ENGLISH LINGUISTICS III:
Translation
Scope: theory and practice
Academic and theoretical framing: on the basis of real cases (practice-oriented)
Focus on functional competences: different discourse genres and domains (translation and interpreting
in the public sphere)
To identify possible sources of translation difficulties and possible strategies for resolving these
difficulties.
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Perspective
• Not prescriptive: strategies are presented as ‘actual’ strategies used rather than the ‘correct’
strategies to use.
• The source and target languages are English and Dutch in non-literary translation, English is the most
widely translated language in the world…
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Approach
• Theoretical frame and concepts (ppt)
• Reading
• Practice: translation and commentary
Organisation of the course
3 parts:
1. Translation with a capital T
2. translation
3. interpretation
1. WHAT IS TRANSLATION?
1. 1. Introduction
• Why is it useful to study translation?
• What social domains can you think of in which translation is needed?
• What would the world be like without translators and interpreters?
• Translation is needed in several domains of social life to transmit information and knowledge (politics,
medicine, economics, literature, etc.)
• Translation is very complex, to such an extent that even the most sophisticated computer systems
have problems to deal with it.
• Translation and interpretation studies anticipate social needs in an increasingly diverse, globalised and
therefore multilingual society
• Relevant for the communication of expert knowledge as well as at the level of everyday contact
between communities.
• Comment on the following translation into English
• Traces of the source language at which levels of the language system?
• For a good service of the maquina please read the instrucciones.
1) To clean your shoe, on the bottom side of the brush hold yourself in the bar of the maquine.
2) Put some shoe crème and put your shoe on the brush passing the top of your shoe, just a few drops of
cream is enough
3) Shine your shoe using the brush of the color of your shoe that you will find outside this maquine.
Please fallow these instrucciones and you will have an excelente polish of your shoe.
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What function do you think it was supposed to have in the source language? What audience?
Do you think it successfully fulfils its function?
Could you improve the English translation?
Could you make a Dutch translation?
1.2. Defining translation
Dictionary definition 1
Translation: to render meaning into another language
(Collaborative International Dictionary of English)
a) to render meaning
b) into another language
a) To render meaning
• To make sense
• To find out how meaning is constructed and understood
• To attribute meaning to form: Form: words, facial expressions, images, sounds, etc.
Meaning: values, functions, identities, ideas, etc.
• Meaning should not be seen as a stable counterpart to linguistic form
• Rather, it is dynamically generated in the process of language use (Verschueren 1999: 11)
A non-essentialist approach to meaning:
• there can be no such thing as an objective definition fixing the ‘true meaning’ or ‘essence’ of what we
perceive or believe something to be like
• apart from referential meaning forms also carry social, indexical or connotational meaning which is
context-dependent
b) Into another language
• meaningful social behaviour < Discursive meaning is dialogically constructed and implies the input of
at least two individuals (Bakhtin 1981, Voloshinov 1973, Kristeva 1989).
• spoken or written communication between people Language as social practice: a tension between
individual and social input
• Social variability ultimately involves individuals with unique contextual networks
• Language use is regulated by social conventions which can be played out strategically in interaction
Interaction = making sense of each others’ words or expressions of any kind
• Both referential and social meaning can be at stake
• E.g. request vs. command
• When people use different ‘languages’, translation involves:
• a transfer at the most basic referential level
• A transfer of the social dimension which often requires more effort to be rendered successfully!
• E.g. “een koffie alstublieft” vs. “a coffee please” • Translation is more than a verbal transfer (the word
should not be seen as the basic level), it is a contextual transfer from one code into another, which
involves a transfer of referential as well as social meaning
Dictionary definition 2
translation n.
1. the act or an instance of translating.
2. a written or spoken expression of the meaning of a word, speech, book, etc. in another language.
(The Concise Oxford English Dictionary).
a) Translation as a product
b) Translation as a process
a) Translation as a product
• the concrete translation product produced by the translator
• “any utterance which is presented or regarded as a ‘translation’ within a culture, on no matter what
grounds” (Toury 1995)
b) Translation as a process
• the role of the translator in taking the original or source text (ST) and turning it into a text in another
language, the target text (TT)
• “a process by which a spoken or written utterance takes place in one language which is intended or
presumed to convey the same meaning as a previously existing utterance in other language” (Rabin
1958)
• “the transfer of thoughts and ideas from one language (source) to another (target), whether the
languages are in written or oral form … or whether one or both languages are based on signs” (Brislin
1976)
• “an activity consisting (mainly) in the production of utterances (texts) which are presumed to have a
similar meaning and/ or effect as previously existing utterances in another language and culture”
(Pöchhacker 2004)
• J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter children’s books have been translated into over 40 languages and have sold
millions of copies worldwide. It is interesting that a separate edition is published in the USA with some
alterations. The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, appeared as Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the USA.
• As well as the title, there were other lexical changes: British biscuits, football, Mummy, rounders and
the sweets sherbet lemons became American cookies, soccer, Mommy, baseball and lemon drops. The
American edition makes a few alterations of grammar and syntax, such as replacing got by gotten, dived
by dove and at weekends by on weekends, an occasionally simplifying the sentence structure. (Hatim &
Munday 2004: 4-5)
• In the Hebrew translation of the same book, the translator chose to substitute the British biscuits with
a traditional Jewish sweet, a kind of marshmallow.
