06 Valdeón.pmd noticia. estudiadas enlasseccionesanteriores. sección dediscusiónsobre lasimplicacionesideológicasdeestrategiastraductológicas bién objetodeestudioenelanálisisdeldiscursoestegénero. Concluiremos conuna especialmentelasomisiones,adicionesytransformaciones,quesontam- en losartículos, titulares enlostextosorigenymeta,asícomolasestrategiasutilizadasporsusautores de BBCWorld. detextos.Se estudiaráelusodelos Enlaprimeraseanalizarándosgrupos publicados porenBBCMundo yloscorrespondientes textosorigeneninglésprocedentes textos origenymeta(Hermans; Olk).estudia,endossecciones,textosmeta Esteartículo crítico alosestudiosdetraducciónconelfinanalizarlaideologíasubyacenteen En losúltimosaños,diversosestudiososhanseñaladolanecesidaddeaplicarunenfoque RESUMEN KEY fied intheprevious sections. out thediscussionaboutideologicalimplicationsoftranslationalstrategiesidenti- reports, notablyomissions,additionsandpermutations.In afinalsection,weshallcarry lines intheSTs and TTs, andproceedtostudythestrategiesusedinmainbodiesof two sections.Firstly, weanalysetwoseriesofnewstexts. We shalldiscusstheuseof head- their sourceEnglishBBCWorld reports fromacriticalapproach. The paperisdividedinto cultures (Hermans; Olk). weshallstudyBBCMundo’s In thisarticle newswebtextsand translation studiesinorder toexplore ideologiesinbothsourceandtargetlanguages In recent years,severalauthorshave ABSTRACT PALABRAS ideology thatpermeatesallpublicdiscourseand,particularly, texts. thatofnews late 1970s.In aseminal work, Fowler etal.establishedthetools tounderpinthe

WORDS

News textshave beentheobjectofanalysiscriticallinguisticssince CLAVE : Editorial routines, translation strategies, critical approach, news discourse. : Editorialroutines,translationstrategies,criticalapproach,news A CRITICALAPPROACH TO TRANSLATION STUDIES R : normaseditoriales,estrategiasdetraducción,enfoquecrítico,discursola EVISTA MEDIA TRANSLATION INBBCMUNDO C ANARIA 105

DE E INTERNET TEXTS STUDIOS Roberto A. Valdeón Universidad deOviedo underlined theneedtoenforceacriticalapproach I NGLESES , 51;noviembre 2005,pp. 105-119 14/12/2005, 8:46

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ROBERTO A. VALDEÓN 106 ( events, Fairclough speaksof“text, discoursepracticeand socioculturalpractice” sis, orCDA.In histhree-dimensional approach totheanalysisofcommunicative from other disciplines(61). positions thanotherapproaches, their“agendas” sincethelattertendtoimport that “a criticaldescriptiveapproach” hasagreater potentialforquestioningpresup- discourse”of particular (101).Following Hermans (160-161),Brownlie believes shaped by ideologiesand inthiswaycontributestotheperpetuationorsubversion the factthataCDAapproach tothefieldof TS can“reveal how translationis language withinthisdiscipline( tor power implicationsofthelexicalchoicesmadeby translators( already beenmadeby anumberofscholars.Hatim&Mason workedwiththe character whatmakesitapplicabletootherfieldssuchas Translation Studies. bine withotherdisciplines(Fairclough, “Political”144). It isthisinterdisciplinary ( racism inthepress, Fowler ( personal ing onHalliday &Hasan (26-28),have three specific functions: tures oftextualorganization. Texts, according toFairclough ( strategies. Asregards thefirstdimension,weshallcover thelexicon aswell asfea- correspondent reporting and/ortheuseofagencydispatchesbesidestranslation subsequent consumptionofthetexts. This actualproductionprocess mightinvolve genre) reports, andthediscoursepracticerefers ofnews totheproductionand decades thankstotheinterest ofvanDijk ( that initialwork (Fowler, “Critical” 3-6). The trend wouldcontinueinthenext of descriptive linguistics.Fowler acknowledged thatmuchinarecent revision of The toolstheyselectedwere somehow eclecticbutowed muchtoHalliday’s model esses (affectingtransformationsinproduction andconsumption)( tutional processes (suchaseditorialroutines)ontheonehand,anddiscourseproc- interpretation inthecommunicative events.can controltheparticipants ofthetexts(110-116),concerningwaysinwhichwriters general structuring sitivity processes) intheSpanish TTs; andthesyntacticcharacteristicsaswell asthe strategiescharacteristicofEnglishence ofcertain newsmediawriting(suchastran- the experientialvaluesofgrammaticalfeatures (100-104),andnotablythepres- questions asregards theirvocabulary, grammarandstructures ( interact intheinterpretation ofthetextaspresented (Fairclough, In thispaper, weshallconsiderthewayinwhichtextproducersandconsumers ( adapt Fairclough’s questionstocover therelational andexpressive values ofwords Since thestudyconcentratesontranslationalaspectsofmediatexts,weshall Critical Critical Language 172),andhave