of that language. Implicit information must often be explicitly expressed in a translation if its presence is not understood by the speakers of the target language. Compare Explicit information and Extraneous information.

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Implied information

Same as Implicit information.

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Inadequate meaning

Any of several categories of meaning transfer from the source language to the target language which are not adequate. Inadequate meaning is determined through community testing. Categories of inadequate meaning are:

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Inclusive language

Language forms which are perceived to include various segments of a language community. Inclusive language often refers, at least in discussions of English, to including both males and females. For instance, the English word "humanity" is perceived by all English speakers to be inclusive language, including both men and women, whereas the word "man," in some contexts, has been understood by many speakers to include both males and females, whereas it is perceived by others as excluding females.

Bible translators should not change the gender references of the biblical source texts. They should never expand nor limit the gender reference of those texts. Bible translators should accurately retain the gender references of the biblical source texts in their translations to any language, of course, within the limits of the gender resources of that language.

The opposite of inclusive language is Exclusive language.

See Gender accuracy.

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Inspiration

Inspiration is the belief that God supervised the writing of the Bible to such a degree that it faithfully speaks the message he intended. Inspiration does not mean that God directly dictated all the words of the Bible. It allows for the individual writing styles and creativity of the different human authors. Inspiration does mean that the Bible is special, that it has God's "stamp of approval." Biblical passages which refer to inspiration are 2 Timothy 3:16 and 1 Peter 1:21.

See further discussion of inspiration at this website:

Bibliology: Doctrine of Scripture

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Intention

Intention refers to a speaker's (or author's) meaning, including the effect he desires his utterance to have upon his hearer. Same as Authorial intention. One classification lists three intentions authors have for affecting their audiences: (1) to change their ideas, (2) to change their emotions, or (3) to change their behavior. When translating, it is important that overall authorial intentions be clear, whether implicitly, as allowed by the target language and its rhetorical devices, or explicitly. Sometimes meticulous attention to translation of lower-level linguistic units obscures authorial intent for the source text as a whole, and, in doing so, part of the meaning of the source text is missing in the translation.

See Illocutionary force.

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Interlinear translation

An interlinear translation presents each line of the source text with a line directly beneath it giving a word by word literal translation in a target language. An interlinear translation is useful for technical study of the forms of the source text. But the literal translation will typically not be very understandable, since it only has target language words but often lacks target language natural word order and syntax (grammar).

Following is an interlinear translation of the familiar Indo-European story of the Ant and the Grasshopper in the Cheyenne language (with a Cheyenne cultural change at the end). This format is condensed from the more detailed format at the Cheyenne Language Web Site. A line preceded by \tx is the original Cheyenne text line. A line preceded by \wg is the literal English word gloss (simple translation) line. We include here a third line, preceded by \ft, which is a free translation, that is, an idiomatic translation which preserves the meaning of the original but is freely rearranged so that the English makes good sense to English readers.

\tx  Háhkota     naa hátšeške.
\wg  grasshopper and ant

\ft  The grasshopper and the ant.

\tx  Hátšeške éhma'xêhotse'óhesêstse.     
\wg  ant      much worked

\ft  An ant worked hard.

\tx  éhnêšema'xeéstovôhtsénôse  héstáme     hemâheóne.      
\wg  She much brought in        her food    at her house

\ft  She brought a lot of food into her house.

\tx  Méanëva     hová'éhe   mó'éeho'tsêhéhe tséxhemâheónêse.
\wg  in summer   something  she had it      where had house she

\ft  In the summer she had something where she had her house.

\tx  Naa tsé'tóhe háhkota      é'ôhkenémenèsêstse.      
\wg  and this     grasshopper  regularly sang

\ft  And this grasshopper sang.

\tx  E'ôhkevé'hého'sóesêstse  méanëva.  
\wg  he regularly dance       in summer

\ft  He would just dance during the summer.

\tx  "Hápó'e   éme'hotse'óhestove.      
\wg   likewise there should be working

\ft  "Likewise you should work.

\tx  Hápó'e   hová'éhe  éme'éseotsehe   nemâheóne       
\wg  likewise something should be put   in your house

\ft  Likewise something should be put in your house

\tx  nonóhpa mâxho'tonéto         nêstsemèse         hová'éhe,"
\wg  so that when arrives cold    you will eat it    something

\ft so that when it's cold you'll have something to eat,"

\tx  éxhetaesesto      hátšêškeho.  
\wg  hw was told by    ant

\ft  He was told by the ant.

\tx  "Hová'âháne,"   éxhesêstse   háhkota.
\wg   no             he said      grasshopper

\ft  "No," said the grasshopper.

\tx  "Náto'seéeho'sòò'e,   
\wg   I going to dance

\ft  "I'm gonna dance.

\tx  naa màto náto'senéméne. 
\wg  and also I going to sing

\ft  and also I'm gonna sing.

\tx  Násáahotse'óhetanóhe.    
\wg  I not work want

\ft  I don't want to work.

