Translation Studies - A Summary PDF

CHAPTER 1: MAIN ISSUES OF TRANSLATION STUDIES THE CONCEPT OF TRANSLATION Translation: we consider the written one, the oral one is interpretation. The practice of translation is old but the translation studies are new. Translation was born in the Ancient Rome and most of translation theories derives...

CHAPTER 1: MAIN ISSUES OF TRANSLATION STUDIES THE CONCEPT OF TRANSLATION Translation: we consider the written one, the oral one is interpretation. The practice of translation is old but the translation studies are new. Translation was born in the Ancient Rome and most of translation theories derives from the study of classical Greek, Latin and the study from the Bible. The english term derives from latin or old french. Today translation mean the phenomenon, the product or the process. The process involves the source text ST in the source language SL and the target text TT in the target language TL. Jakobson discussed the linguistic meaning and equivalence. Hi distinguished 3 types of translation: intralingual, an interpretation of verbal sign of the same language interlingual, an interpretation of verbal sign of different languages intersemiotic, translation from a code to another. WHAT IS TRANSLATION STUDIES? Translation studies is an academic research expanded in recent years. Translation studies became famous because of: the expansion in specialized translating and interpreting programs the proliferation of conferences, books and journals on translation the demand for general and analytical struments the increase of international organization EARLY HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLINE The practice of translation was fundamental for cultural and religious texts. The first who discussed about translation were: Cicero, Horace and St Gerome. St Gerome translated the Greek Septuagint Bible into latin. Later the translation of the Bible was the cause of conflicts for years, especially in the 16 century. From late 18 century to 1950 translation was studied as a language learning method, translating exercises used as a mean of learning a new language, important was the study of grammatical rules and structure. From 1960 thanks to translation workshops the comparative literature and contrastive linguistic spread:  comparative literature, studying and comparing literature, necessity of reading some works in translation contrastive linguistic, studying 2 languages in contrast to find the differences. 1960: Vinay, Darbelnet and Nida developed a systematic and linguistic-oriented approach to the study of translation, so translation was viewed as a science. THE HOLMES/TOURY MAP The discipline of translation as we know it owes much to Holmes work, considered the founding of the discipline. He thought that the discipline of translation was limited because it was linked to other disciplines, and was not viewed as a distinct discipline. So he developed a map where he shows what translation studies covers. The pure areas research: theoretical: the general principles to explain the translation phenomenon descriptive: the description of the translation phenomenon The theoretical is divided into: general: those writings that describe for every type of translation, to make generalizations relevant for translation as a whole partial: restricted according to some parameters: medium-restricted theories, area-restricted theories, rank-restricted theories, text-type restricted theories, time-restricted theories, problem-restricted theories The descriptive it examine the product, examines existing translations the function, describe the function of the translation in the sociocultural situation the process, concerns with the psychology of the translator, what happens in the translator’s mind The applied side instead concerns the practice of translation: translator training, teaching methods, techniques translation aids, dictionaries, grammars, computer translation criticism, the evaluation of translations, including the marking of student translation and the review of published translations Another area is translation policy, where translation scholars advise on the place of translation in society. Drawbacks to the structure: artificial divisions areas influence one another  applied side underveloped omission of style, decision-making and working practices It would be best to consider a parallel field with interpreting studies, audiovisual translation and sign language interpretation. DEVELOPMENTS SINCE HOLMES The contrastive linguistics has resurfaced and science of translation continued in Germany, where there was also a rise of theories about the text purpose. Late 70s-80s: rise of the descriptive approach Zohar and Toury: polysystem theory. 1990: discourse analysis in Australia and UK, but also new approaches and concepts like translation and gender research or postcolonial translation theory. The developments continued in the new millennium with special interest to the link between translation and globalization, sociology and historiography and process-oriented research. Also the revolution of technologies is important. THE VAN DOORSLAER MAP In this map he drawn the distinction between: translation: it looks at the act of translation subdivided into lingual mode, media, mode and field; translation studies: subdivided into approaches, theories, research methods and applied translation studies. Alongside there is a basic transfer map that remain central to the translation process: strategies, procedures, errors, rules, etc. DISCIPLINE, INTERDISCIPLINE OR MULTIDISCIPLINE? A characteristic of recent research is interdisciplinary, that challenges the conventional way of thinking with new links between different types of knowledge and technologies. McCarty sees the conventional discipline having a primary or a secondary relationship to a new interdiscipline. Some current projects are also multidisciplinary, involving the participation of researchers from various disciplines. CHAPTER 2: THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF EARLY TRANSLATION THEORY WORD-FOR-WORD OR SENSE-FOR-SENSE? The distinction between word-for-word and sense-for-sense translation goes back to Cicero and St Jerome. This debate has dominated the translation theory before the 20th century. Cicero outlined his approach in De optimo genere oratorum, where he did not translate as an interpreter but as an orator, keeping same ideas and forms: he translated sense-for-sense. The interpreter is a word-for-word translator, the orator has to reproduce a speech that moves the listeners with a sense-for-sense translation. This practice went against roman tradition where translation where word-for-word. Horace criticized the word-for-word translation and this influenced St Gerome. Gerome translated the New Testament correcting the latin versions, instead for the Old Testament he returned to the Septuagint, a major translation in western culture of the Hebrew Bible. Gerome compared the Greek Septuagint with the Hebrew original and noted the differences; he then announced that in translating from greek he rendered sense-for-sense. He defined word-for-word as literal translation and sense-for-sense as free translation. He rejected the word-for-word because it produced absurd translation and didn’t allow maintaining the sense of the ST. The sense-for-sense approach allowed the sense content of the ST to be translated. EARLY CHINESE AND ARABIC DISCOURSE ON TRANSLATION Hung and Pollard talked about the chinese translation of buddhist sutras from sanskrit, they provided the various translation approaches used: first phase with Han dynasty and the Three kingdoms period translation were word-for-word due to lack of bilingual ability and because sacred words should not be tempered; second phase with Jin dynasty and Northern and Southern dynasty use of sense-for-sense translation; third phase with Sui, Tang and Northern Song, the attention were on the original style of the text. Dao’an listed 5 elements where the meaning was subject to change in translation: reversing of sanskrit syntax in chinese order enhancement of literariness of the ST to adapt to an elegant chinese style omission of exclamations reduction of commentaries in TT reduction to ensure more logical and linear discourse Also Dao’an lists 3 important factors:  directing of the message to a new audience sanctity of the ST words special status of the ST About the arab world, the topic was on the translation from greek to arabic. According to Baker and Hanna the word-for-word method was unsuccessful so they started to use sense-for-sense translation. HUMANISM AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION Before the arrival of the printing press in Europe, texts were copied by hand and this led to errors, so Jerome’s version of the Bible was unstable; in addition the latin was under the control of the Church. The European Humanist Movement sought liberation of the language from the power of the Church by recovering the Classical Latin and Greek. The Protestant Reformation began to challenge the Latin with the translation of the Bible into vernacular languages. The translation of any book divergent from the Church’s risked the censure or being banned. The revolution in Bible translation was motivated by Humanist advances in the study and knowledge of Greek, Hebrew and classics and its culmination was with Erasmus edition with a parallel of Greek and Latin in the new testament that was also used by Tyndale and Luther. During the Reformation non-literal translations were used as a weapon against the Church. The most famous example of non-literal translation was Martin Luther’s translation if the New Testament in East Central German and later of the Old Testament. He was criticized by the Church because of the word “allein” (alone, only) because there was no equivalent in Greek. He considered the word allein used as an emphasis. He rejected word-for-word translation because it couldn’t convey the same meaning of the ST in the TT and it would be also incomprehensible FIDELITY, SPIRIT AND TRUTH Flora Amos states that early translators differed in the meaning of the terms “faithfulness”, “accuracy” or “translation”. Louis Kelly looks at the western translation theory and traced the history of the terms fidelity, spirit and truth. fidelity, related to the figure of the faithful interpreter, relates to faithfulness in the meaning spirit has 2 meanings: the latin word as creative energy or inspiration; the use by St Augustine as the Holy Spirit of God; st Gerome used it in both senses truth, for St Augustine, was linked