BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
EST CONGRESS 2019
Keynote Speakers Abstracts are published here as received from the authors and remain the property of the authors.
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The message in the noise: Reflections on complexity in communicating science
Prof. Guy Midgley Stellenbosch University, South Africa
One of the most vital forms of translation today is that from scientific findings to public and policy messages. Human society has risen to become a dominant “force of Nature”, recognized by the geological term Anthropocene, describing an increasingly complex relationship between people and planet. Our understanding of this complexity is evolving, and is itself contributing to the complexity. It seems that we now live in a world of “hyper-complexity”, where the anticipation of future events, based on mostly an incomplete understanding, feeds back to influence current events (“contamination by prediction”). Information is an increasingly valuable commodity, and the ability to recognize messages amongst noise, and translate them, is critical. I will reflect on two examples. First, a message that may have been lost for centuries to millennia in the remnants of a South African stone age society which illustrates how our preconceptions may blind us from perceiving and engaging with a remarkable early scientific insight. Second, the widely misinterpreted “butterfly effect” that originated in climatology, and whose correct understanding could help us to engage more productively with the notion of the limits on our predictive ability in a complex world.
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Translation, Power Asymmetry, Minority Language Cultures
Prof. Paul F. Bandia Concordia University, Canada
In tune with the overall theme of this Congress, “Living Translation”, my talk will explore “The role of translation in the lived experience of the Other.” This study is done in light of the inherent practice of translation in contexts where multilingualism is the norm, as well as within the scientific discourse on alterity and representation of otherness in contemporary global languages. The evocation of translation in contexts of multilingualism and expressions of the lived experience of the Other often imply recourse to the intersection between translation and power relations to account for the impact of global inequalities be they linguistic, economic or technological on the translation process. To the extent that African literature is a window into life in contemporary African society, the role of translation will be discussed with respect to the power imbalance between orality and writing, between indigenous languages and the languages of colonization. This power differential is enhanced further by the ever-increasing gap between languages of officialdom and the evolving and rapidly assertive languages of creolization. African literary discourse lays bare the power differentials that have characterized relations historically in the contexts of colonization, post-colonialism, neo-colonialism and globalization. Translation has indeed been pivotal in negotiating and asserting the African experience within global discourses on inequality, power asymmetry and intercultural relations and communication.
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Minding the Gaps: Translation and Interpreting Studies crossing interdisciplinary boundaries
Prof. Claudia V. Angelelli Heriot-Watt University, Scotland
Translation and interpreting (T&I) are areas of inquiry supported by substantial scholarship. However, the scholarly study of T&I is fairly recent. Only in the last 30 years have anecdotal and largely prescriptive writings on translation and interpreting given way to empirical research and descriptive studies. In addition, recently, the scholarly study of T&I has expanded at a rapid pace. This development is evident in the increasing number of university programs, specialized journals, conferences, scholarly associations, and publishing houses. Translation and interpreting is an interdisciplinary endeavor. Its interplay with other sciences such as sociology, artificial interpreting or with the language industry, however, is incipient. Although we have seen projects that bring together T&I scholars and Computer Sciences, for example, the gap between these two fields still exists and offers many opportunities for cross-fertilization.
In our societies today, linguistic and cultural diversity permeates every thread of human interaction. Communication in general, and inter-linguistic/cultural communication in particular, is perceived, valued, and understood differently by peoples across space and time. In addition, goals, ideas, or messages are not immune to the interplay of social factors (e.g., ethnicity, age, gender, and socio- economic status) to which T&I studies add a layer of complexities.
For TIS experts concerned with issues of language, access, linguistic minorities, and interaction, the field of T&I opens possibilities to explore many areas such as: T&I as a situated practice, the characteristics of communication between speakers of societal and non-societal languages, the nature of language transfer, the processes and products of high-level development of two languages, or the effects of instruction on the development of non-societal languages and its measurement. To that end, in this presentation, we will explore some issues arising from interdisciplinary T & I projects in healthcare, law and education that have resulted from crossing boundaries, yielding important empirical data.
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Translating time: Modelling the (re)processing of emerging meaning
Prof. Kobus Marais Department of Linguistics and Language Practice University of the Free State, South Africa [email protected]
The choice between substance ontology and process ontology has been haunting humanity since, at least, Ancient Greek philosophy. Generally, it seems that the Platonic view that the constant is more basic holds sway in most thinking. The intuitive assumption seems to be that things are the way they are and that one has to put work into changing them. Constancy or substance, in this view, is primary and change (or process) secondary. In translation studies, this plays out in the source text as the stable starting point (stability is primary) that has to be changed (change is secondary) into a target text. In the more pessimistic views, such as those on the impossibility of translation, the form of the source text is so unique or materially set (stable) that it cannot be changed.
Basing my argument on Peirce’s process semiotics and other process thinkers like Deacon (2013), Queiroz (Queiroz & Ata, 2018; Queiroz & Loula, 2010) and Whitehead (1985), I inverse the above argument, arguing that change or process is primary and constancy secondary. Because all of reality is subject to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, it is process taking form rather than form changing (Marais, 2018). This would mean that time is crucial in this conceptualisation. Translation is not only process in the sense of changing a stable text into another stable text. Rather, translation is the very process that drives meaning in the first place. It is the virtual metabolism that relates the metabolism of the organism to its environment. A text is a process that has been constrained materially to be relatively stable, but the stability is not original, it is the effect of semiotic work, translation. My interest is thus in the semiotic work that was done to constrain semiotic process into some form of stability and the ways in which one can get to know or understand these constraints.
This complexity view (Marais, 2014)on process and form has massive theoretical implications for translation studies. I spend half of this paper exploring some of these implications. However, this reversal of ground and figure also challenges the modelling of translation. If translation is process, how do we model it in a static medium such as print? I therefore explore the affordances that new computational technology offers for translating static models into changing ones.
References Deacon, T. W., 2013. Incomplete nature: How mind emerged from matter. New York: WW Norman & Company.
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Marais, K., 2014. Translation theory and development studies: A complexity theory approach. London: Routledge. Marais, K., 2018. A (bio)semiotic theory of translation: The emergence of social-cultural reality. New York: Routledge. Queiroz, J. & Ata, P., 2018. Intersemiotic translation as an abductive cognitive artifact. In: K. Marais & R. Meylaerts, eds. Complexity and translation: Methodological considerations. New York: Routledge. Queiroz, J. & Loula, A., 2010. Self-organization and emergence of semiosis. Jornada Peirceana, 13(2), pp. 239-249. Whitehead, A. N., 1985. Process and reality (Corrected version. New York: The Free Press.
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Panel Presentations Abstracts are published here as received from the authors and remain the property of the authors.
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60 years after Jakobson: new directions in intersemiotic translation
From intersemiotic translation to transmediality: a view from semiotics of culture
Elin Sütiste University of Tartu
In this paper, I propose to revisit the notion of intersemiotic translation from the viewpoint of cultural semiotics of Tartu-Moscow School. Juri Lotman and his colleagues began to think about translation around the same time as Jakobson’s seminal paper was published in 1959. However, differently from Jakobson, their views seldom reached the forefront of translation studies. Reasons for this were foremost disciplinary, but also political and linguistic. Publications of the first generation of cultural semioticians of Tartu-Moscow School very seldom addressed the issue of translation explicitly, e.g. on the level of the title of the paper, and appeared usually in volumes dedicated to semiotics or history of culture – not translation. Secondly, these papers were for the most part written in Russian and due to political reasons saw little translation into English or other languages. Those that did get translated, were again framed as pertaining to semiotics, not translation. At the same time, especially Lotman addressed the issue of translation on numerous occasions in his works. Furthermore, along his career, Lotman began to increasingly regard translation as a primary mechanism of meaning generation on all levels from an individual to the semiosphere as a whole, encompassing intersemiotic translation (in Jakobson’s terms) as the most fundamental characteristic of any semiotic system. Recently, Lotman’s views on translation have begun to attract more attention (e.g. Monticelli 2017; Ibrus, Torop 2015). His ideas have been fruitfully applied to the analysis various cultural phenomena, including the specifically present-day phenomena like digital media (Ibrus 2015) or transmediality (Dusi 2015). I argue that the notion of intersemiotic translation can in a productive way be brought together with Lotmanian semiotics of culture and reinterpreted in a broader context, especially foregrounding the idea of transmedial translation as culture’s self- communication.
References Dusi, Nicola 2015. Don Quixote, intermediality and remix: Translational shifts in the semiotics of culture. International Journal of Cultural Studies 18(1): 119-134. Ibrus, Indrek 2015. Dialogic control: Power in media evolution. International Journal of Cultural Studies 18(1): 43-59. Ibrus, Indrek; Torop, Peeter 2015. Remembering and reinventing Juri Lotman for the digital age. International Journal of Cultural Studies 18(1): 3-9. Monticelli, Daniele 2017. From modelling to untranslatability: Translation and the semiotic relation in Y. Lotman’s work (1965-1992). Acta Slavica Estonica IX: 15-35.
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A Functional Type of Intersemiotic Translation: John Cranko’s Ballet Onegin (1965)
Anna Ponomareva UCL
The aim of my presentation is to analyse intersemiotic translation in order to find out what makes it to be functional, or the one that does not appear to look as an impoverished version of its original. The focus of my research is John Cranko’s ballet Onegin (1965) which I treat as a multimodal version of Pushkin’s novel in verse Eugene Onegin (1830s) and Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin (1879). It will be shown that Pushkin’s nearly four hundred stanzas have not simply shrunken into the three act ballet but are remade as a combination of aural, visual and kinaesthetic practices which are telling the story of the novel. I am going to use the framework of paratextual studies (Genette (1997 [1987]) and Batchelor (2018)) and look at scholarly and critical publications on the various productions of Onegin and also at Cranko’s files kept in the Royal Opera House archive related to his work there and to the production of his ballet at Covent Garden in 2001. The ballet will not be analysed in its entirety. Only one act, Tatiana’s letter scene, will be discussed in detail. The piece is chosen owing to its equally powerful and beautiful interpretations in the novel, opera and ballet. In particular, the peculiar use of a mirror, metaphorically and as a tool, in Cranko’s choreography of the scene might provide clues on the functionality of his translation of Pushkin’s novel. The results of my data collection and its analyses are aimed to contribute to the current discussion of Jakobson’s notion of intersemiotic translation (1959) by suggesting the importance of paratextual elements in translation. This development might open new ways in our understanding of intersemiotic translation, in which, in addition to the translation of words or signs, the style of the author is preserved and interpreted.
Bibliography (selected) Batchelor, K. (2018) Translation and Paratexts. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. Eugene Onegin. A novel in verse by Aleksandr Pushkin (1964). Translated from the Russian with a Commentary by V. V. Nabokov. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Genette, G. (1987) Seuils. Paris: Editions du Seuil. [Paratext: Thresholds of Interpretation (1997) Foreword by R. Macksey. Translated by J.E.Lewin. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Jakobson, R. (1959) “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” in R. A. Brower (ed.) On Translation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 232–239. Percival, J. (1983) Theatre in My Blood. A Biography of John Cranko. London: The Herbert Press. Ponomareva, A. (2012) “Two Scheherazades, a Suite and a Ballet, as Cultural Translations of the Nights” in Médiévales Vol. 51 (special issue “La réception mondiale et transdisciplinaire des Mille et une Nuits”). Amiens: Presses du Centre d' Έtudes Médiévales Université de Picardie - Jules Verne, pp.269-284. Pushkin, A. (1963) Eugene Onegin: A novel in verse. The Bollingen prize translation in the Onegin Stanza by Walter Arndt. New York: Dutton.
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Transferring the text across the Atlantic: a multimodal analysis of intralingual translation
Linda Pilliere Aix-Marseille University
If we are to consider that “the body of the text is not exclusively linguistic” (McGann 1991, 13), but rather a “laced network of linguistic and bibliographical codes”, what exactly is the role played by mulimodality in works of fiction, and how is it to be translated? Using recent approaches to multimodality (Kress & Van Leeuwen; Kong; Nørgaard), this paper will address two main questions: How far does the translation of the material text reveal how the various actors in the production process have positioned themselves in relation to the linguistic text? How far is intersemiotic translation also shaped by cultural, historical and social factors (Jewitt 2013, 251)? In order to address these questions, I will be working from a corpus of American editions of British English novels, and also using American English editions of British English translations of French novels. If we compare British English editions of novels with their American English counterparts, then we can observe quite marked differences in their choice of multimodal features: is this a cultural difference or simply the whim of the individual publishing house? My analysis will include a number of multimodal features: book covers, layout, illustrations and the use of typeface and punctuation. After underlining the important but often neglected role played by multimodal elements in creating specific reader expectancy, I will investigate how these elements are modified for the American English edition. I will be seeking to demonstrate the interplay between intralingual and intersemiotic translation (Jakobson 1959), both of which have been largely neglected in translation studies.
KEY REFERENCES JAKOBSON, Roman. 2000 (1959). On Linguistic Aspects of Translation, in Lawrence Venuti, ed., The Translation Studies Reader. London & New York, Routledge,. JEWITT, Carey. 2009. The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London & New York, Routledge. KONG, Kenneth C. 2006. “A taxonomy of the discourse relations between words and visuals”, Information Design Journal 14 (3). (207-230). KRESS, Gunther & VAN LEEUWEN, Theo. 1996. Reading Images: the Grammar of Visual Design. London & New York, Routledge. MCGANN, Jerome J. 1991. The Textual Condition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. NØRGAARD, Nina. 2018. Multimodal Stylistics of the Novel: More than Words, London, Routledge, 2018 NORRIS, Sigrid. 2004. Analyzing Multimodal Interaction: A Methodological Framework. London & New York, Routledge. ROYCE, Terry D. 2007. “Intersemiotic Complementarity: A Framework for Multimodal Discourse Analysis”, New Directions in the Analysis of Multimodal Discourse. New York, Routledge. (63-109).
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LSF poetry and its spoken translation: any shared prosodic contours?
Fanny Catteau Université Paris 8 Marion Blondel Coralie Vincent CNRS UMR 7023 - Structures formelles du langage
The translation of LSF poetry into French is a new field of exploration for both sign language (SL) linguistics and translation studies. In this study, we look for the footprint of this gestural prosodic organization in the spoken (Sp) translations of LSF poems. First, we expect to find correspondences between some prosodic phenomena in SL and in their oralized translation (Blondel & Le Gac 2007, Brentari et al. 2015, Catteau et al. 2016, Wilbur 1999). Secondly, we expect a correspondence between the prosodic hierarchical structure of the SL and the SpL: hip rotation will undoubtedly play a role in how these groups are delimited and entrenched (Boyes-Braem 1999). We recorded five deaf poets with motion capture systems as they reveal precise movement information (amplitude, duration, speed and acceleration), and is complementary with our analysis, which is based on video and manual annotation (Jantunen 2013, Tyrone et al. 2010); we submitted this collection of poems to seven poetic translation experts and obtained fifty-seven translations into spoken French. Mocap provided us with information on the rotation of the hips (Figure 1), the amplitude and speed of manual movements (Figure 2). We then extracted pitch and intensity from the voice signal in the translations (Figure 3). Our first results indicate that the prosodic contours identified in the gestural signal correspond to analogous ones in the vocal signal. We observed that contrasts in the amplitude of movements lead to notable contrasts in vocal intensity, and that gestural contours delimited by rotation of the hips are vocally transposed. Other prosodic phenomena are still to be analyzed, and, by extending our analysis to all the collected data, we will learn more about the prosodic structure of SL poetry, how it is translated, and to what extent SL prosody can impact its spoken translations.
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Figure 3: Vocal signal of the translation of the extract in Figure 1 (oscillogram in black, pitch curve in blue and intensity curve in green Figure 1: Hip rotation segment sequence in four prosodic groups Figure 2: Manual amplitude (calculation with cylindrical coordinates) segment sequence in the same four prosodic groups
References BLONDEL M. & LE GAC D. (2007). Entre parenthèses... y a-t-il une intonation en LSF? Silexicales 1-16. BOYES-BRAEM P. (1999). Rhythmic temporal patterns in the signing of deaf early and late learners of Swiss German Sign Language. Language and Speech, 42(2-3), 177-208. BRENTARI D., FALK J. & WOLFORD G. (2015). The acquisition of American Sign Language Prosody. Language 91, 144–168. 10.1353/lan.2015.0042. CATTEAU F., BLONDEL M., VINCENT C., GUYOT P. & BOUTET D. (2016). Variation prosodique et traduction poétique (LSF/français): Que devient la prosodie lorsqu’elle change de canal? Journées d’Etude sur la Parole (JEP), Paris. JANTUNEN T. (2013). Signs and transitions: Do they differ phonetically and does it matter? Sign Language Studies 13(2), 211-237. TYRONE M. E., NAM H., SALTZMANE E., MATHUR G. & GOLDSTEIN L. (2010). Prosody and Movement in American Sign Language: A Task-Dynamics Approach. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2010, Chicago. WILBUR, R. B. (1999). Stress in ASL: Empirical evidence and linguistic issues. Language & Speech, 42: 229–250. WILBUR, R.B. & MALAIA, E. (2018) A new technique for assessing narrative prosodic effects in sign languages. In A. Hübl & M. Steinbach (eds.), Linguistic Foundations of Narration in Spoken and Sign Languages, Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
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Translating New Territories: Approaches to Video Art and Translation
Zoran Poposki Laurence Wood The Education University of Hong Kong Marija Todorova The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Exploring translation as a strategy and concept in contemporary art, this paper will discuss the visual production as a translational process. This will be done using a case study of an international video art project co-curated by Zoran Poposki and Laurence Wood, over the course of three editions in the past four years, and involving more than 20 international artists (http://translatingnewterritories.com/en/videos/). As Nicolas Bourriaud states in the Altermodern Manifesto, contemporary lives have become journeys in a chaotic universe, transforming it into a territory, which may be travelled both in time and space. Similar to Walter Benjamin's doing away with the idea of the original and its primacy for translation and "therefore the whole binarism of traditional translation theory" (Buden 2009: 200), Bourriaud's altermodernity is conceptualized as "a matter of replacing the question of origin with that of the destination" (Bourriaud 2010: 40). In this process, it is precisely translation that becomes the operating logic of contemporary art: the passing of code from one form into another, where every element has value only inasmuch it modifies the form of the next one in the never- ending chain of interconnected signifiers. The translated meaning and [consequently] the cultural identity thus produced is something which is not stable, closed and self- contained, but productive, performative, open and in a constant process of movement and change, an ongoing state of becoming. In such a changing terrain, individuals’ daily practices, as well as their sense of self, rely on constant translation and mediation between identities and cultures, an ongoing process of negotiation of cultural meanings. Using the concept of intersemiotic or inter-artistic translation (Vidal 2019) the paper establishes a dialogue between artistic practice and translation, exploring the role of art in translation studies.
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Trapping history like a butterfly and imprisoning reality: photographs of interpreters
John Milton Universidade de São Paulo - USP
Photography is an area which has hardly been linked to Translation Studies. Indeed, the only major work in the area is Framing the Interpreter: Towards a visual perspective, ed. Anxo Fernández-Ocampo, Michaela Wolf (Routledge 2014). This presentation, following on from this work, uses various photographs of interpreters: 19th century US indigenous interpreters: 19th century French diplomats in China; 20th and 21st century interpreters of indigenous tribes in Brazil, and examines these photographs from the following angles:
Photograph as artistic composition - how is the space used, and how are the positions of the figures composed? (Reading Images, Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Routledge 1996)
The Photograph as capturing a moment in time, making a historical record, showing past customs and habits: class stratification; sartorial customs; distance an/or closeness between human beings, and how one society both at itself and at another in terms of friendship and/or hostility. In On Photography (Penguin 1979), Susan Sontag writes: “Photographs are always evocative, trapping history – or one individual’s momentary view of it – like a butterfly and ‘imprisoning reality”. How can this both positive and negative view of photography relate to our pictures of interpreters? Photographs can show us relations between people - interpreter and those he/she is interpreting and can tell us about the profession of interpreting and translating, its status, different forms of translating and interpreting. Basically, a photo “is worth a thousand words”. In Camera Lucida (Hill and Wang 1981), Roland Barthes describes two essential elements of the photograph: is a often study (studium) of a topic with a strong didactic element; but frequently there is an odd, disconcerting or contradictory element (punctum), which may destroy the “truth” the phorograph is intending to convey.
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Big translation history: The use of data mining and big data approaches
“Big Translation History. The Use of Data Mining and Big Data Approaches"
Diana Roig-Sanz Laura Fólica Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Translation Studies and, more precisely, Translation History are currently been changed by big data and data mining approaches. At the intersection of Humanities and Data Science, we aim to enhance the study of a Big Translation History (BTH) as a new and interdisciplinary framework that will allow us to discuss relevant theoretical and methodological problems in the field of Translation Studies.
Considering that BTH is driven by data mining, collection and cleaning of data, visualisation, analysis and interpretation, we propose to address the following issues: a- an accurate definition of BTH; b- the multiple scales of data collection; c- the need for a flexible periodization of the corpus; d- the manageability and feasibility of data collection and visualisation; e- the relationship between qualitative and quantitative analysis.
For doing so, we will explore all these items through different examples of translated literature in the Spanish-speaking book market, both in book format and in periodicals from our ERC Starting Grant project “Social Networks of the Past. Mapping Hispanic and Lusophone Literary Modernity”, which studies the impact and role of Iberoamerican cultural mediators in international modernity between 1898 and 1959.
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Spatial semantics under the Global Condition. The example of Geographical Societies through the lenses of Global Studies and Digital Humanities
Ninja Steinbach-Hüther Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, SFB 1199 Thomas Efer University Leipzig Dirk Hänsgen Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, SFB 1199
The paper proposal is based on our research project about an international comparison of geographical societies 1821–1914 that is conducted within the broader frame of the Collaborative Research Center 1199 (Leipzig University, Germany). Geographical societies contributed significantly to spatialization processes by reacting in varied ways to conditions of globalization during the “long” nineteenth century. They advanced geographical research (by way of expeditions, documentation, and visualisation) and, through their imagination, conveyed and linked new geospatial knowledge. We follwed a methodological mixture of quantitative, qualitative and computational analyses to develop a global typology of geographical societies while comparatively analysing their structural and activity profiles, interconnectedness and thematic and regional orientations. The societies became highly influencing space-entrepreneurs who disseminated their knowledge nationally, internationally and sometimes worldwide through their journals. We are now focusing on the societies` use of terms and their change, translation and transfer related to, in a broader sense, space, geography and the global condition. The huge database that we have established out of the periodical material of 30 geographic societies in Europe, the two Americas as well as in Asia, Northern Africa and Australia is therefore analysed with computational tools and visualisation techniques. The paper, following the theoretical concept of cultural transfers, presents the interdisciplinary and collaborative methodological approach to the data (collection, analysis, visualisation, quantitative-qualitative, inductive-deductive approaches) through the lenses of Global Studies coupled with Digital Humanities methods (distant reading, data and text mining, etc.) to eventually being able to globally and transnationally compare spatial semantics on a temporal scale of 100 years. It sheds light on their synchronic and diachronic presence, change and translation as well as their imagined meanings within various languages, especially putting emphasis on the anglophone, francophone and germanophone world.
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Lives of others in Turkish: A bibliography of biography in Turkey (1800- 2020)
Ceyda Elgül Boğaziçi University
This paper proposes an overview of an ongoing bibliography project funded by Boğaziçi University that lists biographies translated into Turkish and published in book form between the years 1800 and 2020. Here the term biography is used with reference to its modern Western connotation; it refers to works that focus on the life story of a single individual using a chronological and objective narrative (for a detailed discussion on modern biography, please see Maurois 1930). The Turkish literary system is assumed to have met the initial examples of this form of life-writing in the early 1800s, a few decades before the late-Ottoman reformation period known as Tanzimat (1839-1876) began. Until then, the receiving system was dominated by several local forms of life-writing, such as tezkire (collected biographies of Ottoman poets), menakıbname (biographies that compile the stories and legends about important historical figures) and siyer (prophet biographies), each of which departed from modern biography in various aspects (İpekten 2002; İsen 2010).
The presentation will first introduce the research questions that the project aims to shed light on. Some of these are: Are there any region(s), profession, ideology, publishing house, biographer, and translator that stand out? Are there any individuals whose life stories repetitively appeared in translated biography; if so, did these translations trigger the production of indigenous biographies of the same individuals? What is the position of the so-called uncommon forms of translation – such as indirect translation and intralingual translation- in the list? With these questions in mind, the presentation will pursue with the making of the bibliography, which currently includes up to 1000 titles. The method used during the selection, categorization, and documentation of the data will be introduced. Thirdly, a quantitative analysis of the bibliography will be offered. Here the current statistics about biography in the Turkish literary system will be proposed under several headings: 1) the period: the year of publication; 2) the naming: series titles; biography titles; the transcription of proper names; 3) the language: directness/indirectness of the translations; the language of the original biographies; intralingual translations and/or retranslations of the biographies that were published before the Turkish Language Reform, 4) the biography subjects: their epoch, region, and work field; 5) the target setting: the producers (publishing houses that publish biography and agents involved) and keepers (libraries/catalogues that include biographies). In line with these headings, the presentation will list several possible cases that the bibliography suggests for qualitative research. Some of these concern: a) the initial encounter(s) of the receiving system with biography; b) the periods during which biography was widely produced; c) the biography subjects that recurrently appear in the list; d) the position of intralingual translations in the list.
The paper concludes with the future implications of the bibliography project for research in life-writing, historiography, imagology, and transfer studies. It also highlights the potential benefits of bibliographies in translation research in general.
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REFERENCES Aksoy, Nazan (2009). Kurgulanmış Benlikler. Otobiyografi, Kadın, Cumhuriyet. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları. Alankuş-Kural, Sevda (1995). Türkiye’de Medya, Hegemonya ve Ötekinin Temsili. Toplum ve Bilim, 67, pp. 76-110. Caine, Barbara (2010). Biography and History. London & New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Even-Zohar, Itamar (2010). Papers in Culture Research. Tel Aviv: Porter Chair of Semiotics. İpekten, Haluk (2002). Şair Tezkireleri. Ankara: Grafiker Yayınları. İsen, Mustafa (2010). Tezkireden Biyografiye. İstanbul: Kapı Yayınları. Jockers, Mathews L. (2013). Macroanalysis: Digital Methods and Literary History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Leerssen, Joep (2007). Imagology: History and Method. In Imagology: the Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters: a Critical Survey. Manfred Beller and Joep Leerssen (Eds.). pp. 17-32. Amsterdam; New York, NY: Rodopi. Lefevere, André (1992). Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London: Routledge. Maurois, André (1930). Aspects of Biography. New York: D. Appleton & Company. Melikoğlu, Koray (Ed.) (2006). Life Writing: Autobiography, Biography, and Travel Writing in Contemporary Literature. Stutgart: Verlag. Paker, Saliha (1999). Turkish Tradition. In Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edition). Mona Baker (Ed.), pp. 571-582, London and New York: Routledge. Pym, Anthony (1998). Method in Translation History. Manchester: St Jerome. Wolf, Michaela and Alexandra Fukari (Eds.) (2007). Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Zacharasiewicz, Waldemar (2010). Imagology Revisited. Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi.
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People behind the Scenes: Positioning Drama Translators in the Czech Theatrical System after 1989
Josefina Zubakova Palacky University
Deriving from the premises of descriptive and systemic approaches to translation (Even-Zohar 2010; Heilbron 2010; Toury 2012), this paper explores the drama/theatre translation history in the Czech Republic in the Post-Communist period. With reference to the sociologically driven studies that emphasize the need to study the human translators and their role in the translation process (Pym 2006; Wolf and Fukari 2007), the paper focuses on the role the drama translators play in the Czech theatrical system after 1989. The aim is to demonstrate – within the selected time period and selected domain – the validity of combining both quantitative and qualitative methods in researching translation history. First, the results of the quantitative analysis of theatrical plays translated from English into Czech and staged in the Czech Republic between 1989 and 2009 are introduced. The data are derived from the DCS-CTI database (database of theatrical plays staged in the Czech Republic, administered by the Czech Theatre Institute) and further analysed from the thematic, temporal and territorial points of view. Second, as the focus of the study concerns primarily the “people behind the scenes” (drama translators, theatre agents, etc.), the results of the analysis of the DCS-CTI database are further combined with biographical information from the CLT database (Czech literary translation), and supported by other biographical resources. The analysis attempts to prove that the position of drama translators within the Czech theatrical system may be recognized as a powerful one as they serve either as “gatekeepers” (Fischer and Jensen 2012) for letting the Anglophone theatrical plays and specific playwrights be introduced on the Czech stage, and/or as cultural mediators who introduce (or reintroduce) works by canonical authors to the Czech theatrical system. Keywords: translation history, drama and theatre translation, position of the translator, Czech theatrical system
References: Even-Zohar, Itamar. 2010. “Polysystem Theory (Revised).” In Papers in Culture Research, 40-50, Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University. Temporary e-book. Fischer, Beatrice, and Matilde Nisbeth Jensen, eds. 2012. Translation and the Reconfiguration of Power Relations. Revisiting Role and Context of Translation and Interpreting. Berlin: Lit-Verlag. Heilbron, Johan. 2010. “Structure and Dynamics of the World System of Translation.” Paper presented at International Symposium: Translation and Cultural Mediation, UNESCO, Paris, February 22-23, 2010. Pym, Anthony. 2006. “On the Social and the Cultural in Translation Studies”. In Sociocultural Aspects of Translating and Interpreting, edited by Anthony Pym, Miriam Schlesinger and Zuzana Jettmarová, 5-30. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Toury, Gideon. 2012. Descriptive Translation Studies-And Beyond. Amsterdam and Philadephia: John Benjamins. Wolf, Michaela, and Alexandra Fukari, eds. 2007. Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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Cognition live! The dynamic interaction with the environment
Default translation in the wild
Sandra L. Halverson University of Agder Ricardo Munoz University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Empirical research within Cognitive Translation Studies has focused up until quite recently on investigating the deliberative, decision-making elements of the translation process. This stance was driven by a theoretical motivation—a dominant view of cognition as a computational, problem-solving process (cf Sirén & Hakkarainen 2002 vs Muñoz 2016, 2017)—and also a methodological factor, linked to the ease of identification of such aspects. Think-aloud protocols highlighted translators’ deliberations with respect to specific choices (cf Rodrigues 2002, Göpferich & Jäässkeläinen 2009). In keystroke logs, pauses and revisions are understood as indicators of uncertainty, deliberation, or both (Angelone 2010; Kumpulainen 2015). From an alternative perspective, translators' mental processes are viewed as the distributed activation or construction of task-oriented cognitive routines, from the starting point of a cognizer’s dynamic knowledge interacting with the environment. On this view, non-deliberative, routinized actions are of importance and what has been theorized as ‘default translation’ (Halverson 2015, in press) is of central interest. This paper provides the first effort to implement an operationalization of the default translation construct using keystroke data. In the study, students and professional translators (L1 Norwegian or Spanish) were asked to translate two different English texts at two different points in time into their L1s in a naturalistic task setting, as close as possible to ‘normal’ working conditions. Data was collected in Inputlog. Using the approach outlined in Muñoz & Cardona (2018), passages of default translation were identified. Such default passages were aligned with the source text (ST) segments with which they corresponded semantically. Default segments and non-default segments were analyzed to investigate the range of translational choices, the effect of lexical frequency of source and target elements, and the degree of formal similarity of source and target.
References Angelone, Erik. 2010. “Uncertainty management and metacognitive Problem-Solving.” In Translation and Cognition. Edited by Gregory M. Shreve and Erik Angelone. 17-40. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Göpferich, Susanne. and Riitta Jääskeläinen. 2009. “Process research into the development of translation competence: Where are we, and where do we need to go? ” Across Languages and Cultures 10 (2): 168–191. Halverson, Sandra. In press. “‘Default translation’—a construct for Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies.” Translation, Cognition and Behavior. Halverson, Sandra. 2015. “Cognitive Translation Studies and the merging of empirical paradigms. The case of ‘Literal Translation’.” Translation Spaces 4 (2): 310–340. Kumpulainen, Minna. 2015. On the operationalisation of ‘pauses’ in translation process research. Translation & Interpreting 7 (1), 47–58. Muñoz Martín, Ricardo. 2017. “Looking toward the future of Cognitive Translation Studies.” In The Handbook of Translation and Cognition. Edited by J.W. Schwieter and A. Ferreira, 555–572. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
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Muñoz Martín, Ricardo. 2016. “Of minds and men—Computers and translators.” Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics. https://doi. org/10. 1515/psicl-2016-0013. Muñoz Martín, Ricardo and José Mª. Cardona Guerra. 2018. “Translating in fits and starts. Pause thresholds and roles in the research of translation processes.” Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice. https://doi. org/10.1080/0907676X.2018.1531897. Rodrigues, Cassio. 2002. “A abordagem processual no estudo da tradução: uma meta-análise qualitativa.” Cadernos de Tradução 2/10: 23–57. Sirén, Seija and Kai Hakkarainen. 2002. “Expertise in Translation.” Across Languages and Cultures 3 (1): 71–82.
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Attention distribution during the subtitling process – following the gaze of subtitlers
Anke Tardel Silvia Hansen-Schirra Silke Gutermuth Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
While the reception of subtitles has been studied in various eyetracking studies, subtitling as a process has yet to be investigated with established methods from translation process research (Orrego-Carmona et al. 2018). Within the Compass project that aims at developing an innovative subtitling platform, we present results from a usability study of intralingual subtitling. In a mixed-method approach of eyetracking and keylogging, this study investigates the split attention of subtitlers using the commercial tool FAB Subtitler. Eight experienced subtitlers and student subtitlers from ZDF Digital were recorded while creating intralingual subtitles of three 5-minute snippets from a German documentary following the Netflix Timed Text Style Guide. The recording sessions took place in participants' usual work environment. Afterwards participants answered questions regarding their use of the subtitling tool and their final subtitle files went through quality assurance. This study aims at identifying bottlenecks in the subtitling process by analysing participants’ use of the tool with regard to efficiency possibly influenced by split attention on too many tasks simultaneously (listening to audio, watching video, typing, revising and spotting, etc.). Cognitive load and efficiency are estimated with measures such as fixation duration and count, keystrokes, pauses and overall duration. We test hypotheses regarding split attention similar to online versus final revision during the translation process (cf. Schaeffer et al., 2019). We expect varying strategies regarding revision and research and long fixations on the audio track and spotting editor. This study reveals pitfalls in the subtitling tool and strategies such as drafting and spotting subtitles before final revision compared to doing everything in one go. Results guide the development of the Compass tool which will be tested and compared at a later stage.
Keywords: subtitling process, usability, split-attention, eyetracking, keylogging
References Orrego-Carmona, D., Dutka, L. & Szarkowska, A. (2018): Using translation process research to explore the creation of subtitles: an eye-tracking study comparing professional and trainee subtitlers, in: Journal of Specialised Translation 30: 150-180. Schaeffer, M., Tardel, A., Hofmann, S. & Hansen-Schirra, S. (2019): Cognitive effort and efficiency in translation revision, in: E. Huertas Barros, S. Vandepitte & E. Iglesias Fernández (eds). Quality Assurance and Assessment Practices in Translation and Interpreting. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. CompAsS (Computer-Assisted Subtitling) is a Horizon 2020 project funded by the EU under reference CNECT 2017/3135124-4 in cooperation with ZDF Digital Medienproduktion GmbH
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Different strokes for different folks: exploring the effect of personality on the translation process
Ella Wehrmeyer Sarita Antunes North-West University
The influence of the translator’s personality on the translation process is under- researched in Translation Studies. Although Barboni (1999) already proposed certain specific traits of a translator’s personality decades ago, only recently have experimental studies emerged. Lehka-Paul and Whyatt’s (2016) pioneer study is the only study to explore the personality traits of professional translators in terms of the translation process, whereas Hubscher-Davidson (2009) explored the personality traits of student translators. Both studies not only indicate that translators exhibit certain specific character traits, but that different personalities approach the translation process differently. Using eye-tracking together with traditional methods of observation, the current (pilot) study seeks to explore the way that different personality types approach the translation process in terms of decision-making mechanisms, engagement with source and target texts, use of resources and handling disruptions. Although the participant pool is not yet large enough to prove significance, the preliminary results indicate that personality traits such as anxiety, conscientiousness and openness to experience do affect the translation process.
Keywords: personality, translation process, cognition, eye-tracking
References: Barboni, R. 1999. Inconscient et Traduction. In Lejune, C. (ed), Thèorie et pratique de la traduction 3, 22-33. Mons: Le Ciephum. Lehka-Paul, O. & Whyatt, B. 2016. Does personality matter in translation? Interdisciplinary research into the translation process and product. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 52(2): 317-349. Hubscher-Davidson, S. 2009. Personal diversity and diverse personalities in translation: a study of individual differences. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 17(3): 175-192.
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Consultation Behaviour with Online Resources in English- Chinese Translation: An Eye-tracking, Screen-recording and Retrospective Study
Binghan Zheng Yixiao Cui Durham University
Online consultation resources which support translators in their workplace in the digital age, have received rapid development in both their variety and efficiency. However, most existing research on translation consultation focus on improving consultation resources (Lew & Pajkowska, 2007) and searching strategies (Lew, 2013; Nesi, 1999), leaving studies on process of consultation inconclusive. This research investigates the online consultation behaviours in translation from English into Chinese by triangulating eye-tracking, screen-recording and retrospective interview data. Wilson's (1999) Information Behaviour Model is applied to analyse the behaviour with three steps: information need, information-seeking behaviour, information use behaviour. We aim to answer following three questions: (1) What is the effect of translation difficulty on consultation behaviour? (2) How does the type of translation problem relate to information-searching behaviour and the evaluation of information relevance? (3) How does consultation behaviour affect the acceptability of translation solutions? In this study, 38 MA translation students were recruited as subjects. There were asked to translate two 100-word texts from English (L2) into Chinese (L1), with their translation (at Translog II interface) and consultation processes being registered by a Tobii TX300 eye-tracker. The main findings are as follows: (1) both the length (in time) and the complexity of consultation increase with an increase in translation difficulty; (2) a longer time is spent on consultation for general translation problems, and they involve more resource types and longer searching times than specific translation problems; (3) consultation behaviour is generally target-oriented, and information relevance evaluation is consistent with the information required by the different types of translation problem, and (4) a longer time spent on consultation results in higher acceptability of individual translation solutions, while a higher complexity does not.
Keywords: information behaviour, online consultation, eye-tracking, retrospection, English-Chinese translation
References: Lew, R. (2013). Online dictionary skills. In I. Kosem, J. Kallas, P. Gantar, S. Krek, M. Langemets, & M. Tuulik (Eds.), Proceedings of the eLex 2013 conference (pp. 16–31). Tallinn, Estonia: Institute for Applied Slovene Studies. Lew, R., & Pajkowska, J. (2007). The effect of signposts on access speed and lookup task success in long and short entries. Horizontes de Lingüística Aplicada, 6(2), 235–252. Nesi, H. (1999). The specification of dictionary reference skills in higher education. In R. R. K. Hartman (Ed.), Dictionaries in Language Learning: Recommendations, National Reports and Thematic Reports from the TNP Sub-Project 9: Dictionaries (pp. 53–67). Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin. Wilson, T. D. (1999). Models in Information Behaviour Research. Journal of Documentation, 55(3), 249–270.
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Measuring the user experience of computer-aided translation tools
Sanjun Sun Beijing Foreign Studies University
Translation is a form of human-computer interaction (O'Brien 2012), and technology has been increasingly used in the translation process. Together with machine translation, computer-aided translation (CAT) nowadays has become very common in the language industry and is widely taught in translation programs (see Chan, 2015). Currently, there are dozens of CAT tools on the market. In China, for example, besides European CAT tools such as SDL Trados and MemoQ, local CAT tools and cloud-based MT platforms are emerging. A problem for translators and CAT course instructors is: which CAT tools are easy to use and learn? This involves the evaluation of user experience and software usability.
This study chooses to compare four CAT tools in terms of their user experience, including SDL Trados, MemoQ, Snowman, and Tmxmall, the latter two of which are based in China and first appeared a few years ago. Over 60 graduate students in translation and interpreting in Beijing, who had taken the CAT course and learned the use of these four tools in class in the 2019 Spring semester, participated in this study for the final project of the course. They used the four tools to finish the same batch of tasks involving the use of alignment, translation memory, termbase, project management, and concordancing while recording their computer screen. They then filled out the System Usability Scale questionnaire online, which was developed by John Brooke in 1986 and is one of the most widely used tools for assessing the perceived usability of a system in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction and learnability (cf. Krüger, 2019). Participants also reported what problems they encountered when they were using each tool to finish the task and what strengths and shortcomings they found each tool to have.
This study combines quantitative and qualitative analyses and reports on the findings of the survey. The initial analysis shows that the order of the tools in terms of user experience from satisfactory to less satisfactory is Tmxmall, Snowman, SDL Trados, and MemoQ. Suggestions for improving user experience of CAT tools and reducing “cognitive frictions” are provided.
References Chan, S.-w. (Ed.) (2015). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Technology. London: Routledge. Krüger, R. (2019). A model for measuring the usability of computer-assisted translation tools. In H. E. Jüngst, L. Link, K. Schubert, & C. Zehrer (Eds.), Challenging Boundaries: New Approaches to Specialized Communication (pp. 93-117). Berlin: Frank & Timme. O'Brien, S. (2012). Translation as human–computer interaction. Translation Spaces, 1, 101-122.
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Literary translation live! Insights into the factors influencing translatorial decision-making.
Claudine Borg University of Malta
Risku and Windhager (2013: 43) have recently called for further research into translatorial decisions in order to gain a better understanding of translation in practice. Similarly, Mason (2014: 38) highlights the importance of studying translatorial decisions and the contextual factors impinging on these in real translation practice. This contribution analyses the factors influencing translatorial decisions and choices in the post-drafting phases of the extended translation process. In other words, it focuses on reasons motivating self-revisions in literary translation. It presents the findings of a doctoral study which investigated in-depth an experienced literary translator while working live on a whole literary translation. In line with studies of translation as a situated activity, the translator was examined at his place of work while he prepared a translation for publication. There was prolonged engagement in the field as ninety hours of fieldwork spread over seven months were carried out. Data were gathered through drafts versions, think-aloud, ethnographic observations, and semi-structured and retrospective interviews; they were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings illustrate that translatorial decision-making is complex and motivated by a broad range of reasons. In the case of this translator, the most prominent reasons governing self-revisions were loyalty to the ST and its author, TT/TL considerations/requirements, and personal preferences. Interestingly, the latter played a considerable role in this translator’s process. Think- aloud, combined with interviews, revealed that personal preferences stem from three interrelated factors: the translator’s ideology, poetics as well as his personal experiences. Therefore, they are influenced by the social environment in which he operates.
References: Mason, I. 2014. ‘Discourse and translation – A social perspective’. In J. House (ed.) Translation: A Multidisciplinary Approach. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 36–55. Risku, H. & Windhager, F. 2013. ‘Extended translation: A sociocognitive research agenda’. Target 25 (1): 33–45.
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Measuring Time Pressure in Translation: A Usability Test of Physiological and Psychometric Methods
Binghan Zheng Yu Weng Durham University
This study serves as a usability test of the psychometric and physiological measurements of stress, especially time pressure in written translation by triangulating the behavioural, psychometric and physiological data. Time pressure as a salient stressor on translators, will result in not only behavioural responses, but also subjective experiences and physiological consequences, such as elevated levels of anxiety, blood pressure, heart rate and electrodermal arousal. Although there were empirical studies which investigated time pressure in written translation (e.g. Jensen & Jakobsen 2000; De Rooze 2003), the major limitation of these existing studies, as Bayer-Hohenwarter (2009) pointed out, was the insufficiency for a valid objectivation of “stress”. Psychological assessment of anxiety such as State- Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and physiological manifestations of stress such as heart rate, blood pressure and galvanic skin response (GSR) have already been used in some interpreting studies (Korpal 2016; Korpal & Jasielska 2018) as main methods of measuring the interpreters’ stress, emotion and empathy. Since the stress experienced by interpreters and translators are different by nature, there is a necessity for a test of applicability of these methods in researching written translation, a much more widely practiced translation modality. In this pilot study, 11 participants were asked to translate three comparably difficult source texts in three sessions of different time frames. They were asked to wear the Empatica E4 Wristband to record their heart rate and GSR during the task. Measurements of their anxiety levels by STAI and blood pressure by an Omron blood pressure monitor were carried out before the first session and after each session. The authors hypothesised that while translating under tight time pressure in the short session the participants would experience a higher level of stress leading to higher levels of psychometric and physiological parameters than in a longer session, and it is corroborated by the results.
Keywords: Time Pressure; Heart Rate; Blood Pressure; Galvanic Skin Response; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
References: Bayer-Hohenwarter, G. (2009). Methodological reflections on the experimental design of time- pressure studies. Across languages and cultures, 10(2), 193-206. De Rooze, B. (2003). La traducción, contra reloj. (PhD Dissertation), University of Granada, Spain. Jensen, A., & Jakobsen, A. L. (2000). Translating under time pressure. In A. Chesterman, N. G. S. Salvador, & Y. Gambier (Eds.), Translation in context: selected contributions from the EST Congress, Granada 1998 (pp. 105-116). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Korpal. (2016). Interpreting as a stressful activity: physiological measures of stress in simultaneous interpreting. Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 52(2), 297-316. Korpal, P., & Jasielska, A. (2018). Investigating interpreters’ empathy: Are emotions in simultaneous interpreting contagious? Target. International Journal of Translation Studies.
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Prediction at the nexus of source and target discourse
Rhona Amos Kilian Seeber University of Geneva Martin Pickering University of Edinburgh
People make comprehension easier by predicting upcoming language. We might therefore expect prediction to occur during the extremely difficult task of simultaneous interpretation. We report an eye-tracking study that used the visual- world paradigm to investigate the time-course of prediction during a simultaneous interpreting task. Based on Ito et al. (2018), twenty-four L1 French professional conference interpreters working for international organisations in Geneva and twenty-four L1 French professional translators, again working for international organisations in Geneva, heard an English sentence containing a highly predictable word (e.g. The dentist asked the man to open his... mouth a little wider) and viewed four objects, one of which was either a target object (mouth; bouche), an English phonological competitor (mouse; souris), a French phonological competitor (cork; bouchon) or an unrelated word (bone; os). We considered whether 1) interpreters and translators predict during a simultaneous interpreting task 2) whether interpreters and translators predict word form and 3) whether interpreters and translators predict differently. We used a linear mixed model and a growth curve analysis to assess looks to the critical object in the three conditions as compared to the baseline condition. Both interpreters and translators looked predictively at the target object. However, interpreters did so more rapidly and more consistently than translators. Our results suggest that prediction of word-form may take place in certain circumstances. We discuss the implications of these new empirical findings for our understanding of the prediction and possible deverbalisation processes of the interpreter at the nexus between source and target discourse.
References Ito, A., Pickering, M.J., & Corley, M. (2018). Investigating the time-course of phonological prediction in native and non-native speakers of English: A visual world eye-tracking study. Journal of Memory and Language, 98 (1-11).
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Simultaneous Interpreting with Text: A Study in the UN Context
Liuyin Zhao University of Vienna
Multilingual meetings of organisations in the United Nations (UN) system constitute a unique work environment for interpreters. Simultaneous interpreters there are accustomed to working with scripted texts in the booth while mediating communicative interaction among participants, more specifically, between a speaker reading a speech (e.g. in English) and delegates listening to its simultaneous interpretation (e.g. in Chinese). The availability of the script for visual source-text reception, and the dynamic interplay between the printed text and the speaker’s (typically fast) oral delivery present opportunities as well as challenges to the interpreters’ cognitive processing and thus impact the spoken target text received by the listener. My research investigates interpreting processes in this specific environment on the basis of authentic data from two UN conferences in Vienna and Geneva. In particular, it seeks to establish how the working mode of simultaneous interpreting (SI) with text and its inferred effects on the interpreter’s cognitive processes impact the quality of the interpreter’s output. Based on a corpus of some four dozen English speeches and their simultaneous interpretations into Chinese, my research tests the hypothesis that performance in SI with text will be superior to that in SI without text with regard to content (accuracy and completeness) but poorer in terms of delivery (prosody). For this purpose, the corpus-based analysis will be triangulated with a qualitative case study on the work environment of UN interpreters as well as a web-based survey eliciting the response of Chinese interpretation users. The empirical findings speak to the difference in cognitive processing implied by working with or without the written text in the booth, and hence to the impact of interpreters’ working conditions on the quality of service delivery in this specific institutional and situational environment.
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Speakers’ Co-Speech Hand Gestures in Simultaneous Interpreting: an Asset for Language Comprehension?
Eléonore Arbona Kilian Seeber University of Geneva
Gesture research suggests that hand gestures and speech are orchestrated together to form coherent multimodal messages (de Ruiter, 2007), and evidence shows that speakers’ co-speech hand gestures can facilitate language comprehension in naïve listeners (Hostetter, 2011). In simultaneous interpreting (SI), interpreters comprehend speakers’ input while producing verbal output in another language. Typically, on task, interpreters can see speakers, including their hand gestures (AIIC, 2007; AIIC, 2011). It is considered SI includes multimodal processing (Seeber, 2017), and multimodal descriptive approaches have explored the nature and functions of speakers’ and interpreters’ gestures (Zagar Galvão, E. & Galhano- Rodrigues, I., 2010; Zagar Galvão, 2013). However, to our knowledge, there is no reliable empirical data corroborating if, how and when speakers’ co-speech hand gestures are processed and influence SI. We therefore describe a novel experimental method to examine speakers’ gestures in a SI context, systematically controlling the type of gestures presented and establishing a direct link between stimuli presentation and participants’ processing and comprehension. In our study, professional interpreters are to complete an audio-visual comprehension task and a SI task. Materials comprise sentences with (redundant) representational or control gestures corresponding to the target verb, or without gestures. Tasks are carried out at two noise levels to determine whether gestures could modulate comprehension as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio. Using a visual cued recognition paradigm, participants will then select the target picture from an array containing the target and a distractor. Participants’ eye movements are to be tracked during the entire experiment using a remote eye tracker. We propose to conduct a time course analysis of fixation distributions and to analyse reaction time for target picture identification to explore potential effects of hand gestures in interpreters’ language comprehension off and on task.
References AIIC. "Checklist for simultaneous interpretation equipment". aiic.net May 16, 2007. Accessed August 18, 2017.
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When the going gets tough the tough start slipping: phonological errors in simultaneous signed media interpreting
Ella Wehrmeyer North-West University
Whereas speakers make slips of the tongue under cognitive load, signers make slips of the hand. Simultaneous media interpreting involves numerous problem triggers (Gile 1995) that can cause cognitive overload, including fast pace of message delivery, incoherent speakers (interviewees), disruptive background noise and fatigue. To date, the few existing empirical studies of cognitive overload in interpreting have focused mainly on the lag time between source and target message delivery (Defranq 2015), or on the types of phonological slips (Defranq & Plevoets 2018). However, due to the previous lack of empirical corpus-driven data, this is the first study of cognitive overload to be undertaken for sign language interpreting. Based on a corpus of simultaneously signed interpretations of news bulletins, the study explores phonological errors made by the interpreters in relation to the above-mentioned environmental problem-triggers. The results indicate that while phonological errors do reflect the coherence of the source message, they are more likely to occur when interpreters fall behind and try to catch up, and thereby reflect the increased demands on working memory.
Keywords: phonological errors, working memory, signed language interpreting, media interpreting, simultaneous interpreting, corpus-driven interpreting studies
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Dynamic collaboration as a stopgap: Approaching the process of South African Sign Language translation
Kim Wallmach Stellenbosch University Petri du Toit South African Sign Language Interpreter National Centre (SASLINC) & eDeaf (Employ and Empower Deaf)
Signed language interpreting is usually conducted in the simultaneous mode and generally takes place in less than ideal working conditions, marked by unattainable performance expectations and conflicting reviews from clients who rarely understand the interpreter’s role (c.f. Dean and Pollard 2001; Du Toit & Wallmach, 2017). Signed language translation is even less optimally understood. Clients see signed language translation as an immediate act very similar to signed language interpreting, and do not recognise the norms governing the process of translation in the standard sense (in a controlled environment with time and resources as variables). There is also little understanding of the added difficulty posed by the fact that translation between signed and spoken languages also involves translating between modalities: one sound/print-based, and one entirely visual/gestural and with no print base (Temple & Young 2004: 161). Theoretically speaking, signed languages have also received very little attention from researchers in translation studies. In South Africa, signed language interpreters are often assigned to assignments and put at a disadvantage, given the lack of readily available translation resources in South African Sign Language (SASL). This paper reports on one such instance, where two accredited conference interpreters were tasked to translate five academic papers from English to SASL. The interpreters inadvertently made use of a dynamic collaborative approach as a stopgap to compensate for the lack of standardised academic vocabulary, translation norms (cf. Toury 1995), strategies and resources in SASL which their spoken language translator peers can take for granted. The researchers reflect on the collaborative process that took place during the language transfer activity that resulted in a hybrid form of interpreting, namely sight translation (Dragsted and Hansan, 2009). The sight translation process enabled the interpreters to control the pace of the source language input and reduce the memory effort involved. However, it emerged from the analysis that source language interference had not been taken into account. This case study serves as an urgent plea for the professionalisation of signed language translation in South Africa and the recognition of the usefulness of sight translation as a process in its own right.
