COUPLETS

Couplets, triplets, quadruplets combine two, three or four of the above-mentioned procedures respectively for dealing with a single problem. They are particularly common for cultural words, if transference is combined with a functional or a cultural equivalent. You can describe them as two or more bites at one cherry.
Quadruplets are only used for metalingual words: thus, if you translate the sentence: `The nominal-ing clause, a participial clause, occurs in the subject position', apart from a more or less literal translation of `nominal-ing clause', you might also: (a) transfer it; (b) explain, in an adjectival clause, that the present participle is used as a kind of gerund in English; (c) produce a translation label; (d) give an example, with TL literal and functional translations!
You will note my reluctance to list `paraphrase' as a translation procedure, since the word is often used to describe free translation. If it is used in the sense of `the minimal recasting of an ambiguous or obscure sentence, in order to clarify it', I accept it.
NOTES, ADDITIONS, GLOSSES
Lastly, here are some suggestions about `Notes' (when and when not to use them) or supplying additional information in a translation.
The additional information a translator may have to add to his version-is normally cultural (accounting for difference between SL and TL culture), tech­nical (relating to the topic) or linguistic (explaining wayward use of words), and is dependent on the requirement of his, as opposed to the original, readership. In expressive texts, such information can normally only be given outside the version, although brief `concessions' for minor cultural details can be made to the reader, e.g. perhaps by translating Hemingway's `at Handley's' by dans le bar Handley, in der Handley Bar, etc. In vocative texts, TL information tends to replace rather than supplement SL information. Thus if you translate `you can pay for ceramic tiles under a convenient credit purchase scheme' the latter term may be `translated' by the more precise `long-term payment facility'.


Additional information in the translation may take various forms:
1. Within the text
As an alternative to the translated word: e.g., la gabelle becomes `the gabelle, or salt-tax'.
As an adjectival clause: e.g., la taille becomes 'la taille, which was the old lev~taised in feudal times from the civilian population'.
As a noun in apposition: e.g., les traites becomes `the traites, customs dues
As a participial group: e.g., l'octroi becomes `I'octroi, taxes imposed on food stuffs and wine entering the town'.
In brackets, often for a literal translation of a transferred word: e.g. das Kombinat becomes `the kombinat (a "combine" or "trust")'.
In parentheses, the longest form of addition: e.g., aides becomes 'aides - these are excise dues on such things as drinks, tobacco, iron, precious metals and leather - were imposed in the eighteenth century'.
Classifier: e.g., Speyer, `the city of Speyer, in West Germany'.
Round brackets should include material that is part of the translation. Use square brackets to make corrections of material or moral fact where appropriate within the text.
Where possible, the additional information should be inserted within the text, since this does not interrupt the reader's flow of attention - translators tend to neglect this method too often. However, its disadvantage is that it blurs the distinction between the text and the translator's contribution, and it cannot be used for lengthy additions.
2.Notes at bottom of page
3.Notes at end of chapter
4.Notes or glossary at end of book
The remaining methods (2-4) are placed in order of preference, but notes at the bottom of the page become a nuisance when they are too lengthy and numerous; notes at the back of the book should be referenced with the book page numbers at the top - too often I find myself reading a note belonging to the wrong chapter. Notes at the end of the chapter are often irritating if the chapters are long since they take too long to find.
Normally, any information you find in a reference book should not be used to replace any statement or stretch of the text (unless the text does not correspond to the facts) hrn only to sryplerrwnr die text, where yc,a tliinl! tlic readers tire likely to find it inadequate, incomplete, or obscure. Thus I think it misguided to translate say La drepanorytose s'individualise par une anomalie particuliere de l'hemoglobine by 'Sickle-cell disease is distinguished by the fact that one amino-acid in the bent chain of the haemoglobin is out of place'. The emphasis of the text-sentence on `par­ticular abnormality' is lost, and the new information, accurate as it is, is unnecessary and is given later in the SL text. Certainly encyclopaedia articles often give information that reads like a paraphrase of the technical text that is being trans­lated, but the corresponding key-terms, not whole sentences, should be `lifted' from them. Similarly, when you consult an expert, be careful not to let him, with a professional flourish, rewrite the whole text for you, even if he produces a better text. His explanations and interpretations also~iave to be at least related to, if not (literally?) subjected to, a close translation of your text.
If you are translating an important book, you should not hesitate to write a preface and notes to discuss the usage and meanings of the author's terms, particularly where you sacrificed accuracy for economy in the translation, or where there is ambiguity in the text. In the case of a scholarly work, there is no reason why the reader should not be aware of the translator's informed assistance both in the work and the comment. The artistic illusion of your non-existence is unnecessary.