to spirit and truth had the sense of “content”; instead for St Gerome truth was the Hebrew Biblical text. Rener studied the theoretical conceptualization of language dominant in ancient Rome, and the study of language was divided in 2 parts: grammar, refers to the correct use of words and sentences, privileged purity and clarity, a word should be accepted and understood in the language rhetoric, refers to the use of words as communication, to persuade, valued elegance and dignity An example of importance of rhetoric can be seen in the italian humanist Leonardo Bruni. EARLY ATTEMPTS AT SYSTEMATIC TRANSLATION THEORY: DRYDEN, DOLET, TYTLER, YÁNFÙ John Dryden (second half of 1600) He reduced translation in 3 categories, he created the triadic model: metaphrase: word by word and line by line translation=literal translation paraphrase: more or less sense-for-sense translation imitation: forsake both word and sense, it corresponds to free translation, more or less today’s adaption. He criticized the metaphrase as being a verbal copier; he rejected imitation because the translator become more visible and write as he thinks the author should have done; he prefers paraphrase. Etienne dolet (1500) He tried to contribute to the development of french. He set out 5 principles: the translator must understand the sense and the material of the original author the translator should know perfectly both SL and TL the translator should avoid word-for-word renderings the translator should avoid latinate and unusual forms the translator should be careful to the words and avoid clumsiness Alexander Tytler (1700-1800) He defines a good translation to be oriented toward the TL reader. He defines 3 laws: translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work the style and manner of writing should be of the same character with the original the translation should have all the ease of the original composition The first ties with Dolet’s first 2 principles: the translator should have perfect knowledge of the original and should be competent in the subject and of the sense and meaning of the author. The second ties with Dolet’s 5 principle: deals with the style of the author and involves the translator abilities in identifying the true character of the style and and un correcting taste to recreate in TL The third law is the most difficult. He recognize the first two laws to represent different opinions in translation, they can be seen as the poles of faithfulness in content and form. Yánfù Tytler was influenced by yanfu. He states 3 translation principles: xìn: fidelity, faithfulness, trueness dá: fluency, expressiveness, intelligibility, comprehensibility yǎ: elegance, gracefulness SCHLEIERMACHER AND THE VALORIZATION OF THE FOREIGN Schleiermacher is considered ad a founder of modern protestant theology and modern hermeneutics. He operated in 1700-1800. His was a romantic approach to interpretation based on the individual’s feelings and understanding. He distinguished 2 different types of translation working on 2 different types of text: the one who translate commercial texts the one who works on scholarly and artistic texts. Schleiermacher says that the 2 may seem impossible to translate since the ST meaning is very culture-bound and the TL can never fully correspond. Schleiermacher moves beyond the word-for-word and sense-for-sense, his strategy was to move the reader towards the writer thanks to 2 methods: naturalizing method: bring together the foreign text with the patterns of the TL, give the reader the impression he would have received as a mother tongue reader; alienating method: emphasizes the value of the foreign, bending the TL word-usage to ensure faithfulness in the ST, the TT can be faithful to the sense and sound of the ST. TOWARDS CONTEMPORARY TRANSLATION THEORY George Steiner lists a number of 14 writers who have said anything fundamental about translation and this includes St Gerome, Luther, Dryden and Schleiermacher. Modern theoreticians says that the main problem in this period was that the criteria were vague and subjective. To avoid this, translation theory in the second half of 20th century made various attempts to redefine the concepts. CHAPTER 3: EQUIVALENCE AND EQUIVALENT EFFECT During the 19-20 century the new debate was between meaning and equivalence and the authors who discussed it were: Jakobson, Nida, Newmark and Koller. ROMAN JAKOBSON: THE NATURE OF LINGUISTIC MEANING AND EQUIVALENCE He describes 3 types of translation: intralingual, interlingual and intersemiotic. Jakobson goes to examine the key issues of the interlingual translation: linguistic meaning and equivalence. He follows the theory of Saussure who distinguished between langue and parole; he differentiated between signifier and signified, which together create the sign. Jakobson then consider the problem of equivalence in meaning and there are 2 theories: linguistic universalism: even if languages may differ in the way they convey meaning, there is a shared way of thinking and experiencing the world linguistic relativity: differences in languages shape different conceptualizations of the world: for this there is the question of translatability. For the message to be equivalent the code-units will be different since they belong to two different sign systems. The problem of meaning focuses on the differences in structure and terminology of languages. Language differ in what they must convey and not in what they may convey. The main differences of language are at: level of gender level of aspect level of semantic fields. For Jakobson only poetry is untranslatable and requires creative transposition. NIDA AND THE SCIENCE OF TRANSLATING His theory developed from his translation of the Bible. His systematic approach borrows theoretical concepts and terminology from Chomsky’s works. The influence of Chomsky Chomsky theorized a model that analyses sentences into a series of levels governed by rules: phrase-structure rules generate a deep structure that is transformed to produce a final surface structure, that is subject to phonological and morphemic rules. The most basic of this structure are kernel sentences: simple, active and declarative sentences. Nida incorporate Chomsky’s model into his science of translation. The model provides the translator a technique for decoding the ST and encoding the TT. The surface of the ST is analyzed into the basic elements of deep structure and these are inserted into the surface structure of the TT. The nature of meaning: advances in semantics and pragmatics Nida says that the word acquires meaning through its context and can produce various responses according to culture. Meaning is broken into: linguistic meaning, the relationship between different linguistic structures referential meaning, the denotative dictionary meaning emotive meaning, the associations a word produce These are a series of techniques that help the translator in determining meaning of different linguistic items: hierarchical structuring, differentiates series of words according to their level componential analysis, seek to identify and discriminate specific features of a range of related words semantic structure analysis: analyses different meanings of a word according on its characteristic to encourage the translator to realize that the sense of a semantic term varies and it’s conditioned by context and target culture Techniques of semantic structure analysis are proposed to clarify ambiguities and identity cultural differences. Formal and dynamic equivalence and the principle of equivalent effect Nida moves away from the literal, free and faithful translation, and divide 2 types of equivalence: formal equivalence, focuses on the message in both form and content, the message in the receptor language should match closely to the lexical and grammatical structure in the source language dynamic equivalence, based on the principle of equivalent effect, tends to employ a natural rendering with less literal accuracy; the message has to be based on the receptor’s linguistic needs and cultural expectation, and aims to complete naturalness of expression; the reader of both languages would understand the meaning in a similar fashion For Nida the success of translation depends on: achieving the equivalent effect making sense conveying spirit and manner of the original having natural and easy form of expression  producing a similar response. Discussion of the importance of Nida’s work Nida’s concepts of formal and dynamic equivalence were crucial for translation theory but both have been criticized: Lefevere felt that equivalence was still concerned with the word level van den Broeck and Larose considered the equivalente effect to be impossible The debate continued into te 1990s. Qian Hu wanted to demonstrate the impossibility of the equivalent response because it was impossible to reach equivalence when the meaning is bound to the form. Gentzler says that dynamic equivalence is designed to convert receptors NEWMARK: SEMANTIC AND COMMUNICATIVE TRANSLATION Newmark was influenced by Nida but he feels that the equivalent effect is illusory. For him the gap between source and target language will always exist as a problem for translation practice, but the gap has to be narrowed and he talked about: communicative translation: attempts to produce on the readers an effect as close as possible to the one of the readers of the original (similar to nida’s dynamic equivalence) semantic translation: attempts to render the exact meaning of the original, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allow (similar to nida’s formal equivalence). Newmark says that semantic translation differs from literal translation because it respects context, interprets and explains. He thinks that literal translation is the best because it sticks very closely to the ST lexis and syntax, but if there is a conflict between forms of translation then the communicative translation is preferred. Discussion of Newmark Newmark have received less discussion than Nida because they raise some fo the same points concerning the translation process. He has been criticized for his language because it still bears some traces of the pre-linguistic translation studies. His work provided a guidance for the trainee and has practical relevance fo translation. He emphasized both the aesthetic principles of writing and the ethical truth-seeking function for translating. KOLLER: EQUIVALENCE RELATIONS Koller (1970-80) examines the concept of equivalence linked to the correspondence:  correspondence: falls in the contrastive linguistics, compares two languages systems