Development of Criteria for Measurement and Evaluation of Fidelity

Fidelity in translation is a relationship of faithfulness between a translated text and its original version. It has been accepted by theorists and practitioners in translation studies as the relevant link between the two texts. These people are not, however, in complete agreement on the dimension of fidelity to be emphasised on, in translation. The linguistic theories of translation emphasise fidelity to language through establishment of linguistic and structural correspondences and regularities of transfers, the socio-cultural theories tend to emphasise the contextual features of translation and the interactive social web of which the various participants in the translational communication are parts, while the interpretive theory emphasises fidelity to meaning. However, they have not been able to articulate the procedure for measurement and evaluation of the fidelity status of translations.