RECENT
PUBLICATIONS
NOVEMBER
2006
MONOGRAPHS
Wendland, Ernst.
2006. Life-Style Translating, a Workbook
for Bible Translators. SIL Publications.
* This
workbook is intended to introduce translators, exegetes, Bible students, and
communicators of the Scriptures to some of the main forms and functions of
biblical literature, prose as well as poetry. The aim is to enable readers to
better understand the original text and then convey selected texts in a
correspondingly “literary” – artistic, poetic, rhetorical – manner in their
mother tongue or another target language. These lessons have been prepared as a
practical supplement to accompany the text Translating the Literature of Scripture (Wendland
2004), which expounds a literary-rhetorical approach to Bible translation, here
termed Literary-functional equivalence (LiFE, for
short). LiFE combines a concern not only for the
artistic and literary dimension of the Scriptures, but also for relative
functional parity as part of a flexible translation strategy.
Table of Contents
Preface
Lesson 1: Communicating within Diverse
Sociolinguistic Frames
1.1 What is communication?
1.2 What is sociolinguistics?
1.3 What is semiotics?
1.4 Communication participants and their
characteristics
1.5 Sociolinguistic variables that influence
communication
1.6 Different situational frames of communication
1.6.1 Sociocultural
frames
1.6.2 Conversational frames
1.6.2.1 Speech (text) acts
1.6.2.2 Latent discourse
1.6.3 Literary frames
1.6.4 Organizational frames
Lesson 2: Does Scripture Include Literature?
2.1 What is literature?
2.2 What is orature and
how does it differ from literature?
2.3 Kinds of literary forms in the Bible
2.4 What are some of the
primary functions of biblical literature?
Lesson 3: Translating for LiFE:
A Literary Functional-Equivalence Version
3.2 Defining translation more precisely
3.3 Defining a literary functional-equivalence
translation
3.4 LiFE translation in
relation to other approaches
3.4.1 The translational continuum
3.4.2 The Song of Songs: a case study
3.5 Preparing for a poetic LiFE
translation
3.6.1 Step 1: Study the cotext
3.6.2 Step 2: Specify the literary genre
3.6.3 Step 3: Find the points of major
disjunction
3.6.4 Step 4: Plot the patterns of formal
and conceptual repetition
3.6.5 Step 5: Discover and evaluate the
artistic and rhetorical features
3.6.6 Step 6: Do a complete discourse
analysis
3.6.7 Step 7: Investigate the referential
framework
3.6.8 Step 8: Connect the cross-textual
correspondences
3.6.9 Step 9: Determine the functional and
emotive dynamics
3.6.10 Step 10: Coordinate form-functional
matches
3.8 From analysis to synthesis in translation
Lesson 4: Text Types and Genres: Prose and Poetry
in the Bible
4.1 The importance of the concept of genre to Bible
translators
4.2 Four primary text types
4.3 Some additional features of discourse types
4.4 What is the difference between prose and
poetry?
4.5 Investigating the prose and poetry an do the
target language
Lesson 5: Analyzing the Translating Biblical Poetry
5.1 The major stylistic forms of biblical poetry
5.1.1 Parallel phrasing
5.1.2 Sound effects
5.1.3 Figurative language
5.1.4 Condensed expression
5.1.5 Emphatic devices
5.1.6 Shifting patterns
5.1.7 Poetic structures
5.2 The major functions of biblical poetry
5.3 Genres of poetry found in the Scriptures
5.3.1 Poetry of the psalmists
5.3.2 Poetry of the prophets
5.3.3 Poetry of the sages
5.3.4 Poetry in the New Testament
5.4 Practicing a methodology for literary-poetic
text analysis
Lesson 6: Analyzing and Translating Biblical Prose
6.1 Reviewing the four major discourse types
6.2 Identifying and analyzing Old Testament prose
genres
6.2.1 Prophetic prose
6.2.2 Legislative prose
6.2.3 Sapiential
prose
6.2.4 Narrative prose
6.3 Identifying and analyzing New Testament prose
genres
6.3.1 Narrative prose
6.3.2 The prose of direct speech (locutionary prose)
6.3.3 Epistolary prose
6.3.4 Poetic prose
Lesson 7: Contextualizing and Testing a LiFE Translation
7.1 Contextualizing a LiFE
translation
7.1.1 The importance of implicit information
7.1.2 Sociological knowledge, mental spaces,
and conceptual blending
7.1.3 Ten types of study notes
7.1.4 Suggested procedures for composing
setting-sensitive notes
7.1.5 Contextualized notes for Luke 1-
7.1.6 Examples of negative and positive
contextualization
7.1.6.1 Notes of negative value
7.1.6.2 Notes of positive value