• In what ways do you think this shows similar reasoning to that behind the American version?
• How would you translate these items in Dutch?
Definition 3:
Roman Jakobson 1959/2000
• Jakobson distinguishes between 3 ways of translating a verbal sign:
a) Intralingual translation
b) Interlingual translation
c) Intersemiotic translation
a) Intralingual translation or ‘rewording’: ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of the
same language’ (when rephrasing an expression in the same language to explain or clarify something)
b) Interlingual translation or ‘translation proper’: ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some
other language’
c) Intersemiotic translation or ‘transmutation’: ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of
non-verbal sign systems’ (if a written text is translated into music, film or painting, also sign language)
• Write down some translation examples you come across in daily life of Jakobson’s interlingual,
intralingual and intersemiotic translation
• What links can you see between the different categories?
• Are there any examples which do not fit and which may show the need to modify the categories?
• Translation from one code into another can take various shapes: - from child language to adult
language - from written to spoken and vice versa - from sign language to spoken language - from slang to
standard - from English to Dutch ◊ In general, from one language variety into another (whether
regionally, socially, situationally determined)
Definition 4:
Pöchhacker 2004: 13-14
• Inter-social settings: between members of different linguistic and cultural communities
• Intra-social settings: within heterolingual societies, multi-ethnic socio-political entities
1.3. Translation= translation + interpretation
• Translation with a capital T: the use of translation in its general sense as ‘rendering meaning into
another language’
• In professional practice, a disctinction is made between two main types of translational activity:
translation and interpretation.
• Although translation and interpretation share the common goal of taking information that is available
in one language and converting it to another, they are in fact two separate processes.
involves oral translation from a source language (may be spoken or written) into the target language
(spoken) involves written translation from a source language (may be spoken or written) into the target
language (written) translation interpreting Translation
1.4. General terminology
• Source language: the language of the original message
• Target language: the language of the resulting translation or interpretation
A language - Native language:
most people have one A language, although someone who was raised bilingual may have two A
languages or an A and a B, depending on whether they are truly bilingual or just very fluent in the second
language.
B language - Fluent language:
fluent here means near-native ability - understanding virtually all vocabulary, structure, dialects, cultural
influence, etc. A certified translator or interpreter has at least one B language, unless he or she is
bilingual with two A languages.
C language - Working language:
translators and interpreters may have one or more C languages - those which they understand well
enough to translate or interpret from but not to actively use. • Translators and interpreters should only
work into the languages that they write/speak like a native or very close to it.
• It is very rare for anyone to have more than two target languages, although having several source
languages is fairly common.
• Describe your own language skills in terms of A, B and C languages
• What are your target and source languages?
• In which directions would you be able to translate?
1.5. Competences, skills and attitudes
Translation involves more than just a good command of the source and the target language, also
knowledge of:
• cultural differences
• genres (discourses and their functions)
• different translation strategies
• efficient methods of information collection
Broadened perspective:
• From a focus on the mere replacement of SL linguistic items with their TL equivalents
• To a concern with all types of linguistic, cultural and ideological phenomena around translation
2. TRANSLATION STUDIES
2.1. Why translation studies?
• Translation must be more than just based on intuition and practice, it requires the ability to stand back
and reflect on what you do and how you do it.
• An understanding of the raw material with which translators work: language and its functions for its
users (Baker 1992)
The issue of the tension between translation theory and practice:
• the fear that theory would take over from practical training (translation teachers)
• the view of translation as an art that cannot be theorized (literary translators)
2.2. Defining translation studies
• Translation studies: “the academic discipline which concerns itself with the study of translation at
large, including literary and non-literary translation, various forms of oral interpreting, as well as dubbing
and subtitling (…)
• It also covers “the whole spectrum of research and pedagogical activities, from developing theoretical
frameworks to conducting individual case studies to engaging in practical matters such as training
translators and developing criteria for translation assessment.” (Baker 1998: 277-280)
2.3. Translation studies and other disciplines
Translation is a very young discipline in academic terms
• 1950s and 1960s:
¬ translation studies was largely treated as a branch of applied linguistics
¬ linguistics in general was treated as the main discipline capable of informing the study of translation
• 1970s and 1980s:
¬ more attention to other disciplines such as psychology, communication theory, literary theory,
anthropology, philosophy and cultural studies
• 1990s:
¬ the academisation of the discipline (translator and interpreter training)
• “Translation studies is at a stage of its development when the plurality of approaches that inform it or
are capable of informing it can be overwhelming, and the temptation for many has been to promote one
approach with which they feel particularly comfortable and dismiss the rest” (Baker 1998: xiii).
• Translation studies is interdisciplinary by nature, YET it is capable of developing a coherent research
methodology of its own.
• The discipline should benefit from its plurality of perspectives: it can draw on a variety of discourses
and disciplines
• Important to see its various frameworks as essentially complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
2.4. Universals of translation
Specific features that characterise translated language as distinct from non-translated language:
• Greater cohesion and explicitation (with reduced ambiguity)
• The fact that a target text is normally longer than a source text
Toury (1995) proposes two general ‘laws’ of translation:
• The law of growing standardization : translated texts generally display less linguistic variation than
source texts
• The law of interference: common lexical and syntactic patterns in the source text tend to be copied,
creating unusual patterns in the target text.