and describes differences and similarities equivalence: relates to equivalent items in specific ST-TT pairs and contexts. Koller points out that correspondence is indicative of the competence in the foreign language, but the ability in equivalences are the indicative for competence in translation. Koller differentiates 5 types of equivalence relations, hierarchically ordered: denotative equivalence: related to extra linguistic content of a text connotative equivalence: related to lexical choices text-normative equivalence: related to text-types pragmatic equivalence: related to the receiver of the text or message formal equivalence: related to the form and aesthetic of the text CHAPTER 4: STUDYING TRANSLATION PRODUCT AND PROCESS Since 1950 it has been proposed a various amount of approaches to the analysis of translation: Vinay and Darbelnet, classical model, it has had a wide impact Catford, linguistic approach, that saw the introduction of the translation shift. VINAY AND DARBELNET (1950-1960) They carried the comparative analysis of French and English. They looked at texts in both languages and noted differences and different translation strategies and procedures: strategy: the orientation of the translator (free, literal translation) procedure: specific techniques or methods used by the translator Two strategies and seven procedures They identified 2 strategies: direct translation, hard back to literal translation oblique translation, hard back to free translation The 2 strategies comprise 7 strategies: The first 3 are apart the direct translation 1. borrowing: the SL word is transferred directly into the TL 2. calque: special kind of borrowing, the SL expression is transferred in a literal translation 3. literal translation: word-for-word translation, the most common between languages of the same family This 4 covers the oblique translation  1. transposition: a change of one part of a speech into another without changing the sense; it can be obligatory or optional 2. modulation: change the semantic and pov of the SL, justified when the translation results grammatically correct but unsuitable in the TL; it can be obligatory or optional 3. equivalence: when language describe the same situation with different stylistic and structural means, for example with idioms or proverbs 4. adaption: the changing of the cultural reference when a situation in the source culture does not exist in the target culture. Supplementary translation procedures There are a large number it other techniques: amplification, use of more words in the TL false friend, structurally similar term in ST and TT that deceives the reader thinking it’s the same loss, gain, compensation, explicitation generalization Levels of translation These 7 procedures operate at 3 levels of translation: lexicon syntactic structures message They described another important parameter, that is the difference between: servitude: refers to obligatory transposition and modulation due to difference between two language systems option: refers to optionally changes due to the translator style or preference. Vinay and Darbelnet says that option should be the translator’s main concern because it’s their rule to choose from the available options. Analytical steps They also list 5 analytical steps for the translator to follow in moving from ST to TT: identify the units of translation examine the SL text reconstruct the metalinguistic context of the message evaluate the stylistic effects produce and revise the TT CATFORD (1960) He applied a systematic contrastive linguistic approach to translation, and makes a distinction between: formal correspondence, that is any TL category that occupy the same place in the economy of the TL as the given SL category in the SL textual equivalent, that is any TT observed on a particular occasion that is equivalent to a ST When there 2 concepts diverge there is a translation shift, a linguistic change that occurs in a translation from a ST to a TT. He considers 2 kind of shifts: shift of level: something expressed by grammar in one language and by lexis in another shift of category: subdivided in 4 kinds: 1. class shift: shift from one part of speech to another 2. intra-system shift: shifts that take place when SL and TL possess corresponding systems 3. rank shift: translation equivalent in TL is a different rank in the SL 4. structural shift: the most common shift, involve a shift in grammatical structure Main critic to Catford book: his examples are all idealized and decontextualized. OPTION, MARKEDNESS AND STYLISTIC SHIFTS IN TRANSLATION Another approach to analysis of shifts especially stylistic shifts came from Czechoslovakia in 1960-70. Stylistic analysis have become important in the translational stylistic of the new millennium. Important is the analysis of the markedness of stylistic choice in the TT and ST. Markedness relates to a choice or patterns of choices that stand out as unusual and may come to the reader’s attention; it may usually be expected that a marked item in ST would be translated in a similar marked item in the TT but it’s not always so. Interesting is the motivation behind selections, and how far unconscious choices may be due to factors in the translator’s environment, like education or sociocultural framework. CORPUS BASED TRANSLATION STUDIES The rapid evolution of computer systems made possible the creation of electronic corpus of occurring texts to investigate the use and patterns of the word-forms contained. The major reason for using this was the quality of linguistic evidence. Baker focused on identifying typicalities of the language of a corpus of translated text, to compare to non-translated language. Baker suggested possible features such as explication, grammatical standardization, increased use of common words. Similar hypothesis were make in the past and now finally be tested thanks to computer systems. Different types of corpus It started a discussion between who used theoretical-methodological and who used corpus-based tools. In the years the issue is still not resolved because the methodology depends on the object of the research and because translation studies now has different goals than before. Bernardini et al discusses the following: monolingual corpora: collections of text in the same language analyzed to identify characteristics of genre, the author style and the use of specific word-form comparable bilingual corpora: collections of similar ST in two languages to identify terminology and equivalences parallel corpora of ST-TT pairs: to find the strategies employed by the translator Bernardini et al says that it’s impossible to identify lexical or grammatical features in TT and to see if such features are similar in non-translated texts in the same language. Other corpus-based and corpus-driven studies? THE COGNITIVE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION Translation shift analysis seek to describe the phenomenon of translation analyzing the changes of ST-TT pairs. Other models choose a different approach, based on observation, analysis and explanation of the cognitive process of translators. The interpretative model was championed in Paris and initially applied to the study of conference interpreting, it explains translation as a process of three stages: reading and understanding: using linguistic competence and world knowledge to grasp the sense of the ST deverbalization: an intermediate phase re-expression: the TT is constituted and given form A fourth stage is the verification, added later, where the translator revisits and evaluates the TT. Ernst-August Gutt created the relevance theory, in which says that translation is an example of communication based around a cause-effect model of inferencing and interpretation. The communicator gives the receiver communicative clues and the receiver must understand. Translator needs to decide: how its possibile to communicate the informative intention if to translate descriptively or interpretatively what the degree of resemblance to the ST should be These decisions are based on the translator’s evaluation cognitive environment of the receiver. The translator and the receiver must share basic assumptions and must agree on expectations. WAYS OF INVESTIGATING COGNITIVE PROCESSING Some theorists have tried to gather datas towards the explanation of the translator’s decision-making process. One method is the think-aloud protocol, in which the translator is asked to verbalize his thoughts while translating, often without prompting. This is usually recorded by the researcher and later transcribed and analyzed. This is an experimental method that may provide more information than comparing ST-TT pairs. There are some limits: the effort of verbalizing slows the translation and may affect the product the result id not complete More recent methods have used also technological innovations to support the think-aloud method. CHAPTER 5: FUNCTIONAL THEORIES OF TRANSLATION TEXT TYPE Katharina Reiss: work built on the concept of equivalence but with the text as the level of communication achieved and search of the equivalence. It borrows three functions of language from Karl Buhler: informative function, expressive function, appellative function. This function are linked to their text type in which they are used: informative text type: logical language used to transmit information and the topic is the main focus of communication expressive text type: the author uses the aesthetic language operative text type: the aim is to persuade the reader, the form of language si dialogic audio-medial text type: films and advertisements with visual images, music etc that use also the other 3 functions For each text type she gave examples and she calls them genres: reference work for informative text type, poem for expressive text type, advertisement for operative text type. Hybrid types: a biography could be between informative and expressive types. She suggests a specific translation method for every text type: TT of informative type text should transmit the full content of the ST, in plain prose  TT of expressive type text should transmit the aesthetic and artistic form of ST, the translator should adopt the pov of the author TT of operative text should produce the wanted response in the ST receiver, the translator should create the same effect audio-medial text should use both text and images and music She says also some instruction criteria for the adequacy of the TT: linguistic components: semantic/lexical equivalence, grammatical and stylistic features non-linguistic components: situation, subject field, time, place, receiver, sender