7.1.7 Other types of contextual
supplementation
Opposing parties plot to trap Jesus through
a trick question
7.2 Testing a LiFE
translation
7.2.1 Questions, questions, and still more
questions
7.2.2 Aspects of acceptability
7.2.3 Testing methods
7.2.4 Testing nonprint
and nonconventional Scripture products
Lesson 8: A Summary and Review of LiFE Principles
References
SIL International Publications in Translation
and Textlinguistics 2
PAPERS IN JOURNALS
Cooper,
Brenda. 2006. Look Who’s Talking? Multiple
Worlds, Migration and Translation in Leila Aboulela’s
The Translator. The Translator 12:2 (Special Issue on Translation, Travel,
Migration). 323-344
* This paper discusses Leila Aboulela’s search for the kind of English appropriate for
depicting the multiple cultures, languages and knowledge bases in which both
she and her protagonist in The Translator are inserted. I demonstrate that she does this by
capturing the rich detail of daily life and material culture in her fiction and
that one of the devices for this capture is the rhetoric of metonymy. What
emerges in the paper is that solid objects in Aboulela’s
fiction speak a different language from the most obvious literary use of deep
symbols and profound metaphors. They say something about the texture of life
and the loss suffered by those who have to negotiate between diverse cultures
and identities. We see that migrant writers have transported worlds and
cultures and knowledges into the West, along with
their suitcases and boxes, recipes and accents. In other words, while Sammar, Aboulela’s protagonist in the
novel, is employed to translate between English and Arabic, the more subtle
translation happens within the English language and between different cultures.
In addition to The Translator, this argument is consolidated with a brief
examination of Aboulela’s prize-winning short story,
‘The Museum’.
Filonova, Elena. 2006. Between Literacy and Non-Literacy: Interpreters in the
Exploration and Colonization of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century
* This examination of the contact between the
Russian and native cultures in the exploration and conquest of Alaska, using
such historical source material as expedition reports and an official complaint
filed by the natives, is intended as the basis for an enquiry into the
influence of literacy and non-literacy upon the interpreting process. Special
difficulties mark the encounter between a literate and a non-literate culture,
each being characterized by its own mode of thought. By being wary of such
differences and seeking some common ground between the different parties,
certain interpreters were successful in presenting especially inconspicuous
distinguishing characteristics so that each party was able to adjust
appropriately in order to further their mutual goals. An explanation of those
characteristics of a society’s material and lived culture which are otherwise
easily overseen proves essential to the interpreter's communicative task. A
consistent line of observation and argumentation, however, forces us to admit
that the perspective of the interpreter as well as that of the researcher is
inherently tainted, leaving little hope for the absolute success of any such
communication, or research on it.
Göpferich, Susanne. 2006. How Successful is the Mediation of Specialized
Knowledge? – The Use of Thinking Aloud Protocols and Log Files of Reverbalization Processes as a Method in Comprehensibility
Research. Hermes 37. 67-93.
* In this paper, Susanne Göpferich
(SG) introduces a method for determining the comprehensibility of texts. 5
subjects who belong to the target group of the text were asked to optimize it
so that it would be “optimally comprehensible” for the Target group using Translog and thinking aloud during the process. SG notes
that the subjects, who were students, graduates or lecturers of the Translation
Studies department at the University of Graz had a higher average educational
level than the average reader, which means that whatever they found
incomprehensible would probably be found incomprehensible by the intended
readership in general. When analyzing the data, SG notes that all cases can be
classified under the existing six dimensions of the
An interesting method which uses
human perception of comprehensibility, perhaps a more sensitive and
comprehensive method than any automated analysis based on linguistic features.