• Investigating universals using larger corpora (electronic databases of texts)
• The TECcorpus, overseen by Mona Baker at the University of Manchester
• http://www.monabaker.com/tsresources
Discussion
Extract of a prepared speech made by Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director-General of UNESCO, in April 2002,
concerning the situation in the Middle East.
• Can you trace any of the postulated universals?
• Are there any different features of this text which confirm or counter the hypotheses of universals?
• How would you translate this text into Dutch?
2.5. Branches of translation studies
• Holmes’ (1972) map of Translation Studies
• His map of the discipline is now widely accepted as a solid framework for organizing academic activities
within the domain
• It has been mapped by Toury (1995) Holmes’s map provided an answer to the tension between the
theory and the practice of translation: the distinction between:
• Pure
• Applied
Pure translation studies
1) Descriptive translation studies = describing translation phenomena
¬ Existing translations (textually)
¬ Observed translation functions (socio-culturally)
¬ Experimentally determined translating processes (mentally)
2) Theoretical translation studies = developing principles, theories and models to explain and predict the
nature of translations, using the results of (1)
1) Descriptive translation studies
• Product-oriented: text-focused (describing and commenting on existing translations)
• Function-oriented: focus on the function of translations in their socio-cultural context
• Process-oriented: focus on the mental processes (the ‘black box’ of the translator’s mind)
2) Theoretical translation studies
• General translation theory = complex and hardly achievable
• Partial translation theories = theories that deal with only one or a few of the various aspects of
translation theory as a whole.
Partial translation theories
1. Medium restricted translation theories
• Human translation: performed by humans
¬ Oral translation or interpreting (consecutive and simultaneous)
¬ Written translation
• Machine translation: performed by computers
• Mixed or machine-aided translation: performed by the two in conjunction
2. Area-restricted translation theories
• Language-restricted
¬ Language-pair restricted theories (French- German)
¬ Language-group restricted theories (translation within Germanic languages)
¬ Language-group pair restricted theories (Germanic and Romance languages)
• Culture-restricted
3. Rank-restricted translation theories = a concern with linguistic levels or ranks
• The rank of the word: traditional theory
• The rank of the sentence: sentential linguistics
• The rank of the text (rank-free): text linguistics, involving the macro-structural aspects of entire texts
Word rank
• Comment on any differences in meaning between the items in each of the following sets
• Could you add words to the list?
• Translate these sets of words into Dutch: comment on the presence or absence of any semantic gaps in
your target language vis-à-vis English
a. car, auto, automobile, motor, limousine, limo, banger, jalopy
b. comfortable, comfy, homely, cosy, snug
c. dad, daddy, pa papa, pop, father, pater, sire, old man, old chap
d. newspaper, magazine, newsletter, bulletin, journal, report, pamphlet, periodical
Sentence rank
• Transate the following passage into Dutch: how to translate the idiom?
• Programmes to teach heritage languages to ethnic youngsters in upper elementary or high school are
all quite laudable, but if it is merely a question of trying to reinforce or replant first language competence
already lost for all practical purposes, then this is rather like shutting the stable door when the horse has
bolted
• French: “Ces cours, qui seraient dispensés dans les dernières classes de l’élémentaire ou au secondaire
constituent certes une initiative louable; mais c’est peut-être trop peu trop tard, car dans bien des cas
ces jeunes n’ont qu’un vague souvenir de leur language ancestrale”
Text rank
• What can you say about the textual organisation of the extracts below? Could you reflect on the
differences in (pragmatic) meaning between the source text and the target text?
Call for papers: English source text:
• Individual presentations should be timed to last 20 minutes, with a discussion period to follow.
Call for papers: target text (back-translated from Russian):
• The envisaged length of inividual papers is 20 minutes, not counting supplementary speeches and
discussions.
Call for papers: English source text:
• Abstracts in any of the congress languages, should be sent to the Lecture Programme Organizer at the
above address by 15 June 2008. Any other correspondence should be addressed to the Congress
organizer.
Call for papers: target text (back-translated from Russian):
• We ask for a short abstract of papers by June 15 2008, in any of the official languages of the
conference, to be sent at the above address. We ask you to send further corresponence to the chief
editor.
Call for papers: English source text:
• It is confidently expected that a volume of collected papers from this Congress will subsequently be
published.
Call for papers: target text (back-translated from Russian):
• The Press of the Academy of Sciences intends to publish in the form of a collection all the academic
material from the congress.
4. Text-type restricted translation theories = translation of different genres
Traditional dichotomy between:
• Literary translation: concern with the problems intrinsic to translating literary texts (Bible
translations!) = initial focus of attention
• Non-literary translation
Genre translation
• Utilitarian translation (business)
¬ in the context of a functional event (a means to an end)
• Symbolic translation (culture)
¬ in the context of a symbolic event (meta-level)
Can you think of specific genres that fit
• The category of utilitarian translation?
• The category of symbolic translation?