Keywords: dynamic collaboration, signed language, norms, translation, simultaneous interpreting, hybrid interpreting, translation strategies, interpreting strategies, emergency strategies, sight translation, source language interference
Works Cited Du Toit, P. & Wallmach, K. 2017. Controlling Cognition: Camera rolling and action. Paper presented at the Non-Professional Interpreting and Translation (NPIT) 4 Conference, Stellenbosch. Dean, R. & Pollard, R., 2001. Application of Demand-Control Theory of Sign Language Interpreting: Complications for Stress and Interpreter Training. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, pp. 1 - 14.
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Dragsted, B. & Hansen, I. G., 2009 . Exploring Translation and Interpreting Hybrids. The Case of Sight Translation. Meta: Journal des traducteurs , 54(3), pp. 588 - 604. Temple, B. & Young, A., 2004. Qualitative research and translation dilemmas. Qaulitative research , 4(2), pp. 161 - 178. Toury, G., 1995. The Nature and Role of Norms in Translation. In: Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 53 - 69.
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Empirical translation studies in a monolinguistic world: theoretical and methodological challenges
The prestige of English and its effect on the translation process and product
Arndt Heilmann Jonas Freiwald Stella Neumann RWTH Aachen University
Translation properties have been hypothesized to be not solely the result of the translator’s competence but to also depend on the socio-cultural environment the translation is embedded in. This could mean that the prestige of the languages involved co-determines the extent to which source language features tend to shine through in the target text or are replaced by more standard features of the target language (Toury 2012). Due to its status as a lingua franca and its omnipresence in a variety of media worldwide, English can be said to be a more prestigious language than German. A multivariate analysis of multiple linguistic features of English and German originals and translations (Evert and Neumann 2017) found patterns that can be attributed exactly to this difference in prestige. We reanalyse two translation experiments recorded with Translog-II (Carl 2012) in order to examine emergence of such tendencies during translating. In the experiments, professional translators translated popularscientific texts into their L1 English and German respectively. We analyse the translations for features such as language-specific preferences for pre- or postmodification, voice etc. described by Teich (2003) to have differential distributions in popular-scientific texts in the two languages for instances of shining through and norm-conforming behaviour. If Evert and Neumann’s conclusion is right, these instances should show more revisions in translations into English, especially when the translator started with a literal translation atypical of English. Conversely, translations into German should show more variation in the product and be revised less often than English translations even if the resulting translation is marked in German. The analysis will be complemented by independent naturalness ratings of the translations, collected using an online survey, where participants rate the grammaticality and naturalness of the translations. The study will help to assess the influence of prestige on translation (process) properties.
References Carl, Michael. 2012. ‘Translog-II: A Program for Recording User Activity Data for Empirical Reading and Writing Research’. In Proceedings of the Eight International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC’12). Istanbul, Turkey: European Language Resources Association. http://www.lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lrec2012/pdf/614_Paper.pdf. Evert, S. & S. Neumann. 2017. “The Impact of Translation Direction on Characteristics of Translated Texts: A Multivariate Analysis for English and German.” In Empirical Translation Studies: New Theoretical and Methodological Traditions, ed. by G. de Sutter, M.-A. Lefer & I. Delaere, 47–80. Berlin: de Gruyter. Toury, G. 2012. Descriptive Translation Studies ‐ and beyond. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Teich, E. 2003. Cross-Linguistic Variation in System and Text: A Methodology for the Investigation of Translations and Comparable Texts. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
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The mechanisms behind increased explicitness in translations: a comparative study of the Dutch om- alternation and English that-alternation
Amélie Van Beveren Ghent University
A great deal of previous research into the increase of lexicogrammatical encodings in translated texts has focused on the English that-alternation (Kolbe-Hanna & Szmrecsanyi 2015; Olohan & Baker 2000; Wulff et al. 2014). In a recent study, Kruger & De Sutter (2018) present an elaborate study of the possible mechanisms behind increased explicitness in translated English from Afrikaans: processing complexity, risk avoidance and cross-linguistic inference (CLI). They found the most support for the risk-aversion hypothesis and ruled out CLI: translated English from Afrikaans prefers the retention of that, while original Afrikaans shows a higher omission rate of the complementizer. In this paper, we show that other mechanisms are at work when investigating a similar alternation within other language pairs. The alternation under investigation is: the Dutch om-alternation, i.e. the variation between infinitival complements with and without the prepositional complementizer om as in Hij belooft (om) op tijd te komen (Eng.: He promises to be on time). Both alternations involve a complement clause optionally introduced by a complementizer. In both cases, the complementizer is semantically neutral and functions as a boundary signal. Through a generalized linear mixed-effects model with data extracted from the Dutch Parallel Corpus and English and French as source languages, we found not only evidence for risk avoidance and the processing complexity like Kruger & De Sutter (2018), but also for CLI as source language is one of the factors which significantly determine the choice between the explicit or implicit option. Dutch translated from English demonstrates a preference for the implicit option and Dutch translated from French for the explicit option. Altogether, it appeared that other mechanisms are responsible for increased explicitness in translations according to the language pair under investigation. This made us conclude that we cannot always take for granted claims about certain theoretical concepts (e.g. the causes of increased explicitness) based on specific case studies in which foremost English is one of the languages under scrutiny.
References Kolbe-Hanna, D. & Szmrecsanyi, B. 2015. Grammatical Variation. In: Biber, D. & Reppen, R. (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of English Corpus linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 161-179. Kruger, H. & De Sutter, G. 2018. Alternations in contact and non-contact varieties. Reconceptualising that-omission in translated and non-translated English using the MuPDAR approach. Translation, Cognition & Behavior Vol. 1 (2), 251-290. Olohan, M. & Baker, M. 2000. Reporting that in Translated English: Evidence for Subconscious Processes of Explicitation? Across Languages and Cultures Vol. 1 (2), 141-158. Wulff, S., Lester, N. & Martinez-Garcia, M. T. 2014. That-variation in German and Spanish L2 English. Language and Cognition Vol. 6 (2), 271-299.
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Semantic stability in translation: A behavioral-profile analysis of the semantic field of inchoativity in original Dutch and Dutch translated from English and French.
Pauline De Baets Ghent University
During the last two decades, research within corpus-based translation studies (CBTS) has been focusing on the question how translated texts differ from non- translated texts, but the bulk of these studies incorporate English as at least one component. Despite a vast research paradigm on the influence of source-language on translation (e.g. [1], [2]), a question that still arises, is whether these findings may be influenced by the omnipresence of English in corpus-based research. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to explore possible lexicosemantic translational effects in texts translated from English and from French. Previous research [3] found subtle semantic differences between original Dutch and Dutch translated from English and in the present study we want to verify whether those semantic differences are due to source-language interference from English, or whether they can be extrapolated to being more general tendencies of translated texts. We adopt a cognitive-inspired method, viz. behavioral profiling, to explore possible lexicosemantic translational effects in the semantic field of beginnen. Behavioral profiling is a usage-based method that aims at capturing the complexity of word meaning by looking at contextual features of the words under study [4], [5]. The obtained enriched corpus data are subjected to multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and discriminant classification trees and consequently the behavioral profile of the lexemes in original Dutch and Dutch translated from English and French can be analyzed. The visualization obtained by the MCA can display even very subtle changes in a semantic field, and thus enable us to thoroughly compare the semantic structure of non-translated and language translated from English and French. The classification trees help us to gain more insight in the onomasiological choices within the three varieties by displaying the ID-tags that are decisive when choosing between near-synonyms. By combining the two methods, we hope to investigate whether the found differences are language-specific and to provide more cognitive and more general explanations for differences between different language varieties.
REFERENCES [1] CHESTERMAN, Andrew. 2004. “Hypotheses About Translation Universals.” In Claims, Changes and Challenges in Translation Studies, edited by Gyde Hansen, Kirsten Malmkjaer, and Daniel Gile, 1–13. Amsterdam: Joh Benjamins. [2] TEICH, Elke. 2003. Cross-Linguistic Variation in System and Text. A Methodology for the Investigation of Translations and Comparable Texts. Berlin/New York: Mouton De Gruyter. [3] DE BAETS, Pauline, VANDEVOORDE, Lore and DE SUTTER, Gert. Forthcoming. “On the usefulness of parallel corpora for contrastive linguistics. Testing the semantic stability hypothesis.” In New Approaches to Contrastive Linguistics: Empirical and Methodological Challenges. 2018. [4] GRIES, Stefan & DIVJAK Dagmar. 2009. "Behavioral Profiles. A Corpus-Based Approach to Cognitive Semantic Analysis." In New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics, edited by Vyvyan Evans and Stephanie S. Pourcel, 57-75. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. [5] SZYMOR, Nina. 2015. Behavioral Profiling in Translation Studies. trans-kom, 8(2), 483–498.
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Explaining variation between interpreted and non- interpreted English and Russian: constrained language variables
Daria Dayter University of Basel
The presentation reports on the analysis of a parallel, comparable corpus of simultaneous interpreting Russian<>English. Separate studies of such variables as lexical complexity, non-fluencies, and the presence of interpreting transformations, in the two languages yield a contradictory picture: the predictions based on the ‘translational universals’ are carried out in some cases, but not in others. To reconcile these contradictory findings with theory, I turn to multivariate analysis that also takes into account different explanatory factors. The importance of such methods has been brought to the fore recently in empirical translation studies (Delaere&De Sutter 2017, De Sutter & Lefer 2019). First applications, e.g. Evert&Neumann (2017), demonstrated the feasibility of the approach. The second stage of research involves an interpreting variation study using factor analysis (cf. Biber (1988) for register variation). After quantifying 36 explanatory variables, factor analysis was conducted to explore variable covariation in interpreted vs. non-interpreted speeches. Five factors were extracted. There are first indications that linguistic features cluster along the dimensions identified in the literature on World Englishes and second language acquisition, e.g. “conservative choices” (Mesthrie&Bhatt 2008). Contrary to the majority of existing translational variation research, the choice of explanatory variables was informed not by the postulated translation universals, but by the tenets of “constrained language” (Kruger&Van Rooy 2016). This allows us, on the one hand, to avoid the circularity of using the same concepts to choose variables and to explain the behavior of these same variables, and on the other hand, to put to further test the hypothesis that interpreted language is a type of constrained language. Additional explanatory variables considered in the study include the native speaker status of the interpreter, since many of the English speeches in the corpus are interpreted into the B language. Bridging the gap between the research on World Englishes and translation studies is especially important in the current day and age when borders between native and nonnative English varieties blur and the goalposts for the translation product move towards lingua franca recipients rather than an imagined golden standard speaker. The directionality of interpreting also is shown to play a role, underscoring the importance of including more than just the English material in the research design. Finally, the investigation on the level of the individual variables demonstrates that the typological characteristics of languages, e.g. the scale between nouniness and verbiness (Sasse 2008), enters a complex interplay with the translation universals/trends to produce certain weighings of the features of the target text.
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References Biber, Douglas. 1988. Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. Delaere, Isabelle & Gert De Sutter. 2017. “Variability of English loanword use in Belgian Dutch translations.” In Empirical Translation Studies, edited by Gert De Sutter, Marie-Aude Lefer, and Isabelle Delaere, pp. 101-139. Berlin: De Gruyter. De Sutter, Gert, & Lefer, Marie-Aude. 2019. “On the need for a new research agenda for corpus- based translation studies: a multi-methodological, multifactorial and interdisciplinary approach.” Perspectives (online first): 1–23. Evert, Stefan, & Stella Neumann. 2017. “The Impact of Translation Direction on the Characteristics of Translated Texts: A Multivariate Analysis for English and German.” In Empirical Translation Studies, pp. 60-100. Kruger, Haidee & Bertus van Rooy. 2016. “Constrained language.” English World-Wide 37(1): 26-57. Mesthrie, Rajend & Rakesh Bhatt. 2008. World Englishes. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
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Moving beyond English: Challenges and opportunities in expanding a Japanese-English parallel corpus to include Chinese and Spanish
Kayo Matsushita Rikkyo University
For the past couple of decades, researchers of Corpus-based Translation Studies (CTS) and Corpus-based Interpreting Studies (CIS) have intensified their efforts to compile authentic data needed for empirical research (Fantinuoli & Zanettin, 2015; Hu, 2016; Russo, Bendazzoli, & Defrancq, 2018). However, most of these corpora use English either as the source/target language or as the pivot language, with the Oslo Multilingual Corpus for CTS and the European Parliament Interpreting Corpus (EPIC) for CIS being notable exceptions (ibid.). Even if dependence on English is justifiable from a practical and economical point of view, it may consequently inhibit discovery of unique phenomena among less-studied languages and language pairs, especially when non-European languages are involved. In order to examine such a possibility, this study analyzes the outcomes from an ongoing, multi-institutional corpus project which aims to expand an existing parallel corpus between Japanese and English to include the two most spoken languages other than English—Chinese and Spanish—using Japanese as the source language. As a pilot study, both professional interpreters and student interpreters were asked to perform simultaneous interpretation from Japanese to Chinese and Spanish that was then compared with simultaneous interpreting from Japanese to English using ELAN, an annotation software. In the analysis, linguistic interference in simultaneous interpreting as defined by Lamberger-Felber & Schneider (2008) was frequently observed, but the types were different from those typically seen in the Japanese- English language pair (homophones in the case of the Japanese-Chinese language pair and word order in the case of the Japanese-Spanish language pair). By presenting the initial results of the pilot study, this paper aims to provide comparative data to test some of the key findings of prior research regarding linguistic interference.
Key words: parallel corpus, interference, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish
References Fantinuoli, C., & Zanettin, F. (Eds.). (2015). New directions in corpus-based translation studies. Berlin: Language Science Press. Hu, K. (2016). Introducing corpus-based translation studies. Shanghai, China: Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press and Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag. Lamberger-Felber, H., & Schneider, J. (2008). Linguistic interference in simultaneous interpreting with text: A case study. In G. Hansen, A. Chesterman, & H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast (Eds.), Efforts and models in interpreting and translation research: A tribute to Daniel Gile (pp. 215–236). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Russo, M., Bendazzoli, C., & Defrancq, B. (Eds.). (2018). Making way in corpus-based interpreting studies. Singapore: Springer. Shlesinger, M. (1998). Corpus-based interpreting studies as an offshoot of corpus-based translation studies. Meta, 43(4), 486–493.
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Expanding conversations on feminist and queer translation
Translating Affect as an Act of Transnational Feminist Solidarity: Kindred in Turkish
Emek Ergun University of North Carolina at Charlotte
In This Bridge We Call Home, explaining her metaphysics of interconnectivity, Chicana feminist Gloria E. Anzaldúa calls on her readers saying, “Although all your cultures reject the idea that you can know the other, you believe that besides love, pain might open this closed passage by reaching through the wound to connect. ... Using wounds as openings to become vulnerable and available (present) to others means staying in your body” (2002, 571-572). In my paper, I discuss a feminist translation project that I recently completed – the Turkish translation of Octavia Butler’s classic science-fiction novel, Kindred (1979), which was inspired by Anzaldúa’s political and affective vision of interconnectivity. Kindred tells the story of an African-American woman, Dana, who finds herself travel back and forth in time between 1976’s California and a plantation in antebellum Maryland, where she finds her ancestors among slaveholders and enslaved people. Through Dana’s story, Kindred’s readers time-travel between the pre-Civil-War and post-Civil-War US and are summoned to re-encounter their violent (and unfinished) history of slavery/racism and confront the collective pain that has built the contemporary US. This is how the novel shows us that we cannot “recover” from our violent past by denying and forgetting it. Rather, we need to recognize others’ pain, which is ours, and use our own wounds to connect with them so that we heal together because we can only heal together. This is precisely why I decided to translate Kindred into Turkish. On the one hand, by expanding the linguistic borders of the painful story through translation, I hoped to expand the geographic circle of the collective healing that it aims to activate. Transnational solidarities are only possible with the establishment and expansion of such epistemic and affective bonds across borders. On the other hand, I believed the story was emotionally powerful enough to inspire similar self- confrontations in Turkey (e.g. on the national denial of the Armenian Genocide). In other words, Butler’s mission in writing Kindred and my mission in translating it have coalesced despite the two different (yet similar) geohistorical realities the two books navigate. In my paper, starting with the question, how and why to translate pain, I discuss the ways in which these affective and political missions materialized in my translation of Kindred and why I consider such cross-border affectivities as a key practice of transnational feminist solidarities.
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Queer in Translation: From the West to the East, from Theory to Activism
Zhongli Yu University of Nottingha Ningbo China
Queer, meaning strange or not normal (especially not heterosexual), is often used as a substitute for homosexual (gay or lesbian), and also as an inclusive term for all the sexual and gender minorities. The early 1990s witnessed in the West a phenomenal rise in the number of works examining the cultures of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgenders, and other gender and sexual communities. Subsequently, the rubric ‘queer theory’ or ‘queer studies’ came into being to cover such studies. Translation of queer theory or works of queer studies in China started in the late 1990s. There have been at least three Chinese translations of the term “queer”, namely 怪异 guaiyi [strange difference], 酷儿 Ku’er [cool child], and 奎尔 kui’er [Quaile]. The Chinese terms embody different perceptions of and attitudes towards sexual and gender minorities. Translation of queer theory seems to have empowered the queer community in China. A typical example is the annual production of the American feminist play The Vagina Monologues made by a group of students at Fudan University in Shanghai from 2004. Their production of the play resulted from their learning feminist and queer theories, and many of the students themselves are of queer identities. More importantly, the students kept including local stories of queer people for their annual production, showing courage and determination to make gender and sexual minorities visible and remove the stigma attached to them. This study discusses the implications and receptions of the Chinese translations of the term queer and relate them to the queer-informed Fudan production of the play. Up to now, queer translation studies have largely been dominated by Anglo-American scholarship. It is important to expand the geopolitical boundaries of the field to shed light on the notion of translation as a living and lived praxis without which cross- border solidarities and resistances are not possible.
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Re-translating a phallotranslation to Brazilian Portuguese: a feminist approach to La Casa de los Espíritus, by Isabel Allende
Pamela Berton Costa Sao Paulo State University
From the (in)famous Canadian translators of the 70s and 80s to the most recent texts on gender, power relations, postcolonialism, and translocal theories, much have been said and done about feminist translation practices in the past few decades. As translation is inevitably an act of transformation, translators need to think carefully about the choices made because, as Henitiuk (1999) points out, non- attentive translators ─ phallotranslators – write biased texts that un/consciously subscribe to a dominant and sexist ideology. One of the contributions of this feminist translation agenda is to uncover those phallocentric practices, bringing out aspects of a text that had been overlooked or suppressed (Massardier-Kenney, 1997). In this context, we analyzed a (phallo)translation to Brazilian Portuguese of the book written by Chilean author Isabel Allende, La Casa de los Espíritus (1985a), which is one of the most important novels of the Post-Boom, a Latin American literary movement that sought to give voice to viewpoints formerly marginalized or absent, such as women’s (Shaw, 1995). We concluded that the translator mitigated the criticism to misogyny and feminine presence in the text. In order to enrich the debate about feminist literary translation nowadays, in this presentation we will discuss possibilities of feminist translation of the analysed text, for phallotranslations should no longer be accepted as valid. In the words of Costa and Alvarez (2014, p. 558), we need “to confront the mistranslations or bad translations that have fueled misunderstandings and obstructed feminist alliances” – especially, in this case, the phallotranslation of a book that is part of a movement seeking to give voice to women. As translations are so easy to criticize and so hard to do, this study reflects upon the role of the feminist translator, but it does not intend to suggest “more beautiful, smoother and truer” (Flotow, 2009) options.
Keywords: Feminist Translation, Brazilian Portuguese, Post-Boom, Latin America.
References Allende, I. (1985a). La casa de los espíritus (15 ed.). Barcelona: Plaza & Janes. Allende, I. (1985b). A casa dos espíritos (5 ed., Carlos Martins Pereira, Trans.). São Paulo: Difel. Costa, C. L., & Alvarez, S. E. (2014). Dislocating the Sign: Toward a Translocal Feminist Politics of Translation. Signs, 39(3), 557-563. Flotow, L. von. (2009). This Time “the Translation is Beautiful, Smooth, and True”: Theorizing Retranslation with the Help of Beauvoir. In J. Day (Ed.), Translation in French and Francophone Literature and Film (pp. 35–50). Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi. Henitiuk, V. (1999). Translating woman: Reading the female through the male. Meta, 44(3), 469-484. Massardier-Kenney, F. (1997). Towards a Redefinition of Feminist Translation Practice. The Translator, 3(1), 55-69. Shaw, D. L. (1995). The Post-Boom in Spanish American Fiction. Studies in 20th Century Literature, 19(1) 11-27.
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When Vaginas Speak Chinese: Mobilizing Feminism Through Translation
Wangtaolue Guo University of Alberta
During the last two decades, there have been multiple discussions about the intersection of feminism and translation, from the early gender-conscious model reflected in feminist translation studies to recent scholarship that reconceptualizes translation as a form of “intersectional feminist activism” (Castro and Ergun 2). Feminist translation praxis in the Global South, which was once a peripheral topic, is now a growing vogue. Over the past few years, the Sinophone women/translation interdiscipline has attracted a considerable amount of scholarly attention. Yet, most of the existing research—Zhongli Yu’s 2015 monograph on translating feminism in China, for instance—either fails to contextualize the circulation of feminist texts in Chinese-speaking countries or tends to homogenize regional diversity. In this paper, I recapture the development of two Taiwanese feminist waves and investigate two Mandarin Chinese translations of The Vagina Monologues published in Taiwan. In the first part, I compare the contexts in which two different Mandarin translations were produced, discuss how Eve Ensler’s 1998 play was first introduced in Taiwan by Ch’en Ts’ang-to in 2000 and contributed to the second-wave Taiwanese feminist movements, and explore why it was retranslated by Ting Fan and Ch’iao Se-fen in 2014. In the second part, I draw on a few examples from these two translations to analyze how the two groups of translators reconfigure female bodies and sexualities. By analyzing these two different sociohistorical contexts, I argue that translation facilitates the dissemination and circulation of feminist discourses in cross-cultural encounters, challenging the patriarchal codes in Taiwan and raising awareness of gender equality. The comparative contextual and (para-)textual analyses of the two Mandarin translations of The Vagina Monologues also reveal that the various forms of feminist intervention effectuated in the target (para-)texts should not be simply equated with the “simple alteration of a source text in blind allegiance to [a translator’s] ‘agenda’” (Eshelman 17). Feminist translation praxis, as it turns out, entails a complex mechanism through which translational agents encounter and negotiate with each other.
Works Cited Castro, Olga and Emek Ergun. “Re-Envisioning Feminist Translation Studies: Feminisms in Translation, Translations in Feminism.” Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives, edited by Olga Castro and Emek Ergun, Routledge, 2017, pp. 1-11. Eshelman, David J. “Feminist Translation as Interpretation.” Translation Review, vol. 74, no. 1, 2007, pp. 16-27. Taylor & Francis Online, doi: 10.1080/07374836.2007.10523960.
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Exploring the implications of complexity thinking for translation studies
Neural networks and the complexity of the translation process
Félix do Carmo Dublin City University
It has been argued that Translation Process Research has reached a point in which some parts of the process may have become predictable (Carl, Bangalore, and Schaeffer 2016). However, current Translation Process Research can be challenged for involving essentially reductionist approaches. At the same time, the surprising outputs of machine translation systems based on neural networks enjoy an aura of success, to the point that they are said to have redefined the present and the future of the translation profession (Joscelyne 2018). Surprisingly, these approaches have developed without a theory of the translation process or even of translation itself, and their hidden layers are often described as producing impossible-to-explain outputs, even an interlingua, presented in terms of an emergent phenomenon (Johnson et al. 2016). Regardless of discussions on the (im)possibility of translation, a process that happens between two complex systems (natural languages) carries necessarily some level of complexity. The success of neural networks in dealing with this complexity is probably associated with the way they learn from bilingual data, by focusing on features such as non-linearity and entropy. But can we expect neural approaches to machine translation to bring us the best models for the complexity of the translation process? And can they be the tools we need in computer support systems to predict the next step in a translation process? Beside the approaches used by Translation Process Research to extract knowledge on the translation process, from the observable layers of translation product and process data, this presentation will focus on how neural networks deal with this data. Finally, this presentation will propose a discussion on which approaches to complexity provide us with the most adequate terms and techniques to better understanding the translation process, while admitting we can only observe parts of its whole.
REFERENCES: Carl, Michael, Srinivas Bangalore, and Moritz Schaeffer, eds. 2016. New Directions in Empirical Translation Process Research. Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20358-4. Johnson, Melvin, Mike Schuster, Quoc V. Le, Maxim Krikun, Yonghui Wu, Zhifeng Chen, Nikhil Thorat, et al. 2016. “Google’s Multilingual Neural Machine Translation System: Enabling Zero-Shot Translation.” CoRR, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3115/v1/P15-1002. Joscelyne, Andrew. 2018. “Translators in the Algorithmic Age: Briefing Based on the TAUS Industry Leaders Forum in Amsterdam in June, 2018.” Amsterdam. https://info.taus.net/translatorsin-%0Athe- algorithmic-age-full-version. Marais, Kobus, and Reine Meylaerts. 2018. Complexity Thinking in Translation Studies: Methodological Considerations. New York: Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781138572485. Mitchell, Melanie. 2009. Complexity: A Guided Tour. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
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Towards an encompassing, adaptable and future-oriented TS framework: some methodological explorations
Nina Reviers Iris Schrijver Isabelle Robert University of Antwerp
Complexity theory and Actor Network Theory are being discussed within Translation Studies (TS) as theoretical frameworks that can stimulate a reconceptualisation of translation in the 21st century. This is a reconceptualisation that is necessary if TS wants to keep pace with the emergence of complex social and semiotic realities and provide TS scholars with a framework and the tools to study the proliferation of new, often hybrid and complex translation phenomena (Marais, 2019; Remael, 2019). In the present paper, we explore how the underlying principles of Complexity Thinking and Actor-Network theory could be adopted by TS scholars to create synergies between established subfields of TS and newer ones such as Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility, conceptualising translations as hybrid, semiotic and emergent phenomena that are characterised by a dynamic set of human and non-human technical and contextual determinants (Remael, 2019). By mapping key concepts from the different turns in TS as connected nodes in a process-network of translation, we aim to illustrate how translation phenomena of all types can be studied as manifestations of varying constellations of mutually dependent determinants that can take on different material forms in different contexts. Examples of specific translation processes, interlingual “translation proper” but especially newer forms such as fansubbing and audio description, will be discussed in terms of this conceptual network, to illustrate how convergences and apparent divergences between translation phenomena can be conceptualised in such a way that the distinctions between them become one of degree, allowing for the creation of an encompassing, adaptable and future-oriented TS framework.
References Marais, K. & Meylaerts, R. (2018). Complexity Thinking in Translation Studies: Methodological Considerations. New York & London: Routledge. Marais, K. (2019). A (bio)semiotic theory of translation: the emergence of social-cultural reality. New York & London: Routledge. Remael, A., Orero, P., Black, S. & Jankowska, A. (2019) “From translators to accessibility managers: How did we get there and how do we train them?” In: Tolosa Igualada, Miguel & Álvaro Echeverri (eds.) 2019. Porque algo tiene que cambiar: La formación de traductores e intérpretes, presente & futuro / Because something should change: Present & Future Training of Translators and Interpreters. MonTI 11.
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Reconsidering the binaries in translation studies
Kobus Marais University of the Free State
Translation studies has a plethora of binary concepts. Apart from the well-known distinction between source and target text/audience/culture, binaries abound in the way scholars see the process of translation. I here refer to Nida’s formal and dynamic equivalence, to Nord’s distinction between documentary and instrumental translation strategies and to Venuti’s conceptualization of domestication and foreignization as orientations towards difference in translation. Complexity thinking has recently found its way into translation studies, challenging the reductionist, linear thinking that is pervasive in Western scholarship. One of the assumptions of complexity thinking would be that it is as undesirable to reduce causes to two as it is to reduce them one. None of the work from a complexity perspective has, however, considered the reductionism ingrained in the binaries in translation studies. In this presentation, I turn to Peirce’s triadic thinking as a way to escape binary thinking. I explore Peirce’s thinking and his logic in this regard and then see whether it would be possible to conceptualize the binaries in translation studies in triads. I explore the implication of triadic thinking for translation studies and in particular for complexity thinking in translation studies. The presentation would be conceptual in nature, referring to examples but not offering original data.
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On Randomness
Imogen Cohen University of Amsterdam
The question of how complexity theory challenges our views of translators as agents of change (or as agents of anything at all, for that matter) was raised indirectly a decade ago by Andrew Chesterman in his article "On explanation” (2008). As the title suggests, Chesterman’s article explored how we explain the work of translators and, in doing so, it explored the very nature of explanation itself. But the article concluded with one crucial question: how much of what translators do can, in fact, be explained? In other words, how much of translatorial behaviour is actually random? When Chesterman wrote his article, he made no distinction between randomness proper – or “perfect unpredictability” (Byrne and Callaghan 2014) – and randomness borne of complexity, but my paper addresses this question, paying particular attention to literary translators. It does so by drawing on six landmark experiments within the field of psychology and applying them to the field of literary translation (Cohen 2018). These experiments suggest (1) that there is a significant element of randomness to (literary) translation, and (2) that we, as TS scholars, probably ‘see’ patterns in that randomness where there are none. The definition of randomness is taken from Taleb (2010), a definition particularly pertinent to the humanities and social sciences, and one which takes complexity into account. Introducing complexity theory into the field of literary translation studies also challenges the binary opposition between hermeneutic and empirical approaches which has traditionally divided the field.
Key words: complexity, explanation, literary translation, randomness, uncertainty
References Byrne, D. S., and Gill Callaghan. 2014. Complexity theory and the social sciences: the state of the art. First edition. ed. New York: Routledge, Taylor&Francis Group. Chesterman, Andrew. 2008. “On explanation” In Beyond Descriptive Translation Studies: Investigations in homage to Gideon Toury, ed. by Anthony Pym, Miriam Shlesinger and Daniel Simeoni, 363-379. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Cohen, Imogen. 2018. “On randomness” Target, International Journal of Translation Studies, 30:1, 3- 23 Taleb, Nassim Nicolas. 2010. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. New York: Random House
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A complexity approach to translation policy studies: considering attractors, constraints, incipient conditions and subsequent conditions
Shuang Li KU Leuven
The nature of a translation policy lies in the interactions between phenomena of translation management (legislation on translation activities), translation practices (actual translation activities) and translation beliefs (the values assigned to translation management and practices) (Meylaerts 2017). In the emerging processes of translation policy phenomena, particular things are more likely to happen than others. These possibilities are the trajectories that a translation policy tends to follow. The question then is: What causes a translation policy in a certain context to gravitate towards a particular trajectory rather than others? This study aims to explain why and how a particular trajectory of translation policy phenomena emerges and stabilizes during one trial (Trial A) at a local court (Court A) in China. Based on ethnographic data, this study applies Marais’ proposal to identify attractors, constraints, incipient conditions and subsequent conditions (Marais 2019a, 2019b). It shows that the socio-cultural and legal-managerial givens of state 0, as the incipient conditions, cause an attractor, i.e. the tendency for Court A to employ a court interpreter for Trial A. The moment this attractor is selected, certain possibilities enabled by bilingual judges, such as trial efficiency and direct communication between the judge and the defendants, are excluded and become constraints. These constraints limit the roles of the court interpreter and contribute to a trajectory featured by the loss of information through interpreting. Meanwhile, what has not been realized in the incipient conditions (e.g. specific regulations on court interpreting) becomes an incipient constraint. Influenced by this incipient constraint and other constraints, the court interpreting tends to take the form of both interpreting and non-interpreting. Such an attractor drives things to move more in line with the existing trajectory, where the role of court interpreting has been acknowledged but has not been fully fulfilled.
References: Marais, Kobus. 2019a. A (Bio)Semiotic Theory of Translation: The Emergence of Social-Cultural Reality. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315142319. Marais, Kobus. 2019b. “Effects Causing Effects”. In Complexity Thinking in Translation Studies, edited by Kobus Marais & Reine Meylaerts, 53–72. New York/London: Routledge. Meylaerts, Reine. 2017. “Studying Language and Translation Policies in Belgium: What Can We Learn from a Complexity Theory Approach?” Parallèles 29, no. 1: 45–59. DOI 10.17462/para.2017.01.05
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Chaosphere and Entropy. Complexity and the Place of Translation in (the) Digital Humanities
Raluca Tanasescu University of Groningen
The discourse and methods of (the) digital humanities are an exercise in complexity. In electronic scholarly editing, for instance, complexity in general and coding in particular provide “a healthy self-consciousness” (Nell Smith 2004) about the circumstances of knowledge creation. Complexity is also permanently sought in charts and maps (Drucker 2016), in preserving the multifariousness of cultural heritage (Presner and Shepard 2016), in the study of the human-computer interfaces (Ruecker 2016), in the synergetic effects and unintended consequences of the Internet of Things (Jørgensen 2016), in linked data and the semantic web as essential tools for understanding the complexity of humanists’ discourse and of the disciplinary developments in the humanities (Oldman et al 2016), in relation to hypertextual history or virtual reality systems. Thus complexity is essential to multiple readings and interpretations in academic research and coding emerges as essential to disentangling humanistic multiplicities. Although a fundamentally humanistic discipline and an activity that takes its drive from human action, translation studies has only very recently started to consider complexity as a suitable paradigm (Marais and Meylaerts 2018; Marais 2014). Complexity signals the need for translation studies to acknowledge entropy—the tendency of the universe towards disorder—and the decentralization of translation activities (Roig-Sanz and Meylaerts 2018; Tanasescu 2018) as a characteristic of translation practice in micromodernity (Cronin 2012). In this context, this talk will examine the possibilities of aligning translation studies to the latest developments in (the) digital humanities and of seeing translation as ‘chaosphere’—both an activity and a type of text characterized by non-linearity. To this end, we will employ a chaos-theory informed framework to explore the promises of complex network analysis for capturing multiplicity in translation. Last but not least, we shall also look at the multifarious role translation can play in (the) digital humanities and the benefits of these two disciplines joining hands.
Selected bibliography: Cronin, Michael. 2012. The Expanding World. Towards a Politics of Microspection. New York: Verso Books. Drucker, Johanna. 2016. “Graphical Approaches to the Digital Humanities.” In The New Companion to Digital Humanities (S. Schreibman; R.G. Siemens; J. Unsworth, Eds.). Chichester, West Sussex, UK; Malden, MA, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pp. 238-250. Jørgensen, Finn Arne. 2016. “The Internet of Things.” In The New Companion to Digital Humanities (S. Schreibman; R.G. Siemens; J. Unsworth, Eds.). Chichester, West Sussex, UK; Malden, MA, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pp. 42-53. Marais, Kobus and Meylaerts, Reine (Eds.). 2018. Complexity Thinking in Translation Studies. Methodological Considerations. New York: Routledge. Marais, Kobus. 2014. Translation Theory and Development Studies. A Complexity Theory Approach. New York: Routledge. Oldman, Dominic; Doerr, Martin; and Gradmann, Stefan. 2016. “Zen and the Art of Linked Data:
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New Strategies for a Semantic Web of Humanist Knowledge.” In The New Companion to Digital Humanities (S. Schreibman; R.G. Siemens; J. Unsworth, Eds.). Chichester, West Sussex, UK; Malden, MA, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pp. 251-273. Presner, Todd and Shepard, David. 2016. “Mapping the Geo-Spatial Turn.” In The New Companion to Digital Humanities (S. Schreibman; R.G. Siemens; J. Unsworth, Eds.). Chichester, West Sussex, UK; Malden, MA, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pp. 201-2012. Ruecker, Stan. 2016. “Interface as Mediating Actor for Collection Access, Text Analysis, and Experimentation.” In The New Companion to Digital Humanities (S. Schreibman; R.G. Siemens; J. Unsworth, Eds.). Chichester, West Sussex, UK; Malden, MA, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pp. 397-407. Roig-Sanz, Diana and Meylaerts, Reine (Eds.). 2018. Literary Translation and Cultural Mediators in 'Peripheral' Cultures. Customs Officers or Smugglers? London: Palgrave Macmillan. Smith, Martha Nell. 2004. “Electronic Scholarly Editing.” In A Companion to Digital Humanities (S. Schriebman; R. Siemens; and J. Unsworth). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 306-322.
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Interpretant Translation, Object Translation and Representamen Translation in IT Projects
Coen Suurmond Cesuur
In an IT project the semiosphere of the user will be changed as a consequence of the introduction of new sign systems. I will argue that in such projects there should be a path leading from interpretant translation via object translation to representamen translation (Marais 2019). Interpretant translation is about (1) loosening the user from his daily routine and about contextualising meaning; and (2) about loosening the (external) consultant from his daily abstract routines and getting a sense for specific action context. The second translation is object translation where “business things” are discussed and possibly redefined (the term “business object” has too many different meanings to be of practical use here). This translation process requires the interpretation translation process where users and consultants have developed an understanding for each other’s world (semiosphere). The third translation is the representamen translation where existing terminology will be partially replaced by new terminology, in order to express more specific meanings. This last translation process is a primarily intralingual process against the background of the earlier translation processes of interpretants and objects, where the first two translation processes are primarily intersemiotical.
While the conventional approach to IT projects neglects the differences between sign systems and assumes static and unproblematic meanings of terms, this alternative approach starts from the notions that (1) transition processes to new systems must deal with a wide variety of translation issues for all participants, (2) processes and meanings will change as a result of being questioned, and (3) the project should result in the capability of users to translate information to and from IT systems in doing their jobs.
An important but often unattended aspect in IT projects is the phenomenon that both during the project and afterwards using the new IT system operationally, habits and meanings will shift in not fully predictable ways. New practices and new social facts will emerge. Morin wrote: “the autonomy of the living needs to be known in its environment”. As the environment of the users is changed as a result of the project, and the environment of the project members is changed during the project as a result of collaborating in the project, application of only simple cause-and-effect reasoning in the project will be insufficient. A complexity approach is needed where goal oriented behaviour is combined with an awareness of “the principle of ecology of action” (Morin).
References BYRNE, David; CALLAGHAN, Gill, 2014. Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences. London and New York: Routledge. MARAIS, Kobus, 2014. Translation Theory and Development Studies. New York & London: Routledge. MARAIS, Kobus, 2019. A (Bio)Semiotic Theory of Translation. New York & London: Routledge. MORIN, Edgar, 2006. Restricted Complexity, General Complexity. http://cogprints.org/5217/1/Morin.pdf.
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Adaptation and Transmedia, Parallel Universes or Complex System?
Audrey Canales Université de Montréal
Multimodal texts redefine some of Translation Studies key concepts, like the nature of source or target texts and their hierarchical relationship, the nature of translational units, and the structure of text itself (Gambier 2006). Moreover, since the end of the 1990s, the emergence of Internet and Social Media, and their “convergence” (Jenkins 2006) with other media have made sharing stories fast, easy, and participative and have provoked an exponential rise in stories extensions on multiple platforms. Transmedia narratives (Jenkins 2006) are becoming a standard in storytelling and challenge traditional definitions and borders of authorship, readership and adaptation (Jenkins 2011, Hutcheon and O’Flynn 2013, 2016). If these new narratives often have a lot in common with what Bastin calls a “necessary recreation” that takes places when the target context changes (Bastin 1993, 2012), Adaptation scholars cannot tackle them with a traditional book-to-film approach (Leitch 2008), because their media platform varies from book to cosplay and include –among others– fan fiction, video games, comics and interactive audiovisual products. Chaume advocates for an “integrated model of analysis”, still to be created, that would be common to Film and Translation (Chaume 2004), and Catrysse provides an insight on the use of Even-Zohar’s Polysystem Theory in Film Adaptation (Catrysse 2014). More recently, Catrysse offered to consider Translation and Adaptation Studies as sibling disciplines in a larger academic “family” called “intertextuality or influence studies” (Catrysse 2018). In the case of Transmedia narratives and Adaptation Studies, is an interdisciplinary approach enough? If so, how many disciplines should be involved? We will explore the benefits for Adaptation Studies to give up their traditional borders to survive the explosion of Transmedia stories and stay visible. We will study, instead of asserting their differences and establishing their existence on parallel universes, how both disciplines could benefit from considering themselves as parts of a complex system.
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Understanding Contemporary Tibetan Literature and Their English Translations with Complexity
Meihua Song University of Leeds; Southwest Jiaotong University
Complexity thinking not only offers a powerful alternative to the linear, reductionist approaches to translation studies but according to some scholars (eg. Harding, 2019), can manifest the value some social theories (eg social narrative theory) hold for complexity. Drawing on conceptual tools like non-linearity, system, emergence underpinning complexity thinking as well as the potential of social narrative thoeries to investigate the relationship between agency and structure, the project is to explore the historical trajectory of the English translations of contemporary Tibetan literature (CTL) through narratives as emergent, situated and complex, produced by the interactions of their component parts both with each other and with the whole system of which they are part. Complexity is rooted even in what is taken as contemporary Tibetan literature. Based on the data chronologically sorted out regarding the English translations of CTL, the study is to examine the change of patterns with particular emphasis on the emergence of representations of Tibet, Tibetan people and Tibetan literature through selections of texts to be translated and the way the texts are framed and viewed. Then by taking these patterns and representations as the narratives, the paper proceeds to investigate the trajectories of the practice of translating CTL into English with the non-linear anayses of the emergence of narratives. Furthermore, case study for different periods will be conducted to investigate the trajectory of translating CTL into English at a local level with due consideration to the changing material reality of life. This research aims to bring contributions to understanding with complexity the English translations of CTL in particular and to revisiting in translation studies the conceptualization of the relationships between structure and agency in general.
Keywords: complexity thinking; structure; agency; English translations of contemporary Tibetan literature
References Baker, M., 2006. Translation and conflict: A narrative account. New York: Routledge. Byrne, D. S., and Gill Callaghan. 2014. Complexity theory and the social sciences: the state of the art. First edition. ed. New York: Routledge, Taylor&Francis Group. Harding, Sue-Ann, 2019. Resonances between social narrative theory and complexity theory: A potentially rich methodology for translation studies. In: K.Marais & R. Meylaerts, eds. Complexity thinking in translation studies: Methodological considerations. New York: Routledge. Marais, K., 2014. Translation theory and development studies: A complexity theory approach. London: Routledge. Marais, K., 2019. A (Bio)semiotic theory of translation: The emergence of social-cultural reality. New York and London: Routledge.
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Study of Rewi Alley’s Translation of Chinese Poetry into English: a complexity theory approach
Huijuan Ma Beijing Foreign Studies University
Mossop (1988) points out that “[t]here is an important participant missing in existing models of translation: the translating institutions (corporations, churches, governments, newspapers) which directly or indirectly use the services of translators”. Though institutional translation is an ignored topic in Translation Studies, it has played a central role throughout history (Koskinen 2008: 3-4). In recent years, apart from Mossop’s contributions (2000, 2006), Koskinen (2008), using the Finnish translation unit at the European Commission as a case study, explores the life and the work of the translators in an institutional setting; Mcdougall (2011) describes and analyzes two translation zones of modern China as she elaborates her translation experiences as an employee working in China’s Foreign Languages Bureau. In 2014, the journal Perspectives published a special issue on institutional translation. Scholars from different countries have examined the practices of institutional translation in various contexts and their studies provide fresh insights to the once ignored topic of institutional translation.
Given the complexity of translation activity within different institutions and different cultural backgrounds and identities of individual translators who are involved in the different institutional translations, their findings only reveal part of the whole picture. In order to have a better understanding of institutional translations, more local explanations and detailed case studies of different institutional contexts are required (Koskinen 2008).
This study adopts a complexity theory approach to examine Rewi Alley’s translation of Chinese poetry from 1950s to 1980s, which took place in an institutional setting. The paper examines the complex relationship between Alley’s translation activity and translation policies regulated by the Chinese state institution, exploring factors which have affected the translator’s choice of texts, translation strategies and the distorted image of the original poet.
Key words: institutional translation, complexity theory, Rewi Alley’s translation of Chinese poetry
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Competing Complex Adaptive Systems in Schleiermacher’s Germany: Enlightenment Liberal Cosmopolitanism, Romantic Nationalism, and Emergent Periperformativity
Douglas Robinson Hong Kong Baptist University
When Napoleon conquered the German-speaking states in 1806, the reigning political system in all of them—sclerotic autocracy—seemed relatively stable, like a divinely ordained state of affairs. The French conquest and occupation was the symmetry-breaking force that revealed the non-equilibrium at the core of autocracy, and launched nearly two centuries of developmental volatility. This paper situates Romantic translation theory in the political-historical context of that volatility, and specifically in the developmental tensions between the complex adaptive systems launched against sclerotic autocracy by reformers: liberal cosmopolitanism, from the “West” (the French and English/Scottish Enlightenment), and homegrown Romantic Nationalism (Friedrich Schlegel and the other Jena Romantics). The address that Friedrich Schleiermacher delivered to the Royal Academy of Sciences on June 24, 1813, “Ueber die verschiedenen Methoden des Uebersetzens”/“On the Different Methods of Translating,” is normally read in terms of its respectable academic theses, all of which were derived from the liberal cosmopolitanism of the time; and yet the center could not hold. Schleiermacher was also a zealous nationalist, whose nationalist fervor kept overflowing its bounds, until it nearly got him banished from Berlin as well, just a month after the Academy address on translation. Schleiermacher’s Academy address remains one of the most influential statements informing contemporary translation theory. The sphere of influence spread by Berman and Venuti is remarkable—and it is all based on the calm liberal cosmopolitanism in Schleiermacher’s address, conceived reductively as a stable state. This paper rereads the address through the complex tensions striating it by situating it in the (neg)entropic vectors of German political developmentalism, as several different political adaptive systems out of equilibrium struggled for ascendancy in the turmoil of the War of Liberation.
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Indirect translation in the world we live in
What is direct translation, anyway? Deconstructing direct translation, foregrounding indirect translation
Hanna Pieta University of Lisbon
The starting point for this paper are three observations that result from my ongoing research: (i) translation research uses the concept of direct translation without reflection and considers it as self-evident, unambiguous and carved in stone (this is also the case in studies dedicated to indirect translation, here understood as a translation of a translation, cf. Gambier 1994); (ii) this uncritical approach to direct translation has left it largely undertheorized and akin to a mythical beast marked by purity and simplicity; (iii) such a sacralization of direct translation has impoverished the way translation researchers and trainers view indirect translation. Against this background, the paper will argue that only by conceptualizing and deconstructing the notion of direct translation can we fully desacralize it and, importantly for the purpose of this EST 2019 panel (Topic “Living the dream”), bring indirect translation to the forefront of Translation Studies. First, the paper will briefly survey the way the term direct translation is used in mainstream Translation Studies dictionaries, overviews, handbooks and encyclopedias, as well as in published research dedicated to indirect translation (listed in Pięta 2017). The paper will then illustrate an approach that deconstructs and debunks the concept of direct translation by tracing the genealogy of several translations that previous research classifies as direct but – the paper will argue – defy such classification as they result from different types of indirectness specified in Assis Rosa et al (2017, 121). The said translations are based on different text types (incl. literary, news and scientific translation) and language combinations (incl. Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, French and English). The paper will end with a consideration of what is at stake in debunking the notion of direct translation, both for Translation Studies in general and for indirect translation research in particular.
References Assis Rosa, Alexandra, Hanna Pięta, and Rita Bueno Maia (eds). 2017. “Theoretical, Methodological and Terminological Issues Regarding Indirect Translation: An Overview.” Translation Studies 10 (2): 113–132. Gambier, Yves. 1994. “La retraduction, retour et détour.” Meta: Journal des traducteurs 39 (3): 413–417. Pięta, Hanna. 2017. "Theoretical, methodological and terminological issues in researching indirect translation: A critical annotated bibliography." Translation Studies 10 (2): 186-216.
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Gatekeepers and stakeholders: valorising indirect translation in theatre
Geraldine Brodie University College London
The translation of dramatic texts for performance in the English language frequently takes an indirect route: a mediating text – a literal translation – is employed (and sometimes specifically commissioned) for a target language writer to create a performance text. As I argued in my 2018 article, although this practice varies from Assis Rosa, Pięta, and Bueno Maia’s understanding of indirect translation as ‘a translation of a translation’ , interrogating the role of the intermediate text as a discrete step in the translation process sheds light on the significance of intermediary activity within indirect translation theory . The current paper focuses on a specific aspect of the theatrical variant of the indirect translation process: examining how the contributions of the translators and writers to the performed text are reflected in contractual agreements and fees. The data is drawn from my ongoing research project mapping the real-time commissioning of literal translations of four Dutch plays for eventual performance in English. I will analyse the range of entities participating in the contractual documentation required to execute the various steps of bringing a translated text onto the stage: not only individual stakeholders, such as playwrights, translators and target text writers, but also gatekeepers, for example, theatrical and literary agents, producers, commissioning theatre companies, and state or cultural organisations. What do the variations in contractual terms and practitioner fees indicate about the valorisation of the different roles in the translation process? My paper argues that the examination of gatekeepers and stakeholders in theatre translation sheds light on issues of ownership and livelihood that have implications for a wider theorisation of indirect translation.
Keywords: contractual documentation, literal translation, performance, practitioner fees, theatre translation
Assis Rosa, Alexandra, Hanna Pięta, and Rita Bueno Maia. 2017. ‘Theoretical, Methodological and Terminological Issues Regarding Indirect Translation: An Overview.’ Translation Studies 10 (2): 113– 132, p. 113. Brodie, Geraldine, 2018. ‘Indirect Translation on the London Stage: Terminology and (In)visibility.’ Translation Studies 11 (3): 333-348, p 334.
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Testing indirect translation with novice translators
Ester Torres Simón Universitat Rovira i Virgili University of Lisbon Center for English Studies (CEAUL/ULICES)
Systematic research on indirect translation (ITr) is still scarce, leaving several related questions unanswered. This experiment tackles two such questions: First, what are the students' expectations towards ITr? Second, in situations where they have access to a previous translation in another language, do translators adopt solutions from that mediating text, and if so, why? Do they consider support translation to be a sort of ITr?
A class of 36 novice translators were instructed to translate an English literary text into Spanish, but some were given access to a previously published Catalan translation of the text, a language they spoke. The class was thus divided into three groups: group A had access to the ST in English only; group B had access to the English ST and its published Catalan translation; group C started working on the English ST and received access to the Catalan version only after they had produced a full preliminary draft in Spanish. The final translations were compared to find regularities in solutions to key translation problems. Also, students had to report on the translation process and provide their opinion on the convenience, problems and ethics of using a mediating text.
Qualitative analysis of the results shows a tendency to accept indirect translation as a valid possibility within the translation process insofar as the translator discloses what the source text is. Also, there is a tendency to reluctantly use solutions closer to the mediating text (in Catalan) than to the source text (English).
Beyond these results, methodological and educational gains can be obtained from the study. From a methodological point of view, the task showed the difficulty of isolating linguistic patterns of indirectness involving cognate languages; from a pedagogical perspective, the task encouraged students to discuss key topics in translation like plagiarism, data management, literal translation, and building professional self-confidence.
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Computational source language detection: Can it help identify indirect translations?
Laura Ivaska University of Turku
Because information regarding translations’ source languages is sometimes incomplete or absent, identifying indirect translations (ITr) may be difficult. Methods to identify ITrs include the analysis of paratextual material and the comparison of different language-versions. These methods, however, depend on the availability of material, are time-consuming and/or require proficiency in several languages. A computational analysis to detect the source languages of translations could provide a more efficient method for identifying ITrs.
Previous studies suggest that the language of translations into language X is different from original texts in language X, and that translated language contains traces of the source language (Toury 1995; Mauranen 2004). The features that are carried over from the source to the target language can be used to computationally detect the source language of a translation (e.g., Islam and Hoenen 2013), but what happens when ITrs are put under computational source language detection – will the analysis detect traces of the ultimate source language, the mediating language, or neither?
To explore this question, I use the package Stylo (Eder et al. 2016) in R and a corpus that contains non-translated Finnish prose, Finnish prose translations from English, German, French, Modern Greek, and Swedish, as well as indirect Finnish translations of Modern Greek literature via English, German, French, and Swedish. Results show that there is coherence within a group of texts translated directly from the same source language and variation between the groups of texts with different source languages. Testing the method with ITrs yields mixed results: six of the thirteen ITrs are similar to direct translations from the ultimate source language, two to translations from their mediating languages, and five to neither. However, these preliminary results are encouraging; with a more robust corpus, they are likely to become more accurate.
