Just like the name suggests, this technique is about translation and creation. Transcreation implies adapting a message to resonate with the culture of the target audience. Translators recreate the text in such a way that it preserves the original intent, context, emotion, and tone. As a result, the translation should provide the audience with an identical emotional experience as the source message.
Example: The sweets brand's, Haribo's "Kids and grownups love it so, the happy world of Haribo" is not just a slogan, it's a catchy melody that gets stuck in your head whether you want it to or not.
German translation is "Haribo macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsene ebenso," which literally means "Haribo makes children happy, and grownups too."
The German version doesn't sound as catchy when you translate it back into English, but the result in German has a better ring to it. Moreover, Haribo has stuck with the same melody when translating its slogan to many other languages.
It's the opposite of reduction. Words are added to preserve meaning. This can be due to differences in sentence structure, grammar, or terminology.
Example: The reverse of reduction, "map" in English would be rendered as "carta geografica" in Italian.
When using reduction, the translator chooses to remove any words forming the original text which are considered redundant in the target language.
Example: The Italian "carta geografica" can be rendered in English as just "map."
Some nuances and phrases can't be translated. With this technique, translators express the idea of these nuances at another point in the document.
Example: While the English language only has one way of saying 'you', German has different ways, which are 'du' (informal) and 'Sie' (formal). A translator can choose specific words elsewhere in the text, which helps compensate for the loss of nuance.
Some phrases are only relevant to people from the source language's culture. In this case, such phrases need to be even more fully adapted so that people from another culture would understand them.
Example: Cyclisme (French) = football (UK) = baseball (US).
Like modulation, this technique allows you to convey the meaning of an expression, name or proverb by finding a target language equivalent.
Example: The "the apple of my eye" phrase for Russian reader, depending on the context, may be translated as "свет моих очей" which literally means "the light of my eyes."
Equivalence/Reformulation
Modulation involves using a different phrase from that used in the source content to preserve the same meaning in the target language. With this technique, you change a perspective to convey the idea in a way that aligns with the natural patterns of the target language. Thus, a reader in the target language won't be confused by an unexpected phrase.
Example: In British English, the first floor is the floor which is above the ground floor. In Russian, it would be translated as "второй этаж", which literally means "the second floor."
Using transposition, translators change the grammatical structure of a text while the meaning stays the same. This technique is useful for working with languages that differ in grammatical structures. To write a translation, a translator must know how changes to the order of a sentence will affect the meaning of the text in different languages.
Example: "He likes swimming" translates as "Er schwimmt gern" in German.
Oblique or indirect translation techniques are used when you have to change the writing style and grammar to translate the source text into the target language.
Indirect Translation Techniques