It is not quite clear to me (the reviewer) what the added value of Translog was in this case. I also find it striking that
subjects did not know the meaning of words such as “chronisch”,
“Insulin” or “Glukose”. Finally, I wonder whether it
might not have been a good idea to consider that an item in the text was
problematic only if at least two subjects had problems with it, as problems for
only one could perhaps be considered idiosyncratic. Regardless of these issues,
the approach per se could be used in other issues, such as assessment of the
quality of translations. (DG)
Göpferich
Susanne. 2001. Von Hamburg nach Karlsruhe. Ein kommunikationsorientierter
Bezugsrahmen zur Bewertung der Verständlichkeit von Texten. Fachsprache/International Journal of LSP 23:3-4. 117-138.
Larkosh, Christopher.
2006.‘Writing in the Foreign’: Migrant Sexuality and
Translation of the Self in Manuel Puig’s Later Work. The Translator 12:2
(Special Issue on Translation, Travel, Migration). 279-299.
* Is it possible to speak of a literary style of transnational
migration, especially by way of the linguistic transformations it so frequently
calls forth? And how might this migratory style be
translated? This essay explores the concepts of self-translation and translingualism in the writings of the Argentine author
Manuel Puig (1932-1990). Although Puig is best known for his 1976 novel The Kiss of the
Spider Woman and the subsequent cinematic and theatrical adaptation of it, less
critical attention has been given to his other works written in exile in New
York, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City in the 1970’s and 80’s, most likely
because of the multilingual techniques employed in their creation. An
examination of these works through a translingual
optic not only allows for a renewed discussion of multilingual identity in
ongoing disciplinary developments in translation studies, but also of a broad
range of identities – whether national, cultural, ethnic, gender or sexual –
often inseparable from the act of literary production.
Pireddu, Nicoletta. 2006. Scribes of a Transnational
* This paper investigates the possibility of a
European consciousness emerging from a rethinking of the nexus of travel and
translation in terms of motion, transit, carrying across and carrying away, and
the ability of this consciousness to transform Europe from a monolithic, self-centered locus and idea exported and imposed on the ‘other’
into a complex cultural space and a site for pluralist encounters. An analysis
of works by Christine Brooke-Rose and Diego Marani
shows how the joint action of travel and translation can dispel the spectre of
the European subject’s alleged crisis of symbolization. The paper treats these
writers as exemplary instances of what it defines as the ‘scribes of a transnational Europe’, that is, writers who, by
participating in multiple linguistic and geographical European spaces,
contribute to the creation of a new European identity modelled upon border
crossing. As it visualizes the movement that traverses and connects
geographical and verbal sites, border crossing becomes the dynamics through
which these writers refashion Europeanness as hybrid
and diasporic subjectivity. Practising spatial and
cultural transfer, Brooke Rose and Marani sketch an antifoundational middle ground between the absolutist
singularity of the national community and the hegemonizing
generality of globalization. At the same time,
however, their writings also show that the porosity of European geographical,
linguistic and conceptual boundaries does not imply radical erasure of borders
but rather their redefinition as lines of contact that reshape identity as alterity, marked by a difference within itself.
Polezzi , Loredana. 2006. Translation, Travel, Migration. The Translator 12:2
(Special Issue on Translation, Travel, Migration). 169-188.
* Over
the past few years, the connection between travel and translation has gained
currency among scholars of a number of disciplines, including critical theory,
postcolonial studies and anthropology. Yet the increased visibility of both
translation and travel has tended to hide, rather than highlight, the
complexity of social as well as representational phenomena linked to both
spatial and linguistic mobility (which encompass, on the one hand, economic
migration, exile and self-exile, diasporas and other forms of displacement,
and, on the other, interlingual translation and
interpretation, self-translation, and instances of multilingual production). A
tendency to use terms in a rather loose and often figurative manner has
resulted in a frequent shift of attention away from actual practices and their
protagonists: the people who travel and translate, for themselves and for
others. The present article argues in favour of an approach to mobility and
translation phenomena which highlights their cultural and historical
specificities while also foregrounding the socio-political implications of both
practices and their interconnections. Such an approach calls into question a
number of traditional assumptions, including the ability of travel writers to
write selectively for a home audience, and the negative aura surrounding the
translator as a potential cultural traitor. Additionally, stressing the impact
of complex instances of mobility on the contemporary world also invites us to
rethink binary models of identity and of translation, positing multiply
translated (and translating) subjects as the protagonists of today’s global
communication processes.