REFERENCES Eder, Maciej, Jan Rybicki and Mike Kestemont. 2016. ”Stylometry with R: a package for computational text analysis.” R Journal 8 (1): 107–121. Islam, Zahurul and Armin Hoenen. 2013. “Source and Translation Classification using Most Frequent Words.” Proceedings of the Sixth International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing, 1299–1305. Mauranen, Anna. 2004. “Corpora, universals and interference.” In Translation Universals: Do they exist?, edited by Anna Mauranen and Pekka Kujamäki, 65–83. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Toury, G. 1995/2012. Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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Exploring indirect translation in unchartered areas: The case of community radio news in South Africa
Marlie van Rooyen University of the Free State / KU Leuven
Community radio in South Africa aims to provide for the specific language and cultural needs of the community (Govender, 2010:184), emphasising the relevance of news content in local languages. In some community radio stations, news is broadcast in up to five languages. The effect of such multilingualism implies some form of translation activity, although journalists do not necessarily recognise the importance of translation in news production (Bielsa and Bassnett, 2009:1). Furthermore, it is often difficult to reproduce “the [news] translation process, as journalistic environments are characteristically complex, multi-source situations” (Gambier, 2016:900). In some instances it is impossible to determine which part of a news item has been edited or translated (van Doorslaer, 2009:85). Davier explains that this multiple-source reality is realised through “a patchwork of many different sources, many of which were originally in a different language” (2014:58). The complex and multi-source reality of news translation resonates with the complex nature of indirect translation (ITr), in which it is also often impossible to identify an ultimate source language or ultimate source text (Assis Rosa, Pięta and Maia, 2017:119). Considering the above, the aim of this paper is to problematise the everyday news production processes and products in terms of ITr. Furthermore, the paper wants to provide an explorative description of the workflow and production chain of ITr, possible source text(s) and mediating languages in community radio news. Latour’s (2005) actor-network theory provides a methodological framework to unearth the relevant data from community radio stations in the Free State province of South Africa. The data collection methods include observations, informal interviews and the collection of textual data (whether in written or oral format).
Keywords: Indirect translation; news translation; community radio; South Africa; actor-network theory
References: Assis Rosa, A., Pięta, H. & Maia, R.B. (eds). 2017. “Theoretical, methodological and terminological issues regarding indirect translation: An overview.” Translation Studies 10(2):113–132. Bielsa, E. & Bassnett, S. 2009. Translation in global news. London & New York: Routledge. Davier, L. 2014. “The paradoxical invisibility of translation in the highly multilingual context of news agencies.” Global Media and Communication. 10(1):53–72. Gambier, Y. 2016. “Rapid and radical changes in translation and translation studies.” International Journal of Communication. 10:887–906 Govender, A. 2010. Community radio in KwaZulu-Natal: an idealised public sphere. In N. Hyde- Clarke, The citizen in communication. Re-visiting traditional, new and community media practices in South Africa. Claremont: Juta. pp. 179–200. Latour, B., 2005. Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. van Doorslaer, L. 2009. “How language and (non-) translation impact on media newsrooms: The case of newspapers in Belgium.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. 17(2):83–92.
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A Socio-political Perspective on Lu Xun's Indirect Translation
Yangsheng Guo Feng Long Southwestern University of Finance and Economics
Lu Xun (1881-1936), hailed by Chairman Mao in 1940 as “the commander-in-chief of China’s cultural revolution, [who] was not only a great man of letters but a great thinker and revolutionary,” helped to revitalize the age-old tradition of indirect translation (ITr) in China. Against the background of his homeland being partitioned by Western powers from the Boxer Movement of 1900 onward, Lu Xun took the initiative with his brother Zhou Zuoren (1885-1967) in introducing literature of the oppressed and disenfranchised nations through indirect translation from German and English. Their two volumes of translation under the title of A Collection of Foreign Short Stories, first published in Tokyo, Japan in 1909, and then enlarged, revised and reprinted in Shanghai in 1921, include thirty-seven stories by writers from Poland, Bosnia, Finland, Greece, and Denmark, as well as from Russia, Britain, France, and USA. Lu Xun's work demonstrates various socio-political dimensions of ITr that deserve special attention within the current neo/post-colonial context. From Bourdieu's sociological (especially his theory of capital and habitus) and postcolonial (particularly the theory of power structure and power play) perspectives, this presentation examines Lu Xun's translational intention, choice of source texts, target language employed, and methods of translation adopted, as well as circulation of and public response to his translations. It attempts to bring to light various forms of colonial power struggle behind Lu Xun's translations that speak to the socio-political nature, patterns and consequences of ITr in China.
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Language rights in public service interpreting and translation
Language rights and public service interpreting and translation: theories, methods, and practice
Simo Maatta University of Helsinki
In this talk, I will provide an overview of different definitions of linguistic rights and methodologies that can be used when doing research on linguistic rights. I will argue that a focus on the interpreter’s perspective has prevented translation and interpreting studies from adopting and developing sophisticated tools for the analysis of language rights. In addition, I will examine the links between language-rights principles and language-rights practice in public service interpreting and translation, as well as the connections and intersections between language rights and the issues of power, ethics, and ideology.
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Language rights & PSIT as a tool of inclusion
Carmen Valero-Garcés University of Alcalá
As an introduction to the topic, I will address the question of the different meanings of language rights from other stakeholders’ perspective (migrants, service providers, researchers, etc.), following the discussion initiated by Simo Määttä about the interpreter’s perspective. I will argue that is time to adopt a true (realistic) multifaceted approach to go a step further in the professionalization of PSIT. I will try to demonstrate with some examples how such a perspective can turn PSIT into a tool of inclusion and access to services. This will take us to the topic of lingua franca vs. less-widely spoken languages and to explore the links between language rights in PSIT, official language policies, and budgetary issues.
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Tokenistic language rights and social barriers: Translation and language rights in the South African context
Maricel Botha North West University
Contrary to the European context, language rights in South Africa pertain not only to minority or migrant languages, but, within a context in which colonial languages have historically dominated official discourse, even the most widely-spoken African languages have been subjected to linguistic discrimination. One thus encounters a case of marginalised majority languages. South African history has been characterised by exclusive language policies since European colonisation and these have dictated socially excluding translation practices. The transition to a true democracy and subsequent recognition of nine Bantu languages as official languages beside English and Afrikaans seemed to represent an improvement regarding language rights. However, a lack of policy implementation through translation has resulted in English assuming the role of de facto official language in public service delivery, while all ten other official languages have suffered neglect. This has serious implications regarding language rights, as English literacy is not prevailing. In this paper, it is argued that language policy in this case merely fulfils a tokenistic function and enjoys no active support. This is due to its overly ambitious nature and the influence of neoliberal ideology, which has replaced apartheid in the oppressive role. In order to measure the (lack of) implementation of language rights in public service delivery, the paper proposes looking at translation’s operation upon the so- called intelligibility barriers which divide South African society into prestigious and common language domains and correspond with other socially excluding barriers. Translation activities in two social systems – governance, media – are considered in relation to language policy and language proficiency to show the transgression of language rights. The very real relationship between translation and social exclusion is highlighted and the need for large-scale social reform rather than simply an increase in translation is acknowledged in order to solve the problem of social exclusion and marginalisation.
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The Right to Health Interpreting in New Zealand
Eunice Gao Vanessa Enríquez Raído University of Auckland
The right to health interpreting under international law can be considered “an outlier in the field of Human Rights”, for both translation and interpreting enjoy a long history in an international context across various legal settings (Dalton-Oates, 2017: 230). Research shows that divergent views from international legislators on the subject of health interpreter services have resulted in nations, regions and health providers having great differential power in deciding which patients are provided with an interpreter (ibid.). Against this background, this paper examines the right to health interpreting in New Zealand, where government-funded interpreter services are available in most areas for hospital and primary care visits. It first shows that despite the availability of statutory obligations concerning the legal requirement to provide translation and interpreting services across the New Zealand public sector, several barriers continue to affect access to health services for people with limited English language proficiency. The paper then reviews these barriers against a specific policy frame involving an initiative launched by central government agencies to improve equitable and fair access to public services in New Zealand, known as the Language Assistance Services (LAS) Project. Notwithstanding the significant value and benefits of this Project, the authors suggest that similar barriers will still be likely to affect health equity and access in New Zealand, and present the design of a research project aimed to alleviate problems identified with said barriers. This research was only recently approved at one of the three Auckland-based District Health Boards (DHBs) and represents the first of this kind in New Zealand.
References Dalton-Oates, Bradley. (2017). Medical translation: the neglected human right. International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 10(4), pp. 228-238.
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Migrants, languages and inclusion: empirical study of a Russian-speaking community in Tarragona, Spain
Nune Ayvazyan Universitat Rovira i Virgili
The large-scale European project on multilingualism MIME: Mobility and Inclusion in Multilingual Europe (FP7-SSH-2013-1, 2014-2018), tried to identify the best language policies that include both “mobility” and “inclusion”. Our research group that belonged to Work Package 4 “Mediation”, carried out a research project in the Tarragona area, Catalonia, Spain, where some 51 respondents from ex-Soviet countries were interviewed, mainly about how languages contribute to their inclusion. Questions were asked about how these individuals deal with simple, day-to-day issues, such as going to the doctor, lawyer, government offices, since many of these individuals have very limited (sometimes null) knowledge of the local languages (Spanish and Catalan). Also key questions were asked about whether and how the respondents interact with professional and non-professional translators and interpreters, translation technology and language learning. The results show a perceived lack of provision of professional translators in administration and government and free Spanish and Catalan language courses. Also, the Russian language and culture are only supported through private clubs and organizations, which are very few in the region. This necessarily creates social inequalities, since the majority of these individuals are permanent inhabitants of Spain who may not have access to basic services due to their language limitations. These social inequalities become even more apparent when the respondents are asked directly whether they feel excluded from the host society. And since 53% say they do, social cohesion seems to be under real threat. Catalonia is a region where language tensions have arisen between Spanish and Catalan as a consequence of the recent Catalan pro-independence movement. In this scenario, non-regional languages like Russian are neglected. However, it should be advocated in favor of maintaining the Russian language and culture through the inclusion of these into primary and secondary school curriculum in areas where there are large populations of Russian-language speakers.
References Nune Ayvazyan and Anthony Pym. 2018. “Mediation choice in immigrant groups. A study of Russian speakers in southern Catalonia”. Language Problems and Language Planning 42 (3): 344-363
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Language rights principles and language rights practice: The case of spoken Swedish and Finland-Swedish Sign Language in Finland
Lieselott Nordman Satu Siltaloppi University of Helsinki
Finland has one of the oldest legislations of language rights in the world. The Language Act was passed as early as 1922 (LA, updated 423/2003), to ensure “the constitutional right of every person to use his or her own language, either Finnish or Swedish, before courts and other authorities”. The Language Act considers only spoken language. Thereby, one form of language is foreseen: signed language. There are two autochthonous sign languages in Finland: Finnish Sign Language (FinSL) and Finland-Swedish Sign Language (FinSSL). Not until 2015 did Finland get a Sign Language Act (SLA, 359/2015). As the LA, the SLA declares that “authorities must promote in their activities the opportunity for sign language users to use their own language and receive information in their own language”. To enable the legal rights concerning PSIT, there are translators and interpreters specialized in translating and interpreting into and from Swedish, Finnish and the two sign languages. Spoken Swedish and FinSSL exist in the same national frame, they are languages of minority groups, and are regulated by law. However, the two languages have very different status and visibility in society, they differ in institutionality and the legal rights are put into practice in very different ways, partly because spoken Swedish is an official language but FinSSL is not. We will discuss the legislative status of (spoken) Swedish and Finland-Swedish Sign Language in Finland and how legal rights are implemented in practice. We will do this from the perspective of the translators´ and interpreters´ agency, following the definition of agency given in Kinnunen & Koskinen (2010) as a “willingness and ability to act”. Our focus is on access, setting and participants´ position and roles (van Dijk´s 1998). Besides the language acts, our material consists of discussions with Finland-Swedish Sign Language interpreters and Swedish translators in different PSIT. We will also draw on one of the presenter´s own experiences as Finland-Swedish Sign Language interpreter.
References Language Act (423/2003). http://finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2003/en20030423?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bkieli%5D %5B0%5D=en&search%5Bpika%5D=language Engeström, Yrjö 2001: Expansive Learning at Work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work 14 (1), p. 133–156. Kinnunen, Tuija & Koskinen, Kaisa (eds.) 2010: Translators´ agency. Tampere: Tampere University press. Van Dijk´s, Teun A. 1998: Principals of critical discourse analysis. In Jenny Cheshire and Peter Trudgill (eds.): The Sociolinguistic Reader. Vol 2. Gender and Discourse. London: Arnold. Sign Language Act (359/2015). http://finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2015/en20150359?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bkieli%5D %5B0%5D=en&search%5Bpika%5D=language
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Language rights and social reintegration through effective communication in prisons. A Case Study
Carmen Valero-Garcés Bianca Vitalaru Raquel Lázaro-Gutierrez University of Alcalá
The legislation on foreign prisoners in different parts of the world demonstrates that the protection of language rights is only addressed in a few exceptional cases. There are legal instruments to protect these rights such as the Directive 2012/13/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 on the right to information in criminal proceedings, or the Directive 2010/64/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings). However, the transposition of these recommendations into binding provisions in parliament laws or international prison regulations is left to the discretion of each particular state or administration of the EU member states. Multiple reasons may influence these decisions (Baixauli-Olmos 2017). In Spain, in the absence of the provision of a professional service of Tr&In, fellow inmates who speak both the foreign language in question and Spanish are called upon to carry out linguistic intermediation between the foreign inmates and the prison staff. However, a growing concern about the need of a successful interaction in prison as part of the process of education and social integration mentioned in the Spanish Constitution underlines the importance of communication in achieving these objectives (Valero-Garces 2017). This process requires a joint effort from both prison staff and inmates. A pioneering example of such programmes that focuses on promoting social reintegration is the pilot training programme developed for bilingual prisoners as part of a co-ordinated research-action project developed between the University of Alcalá and the Spanish Directorate General for Penitentiaries This proposal aims at presenting some of the challenges of its design and implementation, first results and main conclusions of its implementation in a Spanish prison. These conclusions will eventually contribute to achieving one of the main goals of the project itself, that is, to implement the training program in different prison centers, evaluate its results and ultimately propose standards to contribute to the linguistic communication and integration of foreign inmates.
Key words: language rights; translation and interpretation services; interpreting training; prisons; social reintegration.
References Baixauli-Olmos, L. 2013. A description of interpreting in prisons – Mapping the setting through an ethical lens. In C. Schäffner, K. Kredens and Y. Fowler (eds), Interpreting in a Changing Landscape. Selected papers from Critical Link 6, pp. 45-60 Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (in-text reference: Baixauli-Olmos 2013). Valero-Garcés, C. (2017). “Ethical codes impacting in prison communication”. Valero-Garcés, Carmen y Tipton, Rebecca (eds.), Ideology, Ethics and Policy Development in Public Service Interpreting and Translation. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 105-130.
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Living translation as translaboration
Living Translation as Translaboration: Introduction
Alexa Alfer University of Westminster Cornelia Zwischenberger University of Graz
Introducing the ‘Living Translation as Translaboration’ panel, this presentation will provide an overarching conceptual framework for the various panel presentations that follow. Central to this endeavour is our detailed exposition of the notion of translaboration, an essentially ‘blended concept’ (Fauconnier & Turner 2002), as both an investigate category and a critical practice that responds to the increasingly widespread confluence of ‘translation’ and ‘collaboration’ within and outside of Translation Studies. Bringing ‘translation’ and ‘collaboration’, as well as the often highly heterogenous practices associated with them, “into open conceptual play with one another” (Alfer 2017: 275) allows us, we contend, to respond to the question of how exactly translation and collaboration intersect and bear on one another both conceptually and in practice, to explore translaboration as a category that illuminates the triad of people, processes, and products across various fields of practice, and to address the ethics of such encounters. In the context of this particular panel, we focus on the added conceptual value generated by applying ‘translaboration’ to contemporary instances of ‘networked’ translation production, including but not exclusively focussing on various forms of technologically mediated, aided, or facilitated collaborative translation such as crowdsourced translation of technical and specialised material, fansubbing, collaborative translanguaging practices, or the socially constructed nature of machine translation. This allows us to frame the panel discussions, themselves conceived as a translationally collaborative endeavour, as an exploration not only about the inherently collaborative dimensions of both the practice and the concept of translation, but also the translational dimension (i.e. the knowledge transfer conditions) of ‘collaboration’ as conceptualised outside of Translation Studies (e.g. Carlile 2004).
References Alfer, Alexa (2017). “Entering the Translab: Translation as Collaboration, Collaboration as Translation, and the Third Space of ‘Translaboration’”. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 3(3). Special Issue: ‘Translaboration’: Translation as Collaboration, ed. by Alfer, Alexa, 275-290. Carlile, Paul R. (2004). “Transferring, Translating, and Transforming: An Integrative Framework for Managing Knowledge Across Boundaries”. Organization Science 15(5), 499-616. Fauconnier, Gilles & Turner, Mark (2002). The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books. Zwischenberger, Cornelia (2018). “Let’s get the conceptual play started”. Workshop presentation. Translab. University of Westminster, London. May 18.
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Investigating Translation Concepts in MT as Living Translaboration
Michael Tieber University of Graz
Translation has become a highly divergent concept ranging from rather narrow to almost metaphorical interpretations of the term. Disciplines such as Cultural Studies, at one extreme, and Computational Linguistics at the other, both use the term “translation” to refer to phenomena that do not share much common ground. Translation Studies as a discipline is particularly well suited to look both ways thus aiming to reconcile different notions of translation. Dealing with the term’s broad interpretative spectrum, the area of machine translation turns out to be of particular interest, as translation concepts in MT are influenced by multiple factors. Like any other technical artefact, machine translation can be described as socially constructed by certain groups like MT researchers and developers (see Pinch/Bijker 1984). At the same time, developers are also bound by what is feasible on a technical level, forcing them to react to “resistances” posed by the technology (see Pickering 1995). The translation concept in MT can thus be seen as the product of collaboration between different social actors, on the one hand, and the preconditions of the material world, on the other. In my paper, I will give insights into an empirical study involving interviews with MT researchers and developers, on the concept of translation inherent in machine translation systems. I will argue that this research represents an example of translaboration since it promotes the discourse about translation as an overall concept across different fields.
References Pickering, Andrew (1995). The Mangle of Practice. Time, Agency, and Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pinch, Trevor J. & Bijker, Wiebe E. (1984). “The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit each other“. Social Studies of Science 14(3), 399-441.
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Translation as a Game: What is “at play”?
Xiaochun Zhang University of Bristol
Empowered by the rapid development of information technology, media consumers have been collaboratively translating the contents of audiovisual products in the digital social space, primarily for leisure. The phenomenon of “translating fun for fun” over the last two decades has made translation itself develop into a form of entertainment in the context of entertainment translation (O’Hagan, 2012). Translation becomes entertaining through the gamification in the communication among collaborators in a fansubbing group and the interaction between fansubbing groups and their audience (Wang & Zhang, 2017). The playfulness in the online collaborative translation activities reflects the concept of “play” in a game. Huizinga (1955, p.446) considers play a human nature and a significant function, as “in play, there is something ‘at play’ which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning to the action”. Drawing concepts from Game Studies, this paper further argues that translation can be viewed as a game in this context. The fansubbing network resembles the game system, as it consists of all the key components of a game, namely goals, rules, challenges, and interaction. In addition, to partake in such collaboration, fansubbers accept the rules of the fansubbing network for the pleasure of translating, which reflects the lusory attitude adopted by players when participating in games (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003). Play generates meaning, so does translation. By conducting interdisciplinary analysis, this paper explores the meaning that is deeper “at play” in the game of the fansubbing translaboration.
References Huizinga, Johann (1955) Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture, Boston: Beacon Press. O’Hagan, Minako (2012) ‘Translation as the new game in the digital era’. Translation Spaces, 1 (1), 123-141. Salen, Katie & Zimmerman, Eric (2003) Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Wang, Dingkun & Zhang, Xiaochun (2017) ‘Fansubbing in China: Technology-facilitated activism in translation’. Target. International Journal for Translation Studies, vol 29, 301-318
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The trainee translator a ‘translaborator’? A study on translation quality, trainee and team behaviour
Gys-Walt van Egdom Utrecht University Iris Schrijver University of Antwerp Heidi Verplaetse KU Leuven Winibert Segers Fedde Van Santen.
Collaborative translation is gaining momentum in the academic debate on translation as well as in real-life practices (e.g. Alfter 2017, Jiménez-Crespo 2017). Whereas in the past, translation was seen as one man’s rendition of another man’s work, it is now considered a process that is firmly embedded in social and organisational structures. Some pioneers in the field of ‘translaboration’ have shed new light on the effects of socially and organisationally embeddedness of practices on translation quality. For instance, Jiménez-Crespo (2013) has shown that more “natural” translations can be obtained through collaborative processes, since teams can draw upon “mental corpora” (see also Hoey 2005). We will observe the process of translaboration from a somewhat different angle by zeroing in on simulated professional practices. We contend that translation practices at the workplace are also collaborative practices. In this presentation, we will report on an experiment that has been conducted with translation students in 2018-2019. Building on some exploratory research on trainee translation quality and trainee behaviour (Van Egdom et al. 2018a, Van Egdom et al. 2018b, Verplaetse et al. 2018), we have tried to find out whether teams of trainee translators truly do produce better translations than peers who work on a task individually. To this end, we have evaluated 54 trainee translations and 11 team translations of a source text on health economics. Quality assessment was based on the Preselected Items Evaluation (or: PIE) method. This method requires a careful selection of source text items that are likely to produce errors in target texts. Evaluators draw up a list of correct and incorrect solutions and single out items that have a good p-value and an acceptable d-index score - these items are called docimologically justified items. PIE evaluation was partly performed in the evaluation module (alpha version) of translationQ. For good measure, we have decided to enrich our textual data with logfiles of the translation processes of individual students and skills labs. Inputlog has been our tool of choice: this tool registers keystrokes, mouse movements and clicks, and provides invaluable information on writing and translation processes. Students were asked to log their translation processes and hand-in the log files along with their translation. Inputlog data were used to retrace the decision-making steps that were considered crucial in the genetics of each translation. By combining product and process data, we hope to throw light not only on differences in output quality, but also on factors that can be considered drivers of translation quality. [Ref: 61913032]
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Responsibility, powerlessness and conflict: An ethnographic case study of boundary management in translation
Hanna Risku Jelena Milosevic Regina Rogl University of Vienna
A growing body of research shows the existence of tensions, frictions and conflicts in translation production networks, pointing to the key role of agency, trust, communication and technology in the collaboration (Abdallah & Koskinen 2007, Abdallah 2012, Alonso 2016). However, there are few empirical investigations that include the different actors in one and the same network and analyze the perspectives and practices of both clients and vendors. This paper draws on an ethnographic field study in which participant observation and qualitative interviews were used to study three translation clients working in a major international corporation as well as the CEO and a project manager of a translation agency with which they collaborate. The research questions look at conflicts in their areas of contact, how these conflicts are handled and their consequences. The analysis yields rich, emotional narratives on how the different actors perceive each other, deal with power asymmetries and handle the perceived uncertainty of translation solutions. It shows that there are conflicting and ambiguous expectations regarding mutual responsibilities, leading to mistrust, power plays, fear and frustration. To conceptualize the conflicts, the study applies the boundary spanner concept (Wenger 1998, Williams 2010, Søderberg & Romani 2017) in its analysis of the collaborating partners: The actors are described as boundary spanners trying to maintain sustainable interprofessional, multi-organizational client-supplier relationships in highly complex projects. In its discussion of the conflicts, the study refers to Palus, Chrobot-Mason and Cullen’s (2014) model of boundary spanning activities and concludes that only “transactive” modes of collaboration are demonstrated, including buffering that clarifies group identities and reflecting that sensitizes each group to the other’s values. The interdependences do not lead to a perceived community of partners or allies. The study offers a context-sensitive description of the reasons that can force “a loop of constant negotiation and renegotiation” (Alonso 2016) in the client-supplier relationships in translation collaboration.
Literature Abdallah, Kristiina. 2012. Translators in Production Networks. Reflections on Agency, Quality and Ethics (Publications of the University of Eastern Finland Dissertations in Education, Humanities, and Theology 21). Joensuu: University of Eastern Finland. Abdallah, Kristiina & Koskinen, Kaisa. 2007. Managing Trust: Translating and the Network Economy. Meta 52 (4), 673-687. Alonso, Elisa. 2016. Conflict, opacity and mistrust in the digital management of professional translation projects. Translation & Interpreting 8 (1), 19-29. Palus, Charles J.; Chrobot-Mason, Donna L. & Cullen, Kim L. 2014. Boundary-spanning leadership in an interdependent world. In: Langan-Fox, Janice & Cooper, Cary (Ed.) Boundary spanning in organizations: Network, influence and conflict. New York: Routledge, 206-229.
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Søderberg, Anne-Marie & Romani, Laurence. 2017. Boundary Spanners in Global Partnerships: A Case Study of an Indian Vendor’s Collaboration with Western Clients. Group & Organization Management. 42 (2), 237-278. Williams, Paul. 2010. Special agents: The nature and role of boundary spanners (Paper to the ESRC Research Seminar Series “Collaborative Futures: New Insights from Intra- and Inter-Sectoral Collaborations”). University of Birmingham. Wenger, Etienne. 1998. Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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The Conference of Translators: Collaborative Translation in Iran
Samira Saeedi The Univeristy of Melbourne
This paper springs from recent scholarship on collaborative translation. By ‘collaborative translation’ I mean a translation carried out by a team with or without the supervision of a main translator or editor. From Alfer we know that team translation can empower translators to ‘claim at least a share in the authority, authenticity, and power of attribution traditionally invested in the single author and develop, consequently, a ‘translaborative space’ (Alfer, 2017).
In Iran, so far, the topic has received scant attention. Haddadian-Moghaddam (2014) has addressed the multiplicity of agents in the process of publishing translations, but his study is not concerned with collaborative and team translation. Saadat (2017) demonstrated how, by producing unofficial online translations, Iranian amateur translators and their readers challenge the government norms that control translations. Apart from Saadat, no other study has explored the nature and function of collaborative translation in Iran further.
I fill this gap by examining paratextual and extratextual evidence of at least some of the 22 team translations into Persian of Harry Potter series (1997-2007). This investigation sheds new light on the incentives and implications behind the development of this type of collaborative translation in contemporary Iran. I will also cross-reference the paratextual evidence with data from oral history interviews with ten literary translators and five literary publishers based in Tehran.
I carry out this analysis of Iranian translations by employing a sociological approach and by adopting conceptual tools from Actor-Network-theory (2005) and Bourdieu’s practice theory (1977). . I use ANT’s focus on the production process and strategies adopted by actors to understand power relations among Iranian translators, editors, publishers, and readers.
My research findings suggest that collaborative translation in Iran is based on a strong hierarchical relationship between these actors and generate social and cultural capital for translators and supervisors. My findings also show that Iranian collaborative translation unsettles Western understandings of author-translator and translator-translator relationships.
Key References Alfer, A. (2017). Entering the Translab: Translation as Collaboration, Collaboration as Translation, and the Third space of 'Translaboration'. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts, 3(3), 275-290. Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of Practice (R. Nice, Trans.): Cambridge University Press. Buzelin, H. (2005). Unexpected allies: How Latour’s network theory could complement Bourdieusian analyses in translation studies. The Translator, 11(2), 193-218. Haddadian-Moghaddam, E. (2014). Literary Translation in Modern Iran: A Sociological Study. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Jansen, H., & Wegener, A. (2013). Multiple Translatorship. In H. Jansen & A. Wegener (Eds.), Authorial and Editorial Voices in Translation
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(Vol. 1, pp. 1-39). Montreal: Éditions québécoises de l'oeuvre. Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory: Oxford Universoty Press. Rizzi, A. (2018). Editing and Translating Pliny in Renaissance Italy: Agency, Collaboration and Visibility. Renæssanceforum, 14, 117-138. Saadat, S. (2017). Translaboration: Collaborative Translation to Challenge Hegemony. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts, 3(3), 349-369.
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The process of translaboration in the cocreation of craft beers. A descriptive study of how brand names for new craft beers are coined in multilingual Brussels.
Rita Temmerman Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The creation of new craft beers is a collaborative process. We observed the process of translaboration (Alfer 2017) in the cocreation of new craft beers in two new craft breweries in Brussels: Brasserie de la Senne (their first beer was produced in 2003) and Brussels Beer Project (their first beer was produced in 2013). We will report on the collaborative process of brand name coinage in the translanguaging space (Wei 2011) of Brussels beer geeks. Participants in this process largely communicate via social media. The corpus consists of the trilingual websites of both breweries, their Facebook pages and reporting on beer blogs (created by beer geeks communities e.g. BeerAdvocate.com and RateBeer.com). We use this information to illustrate some aspects of the dynamics of Brussels craft beer branding. A new brand name for a beer is studied as a neologism (Temmerman & Dubois 2017). The brand names for new beers are for a large part the result of a collaboration process between brewers, multilingual craft beer communities interacting on Web 2.0 and artistically creative actors like graphical designers, musicians, foodies, trend setters, all being part of the Brussels beer lovers community. In this translanguaging space four codes are central: French, Dutch, English and Brussels dialect (involving the ‘zwanze’ sociolect), but other languages occur as well (e.g. Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese). We describe co-branding as a process of translaboration within this multilingual community of Brussels beer lovers.
References Alfer, Alexa (2017) “Entering the Translab: Translation as Collaboration, Collaboration as Translation, and the Third Space of ‘Translaboration’”. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 3(3). Special Issue: ‘Translaboration’: Translation as Collaboration, ed. by Alfer, Alexa, 275-290. Temmerman, Rita and Dubois, Danielle (2017) Food Terminology. Expressing Sensory Experience in Several Languages. Special issue of Terminology. International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Issues in Specialized Communication Volume 23, Issue 1. Wei, Li (2011)"Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain." Journal of Pragmatics 43.5: 1222-1235.
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Living translation in transition: the human translator in the next decade
Towards a taxonomy of narrativity for creative translation
David Katan University of Salento University of South Africa
This paper will investigate creativity in translation through narrativity. The general thesis is that while machines may ‘translate’ texts, only humans can narrativise, “to enable an understanding of the characters, events and experiences that are the subject of the discourse” (Alleyne 2015: 62). Narrativity, as Baker tells us (2006: 9) is “the principal and inescapable mode by which we experience the world”. The question then is how can or should use narrativity to ensure that texts are understood. There is much discussion in translation studies about how pernicious or otherwise the use of narrativity might be in translation (e.g. Baker 2006, Pym 2016), but precious little on how the judicius use of narrativity might be the way to allow the reader to experience another world, while at the same time bestowing more respect and status to the translator as mediator. The paper will continue by itemising the main elements of narrative theory useful for translators, with examples from published translations. In particular, the conscious use of narrativity will be seen to be vital when translating for Outsiders (rather than for peers or Insiders), and in general for those who have little access to the extra- contextual areas of knowledge that are tacit or assumed in the text. The areas of narrativity that will be focussed on include manifesting, relevancing and cohering through both overt stance and through covert or stealth procedures. Given that it is in the created narrative rather than in the translated text that engagement with the text is ensured, it will be argued that the ability to succesfully recreate the narrative will be what separates the highly respected translator from the machine.
References Alleyne Brian (2015) Narrative Networks: Storied Approaches in a Digital Age, London: Sage Baker, Mona (2006) Translation and Conflict, London: Routledge. Pym, Anthony (2016) “A spirited defence of a certain empiricism in Translation Studies (and in anything else concerning the study of cultures)” Culture and Society 5(2), 289–313
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Can Social Media Offer Some Clues about the Translators of Tomorrow and the Future of Translation?
Renée Desjardins Université de Saint-Boniface
The threat of automation—particularly at a time when neural machine translation has proven to produce output that rivals human intervention—has many language service professionals at the least concerned and, at worst, contemplating new career paths. In Canada, enrollment in translation programmes has decreased, and in some cases, alarmingly so. However, in nearly ten years of researching translation and social media, I have found a number of instances where translation is gaining new ground and where it resists automation. I have argued in favour of conceptualizing translation using the lens of “augmentation” (Davenport and Kirby, 2015), demonstrating that automation is only a threat to translation if we allow it to be. In this vein, the fact that translation remains “anthropocentric”, despite accelerating innovation and digital shifts, is a positive. In this presentation, using a mixed- methods approach centered around Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) and social media analysis, I leverage data and examples from three different social media case studies (Zooniverse, Instagram, and Netflix) to argue that professional translators can find inspiration from content creators, social media influencers/marketers, and even citizen scientists to rethink how translation can be leveraged and provided in the next decade. From the self-translation of Instagram influencers, to the collaborative paradigms of citizen science on knowledge-based social platforms, to the favourable audience reception of multilingual series and films on streaming services, there is no shortage of translation and multilingual communication, most of which is human-generated. However, perhaps due to the perceived (and also, arguably, inherent) Anglocentrism of North American social media, little consideration is given in training as to how this niche might prove to be rather opportune for professional translators, interpreters, and language professionals. Following the overview of three distinct case studies, I will conclude with some future avenues for translator training and a proposed skillset for ‘the human translators of tomorrow’.
Preliminary list of references: Cordingley, A., & Manning C.F., eds. (2016). Collaborative Translation: from the Renaissance to the Digital Age. London: Bloomsbury. Cronin, M. (2013). Translation in the digital age. London: Routledge. Davenport, T. H., & Kirby, J. (2015). Beyond automation: Strategies for remaining gainfully employed in an era of very smart machines. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), 59–65. Desjardins, R. (2013). Social media and translation. In Y. Gambier and L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), The handbook of translation studies (pp. 156–159). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Desjardins, R. (2017a). Translation and Social Media: In Theory, in Training and in Professional Practice. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Desjardins, R. (2017b). Translation, Social Media, and the Concept of Augmentation: The Good, The Bad, and the Interdisciplinary. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Social Media & Society 2017. Toronto, Canada. DOI: 10.1145/3097286.3097319 Folaron, D. (2010). Networking and volunteer translators. In Y. Gambier and L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), Handbook of translation studies (pp. 231–234). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Fuchs, C. (2015). Culture and economy in the age of social media. London: Routledge. Fuchs, C. (2017). Social Media: a Critical Introduction. 2nd edition. London: Sage.
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Gambier, Y. (2018). “Un futur partiellement codé dans le passé: la traduction collaborative.” In Traduire à plusieurs/Collaborative Translation, edited by Enrico Monti & Peter Schnyder, 37-55. Paris: Orizons Jiménez-Crespo, M. (2017). Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translations: Expanding the Limits of Translation Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Littau, K. (2011). First steps toward a media history of translation. Translation Studies, 4(3), 261–281. DOI: 10.1080/14781700.2011.589651. Littau, K. (2015). Translation and the materialities of communication. Translation Studies, 9(1), 82–96. Nappi, C. (2013). ‘The Global and Beyond: Adventures in Local Historiographies of Science’. Isis, vol. 104, no. 1, pp. 102-110. Olohan, M. (2014). Why do you translate? Motivation to volunteer and TED translation. Translation Studies, vol. 7, no.1, pp. 17-33. Shuttleworth, M. (2018). ‘Translation and the Production of Knowledge in Wikipedia: Chronicling the Assassination of Boris Nemtsov’, Alif, vol. 38, pp. 1-33. *This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
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Educating for an interprofessional future: translation and organisational communication
Gary Massey Regine Wieder Zurich University of Applied Sciences
The translation profession faces challenges that demand new competences and thus new approaches to translator education. In response to socio-ethical requirements for universal access to information, user-centred design (e.g. Suojanen et al. 2015) has gained prominence in translation service provision. At the same time, the advance of machine translation into translators’ routine cognitive work is stimulating demand for adaptive experts able to deliver added-value translation services and consultancy in areas like corporate communications, transcreation and intercultural mediation (e.g. Katan 2016, 2018; Liddicoat 2016; Massey & Ehrensberger-Dow 2017; Pedersen 2014). Such work transcends established disciplinary and professional boundaries, requiring translators to interact closely with specialists from diverse fields. Alongside more established collaborative areas like usability and media accessibility, these include international strategic and organisational communication, public relations and marketing (Massey & Wieder 2019).
However, survey data on translators’ self-concept (e.g. Katan 2011, 2016; Massey & Wieder 2019) suggest that many professionals are not yet equipped to fill the roles such services demand. To empower them to do so, translator education should prepare students for the interprofessional work that presents viable futures for human translation (cf. Suojanen et al. 2018; Morón & Calvo 2018). A prime example is international organisational communication (Massey & Wieder 2019). After considering survey results on translators’ role perceptions, this paper presents and evaluates a medium-term initiative at the authors’ institution to develop a curriculum combining elements of translation and international organisational communication, already partially piloted in learning events involving students of both disciplines. The paper proceeds to recommend how existing competence profiles and curricular models can and should be re-weighted towards the strategic, adaptive, creative and ethical dimensions that will increasingly distinguish high-quality human translation in the next decade.
References Katan, D. (2011). Occupation or profession: A survey of the translators’ world. In R. Sela-Sheffy & M. Shlesinger (Eds.), Profession, identity and status: Translators and interpreters as an occupational group (pp. 65-88). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. Katan, D. (2016). Translation at the cross-roads: Time for the transcreational turn? Perspectives, 24(3), 365-381. Katan, D. (2018). Translatere or transcreare: In theory and in practice, and by whom? In C. Spinzi, A. Rizzo & M.L. Zummo (Eds), Translation or transcreation? Discourses, texts and visuals (pp. 15-38). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. Liddicoat, A.J. (2016). Intercultural mediation, intercultural communication and translation. Perspectives 24(3), 354-364. Massey, G., & Ehrensberger-Dow, M. (2017). Machine learning: Implications for translator education. Lebende Sprachen, 62(2), 300-312. Massey, G., & Wieder, R. (2019). Quality assurance in translation and corporate communications: Exploring an interdisciplinary interface. In E. Huertas Barros, S. Vandepitte & E. Iglesias Fernández
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(Eds.), Quality assurance and assessment practices in translation and interpreting. Advances in linguistics and communication studies series (pp. 57-87). Hershey PA: IGI Global. Morón M., & Calvo, E. (2018). Introducing transcreation skills in translator training contexts: A situated project-based approach. Journal of Specialised Translation, 29, 126-148. Pedersen, D. (2014). Exploring the concept of transcreation - Transcreation as 'more than Translation? Cultus Journal, 7, 57-71. Suojanen, T., Koskinen, K., & Tuominen, T. (2015). User-centered translation. Translation practices explained. London & New York: Routledge. Suojanen, T., Koskinen, K., & Tuominen, T. (2018). Usability as a focus of multiprofessional collaboration: A teaching case study on user-centred translation. Connexions International Professional Communication Journal, 3(2), 147-166.
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Transcreation as a paradigm for new approaches to translator education: defining new roles for humans translators
Juliet Vine Elsa Huertas Barros University of Westminster
In this paper we argue that the new conceptualisations of translation that have developed in the last twenty years (Lefevere & Bassnett 1995; Cronin, 2006; Tymoczko 2007) have all contributed to the expansion of understanding of what translation is. For example, the widening focus of translation from word, to text, to context and culture has led to understandings of the role of translators as cultural mediators. We argue that these new conceptualisations recognise that all translation is an intrinsically creative activity (Ho 2004) and that they therefore support a claim that transcreations are translations. Hence definitions of transcreation as translation plus creativity (Benetello 2018) are based on misconceptions and incomplete understandings of translation. We argue that these incomplete understandings of translation continue to inform current translator education. They may explain why a breakdown of all the competences required in the transcreation process is not fully accounted for by the translation competences outlined in the new EMT competence framework (EMT Board 2017). Although the document does not claim to be exhaustive, in this new competence framework, the (inter)cultural competence appears to be a less well-defined competence and translation of advertising is not mentioned, nor is the notion of creativity. Moreover, the prevalence of beliefs about the limited nature of translation in the transcreation industry (Pederson 2014), and also the limited self-conception of translators as ‘not being creative’ (Katan 2016), demonstrate there is a gap between what translation theorists are theorising and what translator educators are teaching which needs to be addressed. This paper will exemplify how this gap can be filled by explicitly using transcreation projects in translator education, since this not only validates translators as creative, but also provides an opportunity to (re)consider how the new conceptualisations of translation can be accounted for in translation teaching, e.g. by questioning the concept of accuracy and the limits of translation. Transcreation provides a prism through which the evolving understanding of translation and the evolving roles of human translators can be investigated.
References Benetello, C. (2018). When translation is not enough: Transcreation as a convention-defying practice. A practitioner’s perspective. JoSTrans, 29, 28-44. Available at: https://www.jostrans.org/issue29/art_benetello.pdf Cronin, M. (2006). Translation and Identity. London: Routledge. EMT Board (2017). EMT Competence Framework 2017. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/emt_competence_fwk_2017_en_web.pdf Ho, G. (2004). Translating advertisements across heterogeneous cultures. The Translator, 10 (2), 221-243. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13556509.2004.10799178 Katan, D. (2016). Translation at the Cross-roads: Time for the transcreational turn? Perspectives, 24(3), 365-381. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0907676X.2015.1016049?journalCode=rmps20 Lefevere, A. & Bassnett, S. (1995). Translation, History and Culture. London: Cassell.
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Pedersen, D. (2014). Exploring the concept of transcreation - Transcreation as 'more than Translation? Cultus Journal, 7, 57-71. Available at: http://www.cultusjournal.com/files/Archives/pedersen_5_p.pdf Tymoczko, M. (2007). Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators. Manchester: St. Jerome
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Training interlingual live subtitlers: development of a new competence profile and course structure
Isabelle Robert Iris Schrijver Ella Diels University of Antwerp
Audiovisual translation and media accessibility have become drivers of social inclusion and integration. When subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing have to be produced live (on television, at a live event, etc.), the preferred technique is respeaking, where subtitlers listen to the speaker and simultaneously repeat or rephrase what they hear to a speech recognition (SR) software that turns these words into intralingual subtitles. Intralingual respeaking practices differ across countries, but training does exist. With the increased multicultural composition of societies worldwide, there is however also a growing demand for accessibility to live audiovisual content conducted in a foreign language. In other words, professionals who can produce interlingual live subtitles through respeaking are needed and thus have to be trained. But the question is: how? This is precisely the aim of the Erasmus+ ILSA project, i.e. to develop the new professional profile of the ILS-er. This will happen in different phases: (1) an assessment of the current intralingual live subtitling practice and training, (2) the identification of the skills required for the job, (3) the development, assessment and validation of a specialized course and its materials, and (4) the creation of a protocol for the implementation of ILS in different settings. In our paper, we will report on the first two phases mentioned before. In other words, we will first present the results of an online survey conducted in 2018 among (a) trainers of interlingual live subtitling, (b) live-subtitlers, (c) broadcasters and service providers, and whose aim was to assess the current intralingual and interlingual live subtitling practice and training. Second, we will describe the necessary skills for live interlingual subtitling, as well as the course structure developed based on phase 1.
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Digitalizing Translation
Debbie Folaron Concordia University
Computers, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the internet have forced societies, professions, and disciplines to rethink human social relationships, human-technology relationships, epistemological frameworks, ethical issues, and the interrelated spaces that have emerged between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’ (Ash et al. 2019; Barney et al. 2016; Baumgarten and Cornellà-Detrell 2017; Brügger and Milligan 2019; Daniels and McMillan Cottom 2017; Floridi 2014; Goggin and McLelland 2017; Mosco 2017; Russell 2014; Van Dijck 2013; Wiberg 2018). The position of the ‘translator’ has been evolving and transforming as well within this networked ‘digital world’ (Cronin 2013; Desjardins 2017; Folaron 2012; Jiménez- Crespo 2017; Kenny 2017). Recent statements about machine translation published by professional translator associations reflect some of the uneasiness with which increasingly sophisticated automated translation and other technologies have taken on greater visibility and presence in professional translation work. By the same token, a clearer understanding of the trends and tensions within contemporary digital world activities overall allow us to decipher, interpret, and explain more coherently both how they relate to our own translator and translation practices, and how we can more effectively handle the transforming environment. The objective of this presentation is two-fold. While not based on an empirical case study designed for any one class year in particular, it will present some of the observations, insights and knowledge that have been gained through 12 years of teaching an interactive ‘Web, technologies, translation: theoretical and critical reflections’ class to university students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate translation programs. Relying on a significant body of concepts and writings (scholarly, theoretical, empirical) from the growing field of digital studies (Athique 2013; Kurbalija 2016; Miller 2011; Stalder 2018), the course reflects on the relationships that emerge from the interactions between translation (including machine translation, Poibeau 2017) and our contemporary lives mediated by technologies and the Web. What does digital communication in a globalized, multilingual world mean for us as translation practitioners, scholars, and human beings? How does a digital studies approach to thinking about translation potentially redefine translation studies research? By more deeply contextualizing the digital world in which translation practices (aided by CAT and MT translation technologies) take place, the more effectively translators are able to position themselves as one actor among many in this environment, and to understand and explain the value they bring to global communication.
REFERENCES Ash, J., Kitchin, R., and Leszczynski, A. (eds.), 2019. Digital Geographies. London: SAGE Publications. Athique, A., 2013. Digital Media and Society: An Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press. Barney, D., Coleman, G., Ross, C., Sterne, J., and Tembeck, T. (eds.), 2016. The Participatory Condition in the Digital Age. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Baumgarten, S. and Cornellà-Detrell, J. (eds.), 2019. Translation and Global Spaces of Power. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Brügger, N. and Milligan, I. (eds.), 2019. The SAGE Handbook of Web History. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
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Cronin, M. 2013. Translation in the Digital Age. London: Routledge. Daniels, J., Gregory, K., and McMillan Cottom, T. (eds.), 2017. Digital Sociologies. Bristol: Policy Press. Desjardins, R., 2017. Translation and Social Media. In Theory, in Training, and in Professional Practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Floridi, L., 2014. The 4th Revolution. How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Folaron, D., 2012. Digitalizing Translation. Translation Spaces, 1, pp. 5-31. Goggin, G. and McLelland, M. (eds.), 2017. The Routledge Companion to Global Internet Histories. New York: Routledge. Jiménez-Crespo, M.A., 2017. Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. Kenny, D. (ed.), 2017. Human Issues in Translation Technology. London: Routledge. Kurbalija, J., 2016. An Introduction to Internet Governance. 7th edition. DiploFoundation. Miller, V., 2011. Understanding Digital Culture. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. Mosco, V., 2017. Becoming Digital. Toward a Post-Internet Society. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Ltd. Poibeau, T., 2017. Machine Translation. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Russell, A.L., 2014. Open Standards and the Digital Age. History, Ideology, and Networks. New York: Cambridge University Press. Stalder, F. 2018. The Digital Condition. Trans. V.A. Pakis. Cambridge: Polity Press. Van Dijck, J., 2013. The Culture of Connectivity. A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wiberg, M., 2018. The Materiality of Interaction. Notes on the Materials of Interaction Design. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
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Translation’s new shapes, as moulded by future interactive tools
Félix do Carmo Joss Moorkens Dublin City University
As stated beforeon previous occasions, tools are a defining part of translation (Cronin 2013). In an age in which tools determine what we do, to the point that they replace us in several tasks, one tends to think that the definition of translation itself needs to be replaced. However, as Jakobsen has mentioned, if we need to replace our definition of translation because of the tools we use, maybe our definition of translation was not broad enough (Jakobsen 2018). This presentation will comment on different approaches to the next generation of translation tools and on the models of translation they conveyrelate to, and then discuss how these may affect the way translation will be done (Wuebker et al. 2016; Hokamp 2017; Moorkens, O’Brien, and Vreeke 2016). These approaches cover a vast technology spectrum, from interactive neural machine translation (Peris, Domingo, and Casacuberta 2017) to automatic post-editing and quality estimation of machine translation (Astudillo, Graça, and Martins 2018). BesidesIn addition, a report on the results of a workshop with 50 translators, which tested two interactive translation-support technologies, will be presented (do Carmo 2017), and the impact on translator training will be discussed (Pym 2013). The views on post-editing as a type of revision will be challenged, and it will be proposed that we should consider the changes brought by current technologies as mere, predictable or even appreciated, evolutions of translation practices. Finally, this presentation addresses the issue of the future value of human translation. This discussion will be contextualised in the current conflict between production chains commanded by big data ownership and the growing acknowledgement of a need to shift towards personalisation, both in data mining and in tool development (O’Brien and Conlan 2018; DePalma and Lommel 2017).
REFERENCES Astudillo, Ramón, João V. Graça, and André Martins. 2018. “Translation Quality Estimation and Automatic Post-Editing - Workshop Proceedings.” In The 13th Conference of The Association for Machine Translation in the Americas (AMTA2018). Boston, USA. Carmo, Félix do. 2017. “Post-Editing: A Theoretical and Practical Challenge for Translation Studies and Machine Learning.” Universidade do Porto. https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/107518. Cronin, Michael. 2013. Translation in the Digital Age. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. DePalma, Donald, and Arle Lommel. 2017. “Augmented Translation Powers up Language Services.” 2017. http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/Blogs.aspx?1=1&moduleID=390&Contenttype=ArticleDetAD& AId=37907. Hokamp, Chris. 2017. “Ensembling Factored Neural Machine Translation Models for Automatic Post- Editing and Quality Estimation.” http://arxiv.org/abs/1706.05083. Jakobsen, Arnt Lykke. 2018. “Translation Process Research and the New Construction of Meaning: Is There a Need for a New Methodology?” In The 5th International Conference on Cognitive Research on Translation and Interpreting. Beijing, China: Renmin University of China. Moorkens, Joss, Sharon O’Brien, and Joris Vreeke. 2016. “Developing and Testing Kanjingo: A Mobile App for Post-Editing.” Tradumàtica: Tecnologies de La Traducció 14: 58–66. http://revistes.uab.cat/tradumatica/article/view/168.
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O’Brien, Sharon, and Owen Conlan. 2018. “Moving towards Personalising Translation Technology.” In Moving Boundaries in Translation Studies. London: Routledge. Peris, Álvaro, Miguel Domingo, and Francisco Casacuberta. 2017. “Interactive Neural Machine Translation.” Computer Speech and Language 45: 201–20. Pym, Anthony. 2013. “Translation Skill-Sets in a Machine-Translation Age.” Meta: Journal Des Traducteurs 58 (3): 487. Wuebker, Joern, Spence Green, John DeNero, Sasa Hasan, and Minh-Thang Luong. 2016. “Models and Inference for Prefix-Constrained Machine Translation.” In ACL 2016, 66–75.
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Living translation when crisis strikes: policy, training, technology, and ethics
A Post-Editing 101 Course for Crisis Response
Nataša Pavlović University of Zagreb Patrick Cadwell Sharon O'Brien Dublin City University
When an emergency, crisis or disaster strikes, timely and accurate information is crucial to ensure that there is a limited impact on the health and well-being of those affected (O’Brien and Cadwell 2017; O’Brien et al 2018). Crisis response depends substantially on volunteers, including citizen translators who may or may not have training or experience in translation, computer-aided translation technologies, Machine Translation (MT) or post-editing. With the growing deployment of MT, there is increasing interest in its use as a crisis communication tool (Lewis 2010, Lewis et al 2011) and, consequently, a need for training.
This paper describes the design and creation of a “Post-Editing 101 Course” for citizen translators in crisis response. The course recognises that professional translators are most desirable, but crisis settings sometimes call for a ‘needs must’ approach. The course was designed with the assumption that a citizen translator might have little to no knowledge of MT or post-editing and very little time to learn those skills. It also makes the assumption that a small amount of training is better than none at all, especially in the context of MT and post-editing being used for crisis communication.
The paper will present the main components of the course: What is Machine Translation?; The Importance of “Data” for “Quality”; A Brief Overview of Post- Editing; The Post-Editing Task; and The Post-Editors’ Skills. We will demonstrate how we incorporated practice sets for English to Croatian, Polish and German as optional components in the courseware. We will explain how we tried to make this course accessible to a non-specialised audience and present results from an initial evaluation of the courseware by Polish, Swahili and Croatian-speaking volunteers.
References Lewis, W. (2010) Haitian Creole: how to build and ship an MT engine from scratch in 4 days, 17 hours, and 30 minutes. Proceedings of the 14th annual conference of the European Association for Machine Translation, 27-28 May 2010, Saint-Raphaël, France. No page numbers. Lewis, W., Munro, R. and Vogel, S. (2011) Crisis MT: developing a cookbook for MT in crisis situations. Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Statistical Machine Translation, 30-31 July, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, pp. 501-511. O'Brien, S. and Cadwell, P. (2017) Translation facilitates comprehension of health-related crisis information: Kenya as an example. Journal of Specialised Translation 28: 23-51. O'Brien, S., F. Federici, P. Cadwell, J. Marlowe and B. Gerber (2018) Language translation during disaster: A comparative analysis of five national approaches. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 31: 627-636.
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Translation as empowerment: the role of translation in establishing equal dialogue between international and local NGOs
Wine Tesseur Dublin City University
This paper will present the first steps undertaken as part of a new research project that investigates the role of translation in establishing equal partnerships and dialogue between large Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) from the Global North and local NGOs and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the Global South. Such organisations are typically involved in delivering aid in crisis situations, both by providing emergency assistance and long-term development aid, with the common goal of achieving a better and more sustainable future for all. International NGOs claim to work in equal partnership with local organisations, which implies working in a multiplicity of languages so that everyone can participate. Yet languages are often a blind spot in international development, as exemplified by the absence of any mention of languages in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The paper aims to set out the theoretical starting point of this new research project. It will firstly introduce some of the key findings of my previous research on the role of languages in international UK-based development NGOs. These findings draw on more than thirty interviews with staff from Christian Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children and Tearfund. Secondly, the paper will introduce the conceptual framework that forms the basis of my new research project. Translation here is conceptually understood as a tool for inclusion and empowerment, as it can for example provide access to information and knowledge. The paper will thus present an interdisciplinary theoretical understanding of translation, in which I place translation at the centre stage of principles of participation, inclusion and empowerment. Its aim is to explore the role that translation studies can play in interdisciplinary research that addresses development, advocacy and crisis management, and to explore ways in which translators and translation researchers can articulate clearly the importance of translation in international crisis and development situations.