\tx  Eheómêhoháaehö'ta."        
\wg  it overly sunny

\ft  It's too sunny."

\tx  Nêhe'še tséstatonétotse    éstaosáanemésêhétanòsêstse.
\wg  then    when it was cold   he eat wanted

\ft  Then when it was cold, he wanted to eat.

\tx  "Otsêhámóhe,
\wg   oh yes

\ft  "Oh yes,

\tx  hátšeške éma'xeéstóvóhtse   héstáme      hemâheóne.
\wg  ant      stored             in her food  at her house

\ft  The ant stored a lot of food in her house.

\tx  Náto'sêhémêsêhétáno,"      éxhesêstse.
\wg  I am going to eat want     he said

\ft  I want to go eat," he said.

\tx  Estâhémêsêhétanòsêstse.                 
\wg  he went there to eat want

\ft  He went to eat.

\tx  E'éšeméhaenêhetaesesto,                                  
\wg  he had already been told that by her

\ft  She had already told him,

\tx  "Nêstsêsáahoxomatséhe  mâxháeanato."          
\wg   you I will not feed   when you are hungry

\ft  "I'll not feed you when you're hungry."

\tx  Naa éstanêšêševátamósesto   hátšeške  háhkotaho
\wg  but she pitied him          ant       grasshopper

\ft  But the ant had pity on the grasshopper.

\tx  éxhoxomósesto.                
\wg  she fed him

\ft  She fed him.

It is easy to see from the Cheyenne that its literal translation is more difficult to read and understand than its idiomatic ("free") translation.

We see the same tension over readability between literal and idiomatic translations when we examine interlinear translations of the Bible. Of course, we can also see the advantage, mentioned above, of being able to examine the specific forms of the original text from the interlinear translation. The following verse, 2 Cor. 4.6, exemplifies the advantage and disadvantages of interlinear translations:


o}ti          oJ     qeoV"   oJ     eivpwvn                    evk     skovtou" 
because the God  who  having spoken   out  of darkness 

fw'"      lavmpsei           o}"      e{lamyen   ejn  tai'"  kardivai"  hJmw'n 
light will shine   who   shone  in the  hearts  of us 

proV" fwtismoVn           th'"          gnwvsew"         th'"          dovxh" 
for illumination  of the  knowledge   of the   glory 

tou'          qeou'   ejn  proswvpw/   ijhsou'          cristou'
of the   God  in face    of Jesus  Christ

Idiomatic translation:

For God, who said, "Let there be light instead of darkness," has gloriously enlightened us through Jesus Christ.

And another possibility, even more idiomatic--many would probably consider this a paraphrase:

God turned on the lights at creation. And now he's turned on his very own floodlight--Jesus Christ--to shine in our lives.

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Interpretation

Interpretation is the process of determining the meaning of something. In this glossary interpretation refers to determining the meaning of something which has been spoken or written. In particular, we are concerned with discovering the meaning of a Biblical passage before we translate it. A common misunderstanding about Bible translation is that any version other than a literal or word-for-word translation is based on the personal opinions or interpretation of the translator. Some criticize almost every version of the Bible which is not as literal as they feel translations should be, saying that they are "mere paraphrases" or "interpretive translations." This is an unfortunate and inaccurate characterization. The truth is that any true translation first requires interpretation of the source text, that is, an answer to the question, "What does this passage mean?" This is interpretation which is necessary. But the translation should not be colored by the personal theological biases of the translator. It is this kind of "personal interpretation" which is not acceptable in the translation process. The science of determining what are reliable rules (or principles) for interpreting the Bible is called hermeneutics.

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Interpretive translation

A pejorative term used by someone to refer to a translation which he considers to include "interpretation" of the meaning of the source text, rather than simply the "translation" of that text. But since it is impossible to translate anything without determining its meaning (and such determination is, by definition, what interpretation is), this term is technically a misnomer, but it does take on some true logical meaning if the term itself is interpreted (!) to refer to a degree of interpretation on the part of the translator which the critic considers to be greater than necessary. The term interpretive translation, for such critics, would essentially be synonymous with their use of the similarly problematical term, paraphrase. One logically legitimate use of this term would be for instances where a translator inserts information which is extraneous to the particular passage being translated. Such information, if relevant to study of the implications of that passage, belongs elsewhere, such as in a commentary, rather than in the translation itself.

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Irony

Irony is language usage in which the opposite is meant from what is said. Often irony is criticism or ridicule appearing in the form of a compliment. The translator must be very careful that the original intent of the Biblical author comes through in his translation of irony. If the ironic meaning is not grasped by hearers then the translator must revise until they do. Often, the irony must be removed and some other form substituted which will preserve the author's intended meaning. Irony and sarcasm are closely related.

RSV Mark 7.9 You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!

TM Mark 7.9 Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions!

NLT removes the irony so readers will not misunderstand how Jesus was speaking to the Pharisee and scribes:

NLT Mark 7.9 You reject God's laws in order to hold on to your own traditions.

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