This criteria varies from text type and genre. Discussion of the text type model Critics: why only 3 types of language function how the translation methods are to be applied in the case of specific texts text type and genres can be differentiated because of the primary function INTEGRATED APPROACH Mary Snell-Hornby: translation based on text types, she borrows prototypes for the categorization of text types. On the base of the text type she use history, literary, sociocultural, legal, economic, medical, scientific translation. Her model goes form the most general to the most specific (A-F): level A: integration of literary, general language and language translation level B: indication of the prototype level C: show of the non linguistic disciplines leved D: translation process, understanding the function of the ST, the TT focus, the communicative function of TT level E: use of linguistic areas level F: phonological aspects MULTIMODAL GENRES: with the developments of technology there are new text types that demand instant translation provided by automatic translation function TRANSLATORIAL ACTION MODEL Holz: her aim was to provide a model and guidelines to a wide type of translation situations. In this model the translation is oriented towards the result of human interaction. The process involve a series of player or roles: initiator commissioner  ST producer TT producer TT receiver TT user The focus of this model is very much on the function of communication for the receiver. The TT form and genre is based on what is suitable for the TT culture. Features are described base on: content, information and strategy form, terminology and cohesive elements. Discussion of translatorial action model one of the aims is to offer guidelines for the transfer, but fails to consider cultural differences in detail SKOPOS THEORY Reiss and Vermeer: skopos in greek means purpose, this theory may be considered to be part of the theory of Holz because it deals with the purpose of an act. The TT must be functional adequate, so for the translator is important to know why ST is translated and the function of the TT. They aim is for a general translation for all types of texts. Rules of skopos theory: 1. translation act is determined by its skopos, this is the most important 2. it relates the ST and TT’ function in their respective linguistic and cultural contexts 3. the function of a TT in the target culture is not necessarily the same as the ST in a source culture 4. TT must be internally coherent 5. TT must be coherent to ST 6. the five rules are in hierarchical order 5-6 concert the functional adequacy based in the: coherence rule: TT must be coherent for the TT receivers, it has to make sense for them fidelity rule: there must be coherence between ST and TT Skopos theory allows different translations of the same text based on the purpose of TT and other commission of the translator. The commission is the goal and the conditions to achieve negotiated between translator and commissioner. The TT is determined by skopos, commission and adequacy. If the TT fulfill the skopos, then is functionally adequate. Discussion of skopos theory Nord and Schaffner criticized:  general theory is only valid to non-literary texts because they do not have a purpose reiss text type and vermeer skopos theory cannot be lumped together jargon does little to translation theory skopos theory does not pay attention to the nature of the ST TRANSLATION ORIENTED TEXT ANALYSIS Nord: model with elements of text analysis that examines texts above the sentence level. He talks about a distinction between: documentary translation, TT allows the TT receivers to the ideas of ST and the receiver is aware it is a translation instrumental translation, the TT receiver read the TT as the ST it was written in their language Aim to provide translation students a model applicable to all type of text and situations, based on a selection of translation strategies for the purpose of the translation. Nord model: importance of the commission: it should give info for both texts, the functions, the addresses, the time, the place, the motive role of ST analysis: analyze the subject, the content, the presuppositions, the text composition, the lexis, the structure of the sentence… functional hierarchy of translation problems CHAPTER 6: DISCOURSE AND REGISTER ANALYSIS APPROACHES 1990: discourse analysis came in translation studies. The model of discourse analysis that most influenced was the Halliday one, but other models are from House, Baker, Hatim and Mason HALLIDAYAN MODEL His model is based on the systemic functional linguistics, there is a strong interrelation between linguistic choice, the aim of communication and the sociocultural framework. The sociocultural environment reflects any political, historical and legal condition. It influence the discourse and the genre. The genre helps to determine other elements, for example the register. The register comprise 3 elements: field, what the texts is about  tenor, who is communicating with whom mode, the form of communication This 3 are associated with strands of meaning or discourse semantics: ideational, associated to field, provides a representation of the world or an event interpersonal, associated to tenor, enacts social relationships textual, associated to mode, makes the text coherent These 3 strands of meaning are formed by lexis, grammar and syntax. HOUSE MODEL House consider other approaches oriented toward target audience to be wrong because they do not consider the ST. She bases her model on a comparison between ST and TT analysis, leading to an assessment of quality, to avoid mismatches and errors. She uses the register of Halliday. Her model focuses on lexical, syntactic and textual means used to create a register: field, refers to subject and social action tenor includes the addresser provenance and viewpoint mode relates to the partecipation of addresser and addressee She organize translation in 2 types: overt translation: the TT does not pretend to be an original and is not directed to TT audience, happens when ST is tied to a source culture covert translation: the ST is not linked to the ST culture, both ST and TT address their receivers directly, this translation reproduce in the TT the original function. a cultural filter need to be applied to modify cultural elements. This 2 are not opposites, a text can be more or less covert/overt. The translation should produce a version and not a translation. BAKER MODEL Baker looks at equivalence at a series of levels: word, above word, grammar, thematic structure, cohesion and pragmatic level. Particular interest is her approach to thematic structure, cohesion and pragmatic level. Thematic structure Most attention to the function of the text, focuses on thematic considerations, this structure is different for every language. She gives a lot of examples. The most important thing of this analysis is that the translator should be aware of the relative markedness of the thematic and information structures. Cohesion Produced by grammatical and lexical links that helps the text on being cohesive. There are 5 types of cohesion: reference: meaning need to be interpreted through reference substitution: grammatical substitution in the text ellipsis: zero substitution in the text conjunction: what follows is linked to what was before lexical: cohesion produced by the selection of vocabolary This can differ from ST to TT, what matters is that it has to be coherent in the TT receiver’s mind. Pragmatic level Pragmatic is the study of the use of language, the study of meaning given in a communicative situation. 3 are the major pragmatic concepts: coherence: related to cohesion, depends on the hearer or receiver expectations and experience, may not be the same for ST and TT receivers presupposition: related to coherence, related also to the knowledge the sender assumes the receiver to have implicature: what the speaker means or implies rather than what they say Implicature was developed by Paul Grice that describes some rules about it: quantity quality relevance manner politeness HATIM AND MASON Their work was influenced by Halliday. They consider the analysis of the discourse, they go beyond House’s register and Baker’s pragmatic analysis. Language and text are the realizations of sociocultural messages and power relations. They see the discourse in the wider sense, as a model of speaking and writing involving social groups and adopting an attitude towards sociocultural activity. Their model can be applied. They propose a list of elements to consider during translation. They try to identify dynamic and stable elements in the text: stable elements require a literal approach dynamic elements the translator may be challenged in the translation Recent works also talk about the interpersonal function that constructs the subjectivity of the participants of the communication. CRITICS TO DISCOURSE AND REGISTER ANALYSIS Discourse analysis models are popular and useful to face the linguistic structure and meaning of a text. Hallidayan model was criticized for being overcomplicated in its categorization of grammar and for being inflexible for matching of structure and meaning Gutt asked if it was possible to recover ST function from register analysis. House model aim is to discover mismatches and errors but they can be caused also because of translation strategies hatim and mason findings are illuminating but their focus remains linguistics centred, both in terminology but also for the phenomena investigated CHAPTER 7: SYSTEMS THEORIES 1970 another kind of system was the polysystem theory, with translated literature as a system operating in the larger social literary and historical systems of the target culture. POLYSYSTEM THEORY Even-Zohar, borrowing ideas from formalists and structuralists. Formalists: literary work studied as a part of a literary system, a system of function of literary order. Literary is part of the social, cultural and historical framework and important concept is the system. Even-Zohar focuses on the relations between these systems in the polysystem, a multiple system, a system of various systems connected with each other functioning as a whole. The interaction and positioning of these systems happens in dynamic hierarchy, changing based on the historical moment. The position of translated literature can be primary or secondary: Primary position: when a young literature is being established and looks to more established ones for ready-made models when a literature is weak and imports lacking literary types when there is a critical