Source text

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A source text [1] [2] is a text (sometimes oral) from which information or ideas are derived. In translation, a source text is the original text that is to be translated into another language.

Contents

Description

In historiography, distinctions are commonly made between three kinds of source texts:

Primary

Primary sources are firsthand written accounts made at the time of an event by someone who was present. They have been described as those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study. [1] [3] These types of sources have been said to provide researchers with "direct, unmediated information about the object of study." [4] Primary sources are sources which, usually, are recorded by someone who participated in, witnessed, or lived through the event. These are also usually authoritative and fundamental documents concerning the subject under consideration. This includes published original accounts, published original works, or published original research. They may contain original research or new information not previously published elsewhere. [5] They have been distinguished from secondary sources, which often cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources. [6] They serve as an original source of information or new ideas about the topic. Primary and secondary, however, are relative terms, and any given source may be classified as primary or secondary, depending on how it is used. [7] Physical objects can be primary sources.

Secondary and tertiary

Secondary sources are written accounts of history based upon the evidence from primary sources. These are sources which, usually, are accounts, works, or research that analyze, assimilate, evaluate, interpret, and/or synthesize primary sources. These are not as authoritative and are supplemental documents concerning the subject under consideration. These documents or people summarize other material, usually primary source material. They are academics, journalists, and other researchers, and the papers and books they produce. This includes published accounts, published works, or published research. For example, a history book drawing upon diary and newspaper records.

Tertiary sources are compilations based upon primary and secondary sources. [1] [8] [3] These are sources which, on average, do not fall into the above two levels. They consist of generalized research of a specific subject under consideration. Tertiary sources are analyzed, assimilated, evaluated, interpreted, and/or synthesized from secondary sources, also. These are not authoritative and are just supplemental documents concerning the subject under consideration. These are often meant to present known information in a convenient form with no claim to originality. Common examples are encyclopedias and textbooks.

The distinction between primary source and secondary source is standard in historiography, while the distinction between these sources and tertiary sources is more peripheral, and is more relevant to the scholarly research work than to the published content itself.

Below are types of sources that most generally, but not absolutely, fall into a certain level. The letters after an item describes generally the type it is (though this can vary pending the exact source). P is for Primary sources, S is for Secondary sources, and T is for Tertiary sources. (ed., those with ?s are indeterminate.)

Authoritative sources

A source that is official is called authoritative if it is known to be reliable and its authority or authenticity is widely recognized by experts in the field. Libraries specialize in collecting these types of resources so that students and faculty have the tools they need to research effectively. [9]

In translation

In translation, a source text (ST) is a text written in a given source language which is to be or has been, translated into another language. According to Jeremy Munday's definition of translation, "the process of translation between two different written languages involves the changing of an original written text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source language or SL) into a written text (the target text or TT) in a different verbal language (the target language or TL)". [10] The terms 'source text' and 'target text' are preferred over 'original' and 'translation' because they do not have the same positive vs. negative value judgment.

Translation scholars including Eugene Nida and Peter Newmark have represented the different approaches to translation as falling broadly into source-text-oriented or target-text-oriented categories. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historian</span> Scholar who deals with the exploration and presentation of history

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. Some historians are recognized by publications or training and experience. "Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primary source</span> Original source of information created at the time under study

In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under study. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Similar definitions can be used in library science and other areas of scholarship, although different fields have somewhat different definitions.

The Perseus Digital Library, formerly known as the Perseus Project, is a free-access digital library founded by Gregory Crane in 1987 and hosted by the Department of Classical Studies of Tufts University. One of the pioneers of digital libraries, its self-proclaimed mission is to make the full record of humanity available to everyone. While originally focused on the ancient Greco-Roman world, it has since diversified and offers materials in Arabic, Germanic, English Renaissance literature, 19th century American documents and Italian poetry in Latin, and has sprouted several child projects and international cooperation. The current version, Perseus 4.0, is also known as the Perseus Hopper, and is mirrored by the University of Chicago.

Source may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Research library</span> Library that supports scholarly research

A research library is a library that contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects. A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of topics and contain primary sources as well as secondary sources. Research libraries are established to meet research needs and, as such, are stocked with authentic materials with quality content. Research libraries are typically attached to academic or research institutions that specialize in that topic and serve members of that institution. Large university libraries are considered research libraries, and often contain many specialized branch research libraries. The libraries provide research materials for students and staff of these organizations to use and can also publish and carry literature produced by these institutions and make them available to others. Research libraries could also be accessible to members of the public who wish to gain in-depth knowledge on that particular topic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikisource</span> Free online library on a wiki

Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project ; multiple Wikisources make up the overall project of Wikisource. The project's aim is to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has expanded to become a general-content library. The project officially began on November 24, 2003 under the name Project Sourceberg, a play on the famous Project Gutenberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name.

