Recent Publications – August
2007
A small sample from China
The
Chinese Translators Journal
(hereafter CTJ) is the journal of the
Translators Association of China, the sole national Translation body in
DG
The Chinese Translators
Journal 28:181 (2007 n°1) – Abstracts
of major papers:
Translation
and the Cultural Anxiety over Otherness
by Sun Yifeng
(
Abstract: The
translator's anxiety and ambivalence over the otherness reified in cultural
politics is a central issue in translation studies.
The ideology's ubiquity in this field of practice may have been overstated, yet
it does manifest itself through translation's inseparability from the
politico-cultural concerns in the target language system, and as a
tendency bound up with language and art. The cultural politics of difference
has a lot to do with what counts as truth-telling, sincerity, intelligibility
and empathy. Effective translation depends not only on a
reasonable understanding of the content of the source message, but also on the
target audience's ability to relate that message to its own
cultural situation by getting to know the source text-embodied otherness in its
cultural political context. It takes rejection and reduction of
the source message to turn the other into the self in translation, yet
translation itself implies cultural impositions, which are necessarily
intrusive. This explains why debates on literature and translation, often
ideologically charged, tend to center around what otherness is capable of doing
to, or undoing, the self. In defiance of the prevailing
political conditions, translation may embrace and introduce foreign political
and ethical values.
Bell's
Process Model and the Cognitive Study of Translation
by
Liu Shaolong (
Abstract: Most researchers of translation in China
have been so preoccupied with describing and interpreting Bell's process theory
of translation that hardly any effort has been made to subject
it to a systematic examination and a critical assessment Taking this problem
into account, the author of this paper undertakes to rethink
Bell's process model and comes up with three conclusions: 1) translating is by
nature a complex cognitive process; 2) since target texts result
from such a process, its understanding holds the key to improving translation;
and 3) Bell's psychological model of translation is
necessarily fallible, and a critical reexamination of the model would help to
deepen our understanding of the psychology of translation.
Looking for Help in the Translation Process. The Role of
Auxiliary Texts in Translator Training and Translation Practice
by Christiane
Nord (
Abstract: The
article analyses translation from a pedagogical point of view, focussing on the necessity of "jumping over the
culture hurdle" and using existing texts from the
target culture as a tool in the translation process. Traditional dictionaries
and grammars often do not provide sufficient or appropriate
information to allow satisfactory solutions of quite a number of translation
problems, especially where stylistic, textual and genre
conventions or technolect and terminology are
concerned. Therefore, drawing on the useful concept of intertextuality,
the author suggests a variety of auxiliary texts which may be
useful in source-text analysis and target-text production for both trainee and
professional translators.
Translating Proust into Chinese: Retrospection
and Reflection
byXu Jun (
Abstract:
As one of the greatest writers in the twentieth century, Proust
has contributed significantly to the world literature. Of his many immortal
masterworks, the best-known is A la recherche du temps perdu. Following a
brief review of the process whereby the novel has been introduced to China's
reading public, this article explores those deep-rooted causes that have
influenced the way it was translated and
received in China, and goes on to reflect on "causal factors" as a
general issue in translation.
Narrative and Stylistic Changes
in Wu Mi's Fiction Translation
by
Fang Kairui (
Abstract: As a key figure
of the Xueheng School during the May Fourth ear (1910
sto 1930s), Wu Mi has been regarded as a conservative
both in scholarship and in fiction translation. A closer examination of his
works, however, tells a different story. Sensitive to changing cultural
conditions, Wu Mi began to make gradual adjustments to his views so
as to bring them more in line with the goals set by the May fourth literati.
The changes taking place in Wu Mi’s translation
reflected in particular the changing narrative modes and stylistic norms of the
New Culture Movement
The Current State of Translation
Studies in China: A Rational Assessment,
by
Chen Lang (
Abstract: Disagreeing with Professor Zhang Jinghao's
view on the current state of translation studies in China, this paper stresses the
positive roles which imported foreign theories have been playing in the development
of China's own theories of translation. A dualist mode of thinking that posits
dichotomies such as Chinese/foreign conception or linguistic/cultural dimension
of translation, the paper further argues, would do more harm
than good to the disciplinary construction of China's translation. In addition
to this polemic, the author also offers suggestions for dealing with problems
in applied translation, translation pedagogy and translation criticism in China.
The History of Science Translation in China: A
Unique Publication in Translation Studies,
by Li Yashu (
Abstract: Identifying ten
striking thematic and methodological features of the recently published The
History of Science Translation in China, this review commends it as a highly relevant and valuable new
contribution to China's scholarship in translation.
Identification
as a Principle in Translating Materials for International Publicity,
by Chen Xiaowei
(
Abstract: A key concept
in Western rhetoric, K. Burke's notion of "identification" stipulates
that the success of persuasion depends on causing the audience to
identify itself with the speaker, both in what
he says and how he says it . The C-E
translation of materials for international publicity,
which is a cross-language and cross-cultural act of communication with western
receptors as the target audience, also has to uphold the
principle of identification in order to achieve its intended purpose. Applying
Burke's insights to this special genre of
translation, the paper discusses the necessity, the prerequisites
and
the methods
for invoking a sense of sameness
in the targeted international audience.
Differences between Chinese and
Western Bills of Exchange and Their Implications
by Li Yueju (University of International
Business and Economics) p. 66-70 (in Chinese)
Abstract: Different
countries have different laws regulating the contents on a bill of exchange. As
a general rule, the original contents on the bill should be represented
faithfully in its rendition into another language, which means that the
translation and the handling of a foreign bill should be in line with the law
of the issuing country. In turning a foreign bill of exchange into Chinese, we
should therefore alter the standard Chinese form accordingly, in order to
enhance the negotiability of the bill and to increase the development of
China’s international trade.