5. Time-restricted translation theories
• Translation of contemporary texts
• Translation of texts from an older period
6. Problem-restricted translation theories
• Traditional issues in translation studies:
• equivalence
• translatability
• More recent issues:
• gender metaphorics in translation
• publishing strategies
• computerized corpora in translation studies
Applied translation studies
1. Teaching
• Translation as a technique in foreignlanguage teaching (test)
• Translator training: courses to train professional translators
2. Translation aids
• Lexicographical and terminological aids
• grammars
3. Translation policy:
rendering informed advice to others in defining the role of translators in society at large
• The kind of discourses that need to be translated in a given socio-cultural situation
• What part translating should play in the teaching and learning of foreign languages
• What the socio-political position of the translator is and should be
Developments in translation studies
• Translation studies as an interdiscipline ‘par excellence’: interfacing with a whole network of other
fields
¬ To describe translation phenomena
¬ To establish general principles
¬ Methods are more varied
¬ The cultural and ideological features of translation have become as prominent as linguistic ones
3. TRANSLATABILITY
Discuss the following quotes:
• “Do we really know how we translate or what we translate? ... Are we to accept ‘naked ideas’ as the
means of crossing from one language into another? ... Translators know they cross over but do not know
by what of bridge. They often re-cross by a different bridge to check up again. Sometimes they fall over
the parapet into limbo. (Firth 1957: 197)
• “Translation is an impossible task because languages are never sufficiently similar to express the same
realities. ”
3.1. Introduction
• Lay definition of translation:
¬the literal rendering of meaning
¬adherence to form
¬emphasis on general accuracy
• Reveals a prescriptive attitude to translation and therefore requires some refinement
Steiner 1998
• List the arguments for and against translatability discussed by Steiner
• Make a list of the metaphors and other images used by Steiner to discuss translation
• What does Steiner mean by stating that “Those who negate translation are themselves interpreters”?
Untranslatability
Religious basis
• Translation involves devaluation
• Translation is blasphemy
• Better to remain silent
Secular basis
• Translation diminishes the source text
• No adequate correspondence between two different semantic systems
Translation as absolute equivalence?
Meaning cannot be entirely separated from expressive form: even basic notions are always the product
of an interplay between arbitrary semantic form and linguistic usage
¬No correspondence with absolute boundaries in the world around us
¬No ABSOLUTE concordance between thought and speech in itself
Translation as a mode of thought and understanding
• To dismiss the validity of translation because it is never perfect is facile: no human product can be
perfect
• Micro-scale differences and asymmetries will always exist
¬ Discussion should not be about the possibility of translation but about the degree of fidelity to be
pursued, the choices that have to be made with regard to content and shape
• Except perhaps for poetry, translation is always possible (after all, it does occur in daily practice!)
• Translation has to be more than ‘word-forword’ translation: it involves a process of interpretation and
meaning transfer
Jakobson 1959
• “all cognitive experience and its classification is conveyable in any existing language” (238)
• every concept, even if it does not exist in a different culture, should be ‘translatable’ in some way in
the target language
3.2. Form and meaning
• Only poetry “by definition is untranslatable” because form and meaning are so closely intertwined
(Jakobson 1959)
• the form of words contributes to the construction of the meaning of the text
• Classical dichotomy in translation between:
¬ sense/ meaning/ content
¬ form/ style
• Basic idea is that the sense may be translated while the form often cannot
• Untranslatability= the point where form begins to contribute to sense
• Areas where sound, rhyme and double meaning are unlikely to be recreated in the TL
• poetry, songs, adversising, punning, etc.
Example from Harry Potter
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: evil character with the name Tom Marvolo Riddle
• The form of the name contributes to its meaning:
¬ Anagram of ‘I am Lord Voldemort’
¬ The name is in itself a riddle
¬ Meaningful in the sense that it reveals the character’s true identity.
• Many Harry Potter translators have decided to alter the original name in order to create the required
pun:
¬ French: Tom Elvis Jedusor: Je suis Voldemort (jeu du sort = game of fate)
¬ Finnish: Tom Lomen Valedro (Ma olen Voldemort)
¬ Hungarian: Tom Rowle Denem (Nevem Voldemort)
• What about a Dutch translation: how to preserve the content by altering the form?
• Complication: what if you know that Tom Riddle should share his first name with Tom the Bartender…?
Choice:
• loss of the anagram but anticipating the significance of the first name in later books?
3.3. Literal and free translation
• the split between form an content is linked to the major polar distinction between ‘literal’ and
‘free’that has marked the history of western translation theory for 2000 years:
¬ In Classical times, it was normal for tranlators working from Greek to provide a literal, word-for-word
translation, which would serve as an aid to the Latin reader
¬ Bible translation: preference for adherence to literal translation because dealing with ‘the word of
God’
• The origin of this separation is to be found in two of the most-quoted names in translation theory:
¬Cicero (Roman lawer and writer)
¬St Jerome (translated Greek gospels into Latin in the 4th C)
Cicero
• claimed that he did not follow the literal ‘word-for-word’ approach but as an orator “sought to
preserve the general style and force of the language” (Hatim & Munday 2004: 11)
St Jerome
• described his Bible translation strategy as “I render not word-for-word but sense for sense” (Hatim &
Munday 2004: 11)
• Even today this distinction between literal and free translation strategies is still relevant: is it possible
to stick to literal translation?
Example
• Translated material of Arabic source text into English (by Arab translator)
¬ What strikes you as odd?
¬ Interference from Arabic: too literal?
¬ How obscure is one allowed to be in order to live up to the unrealistic ideal of full translatability?
Honorable Benefactor, The organization hopefully appeals to you, whether nationals or expatriates in
this generous country, to extend a helping hand (...) We have the honour to offer you the chance to
contribute to your programs and projects from your monies and alms so that God may bless you (...)
