Eugene Nida
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| Eugene Nida | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 11, 1914 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma |
| Occupation | Linguist |
| Spouse | Althea Sprague (1943 - 1993) Dr. Elena Fernadez (1997 to present) |
Eugene A. Nida (born November 11, 1914, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is the developer of the dynamic equivalence biblical translation theory.
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[edit] Life
Dr. Nida received a Bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, in Greek language from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1936. He received his Master's degree in Greek New Testament from the University of Southern California and his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan.
In 1943 he married Althea Sprague. The couple remained married until Althea Sprague Nida's death in 1993. In 1997 Dr. Nida married Dr. Elena Fernadez, a translator and interpreter.
Dr. Nida retired in the early 1980s and currently lives in Brussels, Belgium.
[edit] Career
In 1943 Dr. Nida began his career with the American Bible Society (ABS), working as a linguist. Nida was quickly promoted to Associate Secretary for Versions, he then worked as Executive Secretary for Translations until his retirement.
Dr. Nida was instrumental in engineering the joint effort between the Vatican and the United Bible Societies (UBS) to produce cross-denominational Bibles in translations across the globe. This work was begun in 1968 and carried on in accordance with Dr. Nida's translation principle of Functional Equivalence.
[edit] Translation and Linguistic Theories
Eugene Nida has been a pioneer in the fields of Translation Theory and Linguistics.
His Ph.D. dissertation "A Synopsis of English Syntax" was the first full-scale analysis of a major language according to the "immediate constituent" theory.
His most notable and most controversial contribution to Translation Theory is Dynamic Equivalence, also known as Functional Equivalence. This approach to translation aims to reproduce the intention of the original text in the translation, rather than reproducing the actual words of the original. For more information see Dynamic and formal equivalence.
Nida also developed the "componential analysis" technique which split words into their components to help determine equivalence in translation (e.g. bachelor = male + unmarried). This is, perhaps, not the best example of the technique, though it is the most well known.
His dynamic equivalence theory is often held in opposition to the views of philologists who maintain that an understanding of the source text (ST) can be achieved by assessing the inter-animation of words on the page and that meaning is self-contained within the text (i.e. much more focussed on achieving semantic equivalence). Nida and Venutti have proved that translation studies is a much more complex discipline than may first appear, with the translator having to look beyond the text itself to deconstruct on an intra-textual level and decode on a referential level- assessing culture-specific items, idiom and figurative language to achieve an understanding of the ST and embark upon creating a translation which transfers not only what words mean in a given context, but also recreates the impact of the original text within the limits of the translator's own language system (linked to this topic: George Steiner, the Hermeneutic Motion, pragmatics, field, tenor, mode and the locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary)
[edit] Published Works include the following:
- The Bible Translator - (Journal founded and edited by Dr. Nida (retired), 1949- )
- Message and Mission - (Harper, 1960)
- Customs, Culture and Christianity - (Tyndale Press, 1963)
- Toward a Science of Translating - (Brill, 1964)
- Religion across cultures - (Harper, 1968)
- The Theory and Practice of Translation - (Brill, 1969, with C.R. Taber)
- Language structure and translation: essays - Stanford University Press, 1975)
- From One Language to Another - (Nelson, 1986, with Jan de Waard)
- The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains - (UBS, 1988, with Louw)
[edit] External links
- The Eugene A. Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship
- The American Bible Society
- The United Bible Societies
- A review of the book: Nida, Eugene A. (2003) Fascinated by Languages
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nida, Eugene |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Linguist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 11, 1914 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