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Developing the role of the interlingual disaster communication mediator
Sarah Devlin Queen University Belfast
This paper - taken from my current PhD research – assesses the use of citizen and volunteer translators in disaster preparedness and response. To do so, it draws upon existing projects - in particular, Interpreters-in-Aid at Disasters and INTERACT- focusing on the development of training for those who take on the role of the translator in disaster response. The paper argues that, whilst the activities and training delivered by these projects are potentially fruitful, they are not without their drawbacks – in particular, the paper questions whether the deployment of citizen and volunteer translators renders operations vulnerable through reliance upon individuals who may be unwilling or unable to assist. As a result, the paper proposes that the role of the translator in disaster response should be developed as that of a standalone professional, whose specialist responsibilities might be better defined as those of an interlingual disaster communication mediator. The paper argues that the titles translator and interpreter do not adequately reflect the activities that these individuals are tasked with. Often, owing to a number of factors such as the wide misunderstandings of translation and interpretation, they are charged with tasks that fall outside of the traditional boundaries of the roles or conversely, the individuals are underutilised. Naming the role accordingly could help not only to mitigate misuse, but also allow for better training and regulation of the role. Drawing upon aspects of the invaluable work of the aforementioned existing projects, as well as real-world experience and voices from the field, the paper outlines what this professional might look like. It argues, in particular, that the development of the profession of the interlingual disaster communication mediator in the private sector is a valuable step towards addressing the issues of the use of a volunteer cohort, while at the same time bolstering the effectiveness of the translational activities that are required during disasters.
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Volunteerism and the Citizen Translator: A Case Study of Cochrane
Patrick Cadwell Sharon O'Brien Dublin City University Claudia Bollig Cochrane Deutschland Stiftung
Volunteers are important participants in crisis translation activities, and some crisis translation efforts depend on volunteerism (see, e.g., Folaron 2010). The ethics of using volunteer translation, methods for volunteer translator collaboration, and typical profiles and motivations of volunteer translators have been examined (see, e.g., Jiménez Crespo 2016), yet research into the training and support of volunteer translators remains underdeveloped. Nevertheless, an understanding of training and support is vital to building robust and sustainable communities of volunteers producing quality translations and is, therefore, of great relevance to crisis translation. This paper presents a case study of volunteerism at Cochrane, a global network of researchers, health professionals, patients, and others interested in using evidence to inform health-related decisions. Harnessing the enthusiasm and efforts of interested individuals is central to Cochrane’s work. The paper will introduce the organisation, focusing on the ways in which it recruits, retains, trains, and supports its volunteers. The data on which the paper is based were gathered during a period of fieldwork by the researchers at Cochrane Germany Foundation’s office in Freiburg, Germany in July and August 2018. Interviews with six key members of the global organisation – translation project managers from various Cochrane offices around the world – as well as analysis of relevant grey literature and embedded observation from the field make up the data sets.
Findings centre on the challenges and tensions involved in training and supporting volunteer translators in a way that ensures quality translation outputs. The paper discusses ways in which Cochrane currently resolves these tensions, and suggests ways of dealing with these challenges in the future, including greater recognition of the project manager role in harnessing volunteer efforts, further implementation of collaborative and translation technologies, and greater leverage of existing professional expertise within the volunteer network.
Keywords: crisis translation; volunteer; training and support; Cochrane; case study
References: Folaron, D. A. (2010). “Networking and Volunteer Translators” IN: Gambier, Y. and Doorslaer, L. V. (eds.), Handbook of Translation Studies: Volume 1. Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Co., pp. 231–234. Jiménez Crespo, M. A. (2016). “Collaborative and Volunteer Translation and Interpreting” IN: Angelelli, C. V. and Baer, B. J. (eds), Researching Translation and Interpreting. London, Routledge, pp. 58–70.
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Research in legal translation and interpreting: people, processes, products
Lawyers and linguists translating legal terms: Who is more literal?
Ondrej Klabal Palacky University Olomouc
The fact that lawyers often require “literal” translation has been resonating in the field for decades (e.g. de Groot 1987: 793). In the Czech Republic, the quest for literal translation, especially in official translations, is further exacerbated by the wording of the legislation regulating the professions of sworn translators and interpreters, which requires such a translation. This often remains so despite any attempts at client education. This paper tries to examine the variable of translator’s background and its impact on the choice of strategies to attain equivalence on the terminological level. With all awareness of the limitations of the method, a multiple choice translation test will be used as it was done e.g. by Orlando (2016), who also compared the performance of lawyers and linguists. Two groups, one consisting of professional lawyers who have experience with legal translation and the other one consisting of translators who are linguists by training, will be presented with a set of contextualized legal terms in English and Czech and proposed translations for each item into the other language. The proposed translations will make use of different strategies on the cline from foreignizing ones to domesticating ones (cf. Biel and Goźdź-Rozskowski 2015: 262) and the subjects will be asked to choose one which achieves the highest level of communicative adequacy in their judgement. The results will be analysed to see whether a different tendency can be traced in lawyers and linguists with respect to the translation of legal terminology, and whether the directionality is a factor involved in their decision-making, i.e. whether different strategies are used more often when translating into the native or non-native language. Based on the results, implications for training these groups of legal translators will be discussed.
Bibliography Biel, L. and S. Goźdź-Rozskowski. (2015). Legal Translation. In Ways to Translation, edited by Ł. Bogucki, S. Goźdź-Rozskowski and P. Stalmaszczyk. Łodz: Łodz University Press. de Groot, G. (1987). The point of view of a comparative lawyer. Les Cahiers de droit, 28(4), 793–812. Orlando, D. (2016). The Trials of Legal Translation Competence: Triangulating Processes and Products of Translators vs. Lawyers. PhD thesis University of Trieste.
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Contextualize, classify, measure: An evidence-based approach to defining institutional legal translation
Fernando Prieto Ramos University of Geneva
Legislative translation has traditionally been at the centre of academic approaches to legal translation, in line with the prominent role of legislation in legal studies. However, as increasingly highlighted in Legal Translation Studies, theories of legal translation must consider the broader range of communicative situations and genres that are found “within the mechanism of the law” (Šarčević’s 1997: 55). In terms of research design, this means that explicit text classification and legal contextualization are mandatory steps to define the object of study and obtain reliable results. In turn, delineating the textual boundaries of specific branches of legal translation is often compounded by the interconnection of legal functions, themes and discourses. This applies to institutional legal translation as the cornerstone of multilingualism of international organizations and their policies. While translation practices in law- making have been the focus of multiple studies in the field, particularly in the European Union (e.g. Felici 2010, Kjær 2007), other contexts of multilingual text production and application have attracted more limited attention. Against this background, the methodological challenges and first results of a large-scale mapping of institutional legal translation will be outlined, including three representative international settings: the European Union, the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. A cyclical multidimensional approach is applied to three large corpora covering three annual intervals per setting. The entire multilingual text production of the relevant organizations is classified under three types of procedures: law-making, implementation monitoring and adjudication (as identified in Prieto Ramos 2014). Text taxonomies are incorporated within a matrix composed of primary categories and several subcategories, according to legal functions. The data obtained from this comparative mapping will provide empirical support to the subsequent description of translation features and analyses of quality in this area.
References Felici, A. (2010). “Translating EU law: legal issues and multiple dynamics”. Perspectives 18 (2): 95– 108. Kjær, A. L. (2007). “Legal Translation in the European Union: A Research Field in Need of a New Approach”. In K. Kredens and S. Goźdź-Roszkowski (eds), Language and the Law: International Outlooks. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, pp. 69–95. Prieto Ramos, F. (2014). “International and supranational law in translation: from multilingual lawmaking to adjudication”. The Translator 20 (3): 313–331. Šarčević, S. (1997). New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
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Autonomy and communicative adequacy of supranational terminology in EU translation: a parallel corpus study
Lucja Biel University of Warsaw
Supranational legal terms are a special category of legal terms thanks to their distinctive properties (autonomy, multilingualism and mediation through translators, continuity) and a much more complex profile due to the double legal environment they inhabit: the immediate supranational one and national ones, where they ‘travel’ through compulsory harmonisation. The typical life path of an EU supranational concept is a staged process covering drafting and translation at the supranational level; harmonisation, application and interpretation at the national level, and interpretation at the supranational level. When translating supranational legal texts, translators have to take into account this ‘travelling’ requirement of supranational concepts and consider how a terminological equivalent will ‘fit’ the national conceptual system while, at the same time, ensuring the uniform application and interpretation of an underlying supranational concept throughout the EU.
The objective of this paper is first to investigate the primary term-creation (Fischer 2010) in EU English versions of regulations and directives, focusing on defined terms (autonomous terms of EU law) and their neutralisation techniques, such as neologisms, generic terms and adaptations of existing national terms (Mattila 2013: 157-158; Bajčić 2017: 83). Our hypothesis is that such terms are formed with relatively simple and frequent words to achieve semantic transparency. The second objective is to analyse to what extent these characteristics are retained (‘mirrored’) in Polish translations and whether any differences can be identified between techniques applied to translate regulations (automatically integrated into national systems) compared to directives (which undergo transposition – ‘retranslation’ by national drafters).
The study will be conducted on a parallel corpus of EU English and Polish legislation and reference corpora in the Sketchengine platform. Our methodological objective is to explore to what extent parallel corpora can be used as an analytical tool which enhances our knowledge of multilingual supranational terminology.
Bibliography Bajčić, Martina. 2017. New Insights into the Semantics of Legal Concepts and the Legal Dictionary. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Biel, Łucja, Agnieszka Biernacka, and Anna Jopek-Bosiacka. 2018. “Collocations of Terms in EU Competition Law: a Corpus Analysis of EU English Collocations.” In Language and Law. The Role of Language and Translation in EU Competition Law, ed. by Silvia Marino, Łucja Biel, Martina Bajčić, and Vilelmini Sosoni, 249-274. Cham: Springer. Doczekalska, Agnieszka. 2018. “Legal Languages in Contact: EU Legislative Drafting and Its Consequences for Judicial Interpretation.” In Language and Law. The Role of Language and Translation in EU Competition Law, ed. Silvia Marino, Łucja Biel, Martina Bajčić, and Vilelmini Sosoni 163-178. Cham: Springer. Fischer, Márta. 2010. “Language (policy), translation and terminology in the European Union.” In Terminology in Everyday Life, ed. by Marcel Thelen, and Frieda Steurs, 21-33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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Freixa, Judit. 2006. “Causes of denominative variation in terminology. A typology proposal.” Terminology 12 (1): 51-77. Kjær, Anne Lise. 2007. “Legal translation in the European Union: A research field in need of a new approach.” In Language and the Law: International Outlooks, ed. by Krzysztof Kredens, and Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski, 69-95. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Mattila, Heikki E. S. 2013. Comparative Legal Linguistics. Language of Law, Latin and Modern Lingua Francas, 2nd Edn. (trans: C. Goddard). Aldershot: Ashgate. Pozzo, Barbara. 2012. “English as a Legal Lingua Franca in the EU Multilingual Context.” In The Role of Legal Translation in Legal Harmonization, ed. by C.J.W. Baaij, 183-202. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International. Prieto Ramos, Fernando. 2014. “International and supranational law in translation: from multilingual lawmaking to adjudication.” The Translator 20 (3): 313 – 331. In The Role of Legal Translation in Legal Harmonization, ed. by C.J.W. Baaij, 83-107. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International. Robertson, Colin. 2015. “EU multilingual law: Interfaces of law, language and culture.” In Language and culture in EU Law. Multidisciplinary perspectives, ed. by Susan Šarčević, 33-52. Farnham: Ashgate. Šarčević, Susan. 1997. New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law International. Šarčević, Susan. 2012. “Coping with the Challenges of Legal Translation in Harmonization.” In The Role of Legal Translation in Legal Harmonization, ed. by C.J.W. Baaij, 83-107. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International. Stefaniak, Karolina. 2017. “Terminology work in the European Commission: Ensuring high-quality translation in a multilingual environment.” In Quality Aspects in Institutional Translation, ed. by Tomáš Svoboda, Łucja Biel, Krzysztof Łoboda, 109-121. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1048192. Temmerman, Rita. 2018. “European Union multilingual primary term creation and the impact of its neologisms on national adaptations.” Parallèles 30(1): 8-20. DOI 10.17462/para.2018.01.02. Woods, Lorna, Philippa Watson, and Marios Costa. 2017. Steiner & Woods EU Law. 13th Edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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People and Processes in the Post-Qualification Supervision and Coaching of Signed Language Interpreters in Police Settings
Jonathan Downie Jules Dickinson Tessa Slaughter Graham Turner Heriot-Watt University
In the United Kingdom, it is standard practice for signed language interpreters to refrain from working in legal setting for two years after qualifying. This experience- gathering period, combined with research which continues to show that newly graduated sign language interpreters do not feel ready to work in legal settings (Walker and Shaw, 2011, p. 102), has created a resource gap. Alongside this is anecdotal evidence which suggests that even the more experienced interpreters often decide not to work in legal settings. The Scottish Government has sought to address the general shortage of qualified sign language interpreters by funding a full- time undergraduate degree in signed language interpreting at Heriot-Watt University, beginning in 2012. Keen to ensure that graduates remained in the country after qualification, the Scottish Government Equality Unit subsequently funded the Promoting Equal Access to Services: Reducing Barriers to Participation for BSL Users (PEAS) project. This multi-disciplinary project, in partnership with Heriot-Watt University, Police Scotland and the National Health Service, aimed to provide paid, supervised and coached full-time internships for graduates of the programme. This presentation will discuss the results of the police interpreting section of the PEAS project. We will refer to existing work on the use of mentoring to help ease graduate interpreters into the workplace (Pearce and Napier, 2010). Additionally, we will argue that the PEAS experience underscores the need for legal interpreters to be trained in partnership with legal institutions and vulnerable communities. This is especially important if research on legal interpreting is to follow the example of Angermeyer (2015) in viewing legal interpreting as an essentially situated activity, whose performance is determined by both organisational and socio-political factors.
References Angermeyer, P. S. (2015) Speak English or What?: Codeswitching and Interpreter Use in New York City Courts. Oxford University Press. Pearce, T. and Napier, J. (2010) ‘Mentoring: A Vital Learning Tool for Interpreter Graduates’, International Journal of Interpreter Education, 2, pp. 58–75. Walker, J. and Shaw, S. (2011) ‘Interpreter preparedness for specialized settings’, Journal of Interpretation, 21(1), p. 8.
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Re-thinking the role of the interpreter in conflict-related scenarios
Language in conflict: A voice for translators and interpreters under fire
Maya Hess Red T Linda Fitchett AIIC
At a time when warfare, turmoil and mass migration afflict many parts of the world, a growing body of literature points to both the importance and the vulnerability of linguists in conflict situations and post-conflict humanitarian actions. As bridges of understanding and messengers of peace, they are in urgent need of protection. That is why, in a historic first, the world language community has taken a progressively collective and activist stance, no longer remaining silent when colleagues are under threat. They have formed a vibrant advocacy coalition comprising Red T, the only non-profit organization dedicated to linguists in high-risk settings; the major international language associations AIIC, FIT, IAPTI, CLI, and WASLI; the international association of university institutes with translation and interpretation programs CIUTI; as well as various transnational and national organizations. Red T founder Dr. Maya Hess and Linda Fitchett, former president of AIIC and current chair of its Conflict Zone Interpreter Group, will discuss the coalition’s initiatives, including the Open Letter Project, the development of advisory and safety guidelines, and the drive for international legal instruments such as a UN Resolution addressing the safety of civilian translators and interpreters and a best practices protocol along the lines of the Montreux Document. They will give a voice to the literary translator who was imprisoned for articulating inconvenient content; the court interpreter who received death threats to halt the wheels of justice; the conflict zone linguists who are kidnapped, tortured and murdered for allying with foreign forces; and the fixers who, along with journalists, are arrested and killed in an attempt to suppress freedom of the press. Above all, they will invite audience members to explore their professional and humanitarian responsibility to fellow linguists most at risk.
Keywords: Translator/Interpreter protection, International Humanitarian Law, Conflict situations, Advocacy, Persecution
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Translating and interpreting in peacekeeping operations: Voices from the field
Carmen Valero-Garces Jesus De Luis Lopez Universidad de Alcalá
Yet the definition of what an interpreter is, could be considered as crystal clear for professionals in Translation/Interpretation, the truth is that, in the fog of war, the definition is not clear at all, and becomes fuzzy, in a context where improvisation is commonplace. The agency of interpreter is undertaken by a wide variety of individuals ranging from military linguists to hired civilian locals, from professionally trained interpreters to limited speakers of the required language. In the military jargon ‘interpreter’ it is commonly used to designate any person able to establish any kind of communication between two different languages regardless his education, training, skills and level of expertise. This work explores the complex function of translators/interpreters (T/Is) in peacekeeping operations. It discusses the challenges T/Is face under a triple approach: from the legal point of view, from the ethical point of view and from the operational point of view. The legal questions it reflects are the right to security and protection, and the contracting conditions. With regard to the ethical issues it deals with the “issue of trust” and the required impartiality. Finally, from the operational side, it discusses the indispensable need of T/Is in peacekeeping operations and the need to train in the use of T/Is to any participant in this kind of operations. Data come from interviews and personal experience. One of the main conclusion is that there is still pending a huge labour related to the peacekeeper training to work with the aid of T/Is. Although there are some attempts in the good direction, their outcomes are not enough.
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Protecting interpreters from being “concerned in” war crimes
Kayoko Takeda Rikkyo University
After the end of World War II, besides the well-known Tokyo War Crimes Trial (1946- 1948), there were about 2,300 trials against over 5,700 personnel associated with the Japanese Army, held by different Allied nations in over 50 locations in the Asia- Pacific between 1945 and 1951. These trials are known as Class B/C trials as opposed to the Tokyo Trial that dealt with Class A crimes. One of the extraordinary features of these Class B/C trials is the fact that more than 100 interpreters were convicted as war criminals. They were mostly charged with being “concerned in” the ill-treatment of POWs and local citizens in Japanese-occupied territories. In particular, a number of interpreters were convicted for interpreting, and therefore participating in, torture. Defenses made by the accused of following orders and just interpreting did not prevail. In the British trials, one of the key criteria in the rulings was whether the interpreters knowingly participated in illegal acts. Another interpreter-related feature of the Class B/C trials is that a number of wartime interpreters testified as eyewitnesses of war crimes. They were mostly local residents hired by the occupying Japanese forces. Having been present while the Japanese military committed criminal acts, these interpreters made convincing witnesses against their former employers. The possibilities of interpreters being convicted as war criminals and being called upon as eyewitnesses of war crimes are still relevant to interpreters in today’s conflict zones. How can we protect interpreters from being “concerned in” illegal acts such as torture? How should interpreters respond when asked to testify as witnesses of crimes? I will address these important questions in this presentation by referring to activities of organizations and programs supporting interpreters and translators in conflict and other high-risk settings.
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Interpreting in situations of violence: Stories of interpreters during the Nazi Occupation in Greece A sociological perspective
Foteini Pateinari Aristotle University Thessaloniki
Whereas the interest in interpreting in contemporary conflict situations is increasing, there seem to be few works focusing on the role of interpreters in situations of extreme violence in the past, especially during the Second World War (Lan 2016: 196; Wolf 2016: 2). The aim of this paper is to contribute to covering this gap, by presenting insights of the interpreters’ identity and practice during the Nazi Occupation in Greece. The Axis Forces occupied Greece in 1941. Interpreters were used for the communication with the local population, but also during interrogations or executions. German officers who could speak Greek and Greek civilians with German language skills were recruited mostly as ad-hoc interpreters. In this extreme violent context (Tryuk 2016: 121), the interpreters’ responsibilities, potential power, ethics, ideology and active role clearly reverse the image of the neutral interpreter (Cronin 2006). Aiming at shedding light on the interpreter’s identity, life-story, activity and experiences before and during the war, this paper studies specific cases from a sociological point of view (such as the cases of Napoleon Sukatzidis, political prisoner used as interpreter at Chaidari concentration camp, Kostas Lekkas, Greek interpreter and collaborator of the Nazis, Ekhart Kästner, German librarian and writer, NSPD member, recruited as interpreter by the Nazis and Jaques Albala, Jewish interpreter and collaborator of the Nazis) (Chandrinos et al. 2018). Being strongly convinced that no academic field can develop into the future, without exploring and (re)constructing its past (Takeda & Baigorri-Jalón: 2016: 8), this contribution in the field of history of interpreting studies aspires to enhance the understanding on the role of interpreters in situations of violence and to shed light on questions relevant to the sociology and ethics of interpreting.
References Chandrinos, Iasonas, Anna Maria Droubouki, Antonis Antoniou & Kerasia Elli Malagiorgi (2018). MOG – Memories of the Occupation in Greece. Glossary and archive. Available in: http://www.occupation- memories.org/deutsche-okkupation/thesaurus/index.html (retrieved 10th, December 2018) [in Greek]. Cronin, Michael (2006). Translation and identity. London: Routledge. Lan, Shi-chi Mike (2016). “Crime of Interpreting: Taiwanese Interpreters as War Criminals of World War II”. In: Kayoko Takeda & Jesus Baigorri-Jalón (eds.). New Insights in the History of Interpreting. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 193-224. Takeda, Kayoko & Jesus Baigorri-Jalón (2016). “Introduction”. In: Kayoko Takeda & Jesus Baigorri- Jalón (eds.). New Insights in the History of Interpreting New Insights in the History of Interpreting. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 8-16. Tryuk, Malgorzata (2016). Interpreting and Translating in Nazi Concentration Camps during World War II. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies, 15, 121–141. Wolf, Michaela (2016). “Introduction”. In: Michaela Wolf (ed.). Interpreting in Nazi Concentration Camps. New York & London: Bloomsbury, 1-24.
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Ethics and ethos of legal interpreters in post-conflict immigration situations
Diana Berber University of Turku Eija Grundström SKTL (Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters)
The purpose of our study is to examine the role of the legal interpreter in post-conflict scenarios, through analyzing the practice of interpreters regarding shame, evil, will to help, and how ethics and ethical codes have contributed to the creation of the ethos of the interpreter. Our point of interest is migration as a phenomenon related to globalization and conflicts. As we are all aware, since the summer of 2015 all Europe has received large numbers of refugees and immigrants who require interpreting, so the demand for interpreters is high and urgent. Due to globalization, this demand is becoming permanent, not only temporary. We are facing a situation where formally trained interpreters are working side by side with interpreters without formal training, that is, who are self-taught due to different circumstances, such as non-existent formal training for their working languages. The latter situation is interesting as it provides us with an issue that is rapidly evolving. As to our corpus, on the legal side we have official documents from the Finnish government referring directly to the interpreting practice, and the ethical documents are from AIIC (World Association of Conference Interpreters), the EU, and national Finnish organizations. As to the methodological procedure, we studied the legal and ethical documents, and then compared them to the responses we obtained through our questionnaire. First, we identified the ethical principles discussed in the documents and we selected the references to professional ethics shared by all or most of them. In second place, we observed those principles in relation to their real usage through the responses obtained from the interpreters to our questionnaire. For our analysis, we have taken into consideration the interpreting situation and particularly shame, evil, and will to help, and how the interpreters have created their ethos.
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Cultural differences in interpreter-mediated medical encounters in complex humanitarian settings
Maura Radicioni University of Geneva
Interpreters and mediators working in complex humanitarian settings are faced with new challenges, both linguistic and non-linguistic. As part of ongoing research, the presentation reports on cultural differences in interpreting as major variables in interpreter-mediated medical encounters in complex humanitarian scenarios. The author addresses the importance of cultural issues and the need to focus on interculturality in humanitarian interpreting, based on the assumption that differences in culture can be a serious barrier to effective humanitarian communication. In the presentation, mediation is not considered simply as the transfer of linguistic features, but rather “as resolution of (intercultural) conflicts, i.e. as the facilitation of cross- cultural understanding and communication beyond language demarcation” (Baraldi 2014). In this respect, the role of mediators should also encompass that of cultural gatekeepers. This contribution is part of a qualitative study in the form of ethnographic observation of the interpreter-mediated medical encounters taking place at the Castel Volturno clinic of the Italian NGO Emergency ONG Onlus, which provides medical assistance to both Italians and migrants in a complex humanitarian setting. Most of the patients arriving at the clinic are foreigners with a migration background. They have fled from war-torn countries in Africa and are now employed in low-paid jobs in agriculture or as sex-workers. The presentation does not yet show the results of the ethnography, which is currently being prepared and will be carried out at some later stage. Instead, it focuses on interculturality and the importance of a shared cultural background between mediators and their clients, with this being an issue frequently referred to during the contacts held so far with the mediators of the clinic. Early e-mails and telephone conversations were exchanged with the mediators at Castel Volturno at the beginning of the research project. These were then followed by questionnaires with semi-structured interviews administered to the mediators. A preliminary visit to the facility was paid in the summer of 2019, with initial observations of the setting where Emergency cultural mediators operate and with communications with them on aspects, including their tasks, perceived an expected role, main difficulties encountered, positionality and ethical issues. Though aware of the limitation of the study, i.e. the fact that the results shown indicate a preliminary trend that awaits to be confirmed by the future ethnographic analysis on the field, the importance of a interculturality appears to be a major factor facilitating mediators’ working activity. Cultural mediation is perceived as more effective, and interpreters coming from the source culture of the clients are more trusted and recognized, due to a shared cultural background between them and their clients, their belonging to the clients’ community and their deep understanding of clients’ cultural beliefs and ideology. Increased focus on the shared culture between interpreters/mediators and their clients can therefore help adequately deal with existing cultural differences and ultimately contribute to enact a so-called “cultural compromise” between migrant patients and health professionals with the goal to facilitate prevention, health promotion and education, and treatment.
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Keywords: complex humanitarian settings, humanitarian interpreting, cultural differences in medical interpreting, Emergency ONG Onlus.
References Angelelli, C. V. (2004). Medical Interpreting and Cross-Cultural Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baraldi, C. (2014). An interactional perspective on interpreting as mediation. Lingue Culture Mediazioni. 1(1-2), 17-36. Delgado Luchner, C. & Kherbiche, L. (2018). Without fear or favour? The positionality of ICRC and UNHCR interpreters in the humanitarian field. Target, 30(3), 408-429. Pöchhacker, F. (2008). Interpreting as Mediation. In Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting. Definitions and Dilemmas. Valero- Garces. C. & Martin, A. (Eds.) 9-26. Amsterdam - Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Quaranta, I. & Ricca, M. (2012). Malati fuori Luogo. Medicina Interculturale. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.
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Communicating the unutterable: mediating the sufferance of gender-based violence in migratory flows across lingua- cultures
Denise Filmer University of Catani/Pisa
As the global movement of refugees and migrants has intensified in recent years, so a consequential and corresponding increase in human trafficking has emerged. A clear majority of detected victims are females – adult women and girls – comprising 70 per cent of the total number in the years between 2014-2016 (United Nations Office on Drugs and crime 2016). Many women are subjected to torture, sexual abuse, and rape along their journey or are forced to prostitution to pay for their migration. The extensive and long-lasting negative effects on the victim’s mental, physical, and sexual health result in considerable implications for the health services and psychosocial services in refugee settings in the receiving countries. However, few studies have highlighted the problem of violence against refugee women, while even less have focused on the issues surrounding how communication takes place between the victims of GBV and social actors during cross-cultural and inter- linguistic interaction (notable exceptions are Merlini 2015, Valero Carcés 2015). This paper presents the results of a small-scale survey of the linguistic, cultural and psychological support offered to the arrivals in Sicily of female refugees who cross the Mediterranean Sea. It investigates how intercultural mediators and operators working in the province of Ragusa portray their experience of European and Italian institutions’ language policies supporting interlingual communication in such circumstances. Adopting ethnographic methods (Crabtree et al. 2012; Rouncefield and Tolmie 2016), the small-scale study collected qualitative data, interpreting it against the concept that single events determine several cascading effects (Pescaroli & Alexander 2015), among which the way gender-based violence continues to affect individuals and their social networks for years. This influence is further heightened by the language barriers and issues of communication in long-term crisis scenarios such as those of Mediterranean migration. The materials from the interviews are analysed against the backdrop of European and Italian legal frameworks regulating linguistic and cultural mediation in multilingual healthcare and focuses on the key concept of trust in the interpreting and mediation triangle. Furthermore, the data raises issues regarding the planning and preparedness necessary to support gender-based victims of violence effectively in multilingual contexts.
Selected Bibliography Angelelli, Claudia, V. 2015. “Study on Public Service Translation in Cross-border Healthcare Final Report for the European Commission Directorate-General for Translation”, https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ 0d0 38be5-9a52-11e5-b3b7- 01aa75ed71a1 Angelelli, Claudia, V. 2012. “Challenges in interpreters' coordination of the construction of pain” in Claudio Baraldi and Laura Gavioli (eds.), Coordinating Participation in Dialogue Interpreting. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 251-268. Baker, Mona. 2006. Translation and Conflict: A narrative account. London and New York: Routledge.
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Garcés-Valero, Carmen. 2015. “Insights from the field: perception of the interpreter’s role(s) in the case of gender-based violence” Cultus (8) 76-96. Crabtree, Andrew, Mark Rouncefield, and Peter Tolmie. 2012. Doing Design Ethnography. London and Heidelberg: Springer. Fairclough, Norman. 2003. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London and New York: Routledge. Fairclough, Norman. 2010. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London and New York: Routledge. Fairclough, Norman. 2015. Language and Power. 3rd edn. London and New York: Routledge. Federici, Federico M. 2016. Introduction: “A State of Emergency for Crisis Communication”, in F.M. Federici (ed.), Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts. Frontline Translating and Interpreting. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 1-29. Filmer, D.A. (forthcoming) “Cascading effects: mediating and communicating the unutterable sufferance of gender-based violence in migratory flows”. in F. M. Federici and S. O’Brien (eds) Translation in Cascading Crises, London and New York: Routledge. Filmer, D.A, and F.M Federici. 2018. “Mediating migration crises: Sicily and the languages of despair” European Journal of Language Policy 10(2): 229-251 ISSN 1757-6822 (print) 1757-6830 (online) https://doi.org/10.3828/ejlp.2018.13. Giles, Wenona and Jennifer Hyndman. 2004. Introduction: “Gender and Conflict in a Global Context”. In Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones, eds. Wenona Giles and Jennifer Hyndman. Berkeley: University of California Press. Giussy, Barbera et al. 2017. “Sexual violence and unwanted pregnancies in migrant women” The Lancet www.thelancet.com/lancetgh Vol 5 April 2017 McVeigh, Karen. 2017. “Refugee Women and Children 'Beaten, Raped and Starved in Libyan Hellholes’”. The Guardian, February 28, 2017. Merlini, Raffaela. 2015. “Empathy: A ‘Zone of Uncertainty’ in Mediated Healthcare Practice”. Cultus (8), 27-49. Rouncefield, Mark and Peter Tolmie (eds). 2016. Ethnomethodology at Work (Directions in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. London and New York: Routledge. van Dijk, Teun A. 2009. Society and Discourse: How Social Contexts Influence Text and Talk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Pescaroli, Gianluca and David Alexander. 2015. “A definition of cascading disasters and cascading effects: Going beyond the ‘toppling dominos’ metaphor”. GRF Davos Planet@Risk, 3(1), special issue.
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Interpreting for refugees: Empathy and Activism
Marija Todorova Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Interventionist and activist approaches to the study of medical, legal, and political interpreting (Baker, 2006; 2008; Inghilleri, 2005) have recognized interpreters as active socio-linguistic participants in the interpreting process whose “intervention is often culturally and ethically necessary” (Todorova, 2014, p. 228). From an interventionist standpoint, “interpreters are unavoidably and actively involved and connected to issues of responsibility towards others” (Baker, 2008, p. 102). This paper draws on relevant theory in the area of interpreting, with a particular focus on working with refugees, supplemented by the real-life experiences of field interpreters. Tackling the question of the discrepancy between the prescribed neutrality of interpreters and their real-life experience, the article will look at some specific aspects of work for interpreters for refugees in emergency situations, especially interpreters as agents for empowering the vulnerable, drawing in the analysis on aspects of intersection between translation theory and mediation theory. When conducted as an impartial process which closely follows a prescribed protocol, mediation can pressurize parties and even further marginalize vulnerable parties (Grillo, 1991; Pavlich, 1996) because the mediator is preoccupied with the form, rather than the parties, their participation, and their needs. Mediation cannot always protect the weaker party and depends on the skill and knowledge of the mediators to effectively address power imbalances among parties. Similarly, when conducted as a neutral activity, interpreting shows no interest in the power inequalities among interlocutors. The role occupied by interpreters in conflict-related and humanitarian situations—as the ones who from the onset are positioned well inside the conflict situation, belonging to one (or more) of the parties to that conflict—allows them to empower the vulnerable party in the mediation process. Thus, empathy emerges as an important trait of interpreters in such situations.
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Translating minority voices in a globalized world
Rhizomizing the Translation Zone: Xiaolu Guo’s Translingual Practice in A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Wangtaolue Guo University of Alberta
In a world marked by increasing linguistic and cultural mobility, translation has gone way beyond the idea of mechanical/cultural transmission of meaning and saturated our everyday life. The translation zone, proposed by Emily Apter, is meant to debunk the myth of monolingual complacency as a norm and to highlight translation as a significant medium of subject re-formation. Although her theoretical framework is path-breaking, Apter seems to insist on the “intersubjective limits” (6) that resist translation and neglect the centrality of migration in the contemporary intercultural world. In this paper, I argue that, in an era of globalization when polylingual practices are gaining momentum and migrant communities finding new ways of redefining multi-lingualism/-culturalism (Inghilleri 18-31), the translation zone should be reconceptualized as a rhizomatic zone, where both translation and mis-/non- translation constitute an adventitious mode of transformation that highlights porosity and processuality. Aligning with Michael Cronin’s conclusion that “translation is at the centre of […] the highly contested social, cultural, political and economic phenomen[on] on the planet, migration” (46), I examine how translational/migratory literature, which “straddle[s] two languages, at once foregrounding, performing, and problematizing the act of translation” (Hassan 754), reflects a perpetual state of in- translation and encompasses the process of flight and movement. Specific examples are drawn from A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by the Chinese- British author Xiaolu Guo, a novel that features a narrative characterized by malapropism, mis-hearings, mis-interpretations, and interlanguage. Incorporating translation as a constitutive element into her story, Guo highlights the interplay between linguistic creativity and (un-)translatability, complicates the process of cultural transfer, and underlines the centrality of migration and porosity which Apter fails to attribute to her framework. The novel, therefore, mimics a rhizomatic translation zone, where migration, identity, and linguistic heterogeneity are enmeshed.
Works Cited Apter, Emily. The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature. Princeton UP, 2006. Cronin, Michael. Translation and Identity. Routledge, 2006. Hassan, Waïl S. “Agency and Translational Literature: Ahdaf Soueif’s ‘The Map of Love’.” PMLA, vol. 121, no. 3, 2006, pp. 753-768. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25486352. Inghilleri, Moira. Translation and Migration. Routledge, 2017.
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Heterolingualism in the Finnish translations of Anglophone Caribbean fiction
Laura Ekberg University of Turku
A large part of the literature coming from the Caribbean region today is published in European languages, especially in English. However, many of the texts are heterolingual in that the English narrative is embedded with various other local languages, such as French, Spanish, and different creole languages spoken in the communities. Thus, in Anglophone Caribbean literatures, various forms of code- switching are frequently used to portray the local cultures as well as to represent the inherently multilingual nature of the language communities. In addition to interlingual switches to the above-mentioned languages, among others, switches can also occur between different varieties of English. Spoken varieties of English are, for example, used as an approximation of a spoken creole language in dialogue. Due to these forms of language being both geographically and culturally bound, translating a heterolingual text can be challenging, especially when the source and target cultures are far removed from one another. My paper presents the results of my PhD thesis, the topic of which is heterolingualism in Anglophone Caribbean novels and their Finnish translations. The study maps the strategies translators employ in solving issues related to heterolingualism. What kinds of developments can be seen in the translation strategies used by translators in transferring geographically and culturally bound varieties into another language? My main interest is in analysing the way in which the translations portray foreign cultures to Finnish readers – to what extent do the translations retain what I call cultural integrity, which involves the ethics of respecting the cultural elements present in the source text. The analysis is based on a selection of 10 novels and their translations as well as interviews conducted with the Finnish translators.
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Deaf Translations in Music
Joana Pereira University College London
In the western world, Deaf communities are vibrant minority cultures, whose languages and self-perceptions have been oppressed for more than a century (Bauman & Murray, 2014; Ladd, 2003; Lane, 1992). The Deaf Performing Arts are a vehicle for empowering signed languages, and a form of conveying Deaf heritage and resistance (Bahan, 2006; Holcomb, 2013). Amid a wide variety of Deaf literary and artistic expressions (e.g. theatre, signed poetry, humour), Signed Song – the aesthetic adaptation of lyrics and rhythm into signed languages – constitutes a particularly sharp form of defiance in translation, challenging the widespread notion that the Deaf cannot, via redefining music in a Deaf lens (Cruz, 1997; Jones, 2015; Loeffler, 2014; Maler, 2015). Song translation often produces creative versions where the priority is for music and lyrics to become intertwined with each other, and produce an emotional response from spectators (Chanan, 2012; Minors, 2012). This international study looks into songs Translated into Portuguese Sign Language (Língua Gestual Portuguesa - LGP) and British Sign Language (BSL). The goal is understanding how this art form, created and performed by Deaf adult artists, is perceived by audience members. What do d/Deaf and hearing spectators learn about the languages and cultures of Deaf people in these two countries? What kind of insights and questions do they raise? And what is the role of Live Signed Songs in intracultural (within the Deaf community) and intercultural communication (from the Deaf community onto the hearing world)? For this purpose, Signed Songs are traced throughout time in Portugal and in the UK, and the insights of artists and spectators are gathered via in- depth interviews and questionnaires. Expectations entail making a contribute to a more generalised conception of the Deaf as a minority culture, to the preservation of Deaf cultural patrimony, and to the valorisation of Deaf Performing Arts.
Bibliography Bahan, B. J. (2006). Face-to-face tradition in the American Deaf community. In H.-D. L. Bauman, J. L. Nelson, & H. M. Rose (Eds.), Signing the body poetic: essays on American Sign Language literature (pp. 21–50). Berkeley; London: University of California Press. Bauman, H.-D., & Murray, J. J. (Eds.). (2014). Deaf gain: raising the stakes for human diversity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt9qh3m7 Chanan, M. (2012). Preface. In Helen Julia. Minors (Ed.), Music, Text and Translation (1.). London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved from http://ucl.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=1094076 Cruz, A. (1997). An examination of how one deaf person constructs meaning in music: A phenomenological perspective. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304374074/?pq-origsite=primo Holcomb, T. K. (2013). Introduction to American Deaf Culture. New York, Canada: Oxford University Press. Jones, J. D. (2015). Imagined hearing: Music-making in Deaf culture. The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies, 55–71. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199331444.013.3 Ladd, P. (2003). Understanding Deaf culture: in search of Deafhood. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Lane, H. (1992). The mask of benevolence: disabling the deaf community. New York: Vintage Books. Loeffler, I. W. (2014). Deaf music: Embodying language and rhythm. In H-Dirksen L. Bauman & J. J. Murray (Eds.), Deaf gain: raising the stakes for human diversity (pp. 436–456). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt9qh3m7
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Maler, A. (2015). Musical Expression among Deaf and Hearing Song Signers. The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199331444.013.4 Minors, H. J. (2012). Introduction: Translation in music discourse. In H. J. Minors (Ed.), Music, Text and Translation (pp. 20–25). London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucl/detail.action?docID=1094076
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Translation as remembrance: Translating from minority languages in Turkey
Özlem Berk Albachten Bogazici University
My paper will focus on some publishing houses established by “minority communities” in Turkey after the 1990s that focus on translated – as well as original – literature from and into minority languages. The main argument of my paper will be that the recent publications, among them literary translations, by these minority publishers help the survival (Bassnett 2003) and revival of a multiethnic and multilingual Ottoman/Turkish past in the collective memories (Assmann 1995). In order to shed light onto this past, a specific time span from the Ottoman period to the early years of the Republic, the paper will first look at the position of minority languages and discuss the language policies in Turkey during the Republican era from a historical perspective. It will then focus on literatures written in minority languages and the translation activities between Turkish and these languages. Special emphasis will be given to some publications -in original as well as in translation- by the Armenian publishing house Aras that have “remembering” as one of their main motives. By focusing on some literary translations of Armenian works remembering a period of a multiethnic and multilingual coexistence, I will discuss the ways in which these works are reframed (Baker 2006) into the realities of the current Turkish context.
References: Assmann, Jan. 1995. Collective Memory and Cultural Identity. New German Critique 65: 125–133. Baker, Mona. 2006. Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account. London and New York: Routledge. Bassnett, Susan. 2003. Translation as Re-membering. In Edric Caldicott & Anne Fuchs, eds., Cultural Memory: Essays on European Literature and History, 293–309. Oxford: Peter Lang.
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Landscapes of Translation: New Perspectives on Galician Literature in a Globalized World
Laura Linares University College Cork
As a point of contact between societies, translation provides cultural and literary production with one of the most visible forms of recognition of their value and interest among other communities. In the globalized contemporary world, in which the strict traditional imagined communities (Anderson 1991) of the nation are challenged and a greater emphasis is placed on the connection between local production and global distribution, the processes of translating and re-presenting cultural production become particularly pressing objects of study, particularly for minority or minorized communities, who must constantly balance their commitment to diversity and the global neoliberal market dynamics in their quest for visibility in the international arena. This paper will examine the role of literary translation in Galician culture, drawing from Appadurai’s (1996) trope of the ‘landscape’ —reprised by Kershaw and Saldanha as a suitable metaphor ‘for developing new ways of theorizing the context of production and reception of translation' (2013: 136). What can the Galician landscape tell us about the interconnection between the global flows of cultural exchange and the locally grounded practices of cultural production and translation? Using the translation of Galician literature into English ‘as a site for the examination of how locality emerges in a globalizing world’ (Appadurai 1996: 18), this paper will discuss Appadurai’s conceptual apparatus and the advantages it presents over the polysystem (Even- Zohar 1990) and the field (Bourdieu 1993) frameworks for the analysis of the re- presentation of minorized cultural dimensions in the globalized world, as a more productive metaphor to visualize the ways in which translation works in contemporary minorized contexts, particularly in their relationship with the English language and their internationalization through the Anglophone world in a context that combines a relation of deep asymmetry with the multifaceted and heterogeneous environment of globalization.
References Anderson, Benedict (1991) Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London/New York: Verso. Appadurai, Arjun (1996) Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press. Bourdieu, Pierre (1993). The Field of Cultural Production. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press Even-Zohar, Itamar (1990) ‘The Position of Translated Literature Within the Literary Polysystem’. In Polysystem Studies, Poetics Today, 11:1, 45-51. Kershaw, Angela and Saldanha, Gabriela (2013) ‘Introduction: Global landscapes of translation’. In Translation Studies, 6:2, 135-149.
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Translation and diaspora: the role of translation in immigrant communities
Theorizing Diaspora as a Site of Translation
Brian James Baer Kent State University
In recent years, Translation Studies has begun to investigate translation outside the traditional nationalist framework, focusing, for example, on non-standard forms of language, languaging on borders and in cities, translation before the rise of Romantic nationalism, and the experience of individual emigré writer-translators. One understudied area, however, remains translation as practiced in diasporic communities. This paper maps out some key considerations in theorizing diaspora as a distinct site of translational activity. That theoretical discussion will be supported by the preliminary results from a collaborative study of two diasporic communities in the USA during the inter-war period. The purpose of the study is to explore the uses of translation both into and out of the dominant language in the newspapers of these communities, highlighting commonalities as well as differences in order to delineate the various socio-cultural factors shaping the selection and translation of texts. Special attention is paid to the ways in which translations allow these communities to exert a certain degree of agency in constructing an image of themselves for Anglophone audiences. Preliminary results reveal translation in the context of diaspora to be a complex and contested site of positioning between the minority language community and the metropole, where diaspora identities “are constantly producing and reproducing themselves anew, through transformation and difference” (Hall 1990:235). On a methodological level, this study seeks to present a methodology that can be applied and adapted to the study of other diasporic communities in the U.S. and in other cultural and political contexts.
Works Cited Hall, Stuart. 1990. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” In Identity, Community, Culture, Difference, J. Rutherford (ed.), 222-237. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
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Peer Translation Within Russian Immigrant Communities in Finland
Svetlana Probirskaja University of Helsinki
With over 77,000 members, Russian-speaking immigrants constitute the largest immigrant group in Finland today (Statistics Finland). Despite this, translation practices within these immigrant communities have still not been properly examined. Apart from community (public service) interpreting and translation, peer translation among immigrants often occurs on a voluntary, ad hoc, non-professional basis. In this paper, I approach this subject through three different digital translation venues within Russian immigrant communities. The first is the literary journal ‘LiteraruS’ (http://www.literarus.org/), published in Russian and partly in Finnish. The journal’s aims are twofold: to preserve Russian language and culture abroad by publishing the literary works of Russian immigrants, while also acquainting Russian readers with Finnish literature by publishing Russian translations of Finnish literary works. Both professional and non-professional translators contribute their translations free of charge. The second venue is a non-profit organization called ‘Russian Speakers of Finland’ (http://www.svkeskus.fi/). This organization aims at both uniting Finland’s Russian speakers and integrating them into Finnish society. Towards the latter, the organization provides information in Russian concerning different areas of life in Finland, and volunteers translate different Finnish authorities’ (blank) forms into Russian. Two different Facebook groups of Russian immigrants in Finland comprise the third study venue, and I analyse how translation manifests itself in their discussions. Translation in these three venues fulfils the various needs of these immigrants. The literary journal fulfils their aesthetic and self-expression needs. The non-profit organization enhances their social and economic integration by providing translation. The Facebook groups provide a forum for discussing translational matters that immigrants encounter in their everyday lives.
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The Role of Literary Translations in Immigrant Periodicals in the USA: Cultural Image Making and Identity Building through Translation
NikeK. Pokorn University of Ljubljana
The aim of the presentation is to highlight the transfer of information about national and cultural images through literary translation in the periodicals published by an émigré community in the US in the interwar period. Since every translation involves the dissemination of certain cultural images (Doorslaer 2012), I will argue that by means of the English translation of specific literary works published in the immigrant periodicals, immigrant diasporas in the US attempted to construct their own representation of their original culture, and communicate this image to mainstream US culture. I will focus on the role of literary translations published in 3 periodicals within the Slovene immigrant community in the USA in the interwar period, paying particular attention to the selections of source texts and the packaging of target texts (Kafh 2000). It will be argued first, that these translations published in the newspapers were key to the building of the imagined community of Slovene-Americans in the spirit of nineteenth-century nation building enterprises (Anderson 2006, Pogacar 2017); and second, that by means of the English translation of specific literary works, the immigrant diaspora of Slovene-Americans in the US attempted to construct their own representation of their original culture, and communicate this image to mainstream US culture. By contributing to the construction of national and cultural images of Slovene-Americans, translations thus became an active part of intra- cultural communications between a marginalized and dispersed immigrant linguistic community (Gentzler 2007) and the majority English-speaking society, both of which, together with other immigrant communities, helped constitute the US culture.
References Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism. London, New York: Verso. Doorslaer, Luc van. 2012. National and cultural images. In: Yves Gambier, Luc van Doorslaer (eds.) Handbook of Translation Studies 3, 122-127. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Gentzler, Edwin. 2007. Translation and identity in the Americas: new directions in translation theory. London: Routledge. Kahf, Mohja. 2000. “Packaging "Huda": Sha’rawi’s Memoirs in the United States Reception Environment.” In Amireh, Amal, Majaj, Lisa Suhair (eds), Going global: the transnational reception of third world women writers: 148-172. London, New York: Garland. Pogacar, Timothy. 2017. “Izseljenski tisk v Ameriki v digitalni dobi: Slovensko-ameriški časopis Prosveta.” Slavistična revija 65/2: 343-353.
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Translation of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906) in the diaspora and in Lithuania: ideological differences
Nijole Maskaliuniene Vilnius University
The presentation deals with the translations into Lithuanian of Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, which first appeared in a periodical magazine Appeal to Reason (1905) and was published as a separate book in 1906. When it was translated into Lithuanian two years later, it must have already been known to the limited intellectual community of Lithuanians in the US who could read it in the original and must have developed their opinions even before its translation became available. The fact that two, rather than one, translations of the book were delivered almost simultaneously in Lithuania and in Chicago, US, singles this book out of other literary works of the time, since in general translations into Lithuanian from the English were still a novelty. The reason apparently was that its main protagonists were a couple of Lithuanian immigrants working in a slaughterhouse in Chicago. Descriptions of their life, work and feelings occupy a significant part of the book. These episodes seem to have stirred particular attention among Lithuanian nationals. Even a cursory glance at the two translations clearly showed differences between them in terms of syntax and the vocabulary. A further reading disclosed other variations revealing differences in the approach in general, the American version testifying foreignization while the Lithuanian one being based on the strategy of domestication. As a result, there appeared two different versions of the novel for the Lithuanians living on the opposite sides of the Atlantic. The analysis has shown that the reasons for such different interpretations may be ideological, as the image of Lithuanian immigrants created by the author was unacceptable to the Lithuanians in their home country and equally painful for the diaspora, although for different reasons.
References Sinclair, Upton. 1906. The Jungle. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co Sinclair, Upton. 1908a. Pelkės (translated by Kazys Puida), Vilnius: M. Kukta Publishing House Sinclair, Upton. 1908b. Raistas (translated by Vincas Daukšys, published by Jonas Naujokas). Chicago: Lietuva Publishing House. Gentzler, Edwin. 2007. Translation and Identity in the Americas: New Directions in Translation Theory. London: Routledge. Subačius, Giedrius. 2006. Upton Sinclair: The Lithuanian Jungle. Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi.
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Translation as empowerment: new Bible (re)translations
The Semiotics of Theology and Alterity in Twenty-first Century Bible Re-translations: The Afrikaans Direkte Vertaling [Direct Translation] 2020 as a Case in Point
Cynthia Miller-Naudé Jacobus A. Naudé University of the Free State
Two opposing trends can be detected in re-translations of the Bible in the twenty-first century (Naudé 2005). One trend can broadly be described as the theological “indigenisation” of the Bible for twenty-first century readers, particularly with respect to the Bible’s theological views concerning gender, sexuality and social issues. A second trend can broadly be described as cultural “foreignisation” of the Bible in which the “rich points of culture” (Nord 2018:24-25) are maintained in order to give twenty-first century readers a glimpse into the alterity of the Bible’s cultural settings. Rather than the reductionist terms “indigenisation” and “foreignisation”, a semiotic approach to translation (Marais 2014), based upon Peirce’s seminal concepts of icon, index and symbol, provides the means for a complex description of the emergence of socio-cultural reality in translation (Marais 2019; Naudé 2010). In this paper, we examine the interplay of theology and alterity in the Afrikaans Direkte Vertaling [Direct Translation] 2020. This translation is the third major Afrikaans translation, following the literal translation of the 1933/1953 translation and the dynamic equivalence translation of 1983. The brief of the Direkte Vertaling is to produce a source text oriented translation of the Hebrew and Greek source texts in which the theological meaning and culture is directly translated into contemporary Afrikaans according to a simplified model of Gutt 2000. We provide an analysis of the ways in which this translation renders key theological ideas and cultural terms.
References Gutt, E.-A. 2000. Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context. Second edition. Oxford: Blackwell; Manchester: St Jerome. Marais, K. 2014. Translation Theory and Development Studies: A Complexity Approach. London: Routledge. Marais, K. 2019. A (Bio)Semiotic Theory of Translation: The Emergence of Social-Cultural Reality. London: Routledge. Naudé, J. 2005. On the threshold of the next generation of Bible translations. Issues and trends Translators’ Journal META 50(3). Naudé, J. 2010. Iconicity and developments in translation studies. In: C.J. Conradie, R. Johl, M. Beukes, O. Fischer and C. Ljungberg, eds. Signergy, 387-411. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Nord, C. 2018. Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Translation Theories Explored. Second edition. London: Routledge.
