April 2007
(The
short notes and comments associated with the items presented here are personal
attempts to contribute useful information. In some cases, I have reproduced
partly an abstract or presentation provided by the author or publisher. In others,
the comments were made by me after reading the items. I acknowledge the
subjective nature of my comments, take responsibility for errors and will
gladly insert corrections at the request of authors. D. Gile)
MONOGRAPHS
Walsh Hokenson, Jan
& Marcella Munson.
2007. The Bilingual Text. History and
Theory of Literary Self-Translation.
*The Bilingual Text makes a first step toward providing the fields of translation studies
and comparative literature with a comprehensive account of literary
self-translation in the West. It tracks the shifting paradigms of bilinguality across the centuries and addresses the urgent
questions that the bilingual text raises for translation theorists today: Is
each part of the bilingual text a separate, original creation or is each
incomplete without the other? Is self-translation a unique genre? Can either
version be split off into a single language or literary tradition? How can two
linguistic versions of a text be fitted into standard models of foreign and
domestic texts and cultures? Because such texts defeat standard categories of
analysis, The Bilingual Text reverses the usual critical gaze,
highlighting not dissimilarities but continuities across versions, allowing for
dissimilarities within orders of correspondence, and englobing
the literary as well as linguistic and cultural dimensions of the text.
Emphasizing the arcs of historical change in concepts of language and
translation that inform each case study, The Bilingual Text examines the
perdurance of this phenomenon in Western societies
and literatures. (from the St Jerome site)
COLLECTIVE VOLUMES
The
following review was contributed by Gyde Hansen:
Englund Dimitrova and Landqvist, Hans (ed). 2006. Svenska som källspåk och målspråk.
Aspekter på översättningsvetenskap. Artikler från en forskarkurs vid Göteborgs universitet
höstterminen 2005 (Swedish
as a Source Language and
Target Language. Aspects of TS. Papers from an Autumn seminar at
*This volume of Översættningsstudier vid Göteborgs Universitet 9 is a
collection of eleven articles from a seminar which took place at the
Axelsson, Karin. Tag questions in English translations from Swedish
and Norwegian – are there differences? 4-21.
*Translations from
Swedish and Norwegian into English are compared with English original texts
with respect to the frequency of tag questions. The investigation is based on
fiction texts from the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus (ESPC) and the English
Norwegian Parallel Corpus (ENPC).
Bolander, Andreas. Kontextens betydelse inom översättningsvetenskapen (The meaning of context in TS).
22-32.
* With examples from several translation theories, the author stresses the necessity of
communicative and cultural strategies.
Eastmond, Maria. Översättning för retorisk kritik
(Translation theories and criticism of persuasive target texts). 33-43.
* The author investigates the applicability of the theories of Reiss and Nord, and the Skopos theory of
Reiss/Vermeer when analyzing “rhetorical texts”, i.e. speeches translated from
Russian into Swedish.
Elgemark, Anna. N-Rhemes in translations. A description of the
strategies behind N-Rhematic change. 44-61.
*Rhematic
structures are changed in translations from English into Swedish. This is shown
and explained in an analysis and categorization of translations of N-Rhemes (i.e. New-Rhemes). The investigation is based on
non-fiction texts from the ESPC.
Elvsten,
Maria. Hur översätter man tilltal? Beskrivning av ett projekt (How to
translate forms of address? Description of a research project). 62-74.
*The author deals
with the complex problem of forms of address, with respect to translations from
Swedish into Spanish, and she stresses the importance of cultural and pragmatic
competence.
Frederiksson, Anna-Lena. On passives and translation strategies in parallel texts. 75-91.
*In a corpus based investigation - using texts
from the ESPC - the author compares different translation strategies when
translating the formal category of passive voice from English into Swedish and
vice versa.
Gustawsson, Elisabeth.
Translation of English verbal idioms into Swedish. 92-108.
*Based on her investigation of the
applicability of three models for the translation of English idioms into
Swedish, the author presents an alternative tentative model and stresses the
important role of parallel corpora like ESPC in TS and in translator training.
Lindfors Viklund, Maja. Tale you what: dialekt, inlärarspråk och talspråk i Tom Wolfes roman A Man in
Full i svensk översättning. (Tale
you what: dialect, broken English and colloquial language in Tom Wolfe’s
novel A Man in Full’s translation into Swedish)
109-123.
*To what extent is it possible to translate
regional dialect and special social or individual codes into Swedish? Is it
possible to create similar connotations in the target text receiver as in the
reader of the original? The author shows that a translator can succeed in the
difficult task of compensating and creating something similar for the Swedish
reader.
Mattsson, Jenny. The
subtitling of American swearwords. A look at possible norms governing film
translation in Sweden. 124-140.
*Cultural norms play a crucial role in
audiovisual translations. In this investigation it is television subtitling,
which is a production of target texts with special time and space constraints.