alsoacknowledged ofthestudyideologyin theimportance and In thispaper, we shalloptforFairclough’s modelofcriticaldiscourseanaly- In fact,thecallfor acriticalapproach to Translation Studies (hence TS) has As fortheseconddimension,discoursepractice,thisis concerned withthe ; ; Media Media 94-98)inconnectionwiththeirtranslationalnature oftheSpanish texts; textual ofthetext.Fairclough offersatwo-foldapproachconsistingofinsti- ; ; 106 Language Language . In hismodel,thesefunctionscan beexaminedby means often ). In ourcorpusthetextsare writtentakingtheform(or ). The flexibilityofcriticallinguisticsallows ittocom- Language Discourse ), Bell( 143).More recently, Olk hasunderlined Language Noticia ), whostudiedissuessuchas ; “Discourse”) andFairclough 14/12/2005, 8:46 Media Discourse Language ideational 58),anddraw- Media Media 89; 92-100). 55)and 59-61). Transla- , inter- 06 Valdeón.pmd changes operatedinagiventextitsoriginallanguage( they are usedin TS. He oftenusestheterm“translation” torefer tothelinguistic 163) have spokenofdifferent typesofmediation( “intercultural mediators” (Venuti; Campbell3;Peeters 217-227).Hatim&Mason changes intoanotherlanguage. Thus, we understandtheroleoftranslatorsas official viewpointsinto“a publicidiom” isfrequent inthemedia( consumers. Drawing onHalletal. (61),Fairclough statesthatthe“translation” of The mediationprocess isinterpreted asachainbetweentext producers andtext language, takenasthesource language,intoanotherlanguage. opinionsandcommentsexpressedof transformingthemessages,views, inagiven tions. Asregards theterm“translation,” here itwillbesolelyusedtorefer totheact researchers alike,weshallcover thefollowing: permutations,omissionsandaddi- lational strategies.Since someoftheseprocesseshave beenusedby CDAand TS esses are clearlylinkedwithproduction oreditingtechniquesratherthanwithtrans- concepts, which needtobeaddressed before proceeding.Fairclough’s usestwo framework tant withCDAthanitmightbeinitiallythoughtof. In fact,there are twoconcepts gies, moralsystemsandsocio-politicalstructures” ( translators asmediatorsseekingtoovercome incompatibilitiesasregards “ideolo- partial We shallusetheterm ( betweentheparticipants the (likely)struggles on theelementsindiscoursewithanideologicalcharacterandnature of relations exerted bytextproducers asrepresentatives ofthecompanytheyworkfor, political andcultural.In thissenseweare concernedwithdecidingonthepower range ofaspectsthatconstitutesocialandculturalpractice,includingeconomic, sion, thatis,theso-called the likelycontradictionsinthisinteraction.Finally, wecometothethird dimen- cles publishedby theBBCNews website. We identifiedanumberofdeficiencies established thatBBCMundo textsfunctionlargelyastranslationsofEnglisharti- ist groupETA wastoblameforthe3/11attacks(Valdeón). In asecond paperwe American newswebsitespresented theSpanish government’s claimsthattheterror- two previous piecesofresearch we covered thewayinwhichqualityBritish and logical componentsinthereporting ofEuropean eventsintheInternet. news In section. text producersasmediators. We shallreturn totheissueofmediationinfinal the mediatingrole ofthetranslatordoesnotalwaysrelate tothefunctionofmedia minimal mediation ( The secondconceptshared bybothCDAand TS isthatof“mediation.” The developmentsin TS over thelastdecadeofferelementsmore concomi- This paper is part ofaprojectThis paperispart researching thevariouslinguisticandideo- Translator THE CORPUSAND THE OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY translation 159-161),althoughtheyhavealsostressed theimportanceof and 107 mediation ( mediation Translator explanation inconnectionwith , whichdonotcorrespond tothewayinwhich 148-152), ( Language Discourse Language maximal 135). This levelmayinvolvea Discourse transformative acts 223-238; ( 138). Critical Translator 14/12/2005, 8:46 223).Consequently, 61). These proc- Translator 153-159)and Media involving 71-72). 143-

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ROBERTO A. VALDEÓN 108 texts. The samereference willbeused below tocommentuponthemainbodiesof We have included theEnglish headlinesas“a” andtheSpanish as“b.” counterparts series ispolitically-laden,whereas thesecondoneintroducesotherlightertopics. Secondly, we onpoliti- shallestablishcomparisonsbetweenthosetextsreporting 2. Since BBCMundo hasbeenconceivedasspecificforSpanish readers, thewrit- 1. sive. The specificaimsare explicitedbelow: whetherthedeficienciesidentifiedinprevious paperareand ascertain perva- the reporting ofinternationalevents. The objective istoobtainawiderperspective sequently, thefocusisshiftedhere tothestudyof fromtheanalysisofnationalnews the