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Bible Translation as an Index of Ikwerre Nationalism
Uchenna Oyali University of Abuja
This paper builds on the premise that, from a linguistic perspective, Ikwerre is a dialect of Igbo, a language spoken in South-Eastern Nigeria. However, the Ikwerre people reject the Igbo identity and prefer to be seen as a distinct people with a distinct language. Thus, despite the existence of eight Bible translations in Igbo, produced between 1860 and 2015, the Ikwerre people insist on having the Bible translated into Ikwerre. Consequently, two translations of the New Testament were published in Ikwerre in 2005 and 2010. This paper investigates some of the strategies adopted to make the Ikwerre Bible translations different from the Igbo translations. Specifically, it compares the Ikwerre translations with the Igbo translations. The unit of comparison is the choice of terms for selected Biblical concepts. A corpus was created of terms for key Biblical concepts in the two Ikwerre translations and in the Union Igbo Bible, the most popular Igbo Bible. Concepts studied are those for which there is relative uniformity in the choice of terms in the various Igbo translations. The terms used in the Ikwerre translations were compared with those used in the Union Igbo Bible to see how different they are. Findings indicate that for many of the concepts, the Ikwerre translations did not use the same terms used in the Union Igbo Bible but instead used dialectal terms or novel terms created from existing Ikwerre words. In cases where they used the same terms as the Union Igbo Bible, many of the terms had their spellings changed to reflect their pronunciation in Ikwerre. The paper concludes that Bible translation into Ikwerre was not only an effort to indigenize the message of Christianity to the Ikwerre but also a political move to reinforce the clamor for Ikwerre to be recognized as a distinct ethnic group.
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The Translating Theologian as empowering Mediator between Exegesis and Eisegesis
Sabine Dievenkorn Academia de Teología Femenina, Santiago de Chile
A multicultural group of female theologians from Chile attempts to offer a new translation of the Bible that challenges its traditional reception and interpretation. The project's starting point is the context-steeped theology that often only exists as an oral tradition and thus initially appears to be outside the academic context. The deep suspicion with which these Chilean women view the Bible is reflected in the ongoing debate over inclusive, or gender-neutral, language, and the patriarchal values and white male-centered hegemonic western world view that are transported by it. In the colonial and postcolonial patriarchal culture in Chile and South America, the paradigm of gender sensitivity has led to fierce polemical debates not only between theologians and feminist scholars, but also in social networks and everyday life. Feminist exegesis and gender-neutral translation play an essential role in preventing new theological dogmas from taking shape, and in promoting sharpened attention to the overlays of meaning which have been transferred by tradition. The Chilean project is a gender- and culture-sensitive translation from the perspective of the oppressed, many of whom are renowned female scientists. Especially in the protestant-evangelical world, education is not openly available. Thus, women are doubly disadvantaged and excluded from education. It is therefore especially important to develop a translation with women that follows current theological and translation research as much as the ethical parameters of a new time. Nowhere in theology is the center-periphery dichotomy as apparent as in a gender- oriented translation of the Bible. The goal of this translation is to call awareness to the profoundly ideological nature of every interpretation and all translation. It's our goal to deconstruct dominant paradigms in the Biblical text and exegesis with the help of feminist hermeneutics, in order to (re)construct the emancipatory liberation potential of Biblical texts through translation.
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Translation ergonomics: interfaces, interactions and interrelations between people, processes and products
Future Translators and Future Ergonomists at Work
Cécile Frérot Aurélie Landry Université Grenoble Alpes
Ergonomics has received growing attention in translation studies over the past few years and that multi-dimensional discipline – i.e. physical, organisational and cognitive as defined by the International Ergonomics Association - emerged as a new paradigm in translation studies (Lavault-Olléon 2011, 2016). In particular, ergonomics applied to translator training has raised a number of issues (Massey 2016) that need to be addressed with a view to better train future translators to the translation market (Peters Geiben 2016). This is all the more important since professional translators have started to take stock of ergonomics issues for their workplace – see the studies by Ehrensberger-Dow et al. (2016) and Meidert et al. (2016) as well as ergonomics-related professional events e.g. the recent French SFT Worskhop on Musculoskeletal Disorders, prevention and ergonomic workstation. As suggested by Massey (2016), possible deployments of ergonomics for future translators include “macro-organisational aspects” among which authentic experiential learning scenarios. Building on previous work on the collaborative and ergonomic perspective of authentic translation project (Frérot et al. 2019/forthcoming), we have further investigated how to integrate ergonomics for future translators. An initial collaboration with ergonomists has paved the way for an interdisciplinary approach between translator and ergonomics trainers. An ergonomic perspective aimed at activity analysis was developed with master’s students in translation involved in an authentic translation project. It highlighted how space was used to foster coordination in the translation activity and how work organisation developed and influenced each other’s work, e.g. project managers, translators and reviewers. Further deployment of ergonomics consisted in having master’s students in ergonomics observe future translators during a collaborative translation project that took place in December 2018. The cognitive dimension was given particular attention due to its overwhelming relevance not only for translator’s work but also for future ergonomists who favour the physical dimension of ergonomics otherwise.
References Ehrensberger-Dow, M., Hunziker Heeb A., Massey, G., Meidert, U., Neumann S. and Becker, H. 2016. “An International Survey of the Ergonomics of Professional Translation”, ILCEA, 27 URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/4004 Frérot, C., Lavault-Olléon, E., Karagouch, L. 2019/forthcoming. Designing an Authentic Translation Environment for Future Translators: Integrating a Collaborative and Ergonomic Perspective into Translator Training, selected papers from the TTI Conference, to be published in inTRAlinea. Lavault-Olléon, E. 2011. « L’ergonomie, nouveau paradigme pour la traductologie », ILCEA, 14, http://ilcea.revues.org/1078 Lavault-Olléon, E. 2016. « Traducteurs à l’oeuvre : une perspective ergonomique en traductologie appliquée », ILCEA, 27, http://ilcea.revues.org/4051 Massey, G. 2016. “Incorporating ergonomics into the translation curriculum; why, where and how”, EST Congress, Aarhus University.
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Meidert, U., Neumann, S., Ehrensberger-Dow, M. and H. Becker. 2016. “Physical Ergonomics at Translators’ Workplaces: Findings from Ergonomic Workplace Assessments and Interviews”, ILCEA, 27, URL: http://ilcea.revues.org/3996 Peters-Geiben, L. 2016. « La prévention comportementale et contextuelle : intégrer une approche ergonomique dans la formation des traducteurs ». ILCEA, 27, URL : http://ilcea.revues.org/4026
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Educating for ergonomics: Building translators’ awareness in and beyond the curriculum
Gary Massey Andrea Hunziker Heeb Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Recent research on ergonomics at and about the translator’s workplace has shown how physical, cognitive, sociotechnical and other environmental factors can impact on professional translators’ performance, efficiency and motivation (e.g. Ehrensberger-Dow 2017, Ehrensberger-Dow and Hunziker Heeb 2016; Ehrensberger-Dow and Jääskeläinen 2019; Ehrensberger-Dow and Massey 2014; Ehrensberger-Dow and O’Brien 2015; Ehrensberger-Dow and Massey 2017; Ehrensberger-Dow et al. 2016; Meidert et al. 2016; Martikainen and Kübler 2016; Teixeira and O’Brien 2017, 2018). This, in turn, can and does have consequences on the quality of translators’ and post-editors’ work. The detrimental effects of poor physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics suggest strongly that improved knowledge and awareness should inform the (continuing) education of future and practising translators. This has been recognized by, among others, the 2017 European Master’s in Translation (EMT) Competence Framework, which lists considering and adapting to the organizational and physical ergonomics of the working environment as an essential skill (EMT Board 2017). An ergonomic perspective can help prepare students for workplace realities and empower them and professionals alike to identify and change dysfunctional practices (e.g. Ehrensberger-Dow 2017; Ehrensberger-Dow and Jääskeläinen 2019; Peters-Geiben 2016). In this paper, we present and evaluate dedicated seminars for translation students and professionals undertaken at the authors’ institute and briefly outline assessments conducted at professionals’ workplaces as part of a large-scale research project on translation ergonomics . We report on a questionnaire study of the students, graduates and professionals involved in the seminars and assessments aimed at gauging the learning effects and sustainability of these initiatives. Moving beyond the curriculum, we conclude by exploring the feasibility and forms of educating professionals so as to empower them to take an active part in identifying and, wherever necessary, transforming physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomic practices at the workplace.
References Ehrensberger-Dow, M. (2017). An Ergonomic Perspective of Translation. In J. W. Schwieter & A. Ferreira (Eds.), The Handbook of Translation and Cognition (pp. 322-349). London: Wiley-Blackwell. Ehrensberger-Dow, M., & Hunziker Heeb, A. (2016). Investigating the Ergonomics of the Technologized Translation Workplace. In R. Muñoz Martín (Ed.), Reembedding Translation Process Research (pp. 69-88). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ehrensberger-Dow, M., Hunziker Heeb, A., Massey, G., Meidert, U., Neumann, S., & Becker, H. (2016). An International Survey of the Ergonomics of Professional Translation. ILCEA Revue de l’Institut des Langues et des Cultures d’Europe et d’Amérique 27. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/4004 Ehrensberger-Dow, M., & Jääskeläinen, R. (2019). Ergonomics of Translation: Methodological, Practical, and Educational Implications. In H. V. Dam, M. N. Brøgger & K. K. Zethsen (Eds), Moving Boundaries in Translation Studies (pp. 132-150). London: Routledge. Ehrensberger-Dow, M., & Massey, G. (2014). Cognitive Ergonomic Issues in Professional Translation. In J. W. Schwieter & A. Ferreira (Eds.), The Development of Translation Competence: Theories and
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Methodologies from Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Science (pp. 58-86). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. Ehrensberger-Dow, M., & Massey, G. (2017). Socio-technical Issues in Professional Translation Practice. Translation Spaces, 6 (1), 104-121. Ehrensberger-Dow, M., & O’Brien, S. (2015). Ergonomics of the Translation Workplace: Potential for Cognitive Friction. Translation Spaces, 4 (1), 98-118. EMT Board (2017). European Master’s in Translation: Competence Framework 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/emt_competence_fwk_2017_en_web.pdf Martikainen, H., & Kübler, N. (2016). Ergonomie cognitive de la post-édition de traduction automatique : enjeux pour la qualité des traductions. ILCEA Revue de l’Institut des Langues et des Cultures d’Europe et d’Amérique 27. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/3863 Peters-Geiben, L. (2016). La prévention comportementale et contextuelle : intégrer une approche ergonomique dans la formation des traducteurs. ILCEA Revue de l’Institut des Langues et des Cultures d’Europe et d’Amérique 27. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/4026 Teixeira, C. S., & O'Brien, S. (2017). Investigating the Cognitive Ergonomic Aspects of Translation Tools in a Workplace Setting. Translation Spaces, 6 (1), 79-103. Teixeira, C. S., & O'Brien, S. (2018). Overcoming Methodological Challenges of Eye Tracking in the Translation Workplace. In C. Walker & F.M. Federici (Eds.), Eye Tracking and Multidisciplinary Studies on Translation (pp. 33-54). Amsterdam: John Benjamins
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The cognitive ergonomics of simultaneous conference interpreter training
Kilian Seeber Eléonore Arbona University of Geneva
The study of ergonomics has the potential to improve human performance not only in occupational sectors, but also in educational settings, where they can influence learning performance (Smith 2007). It has long been acknowledged that instructional design can have direct effects on learning outcomes, provided it considers the underlying cognitive architecture of the learner (Clark, Nguyen and Swelller 2006). Relevant design features include the sequencing of tasks and the provision of cues using different types of media (Fleming and Levie 1993). The cognitive ergonomics (CE) of a learning environment, therefore, address the interaction among the key features of instructional design, the learning content, and the learner. Starting from the premise that simultaneous interpreting (SI) is a complex cognitive activity (Seeber 2011) likely to generate high levels of intrinsic load (Sweller, Van Merriënboer and Paas 1998) in traditional apprenticeship-based training models (Moser-Mercer 2008), the primary research focus of this paper is to describe a training model based on CE-based multimodal activities. These activities are described in terms of their CE design that aims at making available the necessary cognitive resources for germane processing and promoting the acquisition of schemas through practice (Anderson, Fincham, and Douglass 1997).
References Anderson, J. R., Fincham, J. M. & Douglass, S. 1997. “The role of examples and rules in the acquisition of a cognitive skill”. Journal of experimental psychology: Learning, memory, and cognition 23(4): 932-945. Clark, R. C., Nguyen, F., and Sweller, J. 2006. Efficiency in learning: evidence-based guidelines to manage cognitive load. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Fleming, M. and Levie, W. H. 1993. Instructional message design: Principles from the behavioral and cognitive sciences. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. Moser-Mercer, B. 2008. “Skill acquisition in interpreting: A human performance perspective”. The interpreter and translator trainer 2(1): 1-28. Seeber, K. G. 2011. “Cognitive load in SI: existing theories – new models”. Interpreting 13(2): 176- 204. Smith, T. J. 2007. “The ergonomics of learning: educational design and learning performance”. Ergonomics 50(10): 1530-1546. Sweller, J., Van Merriënboer, J., & Paas, F. 1998. “Cognitive architecture and instructional design”. Educational Psychology Review 10: 251-296.
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Ergonomic quality in trainer-to-trainee revision processes: a pilot study
Gys-Walt van Egdom Utrecht University Winibert Segers Hendrik Kockaert KU Leuven Bert Wylin KU Leuven/TELEVIC
Hitherto, little consideration has been bestowed upon ergonomic quality in translator training. However, with the growing need for practice-oriented, labour-intensive translation courses, and, what is worse, with study programmes in the humanities being whittled away by budget cuts, inquiries into translator training ergonomics seem to be very timely. In this contribution, we will home in on a small yet important factor that is believed to affect the overall well-being of translator trainers: trainer-to- trainee revision processes. In this contribution, the revision module of translationQ (KU Leuven/TELEVIC), touted as the ultimate time-saver in translation revision, will be showcased and put to the test. We will first describe how translationQ is said to reduce the drudgeries of revision to a minimum, while at the same time providing an indispensable fillip to revision quality (See also Van Egdom et al. 2018a, Van Egdom et al. 2018b). In the second part of this contribution, we will report on a pilot study carried out at Zuyd University, a study in which the efficacy and overall revision quality of this software was tested by dint of comparison. During the pilot project, translator trainers were asked to alternate between three different modes of revision (pen-and-paper revision, revision in MS Word using comments/track changes, and revision in translation). The mean time spent on tasks in different modes were compared. Overall quality was observed from the perspective of translator trainees: 6 trainees were asked to fill out a questionnaire on the usefulness of trainer feedback (13 items) and discussed the results in a focus group. Despite some seemingly inevitable stumbling blocks, the results of the pilot study show that translationQ does seem to tackle a number of long-standing issues of ergonomic and general qualitative concern.
References Van Egdom G., Segers W., Bloemen H., Kockaert H., and B. Wylin (2018a). Revising and evaluating with TranslationQ. Bayt Al-Hikma, 2, 25 - 56. Van Egdom G., Verplaetse H., Schrijver I., Kockaert H., Segers W., Pauwels J., Bloemen H. and B. Wylin (2018b). How to put the translation test to the test? On preselected items evaluation and perturbation. In: Huertas Barros E., Vandepitte S., Iglesias Fernandez E. (Eds.), Quality assurance and assessment practices in translation and interpreting (pp. 26-56). Hershey [PA]: IGI Global.
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An ergonomic comparison of translation tool interfaces
Martin Kappus Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Technology has become so much a part of the translation workplace that few professional translators would be comfortable working without access to the internet, online dictionaries, termbases and/or CAT tools. The latter have contributed to higher consistency and productivity, but recent research suggests that there is potential for improvement in ergonomic terms (e.g. Ehrensberger-Dow et al. 2016; O’Brien et al. 2017; Teixeira & O’Brien 2017). Examples from our corpus of workplace and classroom recordings include repetitive reformatting of source files and complicated work-arounds to accomplish tasks that could be automated by using macros and changing the default settings. Other examples from self-report data relate to apparent overload of cognitive resources by the amount of information presented on crowded screens. The tasks of translating with TM, selecting matches from a variety of sources and post-editing MT are merging in many professional contexts, so it is imperative to develop ways to best prepare students for working seamlessly between both modalities (cf. Krüger 2018). In this presentation, we report on a usability comparison of two translation tool interfaces that differ with respect to the amount of information and number of functions available on the screen. One of the interfaces has several fields with supporting functions visible, and the other has a simpler look. Quantitative measures from eye tracking and qualitative indicators from retrospective commentaries and interviews highlight how MA students interact with the two interfaces. We consider the implications of our findings in light of cognitive, physical and organizational ergonomics in order to open the discussion of whether ergonomic conditions can be more efficiently reduced by limiting the options available to the translator or by identifying and applying individualized settings for any given user.
References Ehrensberger-Dow, Maureen, Andrea Hunziker Heeb, Gary Massey, Ursula Meidert, Silke Neumann, & Heidrun Becker (2016). An international survey of the ergonomics of professional translation. ILCEA Revue de l’Institut des Langues et des Cultures d’Europe et d’Amérique 27. http://ilcea.revues.org/4004 Krüger, Ralph (2018). Technologieinduzierte Verschiebungen in der Tektonik der Translationskompetenz. trans-kom 11 (1): 104–137. http://www.trans-kom.eu/bd11nr01/trans- kom_11_01_06_Krueger_Tektonik.20180712.pdf O’Brien, Sharon, Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow, Marcel Hasler, & Megan Connolly (2017). Irritating CAT tool features that matter to translators. Hermes Journal of Language and Communication in Business 56: 145-162. Teixeira, Carlos S. & Sharon O'Brien (2017). Investigating the cognitive ergonomic aspects of translation tools in a workplace setting. Translation Spaces 6 (1): 79-103.
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Ergonomics of Translation and Its Impact on Agency Translators’ Happiness at Work
Klaudia Bednárová-Gibová University of Presov
In line with the sociological turn in Translation Studies (cf. Chesterman 2009), the attention of a number of researchers has shifted to the translator’s persona. With regard to unchartered socio-psychological aspects of translator-oriented research, the issue of translators’ happiness at work has been paid limited attention. More recently, the interest in translation process as a ‘situated activity’, i.e. at the translators’ workplace, has been on the increase (Risku 2014; Ehrensberger-Dow – Hunziker Heeb – Massey et al. 2016 ; Ehrensberger-Dow 2017). Bridging the two research trends, the proposed paper aims to find out to what extent translation ergonomics impacts on translators’ happiness at work. More specifically, it intends to explore parameters of organizational ergonomics of translation (cf. Ehrensberger- Dow 2017) and their impact on agency translators’ happiness at work. The paper is methodologically built upon a quantitative analysis of questionnaires completed by agency translators in Slovakia, which was preceded by the author’s ethnographic observations of their real office situation and interviews about their work routines. The goal of this paper is to explore correlations between the agency translators’ work autonomy, the nature of translation jobs, breaks at work, opportunities to discuss translation problems, support for workflow, concentration, variety of deskbound routines, feedback and happiness at work. This paper is part of an undertaking in progress in which the author plans to examine other translator types along the continuum of Slovak translators, focusing also on freelancers, company translators and literary translators. The outcomes of the study reveal how an ergonomic perspective of translation can provide an inspirational framework for analysing translators’ professional identity, self-concept and happiness at work. Based on the correlational analysis, it will be possible to give recommendations about how addressing organizational ergonomics issues could increase translators’ happiness at work.
Key words: ergonomics, happiness at work, agency translators, professional identity, self-concept.
References: CHESTERMAN, A. 2009. The Name and Nature of Translator Studies. Hermes – Journal of Language and Communication Studies. 42: 13-22. EHRENSBERGER-DOW, M. – HUNZIKER HEEB, A. – MASSEY, G. et al. 2016. An International Survey of the Ergonomics of Professional Translation. In: É. LAVAULT-OLLÉON, eds. ILCEA – Approches ergonomiques des pratiques professionnelles et des formations des traducteurs. 27. Available at
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Validation of a Measure Using a Mixed Method Approach. In: Journal of Happiness Studies. 19(5): 1439-1463. WARR, P. 2007. Work, Happiness, and Unhappiness. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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Translation support policies vs. book industry practice in non-English settings.
A Nobel Pursuit – The Swedish Publishing of African Nobel Laureates in Literature
Jana Rüegg Uppsala University
The Nobel Prize in literature may be conveniently used as a tool for selecting what may be labelled as high prestige literature, i.e. consecrated and canonized literature. The award is the greatest proof of literary consecration within world literature (Casanova, 2007, p. 147), with the greatest impact among literary prizes. This paper focuses on the published works of the six Nobel Prize laureates with a connection to an African country, 1970–2016 in Swedish translations, as a way to examine the impact of the Nobel Prize on the publishing trajectories of these authors in the Swedish literary market. It enables the study of publishing practices of African high prestige literature in the Swedish semi-peripheral language space. The notion of African literature is based on the simplistic view of the literary and cultural diversity of the continent, where the term has merely been constructed as an export product (Huggan, 2008, p. 106), and the term is often used in the marketing of novels for a foreign audience. Which publisher introduces the author – and what impact did the Nobel Prize have for these authors in Sweden? Which type of publishing house is the main transmitter of these authors? These questions will be discussed through statistical methodology, using a database over all titles published by the six authors in Swedish. The publishing trajectory of Wole Soyinka is especially interesting, since he was introduced in Swedish by the independent and prestigious publishing house Cavefors förlag. In general, Cavefors was important as a publisher of African literature in Swedish translation (Svensson, 2018, p. 139–166). Cavefors was also one of the many independent publishers that were able to stabilize their financial situation by the Swedish state support for translated and literary valuable fiction, introduced in 1975 (Steiner, 2006, p. 64).
References Casanova, P. 2007 [1999]. The World Republic of Letters (m. B. Debevoise, Trans.). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA/London. Huggan, G. 2008. Interdisciplinary Measures: Literature and the Future of Post-Colonial Studies, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool. Steiner, A. 2006. I litteraturens mittfåra. Månadens bok och svensk bokmarknad under 1970-talet. Makadam, Göteborg. Svensson, R. 2018. Cavefors. Förlagsprofil och medial mytbilder i det svenska litteratursamhället 1959–1982. Ellerströms, Lund.
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Translation grants in stateless cultures: a comparative analysis of the Basque, Catalan and Galician literatures
Olga Castro University of Warwick Laura Linares University College Cork
Literary translation plays a crucial role in the internationalisation of cultural and publishing markets – not only does it influence the development of a literary system and the construction of any literary canon, but it also constitutes a marker of status in the economic global system. As such, source-culture institutions very often offer support policies to help disseminate ‘their’ literatures abroad. Especially in the case of stateless nations and minorised languages, financial support is absolutely decisive. In the case of Spain’s stateless literatures in the Basque, Catalan and Galician co-official languages, since the early 2000s the three regional governments have been subsidising translations into other languages. Despite this financial effort, little is known about how successful these initiatives are from the target-culture perspective. This paper investigates the most recent Basque, Galician and Catalan translation support policies and book industry practice, offering a comparative analysis and identifying best practice. Through the study of quantitative data (the amount of translation grants and money), qualitative data (textual analysis of the English translation of the call for grants), interviews (with stakeholders, governmental translation policy-makers and representatives from the three publishers’ associations), and participant observation at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 (observing how the three cultures promote the internationalisation of their books via presenting their translation grants and selling translation rights), we will offer unique insights into the extent to which translation support policies from each of the source cultures can be considered successful, and also more generally into the particularities of the book industry practice in these three stateless cultures and minorised languages.
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Support Policies in the Semi-Periphery: the Impact of Italian and Portuguese Cultural Institutes in the Swedish Literary Field
Cecilia Schwartz Stockholm University Chatarina Edfeldt Dalarna University
How does literature circulate within the semi-periphery? In this presentation we explore the hypothesis that semi-peripheral literary circulation is achieved due to initiatives and financial support from national funders in the source culture. Drawing on van Es & Heilbron’s (2015) observation that analyses of the dynamics of the global literary field tend to ignore the impact of subsidies, we aim to put emphasis on the importance of financial support in the neglected literary semi-periphery (D’haen 2012) by investigating two national funders of translations into Swedish: the Italian Cultural Institute and the Portuguese Cultural Institute Camões in Stockholm. Following de Swaan (2001), we argue that the publishing grants from these institutes are crucial for elevating the positions of Italian and Lusophone literature in Sweden. We will describe and compare how these two institutes are organized and analyse the titles and publishing houses who have received financial support from them during the time span 2000–2018. How many of the total amount of translations from Italian and Portuguese into Swedish have received financial support from these two institutes in the studied period? Is it true, as is generally suggested, that the supported titles as well as the publishers in the target culture belong to the pole of small-scale production? Had the supported titles been translated into more central languages before reaching semi-peripheral Sweden or did the institutes provide an alternate way for connecting semi-peripheral cultures? Moreover, we will analyse the effects of the support: were the writers invited to Sweden and/or did they receive attention in the Swedish media? By analyzing and comparing the promotion of two semi-peripheral literatures in a third semi-peripheral context we can shed some light on an unresearched circulation path.
References De Swaan, Abram (2001), Words of the world. The Global Language System. Cambridge: Polity. D’haen, Theo (2012), The Routledge concise history of world literature. London: Routledge. Van Es, Nicky & Heilbron, Johan (2015), “Fiction from the Periphery: How Dutch Writers Enter the Field of English-Language Literature”. Cultural Sociology, vol. 9(3), 296–319.
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Cultural Diplomacy vs. Bestseller Culture. Semi-Peripheral literature on a Central Literary Marketplace. Example: Swedish Literature in France ca 1980–2018
Andreas Hedberg Uppsala University
The 1980s brought about important changes to the literary field in many European countries. France stands out as an especially illustrative example. As described by literary sociologist Gisèle Sapiro, the French state launched a number of reforms that formed a “counter-policy”, challenging what was described as an anglo-globalisation and an increasing commoditization of literature. The goal was to defend diversity on the literary market, especially when it came to translations from peripheral and semi- peripheral languages.
In this paper, I will discuss some effects of this “ideology of diversity”, focusing on one example: the translation and publishing of Swedish fiction in France from the 1980s until today. To understand this specific cultural exchange, it is necessary to take into consideration a number of important factors, including minor “niche publishers” focusing on translations, new kinds of translators and successful market- driven genres such as crime fiction.
The description of this contemporary situation on the French book market will also be discussed in relation to earlier periods, especially the years 1945–1980.
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How subsidies inform publishers’ decisions on translated literature in smaller European countries
Ondrej Vimr University of Bristol
This paper explores the impact of diverse translation support schemes on the decision-making processes of literary fiction publishers in smaller European countries, namely Czech Republic, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden. The latter half of the 20th century saw profound changes in publishing of translated literature. English gradually become the dominant source language of translations published in Europe and beyond. At the same time, numerous support schemes were established to support translations from smaller European languages. The trend has been especially profound since the early 1990s. While the various national and international support schemes operate from different perspectives, with different goals and priorities, this paper will investigate how publishers use these schemes in practice. Acquisition editors (or staff with similar responsibility) are the key gatekeepers of translated literature. They design publishing catalogues and make the key acquisition decisions, sometimes with sales or marketing department, depending on the size of the publishing house. How publishers and acquisition editors in smaller European countries choose fiction for translation from other non-English literatures? What role do subsidies play in their decision-making? This paper will present preliminary results of a comparative analysis of five European book markets (Czech, Dutch, Norwegian, Slovenian, Swedish) including over 50 in- depth interviews with publishers and acquisition editors in these countries, uncovering inter alia the growing dependence on various support schemes across all sectors of literary fiction publishing.
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Translation technologies for creative-text translation
International survey on the use of techonology by creative translators
Carlos Teixeira Trinity College Dublin
This presentation will introduce the results of a survey that maps the current use of tools by professional translators working with creative texts (henceforth “creative translators”). This will bring relevant data to the field and is complementary to incipient research being done on the use and perception of technology by literary translators (Ruffo 2018). Filling this knowledge gap is important in face of recent reports that indicate that pay and working conditions for literary translators are deteriorating (Slator 2018), since electronic tools have the potential of increasing productivity and improving earnings. The current survey includes questions that will allow to identify which electronic tools are currently used by professional creative translators, how those tools are used, and what problems and gaps are there. The underlying assumption is that translation technology can be made more useful for creative translators by integrating existing or new technologies into more usable interfaces, which take into account the existing workflows while at the same time providing the benefits reaped by translators in more specialised domains. Those benefits include: storing and retrieving past translations, automatically providing suggestions for expressions that tend to be searched for in external tools, terminology management and quality assurance. Based on an exhaustive list of possible existing tools (e.g. Zetzsche 2017), the results from the survey will indicate which tools are missing from the typical creative translator’s repertoire and which new tools could be developed or adapted to benefit creative translators in terms of productivity, usability, quality and enjoyability. This will inform the next stage of a project that aims to design and test an advanced tool to cater for this specific cohort, with a view to increasing their productivity and job satisfaction.
References Ruffo, Paola. 2018. “Human-Computer Interaction in Translation: Literary Translators on Technology and Their Roles” Proceedings of the 40th Conference Translating and the Computer, London, UK, November 15-16. pages 127–131. Slator. 2018. ‘Hard to Earn a Living’: Surveys in US, Germany Examine Literary Translators’ Pay. https://slator.com/industry-news/hard-earn-living-surveys-us-germany-examine-literary-translators- pay/ Accessed 20 January 2019. Zetzsche, Jost. 2017. The Translator’s Tool Box: A Computer Primer for Translators. Electronic book, version 13.0. International Writers’ Group, LLC.
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Dutch literary translators' use of and attitude towards technology
Joke Daems Ghent University
Although literary translation has been called the "last bastion of human translation" (Toral and Way, 2015a), literary translators could benefit from technology support. Professional translator Rafa Lombardino (2015) mentions that translation memory (TM) systems and glossaries can be useful, as literary works often contain repetitions or flashbacks, and certain characters use specific terminology. However, this positive attitude towards translation technology is not universally shared. In a pilot study, Ruffo (2018) found that literary translators dismissed the use of CAT tools and machine translation (MT). The question is whether this dismissal is caused by accurate knowledge of the limitations of the technology, or by prejudices and lack of information. Reflecting O'Brien's (2012) claim that we need "efforts to promote symbiosis, rather than friction", modern translation tools engage with their users in new ways, offering, for example, interactive typing functionalities and a combination of TM and MT. They further allow users to upload their TMs, which are then used to customise the internal MT system before the user starts working on the translation. In addition, some tools offer adaptive MT, where the system learns from the changes a translator makes "on the fly", while they are translating. With the introduction of neural MT around 2016, the output is no longer the same as the MT output the translators might be used to. Toral and Way (2018) argue that its increased quality and the fact that NMT can handle lexically rich texts make it better suited for literary translation than earlier systems. A survey will be conducted among Dutch literary translators to: i) learn about Dutch literary translators' current use of and attitude towards translation technology, and ii) raise literary translators' awareness of advances in translation technology to discuss the potential relevance or limitations of such tools for their work.
References Besacier, L., & Schwartz, L. (2015). Automated translation of a literary work: a pilot study. In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Literature (pp.114-122). Lombardino, R. (2015, December 14). Why I Use A CAT Tool To Translate Books [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://rafalombardino.com/news/2015/12/1/why-i-use-a-cat-tool-totranslate-books O'Brien, S. (2012). Translation as human–computer interaction. Translation Spaces, 1(1), 101-122. Ruffo, P. (2018). Human-Computer Interaction in Translation: Literary Translators on Technology and Their Roles. In Proceedings of the 40th Conference Translating and the Computer (pp. 127–131). Toral, A., & Way, A. (2015a). Translating literary text between related languages using SMT. In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Literature (pp. 123-132). Toral, A., & Way, A. (2015b). Machine-assisted translation of literary text: A case study. Translation Spaces, 4(2), 240-267. Toral A., Way A. (2018) What Level of Quality Can Neural Machine Translation Attain on Literary Text?. In J. Moorkens, S. Castilho, F. Gaspari, & S. Doherty (Eds.), Translation Quality Assessment. Machine Translation: Technologies and Applications, vol 1. Springer, Cham.
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‘I wish they could see the magic’: literary translators on their roles and technology
Paola Ruffo Heriot-Watt University
The configuration of translation as a form of Human-Computer Interaction (O’Brien, 2012) has highlighted the need for Translation Studies to acknowledge and address human issues derived from the complexity of said interaction (Kenny, 2017). This becomes even more compelling in light of the overall ‘sense of confusion’ (Cronin, 2013: 1) surrounding the future of the translation profession and its human agents. In this regard, Littau (2016) advocates for a rediscovery of the ways in which materiality and ideality mutually and symbiotically shape each other, in that if we are to explore translation in contemporary society and culture, then we are to study the interplay between the two. Defined as ‘the last bastion of human translation’ by Toral and Way (2014: 174), literary translation appears to be postponing the encounter with materiality, despite a growing body of research on the application of translation technologies to its workflow (Voigt and Jurafski, 2012; Jones and Irvine, 2013; Besacier and Schwartz, 2015; Toral and Way, 2014; 2015a; 2015b; Toral et al., 2018). This paper reports on a doctoral research project that operates within this framework, exploring the dynamic, mutual and social construction of human- computer interaction in literary translation. The study adopts a socio-technological framework inspired by Pinch and Bijker’s 1984 Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) model in order to collect literary translators’ perceptions of their own role in society and their attitudes towards technology via means of a questionnaire. Results show that (1) there is a relationship between perceptions of role and attitudes towards technology and that (2) the adoption of a proactive and collaborative approach between different social groups could benefit the process of technological innovation in literary translation.
References Besacier, Laurent and Schwartz, Lane (2015) ‘Automated Translation of a Literary Work: a pilot study’, in Proceedings of the NAACL-HLT Fourth Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Literature, Denver, Colorado, USA, 114-122. Cronin, Michael (2013) Translation in the digital age, London: Routledge. Jones, Ruth and Irvine, Ann (2013) ‘The (Un)faithful Machine Translator’, in Piroska Lendvai and Kalliopi Zervanou (eds.) Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Language Technology for Cultural Heritage, Social Sciences, and Humanities, Stroudsburg, PA: ACL, 96-101. Kenny, Dorothy (2017) ‘Introduction’, in Dorothy Kenny (ed.) Human Issues in Translation Technology, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 1-7. Littau, Karin (2016) “Translation and the materialities of communication”, Translation Studies, 9(1), 82-93. O'Brien, Sharon (2012) “Translation as human-computer interaction”, Translation Spaces, 1, 101-122. Pinch, Trevor and Bijker, Wiebe E. (1984) “The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts: or how the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit each other”, Social Studies of Science, 14, 399-441. Toral, Antonio and Way, Andy (2014) ‘Is Machine Translation Ready for Literature?’, in Proceedings of Translating and the Computer 36, London, 27-28 November 2014, 174-176. Toral, Antonio and Way, Andy (2015a) “Machine-assisted translation of literary text: a case study”, Translation Spaces, 4(2), 240-267. Toral, Antonio and Way, Andy (2015b) ‘Translating Literary Text between Related Languages using SMT’, in Proceedings of the NAACL-HLT Fourth Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Literature, Denver, Colorado, USA, 123-132.
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Toral, Antonio, Martin Wieling, and Andy Way (2018) “Post-editing Effort of a Novel with Statistical and Neural machine Translation”, Frontiers in Digital Humanities, 5(9). Voigt, Rob and Jurafski, Dan (2012) ‘Towards a Literary Machine Translation: the Role of Referential Cohesion’, in Proceedings of the NAACL-HLT 2012 Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Literature, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 18-25.
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Measuring readers’ engagement in literary texts: a study comparing human translation to machine assisted translation
Ana Guerberof Arenas Dublin City University/ADAPTCentre Antonio Toral University of Groningen
Until now, research has shed some light in the usability of machine translation (MT) in literary texts, showing that MT might help professional literary translators, for example when it comes to productivity (Toral et al. 2018). However, translators’ perception is that the “more creative” the literary text, the less useful MT is (Moorkens et al. 2018). But do translators resolve issues in creative texts differently on their own than if they are aided by machines? And, ultimately, does the final user, the reader, prefer the texts created only by humans? Are these latter texts hence more engaging to users?
There are few studies in machine-assisted translation (e.g. Castilho and Guerberof, 2018) that focus on the ultimate user of the translation - the reader - and, to the best of our knowledge, none has dealt to date with literary texts. This research addresses this gap by assessing the impact of MT on reading translated literary texts. We setup a pilot experiment in one language direction (English-to-Catalan) that included a questionnaire to assess narrative engagement (Mangen and Kuiken 2014), using a scale created for this purpose, and another one to gauge the reception of a fiction piece translated in three conditions: from scratch (fully human translation), machine translated, and a post-edited version (machine translation corrected by a translator). Thirty readers completed the questionnaires, 10 readers per modality. We are presenting here the results that compare the three modalities and address the suitability of this methodology for assessing the user experience in the context of literary translations. The objective is ultimately to use this methodology in a larger study to better understand translation creativity in relation to MT and its impact on the reader of translated literary texts in several language combinations.
References Castilho, S. Guerberof Arenas, A. (2018). “Reading Comprehension of Machine Translation Output: What makes for a better read?”. In Proceedings of 21st Annual Conference EAMT. Mangen, A., & Kuiken, D. (2014). “Lost in an iPad: Narrative engagement on paper and tablet”. Scientific Study of Literature, 4(2), 150-177. Moorkens, J., Toral, A., Castilho S., Way, A. (2018). “Perceptions of Literary Post-editing using Statistical and Neural Machine Translation”. Translation Spaces 7:2. Toral, A., Wieling, M., and Way, A. (2018). “Post-editing effort of a novel with statistical and neural machine translation”. Frontiers in Digital Humanities, 5, 9.
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How Interactive Translation Dictation Could Benefit Creative Translators
Julian Zapata University of Ottawa / InTr Technologies
Since the 1980s, translators have used keyboard-and-mouse computers to type their texts and exploit an array of applications, such as translation memories (TMs) and machine translation post-editing (PE) systems, developed to reduce the time and effort needed to type translations from scratch, among other reasons. More recently, in the era of multimodal speech-and-touch devices such as tablets and smartphones, translation researchers and tool developers have been exploring these emerging input modes and devices to perform different natural language tasks, from retrieving information to producing and revising (translated) texts (Zapata 2016; Zapata, Castilho & Moorkens 2017; Teixeira et al. 2019). However, little is known about how these emerging technologies could benefit translators working specifically with creative texts such as novels, poetry, theatre plays and advertising campaigns (for which TMs and PE are less appropriate or useful). My contribution explores interactive translation dictation (ITD) for creative-text translation. ITD involves speech-based multimodal interaction throughout the entire translation process, from preparing to producing and revising a translation (Zapata, 2016). A pilot experiment was conducted with a handful of published literary translators in Canada. Participants tested various speech-and-touch-based applications on different devices (a hybrid Windows laptop + tablet, an Android tablet and an Android smartphone); performed a short creative-translation task; and took part in a semi-structured interview. The qualitative data collected highlight the potential advantages of ITD for creative-text translation, while pointing out the drawbacks of speech- and touch-enabled applications and devices currently available. This pilot experiment opens the door for a whole new area of research in translation technology, as scholars and tool developers seek to make computer aids more useful and attractive for creative-text translators, improving their efficiency and working conditions, while maintaining the quality—and admirability—of their creative work.
References Teixeira, C.S.C.; Moorkens, J.; Turner, D.; Vreeke, J.; and Way, A. (2019) Creating a Multimodal Translation Tool and Testing Machine Translation Integration Using Touch and Voice. Informatics, 6, 13. Zapata, J. (2016). Translating on the Go? Investigating the Potential of Multimodal Mobile Devices for Interactive Translation Dictation. Tradumàtica, 14: 66-74. Zapata, J., Castilho, S., and Moorkens, J. (2017). Translation Dictation vs. Post-editing with Cloud- based Voice Recognition: A Pilot Experiment. In Proceedings of MT Summit XVI, 2: 123-136.
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Towards an ecologically-valid approach to the study of computer-aided literary translation
Dorothy Kenny Dublin City University Marion Winters Heriot-Watt University
Machine translation (MT) has been used sporadically in the production of literary texts and other creative artefacts. MT outputs have been treated by poets in particular as serendipitously encountered linguistic material that can be manipulated like materials in the plastic arts. In most such cases (see Dibbell 2000; Lee 2011) MT is seen as delivering the kind of non-communicative, foreignizing translation advocated by Benjamin (1923/2012) and Venuti (2008). More recently, the ability to customize statistical (and later neural) engines, the availability of plentiful training data and incremental improvements in MT have emboldened computer scientists to build MT engines that are specially adapted for the ‘communicative’ (Venuti 2008) translation of literary prose (see, e.g., Chang et al. 2011; Toral and Way 2015; Moorkens et al. 2018; Toral and Way 2018). In these cases the aim is to produce fluent output, and the theoretical touchstone becomes Nida and Taber’s (1969) dynamic equivalence. The most recent of these studies have been conducted within an established paradigm that involves the training, testing and evaluation of MT engines, using automatic and human evaluation techniques, and evaluating at sentence level and in experimental settings. Thus far, there have been very few studies of how literary translators themselves use, or could use, MT. In this paper we investigate the use of a commercially available MT system by a highly experienced English-to-German literary translator working on a specially commissioned translation, in his normal environment. We complement our observations with linguistic analysis and a post-task interview, in an effort to achieve a more holistic and ecologically-valid understanding of computer-assisted literary translation than previous studies have allowed. Our analysis focuses especially on translator voice and style (Author(s) 2001; Author(s) 2013, 2018; Taivalkoski-Shilov 2018), and on the translator’s own view of the role of machines in literary translation.
References Benjamin, W. (1923/2012) ‘Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers’, in Baudelaire: Tableaux Parisiens, Heidelberg: Richard Weissberg Verlag. Trans. S. Rendall as ‘The Translator’s Task’, in Venuti L. (ed.), The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd edition, London: Routledge, pp. 75–83. Chang, H., B. Bederson, P. Resnik and Y. Kronrod. (2011). ‘MonoTrans2: A new human computation system to support monolingual translation’, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – Proceedings, pp. 1133-1136. Dibbell, J. (2000) ‘After Babelfish. Random acts of senseless beauty? Taking the wonderful translation machine out for a spin’, Feed online magazine, July 26, 2000, Available: http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/feed_babelfish.html [1 Oct 2018]. Kenny, D. (2001) Lexis and Creativity in Translation. A Corpus-based Study, Manchester: St Jerome. Lee, T. K. (2011) ‘The death of the translator in machine translation’, Target, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 92– 112. Moorkens, J., A. Toral, S. Castilho and A. Way (2018). ‘Translators’ perceptions of literary post-editing using statistical and neural machine translation’, Translation Spaces, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 240–262. Nida, E. A. and C. R. Taber (1969) The Theory and Practice of Translation, Leiden: Brill. Taivalkoski-Shilov, K. (2018) ‘Ethical Issues Regarding Machine(-assisted) Translation of Literary Texts’, Perspectives (online first), https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2018.1520907 [3 Oct 2018].
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Toral, A. and A. Way (2015) ‘Machine-assisted translation of literary text: A case study’, Translation Spaces, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 240–267. Toral, A. and A. Way (2018) ‘What level of quality can Neural Machine Translation attain on literary text?’, in Moorkens, J., Castilho, S., Gaspari, F., Doherty, S. (eds) Translation Quality Assessment, Springer Nature, pp. 263-287. Venuti, L. (2008) The translator’s invisibility: a history of translation, 2nd Edition, New York/London: Routledge. Winters, M. (2013) ‘German modal particles – from lice in the fur of our language to manifestations of translators’ styles’, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 21(3):427-445 (online first), https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2012.711842 [7 Aug 2012]. Winters, M. (2018) ‘The case of Natascha Wodin’s autobiographical novels: a corpus-stylistics approach’, in Boase-Beier, J, Fisher, L. and Furukawaal, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Literary Translation, London: Palgrave, pp. 145-166.
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On Sustainability in Translation Technologies for Creative Text Translation
Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov University of Turku
Contemporary human translators can be considered “translation cyborgs”, owing to their strong dependency on translation technology (Cronin, 2017, 101; Robinson, 2016). In the last decades machine-assisted translation has become an integral part of the translation workplace. In spite of many positive consequences of the technologization of translation this trend has raised ethical challenges for translators, such as questions related to remuneration and copyright (see e.g. Drugan, 2013, 187; Moorkens, 2017, 464–466). Owing to the latest developments in translation technology it now seems probable that domain specific tools will increase in creative text translation as well (see Toral & Way, 2018; Taivalkoski-Shilov, 2018). The aim of this paper is to envisage different sustainability challenges related to translation technologies when they are used for literary translation. On the one hand, I will address issues discussed in my recent article (Taivalkoski-Shilov, 2018) where I make an argument for sustainable development in literary translation, based on a holistic understanding of translation quality (Abdallah 2012). On the other hand, I deepen the discussion on sustainable development by bringing in Cronin’s (2017, 113) suggestions for a green translation technology.
References: Cronin, M. (2017) Eco-Translation: Translation and Ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene. London/ New York: Routledge. Drugan, J. (2013). Quality in professional translation: Assessment and improvement. London: Bloomsbury. Moorkens, J. (2017). “Under pressure: Translation in times of austerity.” Perspectives, 25(3), 464– 477. Robinson, D. (2016) “Cyborg Translation.” http://home.olemiss.edu/~djr/pages/writer/articles/html/cyborg.html, consulted 15 January 2019. Taivalkoski-Shilov, K. (2018) “Ethical issues regarding machine(-assisted) translation of literary texts.” Perspectives. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2018.1520907. Toral, A., & Way, A. (2018). What level of quality can neural machine translation attain on literary text? Chapter for the forthcoming book Translation Quality Assessment: From Principles to Practice. New York: Springer. Retrieved from: https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.04962v1, consulted 15 January 2019.
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Transnational image-building and reception: linking up translation studies, reception studies and imagology
The image(s) of the Low Countries in Italy. Focus on the selection, reception and image-building of Dutch-language literature translated into Italian (2000-2018)
Paola Gentile KU Leuven/University of Trieste
This contribution seeks to shed light on the images of the Low Countries spread in Italy through the selection and reception of Dutch-language fiction in the period 2000-2018. The remarkable impulse to the link between Imagology and Translation Studies, triggered by the recent publication of the volume Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology (van Doorslaer, Flynn, & Leerssen, 2016), has revealed that the study of cultural images and the way in which they are created and spread is relevant more than ever before. In the context of literary translation, the spreading of images can occur not only at the textual level, but also in the phases that precede and accompany the publication of a translated work: from the selection of texts to be translated to the various stages of marketing, from the reception in the target culture to the network of contacts among the different actors involved in the translation process (governmental organizations, translators, publishing houses, etc.). This contribution ranges from the sociological macro-level of the genesis of a translation (selection and promotion) to the micro-level of the textual analysis, in order to scrutinise to what extent the selection, promotion and actual translation of literary works from Dutch into Italian contribute to creating or strengthening certain images associated with the Low Countries. This contribution will first show the results of the interviews carried out with Italian literary translators, the Dutch and Flemish Literature Foundations and editors of Italian publishers. Subsequently, the paratexts of the Dutch-language novels published from 2000 to 2018 will be shown to provide an overview of the reception of Dutch-language literature in Italy. Finally, the textual images contained in a corpus of 40 Dutch-language novels translated into Italian in the period 2000-2018 will be discussed.
Bibliography Batchelor, Kathryn. 2018. Translation and Paratexts. London/New York: Routledge. Beller, Manfred, and Joep Leerssen. 2007. Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters: A Critical Survey. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Brems, Elke, Orsolya Réthelyi, and Ton van Kalmthout. 2016. Doing Double Dutch. The International Circulation of Literature from the Low Countries. Leuven: Leuven University Press. van Doorslaer, Luc, Peter Flynn, and Joep Leerssen. 2015. Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology. Edited by Luc Van Doorslaer, Peter Flynn, and Joep Leerssen. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sapiro, Gisèle. 2016. “How Do Literary Works Cross Borders (or Not)?” Journal of World Literature 1 (1): 81–96. doi:10.1163/24056480-00101009.
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The Translation Agents’ Imagological Power: Images in translated Estonian literature
Terje Loogus University of Tartu Luc van Doorslaer University of Tartu, KU Leuven, Stellenbosch University
This presentation integrates the concept of translation policy (Meylaerts 2011, González Núñez 2016, van Doorslaer 2018) in the imagological research dealing with the export of national and cultural images through translation (van Doorslaer, Flynn & Leersssen 2016). Translation policy is, implicitly or explicitly, adopted by authorities and other institutions for managing the use of translation. The export of literature through translation is part of a cultural policy disseminating images of the source culture and/or source nation and co-determines “the way in which clichés about a certain population are created” (Gentile 2018). Particularly Literature or Translation Funds act as state agents developing an explicit or implicit translation policy. McMartin (2016) mentions cultural-protectionist ends, counteracting the effect of a globalist book market and canonizing the national literary patrimony as main motives. This presentation applies this framework to the case of Estonian literature in translation: the translation policy of the Estonian Literature Centre, its criteria for the translation grants and for the selection of marketing booklets from an explicitly imagological perspective. It particularly concentrates on the German language area, as German is one of the most productive Western European language areas for translations from Estonian. While the impact of the (Baltic) German literature on the Estonian culture and the image of Estonians in the Baltic German literature in the 18th and 19th century has been studied by several authors (e.g. Lukas 2000, Undusk & Lukas 2011), hardly any attention has been paid to the role of Estonian literature on the building of Estonian cultural images in other cultures. It is explored how the decisions of the translator as a cultural mediator impact on the images of cultures and nations, accepting that there can be no neutral standpoint for the comparison of cultures. The role of the translated Estonian literature in the construction of Estonian national and cultural images and stereotypes in the German language area is illustrated with the results of a case study focusing on the translation of selected Estonian novels into German.
References Gentile, P. (2018). Where Fiction Meets Reality. The Changing Image of the Low Countries in the Italian Translation of Dutch-language literature. Abstract for the ALCS Conference ‘The Low Countries. Picturing Reality’, Sheffield. González Núñez, G. (2016). On translation policy. Target 28 (1), 87–109. Lukas, L. (2000). Der estnische National-Imagotyp in der deutschbaltischen Literatur. Y. Varpio, M. Zadencka (eds.). Literatur und nationale Identität III. Zur Literatur und Geschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts im Ostseeraum: Finnland, Estland, Lettland, Litauen und Polen. Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 207−230. McMartin, J. (2016). Transnational Pole Coherence and Dutch-to-German Literary Transfer: A Study of Book Translations Published in the Lead-Up to the Guest of Honourship at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair. Journal of Dutch Literature, 7:2, 50-72. Meylaerts, R. (2011). Translation Policy. In: Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 2, ed. by Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 163–168.
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Undusk, J. & Lukas, L. (eds.) (2011). Baltisaksa kirjakultuur [Baltic German literary culture]. Keel ja Kirjandus 2011, Vol. 8–9. van Doorslaer, L. (2018). Turning Minorities and Majorities Upside Down. In Translation and Global Spaces of Power, ed. by J. Cornella & S. Baumgarten. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 39-58. van Doorslaer, L., Flynn, P. & Leerssen, J. (eds.) (2016). Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
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Football novels and national image building in Latin America: translation and reception of Santiago Roncagliolo’s La Pena Máxima into French and Dutch literary systems
Erwin Snauwaert KU Leuven
Since its introduction in Latin America at the end of the nineteenth century, football seems to contribute to the empowerment of different nations: good sports results may build the reputation of a country and/or mitigate the inferiority complex that Latin American societies generally have towards Europe and the United States (Wood). As in Latin America football intertwined with literature through an intellectualization process (Carrión) that was fostered by the end of the Cold War and of the “political” Boom-generation, football fictions frequently channel the dissemination of national images.
This contribution will investigate how such representations take shape in La pena máxima written by the Peruvian author Santiago Roncagliolo. First, we will demonstrate how this novel, which is built around the notorious match fixing of Argentina - Peru during the 1978 World Cup, globally emphasizes the risk of fanatic nationalism soccer entails. Moreover, this case will illustrate how the auto and hetero-images involved (Pageaux) link up with two different ideological views: while Argentina generally considers football as a means of national glorification, Peru adopts a more reserved position and mainly takes into account its intercultural relevance.
Secondly, we will show how these imagologic perspectives tie in with reception and translation studies (Flynn, Leersen, van Doorslaer). After having studied the reception of the novel in its source culture, we will analyze its French and Dutch versions La peine capitale (François Gaudry) and Bloed aan de paal (Peter Valkenet). As these languages respectively refer to a hegemonic and a peripheral literary system, the study of the strategies, the norms and the reception of these translations (Gentzler, Toury) will enable us to observe in diverse cultural contexts to what extent national images shift or fit in with the original concepts.
References: Carrión, Fernando (2006a). “La gol-balización del fútbol”. Quórum. Revista de pensamiento iberoamericano, 14: 21-29. Flynn, Peter; Leersen, Joep; van Doorslaer, Luc (2016). “On translated images, stereotypes and disciplines”. In: Luc Van Doorslaer, Peter Flynn, Joep Leersen (eds). Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp.1-18. Gentzler, Edwin (2002). Translation, Poststructuralism and Power. In: M. Tymoczko; E Gentzler (eds.), Translation and Power. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press Leerssen, Joep (2007). “Imagology: History and Method”. In: Manfred Beller; Joep Leerssen (eds.), Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters. A Critical Survey. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, pp. 17-32. Pageaux, Daniël-Henri (1995). “Recherche sur l’imagologie: de l’Histoire culturelle à la Poétique”, Revista de Filología Francesa, 8: 135-160. Toury, Gideon (1978). “The Nature and Role of Norms in Literary Translation”. In: J.S. Holmes, J. Lambert, R. Van Den Broeck, eds., Literature and Translation. New Perspectives in Literary
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Studies. Leuven: Acco, pp. 83-100. Wood, David (2017). Football and Literature in South America. Oxford/ New York: Routledge.