The author compares two different translations of an American TV-film with
respect to the number and kind (category) of swearwords, and she compares her
results with original American and Swedish texts.
Sylvén, Liss Kerstin. Lokalisering av Emil. En studie
av hur svenska företeelser ser ut i engelsk språkdräkt. (Localization of Emil. A study of special Swedish
phenomena in translations into English). 141-159.
*The author investigates and reports upon the
translation of cultural aspects in two books about “Emil i
Lönneberga” of Astrid Lindgren into English. Based on
a categorization of strategies used for translation of cultural specific
referential expressions, Sylvén concludes that due to
lack of consequent localization strategies, the translations must be regarded
as confusing for the target text receiver.
Westerholm, David. Kan man använda översatta texter I allmänna
språkstudier? (Can
translated texts be used in linguistic studies?). 160-175.
*Can TS make do without contrastive linguistics
and vice versa? Can translations be used in corpora for contrastive linguistic
studies? These questions are asked in connection with the establishment of a
corpus for the study of the use of verbal forms (aspect) in Spanish, Russian
and Swedish contexts.
ARTICLES
In Translation Watch Quarterly 3:1 (2007)
This issue looks at three interrelated themes in
Translation Studies: acculturation, pedagogy and assessment.
Darwish, Ali,
* Shocking as it may sound, there are those in the translation industry
and in certain quarters of academia who still, towards the end of the first
decade of the twenty-first century, believe that culture in translation is not
important or at the very least cultural literacy is acquired primarily through
language learning and language contact. This view seems to stem from the
lingering notion of communication as transmission that has dominated western
scholarship for most of the last century. The inseparability of communication and
culture however stands uncontested in practical terms, and every communication
act is a cultural practice that adds to the formation of cultural maps of
individuals and communities...
Shi Aiwei, Xinzhou Teachers’ University, China. Acculturation and Translation:
Chinese Translation History as a Case Study
* Translation today is hardly regarded as a mere linguistic act. It is
instead thought of as a cultural act. It is no longer seen as a one-way act,
but a two-way process through which two relevant cultures interact or react
(acculturate) with each other. This paper studies the historical development of
the Chinese translation tradition, offering an explanation of the acculturation
process in different periods. There are four translation waves in Chinese history,
each having evidently different thoughts and attitudes toward acculturation.
The four waves are translation of Buddhist scriptures, translation of the Bible
and the Christian doctrines, translation of the western philosophical thoughts
and science, and translation since the year 1949 to the present time.
Al-Khufaishi, Adil. Copenhagen University. A
Semantically Based and Pragmatically Oriented Pedagogical Model of Translation
* The objective of this paper is to develop a semantically based and pragmatically
oriented model of translation. The model serves as a guideline for trainee
translators to help them identify the semantic, textual, cultural, pragmatic,
thematic and stylistic aspects which should be considered in the translation
processes of text analysis and conversion. It also highlights the translation
strategies that trainee translators need to acquire. The model views the text
as a subcomponent of the communicative context, which in turn is a subcomponent
of the context of culture—the meaning of the textual elements is determined
partly in relation to their co-text, pre-text and post-text and partly in
relation to the parameters of the communicative event and the context of
culture. The model helps the trainee translators to make their own choices and
reflect upon the effects such choices. Decisions should not be made solely on
the basis of the Source Language text; rather equal attention should be
accorded to both Source Text and Target Text.
Kadhim, Ali,
* This paper attempts to launch a scaling system for the translations of
poetry based on readers’ responses. It brings together three problematic and
uneasy areas, namely the translation of poetry, translation quality assessment
and reader response. The aim is to establish an objective scaling model of the
quality of poetic translation(s) that is based on readers' responses. The most
recurrent key words in the responses of (25) proficient speakers of English
(with multicultural backgrounds) to three different translations of the
renowned Iraqi poet Badr Shakir
As-Sayyab's "Song of Rain" are be elicited,
catalogued and used to form an evaluative scale.
* This paper tests the authenticity of British sailor
Faye Turney's letters through evidence of
idiosyncratic usages which appear non-native and, from those, infer the
existence of a covert author, distinct from the overt writer. Probing the full
texts of the three letters for signs of idiosyncratic usage reveals that there
are in the region of 30 questionable occurrences, realized by an aggregate of
113 words in a total of 450.
This paper is a short forensic linguistic case study
which tests the hypothesis that, while there is no doubt that Faye Turney wrote the letters, she is not the originator of
them: writer and author are not the same person. The motivation for the study
was to find linguistic evidence which would give substance to the air of
“foreignness” journalists and commentators sensed in the texts and, by
completing the investigation before information about the treatment of the
captives became publicly available (after 7th April), raise awareness of the
significant role forensic linguistics can and should play in situations where
the authenticity of texts is at issue.