A tertiary source is an index or textual consolidation of already published primary and secondary sources that does not provide additional interpretations or analysis of the sources. Some tertiary sources can be used as an aid to find key (seminal) sources, key terms, general common knowledge and established mainstream science on a topic. The exact definition of tertiary varies by academic field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buranji</span> Class of historical chronicles

Buranjis are a class of historical chronicles and manuscripts associated with the Ahom kingdom written initially in Ahom Language and later in Assamese language as well. The Buranjis are an example of historical literature which is rare in India. They bear resemblance to Southeast Asian traditions of historical literature. The Buranjis are generally found in manuscript form, though a number of these manuscripts have been compiled and published, especially in the Assamese language.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical method</span> Techniques used by historians

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Source criticism is the process of evaluating an information source, i.e.: a document, a person, a speech, a fingerprint, a photo, an observation, or anything used in order to obtain knowledge. In relation to a given purpose, a given information source may be more or less valid, reliable or relevant. Broadly, "source criticism" is the interdisciplinary study of how information sources are evaluated for given tasks.

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Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world history, recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC, and it coincides with the invention of writing.

Library anxiety refers to the "feeling that one’s research skills are inadequate and that those shortcomings should be hidden". In some students this manifests as an outright fear of libraries and the librarians who work there." The term stems from a 1986 article by Constance Mellon, a professor of library science in the U.S. state of North Carolina, titled "Library anxiety: A grounded theory and its development" in the College & Research Libraries journal.

The Lithuanian Chronicles are three redactions of chronicles compiled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. All redactions were written in the Ruthenian language and served the needs of Lithuanian patriotism. The first edition, compiled in the 1420s, glorified Vytautas the Great and supported his side in power struggles. The second redaction, prepared in the first half of the 16th century, started the myth of Lithuanian Roman origin: it gave a fanciful genealogy of Palemon, a noble from the Roman Empire who founded the Grand Duchy. This noble origin of Lithuanians was important in cultural rivalry with the Kingdom of Poland. The third redaction, known as the Bychowiec Chronicle, elaborated even further on the legend, but also provided some useful information about the second half of the 15th century. The three redactions, the first known historical accounts produced within the Grand Duchy, gave rise to the historiography of Lithuania. All medieval historians used these accounts, that survived in over 30 known manuscripts, as basis for their publications and some of the myths created in the chronicles persisted even to the beginning of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Translation</span> Transfer of the meaning of something in one language into another

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction between translating and interpreting ; under this distinction, translation can begin only after the appearance of writing within a language community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secondary source</span> Document that discusses information originally presented elsewhere

In scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. A secondary source contrasts with a primary source, which is an original source of the information being discussed; a primary source can be a person with direct knowledge of a situation or a document created by such a person.

A calendar is, in the context of archival science, textual scholarship, and archival publication, a descriptive list of documents. The verb to calendar means to compile or edit such a list. The word is used differently in Britain and North America with regard to the amount of detail expected: in Britain, it implies a detailed summary which may be used as a substitute for the full text; whereas in North America it implies a more basic inventory.

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Historical source is an original source that contains important historical information. These sources are something that inform us about history at the most basic level, and are used as clues in order to study history.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources guide". University of Maryland Libraries. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  2. JCU – Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources Archived 2005-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 "Library Guides: Primary, secondary and tertiary sources" Archived 2005-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Dalton, Margaret Steig; Charnigo, Laurie (2004), "Historians and Their Information Sources" (PDF), College & Research Libraries , September (5): 400–25, at 416 n.3, doi: 10.5860/crl.65.5.400 , citing U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2003), Occupational Outlook Handbook; Lorenz, C. (2001), "History: Theories and Methods", in Smelser, Neil J.; Baltes, Paul B. (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavior Sciences, vol. 10, Amsterdam: Elsevier, p. 6871.
  5. Duff, Alistair (1996), "The literature search: a library-based model for information skills instruction", Library Review, 45 (4): 14–18, doi:10.1108/00242539610115263 ("A primary source is defined here as a source containing new information authored by the original researcher(s) and not previously published elsewhere.").
  6. Handlin (1954) 118–246
  7. Kragh, Helge (1989), An Introduction to the Historiography of Science, Cambridge University Press, p. 121, ISBN   0-521-38921-6, archived from the original on 21 January 2018 ("[T]he distinction is not a sharp one. Since a source is only a source in a specific historical context, the same source object can be both a primary or secondary source according to what it is used for."); Delgadillo, Roberto; Lynch, Beverly (1999), "Future Historians: Their Quest for Information" (PDF), College & Research Libraries, 60 (3): 245–259, at 253, doi: 10.5860/crl.60.3.245 , archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016 ("[T]he same document can be a primary or a secondary source depending on the particular analysis the historian is doing"); Monagahn, E.J.; Hartman, D.K. (2001), "Historical research in literacy", Reading Online, 4 (11), archived from the original on 14 December 2007 ("[A] source may be primary or secondary, depending on what the researcher is looking for.").
  8. See, e.g. Glossary, Using Information Resources Archived 2008-08-28 at the Wayback Machine . ("Tertiary Source" is defined as "reference material that synthesizes work already reported in primary or secondary sources".)
  9. Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science, ABC-CLIO
  10. Munday, Jeremy (2016). Introducing Translation Studies: theories and applications (4th ed.). London/New York: Routledge. pp.  8. ISBN   978-1138912557.
  11. Munday, Jeremy (2016). Introducing Translation Studies: theories and applications (4th ed.). London/New York: Routledge. pp.  67–74. ISBN   978-1138912557.