majorityoftextscovered internationalratherthanSpanish and,con- news, identified asSTs, togetherwiththeircorresponding TTs inSpanish. Ontheother, thatwereinto accounttwopoints.Ontheonehand,weselectedreports clearly ish fromBBCMundo andother25fromBBCNews. The selectionoftextstook strategies used. 25inSpan-The corpusgathered forthestudyincludes50articles, analyse theideologicalcomponentthatpermeatesthrough thetargettextsand a significantnumberoftranslatedversionsBBCWorld reports, ouraimisto present inthe TTs. OnceithasbeenestablishedthatBBCMundo tendstopublish were negative(Valdeón). forthemostpart though theirgoalsdiffered, theoverall effectsofthesechangesontheresulting texts in thetransformative act,suchaspermutations,additionsoromissions,and,al- translational processes,ontheother. We showed how strategies bothshared certain concerning discursive practices, editorialpolicyroutines,ontheonehand,and The mostinteresting headlinesfromthe corpus are listedbelow. The first terests andsensitivityoftheOtherare respected intheSpanish versions. readership, onthequalityofmediatingprocess, andonwhetherthein- tified intheprevious twosectionsaccountforthespecificityof target latter mightvary. We shallreflect uponwhetherthestrategiesusedandiden- threatening nature, wemightinferthatthetranslationalstrategies usedinthe cal issuesandthosedealingwithnon-politicaltopics.Because oftheirless permutations. attentiontothefollowingparticular strategies: omissions,additionsand items,paying lexical choicesoftheheadsandmainbodiesnews formation inthetwolanguages.Secondly, we shallcover and thestructural used intheheadlines,sincethere are differences important insentential the ultimatereaders. Firstly, weshallconsiderthetranslationalstrategies consumers withefficienttextsthatmediatebetweenthesource writersand by manyresearchers (A.Bell,“Language”; Nord; Mason), toprovide the ers/translators shouldtakeintoaccountthisspecificity, ashasbeennoted In aspectsconcerningthelikelyideologicalbias thispaperweturntonew 108 HEADLINES 14/12/2005, 8:46 06 Valdeón.pmd other hand,“Iraqis” appearasthesubjectofheadlinewithnoreference to itemsdealingwithIraqigiven initialprominenceinnews topics.In Ex.5a,onthe larly noticeableisthecaseofEx.3aand4a,where “US andEU”“US”are receives initialfocus,whetherwe are dealingwithnationsorindividuals.Particu- the main benefit theirown positionsandsuppressthosethatdonot(Fowler 1991:70). Thus, allows writerstoconsiderseveralideological possibilitiesandusethosethatmay of offering“different encodings” ofthesame“state ofaffairs” (322). This process headlines are affectedby transitivity, aprocessnotedbyHallidayasbeing capable patternsasinthestandardstructural variety ofthelanguage.Additionally, English found inothercontexts(Swan 359-369),whereas inSpanish theyfollow thesame nottobe the transformationofverbtenses,andusespecificvocabulary distinct from Spanish ones. These includetheomissionofauxiliaries and articles, languages ( Ex. 13b. ysexo:eldebate Deporte Ex. 12b. Madonna inicianuevagiramundial Ex. 11b. Cannes:Moore ganalaPalma deOro Ex. 10b. “Salvador Dali,yomismo,esmuyricoyamaeloro” Ex. 9b. Barcelona, capitaldeldiálogo Ex. 8a.Bill GatesyFrasier, juntosen TV Ex. 13a. The mythsofsexbefore sport Ex. 12a.Madonna 50-dayworldtour starts Ex. 11a.Anti-Bush filmwinsCannesprize Ex. 10a. Why doesDalistilldelight? Ex. 9a.Spain hosts“culture Olympics” Ex. 8a.Bill GatestostarinFrasier Non-political issues Ex. 7b. Asesinanacineastaholandés Ex. 6b. “Soy Saddam Hussein, presidente deIrak” Ex. 5b. Irak seharácargodeSaddam Hussein Ex. 4b. El poderpasaamanosiraquíes Ex. 3b. Apoyo aIrak prometenEE.UU.yUE Ex. 2b. Explosiónmata presidente checheno Ex. 1b. Gibraltar celebraconpolémica Ex. 7a.Gunman killsDutch filmdirector Ex. 6a.DefiantSaddam appearsincourt Ex. 5a.Iraqis totakecustodyofSaddam Ex. 4a.UShandsover sovereignty inIraq toIraqEx. 3a.USandEUpledgesupport Ex. 2a.Chechenpresident killedbybomb Ex. 1a.Gibraltar celebration“offensive” Political issues Although AllanBellclaimsthatnewsheadlinesare fairlyregular across actor Language (Halliday 30-33;Fowler, “Language” 71;Jucker) inthenewsevent 187),English headlinesfollow well-establishedpatterns,quite 109 14/12/2005, 8:46