Chinglish
• No literal translations but ‘character-forcharacter’ translations
• ‘decoding the signs’ requires a thorough knowledge of the Chinese language, the English target
language and above all, some creative deduction on the basis of contextual information (where am I?
What is the message meant for?) To drive a motorcycle safely…
• There is the condition for you to drive a motorcycle Safely and make it serve to you faithfully the
condition is to keep the safety in your mind. Obey the important traffic regulations and carry out the
items herein below. PUT ON HELMET
• Safety riding starts with the helmet This is a very important element for driving motor – cycle. so you
should put on helmet when you riding. YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THIS
MOTOR-CYCLE
• The safe foundation according your driving skill and mechanical knowledge. practice in an open ground
without any vehicle untill you drive skillfully. UNDERSTAND YOUR SAFE LIMITED SPEED
• Over speed depends on the ground conditions of your driving skill and the weather. understand the
Speed. you will avoid accident. drawing a line between the speed and the danger vibration.
• “Lachen is gezond, maar als elk uithangbord in publieke instellingen, winkels, parken, dierentuinen,
hotels en toiletten, buitenlanders aanzet tot een fikse lachbui, dan is de eigenlijke (ernstige) boodschap
zoek. Mededelingen in publieke instellingen zijn meestal geen grap. Daarom hebben steden als Beijing de
oorlog tegen het Chinglish verklaard. Studenten zijn massaal de straten opgestuurd om alle affiches en
uithangborden te verbeteren. Ook van toeristen wordt verwacht dat ze restauranthouders op taalfouten
in het menu wijzen. Beijing streeft naar taalperfectie, karakter-per-karakter-vertalingen moeten worden
uitgebannen.” (http://www.law.kuleuven.ac.be/chineesrecht/Default.htm)
‘translationese’
¬a target text which is overly influenced by the source language
¬“A pejorative general term for the language of translation. It is often used to indicate a stilted form of
the TL from calquing ST lexical or syntactic patterning.” (Hatim & Munday 2004: 12)
• Problem with literal translations: fail to take account of the basic fact that not all texts or text users are
the same:
¬Literary texts: the Bible, the works of Shakespeare
¬pragmatic texts: marriage certificates, instructions on a medicine bottle
Bible translation
• Hebrew source text (back-translation): ‘t heap coal of fire on his head’ (Nida and Taber 1969: 2)
• English target text ‘to make somebody ashamed of this behaviour’
• Is it a pity to deprive the target reader of the imagery?
Manual: components of a food processor
• What strategies are employed by the translator to increase comprehensibility?
• French source text: Couvercle et cuves en polycarbonate. Matériau haute résistance utilisé pour les
hublots d’avion. Résiste à hautes températures et aux chocs.Tableau de commandes simple et
fonctionnel. 3 commandes suffisent à maîtriser Compact 3100.
Strategies?
• Back-translation into English Lid and bowls in polycarbonate. High resistance material used for aircraft
windows. Resists high temperatures and shocks. Simple and functional control panel. 3 controls suffice
to master Compact 3100.
• Target text: English Workbowls and lid are made from polycarbonate, the same substance as the
windows of Concorde. It’s shatterproof, and won’t melt with boiling liquids or crack under pressure.
Technically advanced, simple to use: just on, off or pulse.
3.4. Translatability and comprehensibility
• Translatability: the extent to which, despite obvious differences in linguistic structure (grammar,
vocabulary, etc.), meaning can still be adequately expressed across languages.
Is everything translatable?
Meaning should be understood:
• not only in terms of what the ST contains
• not only in terms of a fixed literal-free divide
• BUT as a cline in which a number of parameters are at play :
¬ the text type or genre
¬ the target audience
¬ the purpose of translation
Comprehensibility
• Taking these parameters into account, translation is possible and cultural gaps in one way or another
bridgeable, the main objective to work towards is comprehensibility
• Comprehensibility entails that translated meanings are appreciated for what they are in the source text
by the target audience
A functionalist approach
• Translatability covers a grey area: whereas a great deal of the source meaning can be translated,
translators always have to make choices according to text type, communicative purpose and audience
• A functionalist approach: focus on equal significance to target audiences
4. A FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Translation as social practice
• Translation does not take place in a social vacuum: “It is an activity involving language varieties carried
out by people in a social framework, an activity that is subject to and regulated by sets of values held by
those involved in the field.” (Flynn 2006: 58)
Functional equivalence
• What is at stake is equal significance of the function, meaning or value of the source text to the target
audience
• In order to preserve functional meaning, translators always have to make choices according to text
type, communicative purpose and audience
• Equivalence relations are considered in terms of the translation being “a valid representative of the
original in the communicative act in question” (de Beaugrande 1978: 88)
• This view requires an awareness of the conventions governing the communicative event within which
texts or genres occur
Genre, register and text type
• Genre: a discursive mode related to a particular social sphere (broad Bakhtinian sense)
• E.g. a legalistic genre in terms of linguistic/narrative/stylistic mode
• Development from a categorical to a dynamic conception of genre
Genre
• “In regards to genre, for example, the emphasis of the late 1960’s through the mid 1970’s was on
structural definitions of individual genres (…) and on the culturally established systems of classification
discovered through the techniques of ethnoscience. More recently, these concerns have been tempered
by a conception of genre as a dynamic, expressive resource, in which the conventional expectations and
associations that attach to generically marked stylistic features are available for combination and
recombination in the production of varying forms and meanings” (Bauman in Duranti & Goodwin 1992:
127)
Register
• “a linguistic repertoire that is associated, culture internally, with particular social practices. The use of
register conveys to a member of the culture that some typifiable social practice is linked indexically to
the current occasion of language use, as part of its context.” (Agha in Duranti 2001: 212)
Text type
• Every text functions within a specific culture of rules, demands and expectations for specific audiences
Common text types
• financial texts
• legal texts
• literary texts
• medical texts
• scientific texts
• technical texts
Problems with text typology
• Texts are essentially multi-functional: a particular text can and often does serve different functions
• Functional relativity: this functionality may be different across cultural and linguistic boundaries
A functional continuum
• Still, it is practical to identify the text purpose and function as a matter of degree : to specify the
appropriate hierarchy of functional levels
• Accordingly, a text can be defined on the basis of predominant contextual focus
Text typology
• Informative texts: to convey information
• Expressive texts: to communicate inner thoughts through creative expression
• Operative texts: to persuade
¬Can you think of any text types that fit these categories?