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The Reviewer, the Publisher and the Literary Agent: cultural mediators in the literary flow from Canada in the changing Hungarian literary field between 1989 and 2014.
Fruzsina Kovács Pázmány Péter Catholic University
In the aftermath of the political change of 1989, the structure of the literary field has radically changed in Hungary on micro, meso and macro levels as well. The number of Hungarian translations from Russian decreased and multidirectional translation flows have emerged, integrating Hungary into a global literary field, and satisfying market demands at the same time. These translation flows have been asymmetrical, heavily influenced by political, economic and cultural factors (Sapiro, 2016), and while they have been “an instrument of temporal acceleration” (Casanova 2002:9), they have also been integral in changing the roles and practices of agents in the literary field. Before 1989, the reviewers of literary works have either played into censorship processes or have been instrumental in smuggling literary products into a closed field. The practice of reviewing continued into the next era as well, but the selection processes of the publishers have gradually changed, as they have started to rely on the mediating services of a new entity, the literary agent, as well as incorporated open, web-based sources into their selection procedures. By studying the changing and overlapping roles of cultural mediators from an agent and process-oriented approach (Roig-Sanz and Meylaerts eds., 2018), this paper attempts first to point out phases of structural change, and secondly identify how the selection strategies practiced by the various mediators in the Canadian – Hungarian literary flow have evolved. A quantitative survey of translated Canadian literature (CEACS database, 2016) will point to peaks and lows in the production, while qualitative research through semi-structured interviews will reveal aspects of the mediators’ agency and habitus. The third aim of the study is to examine the applicability of QDA software in the data analysis.
References Casanova, P. (2002). “Consécration et accumulation de capital littéraire” (Consecration and Accumulation of Literary Capital: Translation as unequal exchange). Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, Translated by Siobhan Brownlie. 01 September 2002, Vol.n 144(4), 7-20. Roig-Sanz, D., and Meylaerts, R. (2018). Literary Translation and Cultural Mediators in 'Peripheral' Cultures: Customs Officers or Smugglers? (New comparisons in world literature). Palgrave Macmillan. Sapiro, G. (2016). “How Do Literary Works Cross Borders (or Not)? A Sociological Approach to World Literature”, The Journal of World Literature 1, 81-96.
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Intralinguistic Translation of Identity: a new generation of authors and comedians as mediators of a new image of Indian-Americans
Audrey Canales Université de Montréal
If Humor and Translation can be considered as an interdiscipline (Zabalbeascoa 2005), what image do they show of identities when combined on screen? Popular comedy –films, Netflix or TV series– are packed with implicit or explicit messages that are the product of various ideological contexts (Martinez Sierra 2008, Delaporte 2017) and it massively contributes to disseminating all sorts of identitary and cultural stereotypes. However, Identity as text is not yet a main topic of interest in Audiovisual translation, and more specifically in Comedy. There is a recent and growing intererest for the relation between Translation and Performance (Wolf 2017), linguistic variation of fictional characters is also studied (Ramos Pinto 2009, Hodson 2014), but the latest publications on Humor and Translation focus on the linguistic and cultural aspects of the translation of wordplay, and not on the stereotype dynamics or the discourse in humor. For the purpose of this research, we will combine Translation, Imagology (study of National Stereotypes) and Sociology, to offer a new reading grid of Identity in translation, not based on a strict linguistic approach. Observing how Identity is created and translated in Comedy, sheds light on the impact of Audiovisual Translation and on the way viewers perceive certain communities, and is an interesting conversation start on the relation between Screen Translation, Comedy, Discourse and « Hipster Racism » (Squire 2014). We will explain how artists like Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari or Hasan Minhaj use Humor and Performance to counteract dominant stereotypes on Indian-American identity and how they can be considered as intralinguistic translators of this identity, and as major actors of an on-screen cultural reappropriation.
REFERENCES DELAPORTE, Chloé (2017): Du stéréotype dans la comédie française contemporaine : autour de Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu? Mise au point. Cahiers de l’association française des enseignants et chercheurs en cinéma et audiovisuel. 9|2017 : Humour(s) : cinéma, télévision et nouveaux écrans. [URL] https://map.revues.org/2271 HODSON, Jane (2014): Dialect in Film and Litterature. Houndmills et New York : Palgrave MacMillan. KALING, Mindy (2011): Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). Crown Publishing Group. MARTÍNEZ SIERRA, Juan José (2008): Humor y traducción. Los Simpsons cruzan la frontera. Castelló de la Plana: Publicación de la Universitat Jaume I. RAMOS PINTO, Sara (2009): How important is the way you say it? A discussion on the translation of linguistic varieties. In: Target 21:2 (2009), 289–307 Squires, Catherine R. (2014): The Postracial Mystique: Media and Race in the 21st Century. New York and London: New York University Press. WOLF, Michaela (2017): A “Performative Turn” in Translation Studies? Reflections from a sociological perspective. TranscUlturAl, vol. 9.1 (2017), 27-44. ZABALBEASCOA, Patrick (2005): Humor and translation - An interdiscipline. Humor - International Journal of Humor Research 18(2):185-20.
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AUDIOVISUAL REFERENCES ANSARI, Aziz and YANG, Alan (2015-2017): Master of None. Dramedy. Created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang. Prod. Aziz Ansari, Alan Yang, Michael Schur, Dave Becky, David Miner. Broadcasted by Netflix. KALING, Mindy (2012-17): The Mindy Project. Sitcom. Created by Mindy Kaling. Prod. Universal Television. Broadcasted by Fox TV (seasons 1-3) and Hulu (Seasons 4-6). MINHAJ, Hasan (2017): Homecoming King. Standup comedy show. Created by Hasan Minhaj. Prod. Michelle Caputo. Broadcasted by Netflix. MINHAJ, Hasan (2018): Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. Web television variety show. Created by Hasan Minhaj. Prod. Hasan Minhaj, Jim Margolis, Prashanth Venkataramanujam, Michelle Caputo, Jennie Church-Cooper, Shannon Hartman. Broadcasted by Netflix.
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National and International Representatives of Korean Literary Canons
Ester Torres-Simón Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Among the many challenges the Republic of Korea had to face after liberation from the Japanese and the Korean War, the idea of a Korean nation had to be restituted and its components re-evaluated. Building a canon of literary texts in Korean was one of the main tasks. However, it is unclear to what extent the canon of Korean texts in translation had a similar role in the process of presenting the Republic of Korea to the outside world and building a national image. In order to assess the relevance of these translations, I first survey the main strategies employed after the Korean War to promote Korean literature in translation (UNESCO support, national programs, and personal initiatives). Then I analyze the representativeness of the corpus of Korean literature translated into English between 1950 and 2000 in comparison to the source country (Republic of Korea) literary canon and target-country expectations, in this case expectations in the United States. To do so, I will compare a) the authors who were most often translated into English in that period (either in separate volumes or in anthologies), with b) the authors selected for the Who is Who in Korean Literature prepared by the Korean Literature Translation Institute and the authors included in the syllabus for Korean Language and Literature in Secondary Education in Korea, and with c) the authors in the syllabi of Korean Studies literature courses in American higher education. The comparison will highlight the role of certain translators in the exportation of specific authors and genres, the formal and thematic properties of international canonization, and certain differences between source culture and target culture expectations of a Korean literary canon.
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The Translator’s Brand Functioning in the Translation and Completion of Ma Bo’le: Howard Goldblatt or Ge Haowen
Wenqian Zhang University of Leeds
As the best-known brand in the field of Chinese-English literary translation, Howard Goldblatt has established his name both in the West and in China (as Ge Haowen 葛 浩文). On the one hand, the added value contained in his brand name is recognized and assigned by other agents (e.g. publishers and reviewers) in the translation and publishing process; on the other hand, these other agents use the translator’s brand to make effective decisions and achieve some certain purposes. Ma Bo’le was a planned trilogy by a Chinese female novelist Xiao Hong but she only finished the first two volumes before passed away in 1942. Seventy-six years later, Goldblatt not only translated Part I and II of Ma Bo’le into English, but also completed this novel himself by writing Part III in English, and published this completed English version as Ma Bo’le’s Second Life in July 2018. Later, the third part created by Goldblatt was translated back into Chinese, and together with the first two original parts were published as the completed Chinese version of Ma Bo’le in September 2018. Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1993) sociology of cultural production and Darnton’s (1982, 2007) “communication circuit”, this paper investigates how Goldblatt’s brand names were employed in selecting and publishing the two different versions of Ma Bo’le, and how his names functioned differently in the book trade both in the West and in China. Based on a socio-archival analysis of paratexts (e.g. book covers, prefaces and afterwords) and the translator’s correspondence, this paper shows that Goldblatt was the main reason why the publishers decided to publish the two versions of Ma Bo’le, and the translator’s brand was employed as promotional capital to sell the cultural product. It also illustrates that Goldblatt’s brand had more influence on the source culture and his completion was applauded by Chinese readers.
References: Bourdieu, P. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. ed. by Johnson, R. New York: Columbia University Press. Darnton, R. 1982. What is the History of Books? Daedalus, 111(3): pp.65-83. Darnton, R. 2007. “What is the History of Books?” Revisited. Modern Intellectual History, 4(3), pp.495- 508. Xiao, H. and Goldblatt, H. 2018. Ma Bo’le’s Second Life. New York: Open Letter. Xiao, H. and Ge, H. 2018. Ma Bo’le (Completed Version) (《马伯乐》完整版). Trans. by Sylvia Li- chun Lin. Beijing: Encyclopaedia of China Publishing House (北京: 中国大百科全书出版社).
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Translator, Publisher, Ambassador: Wanda Dynowska and Her Indo-Polish Library
Zofia Ziemann Ewa Dębicka-Borek Jagiellonian University
The paper discusses the life and work of Wanda Dynowska aka Umadevi (1888- 1971), a Polish theosophist, social activist, journalist, poet, translator and editor, who settled in India in 1935, becoming a tireless promoter of Polish-Indian cultural relations. She translated the Bhagavad Gita into Polish, and in 1944 established (with Maurycy Frydman) the Indo-Polish Library/Biblioteka Polsko-Indyjska, a publishing house which brought out reference works on Indian religion and culture and literary anthologies, translated from Polish into English and from India’s many languages (Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Gujarati) into Polish, mostly via a third language. Although Dynowska is remembered in both her home countries, her translation and publishing work has been taken for granted and never examined to date. Based on yet unresearched archive material (correspondence and personal papers), as well as the translated texts, including their paratextual framing, the authors present Dynowska as an intercultural agent, placing her activity in the context of the Polish- Indian-British historical, cultural and political relations. Particular attention is paid to how she deliberately constructed and promoted the images of Poland and India, seeing a special affinity between the two nations oppressed by powerful empires: Russia and Britain. Dynowska’s unique enterprise of bringing together two distant cultures (semi/peripheral in Heilbron’s terms) by “building a bridge of books between the soul of India and Poland” (as she herself put it) was undoubtedly a commendable effort, but it also be seen as a site of manipulation. The paper examines how she carried out her mission of creating analogies between Poland and India, both on the macro level (in her selection of texts for translation/publication) and in the texts themselves (in paratexts and in the way she translated particular culture-specific items).
Selected References Chesterman A. 2009. “The Name and Nature of Translator Studies”, Hermes 42, 13-22. Glazer et al. (eds.). 2009. Poles in India 1942–1948. Second World War Story: Based on Archive Documents and Personal Reminiscences. London: Association of Poles in India. Das, T. (director) 2015. Enlightened Soul: The Three Names of Umadevi. Documentary film. Heilbron, J. 1999. “Towards a Sociology of Translation: Book Translations as a Cultural World System”, European Journal of Social Theory 2:4, 429–444. Munday, J. 2014. “Using Primary Sources to Produce a Microhistory of Translation and Translators: Theoretical and Methodological Concerns”, The Translator 20 (1), 64- 80. Pym, A. 2008. “Humanizing Translation History”, Hermes 42, 23-48. Unny, D. 2016. “The Polish woman with an Indian name who fought for the nation’s freedom”, Vogue India, 16. Nov.; https://www.vogue.in/content/the-polish-woman-with-an-indian-name-who- fought-for-the-nations- freedom/?fbclid=IwAR1oyuzaxTn44F7Twl64v16gbunW1scrcgaK4RQ0oGhYk47XKdZU55kwn84. Van Doorslaer, L.,P. Flynn & J. Leerssen (eds.). 2016. Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
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Do readers trust translations? The reception of China’s foreign-affairs discourse.
Bei Hu University of Melbourne
Although national-image building is highly dependent on the way a country’s foreign- affairs discourse is translated, the communicative effect upon real target readers has rarely undergone empirical scrutiny. Indeed, we know little about translation reception in general. This empirical research goes beyond a narrow concern with translation products and instead focuses on actual receptions by taking China’s translated foreign-affairs discourse as a case study. On the reception side, 22 Australian readers were categorized into six reader profiles were asked to rank four sets of translations. In each set, a Chinese start text was provided along with three English translations at different levels of translator intervention. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the readers’ textual comprehension, national-image reception, and reading satisfaction. To investigate any potential asymmetry between the reception and the production sides, the readers’ answers were compared with those of 14 selected Chinese staff translators who were invited to evaluate the same sets of translations. One major finding is that there are certain gaps between the communicative effects the official translators think they are offering and what their real readers actually receive. The study also suggests that reception is a matter of degree: the acceptance of a translation is a complex continuum rather than a simple binary opposition of absolute consensus vs. a completed refusal. The readers appear to distinguish ways of legitimizing an “ethically acceptable” translation and they seem to be ready to compromise and “satisfice” – i.e. accept translations that they know might be inadequate in terms of linguistic proficiency or contextual clarity. This shows that ethical criteria such as accountability, neutrality, and transparency have priority over language-quality solutions that simply conform to target conventions. To accept a translation, what matters most is whether readers can trust the text or not. By analyzing a range of explanatory variables including familiarity with the start culture, individual differences and the ideological conflicts that might impinge on the reader’s decisions, the study proposes that trust plays a key role in determining the reception of translation, and that this is particularly evident in high-risk international communication.
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Epitextual excursions: Dutch translators acting as cultural mediators in the transnational movement of Afrikaans literature in the Low Countries
Marike Van der Watt Stellenbosch University & KU Leuven
The increased use of sociological concepts and frameworks within Translation Studies, the so-called “sociological turn”, developed from a growing awareness of the impact of translation within a given society and between different societies (Buzelin & Baraldi 2016:118). Heilbron and Sapiro (2007:95) identify several aspects which have to be considered within a sociological approach, namely the structure of the field of international cultural exchanges, the constraints that influence these exchanges (political and economic), the agents involved in the exchange and the processes of importing and reception in the target culture. According to Pym (2006:4) many translation scholars have ventured beyond the sociocultural dimensions of source and target texts, and are now including in their scope “who is doing the mediating, for whom, within what networks, and with what social effects”. Meylaerts, Gonne, Lobbes & Sanz Roig (2017:67) defines a cultural mediator as “a cultural actor active across linguistic, cultural and geographical borders, occupying strategic positions within large networks and acting as a carrier of cultural transfer”. Over a number of years, a group of Dutch translators have been active in both the Low Countries and South Africa, and occupied varied positions within the fields of publishing, academia and professional translator training, media and even diplomacy. This paper considers these mediating acts, focusing on their epitextual contributions. It is clear that a translated text is not the only product (or even focus) of these translators' inputs and that they act in various degrees as cultural mediators. Their networks, knowledge and writing skills are regularly employed for the promotion of Afrikaans literature and (South African) culture in the Netherlands and Flanders. The possible impact of their epitextual contributions on the image of South Africa(ns) in the Low Countries, will be explored.
List of references: Buzelin, H. & Baraldi, C. 2017. Sociology and translation studies. Two disciplines meeting. In Border Crossings. Translation Studies and other disciplines. Yves Gambier & Luc van Doorslaer (reds.). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 117-139. Heilbron, J. & Sapiro, G. 2007. Outline for a sociology of translation. Current issues and future prospects. In Constructing a sociology of translation. Michaela Wolf & Alexandra Fukari (reds.). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 171-183. Meylaerts, R., Gonne, M., Lobbes, T. & Sanz Roig, D. 2017. Cultural mediators in cultural history: What do we learn from studying mediators’ complex transfer activities in interwar Belgium? In Doing Double Dutch. The international circulation of literature from the Low Countries. Elke Brems, Orsolya Réthelyi & Ton van Kalmthout (eds.). Leuven: Leuven University. 67-91. Pym, A. 2006. Introduction. On the social and the cultural in Translation Studies. In Sociocultural aspects of translating and interpreting. Anthony Pym, Miriam Shlesinger & Zuzana Jettmarová (eds.). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 1-25.
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Individual Papers Abstracts are published here as received from the authors and remain the property of the authors.
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Emotions in interpreting – Implications for people and process
Barbara Ahrens TH Köln, Cologne, Germany
Emotions are expressed differently in texts of different cultures and languages. Especially in oral communication, emotions are expressed not only by words but also by non-verbal elements, such as gestures, facial expressions, and prosody (e.g. Ekman 1988; Quilis 1993; Ahrens 2004; Wendt 2007; Schiewer 2014). Interpreting is a special type of oral communication in which the question of emotions and the way they are expressed in the language pair involved becomes even more complex. Since languages use different ways of encoding emotions verbally and non-verbally, interpreters have to render emotions of the source language text according to the verbal and non-verbal norms of the target language (Ahrens 2012). In addition to the emotions expressed in the text (e.g. happiness or grief), there are also the emotions of the communication partners that have to be taken into consideration. Whereas the emotional set-up between the source text sender and the adressee(s) is critical in the interpreted communicative act, the interpreter’s emotions should not interfere in the communication (Herbert 1952:62; Cary 1962: 5). The paper will discuss emotions in interpreting on different levels: the text level but also the person-oriented level, i.e. the emotional set-up among the communication partners involved (Ahrens 2012; Ludwig 2016). The complexity of this emotional set- up may vary according to setting and situation. The paper will describe the complexity and interdependence of the different levels. It will also discuss the implication of this varying complexity for people and the communication process in different settings. Concepts that are relevant to this discussion are neutrality, visibility, trust, state of anxiety, among others. The paper will draw conclusions about the emotional complexity of interpreting that might serve as a starting point for re-considering the topic in interpreter training as well as for future research into interpreting.
Key words: emotions, interpreting, verbal communication, non-verbal elements,
References Ahrens, B. (2004): Prosodie beim Simultandolmetschen. Frankfurt/M.: Lang. Ahrens, B. (2012): “Mis primeras palabras en esta Nochebuena me salen del corazón para expresar mi afecto...“ – Emotionen beim Dolmetschen. In: Torrent-Lenzen, A./Uría, L./Eberwein, P. (eds.): Kontrastive Emotionsforschung Spanisch–Deutsch. Aachen: Shaker. 7–20. Cary, E. (1962); Noblesse de la parole. Babel 8.1, 3–7. Ekman, P. (1988): Gesichtsausdruck und Gefühl. 20 Jahre Forschung von Paul Ekman. Paderborn: Junfermann. Herbert, J. (1952): Manuel de l’interprète. Geneva: Georg. Ludwig, A. (2016): Emotionalität bei Dolmetschen – Ein Vergleich der Expressivität emotionaler Reden in der deutschen und spanischen Sprache. MA thesis, TH Köln, Cologne. Unpublished. Quilis, A. (1993): Tratado de fonología y fonética epañolas. Madrid: Gredos. Schiewer, G.L. (2014): Studienbuch Emotionsforschung. Theorien – Anwendungsfelder – Perspektiven. Darmstadt: WBG. Wendt, B. (2007): Analysen emotionaler Prosodie. Frankfurt/M.: Lang.
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Translation of a translation: comic branding, politics and the ‘graphic novel face’ of Aristophanes
Dimitris Asimakoulas University of Surrey
Humorous comic books often offer a coherent comic tone that may become recognisable by readers and which might lead to commercial success. Such is the case of a distinctly Greek invention, the comic book adaptations of Aristophanic plays, which have sold over one million copies to date. The adaptations – arguably, instances of intersemiotic translation (Jakobson 2000) – were done in the mid-1980s by the Akokalides-Apostolides artistic duo. The books travelled well into the 2010s and translations were commissioned (stretching from the late 1980s till now): English, French and German, all done in Greece; Turkish, done by an independent publisher in Turkey. As such, the books constitute publication oddities, given the usual editorial barriers afflicting translation (Dalkey Archive Press 2011), and they represent a highly unusual South-to-South cultural flow. This paper plots the socio-historical context of the Aristophanic comics series, which can be seen as recent additions to a so-called rewriting chain, or interrelated textual transformations harking back to classical comedy. The paper then discusses the views of key players, using Lefevere’s concept of rewriting as theoretical framework (Gentzler 2017; Lefevere 2017). Archival work and interviews showcase the precarious yet enabling roles of rewriters (artists, translators, publishers) who sought to break new ground commercially or artistically. Aristophanic rewriters have specifically attempted to appeal to new audiences with a penchant for multimodal storytelling, foreign language learners and culturally/politically curious audiences. Underlying the above is a notion of resilience both in text thematics and the behaviour of rewriters; rewriting go-betweeners firmly believed in the comic branding potential of Aristophanic thematics, a belief that often justified sacrifices in time/economic capital, lengthy negotiations with state/private institutions and the risk of representing a minoritarian(-language) work with topical political nuances.
References:
Dalkey Archive Press (2011) Research into Barriers to Translation and Best Practices. A Study for the Global Translation Initiative. [last accessed 18 Jun 2019]
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Translating Living Beings: Conceptualizing Existential Translation
Salah Basalamah University of Ottawa
Scholars often concur with Jakobson (1963) that translation is a semiotic activity. Whether interlinguistic (between verbal languages), intersemiotic (between systems of signs), biosemiotic (in and between organisms) or ethnographic (representing living beings in discourse), translation is conceived of as an exchange between two or more forms of meaning. Despite the pioneering advancements made by Marais’s “philosophy of translation” (2014) and his biosemiotic definition of translation (2016, 2017 & 2018), ethnography remains the most expanded form of translation in that it transforms a collection of actual individual and collective actions, beliefs, symbols and knowledge into anthropological discourse. In this sense, ethnography translates heterogeneous objects of meaning into a (more homogeneous) system of signs. However, beyond the realm of semiotics—even if only as an end-product and as open ended and almost all-encompassing as Marais seems to present it (2018)— translation can also represent the process of the transformation of living beings through a range of non-semiotic experiences of, for example, immigration, education or spiritual conversion. If translation requires a formal material support (like language in the case of interlinguistic transfer) to be deemed as translation, it can be argued that the observation of this substance in transformation may be the phenomenology of the said transformations. To live the translational experiences of moving from one culture to another, of going through the process of learning some sort of knowledge or of converting from one faith and worldview to another—all these are translations of lifeworlds beyond (or beneath) the realm of semiotics as proposed by Marais (2016, 2017 & 2018). This paper advocates in favour of a ‘philosophy of translation’ (Basalamah, 2018) and argues that it should not limit itself by defining the concept of translation only as a semiosical process which “takes something as something else” (Marais, 2016: 179-180). The argument, however, goes further to suggest that the proposed philosophy of translation can also describe processes that are primarily non- semiotic, such as the phenomenological transformations of human beings (we would like to “existential translations”) relocated to new environments (immigration), the development of renewed awareness about the world or the realm of ideas (education) or of one’s consciousness about new dimensions of reality beyond sensory perceptions (spiritual conversion). Some examples will be provided to illustrate the suggested philosophy of translation through these extended translational phenomena.
References Basalamah, Salah (2018). “Toward a Philosophy of Translation”, in P. Rawlings & P. Wilson (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Philosophy, London: Routledge, pp. 478-491. Jakobson, Roman (1959). “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” in On Translation by Reuben Brower (ed.), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp. 232-239. Marais, Kobus & Kull, Kalevi (2016). “Biosemiotics and Translation: Challenging Translation”, in Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer (eds) Border-Crossings. Translation Studies and Other Disciplines, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 169-188.
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Marais, Kobus (2017). “We have never been un(der)developed: Translation and the Biosemiotic Foundation of Being in the Global South”, in K. Marais & I. Feinauer (eds) Translation Studies beyond the Postcolony, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 8-32. Marais, Kobus (2018). A (Bio)Semiotic Theory of Translation. The Emergence of Social-Cultural Reality, London: Routledge.
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Using non-professional subtitle consumption patterns to explore global media flows
David Orrego Carmona Aston University Simon Richter Freie Universität Berlin
In this study, we track the distribution of subtitles for the final season of House of Cards in the non-professional subtitle platform Addic7ed.com and compare these data against the downloads of the subtitles for the third season in the same platform (Orrego-Carmona, Richter 2018) to study the consumption and impact of non- professional subtitling. Subtitling is an essential tool for the international distribution of audiovisual content. As shown by Netflix's global strategy, subtitles allow for the fast distribution of content in multiple languages and provide companies with the possibility of catering for international audiences. We claim that tracing the distribution of non-professional subtitles (NPS) helps us understand the consumption patterns of their users. We tracked the distribution of subtitles for the last season for two weeks after its release (2-16 November 2018) and recorded a total of 115008 downloads for 27 languages. In comparison, the subtitles for the third season were downloaded 480298 over the same period of time and were offered in eight languages only. Features identified in the data for the third season are also evident in the new dataset: First, users show a strong inclination for the intralingual subtitles in English. In our third season dataset, English subtitles represent 80.37% of the total downloads, while English subtitles account for 63.77% of the downloads in our new dataset. Equally, both data sets support the claim that NPS respond to an immediate need: users access the content as soon as it is made available. The increase in the number of languages and the confirmation of the results of the previous study allow us to explore and, to some degree, quantify the impact that NPS has on current society. The collected data provides us with a glimpse into the impact of translation and the role that it has in globalised media.
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Between Two Mediating Texts: Chinese Translations of The Adventures of Pinocchio in the 20th Century
Hung-Shu Chen University of Taipei
The main purpose of my research is to examine indirect Chinese translations of The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio) in the 20th Century. As one of the most translated children’s books in the world, this Italian story, written by Carlo Collodi (1826-1890) in 1883, was first translated into a Chinese version by Xu Tiaofu (1901-1981) based on two English translations: one by Mary Alice Murray (1875- 1938) and the other by Walter S. Cramp (1867-1932). Xu’s Chinese translation was originally a serial in nine issues of the journal Short Story Monthly (Xiaoshuo yuebao) in 1927 and then as a book by the publisher Kaiming shudian in 1928. After that, the story of Pinocchio was published again and again, either as a direct translation or as an indirect one. I plan to scrutinize some of those indirect Chinese translations, mainly translated from two mediating texts, and the selected translations include renditions by well-known translators, versions with specific functions (e.g. language learning), or editions with many reprints. Xu’s Chinese translation is researched as a pilot study. Through close reading and textual comparison, I observe this indirect translation and investigate how Xu made decisions when he was faced with differences between the two mediating texts. His decisions, such as choosing to translate the less violent description between the two mediating texts or adding explanation to make the target text more explicit, will be explored, and the textual comparison will be complemented with contextual analysis. In a word, this study aims to observe the translator’s decisions, relate them to possible contextual factors, and then analyze the implicit ideology that translators usually had and may still have when translating for child readers and when doing compilative indirect translation.
Keywords: Pinocchio, Xu Tiaofu, mediating text, indirect translation, ideology
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Paraphrases corpus as a user-centred approach to support translators’ decision-making.
Rossana Cunha Adriana Pagano Fabio Alves Federal University of Minas Gerais
Recent studies (Kenny, 2017; O’Brien et al., 2017; Castilho et al., 2017; Castilho and O’Brien, 2018) have provided evidence that suggests a growing interest in combining methods from human-computer interaction (HCI) and corpus-based translation studies. In line with this growing trend trend, we turn to an HCI resource to model language according to distinct language use patterns drawing on the concept of user personas (Nielsen, 2011), i.e., data-based user group models, built to guide the production of texts that can be understood by real users in various computational applications. From this perspective, our study presents preliminary results of compilation and alignment of a Brazilian monolingual corpus (Hewavitharana; Vogel, 2016; Cardon; Grabar, 2018; Mallinson et al., 2018) based on personas. We developed the personas from representations of three groups of real users -- (i) doctors, (ii) nurses and healthcare assistants, and (iii) patients. First, text parameters were defined for each persona based on Systemic Functional Theory (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014) and texts compiled related to a common domain: diabetes self- management: (i) text retrieved from social networks in the case of patient/lay readers; (ii) text compiled from technical manuals in the case of nurses and healthcare assistants; (iii) text sampled from academic papers in the case of doctors/expert readers. We then abstracted grammar and lexical features to build a model of paraphrase detection and semantic similarity. Finally, in order to assess the comparability of the aligned instances, an expert evaluation was conducted by a Committee of domain experts. The result of this pilot study is a monolingual parallel corpus aligned with expert, specialist and lay discourse on the diabetes mellitus self- care domain. This corpus will later be used as a semantic resource (Sennrich et al., 2016; Koehn, 2018) in the architecture of a user-centred translation model.
Keywords: Translator education, human-computer interaction, user-centred design, in-domain translation, persona.
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References: Cardon, Rémi, and Natalia Grabar. "Identification of Parallel Sentences in Comparable Monolingual Corpora from Different Registers." Proceedings of the Ninth International Workshop on Health Text Mining and Information Analysis. 2018. Castilho, Sheila, et al. “Is neural machine translation the new state of the art?” The Prague Bulletin of Mathematical Linguistics 108.1 (2017): 109-120. Castilho, Sheila, and Sharon O'Brien. “Acceptability of machine-translated content: A multi-language evaluation by translators and end-users.” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series–Themes in Translation Studies 16 (2018). Creutz, Mathias. "Open subtitles paraphrase corpus for six languages." arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.06142 (2018). Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood, and Christian MIM Matthiessen. Halliday's introduction to functional grammar. Routledge, 2014. Hewavitharana, Sanjika, and Stephan Vogel. "Extracting parallel phrases from comparable data for machine translation." Natural Language Engineering 22.4 (2016): 549-573. Kenny, Dorothy. “Human issues in translation technologies.” IATIS Yearbook 2015. London and New York: Routledge. 2017. Koskinen, Kaisa and Minna Ruokonen. “Love letters or hate mail? Translators’ technology acceptance in the light of their emotional narratives.” Human issues in translation technology. Routledge, 2017. 26-42. Mallinson, Jonathan, Rico Sennrich, and Mirella Lapata. “Paraphrasing revisited with neural machine translation.” Proceedings of the 15th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Volume 1, Long Papers. 2018. Nielsen, Lene. “Personas in co-creation and co-design.” Proceedings of the 11th Human-Computer Interaction Research Symposium. 2011. O’Brien, Sharon, et al. "Irritating CAT tool features that matter to translators." Hermes Journal of Language and Communication in Business 56 (2017): 145-162. Suojanen, Tytti, Kaisa Koskinen, and Tiina Tuominen. User-centered translation. Routledge, 2015a. Suojanen, Tytti, Kaisa Koskinen, and Tiina Tuominen. "Usability as a focus of multiprofessional collaboration: a teaching case study on user-centered translation." Connexions: international professional communication journal 3.2 (2015b): 147-166.
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Global or glocal heroes in PJs? A multimodal analysis of child depiction in dubbed cartoons
Reglindis De Ridder Sara Van Meerbergen Annika Johannson Stockholm University
The influence of globalization and popular culture on children’s media has been widely discussed. While, initially, some critics feared a move towards a more global and ‘Disneyfied’ culture threatening diversity (see Davies 2004, O’Sullivan 2005), more recent research highlighted a growing countermovement of local forces and the localization of global media (see Machin & Van Leeuwen 2007, Borodo 2017). However, a more thorough analysis of the complex relationship between the local and the global in specific contexts is needed, rather than subscribing to “sweeping generalizations” (Van Leeuwen & Suleiman 2010:232).
This is a central aim of our multimodal analysis of dubbed animation drawing on descriptive translation studies (DTS), audiovisual translation (AVT) theory, multimodal text analysis (Kress & Van Leeuwen 2006) and social semiotics (Van Leeuwen 2005, Taylor 2016). The Dutch and Swedish dubbed versions of the globally distributed children’s animation PJ Masks are used as a case study. Originally, a French picture book series, Les Pyjamasques was adapted for the screen and distributed globally on Disney Junior and Netflix, but it was also picked up by the Swedish public service broadcaster.
In dubbing, the original visuals are maintained, while the dialogue tracks are replaced, resulting into different glocal products (Chaume 2012). Using a social semiotic approach and applying a multimodal text analysis following Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006), the main focus of our study will be ‘ideational representations’ of children (e.g. Painter et al 2013), i.e. analysing how child characters, their actions and characteristics, are depicted multimodally in the dubbed versions in comparison to the original. Subsequently, the results are seen in a broader social and cultural context, more specifically within the global/glocal context of media for children (Borodo 2017).
References Borodo, M. (2017), Translation, Globalisation and Younger Audiences. The situation in Poland. Bern: Peter Lang. Chaume, F. (2012), Audiovisual Translation: dubbing. New York: Routledge. Davies, M.M. (2004), “Mickey and Mr Grumpy. The global and the universal in children’s media”. European journal of cultural studies, 7(4), pp. 425-440. Kress, G. and Van Leeuwen, T. (2006), Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. London:Routledge. Machin, D. and Van Leeuwen, T. (2007), Global Media Discourse. London: Routledge. O'Sullivan, E. (2005). Comparative Children's Literature. Abingdon: Routledge. Painter, C., Martin, J.R. and Unsworth, L. (2013), Reading Visual Narratives. Image Analysis of Children’s Picture Books. Sheffield: Equinox. Taylor, C. (2016), “The multimodal approach in audiovisual translation”. Target. 28(2), pp. 222-236. Van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing social semiotics. Oxon: Routledge. Van Leeuwen, T. and Suleiman, U. (2010), “Globalizing the Local: The Case of an Egyptian
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Superhero Comic”. In: N. Coupland (ed.), The Handbook of Language and Globalization. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 232-254.
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Living Interpreting: role conflict in medical settings from a sociological perspective
Xiaowen Deng Beijing Foreign Studies University
The role of interpreters, associated with a “social position”(Pöchhacker, 2016), has wide-ranging connotations in community interpreting. It has been explored extensively in various terms such as bridge (Angelelli et, al., 2007; Pöchhacker, 2000), interpreter’s alignment (Goffman, 1981; Wadensjö, 1998; Merlini & Favaron, 2005), and co-participant or co-constructor of meaning (Angelelli, 2004a, 2004b; Davidson, 1998; Metzger, 1999; Bolden, 2000). The roles of medical interpreters, however, are different from (or perhaps bigger than) those in legal or sign language settings given the different nature and goals of their communicative functions (Mikkelson & Jourdenais, 2015; Angelelli, 2004a).
Role conflicts arise when there are different role expectations for one or more participants, interpreters in particular, in an interpreting event. It is found more in conflict-related scenarios, such as court or public services interpreting (Inghilleri, 2003, 2005, 2015). Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory, this qualitative study analyzes the role conflicts in medical settings by viewing interpreting practices as social, cultural and institutional acts intrinsically connected to power relations and control involving three parties/agents. The data include one Mandarin interpreter’s three-month interpreting experience in local hospitals in Hawaii, field notes, and a series of semi-structured post-interpreting interviews. All were recorded and transcribed with informed consent.
Adopting such key concept as field, habitus, capital and illusio as the research framework, this paper first explains the field in which medical interpreting occur, then point out that out of the habitus and sustained by capital and illusio each possess, which constitute the multi-sided medical interpreting practices, role conflicts arises. By triangulating data, this paper finds role conflict may appear: 1) within the interpreter herself (one-sided), 2) between the interpreter and service-providers / patients respectively (two-sided), and 3) among them (multi-sided). This happens mainly due to the inter-related relationship between capital and habitus possessed by different agents. Specifically, the reasons behind include: 1) more cultural capital from the interpreter than the patient, 2) shared cultural and/or social capital between the interpreter and the patient, 3) different habitus of each agent respectively, and 4) the interpreter’s illusio. Implications for practicing professionals in medical interpreting are discussed and suggestions for further studies also provided.
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Advance Translation as a Means of Improving Source Questionnaire Translatability? Findings from a Think- Aloud Study for French and German
Brita Dorer GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
In large-scale multilingual surveys, the source questionnaire is known to be the cause of a number of translation problems or errors during the final translation phase. For minimising such problems, the European Social Survey (ESS) has carried out, since its 5th round in 2009, systematic ‘advance translations’ in order to detect such problems before finalising the source text. For doing so, translation teams, consisting of both translators and survey researchers, carry out translations of a pre-final version of the source questionnaire, with the purpose of spotting translation problems. These comments are considered when finalising the source text. The problems pointed out range from intercultural adaptation issues to, for instance, grammatical or syntactical structures requiring complicated translations into a specific target language that may have a negative impact on the comparability between all resulting final translations when fielded. Changes in the source text triggered by advance translation range from rephrasing source text elements to adding footnotes to explain source text terms. The author tested the usefulness of this method in a series of think-loud tests: experienced questionnaire translators translated 22 items – in their version before and after the advance translation – into French and German. The think-aloud protocols were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The usefulness of advance translation for enhancing the translatability of the source text was confirmed in this think-aloud study. This paper describes the method of advance translation, some typical source questionnaire issues detected, as well as the think-aloud study and its results. Conclusions will be drawn on questions like: does the success of advance translation depend on the source text problems detected or on the changes made because of advance translation? Does the interplay of languages of advance translation and think-aloud study matter? Is think-aloud a valid method for evaluating advance translation?
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Challenges of non-standard input for translation and interpreting
Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow Michaela Albl-Mikasa ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Working conditions, time constraints, and stress have all been associated with disturbances to the translation process (cf. Hansen 2006), which can be revealed through the use of process research methods. The quality of source texts has also been explicitly identified as an issue in surveys of professional translators (e.g. Lafeber 2012) and interpreters (Kalina 2005), and in recent workplace studies (e.g. Ehrensberger-Dow and Massey 2017). Researchers using observational methods such as keystroke logging have suggested that the typing mistakes made by translators when they encounter translation challenges might be indicators of stress and cognitive effort (e.g. Muñoz 2009). Similar phenomena have been noted in interpreting tasks, as indicated by hesitations or ‘brain stoppers’ (Albl-Mikasa 2014: 23). If translators and interpreters encounter resistance in their tasks, for example by difficulties in extracting meaning from non-standard input, then flow can be interrupted and performance affected. In this presentation, we explain how we are investigating the potentially compromising effect of non-standard input with a variety of methods to gain information about the internal processes involved. The mixed- method approach in our project focuses on determining the cognitive and stress- related impact of processing non-standard vs. standard language input. Evidence from neuroscience suggests that cognitive load, negative emotions and stress – which have all been associated with the use of foreign languages – trigger an inhibitory mechanism that encourages avoidance. Translators and interpreters do not have the option of avoiding the comprehension of non-standard input once they have accepted the task of transferring it into another language, however. We are thus especially interested in understanding how they cope with this task compared to students and untrained multilinguals and will outline the implications of this type of research for professional practice and training.
References Albl-Mikasa, M. (2014). English as a Lingua Franca in International Conferences, Interpreting and Translation Studies (Korea), 18 (3), 17–42. Ehrensberger-Dow, M. & Massey, G. (2017). Socio-technical Issues in Professional Translation Practice, Translation Spaces, 6 (1), 104–121. Hansen, G. (2006). Erfolgreich Übersetzen: Entdecken und Beheben von Störquellen. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Kalina, S. (2005). Quality Assurance for Interpreting Processes, Meta, 50 (2), 768–784. Lafeber, A. (2012). Translation Skills and Knowledge – Preliminary Findings of a Survey of Translators and Revisers Working at Inter-governmental Organizations, Meta, 57 (1), 108–131. Muñoz Martín, R. (2009). Typos & Co. In S. Göpferich, A. L. Jakobsen, & I. M. Mees (eds), Behind the Mind. Methods, Models and Results in Translation Process Research. 167–189. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur Press.
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What do they mean when they say neural machine translation and why should I care?
Mikel L. Forcada, Universitat d’Alacant,
The last years have witnessed an increase in interest in a new machine translation (MT) paradigm: neural machine translation (NMT),1 pioneered years ago by researchers in Spain.2 NMT, part of the wider field of artificial intelligence, is displacing its predecessor, statistical MT (SMT). Many on-line systems (Google, Microsoft, etc.) have turned neural and there are even neural-born systems (DeepL). Companies such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc., are building their own NMT technologies, and translation service providers (TSPs) are gradually adopting NMT. In this communication I will explain —in accessible terms— how NMT systems work, how they relate (remotely) to the functioning of the nervous system, how they learn to translate from existing translations, and how NMT differs from other MT technologies. I will help the audience to decipher the jargon of NMT (distributed representations, embeddings, vectors, layers, weights, encoders, decoders, etc.) and will build upon these concepts to explain the architecture of NMT systems. As with any other technology, it is crucial that translators and translation students, are able to grasp the basics of this new technology and become aware of what they can expect from it, through a critical reading of the hype created by some of its proponents. This communication is intended to contribute to those goals. It will also analyze how the results (and errors) of NMT are different from those produced by SMT or rule-based MT, and will discuss the impact of the computational and corpus requirements of NMT systems on translation work-flow.
1 Forcada, M. L. (2017). Making sense of neural machine translation. Translation Spaces, 6(2), 291-309. 1 Castaño, A., and Casacuberta, F. (1997). A connectionist approach to machine translation. In Fifth European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology EUROSPEECH'97; Forcada, M. L.,and Ñeco, R. P. (1997, Juny). Recursive hetero-associative memories for translation. In International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (pp. 453-462). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg;
1 Forcada, M. L. (2017). Making sense of neural machine translation. Translation Spaces, 6(2), 291-309. 2 Castaño, A., and Casacuberta, F. (1997). A connectionist approach to machine translation. In Fifth European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology EUROSPEECH'97; Forcada, M. L.,and Ñeco, R. P. (1997, Juny). Recursive hetero-associative memories for translation. In International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (pp. 453-462). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg;
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Who is Isabelle de Charrière, why should we analyze and translate her epistolary novels from French to Spanish, and how?
Aurora Garcia University of Castilla-La Mancha
Isabella Agneta Elizabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken (1740-1805), of Dutch origin, the future [Madame] Isabelle de Charrière by her marriage, is one of the first woman writers who defended the rights and values of her gender. Indeed, in her epistolary novels –mainly Lettres neuchâteloises (1784), Lettres écrites de Lausanne (1785) and its sequel Caliste, ou continuation de Lettres écrites de Lausanne (1787)– themes such as the preference for love matches, the social status of the Ancien Régime, the authoritarianism hidden behind love, women’s education, and the rights of women can be found, together with descriptions of different sorts of women, ranging from the most privileged to the underclass. This avant-garde and feminist spirit –present in all her novels and reflected in my own unpublished two Spanish translations of Lettres écrites de Lausanne and Caliste, ou continuation de Lettres écrites de Lausanne, and Elena Cano et al’s translation of Lettres neuchâteloises in 2003– is the subject of my thesis (April 2019): “Madame de Charrière's provincial novels: Lettres neuchâteloises (1784), Lettres écrites de Lausanne (1785), Caliste, ou continuation de Lettres écrites de Lausanne (1787). Spanish versions with its translation studies”. These translations are germane because, first, the Spanish language is the second most spoken in the world; secondly, they give us a detailed overview of the Age of Enlightenment; and, thirdly, as we will show, social inequality today is, unfortunately, not much more different than before. Then, to be able to conclude whether it is “une bonne ou à une belle traduction” (“a good translation, or a beautiful one”), to quote Robert Larose in Méthodologie de l´évaluation des traductions (1998), or neither, we shall first analyse the sociocultural basis of the novels. Therefore, for the translation process, after having examined the most representative translation strategies and the methodology for evaluating a translation, we shall compare and contrast Charrière’s texts with the different translations by considering, among other aspects, their adequacy, faithfulness to the original, or interpretation in the target language. We will establish a simple procedure by grouping all these concepts, in which the analyst and the translator will find a very useful tool. We will also look at the challenges of translating a literary text containing dialectal expressions without losing their cultural essence, and the role of the translator when he translates cultural or intertextual references.
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“Spatializing Translation History”
Philipp Hofeneder University of Graz
In the 1980s researchers began to focus on space which, before, had been neglected in favor of time as the leading and most important research category within the humanities. In recent years, said focus on space can also be observed in Translation Studies where researchers (mainly with regard to historical topics) take up ever more questions related to space. Hence, the understanding of space has broadened and become more differentiated. Initially space came to be understood predominantly in two ways: as a discursive category (e.g. cultural spaces in a figurative sense) as well as the product of social interactions (cf. relationships between agents). Nowadays, this understanding is complemented by a strict physical approach, including issues regarding the material side of translation, which leads to questions such as: Where does translation in a strict sense take place? Which place do translators occupy? Which routes do translators and translations cover? And is it therefore possible to speak of a translation space in a geographic sense, which encompasses the planning, production and dissemination of translation? In my presentation, I will theorize about the advantages of taking into account a spatial approach to translation history. Beside necessary theoretical- methodological considerations, I will present several examples taken from the Russian tsardom at the beginning of the 19th century. On the basis of these examples I will show highly differentiated and complex movements of translators and translations as well as their location in natural space. My main argument is that spatial considerations allow us to deepen our understanding of translation within a historical approach as they provide us with new insights, which would not be possible otherwise.
Bibliography: Crang, Mike/Thrift, Nigel (52010) Thinking space. London/New York: Routledge D'Hulst, Lieven/Van Gerwen, Heleen (2018) ”Translation space in nineteenth-century Belgium: rethinking translation and transfer directions“, in: Perspectives 26:4, 495- 508. Littau, Karin (2016) ”Translation and the materialities of communication“, in: Translation Studies 9:1, 82-96 Simon, Sherry (2018) “Space”, in: Harding, Sue-Ann/Carbonell Cortes, Ovidio (eds.) The Routledge handbook of translation and culture. London/New York: Routledge (Routledge Handbooks), 97-112
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Author and reader in mind: Exploring the social construction of knowledge about ST authors and TT readers
Sari Hokkanen Tampere University
An established truth in our field is that translators should think about their readers; it is at the heart of functionalist approaches to translation and has also generated newer applications such as User-Centered Translation, or UCT (Suojanen, Koskinen, Tuominen 2015). This ‘thinking about the reader’ is often approached from a practical and prescriptive perspective, with advice for (student) translators to draw on their existing cultural knowledge or trace implied readers by analyzing the ST. In UCT, the translator is also encouraged to construct archetypal personas and, whenever possible, draw on empirical evidence. Another well-established idea is the need for translators to think about the ST author (or sender) while translating, preferably through systematic text analysis and research. This process is understood to guide the selection of appropriate translation strategies. While these approaches are practical and intuitive, albeit prescriptive, there seem to be few socio-cognitive explanations of how translators actually construct their conceptualizations of both ST authors and TT readers. In this presentation, I suggest that social representations theory (Moscovici 1984), developed in social psychology, offers one theoretical framework through which to explain this phenomenon. My aim is to introduce the main tenets of the theory and explore how it could be applied to the social construction of knowledge in the field of translation – in this case, knowledge about ST authors and TT readers. Underlying this approach is an assumption that human cognition is fundamentally social and relational, which will affect our mental processes even in (ostensibly) solitary activities such as translating.
References: Moscovici, S. (1984) The phenomenon of social representations. In R. Farr, & S. Moscovici (Eds.), Social Representations, (pp. 3–69). Cambridge University Press. Suojanen, T., Koskinen, K., & Tuominen, T. (2015). User-Centered Translation. London & New York: Routledge.
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When 'Living Translation' is Ethically Stressful
Severine Hubscher-Davidson The Open University
Translators suffer from an onslaught of job stressors which can impact their productivity and well-being. In a working context where time pressures, technology, and competition are increasingly threatening professional linguists, and where translation can be a transitory, low-status, and poorly-paid occupation (e.g. Dam and Zethsen, 2016), it is easy to conceive that professional translators can experience stress. While a certain amount of stress can be healthy and enhance translation performance, however, occupational stress that results from disparities between one’s ethical values and expected behaviours – known as ethical stress – can have nefarious consequences for individuals and even lead to burn-out. The disjuncture and associated guilt that provoke ethical stress have recently been discussed under the label of professional dissonance, that is, ‘a feeling of discomfort arising from the conflict between professional values and job tasks’ (Taylor, 2007: 90). While dissonance can eventually lead to greater professional and personal growth, value collisions can also be a source of great psychological pain. Increasingly, professional dissonance is apparent in the stories of professional translators whose desire to produce quality work for readers in line with their professional ethics often conflicts with an agency’s goal to keep costs to a minimum (e.g. Abdallah 2010). The situation is exacerbated when there are few opportunities to communicate with clients or to discuss risky translation decisions. In this presentation, I will define the psychological concept of ethical stress and outline the conditions that can lead translators to a state of moral hazard and professional dissonance. Drawing on examples from the translation and psychological literature, I will argue that encouraging risk-averse and defensive cultures of practice can constrain the affective experience of ethical decision-making and prevent translators from making use of their professional and moral judgements in line with their moral compass.
REFERENCES Abdallah, K. (2010) ‘Translators’ agency in production networks’, in Kinnunen, T. and Koskinen, K. (eds) Translators’ agency. Tampere: Tampere University Press, pp. 11–46. Dam, H. V. and Zethsen, K. K. (2016) ‘“I think it is a wonderful job” On the solidity of the translation profession’, The Journal of Specialised Translation, 25. Available at: http://www.jostrans.org/issue25/art_dam.php (Accessed: 13 March 2018). Taylor, M. F. (2007) ‘Professional Dissonance’, Smith College Studies in Social Work. Taylor & Francis Group , 77(1), pp. 89–99. doi: 10.1300/J497v77n01_05.
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Translating curatorial texts: Cultural translation practices in a Danish museum
Ushma Chauhan Jacobsen Anne Schjoldager Aarhus University
Museums are prime sites of cultural translations because they transform, juxtapose and assemble diverse artefacts, images and sound while narrating specific stories, people or ideas in a public space (Sturge 2007). Our inquiry focuses on the themed exhibition Frihedens Værksted that celebrates Troels Kløvedal, a well-known Danish sailor, at the Aarhus Natural History Museum. In interpreting, representing and constructing a complicated life, the exhibition provides a multimodal assemblage of artefacts (objects and models), images (photographs, paintings and videos), curatorial texts (labels, artistic posters and captions in videos) and linguistic translations from Danish to English. Using a conceptual lens informed by Maitland’s recent work (2017), which intertwines cultural and interlingual translation, this paper provides preliminary analyses of the variety of ways where cultural translation occurs and how it elaborates, enhances and explains the narrative content of the exhibition. In addition to this, we also consider 1) the outcomes and implications of parallel language use - although unsurprising given the international status and unquestioned legitimacy of English; and 2) the ideological reasons and consequences of ‘documentary’ rather than ‘instrumental’ linguistic translations (Nord 2018).
References Maitland, S. (2017). What is Cultural Translation? London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Nord, C. (2018). Translating as a Purposeful Activity 2nd Edition. London and New York: Routledge. Sturge, K. (2007). Translation, Ethnography and the Museum. London and New York: Routledge.
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Translation policy at an institutional setting: A bibliometric study of China Foreign Languages Bureau from 1949 to 1999
Jianfeng Jiang Beijing Foreign Studies University / KU Leuven
China Foreign Languages Bureau (FLB) is a governmental international propaganda establishment that has been operating since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. In its history of over half a century, FLB has been commissioning, producing and publishing translations in book form in different languages for global circulation, with genres ranging from political to legal, from literary to artistic. This paper focuses on the first fifty years of FLB (1949-1999). Through a bibliometric study of FLB’s products, the author attempts, first of all, to find out what were translated, what languages were translated into, and statistically, what is the most translated genre and language in different historical periods. Secondly, the author endeavours to explore the translation policy on the levels of translation management, translation practice and translation belief (González Núñez, 2016) at such an institutional setting as FLB. Governments not only develop translation policies in the “strict domain of public and political affairs”, but also “implement legal rules for the importation and export of all sorts of cultural products” (Meylaerts, 2011, p. 166). Existent researches on translation policy tend to focus on the former and explorations in the latter aspect are limited. This study will contribute to a better understanding of the translation policy at an institutional setting and its impact on the institutional practice of translation.
Keywords: China Foreign Languages Bureau, translation policy, bibliometric analysis, institutional translation
References González Núñez, G. (2016). On translation policy. Target, 28(1), 87-109. Meylaerts, R. (2011). Translation policy. In Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), Handbook of translation studies (Vol. 2, pp. 163-168). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
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Translators’ views on the concepts and products of their trade
Karen Korning Zethsen Helle V. Dam Aarhus University
Within the scientific field of translation studies, the conceptual boundaries of translation and related notions (e.g. localization, transcreation, intralingual translation) have been much discussed in recent years. But are these concepts and especially the boundaries between them relevant for practice, and do practice and academia share the same definitions? To start answering these questions, this paper will report on a study that investigates how practitioners at a large UK-based translation company perceive translation and related concepts, and whether they consider all of these translational concepts to be products of their trade. Concepts addressed in the study include translation, interpreting, subtitling and dubbing, localization, transcreation and adaptation, as well as intralingual and intersemiotic translation. Methodologically, the study draws on focus groups with staff translators and project managers complemented with an individual interview with the managing director of the translation company. The data and findings of the study are analyzed and explained with recourse to prototype theory, and results are discussed in relation to current conceptualizations and boundary discussions in translation studies.