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ROBERTO A. VALDEÓN 110 themselves. commassignaltheuseofdirectThe inverted speech,eveniftranslated pics,” ininverted commas,reproducing thecomparisonusedby theorganizers Barcelona over thesummer of2004. The headlinedescribesthisas“culture Olym- to theopeningofso-called“Forum,” aseriesofculturaleventstakingplacein role. The English originalchoosesSpain item,whichrefers astheactorofnews taking thetargetreadership amore intoaccount, performs positive mediating cative event.For instance,Ex. 9aand9bare anexampleofapermutationthat, toattractthereaders andanticipateaninterpretationwill serve ofthecommuni- anideologicalcomponent. metaphoric appearance,alsocarry These expressions the ST. Often thisisdoneby meansofidiomaticexpressions, which,behindtheir use ofdirect speechmightprojecttheimageofobjectiveness. Bell, “Language” 189),buttheideologicalimpositionispresent event thoughthe hereperforming oneofitsfunctions,namelytoattractthereader’s attention(A. words outofcontext,unlesstheyproceedtoread thereport. The headlinemightbe fact thatSaddam hasbeenoustedfrom power, butwillbeunabletounderstandthe before court. These already implydefiance,sincethereaders willbeaware ofthe nent receives, thus,completefocusastheheadlinereproduces Saddam’s actualwords event, thefactthatSaddam istoappearbefore inIraq. court The evaluative compo- tive contentofthesourceheadlineby omittingthereference totheactualnews Presidente deIrak.” The connotativeeffectoftheheadlineoutweighs theinforma- Spanish version,thereport isintroducedwithaquotation:“Soy Saddam Husseim, is presented as“defiant,” anadjective withaclearconnotative reference. In the offers thereader anevaluative commentonthestature ofSaddam before court:he emphasis toSaddam by making himthesubjectofheadline.Apremodifier item.Inby themainactorofnews Ex. 6a,theEnglish textproducer givesinitial having recourse toanunnaturalfronted element. instead ofthepassive(asinEx. 2b)or, asinthealready mentionedEx.3b, by noun(asin13b),byusingtheactive voice be donebymeansofanintroductory strategies. Firstly, translatorsmightshifttheemphasisofnewsitem. This might processes ofsometypeforthetargetaudience. We mightdistinguishfourmajor 12a and12binthesecondseries. outadaptation The tendencyis,then,tocarry ish sentence.However, thistypeofheadlinesisrare andcanonlybefoundinEx. nally Ex. 5brenders thesourceheadlineliterally, butrelayed asawell-formedSpan- “manos iraquíes,”emphasizetheideaofIraqi sovereignty over foreign powers. Fi- has omittedanyreference totheUSandtwonounphrases,“el poder” and but theresulting headlineisunnaturalinthetargetlanguage.In Ex.4b, thewriter process alientoSpanish: “Apoyo aIrak” hasbeenfronted toreceive initialfocus, been shiftedtoIraq inallthree cases.In Ex.3b, thetranslatorhasusedasyntactic of theIraqi takingfullresponsibility forthenewstatusquo. judiciary powers inthecountry, inthethird exampletheheadlinestrivestoconvey theidea in thefirsttwocases,there isaclearevaluative presentation oftherole of Western external powers. The function oftheseheadlinesseemstobequitedifferent. Whereas In thethird strategy, acompletechangeof textproducers opttoperform The secondstrategyinvolves theuseofadirect quotationofwords uttered The emphasisinthematchingSpanish headlines,ontheotherhand,has 110 14/12/2005, 8:46 06 Valdeón.pmd Thus, in follows oftheinformationhasbeenomitted. thesourcetextratherliterallybutpart and,therefore,elements withinsentencesare judgedunnecessary leftout.Ex. 3b But notalltheexamplesofomissionare sostraightforward. Frequently, certain ofthesitcom,whichare deletedintheSpanishmation aboutthehistory article. mark the200thepisodeofseries. The lasttenparagraphsofferadditionalinfor- information aboutBill Gates’ cameorole inthe TV comedyprogramme ted altogether. This occursinEx.8aand8b. In thisitem,theEnglish textprovides eventiscommunicated tothereaders,main news additionalinformationisomit- content intheoriginal. Very andoncethe oftenthedeletion isstraightforward, Spanish isnotallottedthesamespace,andwritersmustleave outpartofthe service undergone drasticprocesses ofreduction, bothinthefirstandsecondseries. The the spacerequirements ofthewebsite. 17out oftheoriginal25sourcetextshave polémica.” nature ofthecelebrations inGibraltar hasbeentoneddown to“celebra con the prize. This alsoappliestoEx.1aand3bwhere thereference tothe“offensive” disappears intheSpanish version,whichmerely presents Moore asthewinnerof film thatwasawarded thefirstprizeat2004CannesFestival. This element Ex. 11a,forinstance,thewritergivesinitialemphasistopoliticalnature ofthe present intheoriginal headlineby substitutingoromittingsomeofitselements. In organizers. tious “capital deldiálogo,”butalsoinaccordance withtheexpressed wishesofthe actor ofthenewseventandturnscityintomuchmore positive andambi- into English. The Spanish version, ontheotherhand,prefers “Barcelona” asthe Omissions. This strategyallows thewriter/translatortoadapttext poder, lasituacióndeseguridadsiguesiendobastanteinestable. Sin embargoelpuntodominantefueIrak, donde,acuatrodías deltraspasode trasatlántico, lacrisishumanitariaenSudán yelprogramanucleardeIrán. En lacumbre, quedurósólounashoras,tambiénsetrataron temasdecomercio Ex.5b patible withtheexistingUSGlobalPositioning System. And adealwassignedtomaketheEU’s planned satellitenavigationsystemcom- (...) EU sincethelatter’s expansionto25membersinMay. summit atDromoland Castle,inCountyClare —thefirstbetweentheUSand The situationinIraq justdaysbefore thescheduledhandover dominatedthebrief nuclear programme. The summitalsocovered trans-Atlantictrade issues,thecrisisinSudan andIran’s Ex. 3a Finally, strategyinvolves thefourth toningdown thepoliticalcomponent 111 STORIES PROPER 14/12/2005, 8:46 Frasier to