Translating text types
• There is no absolute correlation between text type and method of translation
• Still, “text-type classifications sharpen the translator’s awareness of linguistic markers of
communicative function” (Nord 1997: 38)
• Purpose: to preserve the predominant contextual function of the source text in the translation
Handout
Discuss the following texts, using linguistic evidence (actual words, grammar) to support your views:
• What in your estimation is the writer’s ultimate aim?
• How does the text affect you as a reader/ hearer?
• How would you translate the text in Dutch: what decisions would you make if you want to preserve its
functionality?
Informative texts
• Purpose: to convey information
• Main concern of the translator: to preserve semantic meaning (content, information)
Expressive texts
• Purpose: to communicate inner thoughts through creative expression
• Main concern of the translator: to preserve aesthetic effect alongside relevant aspects of semantic
content
Operative texts
• Purpose : to persuade, have a particular effect on the audience
• Main concern of the translator: to preserve persuasiveness or extra-linguistic effect, often at the
expense of both form and content.
• Utilitarian translation (pragmatic function)
¬ in the context of a functional event (a means to an end)
• Symbolic translation (expressive function)
¬ in the context of a symbolic event (meta-level)
5. LITERARY TRANSLATION
5.1. Literary translation: introduction
Literary translation can be defined as (Baker : 127-130)
• “an original subjective activity at the centre of a complex network of social and cultural practices”
• “a very social, culturally-bound process where the translator plays a key role in a complex series of
interactions”
Literary translation
• It involves an interplay between ¬a creative activity ¬a social process
• concrete forms of language use embedded in, constructing and interacting with their socio-cultural
contexts (Flynn 2006) Discussion
• Think about the position of the literary translator starting from the following quote by Peter Bush
(Baker 19: 128): “As the creator of the new work in the target culture, the literary translator operates at
the frontiers of language and culture, where identity is flux, irreducible to everyday nationalist tags of
‘Arab’, ‘English’ or ‘French’, or to foreign talk seen as irritating jabber”
The status of the literary translator
(a) The translator at a key point of cultural convergence
• feels at home in the reality of constant migration across all sorts of boundaries (political, socioeconomic)
• develops multiple identities
(b) The translator as a creator of new work in his/her own social space
• creates a new discourse in a different language, based on personal readings, research and creativity
• plays a key role in the cross-cultural spread of words and ideas by suggesting works for translation
Literary translators challenge:
• the authority of the canon
• the nationalism of culture
• the death of the author ◊ idea that categorisations are relative!
Challenging the authority of the canon
Literary translators challenge the authority of the canon, arguing that the construction of canons has
been informed historically by valuejudgements of particular social groups and is therefore subject to
prejudices of class, gender, nation and race
Challenging the nationalism of culture
Literary translators challenge essentialist views that categorise cultures as nationally defined,
monolingual dominant cultures, with a clear set of features (ways of thinking and acting) that
characterise and determine all of their members
Challenging the death of the author
• Literary translators challenge the idea of dependence on the author’s interpretation of what s/he has
written and represent the ‘rebirth’ of the author in their own creative work
• This new creation in itself forms the basis for multiple readings and interpretations which will go
beyond any interpretations of either original author or translator
Intuitive or informed?
• As a translator, you will confront words on a page: how to interpret them? ¬ Sticking to the words on
that page, as a purely intuitive task ¬ Moving beyond the original words, considering a whole context of
readings by readers of the soure language, which also add to the meaning of the original text
• Careful reading and re-reading of the original
• Accompanying research of the source text and other work by the author
• Find out more about the author
• If living author: participation in the translation process?
• Whatever the strategy adopted, “any translation is ultimately the product of multiple readings and
drafts which precede and determine the shape of the final draft delivered to the publishers. Context is
crucial.” (Baker 129)
5.2. POETRY TRANSLATION
The art of the impossible or the art of compromise?