Keywords: translational products, translation professionals, focus group methodology, prototype theory, academia vs practice
Bibliography: Baker, Mona & Saldanha, Gabriela (eds) 2009. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London/New York: Routledge. Bloor, Michael, Frankland, Jane, Thomas, Michelle & Robson, Kate 2001. Focus Groups in Social Research. London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage. Gambier, Yves & van Doorslaer, Luc (eds) 2010. Handbook of Translation Studies. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Halverson, Sandra 2000. Prototype effects in the “translation” category. In A. Chesterman, N. Gallardo San Salvador & Y. Gambier (eds) Translation in Context. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 3–16. Hermans, Theo 2013. What is (not) translation? In C. Millán & F. Bartrina (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies. London/New York: Routledge, 75–87. Malmkjær, Kirsten & Windle, Kevin (eds) 2011. The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies. Oxford University Press. Morgan, David L. 1997. Focus groups as qualitative research. London: Sage. Pöchhacker, Franz (ed.) 2015. Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies. London/New York: Routledge. Rosch, Eleanor 1973. On the internal structure of perceptual and semantic categories. In T. E. Moore (ed.) Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language. New York: Academic Press, 114–144. Wittgenstein, Ludwig 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
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Actions, reactions and interactions in the translation classroom
Kyriaki Kourouni Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
This paper constitutes a presentation of a pilot course in EU translation taking place at the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in collaboration with Multilingualism Unit and the Greek Translation Unit of the European Parliament. The pilot course consists of a combination of conventional classes with the regular trainer and virtual interventions by professional translators from the European Parliament. The presentation itself focuses on moments during the training process where divides among stakeholders blur; when the trainer becomes the trainee; where the trainee becomes the trainer by offering a fresh perspective; where the institutional translator becomes a mediator in training. Special emphasis is also placed on critical juxtaposition of translation behaviors when online vs. when offline and correlations are drawn also vis-à-vis prior familiarity with Virtual Learning Environments (or lack thereof). Analysis is based on self-report data from retrospective questionnaires, class diaries and focused interviews as well as process data from screen recordings and video recordings and product data from participants’ translations. This paper offers an insight on how human-computer interaction may affect the translation process and the relations among translators, either with professional, academic or trainee status and it is envisaged that observations and feedback from all contributors will nudge colleagues toward similar endeavors while informing translation pedagogy and translation practice.
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Translation studies meets variationist linguistics (or, why translation studies needs multifactorial statistics): The that/zero alternation and increased explicitness in translation
Haidee Kruger Macquarie University
A number of studies on explicitation in translation have used the optional complementiser that in English as an operationalisation of lexicogrammatical explicitness, and have demonstrated a preference for the non-elliptical structure in translated English texts. However, the causes of the explicitation process that results in the lexicogrammatically more explicit product remain a source of disagreement, with explanations ranging from cognitive strain or effort, pragmatic conservatism or risk avoidance, and source-language transfer or cross-linguistic priming effects (see, e.g. Becher 2010; Olohan & Baker 2000; Kruger 2019).
This paper focuses on these potential causes of the increased explicitness of translated language by investigating an aspect of the that/zero alternation that has remained largely conceptually and methodologically unexplored in translation studies (but see Kruger 2019; Kruger & De Sutter 2018): the fact that the choice between that/zero is probabilistically conditioned by a number of linguistic and contextual variables (Torres Cacoullos & Walker 2009; Tagliamonte & Smith 2005; Wulff et al. 2014). It demonstrates how state-of-the-art quantitative variationist methods may be used in translation studies, by presenting a corpus-based, multifactorial analysis of the factors conditioning the choice between the retention or omission of the complementiser in four register-controlled corpora: a corpus of English translated from Afrikaans, corpora of British and South African English, and a corpus of Afrikaans. Afrikaans also allows the omission of the equivalent complementiser dat, and demonstrates preferences for omission that are partially similar and partially distinct from English (Van Rooy & Kruger 2016).
Three influential methods in variationist linguistics are compared: random forests, conditional inference trees, and linear mixed effects modelling. The findings are used to reflect on potential psycholinguistic and pragmatic mechanisms underlying translational explicitation at the lexicogrammatical level, as well as to demonstrate the benefits of variationist linguistic methods and the necessity of multifactorial methods in translation studies.
References Becher, Viktor. 2010. Abandoning the notion of “translation-inherent” explicitation: Against a dogma of translation studies. Across Languages and Cultures, 11(1): 1-28. Kruger, Haidee. 2019. That again: A multivariate analysis of the factors conditioning syntactic explicitness in translated English. Across Languages and Cultures 20(1): 1-33. Kruger, Haidee & De Sutter, Gert. 2018. Alternations in contact and non-contact varieties: Reconceptualising that-omission in translated and non-translated English using the MuPDAR approach. Translation, Cognition and Behavior 1(2): 251-290. Olohan, Maeve & Mona Baker. 2000. Reporting that in translated English: Evidence for subconscious processes of explicitation? Across Languages and Cultures, 1(2): 141-158.
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Tagliamonte, Sali A. & Jennifer Smith. 2005. No momentary fancy! The zero “complementizer” in English dialects. English Language and Linguistics, 9(2): 289-309. Torres Cacoullos, Rena & James A. Walker. 2009. On the persistence of grammar in discourse formulas: A variationist study of that. Linguistics, 47(1): 1-43. Van Rooy, Bertus & Haidee Kruger. 2016. Faktore wat die weglating van die Afrikaanse onderskikker dat bepaal [Factors that influence the omission of the Afrikaans complementiser dat ‘that’. Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe / Journal for Humanities 56(1): 102-116. Wulff, Stefanie, Nicholas Lester & Ma. Teresa Martínez García. 2014. That-variation in German and Spanish L2 English. Language and Cognition 6(2): 271-299.
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Studying Intersemiotic Translation as Transplantation: Formulating eco-translatological paradigm through body rhetoric
Rindon Kundu Jadavpur University
While the concept of ‘transfer’ has received much attention in translation studies from the context of “transference of meaning from the source text to the target”, the etymological root of the word ‘translation’ has probably been unexplored except Talal Asad (1995) who critically looked at the meaning ‘removal of a saint's body or relics from one original site to another new place’. Since “translate” and “transfer” share the same etymological roots (Klein 1971), both the acts give a hint that the text that was rendered in another language/culture was perhaps considered as holy as the bones of a saint. Keeping this in mind, the proposed paper will first try to establish how the idea of ‘transfer’ in Jakbson’s ‘intersemiotic translation’ can be compared with the idea of ‘transmigration’ which from the spiritual point of view denotes ‘the passage of the soul after death into another body’. Then drawing upon the notion of bodily movement through infusing liveliness by the transmigration of soul, the article will turn back to the adaptation studies which I argue is nothing but a metaphorical traffic between two different ecologies of sign system. Adopting the Indian notion of adaptation as rupantara (transplantation) and combining it with Hu Gengshen’s (2002) theory of ‘Eco-translatology’, the paper will try to explore the methodologies of textual transplantation by illustrating how the locus of the text or the textual ecosystem can be ‘transplanted’ from microcosmic ecosphere to another eco- environment keeping the eco-linguistic texture of the target intact. In order to elaborate this argument I will draw upon reception of Chekhov in Bengal. So, examining the collaborative nature of adaptation and the agency of adapter by situating it in a broader background of reception studies, this paper will try formulating an eco-translatological paradigm in the context of new territories in intersemiotic translation.
Keywords: transfer, body, intersemiotic, Eco-translatology, transplantation.
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Transfer of the Absurd: A different outlook on the role of translation and agents of reception
Shaul Levin Tel Aviv University
The theatrical model known as the Theatre of the Absurd migrated to the Israeli Hebrew culture mainly from France and spread within it from the mid-1950s in a recurring process of transfer. From its very appearance in Israeli culture, the model has been present in two forms, an original written-in-Hebrew form and a translated- into-Hebrew form, existing side by side and relatively similar in extent. This differs from "typical" transfer states described in the past, in which a foreign model first appears in translation, followed by original adaptations or imitations, and only then by original production no longer perceived as epigonic. The prevalent view in Translation Studies sees translation as a major vehicle for the transfer of textual models through culture. In contrast, the current study shows that the translated-into-Hebrew form of the model played a very limited role as a source of Absurdist characteristics in the writing of Israeli playwrights. Rather, direct contact with the model in its original European version, mostly on-location in Europe, has been the main channel responsible for the transfer of the model's characteristics into original Hebrew writing. While traditionally, theatre critics are taken to function as agents of reception in the field, transfer of the model in question took place despite significant critical opposition. Repertoire and policy makers in both institutional and non-institutional sectors seem to have functioned, alongside their role as agents of transfer, also as the actual agents of reception for the model. The striking congruence of the local field with its French counterpart is best explained by these agents' striving to present a program roughly parallel to that staged in theatrical centres in the West. The notion of critical mass borrowed from the diffusion of innovations theory supports this understanding of the model's spread and reception in apparent disregard of critical opinion.
Keywords: Transfer theory, Reception, Diffusion of innovations theory, Theatre of the Absurd
References Ben-Ari, Nitsa. 1997. Romance with the past: The 19th century German-Jewish historical novel and the emergence of a national literature. Tel Aviv: Dvir. [Hebrew] Esslin, Martin. 1961 [2nd Ed. 1968; 3rd Ed. 1980]. The Theatre of the Absurd. New York: Anchor Books. Even-Zohar, Itamar. 1990. Polysystem Studies [=Poetics Today 11:1 (1990)]. Kohansky, Mendel. 1969. The Hebrew Theatre: Its First Fifty Years. Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press. Levy, Emanuel. 1980. "National and Imported Culture in Israel." Sociological Focus 13.1: 37-53. Rogers, Everett M. 2003 [5th Ed.]. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press. Zarhy-Levo, Yael. 2001. The Theatrical Critic as Cultural Agent. New York: Peter Lang.
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The Translation of Andersen’s Tales and the National Images of Denmark in China
Wenjie Li Beijing Normal University
Scholars like Lefevere have already noticed the role that translation plays in the construction/deconstruction of the images of the source culture since the 1990s. They believe that translational practices create images of a writer, a work, a period, a genre, sometimes even a whole literature or the world that the work belongs to. The power wielded by these images is enormous because the images always tend to reach more people than the corresponding realities do (Lefevere 1992:125). Some recently studies collected in Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology (2016) have paid close attention to transferred images (images transferred from a source text into a target text) and the national or cultural images constructed in translated texts (images constructed through translation). However, translated images, including the two types of images investigated in the aforementioned book and the ‘images of a translated literary work’ discussed in this article, are not necessarily identical with the hetero-national images represented by mass media or identified by the people in the target society (‘hetero-national images’ in this article). What are the interrelations between translated images and hetero-national images? The answer will illustrate and develop Levefere’s thought and also reveal the ideological function of translation, which is believed by the author of this article to be one of the social functions that translation could serve. Nevertheless, not so many studies have attempted to answer the question. Therefore, this study attempts at a detailed investigation into the ideological function of translation in projecting hetero- images of the source culture through the translation of a literary work, which involves selection for translation, translating, circulation, and reception. The translation of H. C. Andersen’s tales in China will be used as a case. A design of mixed-methods which aims at integrating qualitative methods with quantitative methods and combining diachronic perspective with synchronic perspective will be applied to the depiction of the historical changes in the national images of Denmark in China and to the investigation of the interrelations between the translated images of H. C. Andersen and the national images of Denmark in China in each temporal periods.
Keywords: H. C. Andersen, Chinese translation, translated images, national images of Denmark
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Bibliomigration from Periphery to Semi-Periphery. Contemporary Spanish Caribbean Literature in Swedish Translation as a case in point.
Yvonne Lindqvist Stockholm University
The paper discusses translation bibliomigration from periphery to semi-periphery on the contemporary global translation field. The aim of the paper is threefold: firstly, to describe the bibliomigration patterns of contemporary Spanish Caribbean literature to Sweden, secondly to test the Double Consecration Hypothesis, and thirdly to discuss the importance of translation in relation to World Literature. The material studied consists of 25 novels written by 15 Spanish Caribbean authors from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic translated into Swedish during the period 1990–2015. The consecration processes of the involved cosmopolitan intermediaries in the study are reconstructed in order to map out the bibliomigration. It is brought to light that the Spanish literary consecration culture is pluri-centric and the Anglo-American duo-centric, which ultimately affects the bibliomigration patterns to Sweden. Three patterns were discovered: One for Spanish Caribbean authors who write in Spanish, one for Spanish Caribbean authors writing in English and one for literature written in Spanish, published in Spanish in Sweden and then translated into Swedish. In the first case nine out of the novels verified the Double Consecration Hypothesis. Hence it seems that Spanish Caribbean literature written in Spanish has to be consecrated primarily within the Spanish colonial and postcolonial literary centers and then within the American and British consecration centers in order to be selected for translation into Swedish. In the second case ten out of the 25 Spanish Caribbean novels were written in English, and thus not in need for double consecration to reach Sweden. In the last pattern consecration is local rather than cosmopolitan. The three patterns discovered can be described as three different forms of vernacularizing translation.
Keywords: bibliomigration, translation, Double Consecration Hypothesis, Spanish Caribbean literature, Swedish literature, vernacularizing translation
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Modeling the process of (re)translation under a cognitive perspective
Gleiton Malta Universidade de Brasília
Since Berman (1990) introduced the theme of retranslation, several studies have been carried out (i.e. Susan-Sarajeva, 2003; Paloposki & Koskinen, 2001, Dastjerdi & Mohammadi, 2013; Malta & Rael, 2015), in all cases, the studies are based on the translator product. This paper reports a set of three eye-tracking-informed process- oriented studies aimed to tap into the (re)translation task in three different language pairs (Spanish-Portuguese, French-Portuguese, and English-Portuguese) (Malta et all., 2019). In this work, we use the terms retranslation to refer to the product and (re)translation to refer to the process (i.e. MALTA, 2016). Such studies were built on a task layout demanding potential attention to three textual inputs, namely a source text and two previously published translations thereof, with a view to rendering a fourth text. The aim was to identify indicators of cognitive effort in the translation process such as recursive movements, pauses and fixations count and duration (i.e. O’Brien, 2009; Jakobsen & Jensen, 2008) and the interaction of the translators with the different inputs, that is, the translations available on the computer screen and the source text. In addition, we sought to improve the process model of the (re)translation proposed by Malta (2015, 2016). Results point to greater transitions from target text to source text, and vice-versa, as the most frequent flow of visual attention, with occasional shifts to previous translations for solving understanding or production problems in rendering the target text. The results also show that the (re)translation activity does not have a specific standard in real life and that the research participants do not usually reflect on their (re)translation process. The results of such studies and the pioneering description of the (re)translation process under experimental and empirical conditions may contribute to translation process research by providing some evidence on how participants cope with several inputs in their rendition of a target text.
References Berman, A. (1990) La retraduction comme espace de traduction. Palimpsestes, (13), 1-7. Dastjerdi, H. V. & Mohammadi, A. (2013). Revisiting “Retranslation Hypothesis”: A Comparative Analysis of Stylistic Features in the Persian Retranslations of Pride and Prejudice. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 3(3), 174-181. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2013.33024 Jakobsen, A. L. & Jensen, K. T. H. (2008). Eye movement behavior. Copenhagen Studies in Language, v. 36, p. 103-124. Malta, G. (2015). O processamento cognitivo em tarefas de (re)tradução: um estudo baseado em rastreamento ocular, registro de teclado e mouse e protocolos verbais [Tesis de doctorado]. Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais. Recuperado de http://www.bibliotecadigital.ufmg.br/dspace/handle/1843/MGSS-A7DPGD Malta, G. (2016). O conceito de (re)tradução sob uma abordagem processual: um estudo empírico- experimental baseado em rastreamento ocular. Letras e Letras, 32 (1), 283 - 305. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14393/LL63-v32n1a2016-15 Malta, G. & Rael, E. C. (2015). As retraduções de La casa de los espíritus: uma (re)visita à hipótese da retradução. Letras raras, 4(3), 75-97. Recuperado de: http://revistas.ufcg.edu.br/ch/index.php/RLR/article/view/464 Malta, G., Fontes, C., & Lourenço da Silva, I. (2019). A (Re)tradução desde uma abordagem orientada ao processo. Cadernos de Tradução, 39(1), 191-215. doi:https://doi.org/10.5007/2175- 7968.2019v39n1p191
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O’Brien, S. (2009). Eye Tracking in translation process research: methodological challenges and solutions. En Mees, L. M; Alves, F. y Gopferich, S. (eds.), Methodology, technology and innovation in translation process research: a tribute to Arnt Lykke Jakobsen (pp. 251-266). Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur. Recuperado de http://doras.dcu.ie/17157/ Paloposki, O. & Koskinen, A. (2001). Revisiting retranslation. En Hansen, G.; Malmkajaer, K. y Gile, D. (eds.), Claims, changes and challenges in translations studies: select contributions from the EST congress (pp. 27-38). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Paloposki, O. & Koskinen, A. (2010). Reprocessing texts: the fine line between retranslating and revising. Across Languages and Cultures, 11 (1), 29–49. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240762789_Reprocessing_texts_The_fine_line_between_re translating_and_revising Susan-Sarajeva, S. (2003) Multiple Visa to travelling Theory: Retranslation of literary and cultural theories. Target, International Journal of Translations studies, 15 (1), 1-36. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/target.15.1.02sus
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Opposites interact: Translation and non-translation in selected South African blogs
Elri Marais University of the Free State Reine Meylaerts Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Caroline Mangerel University of the Free State
Translation studies normally focuses on translation projects that were actually carried out and resulted in texts that can be analysed. Very often, these kinds of studies also focus on one particular level (e.g. the linguistic, the cultural or the ideological). In contrast, something that has not yet been given a great deal of attention, but could provide a different type of insight into the role of translation in a society and into the various relationships (e.g. between languages and between cultures) in that society, is what is not translated and why – for translation always also implies non-translation – and at what levels. South Africa is a multilingual country where one may expect to find various examples of the interplay between translation and non-translation. This interplay may be particularly evident in recent language policy-related changes at various universities and in the discourse surrounding these changes. This topic has been explored in fields such as language policy and sociolinguistics as well as in non-academic environments such as blogs, often focusing on the issue of multilingualism, but not specifically in terms of translation/non-translation. This paper explores how translation and non-translation function as opposing but complementary practices in blog posts about language policy changes in South African higher education. Using what Edgar Morin calls a paradigm of complexity (specifically his dialogical, recursive and holographic principles), and considering non-translation as both a practice and a topic, blog posts of South African origin and their translations are analysed to see, at various levels from micro to macro and back again, how (or whether) they have been translated/not translated. Observations from each level are related to those from higher and lower levels, covering aspects from the level of word choice to each blog as a whole to the South African higher education system more generally.
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The Role of Translation and Interpreting during Informed Consent: Ethical and Methodological Considerations
Christopher Mellinger University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Informed consent is a crucial component of conducing ethical and responsible research that involves human subjects. This practice typically involves both sharing information with potential participants and ensuring that they understand the benefits and risks of involvement before voluntarily agreeing to participate. In translation and interpreting studies, scholars such as Saldanha and O’Brien (2014) and Mellinger and Hanson (2017) have described the importance of obtaining consent prior to conducting research involving human subjects. Informed consent can be obtained in several ways, but typically the process involves written documentation and an opportunity for participants to ask questions about their involvement. For instance, in healthcare contexts, medical researchers regularly obtain consent from patients through a combination of printed information, consent forms, and dialogue between provider and patient. In addition, efforts to reconceptualize the informed consent paradigm from a singular act to a process allow medical professionals to engage patients to improve comprehension. Translation and interpreting studies scholars have followed similar practices in line with best practices established in social science research (e.g., Israel 2015).
Largely absent from these discussions is the role that translation and interpreting play in obtaining informed consent. In healthcare contexts, interpreting studies have explored the role of the interpreter in decision-making processes for medical decisions (e.g., Clifford 2005) and have described the challenges of sight translation of consent documents (e.g., Feinauer and Lesch 2013); however, their impact on informed consent for research studies remains relatively unexplored. Therefore, this paper examines the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting research with participants whose languages differ from those of the researchers. Moreover, the paper investigates how deontological and consequentialist ethics address language mediation during informed consent and how researchers may need to alter their approach to this process to ensure research participant comprehension and the overall voluntariness of their involvement.
References Clifford, Andrew. 2005. “Healthcare interpreting and informed consent: What is the interpreter’s role in treatment decision-making?” TTR: Traduction, terminologie, redaction 18(2): 225–247. Feinauer, Ilse and Harold Lesch. 2013. “Health workers: Idealistic expectations vers interpreters’ competence.” Perspectives 21(1): 117–132. Israel, Mark. 2015. Research Ethics and Integrity for Social Scientists. 2nd edition. London: Sage. Mellinger, Christopher D. and Thomas A. Hanson. 2017. Quantitative Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies. New York: Routledge. Saldanha, Gabriela and Sharon O’Brien. 2014. Research Methodologies in Translation Studies. New York: Routledge.
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Translation as a negotiated event: A case of South Africa
Ketiwe Ndhlovu Rhodes University
The process of translating from one language to another is always rife with challenges and this reality is compounded when specialised translations are brought into the mix. The translation of specialised texts in fields such as Law, Education, Health, Technology and many others, into African languages is like walking through a mine filled – heart wrenching, adrenaline filled and plain reckless. This is because translators who work in African languages (most of whom are not trained) translate crucial and at times sensitive information with little or no resources to support them. Terminology scarcity is also rife which means the translators have to also create new terms in order to pass on the information from one language to another. The existing translation environment in South Africa has led to the production of translations in African languages that are characterised by misinterpretations, mistranslations and at times plain incoherent. In a bid to produce ‘acceptable’ translations, some companies, especially in the health sector now control the translation process by involving many stake-holders – forward translators, back-translators, language experts, text reconcilers and editors among others. The final product therefore is usually a result of lengthy negotiations and this presentation explores (1) the process of translating specialised texts in the health sector between English and Zulu/Xhosa from initiation to the final product; (2) the different forms of negotiation and the main players in the negotiations; (3) the views of translators on the negotiation process and (4) the benefits and limitations of this approach. Functionalism was used to illuminate the issues under discussion and data was collected from a selected translation agency and from Xhosa and Zulu translators. The research found that a ‘team approach’ is better suited to tackle the translation problems that are faced by translators who translate specialised texts in African languages.
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New Media and Old Challenges: Perception of non-native language in learning environments
Jean Nitzke Silvia Hansen-Schirra University of Mainz
With the still increasing use of English as a Lingua Franca, we need to empirically investigate non-native writing, reading, and translation processes in different media. In the scope of a larger project, we first want to focus on the perception of written text by natives vs. non-natives. The fundamental question is if readers who have a very high foreign language proficiency process text in the foreign language similar to text in their native language or if there are still measurable differences. In this talk, we will present findings of a pilot eyetracking study on the perception of German (original) and English (translation) text. Our participants are German native speakers and translation students who study English, so we can anticipate a high degree of language skills. They read extracts of two Digitorials® (one in German, one in English) provided by the Schirn Art Gallery in Frankfurt for free online. The Digitorials combine image, sound, and text to help the visitors prepare or revise the exhibition and is available for smart-phones, tablets and desktops. The participants’ task is to prepare for a hypothetical test in German for a course in culture studies, which follows right after they have worked through the materials. For non-native reading, our hypothesis are that a) fewer questions will be answered correctly, b) answering questions will take longer, c) the test preparation will take longer, d) fixation duration and fixation count on text will be higher, and e) more time will be spent on reading the texts than looking on additional elements The analysis will help to evaluate the learning success in the native and non-native language. The data will be assessed statistically and the results will serve as the basis for future studies.
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Paving the way to the text: book titles as a functional unit in translation
Christiane Nord University of the Free State
This paper deals with the translation of book titles. It is based on a large corpus of titles of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books in English, German, Spanish and French. One part of the corpus dates from 1987; it was used for an earlier study on book titles and headings of short stories, poems, and scholarly articles (cf. Nord 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993a, 1993b, 1995, 1993b, 1997); the other part dates from 2017 and contains only book titles. It was used to find out whether the results have changed over the thirty years between 1987 and 2017. The analysis of the corpus showed that all titles are intended to fulfil two basic functions, a distinctive function (like that of proper names) and a phatic function, in that they distinguish the co-text from other texts and establish a first contact with a potential readership. Apart from these two basic functions, titles are also intended to achieve one or more of three optional functions: a referential function (informing about certain aspects of the co- texts, such as contents and form), an expressive function (praising the qualities of the co-text), and an appellative function (appealing to a potential reader to buy/read the book and/or to interpret it in a particular way). The analysis is both quantitative and qualitative, showing the form, frequency and distribution of function markers in the corpus titles. Later studies on headlines of magazine articles (Nord 1993c) and section headings in Bible translation (Nord 2012) have revealed that the methodology used for the study can also be applied to other types of titles and headings Unlike other authors who consider the title as a peri-, epi- or paratext (cf. Genette 1982) I regard it as a text in its own right, since it fulfils all the textuality conditions proposed, for example, by de Beaugrande and Dressler (1981). Titles are metatexts which refer to, but are not part of, a co-text. Numerous anecdotes are told about titles without co-texts and co-texts with different titles, according to when and where they are published (see, for example, Schnitzler 1983, 173). Some titles are formulated by an editor or the publisher, and not by the author of the co-text. Titles are used for a certain set of functions in standardized situations, and, therefore, they form a genre with particular genre conventions. Conventions are culture-specific. To make a translated title “function” in the target culture, it may be necessary to adapt conventional and functional features to target-cultural standards. In line with a skopos-oriented view of texts as offers of information (Reiss and Vermeer 2013), the paper illustrates the ways in which translated titles can (or cannot) successfully pave the way to the text., It is a well-known fact that translators do not normally have the last word in the process of deciding on the title of a book they have translated. Nevertheless, if they can offer good arguments for or against certain title formulations, they might at least be heard. At any rate, just pleading for a “faithful” translation of the original title will not do.
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References Beaugrande, R. A. de/Dressler, Wolfgang U. (1981): Einführung in die Textlinguistik, Tübingen: Niemeyer. Genette, Gérard (1982) Palimpsestes. La littérature au second degré. Paris : Le Seuil. Nord, Christiane (1989) Der Titel - ein Mittel zum Text?, in: N. Reiter (ed.): Sprechen und Hören. Akten des 23. Linguistischen Kolloquiums Berlin 1988, Tübingen: Niemeyer, 519-528. Nord, Christiane (1990) Funcionalismo y lealtad: algunas consideraciones en torno a la traduccion de títulos, in: Margit Raders y Juan Conesa (eds): II Encuentros Complutenses en torno a la Traducción, Madrid: Complutense 1990, 153-162 Nord, Christiane (1991) Der Buchtitel in der interkulturellen Kommunikation - ein Paradigma funktio- naler Translation, in Sonja Tirkkonen-Condit (Hg.): Empirical Research in Intercultural and Translation Studies. Selected Papers of the TRANSIF Seminar, Tübingen: Narr, 121-130. Nord, Christiane (1993a) Einführung in das funktionale Übersetzen. Am Beispiel von Titeln und Überschriften. Tübingen. Francke. Nord, Christiane (1993b) Äpfel und Birnen? Überlegungen zur Methode eines funktionalen Textsor- tenvergleichs am Beispiel spanischer, französischer und deutscher Buchtitel, in: Giovanni Rovere und Gerd Wotjak (eds) Studien zum romanisch-deutschen Sprachvergleich, Tübingen: Niemeyer 1993, 141-148. Nord, Christiane (1993c) Wie der Text zum Leser kommt. Formen und Funktionen von Überschriften in deutschen Illustrierten, in Nouveaux Cahiers de l'Allemand 1/1993, 61-73. Nord, Christiane (1995) Text-functions in translation. Titles and Headings as a Case in Point, in Target 7:2 (1995), 261-284. Nord, Christiane (1997) The Importance of Functional Markers in (human) Translation, in: Christa Hauenschild & Susanne Heizmann (eds) Machine Translation and Translation Theory, Berlin-New Yorrk: de Gruyter 1997, 35-50. Nord, Christiane (2012) Guiding the Reader’s Reception: Pericope Titles in the New Testament. In: Aejmelaeus, Anneli & Päivi Pahta (eds.) Translation – Interpretation – Meaning. (= Studies across Disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences 7). Helsinki: Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. 61–74. Reiss, Katharina and Vermeer, Hans J. (2013) Towards a General Theory of Translational Action. Trans. Christiane Nord. London-Noew York: Routledge. Schnitzler, Marion (1983) Die Kapitelüberschrift im französischen Roman des 19. Jahrhunderts - Formen und Funktionen, Heidelberg: Winter.
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Translating the audible – paralinguistic features in translated audiobooks
Ulf Norberg Stockholm University
Recent technological developments have widened the purview both of translation and of translatological inquiry. Intra- and interlingual live subtitling through speech recognition is one such area which has attracted considerable research attention lately. Another area are translated audiobooks, which have so far been explored to a lesser degree. The audiobook market has grown significantly in recent years and now accounts for 20-30 percent in some countries. Many of the audiobooks that are produced are translations. This paper explores to what extent prosodic markers which are used by the reader of the original to demarcate grammatical units, emphasise words or phrases and express emotions are retained in the translated audiobook. It will also examine whether the readers of translated audiobooks seek to emulate the reading style of the original reader, especially when s/he is the author, and whether readers of translations use source-language pronunciation for names and places to produce an authentic flair.
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Patent professionals and ‘gist’ machine translation: a case of situated cognition
Mary Nurminen Tampere University
Written in a style often described as ‘Patentese’, with its jargon, many technical terms, and tendency towards difficult syntax, patents would seem to be a weak candidate for machine translation (MT). Yet patent professionals have been accessing other-language patents via raw, unedited (‘gist’) MT for roughly a decade. One could even argue that the patent field rivals translation as the professional area that has seen the most widespread and longest use of MT. What explains patent professionals’ ability to make use of machine-translated texts that are not always grammatical or stylistically well-formed? In this presentation, I introduce a qualitative case study that focused on that question. The data consisted of interviews with nine Scandinavian patent professionals from private industry and governmental patent authorities. The study revealed that patent professionals perform their work as part of a large network of artifacts and people, and their task of acquiring an understanding of machine- translated texts is often achieved through interaction with that network. In other words, understanding of gist MT could be described as a ‘socio-cognitive’ process (Risku et al. 2017), or as situated cognition as described by Muñoz: “Understanding is an activity that crucially depends on the environment – and also on experience – because environmental affordances foster and constrain meaning construal.” (2017, 564) The case study provides new insight into the under-researched area of gist MT reception, while also contributing to our understanding of cognition as it relates to interaction with translated products.
References Risku, Hanna, Regina Rogl, and Jelena Milosevic (2017). Translation Practice in the Field: Current Research on Socio-Cognitive Processes. Translation Spaces 6 (1): 3–26. Muñoz Martin, Ricardo (2017). Looking Toward the Future of Cognitive Translation Studies. In John W. Schwieter and Aline Ferreira (Eds.), The Handbook of Translation and Cognition (pp. 555-572). London: Wiley-Blackwell.
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Exploring the ethical dilemmas regarding replication of empirical research in Translation and Interpreting Studies
Christian Olalla-Soler Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
The concept of replication, broadly defined as the repetition of methods that led to a finding reported by a researcher (Schmidt 2009), is a central concept in the scientific method and a key for scientific progress (Popper 1959; Kuhn 1962). However, scientists from many disciplines have expressed their concern about the low replicability of science (Baker and Penny 2016), leading them to consider the existence of a replication crisis closely related to the engagement of scientists in unethical research procedures in terms of transparency and integrity, and in questionable research practices (Fiedler and Schwarz 2016). In Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) several authors have also raised concerns about the lack of replication of empirical studies (see, for example, Hurtado Albir and Alves 2009 and O'Brien 2013) and about the lack of transparency when reporting methodological decisions in publications (Li 2004). Are TIS thus submerged in a replication crisis? How does research ethics affect replicability of empirical studies? In this presentation the results of an investigation on the practices and attitudes toward replication in empirical research in translation and interpreting studies will be discussed by focusing on the ethical considerations that foster replication and those that hinder it. Fifty-two researchers with experience in empirical research in TIS completed a survey which was designed to collect data on practices related to replication (number of studies replicated, type of authorship, type of replications, ways to disseminate replications, and engagement in questionable research practices) and on attitudes towards replication (reasons not to replicate, the concept of replication and its need in TIS, and the likelihood of adoption of several mechanisms to enhance replicability). This presentation aims at providing evidence-based arguments for initiating a debate about the existence of a replication crisis in TIS and its implications for an ethical development of the discipline.
References Baker, M. and Penny, D. (2016) ‘Is there a reproducibility crisis?’, Nature, 533(7604), pp. 452–454. doi: 10.1038/533452A. Fiedler, K. and Schwarz, N. (2016) ‘Questionable Research Practices Revisited’, Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(1), pp. 45–52. doi: 10.1177/1948550615612150. Hurtado Albir, A. and Alves, F. (2009) ‘Translation as a cognitive activity’, in Munday, J. (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 54–73. Kuhn, T. S. (1962) The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press. Li, D. (2004) ‘Trustworthiness of think-aloud protocols in the study of translation processes’, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14(3), pp. 301–313. doi: 10.1111/j.1473- 4192.2004.00067.x. O’Brien, S. (2013) ‘The borrowers: Researching the cognitive aspects of translation’, Target, 25(1), pp. 5–17. doi: 10.1075/target.25.1.02obr. Popper, K. (1959) The logic of scientific discovery. London: Hutchinson. Schmidt, S. (2009) ‘Shall we really do it again? The powerful concept of replication is neglected in the social sciences.’, Review of General Psychology, 13(2), pp. 90–100. doi: 10.1037/a0015108.
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Accessing Public Services: South African Sign Language Rights
Natasha Parkins-Maliko University of the Witwatersrand
The Deaf community, as a linguistic and cultural minority, are afforded linguistic and human rights protection via human rights and disability legislation. Section 6 of the South African Constitution states that everyone has the right to use the language and participate in the cultural life of his or her choice. Further to this the United Nations Convention on the Right of Persons with Disability, of which the South African Government is a signatory and thus obliged to deliver on, states in Article 9 (The right to accessibility) – “ States Parties shall also take appropriate measures: e) To provide forms of live assistance and intermediaries, including guides, readers and professional sign language interpreters, to facilitate accessibility to buildings and other facilities open to the public; With the current hype around South African Sign Language under consideration by the South African Government to declare it an official language, I present a reflective analysis of the impact on language practice in its current form, taking into consideration the demand and supply of South African Sign Language translators. Providing access to public service documents, in video format, to enable accessibility for the Deaf community, presents unique opportunities and challenges, of which this presentation provides critical anticipation of resources required, specifically professionally trained sign language translators. The presentation evaluates the unprecedented role of Deaf translators and their role in the evolving landscape of language practice in South Africa.
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Is there a translator personality?
Mehrnaz Pirouznik Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Psychologically, there seems to be no one dominant personality trait among translators. Although recent years have seen many studies on translators’ psychological behaviour, no study has led to the identification of a special translator personality. Previous studies in comparable areas, which were inspired by a growing interest in translator and interpreter personalities (Hubscher-Davidson, 2009; Bolaños Medina, 2014; Eyckmans and Rosiers, 2017), have used various psychological tests to examine the existence of a translator personality, and rather little has been found. An experiment with 16 translators working into Persian uses the NEO-FFI personality test to find that all translators have a degree of all personality traits, even if one is dominant over others. Although this study does not show a personality profile for translators, it does find that the more years of experience a translator has, the more closed-to-experience a translator becomes and the less the translator takes account of authorial intention in the process of translation, i.e. personifies less. In other words, personification is not part of a developmental translator personality. It is also found that translators who personify in everyday life also tend to personify while translating. That is, they personify because of their psychological make-up, not because they are translators. A significant positive correlation is also found between years of experience and risk-taking: the more experienced translators personify less and take more risks. These results contrast with the findings of Eyckmans and Rosiers (2017), who found professional translators to score significantly higher on Open-mindedness, as measured by the MPQ test and on Openness-to-experience as measured by the NEO-FFI. They seem to contradict the results of this research that finds translators are particularly tolerant of ambiguity. The reasons for the different results might be that experience leads to automatisation: it teaches the translators to work faster, make decisions without reflecting on too many alternatives and assume authority for the result. It could also be a matter of cultural difference. Most of the TAPs and psychological research has been on Western European translators. There is no guarantee that what those researches find should be the same in other cultures.
Key words: translator personality, risk-management, culture, experience
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Comic Contracts as Intersemiotic Translation: Can Comic- Style Communication Improve the Accessibility of Social Welfare Documents?
Eliisa Pitkäsalo Anne Ketola Laura Kalliomaa-Puha Tampere University, Finland
The language used in social welfare documents can sometimes be hard for clients to understand. This presentation discusses an ongoing research project that examines whether social welfare documents can be intersemiotically translated (cf. Jakobson 1959) into comics without losing their value as legally binding public documents and whether such transformation can facilitate the comprehension of these documents. The project is carried out by an interdisciplinary research team consisting of scholars in the fields of translation studies, legal research and social work. In this presentation, we introduce a pilot study in which we test the intersemiotic translation process of a social welfare document into a comic form and assess its reception with test readers, carried out in the spring of 2019. The document selected for this purpose is a contract for supervised exchange, signed between separated parents when a supervisor is needed to oversee a child’s security in an exchange situation where a child is transferred from one parent to another. Our presentation has three aims. First, we reflect on the stages of the actual intersemiotic translation process – converting the contract into a comic – which is designed by the entire research team and conducted by one of the team members who also works as an illustrator. Secondly, we present the results of the pilot reception study, in which the participants read the document, as verbal text and in a comic form, and then answer questions designed to evaluate how they comprehended the contents of the contract. Thirdly, we will discuss why the participants preferred a verbal or comic-style document. As the very first stage in the evaluation of the comic-style document, the experiment aims to assess if the intersemiotic translation of the document improved its intelligibility.
References: Jakobson, R. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In R. A. Brower (ed.), On Translation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 232–239.
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(Mis)Translation of Culture? Journalistic style in online reporting about a violent attack abroad
Ashley Riggs University of Geneva
This paper summarizes an 18-month study3 that began with two premises: 1) journalists reporting on events, places and people abroad are intercultural mediators engaging in the translation of culture (Brownlie 2010; Conway 2012; Davier 2015, 2017; Scammell 2018); 2) just as stylistic features shape the content and messages of literary works, they also influence the way news consumers perceive the events and societies reported upon. Nevertheless, stylistic features have been neglected by news translation scholars.4 This paper aims to help fill that research gap by sharing findings from the analysis of a corpus of online news from England, Switzerland and Spain. Articles came from different parts of the political spectrum and addressed the violent attack perpetrated with a lorry in Nice, France in July 2016. Uses of modality, alliteration and metaphor, and of the term ‘jihad’ and its derivatives, information about French society, and attitudes to Muslims were examined using the qualitative data analysis tool QDA Miner. Findings include a tendency to employ modality to give suppositions or other unproven content a patina of fact. The texts use symbolically powerful metaphors in diverging ways which sometimes reflect the political affiliation of the newspapers. Metaphor and alliteration often serve to emphasize violence and negativity in a way that is likely to heighten fear and distrust of certain groups, in particular Muslims. However, left-leaning sources tend to historicize and contextualize more, which could offset the fear and distrust. There is also a telling case of journalists failing to respect their newspaper’s own editorial guidelines about use of a loaded term. Finally, the constellation of results differs according to country, potentially contributing to challenging the notion of a monolithic “European news”. In conclusion, this paper aims to raise awareness of the key role journalistic style plays in the transmission of representations of the “Other” – a significant issue given the media’s influence on public opinion, policy and cultural debate.
REFERENCES Brownlie, S. (2010). Representing news from France. In C. Schäffner & S. Bassnett (Eds.), Political discourse, media and translation (pp. 32–54). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. Conway, K. (2012). Cultural translation, long-form journalism, and readers' responses to the Muslim veil. Meta : journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators’ Journal, 57(4), 997–1012. doi:10.7202/1021229a Davier, L. (2015). ‘Cultural translation’ in news agencies? A plea to broaden the definition of translation. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 23(4), 536–551. doi:10.1080/0907676X.2015.1040036 Davier, L. (2017). Les enjeux de la traduction dans les agences de presse [Translation in press agencies: the issues at stake]. Lille: Septentrion. Scammell, C. (2018). Translation strategies in global news: What Sarkozy said in the suburbs.
3 This research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [Grant number P2GEP1_171957]. 4 One notable exception is Schäffner (2014) on metaphor.
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London: Palgrave. Schäffner, C. (2014). Umbrellas and firewalls: metaphors in debating the financial crisis from the perspective of translation studies. In D. R. Miller & E. Monti (Eds.), Tradurre figure / Translating figurative language (pp. 64–84). Bologna: Bononia University Press.
1 This research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [Grant number P2GEP1_171957]. 1 One notable exception is Schäffner (2014) on metaphor.
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The Journal of Frida Kahlo: translating the multimodality and materiality of a textual self-portrait
Luisa Rodríguez Muñoz Universidad de Córdoba
Frida Kahlo’s diary has been described as an aesthetic, expressive and intermedial compendium (Gronemann, 2006; Reis, 2012). Published in 1995, it was presented to the public through facsimiles annexed to English translations and explanatory notes by the American historian Sarah M. Lowe. Due to its value as an exceptional transpictorial product, in this study we intend to evaluate the transference biases between source and target volumes that a mere interlingual approach cannot explain. We will examine both the English translation and glosses by Lowe, taking into account all the semiotic resources used by Kahlo “to construct meaning” (O’Sullivan, 2013).
To do so, we will focus on two intersemiotic aspects: the multimodality (Kress, 2009) and the visual and graphic aspect of language. For the former, we will describe three multimodal situations identified in mixed and transmedial pages (Morley, 2003): wordplays between image and text, the insertion of words in images and the overlapping of texts and images. As for the latter, we will examine intermedial elements such as chromatic codes explicitly established by the artist, typography (Leeuwen, 2005) crossings-out in the original, and the location and orientation of texts. For these purposes, we base our analysis on the semiotic functions of art in exhibitions (O’Toole, 1994), the hierarchy of modes (Stöckl, 2004), the semiotics of colours (Leeuwen, 2011) and graphology (de la Luz Hurtado, 2002). We conclude that this artistic piece, which is beyond the silos of literary and pictorial classifications, should not have been dealt with from an exclusively interlingual viewpoint when edited or translated. For this reason, we suggest several strategies to preserve the language of the drawings and the material value (Littau, 2016) of the English rewriting to avoid significant losses of meaning with respect to the original.
References Gronemann, C. (2006): “Escenificaciones híbridas: La escritura transmedial y transcultural en el Diario de Frida Kahlo”. In: E. Perassi and S. Regazzoni (eds.): Mujeres en el umbral: la iniciación femenina en las escrituras hispánicas, Sevilla: Renacimiento, 65-81. Kress, G. (2009). What is a mode? In C. Jewitt (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis (pp. 54–67). London: Routledge Littau, K (2016): “Translation and the materialities of communication”, Translation Studies, 9:1, 82-96, Lowe, S. M. (1995). The Diary of Frida Kahlo. An Intimate Self-Portrait. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Zamora, Mexico: La Vaca Independiente. Morley, Simon (2003). Writing on the Wall. Word and Image in Modern Art, Oakland: University of California Press. O’Sullivan, C. (2013): “Multimodality as challenge and resource for translation”. JosTrans. The Journal of Specialised Translation, 20. Reis, L. C. (2012): “Paratexts to Frida Kahlo’s Oeuvre: The Relationship between the Visual and the Textual, the Self and the Other, from the Self-Portraits to the Diary Entries”. In: Forum for Modern Language Studies (48:1), 99-111. Van Leeuwen, Theo (2005). “Typographic meaning”. Visual Communication 4, 137-143. Van Leeuwen, T (2011): The Language of Colour. An introduction. Oxon: Routledge
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de la Luz Hurtado, María (2002): “Frida Kahlo. Del imaginario al lenguaje: un circuito de doble vía”. In: Revista Chilena de Literatura (61:2), 111-144.
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Perspective taking in translation: pragmatic and psychological views at the interface
Karina Sarto Szpak Fabio Alves Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG)
From a relevance-theoretic (RT) perspective, translation is an activity that involves the interpretive use of language, i.e., translators are constantly seeking to establish interpretive resemblance between correlated passages in the source and target texts by means of representing what someone said or thought (Gutt, 2000). While encoding linguistic items in the target text as well as the communicative cues related to them, translators make use of the ability to represent in one’s own mind how other people represent states of affairs in their minds. From the pragmatic point of view, such ability is understood as an instance of metarepresentation, that is, speaker meanings are attributed on the basis of utterances (Wilson, 2012). From the psychological point of view, however, this same ability is understood as a metapsychological capacity, that is, speaker meanings are attributed on the basis of predicting and explaining behavior – communicative or not (Papp, 2006). In psychology studies, this ability is known as theory of mind (ToM) or mindreading. Recently, building on neuroimaging evidence, Szpak (2017) presented an overarching theoretical view at the interface between these two frameworks. According to Szpak, metarepresentation in RT and mindreading in ToM overlap, as they are abilities that mediate different aspects of a global cognitive function, namely, perspective taking. In this presentation, we argue that translation is an activity that involves perspective taking in cases in which attributive representations are required. In doing so, we present evidence from a neuroimaging study carried out with novice and professional translators, in which brain regions commonly related to the ability of making inferences about the speaker’s communicative intentions (left inferior parietal lobe and bilateral medial frontal gyrus) are discussed in the light of neuroimaging and translation studies.
Keywords: fMRI, metarepresentation, perspective taking, theory of mind, translation studies
References Gutt, E. A. (2000). Translation and relevance: cognition and context. rev. ed. Manchester: St. Jerome. Papp, S. (2006). A relevance-theoretic account of the development and deficits of theory of mind in normally developing children and individuals with autism. Theory & Psychology, 16(2), 141-161. Szpak, K.S. (2017). A atribuição de estados mentais em atividades de tradução: Um estudo conduzido com rastreamento ocular e ressonância magnética funcional (PhD thesis, Federal University of Minas Gerais) (pp. 1-230). Belo Horizonte. Wilson, D. (2012). Metarepresentation in linguistic communication. In D. Wilson & D. Sperber (Authors), Meaning and Relevance (pp. 230-258). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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Cohesive Conjunction in English-Thai Legislative Translation
Mali Satthachai Dorothy Kenny Dublin City University
Scholarly interest in legislative translation has grown substantially over recent decades, with corpus-based approaches contributing much to our understanding of the relationship between translated legislation and source texts, on the one hand, and translated and non-translated legislative texts in the target language, on the other. To date, however, most studies have been conducted on European languages. This study represents a first attempt to use corpus techniques to explore legislative translation from English into Thai. Drawing on a purpose-built, 400,000- word, parallel corpus of international treaties translated from English into Thai, and a one million-word monolingual corpus of legislative texts originally written in Thai, both of which are managed using the Sketch Engine platform, we investigate how cohesive conjunction is translated into Thai. Cohesive conjunction (and especially conditional cohesive conjunction) is selected here because it is considered one of the prominent features of legislative texts. We analyze the inter-linguistic and intra- linguistic differences we find in the light of the legal authenticity of the Thai non- translated texts, previously posited ‘features of translation’ including Teich’s (2003) notion of source texts ‘shining through’, Becher’s (2010) approach to explicitation and the presence of ‘unique items’ (Tirkkonen-Condit 2002), and drawing on Biel’s (2014) concept of ‘textual fit’. We find evidence of the source language shining through the translated texts as translated cohesive conjunctions strictly follow their English counterparts. At the same time we find a low level of textual fit between Thai translations and monolingual, non-translated Thai. This low level of textual fit is possibly due to radically different ways of using paratactic conjunctions in English and Thai, a subject to which we are currently devoting attention. Keywords: English-Thai legislative translation, cohesive conjunction, features of translation, corpus-based studies
References Becher, V. (2010b) ‘Abandoning the Notion of ‘Translation-Inherent’ Explicitation: Against a Dogma of Translation Studies’, Across Languages and Cultures 11(1), pp. 1–28. Biel, Ł. (2014) Lost in the Eurofog: The Textual Fit of Translated Law. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Teich, E. (2003) Cross-linguistic variation in system and text; A method for the investigation of translations and comparable texts. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Tirkkonen-Condit, S. (2002) Translationese – a myth or an empirical fact? Target 14 (2), pp. 207-220.
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Translation ethics under Communism
Christina Schaeffner Aston University
Until the end of the Cold War in Europe around 1990, many translation scholars in the former communist countries characterised translation and interpreting as ideology-dependent phenomena of communication which reflect interests of social classes. Translation and interpreting were seen as essential for building a socialist/communist society and for succeeding in the class struggle with a bourgeois ideology. Translation theory was systematically linked to and justified by Marxism- Leninism, and the work of translators was identified as a political task. As part of developing a Marxist-Leninist theory of translation (or more widely: language mediation as a cover term to translation and interpreting), a profile of a socialist translator/interpreter was constructed. This profile included requirements such as having a Marxist-Leninist worldview, representing socialism, translating/interpreting objectively and in line with the historical truth, and act in conformity with the ideology of the communist party. Such role requirements indicate a highly politicized understanding of professional ethos. This presentation will illustrate the consequences such a view of ethics had for translator training and for the work of professional associations. It will also illustrate how translators/interpreters engaged with ethical conflicts they encountered and reflect on translation ethics among dissident groups. The presentation will be based on literature (scholarly publications, textbooks, publications by professional associations such as codes of conduct) and interviews with professional translators and interpreters with first-hand experience of working in a communist country. It will be illustrated mainly with reference to the German Democratic Republic, the Soviet Union, and Bulgaria. This presentation forms part of on-going research into aspects of translation theory and practice in former communist societies. Building on sociological approaches to translation as the conceptual framework, the presentation intends to contribute to the history of Translation Studies (also Ceccherelli et al 2015, Schippel & Zwischenberger 2017).
References Ceccherelli, Andrea, Costantino, Lorenzo & Diddi, Cristiano (eds) (2015) Translation Theories in the Slavic Countries [Europa Orientalis. Studi e ricerche sui paesi dell'Est europeo, vol. 25]. Salerno: Università di Salerno. Schippel, Larisa & Zwischenberger, Cornelia (eds) (2017) Going East: Discovering New and Alternative Traditions in Translation Studies [Transkulturalität – Translation – Transfer, Bd. 28]. Berlin: Frank & Timme.
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An ideological war: The politics of translation in occupied Norway (1940–1945)
Ida Hove Solberg Mellom, journal for translated literature
Recent research has drawn attention to the roles of translators and translation during wartime in countries such as Belgium (Gouanvic 2001), Germany (Rundle & Sturge 2010) and France (Lombez 2013; 2016; 2017). This paper presents the first research on translation during the Nazi occupation of Norway (1940–1945).
Findings from research in newly opened archives shows how the publication of translated literature came to be controlled during the occupation by regulations implemented by German officials in Norway. In 1941 the “department for culture and enlightenment”, a propaganda department established by Nazi officials, demanded that Norwegian publishing houses ask permission for each translated book they wanted to publish, a time-consuming and costly process. The archives reveal obvious instances of censorship, but they also show several instances of the authorities pushing books to translate. Some publishing houses highlight in their applications that they have been urged by the Reichskommissariat to publish certain works.
By asking how the policies, processes and regulations of translation of literature were in this period, and how translators, publishers and Nazi officials interacted with each other in order to publish translated works, this paper gives insight into the politics of translation during Nazi occupation, as well as the ethical challenges of navigating regulations set by antidemocratic authorities – or, for some, profiting from them.
The flow (or lack of such) of foreign literature in a country occupied by a foreign power does not only indicate the attitudes towards, and conditions for, translation under a given regime. It also yields insight into how this power could use censorship and withholding of translated literature on one hand, and pushing certain kinds of translated literature on the other, as means in the fight to win the ideological war, as Lombez (2016) has argued was the case in occupied France.
Bibliography: Gouanvic, Jean-Marc. 2001. “Ethos, Ethics and Translation.” The Translator, 7:2, 203-212, DOI: 10.1080/13556509.2001.10799101 Lombez, Christine (ed.). 2016. “Traducteurs dans l’histoire, traducteurs en guerre.” Atlantide, 5: 3–8. Lombez, Christine. 2017. “Political (Mis)Use of Translation: Poetry Pseudotranslation in Occupied France (1940–44).” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, (44) 4: 655–665, DOI: 10.1353/crc.2017.0052 Lombez, Christine. 2013. “Translating German poetry into French under the Occupation. The example of R. Lasne’s and G. Rabuse’s anthology (1943).” In Translations in Anthologies and Collections (19th and 20th Centuries). Theresa Seruya, Lieven D’hulst, Alexandra Assis Rosa and Maria Lin Moniz (eds.), 205–216. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Rundle, Christopher & Kate Sturge (eds.). 2010. Translation Under Fascism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian.