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ROBERTO A. VALDEÓN 112 we read that“George Best, whooncesaid,“Iusedtogomissingalot–Miss Canada, women, givingtheiropinionabouttheeffectsofsexon thecompetition.In theST event.of thenews and withsportsmen The report presents anumberofinterviews Ex. 13aand13b, thetranslatorhasaddedextrainformationaboutoneofactors or explanation,remains afeature ofmostBBCMundo texts. terrorist groupETA. This strategy, irrespective ofwhether we regard itasaddition tend toprovide theirEnglish readership withadditionalinformationaboutthe report.English In news Valdeón weshowed how English-speaking newswebsites original source ofthenewsitem,whetherthiscanbeaagencydispatchor producers oftenprovide informationnotsuppliedby alittlehelpbyinserting the alientothereality surroundingthetextconsumer.particularly For thisreason, text orevents whichmaysound become familiarwithforeigninstitutions,norms,history writing usuallyresorts toanadaptationprocess thatallows prospective readers to formation responds tobothnewswritingstrategiesandtranslationalprocesses. News to maketheirown judgementonMrBalkenende’s words. left-wing filmdirector, and,consequently, thereaders are spared oftheopportunity pressed thecomparisonbetween the murder oftheextreme-right leaderandthe tion ortheinfluenceofIslam onDutch society. The writer/translatorhassup- Fortuyn, thefounderofaright-wingpartythatcriticized issuessuchasimmigra- the comparisonbeingmadebetweenmurder ofthefilm-maker and thatofMr translator omitsthesecondhalfofPrime Minister’s words, andmore precisely inaceptable queelexpresar unaopiniónseamotivo deestebrutalasesinato.” The Ministro holandés,Jan Peter Balkenende, condenóelcrimeny manifestóque“es climate,” “headded.” The Spanish text,ontheotherhand,isreduced to“El Primer we are reminded ofthemurder ofFortuyn. We cannotresign ourselvestosucha pressing youropinionwouldbethecauseofthisbrutalmurder. Onadaylikethis said: “Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said“itisunacceptableifex- including Queen Beatrix andthePrime Minister. The latterisreported tohave final sectionofthereport whentheSTintroducesviewsofDutch personalities, in boththeSTand TT). The onlydeviationfromtheoriginaltextcomesin awkward thisview(suchastheuseof“controversial” lexicalchoices thattosupport Dutch filmdirector”). The Spanish textfollows theoriginallineby line,withsome may have hadaninfluenceonthefinaldecisionaboutwhattoincludein TT. ity ofthetopic,whichmighthave proved highlytime-consumingforthetranslator, ence totheagreement onatechnologicalissue.Space reasons, butalsothecomplex- gards theotherissuesdiscussedinsummit,deletionprocessaffectsrefer- intheEnglishedition.Asre- and theUS,whichcouldhavebeenjudgedcrucial the focusfallsonissueofIraq, ratherthanontherelationshipbetween theEU other hand,thereference totheprecarious situationinIraq hasbeenadded. Thus, that themeetingisfirstofitskindaftertennewstatesjoinedEU.On the points fornon-English speakers,suchasthelocationofsummitandfact Addition processes canbejustifiedinthe TTs for avarietyofreasons. In Additions. The strategyofimplementingasourcetextwithadditionalin- Let usnow turntoreport onthedeathof Theo Van Gogh(“Gunman kills We noticehere theomissionofwhatmighthaveberegarded asirrelevant 112 14/12/2005, 8:46 06 Valdeón.pmd the situation(“Tras emphasizesthenew TT catorcemesesdeocupación”), and,as UShasformallyhandedover(“The power inIraq, twodaysaheadofschedule”), themainactionofsentence text underlinestheroleofUSasperforming This transformationalsooccursintheheadofreport. Thus, whiletheEnglish role oftheAmericangovernment isnotfocalized: “El poder pasaamanosiraquíes.” the readers willnecessarilybeaware ofthepoliticalsituationincountry, butthe full power oftheevent, theUS,receives focalattention.In theSpanish headline, headline reads “UShandsover sovereignty inIraq,” where the English headlinehasbeenomittedinthe TT. Letusremember thattheEnglish mentioned above, itissignificanttonoticethatthereference