St. André, James. 2006. Travelling Toward
True Translation: The First Generation of Sino-English Translators. The Translator 12:2
(Special Issue on Translation, Travel, Migration). 189-210.
* In this paper I argue that the growing
emphasis on first-hand observation in the emerging scientific discourse of eighteenth-century
Steiner, Tina. 2006. Mimicry or Translation? Storytelling and Migrant Identity in Abdulrazak
Gurnah’s Novels
Admiring Silence and By the Sea.
The
Translator 12:2 (Special Issue on Translation, Travel,
Migration). 301-322.
* Drawing on theories
of culture and translation, this article explores the relationship between migrancy and translation within the discursive mode of
storytelling in two novels by East African writer Abdulrazak
Gurnah, Admiring Silence (1996) and By the Sea
(2001). Gurnah uses storytelling to explore the
discursive strategies open to migrants in their efforts to negotiate a place of
belonging. The East African Asian narrators of the two novels tell different
stories, and their choice between mimicry and translation as possible
strategies determines their ability (or otherwise) to create a home – however
tentatively – in their new English environment. The narrator of Admiring
Silence mimics the voice of the westerner, thus exposing and unsettling the
discourse of imperial control and authority. Yet the narrative space recreated
in mimicry is a site of ambivalence. The narrator is stripped of identity and
remains unable to translate the past into the present, while mimicry is
ultimately shown to be insufficient to sustain meaningful cross-cultural
relationships. In By the Sea, it is translation, rather than mimicry, that
affords the characters a life where past and present connect, offering hope for
the future: two East African Asian narrators meet in an English seaside town
and their mutual storytelling leads them to translate their painful histories
into a shared present, thus resisting self-pity and isolation. This fictional
storytelling mirrors the real process of migrancy,
where the exile’s life is “taken up with compensating for disorienting loss by
creating a new world to rule” (Said 1994:144). In By the Sea, Gurnah suggests that this ‘new world’ is at least partly a
translation of the past.
* This article examines the representation of rembetika
music in
Toninato, Paola. 2006. Translating Gypsies: Nomadic
Writing and the Negotiation of Romani Identity. The Translator 12:2
(Special Issue on Translation, Travel, Migration). 233-251.
* Travelling Roma have for centuries been portrayed by non-Roma (Gadźé) in idyllic or sharply negative images that have
little connection with the social context of Romani nomadism. Romani authors have
begun to resist and relativize such representations,
thereby giving rise to an autochthonous written literature. This article
analyzes texts in which Romani authors challenge the
stereotypical image of the ‘travelling Gypsies’ by emphasizing the reality of
an independent nomadic way of life. It argues that Romani
authors are acting as translating subjects in two ways: by being translators of
Romani texts, and as Roma activists engaged in
‘translating’ their culture for non-Gypsy audiences. The article further argues
that an important part of Romani literature is
devoted to autoethnography, conceived as a strategy
used by the Roma to represent themselves ‘through the eyes of the other’
without losing their cultural specificity. The Roma’s use of writing and
translation are interpreted as alternative sites of enunciation which question
the rigid Roma/Gadźé polarity and open up new
possibilities for negotiating Romani identity through
dialogue, mutual recognition as well as demarcating their own space. A crucial
factor in this context is the growing use and appreciation of a unifying Romani language, Romanes.
Increased use of Romanes in written form presents,
among other things, new opportunities for translating Gypsies to challenge
asymmetrical power relations between Roma and Gadźé.
SPECIAL
ISSUES
A very
interesting special issue of RILUNE (Review of the Literatures of the European
Union) devoted to Paths in the European Literary Polysystem can be read at the site http://www.rilune.org/ENGLISH/mono4/translation01.htm
(information received from Ondrej Vimr from the
MA/GRADUATION
THESES
Baños, Rocío. 2006.
Estudio descriptivo-contrastivo del
español oral en una serie de televisión de producción propia y en una serie de
televisión de producción ajena. El caso de Siete Vidas y Friends. (A descriptive and
comparative study of spoken Spanish in a domestic and a foreign TV series. The case of Siete Vidas and Friends). D.E.A (Diploma en Estudios
Avanzados / Diploma in PhD Advanced
Studies), Universidad de Granada, Departamento de
Traducción e Interpretación. Doctoral
Programme: Traducción, Sociedad
y Comunicación.