turning point in literary history Secondary position: it has no major influence over the central system, this is the normal one for translated literatures. The position occupied by translated literature in the system conditions the translation strategy: if its primary translator does not follow target literature models and may break conventions; if its secondary translators use existing target culture models. Gentzler talks about the advantages of the polysystem theory: literature is studied alongside social, historical and cultural forces  the study of translation is done within the cultural and literary systems the non prescriptive definition of equivalence and adequacy allows for variations of social, historical and cultural situations This last point represent an escape to the arguments about the concept of equivalence. Gentzler critics to the model: overgeneralization of the universal laws of translation over reliance on historically based formalist model tendency to focus on the abstract rather than the real-life constraints how far is the scientific model really objective TOURY AND DESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION STUDIES Toury focused on developing a theory of translation. In his opinion translation occupy a position in the social and literary systems of the target culture. Toury proposes three-phase methodology for systematic descriptive translation studies: situate the text in the culture system do an analysis of ST and TT to identify relationships between the corresponding segments of the texts=couples pairs attempt generalizations about the patterns of the couple pairs Important additional step: replicability, that allows the corpus to be extended and to build a descriptive profile of a translation based on genre, period, author ecc He admits that no translation is fully adequate. The aim of Toury’s case studies is to distinguish trends of translation behavior, to make generalizations about the decision-making during the translation process and construct norms. These norms are specific to a culture, society or time. Norms can be reconstructed from 2 types of sources: the examination of texts; the statements made about norms by other translators. Toury sees different kind of norms based on the different stages of translation process: initial norms: general choice made by translators preliminary norms: that can be translation policy or directness of translation operational norms: describe the presentation and linguistic matter of the TT, these are matricial norms and textual-linguistic norms Translation equivalence for Toury means that equivalence is assumed between a TT and a ST. Toury developed 2 laws of translation:  law of growing standardization: refers to the disruption of the ST patterns in translation and the selection of linguistic option law of interference: refers to ST linguistic features that are copied in the TT Gentzler lists four aspects of Tourys theory that have an impact on translation studies: the abandonment of the correspondence and the equivalence the involvement of literary tendencies the destabilization of the notion of an original message with a fixed identity the integration of the original text and translated text in the web of cultural systems Hermans questions some elements: the ambivalence towards the equivalence, the confusion about the terms adequate and acceptable and the TT-oriented position. Toury risked overlooking some ideological and political factors such as: the status of the ST in its own culture the source culture possible promotion of translation the effect translation my exert back on the system of the source culture. Toury’s two laws seem contradictory: the las of growing standardization show the TL-oriented norms, the law of interference is ST-oriented. Toury said that this norms are applicabile at different levels of the language. CHERSTERMAN’S TRANSLATION NORMS Chesterman proposed another set of norms: product norms: refers to the expectations of readers of translation, what translation should be like professional norms: regulate translation process and are: accountability norm, an ethical norm, the translator will accept the responsibility for the work produced; communication norm, a social norm, the translator work to ensure communication between parties; relation norm, a linguistic norm, refers to the relation between ST and TT OTHER MODELS OF DESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION STUDIES Manipulation school: born with the influence of zohar and toury’s work. They are a group of scholars focused on the theme of translated literature and in the norms of the production and the reception of translation. They have in common: a view of literature as a complex and dynamic system; a conviction there should be a connection between theoretical and practical case studies. Their approach is descriptive, organized, functional, systematic. Lamber and Van Gorp: proposed a scheme for the comparison of the ST and TT literary systems and for the description of their relations. Their scheme is divided into:  preliminary data: information in title page and general strategy macro-level: division of the text and the narrative structure micro-level: identification of shifts on different linguistic levels systemic context: comparison of macro and micro and identification of norms. CHAPTER 8: CULTURAL AND IDEOLOGICAL TURNS Susan Bassnett and Andrè Lefevere moved from the linguistic theories of the time that did not go beyond the text. They focus on the link between translation and culture, on the way the culture impacts translation and on the context, history and convention. Hornby calls the passage from translation as a text to translation as culture “the cultural turn”. They talk of three areas where the cultural side influenced translation theory: translation as rewriting, translation and gender, translation and postcolonialism. TRANSLATION AS REWRITING Lefevere’s work developed out of the link with the polysystem theory and the manipulation school. He focuses on the examination of concrete factors that govern the acceptance or the rejection of literary texts. People involved in this system are the ones that Lefevere calls “rewriting”. The motivation of this rewriting can be: ideological: conforming or rebelling against the dominant ideology poetological: conforming or rebelling against the dominant poetics The literary system is controlled by two factors: professionals within the literary system: which determines the dominant poetics, and are critics, reviewers, teachers, translators; patronage outside the literary system: which determines the dominant ideology, and are groups, individuals, institutions that ostacolate the reading, writing and rewriting. Lefevere identifies 3 elements to this patronage: the ideological component: the choice of subject and the form of its presentation the economic component: the payment of writers and rewriters the status component: the patron’s expectations Patronage is termed: undifferentiated: if all 3 components are provided by the same person or group differentiated: when the 3 components are not dependent on one another. Lefevere analyzed 2 components of the professionals: literary devices: genres, symbols, plot, characters  concept of the role of literature: the relation between the literature and the social system Poetics, ideology and translation in Lefevere’s work For Lefevere the most important consideration is the ideological one because it refers to the translator’s ideology o the one imposed on him. The poetological consideration refers to the dominant poetics in the TL culture. Ideology and poetics together dictate the strategy and solution for specific problems. TRANSLATION AND GENDER Sherry Simon approaches translation from a gender-studies angle and sees a language of sexism in translation studies with use of “dominance, fidelity, betrayal”. Feminist theorists see the parallel between the status of translation, considered inferior to the writing, and women. Simon gives the example of the translation project, in which feminist translators emphasize their identity and ideas as a part of a cultural dialogue between Quebec and Anglophone Canada. Language and identity Other researches has seen the problem of language and identity. In queer translation, in Harvey’s study it was examined the way gay men and lesbians work within appropriate prevailing straight discourses. Harvey also linked the linguistic characteristics of camp to cultural identity via queer theory. He noticed that markers of gay identity disappeared or are made pejorative in the TT, and he links this findings to issues of the target culture. POSTCOLONIALISM TRANSLATION THEORY Postcolonialism attracted the attention of many translations studies researchers. The term is used for the studies of former colonies, studies of European empires, and of the imbalance of power between colonizers and colonized. Spivak spoke against feminist who expected feminist writing outside Europe to be translated in english. He suggested that feminists from powerful countries should learn the language of the colonized to show solidarity. In Spivak view translation often is “translatese” that means it eliminates the identity of individuals and cultures. The linking of colonization and translation has played an active role in the colonization process and the central concept of this relation is the power relations. Niranjana’s focus is on the way translation into english was used to rewrite a different image of the East. She criticize translation studies for 3 main failings: it has not consider the power imbalance between different languages the concept of western translation theories are wrong the humanistic enterprise of translation needs to be questioned. Niranjana suggests action: the postcolonial translator should question every aspect of colonialism and nationalism she attacks existing translations Bassnett and Trivedi talk about the asymmetrical power relationships and they see them used in the struggle of various local language against the english. Translation is the battleground of postcolonialism. They also talk about the similar concepts of translational and transnational, saying that transnational refers to both the ones living as emigrants but also to whose remain in their native site. Important are the concepts of hybridity, third space, cultural differences, talked by Bhabha, who theorized questions of identity and belonging. THE IDEOLOGIES OF THE THEORISTS The widening of the translation studies has brought together scholars from various backgrounds and theorists with different ideologies