totheUSin American government hashandedover thepower toaprovisional Iraqi cabinet.As the 4b thetextsreport ontheever-changingpoliticalsituationincountry: offer goodexamplesofthesubtlechangesappliedby thetranslators.In Ex.4aand Among thetextswithastrong onIraq internationalcomponent,thosereporting be instrumentalinexposingtheideologicalagendaofnewscompany. limits. The reason forthe changes mightdifferbuttheresulting textwillcertainly pressure time putuponthetextproducerstocompletetheirtaskswithincertain tic. Permutations canbetheresult ofcareful planningortheconsequenceof more than oneinterpretation, thatis,itactivates ambiguityasatextualcharacteris- information, butthealterationofmessageinsuchawaythatitcouldleadto not involvethetotalomissionofpartinformationoradditionnew policies orideologyofthecompanytheyworkfor. This adaptationprocessdoes put thatthewritersand/ortranslatorsencounterinorder toadaptittheneeds, be more thanchallenged. related tothefamousDutch painter.” The needtoadd“fallecido” inthe could TT fallecido pintordelmismonombre,” whereas theST reads “Van Gogh—whowas famous relative ofthevictimthus:“Van Gogh estabarelacionado conelconocidoy litical items.In Ex.7b, thetranslatordecidedtocomplementreference tothe Gates, theworld’s richestman.”Asimilarprocess iscarriedoutinothermore po- TT, whereas theSTassumesthatreader willbefamiliarwithBill Gates: “Bill we read “Bill Gates,elfundadordeMicrosoft yhombre másricodelplaneta” inthe writer/translator mightdenoteanideologicalbiasagainsttheinterviewee. minimize thesignificanceofhisrolewithinarticle. The optionsmadeby the the other, theadditionofcolloquiallexicon,suchas“parrandero” and“refocilarse,” one hand,thefirsthalfofMrBest’s hasbeendeleted.On viewsonsexbefore sport y hacerlolanocheantes.”But thisisnottheonlychangeputintoeffect.On the que hayunagrandiferencia entre refocilarse pocosminutosantesdelpitazoinicial diceporexperiencia uno delosparranderos másfamososdelmundodeporte, iarize Spanish “El readers exfutbolista,George Best, familiarwiththeinterviewee: writer/translator introduces “futbolista británico” inthesubjectorder tofamil- ing sexminutesbefore amatch,butthenightbefore? No problem.”In the TT, the Miss ,,” disagrees. He woulddrawthelineathav- Political issuesare oftentheobjectofvarious typesoftransformations. Permutations. Permutation entailsthetransformationoflinguisticin- Finally, additionsare frequent inmost introductory TTs. In Ex.8aand8b, 113 14/12/2005, 8:46 actor carrying the carrying

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ROBERTO A. VALDEÓN 114 examples ofhow thesetransformationsare applied: cally inconvenient foraSpanish-speaking audience. The following extract contains elementsoromittingothersthatmighthavebeenconsidered tobepoliti- certain the reshuffle ofthevariouseventsbeingreported. This iscarriedoutby adding llevó acabo”). flexive verbtoavoid thereference event totheUSasmainactorofnews (“se traspaso depoderalnuevo gobiernointerinoenIrak”). He/she alsooptsforare- event,the news thetranslatorprefers toputemphasisontheprocess itself(“el ofthetransitivityprocess,whichallowspart thewritertohighlightanelementof Fairclough, assumptions acceptedby theparticipant inagivenstretch ofdiscourse (Simpson 5; nal thelackoffamiliaritytranslatorwithnewswritingstrategiesinSpanish. organization togetherwithitsacronym alsostandsoutinthetext. This mightsig- “líderes” ratherthantothe“UKPrime Minister,” theuseoffullname en unacumbre.” Althoughthemainpointisuseofamore genericreference to Organización del Tratado delAtlánticoNorte (OTAN) seaprestaban aparticipar ister Tony Blair ataNato summitinIstanbul” becomes“cuando loslíderes dela background situationoftheannouncement. Thus, “after talks withUKPrime Min- it isdeletedaltogether. This omissionforcesthewriter/translatortorearrange the ing foraSpanish readership, whohadopposedtheinvasionofIraq, and,therefore, event, underliningBritain’s roleinthenewsituation. This isjudgedtobethreaten- to MrBlair. In theSTwe encounteraclearlyethnocentricperspectiveofthenews Spanish version,however, provides thesameinformationbutomitsanyreference to thekeyrole ofMrBlair intheongoingpoliticalprocessregion. The ST refers toBBC’s politicaleditorintheregion, Andrew Marr, whoclearlypoints the talksbetween anIraqi officialandtheBritish Prime Minister. Further down the an earlyhandover ofpower, themeetingofNato leadersinIstambul andnotably The manipulation of the story proper ismuchmore extensive,The manipulationofthestory asshown in For thefinalsection weshallrely onthedefinitionofideologyasaset The source textprovides precise informationabouttheeventsthatledto este