* Considering the multiple signifying codes
which operate simultaneously in audiovisual texts, the main purpose of this
research project is to analyse and describe the linguistic code in an
audiovisual corpus, focusing on what is specific to audiovisual texts and
therefore to audiovisual translation. Although this code is common to all texts
requiring translation, it stands out in these texts since they are “written to
be spoken as if not written” (Gregory and Carroll, 1978: 42). We are therefore
dealing with texts marked with a certain register (oral discourse) which may
seem spontaneous and natural, but which is actually planned or, as Chaume (2004: 168) terms it, “prefabricated”. Since this
feature is common to most audiovisual texts regardless of their origins, the
study is aimed at describing the main characteristics of the linguistic code in
native and foreign productions (dubbed from English into Spanish), highlighting
the main trends when writing and translating these texts, in order to compare
them at a further stage. A polysystemic and
descriptive approach was adopted to meet this objective, considering the native
and dubbed texts under study as part of the Spanish audiovisual polysystem, and an audiovisual corpus - consisting of four
episodes of the American situation comedy Friends and two episodes of the
Spanish sitcom Siete Vidas
- was elaborated taking into account several criteria regarding their
suitability and their similarities. In order to describe the main features of
spoken Spanish used when elaborating the oral discourse in both native and
foreign productions at microtextual level, a
methodology framework was developed from the findings and works of several
scholars (Briz, 1996; Briz
and Grupo Val.Es.Co, 2000; Chaume, 2001 and 2004; Vigara,
1980 and 1992). Regarding the results, this study unveils the resources used by
both scriptwriters and translators when trying to maintain the balance between
the verisimilitude and credibility of the scripts, and linguistic correction
and standardisation. The final conclusions of the study, which will be expanded
and improved in a subsequent PhD thesis, indicate that although both the
domestic and foreign sitcoms feature an oral yet prefabricated discourse, the
dialogues of the native product seem more natural and spontaneous if compared
to those of the dubbed series. Furthermore, the main features which approximate
these speeches to the spontaneous spoken discourse converge on specific
linguistic levels (lexical-semantic and, to a lesser extent, on the syntactic
level) and are virtually non-existent in others (morphologic).
Barambones, José. 2005. Catálogo de programas traducidos emitidos por ETB1 (1983-1992) (A
catalogue of translated (Basque) programmes broadcasted by the Basque Televisión First Channel ETB1). M.A. Thesis (Suficiencia Investigadora- DEA). University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU,
* The main purposes of
this research were to compile a catalogue of dubbed audio-visual programmes and
to discover what kind of programmes were dubbed. The data compiled in this
survey covers the programme output of ETB-1 from 1983 to 1992. Although largely
a quantitative survey of dubbed television programmes, the author draws on
empirical data –some 3000 files- to reach some interesting conclusions related
to the programming patterns adopted by ETB-1 during its first ten years.
Data regarding foreign programming
rates show that the Basque language channel ETB-1 has largely relied on foreign
programming, especially on foreign entertainment material such as feature
movies, popular series and documentaries.
In fact, the bulk of ETB television transmissions (40 to 60 per cent)
contain foreign programming with most of the foreign programming material being
produced in the
Finally, the author demonstrates
that ETB was completely dependent on imported programmes and thus that dubbing
for foreign-language programmes became absolutely necessary. He openly criticizes the huge proportion of
programmes dubbed by ETB in light of the fact that there was no previous
infrastructure in place to successfully tackle the lack of experience in the
field of Basque language dubbing. In the final analysis, there was no need to
produce such a huge number of dubbed programmes in such great haste.
Mistakenly, in the eyes of the author, it seems as if the only way for a Basque
television broadcaster to survive was to import foreign programmes, and thus cultural
references, on a large scale. (From Raquel Merino)
Cabanillas, Cande. 2005. Catálogo de programas traducidos
emitidos por ETB2
(1994-2003) (A catalogue of translated (> Spanish) programmes broadcasted by
the Basque Televisión Second Channel ETB2). M.A.