and critics. Brownlie calls this committed approaches to translation studies, that have widened the horizons of translation studies with new insights. There are a lot of conflicts and different perspectives but are to be welcomed. TRANSLATION, IDEOLOGY AND POWER IN OTHER CONTEXTS The question of power in postcolonial theories has led to the examination of power and ideology in other contexts where translation is involved. The concept of ideology is various: science of ideas, marx use as false consciousness, misguided thinking, manipulation. Other research has focused on the power imbalance between languages, most of all on the growth of english as a lingua franca. Recent researches pay attention to the fact that translation takes place between co-existing linguistic communities rather than participants living in separate countries and speaking different languages. CHAPTER 9: THE ROLE OF THE TRANSLATOR THE CULTURAL AND POLITICAL AGENDA OF TRANSLATION Venuti is an important theorist who insists that the scope of translation studies needs to be broadened to take into account the social framework. His work are on his experience as a translator of italian poetry and fiction. Lawrence Venuti and the invisibility of the translator He uses the term invisibility to describe the translator’s situation and activity. He sees invisibility produced: by the way translators tends to produce fluently into english and to produce a readable TT by the way the translated texts are read in the target culture. Domestication and foreignization Venuti discusses invisibility with two types of translation: domestication: seen by Venuti as apart of british and american translation culture, involves a reduction of the foreign text to receive cultural values, so translation is in a fluent style to minimize the foreignness of the TR foreignization: the aim is to make the translator visible and to make readers realize that they are reading a translation, achieved by a non-fluent style to make the foreign identity of ST visible in the TT This two are not opposite but parts of a continuum, they relate to ethical choices made by the translator. Antoine Berman: the negative analytic of translation Berman focuses on how much a translation assimilates a foreign text and how far it signals difference. He describes translation as an experience or a trial: for the target culture in the experience of the foreign for the foreign culture to be distanced by the original context To Berman the ethical aim of translation is to receive the foreign as the foreign. He considers that there is a system of textual deformation in TT that prevents the foreign from coming through. His examination of forms of deformation is termed negative analytic. He identifies 12 deforming tendences: 1. razionalization: modification of syntactic structures including punctuation and sentence structure/order 2. clarification: aims to render clear what is not clear in the original 3. expansion: tendency of TT to be longer than ST 4. ennoblement: tendency of translators to improve the text writing it in a more elegant style 5. qualitative impoverishment: replacement of words and expressions with TR equivalents that lack sonorous richness 6. quantity impoverishment: the loss of lexical variation in translation 7. destruction of rhythms 8. destruction of underlying networks of signification 9. destruction of linguistic patternings 10. destruction of vernacular networks or their exoticization 11. destruction of expressions and idioms  12. effacement of the superimposition of languages: the way translation tends to erase traces of different forms of language Berman proposes a positive analytic to counterbalance this negative analytic. THE POSITION AND POSITIONALITY OF THE TRANSLATOR For Venuti the invisibility of translator has been such that only a few translators have written about their practice. The stance and positionality of the translator have become more central in translation studies. Maria Tymoczko states that the ideology of translation resides not only in the translated text but in the stance of the translator and in the relevance of the audience too. The translator and the audience are also affected by the place of the enunciation. Carol Maier names this positioning an intervenience and the translator is an intervenient being. THE SOCIOLOGY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY OF TRANSLATION Many studies are on Pierre Bourdieu concepts: field: the site of a struggle between participants and agents; the field of power sets conditions for how the literary field operates. habitus: the disposition of the individual, influenced by family and education capital: the difference between capitals that can be tangible: economic capital; or intangible: social capital, cultural capital, symbolic capital; example of symbolic capital importance: english translator translated more than italian and french because translation was a side activity for english; also english poets were less concerned with the economic capital, instead french and italian had to translate whatever text was commissioned. illusio: the cultural limits of awareness heteronymy and autonomy: how dependent the respective field is on the field of power doxa: the dominant ideology of target culture; the doxa is visible in the choice of poetic forms and styles: example of religious doxa and the divine comedy. naming: the definition of field. Bourdieu’s work has also been adopted by some scholars as a alternative to the polysystem theory. An article by Daniel Simeoni seeks a better conceptualizations of what drives the translator’s decisions making process and he stresses the study of translatorial habitus focusing on how the translator’s behavior contribute; he concludes that translation is poorly structured. Sociology is the new perspective in translation studies and Chesterman stresses important on this approach because it emphasizes translation practice and how translators and other agents act during the process. THE POWER NETWORK OF THE TRANSLATION INDUSTRY Venuti has lamented how the translation industry works with contracts for a modest flat free, with publishers initiating translations and how they try to minimize the translation cost. Publisher are often reluctant to grant copyright or a share of the profit with the translator. Venuti says that this is another repression exercised by the publishing industry caused by the weakness of the translator’s role. Fawcett describes this as a power play where the final product is shaped by editors and copy-editors. Sometimes this power play can result in the ST’s author omission. Agents in the translation process: commissioners, mediators, literary agents, text producers, translators, reviewers, editors. For many authors the success is to be translated into english, the decision to translate or not a work is the power in the hands of the editors and publishers. According to Venuti, publishers in UK and USA tend to choose works easily assimilated in the target culture and the percentage of books translated in UK and USA is 2-4%. THE RECEPTION AND REVIEWING OF TRANSLATIONS Meg Brown studied the link between the publishing industry and the reception of a translation: she stresses the role of reviews in informing the public about recently published books. She adopts ideas from reception theory. One way to examine the reception is by looking at the reviews of a book. Venuti quotes reviews that criticize translation and says that most english-language reviews prefer fluent translations written in modern and standard english, and he considers this as an indicator of the relegation of the translator’s role to the point of invisibility. There is no model for the analysis of reviews, but the paratexts are subject of the theorist Genette, who considers 2 kinds of paratextual elements: peritexts: appear in the same locations as the text and are provided by the author or publisher (titles, subtitles, dedications) epitexts: not appended to the text in the same volume (marketing and promotional material) We can analyze reviews: synchronically: examination of a range of reviews of a single work diachronically: examination of reviews of books of an author or newspaper over a longer time period. CHAPTER 10: PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES TO TRANSLATION During the 20 century some authors had influence on translation studies for their philosophical approach and for their questing of some principles of theories. The most important are: George Steiner, Ezra Pound, Walter Benjamin, Derrida. STEINER’S HERMENEUTIC MOTION Steiner’s work is important for the hermeneutics of translation. He defines the hermeneutical approach as the investigation of what it means to understand a piece of a speech. His initial focus was on the psychological function in the mind of the translator, and he discusses the process of meaning and understanding the translation process. When he returns to analyze the theory of translation he creates a totalizing model, a model that sees translation in a wide compass in which it shares features with acts of communication. He describes the hermeneutics of translation as an act of transfer of meaning based on a conception of translation not as a science but as an art. The hermeneutic motion consists in 4 moves: initiative trust: the first move of the translator, something in the ST can be understood and this something can turn in everything or in nothing aggression: the invasive move, some text can be exhausted by translation and others can be translated so well they are read only in translation incorporation: refers to how the ST meaning is brought in the TL that is already full of words and meanings; can occur different types of assimilation: complete domestication, so the TT takes full place in the TL; permanent strangeness, literal translation with more footnotes than text. The importing of the meaning can function in 2 ways: sacramental intake, so the target culture become enriched by the foreign text; infection, the target culture in infected by the source text and rejects it compensation: when ST is enhanced by the translation and balance is restored. Imbalance is caused by the energy that goes from the ST into the TT that alter the harmony of the system. Elective affinity and resistant difference Steiner feels that real understanding and translation happen when the languages diffuses into each other. The determining condition is resistance difference, that occurs in two ways: the translator experiences the foreign language differently from their mother tongue; the relation between different languages