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Do technological tools facilitate multilingual communication in public service provision? The perspective of public service interpreters and translators.
Helene Stengers Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The ever-increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in urban settings around the world is raising public service providers’ demand for so-called bridging instruments for overcoming language barriers in written and oral communication with foreign- language clients. In this paper, we focus on the use of technological bridging instruments used by public service interpreters and translators (PSITs). The impact of technology on professional translation and interpreting in public service settings is undeniable these days. So far, research in these settings has for instance focused on Remote Interpreting Technologies (RITs), which enable professional interpreters to provide their services 'from a distance' or remote site or the application of corpus-based tools. Technological advances are bringing about new possibilities for providing interpreting and translation services to different types of public service ‘clients’, but are at the same time also causing new challenges or even raising some concerns (e.g. with respect to quality). We present the results of an online survey among PSIT professionals (N=188) from different countries and continents who are involved in different domains of public service provision. The objectives of the present study are (1) to gain a broader understanding of the way and the extent to which professional PSITs use different types of technologies (e.g. CAT tools, machine translation apps, Instant Messaging systems, videoconferencing tools, terminology management systems) in multilingual service encounters, and (2) to gauge the perceptions of PSITs concerning the possibilities, challenges and concerns related to the use of these technologies in professional contexts. We conclude our presentation with a reflection on the general implications of the study, especially in terms of policy-making and PSIT training.
References Balogh, K. and H. Salaets. 2018. “Videoconferencing in Legal Context: A Comparative Study of Simulated and Real-Life Settings”. Napier, J., Skinner, R. and Braun, S. (eds.). Here or There. Research on Interpreting via Video Link. Washington: Gallaudet University Press: 264-298. Braun, S. 2015. “Remote Interpreting”. Mikkelson, H. and Jourdenais, R. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Interpreting. London/New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group: 352–67. Chan, Y.-F., Alagappan, K., Rella, J., Bentley, S., Soto-Greene, M. and Martin, M. 2010. “Interpreter Services in Emergency Medicine”. The Journal of Emergency Medicine 38 (2): 133–39. D’Hayer, D. 2012. “Public Service Interpreting and Translation: Moving Towards a (Virtual) Community of Practice”. Meta: Journal Des Traducteurs 57 (1): 235–47. Fernández Pérez, M.M. 2015. ”Propuestas de ejercicios de simulación para la didáctica de la interpretación telefónica“.MonTI Special Issue 2: 259-279. Kerremans, K., Cox, A., Lázaro Gutiérrez, R., Rillof, P. and Stengers, H. 2018. “On the Use of Technologies in Public Service Interpreting and Translation Settings”. Read, T., Montaner, S. and Sedano, B. (eds.). Technological Innovation for Specialized Linguistic Domains. Languages for Digital Lives and Cultures Proceedings of TISLID’18. Latvia/Mauritius: Editions Universitaires Européennes: 57–68.
Lázaro Gutiérrez, R. y Sánchez Ramos, M.M. 2015. “Corpus-based interpreting studies and public service interpreting and translation training programs: the case of interpreters working in gender violence contexts”. Romero Trillo, J. (eds.). The Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and
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Pragmatics 2015: Current Approaches to Discourse and Translation Studies. Heidelberg/New York/Dordrecht/London: Springer International Publishing:: 275-292. Murgu, D. and Jiménez, S. (2011) ”La formación de un intérprete telefónico” Valero Garcés, C., Bodzer, A., Vitalaru, B. and Lázaro Gutiérrez, R. (eds.). Traducción e Interpretación en los Servicios Públicos en un mundo INTERcoNEcTado (TISP en INTERNET). Alcalá de Henares: Servicio de publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá: 214-219.
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Literary translation and the intellectual patriot in socialist Tanzania
Serena Talento University of Bayreuth
Between 1962 and 1985, Tanganyika, later Tanzania, engaged in a nation-building project based on ujamaa or Tanzanian socialism. In these years of transition, literary translation was a favoured activity of Tanzanian political activists and leaders; moreover, it played an important role in forging a cultural nationalism. In this paper, I discuss the relationship between ujamaa and translation practices, focusing on the way translation was used to position the intellectual patriot within the political context of a nationalist agenda of self-reliance. The article is drawn from an analysis of translation flows, translators’ trajectories and the discourse on translation into Swahili. Literary translations and the discourse on translation were the arena for conceptualising issues relating to the role of translators as patriots, the nature of literary imports and the acceptability of literary forms. All these issues reveal the agents’ negotiations between local and global systems. The article sheds light on the unique contributions of translated literature to the interplay between the construction of both new national political spaces and literary ones, offering insight on the procedures through which change and innovation occur in a literary field and on the development of cultural nationalism.
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The Work of Literary Agents: Translation, (Inter)cultural Intermediation and National Image Building
Duygu Tekgul Istanbul Sehir University
Although the work of literary agents has been well documented within the discipline of publishing studies (see e.g. Gillies 2007, Squires 2009), it remains relatively under-researched in translation studies (cf. Milton and Bandia 2009). This presentation investigates aspects of interlingual, intralingual, intersemiotic and cultural translation that literary agents perform. For literary agents promoting national literatures abroad, such work often has implications for national image building. The theoretical basis informing the study is cultural intermediation (Smith Maguire and Matthews 2010, 2012), which entails brokering between producers and consumers of cultural products. Originating in the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1984: 359) the concept is intimately linked with taste and cultural capital. Cultural intermediaries generate value through “objective practices and subjective outlooks” (Smith Maguire and Matthews 2010: 411) in line with the demands of the cultural economy. In the case of literary agents operating in the international book market, such intermediation has a significant intercultural dimension as well. The research questions that the presentation aims to answer are: i) How does the work of a literary agent fit into the broader literary translation industry? ii) What types of translation does the literary agent undertake or commission in order to meet professional demands? iii) What does the study of the literary agent contribute to current debates in the sociology of translation? The presentation focuses on a case study from Turkey: founded in 2005, Kalem Agency promotes Turkish literature abroad. The analysis is based on interviews with the founder, Nermin Mollaoğlu, as well as published news items and promotional material produced by Kalem. The study examines the people, processes and products pertaining to translation within the specific context of literary agents, concluding that the complex and multifaceted work of a literary agent must be recognized as translation work.
References
Bourdieu, P (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (trans. Richard Nice). London: Routledge.
Gillies, M A (2007) The Professional Literary Agent in Britain, 1880–1920. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Milton J and Bandia P (2009) Agents of Translation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Smith Maguire J and Matthews J (2010) Cultural intermediaries and the media. Sociology Compass 4(7): 405–416. Smith Maguire J and Matthews J (2012) Are we all cultural intermediaries now? An introduction to cultural intermediaries in context. European Journal of Cultural Studies 15(5): 551–562. Squires, C (2009) Marketing Literature: The Making of Contemporary Writing in Britain. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Fall, Poppies, Forgetfulness, and the (re)Surgent Lives of Translations and Translators
Margarida Vale de Gato Universidade de Lisboa
Interweaving life and translation, personal history and the history of translation, I aim to read the traces of writers’ and translators’ lives in translated poems. This is a lyrical essay that follows Nikolaous’s (2006; 2008) hints of translation as an autobiographical exercise of reading. I shall explore the implications of the translator reading the work into his/her life, while the writer in turn incorporates reading into his or her (life-)writing. My stance will be that of the reader who becomes translator through the acquisition of a new language (German) from whose tradition certain poems were early imprinted in her memory – now re-surging from the oblivion of habitual constructions into alien molds. This I will call “the poppy thesis”: how literary translation loosens and sets aside memory, in order to revive experiences of language. I will use three poems as points of departure: “Herbsttag” (1902) and “Wir sind die Treibenden” (1922) by Rainer Maria Rilke, and “Corona” (1952) by Paul Celan. Their common traits are the passage and urgency of time, both personal and historical; their allusions to human introspection; the fall (taken as Autumn, and as a decline in age and the human cycle); and ambivalence towards brisk change or renewal. Inspired by the connection between Rilke’s “Herbsttag” and Celan’s “Corona” traced by Felstiner in “Repetition and Restitution” (1990), I will read both poems as simulations of middle age, and Rilke’s latter one (“die Treibenden”) as the turn of a whole age (organic symbolism waving at mechanic modernism). Simultaneously, collating prefaces, notes, paratexts by their Portuguese translators, I mean to digress on translation options (including my own) as storied readings. Literary translation, will be regarded not only as a hermeneutic process (Steiner) ,whereby polysemy and different remainders (Venuti) allow us to glimpse at the fractured poem of language, but also, as it were, a biological process. The versions of a poem, like poppies, erupt time and again from strata of language that yield life under odd circumstances of relatedness and oblivion.
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Exploring Language Management and Migration in Institutional Contexts
Carmen Valero-Garcés University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
Language rights stand among fundamental human values and are subject to major international legislation. Being migration a main issue in the 21st century, the question is: what are the links between language-rights principles and language- rights practice. The research goal is to explore language management phenomenon and its implementation by institutional stakeholders with regard to unscheduled migration in Spain. The point of departure is the hypothesis that different institutional actors have different visions, pursue different strategical goals, use different instruments and identify different challenges with regard to language management for mentioned audiences and contexts (migrants and refugees during the period 2016-2018). Research method include quantitative and qualitative approaches. Materials collection and selection was implemented via on-line search following the study by Aatabekova et al (2018). Research materials include documents of the national and local governments, and NGOS engaged in managing unscheduled migrants and asylum seekers. The keywords considered include terms related to language rights/ language policies/ language support /and immigrant languages. The period covered is between 2016-2018. Results confirms the hypothesis that the actors have different visions and identify different challenges with regard to language management. The analysis reveals that language management represents a comprehensive multifaceted on-going process and underlines the need for enhancing institutional actors’ awareness of language issues significance. The study of the documents confirms the importance of language- not only as a human right- but also with regard to migration management on the whole (The Politics of International Migration Management, 2012) and reinforced the idea that language management should rest on the interaction among global, regional, and national language orders within the communities involved. Consequently, language management should include a systemic analysis of key actors, their activities contexts, stakeholders’ strengths and weaknesses.
References Atabekova, A. A.; Belenkova, N. M.; Radic, M. ; Shoustikova, T. V. “Language Management in Humanitarian Contexts: Unscheduled Migration European Research Studies Journal Volume XXI, Issue 3, 2018: pp. 659-674. The Politics of International Migration Management. 2012. Geiger, M., Pécoud, A. (Eds.). UK, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. Key words: Language rights; language management; migration management; institutional context.
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MATCH-eN. Can a mobile app facilitate the explanation of abstract concepts in multilingual healthcare consultations?
Ellen Van Praet July De Wilde Ghent University Abdil Karanfil
In this paper we report on a simulation-based experiment which was set up to test a custom-made multilingual app in preventive healthcare for young children. The app facilitates face-to-face communication between caretakers and mothers with limited proficiency in a host country’s language. It is designed in 5 foreign languages: English, French, Turkish, Spanish and Berber language. It has (very much like translation apps in the app-store) a ‘dictionary’ tool, and (quite unlike commercialized apps) a ‘storyboard’ where clients and service providers can drag and drop drawings to compose their own personalized story. All written text is doubled with audio so that even clients with low literacy skills can access the information. In case of extreme communication difficulties, the app offers the possibility to connect with telephone or webcam remote interpreting.
For this paper, we cross-compared two different contact modes: (i) a technology-free face-to-face consultation with (ii) a technology-facilitated face-to-face consultation. We conducted a two-group between-subjects experiment, in which respondents (N=12) were randomly assigned to either a consultation with app (N=7), or a consultation without app (N=5).
We formulated two hypotheses: H1: It will take service providers longer to explain abstract notions in technology- free consultations. H2: Service providers will use more hand gestures to explain abstract notions in technology-free consultations. The findings address lengthened visit time, a reduced usage of hand gestures, and additional training needs. The paper closes with brief guidelines for unlocking the potential of technology-mediated translation in multilingual healthcare. We frame the results in the broader context of a 2-year project “MATCH-eN. Multilingual Healthcare for Newcomers” which was recently granted funding by the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Enterprise (Belgium).
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Translation revision: Which procedure should revisers follow to ensure quality revision products?
Alta Van Rensburg Stellenbosch University
Translation standards such as ISO 17100 (ISO, 2015) and EN 15038 (CEN, 2006) require translations to be revised by a second translator. This is done to determine whether the translation is suitable for its purpose and to make the necessary adjustments regarding aspects such as accuracy, terminology consistency, register, style and language use. However, empirical studies (e.g. Arthern, 1983; Künzli, 2007; Van Rensburg, 2012, 2017, 2018) have shown that even seasoned translators and revisers overlook errors and add new ones. In some cases the quality of the translation is even lower after revision. Therefore, it is vital that revisers’ work be assessed for quality control purposes and for their continuing professional development. This paper describes an empirical study wherein the quality of thirty revised translations (English–Afrikaans) of the same examination paper for university students has been determined and revision procedures followed have been investigated. Three linguists determined the quality of the revision products by means of twelve categories describing a revision product (Van Rensburg, 2017). These categories were applied to the thirty revision products to determine whether there is any relationship between the quality of the revision product and aspects of the revision procedure followed, such as whether a monolingual or comparative revision (or combination of the two) was performed, how much time was spent, and the medium (paper vs screen) that was used. The results could help revisers improve the effectiveness of their procedure and the quality of their work.
Sources Arthern, P. (1983). Judging the quality of revision. Lebende Sprachen, 28(2):53–57. CEN (European Committee for Standardization). (2006). EN 15038 Translation services – Service requirements. Brussels, Belgium. ISO (International Organization for Standardization). (2015). ISO 17100 Translation services – Requirements for translation services. Geneva: ISO. Künzli, A. (2007). Translation revision. A study of the performance of ten professional translators revising a legal text. In Y. Gambier, M. Shlesinger & R. Stolze (Eds.), Doubts and directions in translation studies (pp. 115–126). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Van Rensburg, A. (2012). Die impak van revisie op vertaalde eksamenvraestelle in ’n hoëronderwysomgewing (The impact of revision on translated examination papers in a higher education environment). LitNet Akademies, 9(2):392–412. Van Rensburg, A. (2017). Developing assessment instruments: The effect of a reviser’s profile on the quality of the revision product. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies, 16:71–88. Van Rensburg, A. (2018). Revisie: een aspek van kwaliteitbestuur in ’n akademiese vertaalkantoor (Revision: one aspect of quality management in an academic translation office). Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Stellenbosch University: Stellenbosch, South Africa.
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Self-reflection in educational interpreting: Clarifying the role and improving ethical decision-making skills of the educational interpreter
Susanna van Zyl-Bekker Stellenbosch University
Dean and Pollard’s (2011) Demand Control Schema (DC-S) advocates post- assignment control, with discussion after the interpreting assignment considered essential, and critical thoughts allowing room for the development of self-reflection, ethical decision-making and autonomy, which in turn will increase the self-confidence of interpreters. Ethical decision making during the process of educational interpreting aims to facilitate communication to establish teaching and learning in the classroom. If an interpreter cannot hear the lecturer or a student, or does not understand the relevant terminology, she must act decisively in order to establish communication. This contribution was informed by a master’s study investigating the demand control- schema (DC-S) and the application of the theoretical construct thereof on educational interpreting at Stellenbosch University (SU) poses two questions: • Which factors do educational interpreters at SU experience as job demands within the context of the interpreting programme? • To what extent do educational interpreters at SU utilise the necessary outcomes-based ethical decision-making skills needed for facilitating effective communication and overcome job demands? To answer the questions in the study overview, data was collected by means of questionnaires and focus-group discussions. At the time this study was conducted, 26 educational interpreters and two sign language interpreters formed part of the interpreting team at SU. Twenty five interpreters completed the questionnaire and 17 interpreters participated in the focus group discussions. Descriptive statitics were used to analyse the questionnaires. This study has found interpreters’ ethical decision-making being impeded by role conflict.
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Framing South African Sign Language interpreting: Pictorial representations of SASL interpreters from 1994 to 2019
Kim Wallmach Stellenbosch Petri du Toit South African Sign Language Interpreter National Centre (SASLINC) & eDeaf (Employ and Empower Deaf)
Researchers have come to realise that, in contrast to the narratives underpinning professional codes of ethics, interpreters and translators are intimately involved in the events they are assigned to interpret or translate. They are not simply invisible facilitators working in that space ‘in-between’ cultures, untouched by events (cf. Tymoczko, 2003; Katan & Straniero-Sergio, 2003; Koskinen, 2008/2011; Wallmach, 2014). Since South Africa’s democratic transition in 1994, Deaf people have played an increasingly important role in South African society, from politics, linguistics and literature to the entertainment industry and the academic fraternity. Interpreters have facilitated this access but have largely remained invisible and their roles undocumented. As cultural historians recognize, archives are not neutral repositories, but provide a particular framing of the past (Footitt, 2014). The status of photographs as material sources for the writing of history has meant that their analysis has moved from the periphery of analysis to centre-stage, with cultural historians challenging the notion that a photograph can provide unmediated ‘eye access to the real world of years ago’ (Thomas, 2009: 156). This ‘visual turn’ invites researchers to ask different questions of visual media and to explore their role in informing how we understand the events and institutional contexts they depict and the historically specific forms of knowledge that they embody (Gorrara, 2016: 304). This paper will focus on a broad cross-section of photographic and other visual representations of South African Sign Language interpreters of various kinds – from those designated as ‘non-professional’ (child interpreters, community interpreters, and to an extent educational interpreters) to those operating in high-level professional contexts (parliamentary, media and conference interpreting) as a way of offering special insights into the history of the interpreter figure and the place of the interpreter in the history of the South African Deaf community. As a relatively new profession, signed language interpreting in South Africa has had to continuously evolve to meet the needs of members of the Deaf community as they strive towards formal language recognition on various platforms. This has meant that the boundaries between facilitating communication and being regarded as an ally of the Deaf community have become blurred at times. This pictorial review tracks the journey of South African Sign Language interpreter development since the dawn of democracy through the lens of the camera.
List of sources Footitt, H. (2014). Frames and the Interpreter in the Imperial War Museum Photographic Archive. In: Anxo Fernandez Ocampo and Michaela Wolf, eds. Framing the Interpreter: Towards a Visual Perspective. London: Routledge, pp. 117–127.
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Gorrara, C. (2016). What the Liberator Saw: British War Photography, Picture Post and the Normandy Campaign, Journal of War & Culture Studies, vol 9 (4), pp. 303-318, DOI: 10.1080/17526272.2016.1159003. To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17526272.2016.1159003. Katan, D. & Straniero-Sergio, F., (2003). Submerged ideologies in media interpreting . In: Apropos of ideology: Translation studies on ideology, ideologies in translation studies. Manchester: St Jerome publishing, pp. 131 - 144. Koskinen, K. (2008). Translating institutions: An ethnographic study of EU translation. Manchester: St Jerome. Koskinen, K., (2011). Institutional Translation. In: Handbook of translation studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing , pp. 54 - 60. Tymoczko, M. (2003). Ideology and the position of the translator: In what sense is a translator ‘in between’? In Pérez, M.C. (Ed.), Apropos of ideology: Translation studies on ideology – ideologies in translation studies, pp. 1–22. Manchester: St Jerome. Wallmach, K., (2014). Recognising the little perpetrator in each of us: Complicity, responsibility and translation/interpreting in institutional contexts in mulitlingual South Africa. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, pp. 1 - 15.
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Translators’ Portraits and the Visibility of Translators
Anthi Wiedenmayer Despina Lamprou Aristotle Univesity of Thessaloniki
Presenting the project “Translators’ portraits” with more than 70 interviews of renowned Greek literary translators shot during the last three years as well as recent related projects worldwide, we take a closer look to the people behind the translated texts. They reveal their professional background, share their often quite different views on the process of translation and the role of translators, and comment on their relations with editors, literary agents, publishers and the reading audience. This sociological approach reveals thus on the one hand the power constellations between the different agents within the literary and translation field (Bourdieu 1983, Bachleitner & Wolf 2010), especially regarding translations from often major languages to minor ones, such as Greek, in a time of financial crisis. On the other hand, taking professional translators out of their invisibility, which is so often being misinterpreted as the text’s fluency (Venuti 1995), leads not only to a paradigm shift, empowering translators towards professionalization and gradual social recognition, but also to the emancipation of the readers themselves.
References Bachleitner, Norbert & Michaela Wolf (eds.) (2010). Streifzüge im translatorischen Feld: Zur Soziologie der literarischen Übersetzung im deutschsprachigen Raum. Münster: LIT. Bourdieu, Pierre (1983). The Field of Cultural Production. Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press. Venuti, Lawrence (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London and New York: Routledge.
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Anne Frank’s Diary – The Graphic Adaptation: From Translation to Adaptation
Rachel Weissbrod Bar-Ilan University Ayelet Kohn David Yellin Academic College of Eduation
This paper discusses Anne Frank’s Diary - The Graphic Adaptation (Frank, Folman and Polonsky 2017) through the prism of relevance theory and basic Bakhtinian concepts. Based on relevance theory, Gutt (2000) introduced the concept of indirect translation, which “interpretively resembles” the source text in respects that are relevant to the target audience in its new context. Taking as our departure point the idea that this concept can be applied to adaptations as well, we use it to address the graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary. We show that the graphic diary interpretively resembles the original, first published in 1947, in respects that are relevant to young (and other) readers today. As in the case of indirect translation, it has been adapted to our times, first of all by turning the original written text (actually comprising more than one version) into a multimodal work. By abridging the original and adding visual elements, it meets the expectations of a new generation of readers familiar with new media. The transformation involves modification of the dimensions of time and space, which we address by means of the Bakhtinian concept of the chronotope (Bakhtin 1981). The original polyphony (Bakhtin 1984), too, has been modified since new voices, including those of the editor and illustrator, are present. The voice of Anne Frank herself, which had been partly silenced due to censorship (Lefevere 1992), was given full rein. Our focus is twofold: firstly, the adaptation itself which, in keeping with the expectation of indirect translation, is true to the original meaning despite its indirectness (Smith 2002: 112); and secondly, its relevance to the contemporary audience (“contextual effects” in the terminology of Gutt 2000: 29). The contribution of this paper lies in applying a theory which has been developed in the framework of Translation Studies to an adaptation. Thus, we tighten the links between Translation Studies and Adaptation Studies. Taking advantage of Bakhtinian concepts, we also offer tools for the analysis of multimodal texts. As one can deduce e.g. from Kaindl (2013), such texts are growingly acknowledged as relevant to Translation Studies and Adaptation Studies alike.
References Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich, 1981. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, Michael Holquist (ed.), Caryl Emerson (trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press. Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich, 1984. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, Caryl Emerson (ed. and trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Frank, Anne, 2017. Anne Frank – ha-Yoman ha-Graphi [Anne Frank – the Graphic Diary]. Ari Folman (ed.), David Polonsky (illus.). Or Yehuda: Kineret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir. [In Hebrew. An English version was published by Pantheon Graphic Novels in 2018.] Gutt, Ernst-August, 2000. Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context. Manchester: St. Jerome. Kaindl, Klaus, 2013. “Multimodality and Translation”, in The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies, Carmen Millán and Francesca Bartrina (eds.). London and New York: Routledge, pp. 257- 268. Lefevere, André, 2017 (1992). “Translation: Ideology - On the Construction of Different Anne Franks”, in Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 45-54
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Smith, Kevin, 2002. “Translation as Secondary Communication: The Relevance Theory Perspective of Ernst-August Gutt”, Acta Theologica 22:1, pp. 107-117.
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Re-Oralizing the Word for Empowerment: A study of re- translation in Chichewa, with special reference to Psalm 124
Ernst R. Wendland Stellenbosch University
Chichewa is a major Bantu language widely spoken as a primary or secondary mode of communication in many areas of SE Africa. Three major translations of the Bible were produced in this language during the 20th century: the Protestant Buku Lopatulika (1922), the Catholic Malembo Oyera (1966), and the Interconfessional Buku Loyera (1998). The present study briefly investigates the different methods of translation that were employed by these Bibles in order to suggest how the most recent, ecumenical version has served to greatly “empower” the people, readers and hearers alike, in some crucial respects, namely, with regard to their language, culture, theology, and a broader sense of Christian community. To illustrate this, selected aspects of the short Psalm 124 in these three versions are comparatively analyzed. This leads to a consideration of several additional strategies that might be implemented in order to further improve this version’s essential comprehensibility on the one hand, and its oral-aural quality, or audience-engaging popularity, on the other. In conclusion, some possible implications of this research for preparing a future enhanced, multimodal re-translation of the Chichewa Bible will be proposed.
(key words: Bible translation, orality, performance, empowerment, Chichewa)
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Can (literary) translation practice speak?
Jitka Zehnalová Helena Kubátová Palacký University Olomouc
The contribution deals with a methodology of sociologically informed analysis of translation strategies from the translators’ practice perspective. The background is joint research of a translation scholar and a sociologist on translation strategies used by translators of fiction from English to Czech in the period 2000-2016, whose aim is to generalise strategies to the level of the norms of fiction translation. The contribution addresses the issue of how to conceptualise the complex relationships between translation strategies discovered by textual analyses, translator’s habitus inferred from biographical interviews and translators’ practice, while avoiding reductionism and the danger of “imposing a simple conceptualization on a complex reality” (Marais 2015, 19). Sociologically, it is based on the definition of practical logic, which claims that practice cannot speak in any discourse (Bourdieu 1990). According to Bourdieu, practice excludes reflection of its own possibilities and of the principles governing it. In the case of translating, however, this obstacle can be surpassed – by merging sociological data on how translators narratively “do” their decisions with translational data on their translations, practice itself can speak through its observable results. The contribution introduces the methodological principles of this “merging” and demonstrates them on pilot research results. It compares translation strategies of two Czech literary translators, analysed on three levels: (1) doxa: what translators say they are doing (data from biographical interviews with translators); (2) observable results: what translators really did (data from textual analyses of translations); (3) the essence of translation practice: what translators do in the process of translation. The contribution cannot discuss conditions of the genesis of translation practice (positions of translators within the Czech field of translation etc.). Nevertheless, these conditions are taken into consideration. Key words: methodology; literary translation; Bourdieu’s theory; practical logic; translation strategies; translation practice
References BOURDIEU, P. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press. BOURDIEU, P. 1995. The Rules of Art. Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. BUZELIN, H. and C. Baraldi. 2016. “Sociology and translation studies: Two disciplines meeting.” In Border Crossings: Translation Studies and Other Disciplines, edited by Y. Gambier and L. van Doorslaer, 117-139. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. MARAIS, K. 2015. Translation theory and development studies: a complexity theory approach. New York: New York : Routledge. MEYLAERTS, R. 2010. “Habitus and self-image of native literary author-translators in diglossic societies.” Translation and Interpreting Studies 5:1, 1–19. VORDEROBERMEIER, G. M. (ed). 2014. Remapping habitus in translation studies. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi/Brill.
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Poster Presentations Abstracts are published here as received from the authors and remain the property of the authors.
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Cognitive performance and disfluency in dialogue interpreting: an eye-tracking study
Aleksandra Adler Stockholm University
Background: The purpose of the study is an exploratory investigation into disfluency (disruption in the flow of speech) in dialogue interpreting and possible differences in frequency of disfluencies between experienced and inexperienced interpreters. The study is carried out within the project Invisible process? Opening the black box of the community interpreter initiated by Elisabet Tiselius, PhD. Disfluency in interpreting as an indication of cognitive effort has been investigated in simultaneous interpreting (Bakti 2009; Bendazzoli et. al. 2011; Cecot 2001; Mead 2005, 2012; Tissi 2000) but it focused essentially on quantitative research alone or on the perception of fluency (cf. Goffman’s inefficient speech planning).
Method: Professional interpreters and students of interpreting – a group of seventeen participants (n=17) – took part in semi-scripted interpreted dialogues specifically designed to challenge interpreters’ skills. The interpreted encounters were filmed using video cameras. Eye-tracking equipment was used to monitor visual attention of the interpreters. The participants performed assessment tests to evaluate executive function skills like working memory, attention span and ability to switch between different tasks. The video recordings were examined in order to identify different types of disfluencies (e.g. interruption, pause, hesitation). The correlation between the frequency of disfluencies and increased cognitive effort was measured.
Preliminary results: The poster will report our preliminary results indicating differences in frequency of disfluencies between experienced professional interpreters and student interpreters. Experienced professional interpreters seem to show fewer disfluencies during the interpreted event than student interpreters.
Conclusion: We hope that the results will give insight into how experience may be a variable in terms of the interpreter’s management of disfluencies, and shed light on cognitive aspects of dialogue interpreting.
References: Bakti, Maria. 2009. Speech disfluencies in simultaneous interpretation. In De Crom, Dies (ed.). Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/files/bakti.pdf (accessed January 6, 2019) Bendazzoli, Claudio, Sandrelli, Annalisa, and Russo, Mariachiara. 2011. Disfluencies in Simultaneous Interpreting: A Corpus-based Analysis. In Alet Kruger, Kim Wallmach and Jeremy Munday (eds.) Corpus-based Translation Studies: Research and Application. London: Continuum. 282–306. Cecot, Michela. 2001. “Pauses in simultaneous interpretation: a contrastive analysis of professional interpreters' performances”. The interpreters’ newsletter 11: 63–85. Mead, Peter. 2005. “Methodological issues in the study of interpreters' fluency”. The Interpreters’ Newsletter 13: 39-63.
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Mead, Peter. 2012. Pauses. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies. Pöchhacker, F. (ed). Routledge. 301-303. Tissi, Beneditta. 2000. “Silent pauses and disfluencies in simultaneous interpretation: A descriptive analysis”. The Interpreters’ Newsletter 10: 103-127.
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Exploring perceptions on the integration of technology in the interpreters’ workflow: reluctance, resistance and reservations.
Elizabeth Deysel Stellenbosch University
In recent years there has been a growing interest on the topic of technology and interpreting, with research on topics such as the utilisation of computer-assisted interpreting (CAI) tools (Fantinuoli 2017, 2016; Xu 2015), the use of tablets in interpreting (Goldsmith 2017; Goldsmith & Holley 2015; Drechsel 2013) and the use of digital pens for note taking in consecutive mode (Orlando 2010, 2014; Chen 2017).
In initial explorations on the use of technological tools in the interpreting profession, there appears to be a degree of reluctance by some interpreters to the incorporation of technology in their workflow as evident in the survey from Berber (2010). These reservations mainly relate to some interpreters’ views on how the presence of technology in the booth seems to be “unnatural” (Donovan, 2006: 5) and questions that have been raised by interpreters’ and researchers alike on “whether technological tools can actually improve interpreters’ performance and professionalism” (Tripepi Winteringham, 2010: 89).
Further research in this area is necessary to ascertain whether this “reluctance” is still evident today and what the underlying concerns or reservations from interpreters may be.
This aim of the research is to investigate the perception of interpreters on the incorporation of technology in the workflow of interpreting. The study investigates whether or not the perceived reluctance to technology does exist and what the possible underlying reasons may be. This is done by utilising an exploratory mixed method approach which uses both qualitative and quantitative data obtained from questionnaires distributed to interpreters in the profession.
Keywords: computer-assisted interpreting, technology, interpreting, interpreter workflow
References Berber- Irabien, D. (2010). Information and communication technologies in conference interpreting. (Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Tarragona: Universitat Tovira i Virgili, Spain. Available at http://www.tesisenred.net/bitstream/handle/?0803/8775/tesi.pdf?sequence=? (last accessed 13 Jan 2019). Chen, S. (2018). ‘The Interpreter and Translator Trainer Exploring the process of note- taking and consecutive interpreting: a pen-eye-voice approach towards cognitive load’, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer. Routledge, 12(4), pp. 467–468. doi: 10.1080/1750399X.2018.1535163. Donovan, C. (2006). “Trends – Where is interpreting heading and how can training courses keep up?” Contribution at EMCI Conference: The Future of Conference Interpreting: Training, Technology and Research, 30 June – 1 July 2006, http://www.emciinterpreting.org/repository/pdf/UoW _conf_06_C.Donovan.pdf (last accessed on 22 June 2019). Drechsel, A. (2013). The tablet interpreter. http://vkdblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/tabletinterpreterpublic.pdf Fantinuoli, C. (2017). Computer-assisted preparation in conference interpreting. Translation and Interpreting. https://doi.org/10.12807/ti.109202.2017.a02 Fantinuoli, C. (2016). InterpretBank. Redefining computer-assisted interpreting tools. In Proceedings of the 38th Conference Translating and the Computer. Goldsmith, J. & Holley, J. (2015). Consecutive Interpreting 2.0: The Tablet Interpreting Experience.” (Unpublished MA thesis.) University of Geneva.
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Goldsmith, J. (2017). A Comparative User Evaluation of Tablets and Tools for Consecutive Interpreters. Proceedings of the 39th Conference Translating and the Computer, pages 40–50, London, UK, November 16-17, 2017. c 2017 AsLing Orlando, M. (2010) ‘Digital pen technology and consecutive interpreting: Another dimension in notetaking training and assessment’, Interpreters Newsletter, (15), pp. 71–86. Tripepi Winteringham, S. (2010). The usefulness of ICTs in interpreting practice. Interpreters Newsletter. Xu, R. (2015). Terminology preparation for simultaneous interpreters. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Leeds.
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Attention and awareness in face-to-face dialogues including sight translation
Randi Havnen University of Oslo
In a typical face-to-face encounter, speaker and listener employ a range of resources to signal, amongst others, understanding and attention. This is also true for interpreter mediated encounters, where gaze is used as a feedback signal, not only towards the interpreter when speaking, but also to the producer of the original utterance, described as dual – feedback (Vranjes, Brône, and Feyaerts 2018). The listener’s position as an addressee in a face-to- face dialogue (Bavelas and Gerwing 2011), changes when introducing a written document into the interaction, there is a shift towards a monologue in the dialogue, where the speaker also attends to reading, and the primary interlocutors become more or less passive. The typical dialogical interactional pattern is affected in various ways, depending on how the interpreter solves the task (Felberg and Nilsen 2017; Vargas-Urpi 2018). In this poster presentation, I will address some preliminary findings from three strictly controlled experiments. Participants were a public servant, an interpreter and a non- native speaking “client” and the experiments included an act of sight translation. The experiments are a part of my Ph. D project, where I first analyzed the interpreter’s mediation of typical written semiotic resources . When analyzing the communication from a multimodal interactional perspective, with special focus on attention and awareness (Norris 2004), preliminary findings are that the act of sight translating leads to exclusion of the other participants and limits their possibilities to interact, affecting both power balance and possibly cognition/understanding (Havnen 2019). Exclusion can be seen though the interpreter’s strong focus on the written document, limited attention to or from the listener and scarce awareness of the public servant during the translation.
References Bavelas, Janet Beavin, and Gerwing, Jennifer. (2011). The Listener as Addressee in Face-to-Face Dialogue. International Journal of Listening, 25(3), 178-198. doi:10.1080/10904018.2010.508675 Felberg, Tatjana Radanovic, and Nilsen, Anne Birgitta. (2017). Exploring Semiotic Resources in Sight Translation. The Journal of Specialised Translation(28), 230-249. Havnen, Randi (2019). Multimodal and Interactional Aspects of Sight Translation – A Critical Review. FITISPos International Journal - Public Service Interpreting and Translation, 6(1), 91-106. Norris, Sigrid. (2004). Analyzing Multimodal Interaction : A Methodological Framework. London: Routledge. Vargas-Urpi, Mireia. (2018). Sight translation in Public service interpreting: a dyadic or triadic exchange? The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 13(2), 1-17. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2018.1503834. doi:10.1080/1750399X.2018.1503834 Vranjes, Jelena, Brône, Geert, and Feyaerts, Kurt. (2018). Dual feedback in interpreter-mediated interactions: On the role of gaze in the production of listener responses. Journal of Pragmatics, 134, 15-30. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2018.06.002
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Translation Quality Assessment for the Media Narratives on Terror and Refugee Crisis
Nael Hijjo Postdoctoral Fellow, Stellenbosch University
Terror attacks and military conflicts have become one of the world’s primary concerns. These concerns are due to the phenomenon that terror attacks and military conflicts are no longer localised and can potentially affect every nation. Moreover, the ‘War on Terror’ is a 21st century theme that drives on-going global conflicts and according to its adherents, is central to global security. Several studies have been conducted on the translation quality of media news on narratives of terror and refugee crisis. These studies concluded that media outlets tend to reframe the source narratives based on ideological motivations (Hijjo, 2018). This in turn creates Islamophobia and refugee-phobia. Such phobia heavily impacts on the official and public opinions which set the regulations in handling the war on terror and the refugee crisis which significantly determines the lives of millions (Kopytowska & Chilton, 2018). Therefore, this project seeks to evaluate existing models for translation assessment and ethics aiming to develop new model and some tools that consider the ideological motivations in translating the media narratives on terror and refugee crisis. The project incorporates the works of Prof. Mona Baker on ‘Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account’ (2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010) with the works of Prof. Juliane House on ‘Translation Quality Assessment’ (1977, 1997 and 2015), and the works of Prof. Walter R. Fisher on ‘The Narrative Paradigm’ (1984, 1985, 1987 and 1997), among others. The research data is drawn mainly on the online news articles and their translations in regard to the global Arab refugees’ crisis within the context of the contemporary value-laden civil wars in the Middle East, compiled in a corpus (electronically accessible). The comparison of media narratives on terror and the Arab refugee crisis may include the corpora of several international leading media outlets such as CNN, BBC, FRANCE 24, CCTV, DW, AL-JAZEERA and MEMRI. The corpus will be compiled in several languages including Arabic, English, French, and others if a collaboration with other researchers of other languages is possible. The research potential applications may include translators’ code of conduct, machine translation, translation pedagogy, public policy and journalism practice. It also appeals to the public awareness.
Keywords: Corpus-Based Translation, Narrative Analysis, Translation Assessment, Translation Ethics, Media News, Terrorism, Refugees Crisis
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The Translation of National Image of Lithuania in Public Discourse
Saule Petroniene Kaunas University of Technology (Kaunas, Lithuania)
The relation between translation studies and other disciplines has been of interest for many scholars, especially the relationship between translation studies and imagology (Blažević 2016, Dmitriu 2016, van Doorslaer et al 2016, etc.). Although imagology has received some criticism because of its ambiguity and proximity to other disciplines, e.g. sociology or anthropology, the value of image studies is undeniable because of the ability to enrich and contribute to other disciplines. Translation and imagology studies possess common interest in images which may change because of internal and external environment of some specific situations. The image of Lithuania/ -ness has not been sufficiently analysed neither in literature, nor in public discourse, even though there are some studies of it in literature (Laurušaitė 2013, 2014, Antanaitytė 2016); thus, the analysis of the image of Lithuania/ -ness in public discourse could be of value for further studies of the national image. The paper focuses on the analysis of construction of national image of Lithuania/ - ness in contemporary public discourse and its translation into English. Since Lithuania regained its independence less than 30 years ago, the national image of it could be considered as of quite a young democratic country with traces of influence by the impact of Soviet oppression. The scope of the research is limited to the period 2017 with over 200 articles chosen for the analysis. The results of the analysis reveal the most common images of Lithuania/ -ness constructed in contemporary public discourse. The analysis of translation of national image of Lithuania/ -ness in public discourse provide the insight into whether the national image of Lithuania/ -ness is translated with neutral, positive or negative connotation.
References Antanaitytė, I. (2016). Tarp lietuvininko ir vokiečio: imagologinis romano "Vilius Karalius" perskaitymas. Res humanitariae. 2016, t. 19, p. 11-23. Blažević, Z. (2016). Global Challenge: The (Im) Possibilities of Transcultural Imagology. Umjetnost riječi: Časopis za znanost o književnosti, 58(3-4), 355-367. Dimitriu, R. (2016). Translation as blockage, propagation and recreation of ethnics images. In L. Van Doorslaer, P. Flynn & J. Leersen (Eds.), Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology (p. 201 - 219). John Benjamins Publishing Company. Laurušaitė, L. (2014). Rytų europiečio sindromas šiuolaikinės (e) migracijos naratyvuose. Darbai ir dienos, 2014, nr. 62, p. 229-244. Laurušaitė, L. (2013, July). Imagologija kaip instrumentas (e) migracinio identiteto specifikai tirti. In Colloquia (Vol. 32). van Doorslaer, L. Flynn, P. & Leerssen, J. (eds.) (2016). Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
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Readers’ Reception to Chinese Martial Arts Fiction A Case Study on Legends of the Condor Heroes, the English Translation of Louis Cha’s Shediao Yingxiong Zhuan
Xiaodan Shan University of Leeds
The research is set against a background of the publication of Legends of the Condor Heroes, the English translation of Shediao Yingxiong Zhuan, an important work of one of the most well-known Chinese martial arts novelists Louis Cha Leung- yung, who is better known as his pen name, Jin Yong. However, although his fifteen novels have been translated into most Asian languages, only four of them have been officially translated into English since the 1990s. The recent published one, Legends of the Condor Heroes, has four volumes. The first volume, A Hero Born, and the second volume, A Bond Undone, were published in February 2018 and January 2019 respectively. The focus of this research is to find out how Legends of the Condor Heroes is received among readers and explore what factors can influence readers’ reception. The research will start with the overview of Chinese martial arts fiction and Jin Yong’s martial arts fiction. The next part of this research will be the analysis of how readers respond to Legends of the Condor Heroes. With the help of computer software, the book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, blog posts, commentaries, academic journals and review articles will be analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. In addition, the different functions of a review will also be analysed here. Next, based on those analysis results, factors that can influence readers’ reception --- readers’ preference, the quality of the original work, the style of the translator, the quality of the translation and the market factor --- will be analysed in detail.
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Empowerment and disempowerment: A descriptive analysis of parliamentary interpreters
Asiphe Sogiba Stellenbosch University
This study aims to investigate the role of the interpreter in the Parliament of South Africa, but more specifically, to examine the reasons why parliamentary interpreters feel more empowered when they are physically available as opposed to when they interpret remotely. Interpreters working in parliament are required to perform in different settings, employ different working modes and address different audiences. Therefore, interpreters require some adjustments in their role between the above- mentioned settings. Interpreters working in the Parliament of South Africa claim that they gain less respect and recognition when they work remotely during parliamentary sittings as opposed to when they are onsite. They further state that they feel that no one listens to them when interpreting in the House and Members of Parliament do not see the need to provide copies of their speeches beforehand. However, interpreters add that when Parliament goes to the people, Members of Parliament see the significance of making their speeches available beforehand (Sogiba 2018). The main research question aims to address reasons pertaining to why parliamentary interpreters feel empowered or disempowered in certain interpreting contexts. To address the above-mentioned problem statement and research question, a qualitative research design will be employed, and in-depth interviews with interpreters will be conducted. The study will then compare the role of parliamentary interpreters when they perform simultaneous interpreting remotely during parliamentary sittings and in “less formal” parliamentary sessions such as public hearing sessions (Ntuli 2012:1). Interpreters in parliament often feel unappreciated and insignificant to their users. Therefore, research and awareness in the interpreting profession is needed to educate people whom interpreting is rendered, as it is every practitioner’s desire to be recognized regardless of the setting.
Key terms: conference interpreting; parliamentary interpreting; simultaneous interpreting; remote interpreting; interpreting context; role of interpreters
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Methods and strategies of a new approach to the historiography of translation from the Ottoman period to the present5
Sevil Celik Tsonev University of Graz
Studies in the field of translation history (Chesterman 1968; Pym 1998, 2009; D'Hulst 2001, 2010; Barnstone 1993; Bassnet/Lefevere 1990; Bastin/Bandia 2006; Malena 2011; Munday 2014; Lewis 2008; O’Sullivan 2012) using methods specific to (translation) sociology (Prunč 2007; Wolf 2012; Woodsworth/Delisle 1995/2012; Tahir-Gürçağlar 2008) and methods of history (Rundle 2011, 2012; 2014) to other disciplines are of importance as Translation Studies is interdisciplinary by nature. Thus, translation history is driven by an enormous amount of data mining; analysing, interpreting and imagining the data in question. Creating a historiography of the image of translation during a large period of time (800 years, in this case) is not possible from a single perspective but rather a multilateral methodology which includes interpretative, visual data analysing and illustrative methods in a systematically way (Hitzel 1995; Kayaoğlu 1998; Paker 2009; Eruz 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016; Demez 2007; Diriker 2015). In the preparation stage of a translation history ‘exhibition’, a new academic approach in translation historiography (Eruz 2009–2018 exhibitions), the symbiotic relationship among different disciplines like history, literature, sociology, political science are taken into consideration and indispensable disciplines like art history and graphic design are used to visualize the story. A Turkish Translation Studies scholar (Eruz) has been researching in the area since 1999, with her main focus on the Ottoman and the Turkish Republic periods, collecting visual material such as illustrations, pictures, paintings and photographs using which she opened 16 different exhibitions in the last 10 years, both in Turkey and Europe. The posters of the exhibitions serve as useful didactic material for the translation history classes conducted by her at various universities until 2018. Eruz is the author of several publications on the subject and aims to create new perspectives for her students and researchers. This paper aims to describe and analyse the methodology and systematics of Eruz’s new approach towards translation history which seems to pave the way for a comparison among the agents of translation, namely, the translators/interpreters and the structures of patronage of the past and present.
References: Barnstone, W. (1993) The Poetics of Translation: History, Theory and Practice. London: Yale University Press. Bassnet, S. and Lefevere, A. (eds) (1990) Translation, History and Culture. London: Pinter. Bastin, Georges L./Bandia, Paul F. (eds.) (2006) Charting the Future of Translation History. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press (Perspectives on Translation). Chesterman, A. (1968) Memes of Translation: The Spread of Ideas in Translation History. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
5 Dr. Sevil Celik Tsonev, Karl-Franzens University, Department of Translation Studies, Austria; Sakine Eruz; Prof. Emeritus, Turkey, İstanbul University & Yaşar University;
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Demez, Neslihan (2007) Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Yenileşme Hareketleri ve Çeviri: Encümen-I Daniş Örneğinde Tanzimat Dönemi Çeviri Yaklaşımları, İstanbul Üniversitesi, Master Thesis. Diriker, Ebru (2015) “On the evolution of the interpreting profession in Turkey. From the Dragomans to the 21st century”, in: Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz/Paker, Saliha/Milton, John (eds) Tradition, tension and translation in Turkey. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Jon Benjamins (Benjamins Translation Library 118), 89–106. D'Hulst, Lieven (2001) “Why and How to Write Translation Histories?”, in: Crop 6 (Special Edition “Emerging Views on Translation History in Brazil”, ed. by John Milton), 21–32. D'Hulst, Lieven (2010) “Translation History”, in: Gambier, Yves/Doorslaer, Luc van (eds.) Handbook of Translation Studies, Vol. 1. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 397-405. (Benjamins Translation Library) Eruz, Sakine(2010) Çokkültürlülük ve Çeviri. Osmanlı Devleti’nde Çeviri Etkinliği ve Çevirmenler. İstanbul: Multilingual. Eruz, Sakine (2011) “Die Geschichte der Translation im Osmanischen Reich und ihre Bedeutung für den Translator als Kulturexperte” in: Eruz, Sakine/Şan, Filiz (Hrsg.) (2011) Ein Kaleidoskop der Translationswissenschaft. Festschrift für Turgay Kurultay. İstanbul: Multilingual. Eruz, Sakine (2012) “Çeviri Derneği ve Türkiye’de Çevirmenlik Mesleğinin Statüye Kavuş(a)ma(ma)sı Üzerine On Üç Yıllık Gel Gitli Bir Öykü” in: Avrupa Birliği Bakanlığı Çeviri Platformu. Avrupa’nın Dili Çeviridir. Proceedings, 9 June 2012, 17–23, Ankara: Ministry of EU Turkey. Eruz, Sakine (2013) “The Homeland of Translators and Interpreters in the Ottoman Empire. What and Where is the Homeland of Polyglot People?” in: (ed.) Lucia, Stefania de/Sgambati, Gabriella (2013) CIVILTA DEL MEDITERRANEO, Semestralediricerca e informazione, Numero Monografico, Homeland in Translation. Eruz, Sakine (2016) “Osmanlı Devleti’nde Çeviri ve Çevirmenin İşlevi ve Türkiye’de Çevirmenlik Mesleği (Belgrad Antlaşması Sonucunda Sınır Çekilirken Yaşanan Çeviri Sorunları” in: İ.Ü. Çeviribilim Dergisi, Sayı VIII, İstanbul: İstanbul University Press. Eruz, Sakine (2009 – 2018) 16 Exibitions in Turkey and in Europe about Multiculturalism in the Ottoman Empire and the Role of the Translators. Hitzel, Frederic (1995) Dil Oğlanları ve Tercümanlar. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi. Kayaoğlu, Taceddin (1998) Türkiye’de Tercüme Müesseseleri. İstanbul: Kitapevi Press. Malena, Anne (2011) “Where is the “History” in Translation Histories?”, in: TTR 24:2 (Charting research methods in translation studies), 87–115. Munday, Jeremy (2014) “Using primary sources to produce a microhistory of translation and translators: theoretical and methodological concerns”, in: The Translator, 20:1, 64-80. Lewis, Bernard (2008) Babil’den Dragomanlara, transl. by Kılıç, Ebru, İstanbul: Alfa. Paker, Saliha (2009) “Türkisch Tradition”, in: Baker, Mona/Saldanha, Gabriela (eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Transaltion Studies. 2nd Edition, London and New York: Routledge, 550–559. Prunc, Erich (2007: Entwicklungslinien der Translationswissenschaft. Von den Asymmetrien der Sprachen zu den Asymmetrien der Macht. Berlin: Fanck&Timme O'Sullivan, Carol (2012) “Introduction: Rethinking methods in translation history”, in: Translation Studies 5:2, 131-138. Pym, Anthony (1998) Method in Translation History, Manchester: St. Jerome. Pym, Anthony (2009) “Humanizing Translation History”, in: Hermes 42, 23–48. Rundle, Christopher (2011) “History through a Translation Perspective”, in: Chalvin, Antoine/Lange, Anne/Monticelli, Daniele (eds.) Between Cultures and Texts. Entre les cultures et les textes. Frankfurt am Main [etc.]: Peter Lang, 33–43. Rundle, Christopher (2012) “Translation as an approach to history”, in: Translation Studies 5:2, 232- 240. Rundle, Christopher (2014) “Theories and methodologies of translation history: the value of an interdisciplinary approach”, in: The Translator 20:1, 2-8. St Andre, James (2009) “History”, in: Baker, Mona / Saldanha, Gabriela (eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Second Edition. London & New York: Routledge, 133-136. Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz (2008) The Politics and Poetics of Translation in Turkey, 1923-1960. Amsterdam – New York: Rodopi. Wolf, Michaela (2012) Die vielsprachige Seele Kakaniens. Übersetzen und Dolmetschen in der Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918.Wien/Köln/Weimar: Böhlau Woodsworth, Judith/Delisle, Jean (eds.) (1995/2012) Translators through history. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins (Benjamins Translation Library 101).
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Pre-editing plus neural machine translation for subtitling of TED Talks: an investigation into pre-editing quality
Masaru Yamada Yusuke Hiraoka Kansai University
In the advent of neural machine translation engines which are available online such as Google Translate, monolingual pre-editing of subtitling is deemed more realistic than ever. Also increased demand for video hosting services such as YouTube and TED Talks require faster dissemination of video contents in multiple languages with subtitling. In order to meet these requirements, monolingual pre-editing of the source contents may be better suited in combined use with the neural machine translation or NMT. Since NMT is not yet capable of producing high-quality translation or subtitling for certain language combinations such as English and Japanese, it is worthwhile focusing particularly on this language combination to carry out an investigation into pre-editing plus NMT. In this study, the authors. This study developed and evaluated a set of pre-editing rules for TED Talks subtitling to translate Japanese transcript subtitle into English. The simplified rules optimized for NMT (＠TexTra® Minnano jido hon’yaku) are simplified as they are specifically intended for use by a monolingual pre-editor of original content to be disseminated in English. The rules, which are are 1a) insert punctuation 2b) make implied subjects/s and objects explicit, and 3c) write proper nouns in English, , which were built based on our previous research on bilingual pre- editing of YouTubers’ videoonline contents (Hiraoka, 2018). The effectiveness of the rules was investigated in terms of both translation quality and readability, e.g., 21-character limit specified in the TED subtitling guidelines. As a result, quality improvement was confirmed significant, e.g., good enough quality MT outputs increased from 12 to 40%. It is also confirmed that pre-editing with the set of rules did not affect the CPS requirement. However, in some cases, no changes or even degrade in quality were observed, which means the pre-edited MT output contains low quality translations. Although some improvements in quality were observed, however, there was not much difference in the amount of low quality translations, which are is needed to be solved for overall ‘good enough quality’ translation. For the next step, therefore, the present research aims at developing specific pre-editing rules to improve these low quality further analysis of the low quality MT outputs. will be necessary, looking for specified pre-editing rules and definition of ‘good enough quality translation’ for subtitling.
References Hiraoka, Yusuke. 2018. The Application Possibility of Neural Machine Translation for Subtitling. In Proceedings of the 19th conference of the Japan Association for Interpreting and Translation Studies, page 22.
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