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Translation across Modalities: The Practice of Translating Written Text into Recorded Signed Language An Ethnographic Case Study by Svenja Wurm Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Heriot-Watt University, Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies October 2010 The copyright in this thesis is owned by the author. Any quotation from the thesis or use of any of the information contained in it must acknowledge this thesis as the source of the quotation or information. Abstract This study creates a space for analysing an emerging translational activity, the practice of translating written text into recorded signed language. With its non-prototypical modality pair of source and target texts, the activity neither matches existing conceptualisations of interpreting nor those of translation modes. In an ethnographic case study I investigate the translational mode displayed, paying particular attention to the translational process designed by the practitioner and the impact of source and target text modalities. Drawing on literacy and multimodality research, this work re- affirms that communication is embedded in social, cultural, historical and ideological contexts and foregrounds the involved (human and non-human) agents. Data generated through observation, interviews and analysis of source, target and preparatory documents reveal an event influenced by the intrinsic properties of text modalities, the translator’s socio-professional background, and socially constructed constraints and opportunities. Developing concepts of “translational practice”, “translational events” and “affordances”, I challenge the prototype-based dichotomy (translation/interpreting) used to conceptualise translational activity. By negotiating data of a non-central practice with theoretical concepts developed within Western Translation Studies, this research contributes to enlarging and de-centralising the discipline. Thickly describing one translational event, conceptualising written-signed translation practice and re-thinking central translational concepts, this study highlights implications for theory, pedagogy and the profession. ii Für meine Mutter und für meinen Vater. iii Acknowledgements I am extremely fortunate to have had the support of many people, who, by listening, discussing and distracting, have made this project doable and exciting. Thank you all for being there. I would first like to express my gratitude to the School of Management and Languages and the British Federation of Women Graduates for funding this research. I am particularly indebted to the participants of this study, the translational practitioner for generously offering her time, sharing her expertise and designing a translational event that made this work fascinating, and the commissioner for all our conversations and his continuous support. I am extremely grateful to my main supervisor, Prof. Graham Turner, for believing in this work from beginning to end, for his gentle, encouraging and precious input, for offering support no matter when I needed it and for providing opportunities that go far beyond this project. I also thank my other supervisors, Dr. Raquel de Pedro Ricoy and Prof. Mike Sharwood Smith, for their valuable input at the crucial moments. I have been additionally lucky to have been surrounded by colleagues within and outside Heriot-Watt, who have greatly stimulated this research implicitly and explicitly. I look forward to working with you in the future. There has been a group of people, many of whom have become good friends, who have been more supportive than I ever could have wished for by spending endless hours of sharing experiences, listening and debating, commenting and proofreading, providing translations and piloting this study. Thank you, Anna, Annabel, Anya, Elaine, Gary, Georgia, Irene, Jo, Liz, Nat, Rachel, Richard, Steve, Varvara, all LINCS-PhDs, library-goers, the tipcitis and Team Y. Particularly I would like to mention: Maria, my office-mate, adopted PhD-mother and one of the best friends I ever had. Thank you for listening, encouraging and helping me make the most minute decisions all these times. Hanna, my big PhD sister. You’ve been a great role model, showing me how to do it best. Thank you for our many conversations and I look forward to spending more time with you again once all this is done. Jules and Sharon, my PhD twin sisters. Thanks for running with me right to the finishing line. Priscilla, my dear library companion. Thank you for our stimulating debates about affordances, methodologies and general library-life. Ben, my muse. There are not many people who get excited over enlarged signing spaces. Our conversations have been most stimulating and your input has been invaluable from beginning to end. This PhD would have been impossible without distraction. Thank you, Anna and Juri, Darri and Tam, Dummy Jim and Jo, Jim and Nat, Maria and Catharina, Matt and Lucy, Stefano and all other Edinburgh and world-wide friends, for fun and friendliness, conversation and inspiration, adventures and fizz and generally pedalling hard. And Ingebjørg and Sigmund for providing the most beautiful working space. To my family, my father, my brother: for your calming comfort and support, your belief in me and interest in this work, which was most needed. I win, the little green people lose. Danke! To my mother: I missed you more than anything during this. But I could not have done it without your encouraging, comforting, silly and excitable words, which I will never forget. I know you would have been genuinely fascinated by this. I wish you were here, not only to show you the outcome. Finally. Gudmund. What can I say? For all of the above. For being the most patient person in this world. For being my kugelmensch, my salighetsting, my shelter from the storm when I’m tangled up in blue. And more than anything, for being yourself all the time. Thank you. Svenja Wurm, Edinburgh, July 2010 iv ACADEMIC REGISTRY Research Thesis Submission Name : Svenja Wurm School/PGI: School of Management and Languages Version: (i.e. First, Final Degree Sought PhD in Languages Resubmission, Final) (Award and Subject area) Declaration In accordance with the appropriate regulations I hereby submit my thesis and I declare that: 1) the thesis embodies the results of my own work and has been composed by myself 2) where appropriate, I have made acknowledgement of the work of others and have made reference to work carried out in collaboration with other persons 3) the thesis is the correct version of the thesis for submission and is the same version as any electronic versions submitted*. 4) my thesis for the award referred to, deposited in the Heriot-Watt University Library, should be made available for loan or photocopying and be available via the Institutional Repository, subject to such conditions as the Librarian may require 5) I understand that as a student of the University I am required to abide by the Regulations of the University and to conform to its discipline. * Please note that it is the responsibility of the candidate to ensure that the correct version of the thesis is submitted. Signature of Date: Candidate : Submission Submitted By (name in capitals): Signature of Individual Submitting: Date Submitted: FFForFor Completion in Academic Registry Received in the Academic Registry by (name in capitals): Method of Submission (Handed in to Academic Registry; posted through internal/external mail): E-thesis Submitted (mandatory for final theses from January 2009) Signature: Date: v Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................... ................................................................................................ ................................................................................................ ......................... iiiiii Acknowledgements ................................................................................... ................................................................................................ .................................................................................. ...............iviviv DeclarationDeclaration................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................... .................. vvv Table of ContentsContents................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................... ........ vivivi Table of Figures ................................................................................... ................................................................................................ ........................................................................................ ........... xxx TabTabTableTab le of Tables ................................................................................... ................................................................................................ ........................................................................................ ........... xixixi List of AbbreviationsAbbreviations..................................................................................................................