The Chinese
Translators Journal 28:182 (2007 n°2). Abstract of Major papers:
The Development of
Western Theories of Interpretation and Their Reception in
by Yang Liu (
Abstract: Tracing the development of
interpretation theories in the West and their reception in
Quality Standards in Interpreting: Theory and
Application
by Franz Pöchhacker (
Abstract: This paper explores the issue of
quality in interpreting from two main perspectives - the profession and
academic research. Following a
review and illustration of conference interpreters' original aspiration to equate
quality with professional status, I will examine the contribution of academic research to the
issue of quality, with particular emphasis on survey research into interpreters'
quality criteria and end-users' expectations. It will be shown that quality can
and must be approached from multiple perspectives and with reference to a complex set of criteria
relating to both the service aspects and the product features of an
interpreter's performance. Against the
background of this comprehensive view of quality, I will take the notion of
quality standards in its specific technical sense and
discuss recent efforts at drafting national standards for interpreting
services, including the ASTM Standard Guide, the draft Chinese
standard, and Austrian Standards 1202 and 1203. I
will argue that standard-setting for professional interpreting services must be informed by
insights from theoretical and empirical research if standards of practice are
to reflect the full complexity and variety of
professional reality,
On the
Translational Context
by Li Yunxing
(
Abstract: This
article sets out with a definition of the concept of translational context and
a critical review of two representative models
of context in translation studies. Drawing upon Verschueren's
notion of "contextual correlates of adaptability", it then formulates a cognitive model of translational
context by incorporating the translator's and the translation scholar's
"contextual field of vision." The
author elaborates on this model, showing how it could contribute
methodologically and epistemologically to the development of modern translation studies.
Key words: translational context;
contextual field of vision; meta-function; relation between contextual
parameters; the mental world, the outside world and the
textual world.
Informativity: A
New Interface for Integrating Linguistically and
Culturally-oriented Translation Theories
by Zhan Bei & Yang Guojing (
Abstract: The emergence of the culturally-oriented model of
translation has put an end to the linguistically-oriented model's monopoly on translation studies. Whereas the two paradigms' coexistence
tends to broaden theoretical horizons for scholars working in this field, their incompatibility has
caused a split among these scholars and undermined the cohesion of their
discipline. How to reintegrate the two and to render them
complimentary to each other has thus posed a major challenge to translation scholars. This paper argues that the concept of informativity, taken from text linguistics, has the
potential of serving as an interface for
the two otherwise incongruous approaches,
A Comprehensive Perspective on the Studies of
Translators: The Case of Liang Shiqiu
as an Exemplar
by Zhao Junfeng
(
Abstract: This paper endeavors to establish a theoretical model
for the study of translators . Such a model would make
available a comprehensive perspective
from which an ontological return to textual analysis within a web of intersubjectivity could be realized. The author holds that the translator's professional biography is
necessarily a core component of historical studies of translation. As such,
it ought to be text-centered, paying attention primarily to internal factors of
translating activities. A case study is then conducted on Liang Shiqiu, a celebrated
20th-century literary translator in
Rendering Clear the Step of Understanding in
Translation
By Chen Zhendong (
Abstract: Critiquing the tendency
to over-generalize on the step of understanding in translation, this paper
calls for a new approach to teaching translation - one that would look closely
into, and render clear, the process leading to the understanding of the source text.
Specifically, the approach would take as its point of departure the ST's historical context and underlying assumptions, and would
clarify the process of understanding by comparing and analyzing components of
the text. The theory is illustrated with contrastive studies of a number of
cases.
Of "Invincible Spears and Impenetrable
Shields": The Possibility of Impossible Translations
by Eugene Eoyang
(
Abstract: Beginning with a
consideration of the logical and illogical notions of impossibility, the paper
examines two kinds of contradiction: the categorical and the dialectic,
especially as it relates to the Chinese word maodun.
Theoretical absolutes are pitted against realistic relativities; abstract
strictures are examined in conjunction with concrete improbabilities. A brief
survey of the phenomena of "impossible" translations follows -
translations which are theoretically precluded but realizable in reality. The phenomena
of translations of James Joyce's Ulysses - surely one of the texts that would
be considered "impossible" to translate -belies
the theoretical assumption that precludes its rendering into other languages.
This yields a dictum which constitutes a maodun, not
a contradiction, on translation: the more impossible the text the more it
demands translation, the more imperative that it be translated. Sometimes the
translation of a text is the only surviving version of a text - its only nachleben, in Walter Benjamin's formulation. For example,
the Septuagint conveyed the text of the Bible for nearly two millennia before
the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. Other, more recent examples are
cited (and solicited).
Principles and Strategies for Translating
Publicity-oriented TV News Lead
by Wang Yinquan
& Qian Yeping (
Abstract: The phenomenal growth of
publicity-oriented TV English news programs in
How to Transmit Vocative Function in C-E Translation
of Chinese Public Signs
by Niu Xinsheng (
Abstract: The public sign is a
vocative text designed to call upon the readership to act, think or feel in the
way intended by its sponsor. Many common errors in translating Chinese public
signs into English have their roots in the failure to transmit the vocative function
which the source texts are expected to perform. As a general guideline for C-E
translation of public signs, the method of communicative translation, a
holistic treatment of the entire text as a unit of translation, and a reader-
and effect-oriented approach should be adopted, so as to achieve interaction
between the text and its target readers. Borrowing, imitation and recreation
ought to be the three major strategies for translating Chinese public signs.
Standardization in the Translation of Forestry
Terminology
by Zhang Chenxiang
& Zhang Zhiying (
Abstract: Standardizing Chinese
translations of forestry terms is crucial both to the development of forestry
science in