Leong Ko, University of Queensland , Quality
Control versus Quantity Control in Training NAATI Translators and Interpreters
* In 2001, the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural
Affairs introduced a new policy that allowed translation and/or interpreting
practitioners with NAATI qualifications as Translators and/or Interpreters to
migrate to Australia. Since then, all NAATI-approved programs at this level
have been inundated with inquiries and applications. New programs at both
public and private training institutes have been approved by NAATI, with many
more still likely to be developed in future.
This paper looks
at various issues in this area, including problems that have been identified
with training, issues surrounding quality control, impact on the translation
and interpreting market, the role of NAATI in overseeing the quality of
training, and the future prospects for translation and interpreting training in
Al Shatter, Ghassan Hassan, Australian National University, Khalifa
Ali Al Suwaidi and Anil Sharma, United Arab Emirates
University. Implementation and Evaluation of a New Learning
Approach in Arabic: Implications for Translator Training
* This paper discusses planning and implementing a new learning approach
for teaching Arabic as part of the University General Requirements Unit at the
United Arab Emirates University. The new learning approach challenges the
traditional teaching methodology used in the
* *
* *
Angelelli, Claudia V. 2007.
Assessing Medical Interpreters: The Language and Interpreting Testing Project. The Translator 13:1. 63-82.
* The end
of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st witnessed important changes
that have affected healthcare delivery to patients with limited proficiency in
English in the
Hansen, Gyde. 2004. Beschreibung von
Übersetzungsprozessen. In Fleischmann, E., Schmitt, P.A., Wotjak,
G. (Hrsg.). Translationskompetenz.
91-101.
* In diesem Artikel werden einige grundsätzliche Fragen
und Probleme von empirischen Untersuchungen und Beschreibungen mentaler
Prozesse diskutiert, die sowohl für die Übersetzungsprozessforschung als auch
für den Übersetzungsunterricht von Bedeutung sind. Es handelt sich hierbei um
die Frage der Natürlichkeit der beobachteten Prozesse, den Nutzen der
verschiedenen Methoden der Introspektion, und die
Bearbeitung groβer Mengen qualitativer Daten. Es werden Probleme
diskutiert, die dadurch entstehen, dass ca. jeder dritte Übersetzungsprozess
markant von individuellen Merkmalen geprägt zu sein scheint….
Kinloch, David. 2007. Lilies or Skelfs:
Translating Queer Melodrama. The
Translator 13:1. 83-103.
* Michel
Marc Bouchard’s important Québécois play, Les Feluettes, is often read as ‘gay
theatre’ and consigned to the genre of tragedy. This paper presents a
comparative reading of two translations of this play – one into Canadian
English and one into Scots – and shows how the Scots version in particular
suggests that Bouchard’s play is rather an essay in ‘queer’ melodrama
expressive of an anti-essentialist aesthetic. The paper thus highlights the
benefits of the ‘minority’ translation activity of the late Bill Findlay and
Martin Bowman, whose work in Scots has deepened the interpretative and performative afterlife of many recent Canadian theatrical
texts,
most notably those of Québécois dramatist Michel Tremblay.
Lai, John T.P. 2007.
Institutional Patronage: The
Religious Tract Society and the Translation of Christian Tracts in Nineteenth-Century
* This paper attempts to scrutinize a lesser-known, yet hugely
influential, Protestant institution – the Religious Tract Society, London (RTS,
founded in 1799) – which played a predominant role in sponsoring the global
enterprise of translating Christian tracts in the19th and early 20th centuries.
The RTS
introduced, if not imposed, its principles and identity on the publication of
Chinese tracts by offering grants to the
Pérez-González, Luis. 2007. Appraising Dubbed
Conversation: Systemic Functional Insights into the Construal of Naturalness in
Translated Film Dialogue. The Translator
13:1.1-38.
* The ‘authenticity’ of fictional dialogue is widely
held to play a pivotal role in shaping the audience’s perception of the quality
of a film. Yet the factors that account for the authenticity of both original
and dubbed film conversation remain largely under-researched. This paper begins
by outlining key contributions from the fields of stylistics, film studies and
corpus-based translation studies that have enhanced our understanding of the
specific nature and dynamics of fictional dialogue and its translation. A
common assumption that underpins these approaches is that the success of the
narrative and characterization-enhancing resources deployed in a film is
contingent on the build-up of interpersonal alignments through a combination of
prefabricated orality and spontaneous-sounding
conversation. And yet both film theory and dubbing studies have so far focused
on phenomena that take place within a single turn-at-talk and hence neglected
the study of the sequential dimension of film dialogue. Drawing on the analysis
of four scenes of the English and Spanish versions of Twelve Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957), this article attempts to demonstrate the
advantages of Martin’s (2000a) systemic functional modelling of the exchange,
especially his notion of ‘telos’. Ultimately, this
paper assesses the advantages of a heightened awareness of the sequential
configuration of dialogue among dubbing practitioners.