lunesenlaciudadturcadeEstambul. Norte (OTAN) seaprestaban enunacumbre aparticipar dedosdíasqueseinicia Hoshyar Zebari,cuandoloslíderes delaOrganización del Tratado delAtlántico La sorpresiva medidafueanunciadaprimeroporelcancillerinterinodeIrak, Ex. 4b Tony Blair ataNato summitinIstanbul. by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari,speakingaftertalkswithUKPrime Minister The surprisemove thehandover tobringforward ofsovereignty wasfirstdisclosed Ex. 4a Language 114 2),shared by translationscholars(Hatim &Mason, DISCUSSION 14/12/2005, 8:46 Discourse 06 Valdeón.pmd 160-161; Hatim &Mason, needs expediencytopostthematerialsonnet.Besides, textproducersworking pressures onthewriter. Translation isatime-consumingactivityforcompanythat the text-producing systematwork. Working putsadditional foranInternet service TTs donotfunction,thus,intheinterest ofthetargetreaders. even ifspeakersofthetargetlanguage,are alsoembedded withinthesource culture. the source culture, sourceculture constraintsapplytothem,andthetranslators, these textsare muchananomalywithin very TS. They are commissionedwithin from theSTto TT, butremains clearlyembeddedwithintheST. Consequently, also locatedinthesourceculture. The ethnocentricityoftheprocessdoesnotshift production/translation process is initiatedinthesource culture byaninstitution In start. from thecaseofBBCMundo othertargettextsfromthevery texts,the previous thatwe haveexamineddiffer pointsinmind,thetranslatednewsarticles in thetargetculture, andthetargetaudienceisgivenpriority. However, bearingthe the targettext. Translations would beethnocentricinnature sincetheyare initiated ethnocentric perception oftheculture oftheother(thesource) isstrengthened in ized or deleted)perception ofthesourceculture” (223),whichimpliesthatthe missioned according towhethertheyfitintothetarget’s culture general- (distorted, sumptions” mightbeatworkonoccasions. the productionprocess and,therefore, individual(ratherthatthecorporate)“as- tors sincetheorganizationwillbeunabletoinfullcontrolofallaspects this sense,theBBCcouldbeatadisadvantage withrespect totheirwriters/transla- in theworld(Allan2004)althoughspeakersofotherlanguagesproduce them.In missioned by amediaorganizationthatholdshegemonicpositioninBritain and apply.web space,timeandbudgetwillcertainly That is,thetargettextsare com- providedEnglish services bytheBBCand,therefore, limitationsasregards certain proach events, tonews over otheraspectsofthe textproduction process. journalisticstandards,certain suchaseditorialindependenceandanobjective ap- ence, textproducersare working foramediaorganizationthatclaimstoprioritize different socialandcultural backgrounds. Thus, wecometothethird majordiffer- ably varied. The textisreceived byspeakersofanotherlanguagebelongingtovery textisaddressedation atwhichthenews varies considerably, butisalsoconsider- difference.takes ustothesecondimportant The cultural,socialandpoliticalsitu- transformative actintoaforeign languageforaforeign culture orcultures. This foremost, thetextproducer istranslatingatext,notinFairclough’s sense,butasa liarities quitedistinctfromthetextsnormallystudiedby criticallinguists.First and duced. The typeofdiscourseunderscrutiny, however, presents anumberofpecu- planation ofthetextsembeddedwithinsocialdiscourseinwhichtheyare pro- “hegemony” (12)mayalsoprove valuable inthediscussion. beliefs andvalue systems” ( son havespokenofthe“assumptions whichare closelyboundupwithattitudes, The processisalsoinfluenced,asmentionedabove, bytheconditions of All theseaspectsseemtocontradictKatan’s that“translations view are com- It noticingthatBBCMundo isalsoworth ismerely oneofthe43non- In Fairclough’s approach, thethird anex- dimensionattemptstoarticulate 115 Translator Translator 144).Gramsci’s definitionoftheconcept 143-163;Puurtinen 53-54).Hatim&Ma- 14/12/2005, 8:46

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ROBERTO A. VALDEÓN 116 Hatim &Mason pointout( (Valdeón).ing articles Geographicalorigincanalsohaveaneffectonthe TT, as in theBBCMundo homepage,andasreflected inthetextualfeatures oftheresult- for theSpanish oftheBBCtendtobeLatin-Americanorigin,asexplicited service ligent approach totheactualproduction ofthe TTs. stricteditorialpolicies andaratherneg- BBC, withitsown ideologicalstance,very of discourselikelytoconsumethetextsandapublicorder ofdiscourse,that ofthe been dilutedby theirrole asmere intermediaries betweenthemanyprivateorders However, therole ofthetranslatorsasmediators between twoormore cultures has image ofunbiasedjournalismandspecificityforaSpanish-speaking readership. as aglobalcommunicationmediumhasbeentakenadvantage oftoprojectthe news corporation.It