differs and imposes its differences on the translator and on society elective affinity, that occurs when the translator has been drawn to that text and recognize themselves in it. When the two are both present at the same time the text rejects and attracts the translator. Discussion of Steiner His influence can be seen more on modern theorist such as Berman or Venuti, both emphasized the importing of the foreign un the target culture and do not equate good translation with fluent domestication. His references to Chomsky support the universalist view of language and a theory of language that now is dated. His book remained important for the hermeneutics and to the translation studies. EZRA POUND AND THE ENERGY OF LANGUAGE Pound was always experimental, looking at the expressive qualities of languages and seeking the clarity, rhythm, sound, form of the language rather than the sense. His approach privileged the creative form of the sign. His work is influenced by literature of the past, he wanted to escape from the rigidity of victorian and edwardian english tradition. His experimentalism of the poetic doctrine of his time provided inspiration for many translators and theorists. His use of translation is described by Venuti as a tool in the cultural struggle. His view of translation also influenced brazilian poets, important for the brazilian cannibalist movement. WALTER BENJAMIN: THE TASK OF THE TRANSLATOR Language and philosophy of language was central for Benjamin, he rejected the modern view of language, he was influenced by romantics and saw the language as magical. In his essay the translated text does not exist to make readers understand but it exists in conjunction with the original, and this also assures the survival of the original work. The purpose of translation is the expression of the most intimate relationships among languages, that is hidden without translation, by bringing together the two different languages. Translation pursues the goal of a pure language. The strategy to achieve this is the word-for-word translation that allows the pure language to shine. His idea of creating a pure language is a search for a higher truth through the form of language and not the meaning. This idea is challenged by Paul Ricœur that rejects the idea of perfect translation, and says that pure language it’s not a solution for translation. He says that translation poses an ethical problem, because it risks to betray author and reader, but allow the two texts to live side by side. DERRIDA: DECONSTRUCTION The deconstruction movement has its origins in France in 1960 and the leading image was Derrida. Deconstruction interrogates language, the terms, the systems and the concepts. It rejects the primacy of the meaning and deconstructs some of the key of linguistic and it also challenged the capacity to define, capture or stabilize meaning. Reading of Benjamin Deconstructionists have approached translation thanks to readings of Benjamin, and they questioned the basis of the language of the translation, rejecting the theories of meaning and translation based on linguistic identity. Derrida interrogated Jakobson intralingual/interlingual/intersemiotic translation and questioned many other principles on which translation theory is based. Derrida says that commentary is a translation of a translation. Abusive fidelity Lewis in the discussion of translation from French to English notes that translators tended to conform to fluent patterns in the TL. He says that it’s needed a different translation strategy that he calls abusive fidelity and that involves risk-taking and experimentation with the expressive and rhetorical patterns of language. Lewis also sees the need for the translator to compensate the losses in translation and a different strategy is the experimental translation strategy that faces some difficulties in translation of philosophical texts when the language plays a role of deconstruction premises upon which language stands. CHAPTER 11: NEW DIRECTIONS FROM THE NEW MEDIA Early days: translation or adaption? Initially audio-visual translation was overlooked by translation theory. Titford and Mayoral coined the term constrained translation, that focuses on the non-verbal elements that marked audio-visual translation. Delabastita’s article was important for AVT, it focused on identifying the characteristics of this type of text, for example: the verbal, the literary and theatrical, the proxemic and kinetic, the cinematic. He avoids talking about the verbal/non-verbal distinction and instead focuses on the visual channel, that can conveys verbal signs, and acoustic channel, that transmits some non-verbal signs. Delabastita is aware of the challenges brought by the co-existence of sound, image and translation, but he discusses the meaning potential and new avenues for translation. AVT distanced from the written text and broadened the concept of text to a multisemiotic text. After Delabastita’s article, Zabalbeascoa asked the development of translation studies beyond the written text and Gottlieb proposed the term polysemiotic text. The impact of AVT was evident when in translation studies was used the categories of “multimedial”. Also other terms were produce for this new field: film translation, screen translation, TV translation, audiovisual translation, multimedia translation. Film, screen and TV are terms that were too limiting confronted with the variety of products available; in fact audiovisual text can be found on tv, computers, phones, tablets, etc. The discussion about AVT moved away from the free/literal translation or adaption/translation concepts and focused on identifying translation procedures for this new type of text. The multimodal source text Frederic Chaume proposed a model of rules for the analysis of signifying codes of cinematographic language. He identified 10 codes: the first 4 concern the acoustic channel: 1. linguistic code: relates to wordplays, co-presence of multiple languages, culture-specific elements, and the feature of this code is that they are scripted but written to be spoken as if not written; 2. paralinguistic code: refers to the preparation of dubbing, addition of symbols like laughter, pauses and graphical signs like voice level, tone, pauses 3. musical and specifical effects code: refers to the presentation and adaption of song lyrics and their function 4. sound arrangement code: different based on: on screen speaker need to be lip-synchronized; off screen speaker needs orthographic variation in subtitling the other 6 relate to the visual channel: 1. iconographic code: iconographic symbols need verbal explanation to make it understandable 2. photographic code: problems that arise with lighting changes and the change of color subtitles and also use of color-specific 3. planning code: relates to close ups that need lip synchronization and the translation of information that are not spoken 4. mobility code: concerns the position of character in a dubbed scene that need the coordination of movement and words 5. graphic code: refers to the presentation of titles, texts, subtitles 6. syntactic code: involve editing principles This was a departure from the translation studies focused in the verbal, the focus here was limited to the translation of film and the questions were focused on the codes of the screen and about the meaning-making process. The analytical tools remained focused in verbal, visual and aural resources. With multimodality, a new field, everything changed. The term is referred to the field of research but also to the phenomenon of communication that combines image, speech, writing and gestures. There are different type of approaches to investigate multimodality but they all share: communication is multimodal modes concur together, with specific roles and meaning are out of specific relations between modes  each mode has its own historical and social use language focused analysis can only partially investigate complex meaning-making events. Multimodal social semiotics has influenced AVT, the relationship between form and meaning is shaped by how every mode has been used historically, by different users with different intentions in different situations. AVT scholars questioned about sound, image and verbal co-occur and meaning, and also translation scholars started to question these things but on other text types. For them translation is about translating the meaning and knowing that meaning is brought thanks to a complex combination of modes, so language is the most obvious target of translation to reach a foreign audience, but it’s not the only one. Multimodal text analysis and corpora Christopher Taylor asks how to record and analyze a multimodal product in writing. He borrows Thibault’s model of the analysis of film and break a film sequence into individual frames, shots and phases, and then produce a description: frames include: the duration of frame and order of presentation; the presentation of the visual frames shots include: components of the visual images; the kinesic action of the characters phases include: dialogue and description of the soundtrack; the metafunctional interpretation of how the film creates meaning. The metafunctional interpretation is a type of approach useful to support translators and researchers in the analysis of the source text, it also challenge established analytical tools used in translation studies like corpora. The building of a corpus of multilingual texts faces a lot of challenges: the large number of resources to compile and store large files legal issues related to the source texts authors rights lack of specific analytical tools to assist the corpora the large number of resources needed to annotate the corpus the impossibility of alignment with texts that are constantly updated like webpages the difficulty in defining representativeness in relation to non-verbal modes Most corpora in AVT are not truly multimodal corpora but are a collection of transcriptions of films spoken dialogue with information on visual and aural modes. From target audience to participatory communities The rapid development of technology had important effects for audio-visual translation practice and reception. Translation tools have developed and translators can work using a laptop wherever, while new genres and platforms are constantly being created. The impact of technologies goes beyond process, tools and platforms, it has transformed reception and viewers perception and understanding of translation. The first example of non-professional translators came out from the fan-subbing, a practice of amateur subtitling