# Eugene Nida

Eugene Nida Eugene A. Nida (born November 11, 1914) is the developer of the dynamic-equivalence Bible-translation theory. Life Nida was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on November 11, 1914. He became a Christian at a young age, when he responded to the altar call at his church “to accept Christ as my Saviour.” He graduated summa cum laude from the University of California in 1936. After graduating he attended Camp Wycliffe, where Bible translation theory was taught. He ministered for a short time among the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico, until health problems due to an inadequate diet and the high altitude forced him to leave. Sometime in this period, Nida became a founding charter member of Wycliffe Bible Translators, a sister organization of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. In 1937, Nida undertook studies at the University of Southern California, where he obtained a Master’s Degree in New Testament Greek in 1939. In that same year, Eugene Nida became interim pastor of Calvary Church of Santa Ana, CA, after the founding pastor resigned in 1939. In spite of his conservative background, in later years Nida became increasingly ecumenical and New Evangelical in his approach. In 1943 Nida received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan, he was ordained as a Baptist minister, and he married Althea Lucille Sprague. The couple remained married until Althea Sprague Nida's death in 1993. In 1997, Nida married Dr. Elena Fernandez, a translator and interpreter. Nida retired in the early 1980s and currently lives in Brussels, Belgium. Career In 1943 Nida began his career as a linguist with the American Bible Society (ABS). He was quickly promoted to Associate Secretary for Versions, then worked as Executive Secretary for Translations until his retirement. 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 began in 1968 and was carried on in accordance with Nida's translation principle of Functional Equivalence. Translation and Linguistic Theories 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. Nida's 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 focused on achieving semantic equivalence). Nida and Venuti 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 source text and embark upon creating a translation which not only transfers 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). For example, a statement that Jesus “met” someone must be carefully translated into a language which distinguishes between “met for the first time”, “met habitually” and simple “met”. Nida was once criticised for a controversial change in the Revised Standard Version Bible translation regarding the removal the word “virgin” from Isaiah 7:14. However, as Peter Thuesen's book In Discordance with the Scriptures points out, Nida was not actually a committee member for that project. Works Published Works include the following: · Linguistic Interludes - (Glendale, CA: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1944 (Revised 1947)) · The Bible Translator - (Journal founded and edited by Dr. Nida (retired), 1949- ) · Morphology: The Descriptive Analysis of Words - (Univ. of Michigan Press, 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) Toward a Science of Translation: with Special Reference to Principles and Procedures Involved in Bible Translating Preface Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Tradition of Translation in the Western World Chapter 3 An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning Chapter 4 Linguistic Meaning Chapter 5 Referential and Emotive Meanings Chapter 6 The Dynamic Dimension in Communication Chapter 7 The Role of the Translator Chapter 8 Principles of Correspondence Chapter 9 Types of Correspondences and Contrasts Chapter 10 Techniques of Adjustment Chapter 11 Translation Procedures Chapter 12 Machine Translation Bibliography General Index