• Poetry translation is generally considered the most difficult, demanding and possibly rewarding form of
translation
• Far more has been written about the translation of poetry than about either prose or drama
• Main discussion is about the very possibility of poetry translation in itself
the art of the impossible
Poetry is “that which is lost in translation” (Frost)
• content and form are inseparably linked
• the language of poetry is further removed from ordinary language than the more elaborate prose
• it is writing in its most compact, condensed and heightened form
• the language is predominantly connotational rather than denotational
an art of compromise
• Translation requires attention to each of the various levels on which a poem functions:
• The semantic level
• The aesthetic level
• The pragmatic level
The semantic level
A poem carries some message or statement about the real world or the author’s reaction to it and this
should be reproduced in the translation
• the message is often implicit and connotative rather than explicit and denotative
• The message might give rise to different readings and multiple interpretations
The aesthetic level
A poem carries particular characteristics that mark it as belonging to a particular poet
• The meaning of poetic form may change in time and place: may be attributed different social values
and may therefore not be effective in another age and culture.
Holmes (1988: 25)
4 strategies for the translation of verse forms:
1) mimetic: the original form is retained
2) analogical: a culturally corresponding form is used
3) organic: the semantic material is allowed to ‘take on its own unique poetic shape as the translation
develops’
4) deviant or extraneous: the form adopted is totally absent (not even implicit) in the form and content
of the original
Discussion
• How would you describe your own translation of ‘Olifant’ according to these four strategies
distinguished by Holmes?
• Can you illustrate this with concrete lines in your translation?
The pragmatic level
The functionality of the poem in the target culture:
• preserving the intrinsic poetic value of the translated text
• arousing sentiment and producing an emotional effect
Dilemma of the poetry translator
It is hardly possible to achieve equivalence at all the levels on which a poem functions:
• account for the characteristic features of the original
• create a poetic text
• arouse the same pragmatic effect on the reader
• Although the original should be recognizable in the translation (if not, it is imitation or adaptation),
“what an English-only reader wants is a good poem in English” (Gallagher 1981: 149)
• Choices and compromises ◊ multiple translations of the same poem may achieve what no one
translation can do
Poetics in performance (Flynn 2006)
Poetry translation is about our own interaction with the “text” and our own interpretation of how these
poems work ¬semantically ¬aesthetically ¬pragmatically
Dutch- English
• Olifant - G. Achterberg
• Form and meaning: do we opt for form or meaning or both?
English-Dutch
• Streemin - Roger McGough
• Social and regional variation contribute to the meaning of the poem: how to translate this package of
‘shape’?
De laatsten van de klas
1) ‘k zijn bij de domme gezedt
2) ‘k zijn dus niet slim
3) ‘k telle niet graag op
4) en kan met moeite schreiven.
5) maar al die indelingen
6) zijn eigenlek niet eerlek
7) kijk op ‘t kerkof
8) geen domme en slimme daar
5.3. PROSE TRANSLATION
Discuss the following ideas:
• The idea that prose translation must stand on its own as a prose text, unsupported by glosses or
commentary
• The idea that prose translation must be surrounded by footnotes “reaching up like skyscrapers to the
top of this or that page so as to leave only the gleam of one textual line between commentary and
eternity” (Nabokov 1955: 512)
Compare Claus 1983
• Het verdriet van België
• The sorrow of Belgium
6. The translation of children’s literature
• The ‘invisible’ translator
• The internationalism of children’s literature involves mediation: differering views of childhood across
history and across the globe the significance of developmental factors
1. Definition: what is meant by children’s literature?
• A functional definition (Reiss 1982: 7, translated by Lathey 2006: 17) : “Literature for children and
young people (referred to simply as children’s literature from now on) is defined not as those books which
they read (children and young people read and always have read a wide range of literature), but as
literature which has been published for – or mainly for– children and young people”
2. The characteristics of children’s literature as a genre
2.1. Dual audience
Children’s books address two audiences:
• primary target audience: the children, who want to be entertained/ informed
• secondary audience: the adults, who have quite different literary tastes and expectations
An unequal relationship
• The secondary audience is much more influential than the primary audience: it is the adults who
influence and decide what is written, what is published, praised and purchased
• “Children’s books are written for a special readership but not, normally, by members of that readership;
both the writing and quite often the buying of them are carried out by adult nonmembers on behalf of
child members.” (Briggs 1989: 4)
2.2. Ambivalent texts
• which can be read by a child on a conventional, literal level or intepreted by an adult on a more
sophisticated or satirical level as well
• the genre fulfils numerous functions and operates under diverse cultural constraints: it is read for
entertainment and literary experience but also used as a tool for education and socialisation
Ideological issues
Differences between the contexts from which national children’s literatures emerge: a) Didacticism b)
Censorship
a) Didacticism
• As a vehicle for educational, religious and moral instruction as well as for the teaching of literacy
• Reflects adult considerations of what is good for the child
• tell what rights or duties children have, how they should be socially or intellectually educated
b) Censorship
• Differing cultural expectations give rise to censorship in the process of translation, particularly in the
representation of violence and the scatological references in which children take such delight
• Aschenputtel (Grimm) --> Cinderella: the omission of the toe and heel mutilation and the pecking out
the sisters’ eyes
3. Translating for children versus adults
3.1. The status of children’s literature
• The status of children’s literature reflects the social position of its audience: “the Cinderella of literary
studies” (Shavit 1992: 4)
• Children’s literature has tended to remain uncanonical and culturally marginalized If the source
material is consered of marginal interest, then the translation carried out on this material is undervalued
as well
3.2. The developmental aspects of childhood
• The inevitable limitation to the young reader’s world knowledge: they cannot be expected to
understand the complexity of other cultures, languages and geographies that are taken for granted in an
adult readership
Discussion
• “an impenetrable-looking set of foreign names on the first pages of a book might alienate young
readers, so that a translator has to gauge the precise degree of foreignness, and how fart it is acceptable
and can be preserved” (award-winnning English translator Anthea Bell, 1986: 7)
The (un)awareness of the foreign
a) Foreignisation: the idea that it is those very qualities of the unfamiliar that attract and captivate
young readers
b) Domestication: the idea that children are alienated by the foreign
a) Foreignisation
• The idea that adaptation should be restricted to details and the source text manipulated as little as
possible
• Translational procedures (adaption) according to 2 priniciples: an adjustment of the text to make it
appropriate and useful to the child (educationally good) an adjustment of plot, characterization, and
language to the child’s ability to read and comprehend
• Children will never be intrigued and attracted by difference if it is kept from them!