Thesis (Suficiencia Investigadora-
DEA). University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU,
* The present research
is developed within the framework of Descriptive Translation Studies. The aim
is the analysis of the translated audiovisual products broadcasted by the
second channel of the autonomous Basque television in the period 1999-2003. Therefore the objects of study are those translated texts that have
been accepted and incorporated by the target culture. The work is based
on the empirical analysis of the data gathered - approximately 3000 files.
To start with, a database was compiled containing all dubbed - and thus
translated- audiovisual products broadcast in the period concerned. The first
aspect to be cleared was the preferred type of audiovisual product. As it
turned out, 96% of the whole were either films or series, that is, narrative
fiction aimed at an adult audience. Related to this, something we found
shocking and in sharp contrast with the programme planning of the first channel
of the autonomous television was the almost absolute absence of cartoons, an
audiovisual product typically intended for children.
Once the overriding relevance of films and series among the different
types of audiovisual products had been stated, the study got subsequently
focused exclusively on those products. The following step led to the analysis
of the products in question regarding film genre. The western turned out to
amount to more than 22% of films and series. In other words, it was the most
representative film genre. Next in terms of importance were drama and comedy.
At this point the nationality of films and series appeared to be a very
important point in the research. After checking those products for that aspect,
it was found that 85% of them came from the
These data depict the scenario of the dubbed products broadcast by the
autonomous television and intend to be the basis for further and deeper
research. (From
Raquel Merino)
* In English.
Downloadable in pdf format at http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/hum/engla/pg/koponen/
* The thesis concentrates on two questions: the translation of metaphors
in literary texts, and the use of semiotic models and tools in translation
studies. The aim of the thesis is to present a semiotic, text based model
designed to ease the translation of metaphors and to analyze translated
metaphors.
In the translation of metaphors I will concentrate on the central
problem of metaphor translations: in addition to its denotation and
connotation, a single metaphor may contain numerous culture or genre specific
meanings. How can a translator ensure the translation of all meanings relevant
to the text as a whole?
I will approach the question from two directions. Umberto Eco's holistic
text analysis model provides an opportunity to concentrate on the problematic
nature of metaphor translation from the level of a text as a specific entity,
while George Lakoff's and Mark Johnson's metaphor
research makes it possible to approach the question from the level of
individual metaphors. On the semiotic side, the model utilizes Eero Tarasti's existential
semiotics supported by Algirdas Greimas'
actant model and Yuri Lotman's
theory of cultural semiotics.
In the model introduced in the thesis, individual texts are
deconstructed through Eco's model into elements. The textual roles and features
of these elements are distilled further through Tarasti's
model into their coexistent meaning levels. The priorization
and analysis of these meaning levels provide an opportunity to consider the
contents and significance of specific metaphors in relation to the needs of the
text as a whole.
As example texts, I will use Motörhead's hard
rock classic Iron Horse/Born to Lose and its translation into Rauta-airot by Viikate. I will
use the introduced model to analyze the metaphors in the source and target
texts, and to consider the transfer of culture specific elements between the
languages and cultural borders. In addition, I will use the analysis process to
examine the validity of the model introduced in the thesis.
Moreno-Peinado, Ana. 2005. La filmografía
de Pedro Almodóvar traducida
al alemán, francés e inglés (Pedro Almodóvar’s films
translated into English, French and German (a catalogue and preliminary textual
study of cultural-specific items)). M.A. Thesis (Suficiencia
Investigadora- DEA). University of
the Basque Country, UPV/EHU,
* Since different
cultures don’t show the same degree of acceptability, permeability and
ethnocentrism towards foreign products, this descriptive study tries to reveal
the patterns and norms followed by audiovisual translators in three cultural
and linguistic environments –French, English and German- when transferring
cultural-specific items, proper names and intertextual
references under the constrictions imposed by the audiovisual text. In this
case, the corpus -made up of 23 translations (dubbed or subtitled) from five
original films by a well known Spanish filmmaker (Pedro Almodóvar)-
is analysed from a descriptive, intercultural, functional and textual
perspective, following a modified version of Lambert and Van Gorp’s 1985 model. (From Raquel Merino)
For more
information: http://www.ehu.es/trace/