and distribution of film, series and other extracts online. Initially used for anime or manga then the practice proliferated thanks to te access to free subtitling softwares. The audience consume, produce, make decisions and are aware of the risks involved of translation which they often discuss online. From translation to localization In the digital age translation become big business in the industry and the term of reference is GILT: globalization: refers to organization of business process to support internalization and localization internalization: refers to development stages of a digital product to ensure it will function internationally localization: refers to the adaption of the product to the target locale, may involve the substitution of inappropriate culture symbols, involves taking a product and making it linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale where it will be used; translation. Hartley provides a summary of core concepts of both: computer assisted translation tools: used by professional translators and encompass tools for the alignment of ST-TT pairs, translation memory tools allow the creation of database of previous translation that increase the work speed machine translation tools: generate automatic translations, used for assimilation and comprehension; example: google translate The same technologies created a discussion of what these changes mean for the translator and for our conceptualization of translation. Pym revisits common issues of translation in this new context, for example a translation theory applied to internalization leads to the adaption of accepted communicative models; an internationalized interlingua is used as a basis for producing the versions for the TL locale. Another phenomenon is the collaborative translation, used among large groups of non-professional translators; for example facebook or wikipedia. Michael Cronin is a critique that investigates the concept of proximity of networks of translation exchange. Translators without access to technology are excluded from translation activity. The technology of globalization has come to redefine the role, relationships and status of translators. Cronin discusses the fragile linguistic ecosystem threatened by major international languages and feels that translation theory is necessary for minor languages. He sets out a translation ecology, a practice that gives control to speakers and translators of minority languages of what/when/how texts might be translated. This presupposes an activist dimension from translators related to the urgent task of getting societies and cultures to realize how important translation is: this task is urgent because translation is undervalued. From localization to transcreation New genres as video games challenged the definition of translation. Video games translation is a blend of audiovisual translation and software localization, discussed by scholars of both fields. This type of activity is called game localization. Creativity and originality is demanded by the translator to ensure that the game is entertaining. CHAPTER 12: RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY PROCESS The link between translation theory and translation practice is central and often located in universities involved in training translators. CONSILIENCE IN TRANSLATION STUDIES It’s important to note that translation studies is more applied than theoretical, translation is not limited to the words in the page, it’s an intercultural and interlinguistic product of a process that involve human and agents operating in a specific sociocultural, geographical and historical conditions. Agents bring their own goals and the conditions change over time based on political and historical circumstances. Chesterman proposes a classification of 4 complementary approaches to reseach into translation and each approach has its own objectives, questions and methods: the textual investigate translation product to find trends, forms of equivalence, translation universals, difficult translation problems, to discuss of solutions etc. the cognitive investigate the process of translation with methods such as think-aloud protocols the sociological looks at the role of the human agent the cultural places translation in a wider context and brings translation in a debate with critical and cultural theory Each of these approaches contributes to finding more about translation. TRANSLATION COMMENTARIES Students of translation are often required to translate text between 3000 and 10000 words, and a common requirement is to accompany it with a commentary that describes what are the translation strategies and procedures adopted or problems arisen. This is a opportunity to learn from students thanks insights of their process of translation. Each commentary is different but there are several common factors. These factors are described in the translation specification. Extralinguistic information The translation specification includes extralinguistic informations, needed by the translator to contextualize the ST and decide on the translation strategy. Without this any procedure can be justified. The informative details, such as title and author name, and subjective details associated with language variety and readership. For the ST the values for the language variety can be inferred from an analysis of the text itself. Language variety is also bound with question of genre and text type. The ST readership is generally described as “non experts”, but it can be also possible that some experts will read the article. So, there will be different grades and positions among the audience. The length in words is important in order to delimit the boundaries of the text, especially it if is part of a larger macro-text, and also serves as a way of estimating the size, which is important if the TT has to fit the same layout of the ST. For the professionals, length is also a means to calculate payment, basing a fee on words, characters or pages. The constraints of the TT are the general linguistic factors that guide some of the translator’s decisions. The constraints are normally formulated by the TT commissioner. The constraints will go a long way to determine macro-level characteristics of the TT and the translation strategy, but they will leave the translator some freedom to determine micro-level procedures. The already made decisions includes the language variety in the TL. The genre and text type are important: they will be similar between ST and TT, in some care there may be a genre shift. The translator problem will be the different composition and expectations for the genre that may necessitate a particular translation strategy. Text length varies across languages. Linked to this are the translator’s notes and layout. The layout of the TT determines the amount of space available and the form in which it will be displayed, often checked or modified by editors. Translator notes are unusual for genres such as online news stories but useful for other genres such as classical texts. Those controlling the publication outlet of the TT may have a say about the content of the translation. So editors may decide on the inclusion of visual material and title, meanwhile a patron may decide on the material or can also censor writers, ideas or expressions. The translation strategy was decided by the text purpose and by the translator’s view of the needs of the TT readers. This casts doubts on the possibility of achieving equivalent effect. It’s impossible to translate knowing who the target readers are. The audience may be described by the commissioner. The translator needs to debate with the commissioner about the audience and if it’s difficult to determine the translator needs to imagine the audience. Micro-level intratextual analysis When it comes to the micro-level analysis it can discuss the intratextual factors such as composition, lexis, sentence structures, or it may be focused on register and discourse analysis where the functional meaning is linked to field, tenor and model. The commentary may focus on: technical terminology, part of field writer-reader relationship, part of tenor, important are modality and reporting verbs cohesive elements and word order, part of mode, important is the cohesion that holds the text together These phenomena would need to be evaluated for markedness and importance. The commentary might discuss the different options available to the translator and the constraints placed in translation by the difference in languages. Important is that the reflexive commentaries should be able to make generalizations from a consideration of specific problems. The register profile classification is one way of assisting this. RESEARCH PROJECTS IN TRANSLATION STUDIES Empirical research is so important for modern translation studies. Many studies commence with an hypothesis and Williams and Chesterman give 4 types: interpretative, descriptive, explanatory, presictive. These may be tested by examining translations or translation process or researching the extralinguistic context of the society of the translation. Research projects may be undertaken at all levels, but the development of a new research project will typically need to consider: what is your topic? what is the scope of your study? what research questions are relevant to your topic? which specific questions are you going to investigate in your project? what work has already been done in your area of research? how will you conduct your study? what methodology will you use? is your project manageable? The advance of new technologies continues to open new possibilities for studies of new models and text types. These include genres generated by the multimodal social media practices and target text translated automatically online. Whole new forms of interaction have emerged where translation is playing an important role. The traditional study of the translation of a stable printed text is no longer norm, and those entering the field of translation studies at this time have the benefit of the firm foundations already set but also the opportunity to take translation studies in new areas. DOMANDE - 5 translation before 1900 tutto - 3 prima del 900 con domanda per luther - 7 jakobson - 3 feminist translation - 9 venuti - 2 chi ha influenzato venuti - 5 audio visual translation tutto - 6 skopos theory - 3 dynamic equivalence - 7 domestication/foreignization - 1 nida - 3 toury - 2 polysystem theory - 6 domanda a piacere - 1 vinay and darbelnet - 1 traduzione di genere (i numeri sono la quantità di volte che le domande sono state fatte al primo appello)