mightbeevenarguedthatthetraditionalpositionofBBC theissueofloyaltyoriented projection, inparticular towards thepoliciesof language (Trosborg oneofthemseemstofavour asource- 148),eachandevery intherenderingthe five ofhybridtextsintoanother typesoffactorsintervening sumed inaculture alientothewholeprocess ofproduction and/ortranslation.Of heavy influenceofthesourcelanguageandculture. The productisfinallycon- translation/writing process, but,beingLondon-based,theyare alsoexposedtothe ers ofSpanish, with theirown outthe politicalandculturalbackgrounds, carry is reinforced bytherole playedby thetranslatorsthemselves.Non-European speak- might regard asthreatening. plies, initsmostexpedientforms,theeliminationofmaterialthattargetreaders the Internet, market. itshegemonicpositioninthenewglobalizednews This im- thus, itshistoricprestige (Gramsci 12)innewsproductiontomaintain,through ones, whichare likelytopassunnoticedforthetargetaudience. The BBCuses, mutations) allows ideological agendas,includingpersonal theproducertoimport of the TTs. However, theuseofeditorialstrategies(omissions,additions andper- Foreignizing elementsare obvious inthesyntactic,grammaticalandlexicalchoices therefore, seriouslyquestionedsincethesource culture prevails over thetargetone. remain market. aleadingforce intheglobalnews The domesticationoftheSTs is, stood, firstandforemost, oftheBBCto asdeeplyrootedintheinterest onthepart to makeamajorimpactontheresulting TTs. These processesshouldbeunder- the targettexttranslatorchosetoomitit. the transformationprocess. The Englishversion includedthecomparison,butin 160; Allan163),andshows theinterpretative nature ofthewriter’s in intervention leader Fortuyn, ontheother, wasunlikeBBC’s policyofdetachment(M.Bell 158- connection betweenthedeathoffilm-maker, ontheonehand,andright-wing rather thaneditorialnorms.For instance,inEx.7aand7b, thedeletionof Van Gogh, where lexicalchoicesandomissionsseemedtosignalpersonaloptions reporting onAmericanpolicies,ordealingwiththemurder ofDutch film-maker production process. That seemstobethecaseoftranslatedversionstexts since theybringtheirown linguistic,politicalandculturalbackgroundintothe bound toaffectthepoliticalstancewritersmighttakewhenrelaying theST, All theprevious pointshighlightthehybridityof TTs, afeature which Consequently, thepeculiaritiesofBBCMundo’s translationprocessesseem 116 Discourse 40), since the birthplace ofthetranslatorsis 40),sincethebirthplace 14/12/2005, 8:46 06 Valdeón.pmd ten, threatening nature thatseemstocharacterize mostofthetextsexamined. rather thanviceversa,whichwouldimplytoningdown theethnocentric,and,of- enough toadapttheirforeign languageeditionstotheneedsoftargetreaders, role ofthetranslatorvis-à-vistargetreaders. These companiesshouldbeflexible scenario forthecompanyinnewmillenium,andwouldabuseinteractional maintain thathegemonicpositionatwhatever cost. This wouldhardly bethebest prestigebackgrounds, theBBCwouldbebetrayingitswell-deserved inorder to companies offerinformationinSpanish forSpanish speakersbelongingtodifferent public doesnotneedtorely anymore ononesolemedium,whenhundreds of does notattaintheexpectedquality. Ifthisisthecase,andatatimewhen that advantage ofitstraditionalprestige markettopromoteaservice inthenews there couldbegrounds to arguethattheBBCistaking news item.Otherwise, eventitselfandoftheproductionprocess be fullyinformed,bothofthenews But translatedversionsshouldbeclearlyidentifiedassuchsothatthereaders could News writingofanytyperelies, tosomeextentorother, ontranslationalprocesses. necessarily implyeliminatingthetranslationoftextspostedonitsEnglishedition. allowing thewriters and/ortranslatorstoproducereasonable reports. This doesnot prioritizes excellence, itneedstoprovide BBCMundo withtheresources capableof text over financialissues.IftheBBCwantstoofferitsSpanish that readers aservice elementssuchasthequalityofresultingthese companiesshouldprizecertain ideologicalpositions,whichare projected ontothelikelyreadership.tory Secondly, contradic- the righttobeinformed,donotabusetheminanattemptpreserve fundamentalrightssuchasthefreedomcies that,whilepreserving ofthepress and corporationstoputintoeffectpoli- ofthenews and oftenwillingness,onthepart are, indeed,enormous.Firstly, theselimitationslargelyderive fromthecapacity, their informative over thepersuasivefunction. The constraintsforthetranslator ble ofavoiding theethnocentricityidentifiedin TTs examined,andpreserve translator working underpressure forabignewscompanycanproduce textscapa- The fundamentalquestion,asweconcludethepaper, iswhetherthewriter/ 117 14/12/2005, 8:46

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