genitives study
Wayne Leman
wayne_leman at sil.org
Sat May 4 00:15:35 EDT 2002
The following notice is simply informational for the b-greek discussion
list where translation of Biblical Greek forms is not part of the list
mandate (I would welcome off-list feedback from b-greek members).
However, discussion of all Bible translation issues are welcome on the
Bible Translation discussion list (address at the bottom of this message).
I am posting an updated study of the translation of Greek datives to my
Bible translation website. The study is accessible from URL:
http://www.geocities.com/bible_translation/studies.htm
Following are results of the study, so far, of 28 examples from 16 English
versions. I am continuing to add more examples but the number of
examples so far has brought us into the range of statistical reliability for
relative rankings among the versions. The percentage value for any
version indicates the percentage of translation examples which accurately
and adequately communicate in English the original meaning of the genitive
phrase.
TOTAL VERSES 28
PERCENTAGE = SUM OF HITS / TOTAL VERSES
14.3% KJV
17.9% NKJV
21.4% RSV
35.7% NRSV
21.4% ESV
25.0% NASB
42.9% NIV
50.0% TNIV
78.6% NLT
96.4% TEV
96.4% CEV
92.9% NCV
92.9% GW
50.0% NET
60.7% ISV
39.3% HCSB
Some observations so far:
The HCSB is earning significantly higher rating for translation of its
genitives than it did for a relatively large study (21.7% of 83 examples
so far) of datives in English versions, accessible at the same URL
above.
The TNIV is rating significantly higher than the NIV for its translation of
genitives, whereas it ranked 5% lower for its translation of datives.
The NIV is rating slightly lower for its translation of genitives than it
does for datives (44.6%). This differential is statistically insignificant
and will quite possibly change as the number of examples of genitives
studied increases.
NET is rating significantly higher for its translation of genitives compared
to its translation of datives (34.9%).
The ISV is ranking significantly higher for its translation of genitives in
contrast to its translation of datives (51.8%).
I cannot explain why the HCSB, TNIV, NET, and ISV, which all have a similar
moderately formal equivalence approach to translation, have significantly
higher ratings for translation of genitives than for datives. Perhaps more
focus has been placed on translation of genitives in Biblical Greek courses.
Perhaps genitives are somehow more transparent with regard to their intended
meaning than are datives.
Perhaps some of you would have some other ideas that would account for these
statistical differences. I would be interested in your comments on this.
Stay tuned: I prefer to get the number of examples closer to 100 before I
feel confident that a truly statistically significant study has been done.
And, of course, there is always the human error factor which can be involved
on my part, the evaluator. But this error factor reduces statistically with
greater number of examples.
As always, I welcome feeback from others on this latest study of translation
examples in English Bible versions. I particularly welcome comments on
specific examples, with empirical support that would indicate
counter-evidence to the evaluations I have made in the study.
There is some material at the beginning of the files which explains what
the study involves and what factors were considered in evaluations.
This study focuses on non-exegetical factors in translation such as English
grammaticality, clarity, and naturalness of translation wordings,
ultimately, whether or not translation wordings make sense in English and
whether the translation wordings themselves accurately communicate the
original meaning of the biblical text to English readers.
Wayne
-----
Wayne Leman
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