b) Domestication
• ‘cultural context adaptation’: an umbrella term for a variety of strategies for moving an original text
towards the child reader in the target culture
• The idea that young readers will find it dificult to assimilate foreign names, foodstuffs or locations, and
that they may reject a text reflecting a culture that is unfamiliar A tendency for the translators of
children’s texts to follow existing models in the target culture:
• the adaptation of dialect or slang, since children’s texts include a high proportion of dialogue
• The adaptation of names which have a meaning relevant to the story
• Pippi Langstrump – Pippi Longstocking- Pippi Langkous: a good reason to translate the name as it has a
meaning relevant to the story
• Mowgli, Baloo, Shere Khan, Bagheera (Jungle Book): children do take delight in the sound and shape of
unfamiliar names
3.3. Translating sound and translating the visual
The narrative triangle: the relationship between:
• the narrative voice of the adult reading aloud
• the child who listens and imagines
• the images quickened by both adult and child
a) Translating sound
• The importance of sharing, performance and reading aloud: “we should translate, not just for the eye
and the ear, but also for the adult’s mouth” (Oittinen 93)
• The aural texture of a translation : much writing for the young child is read aloud
• Language and word play are essential to the narrative and constitute the ‘inner rhythm’ (poetry!)
• Repetition, rhyme, onomatopoeia, wordplay and nonsense as common features of children’s texts (still
discovering the power of language)
Illustration
• Negen schijfjes banaan op zoek naar een plekje om te slapen, Pieter Gaudesaboos (2+)
b) Translating the visual
• The visual medium: images play an essential role in the narrative enactment that takes place when an
adult shares a picture book with a young child
• Translators have to try to make the text and illustration fit each other: s/he must know the language of
illustrations
Illustration: Bing. Get dressed, Ted Dewan (1+)
4. Elaboration: carnivalism and dialogics
• Bakhtin (Russian philospher): ideas about carnivalism and dialogics apply very well to translation and
translating for children in particular
Similarities between children’s culture and carnivalism
• Non-official: no dogma, no authoritarianism
• Deviation from ordinary language: free from abstract structures and rules
• Universal: everybody can join in it; there are no outsiders
• There is no audience
• Love for the grotesque, ridicule of anything that is scary, games, the mouth and eating... the belly as a
central ‘figure’ in carnivalism!
Illustration
• De Guitenstreken van STOUTE HENDRIK, Franscesca Simon, met tekeningen van Tony Ross. Vertaling:
Katrien Bruyland: 42-43. (7+)
• this comparison gives us a new point of view on children’s culture: the unofficial culture of carnivalism
is dialogic rather than authoritarian: no etiquette in the adult sense of good and bad manners, using your
own way of speech (abusive language), makes it easier for participants to communicate
The child as ‘superaddressee’
• The child image of the translator could be seen as his “superaddressee”, “whose responsibe
understandig is presumed” (Bakhtin 1990)
• “The translator is directing her/ his words, her/ his translation, to some kind of a child: naive or
understanding, innocent or experienced; this concept of child influences her/ his way of addressing the
audience – the choice of words, for instance. Later, in a real dialogue, a real child takes up the book and
reads, and new, perhaps unintended, meanings arise. Yet, without any ‘superaddressee’ the book would
not be a coherent whole” (Oittinen referring to Iser 1990)
5. Translation of the historic present
• In the Great Forest a little elephant was born
• In the Great Forest a little elephant is born
The present tense as basic narrative mode
• “I am most reluctant to use the historic present in English in a middle-of-the-road kind of children’s
novel, even if it is the main tense of a French or German original. In English, the historic present seems
more a tense for a stylist than is necessarily the case in other languages. I like it myself; I like its
immediacy. But I feel it needs to be approached with caution in translating children’s fiction” (Anthea Bell
1986: 17)
Historic present: functions
• a merging of narrative and narrated time: the events are related by an ‘on the scene’ narrator
• the narrator and the reader are united in an illusion of presentness
• the narrative intimacy and the immediacy of the narrator as spectator
• visual qualities: to recount events as they unfold visually an evocative strategy for breathing life into
past events (fits the dramatic medium of reading aloud)
Illustration: The story of Babar Jean de Brunhoff (1+) A cruel hunter, hiding behind a bush, shot at them.
He killed Babar’s mother...
• What are the imaginative effects of the narrative present in the text?
• What are the consequences of a change of tense in the process of translation?
6. In a nutshell: qualities of the translator
• To be creative, dynamic, imaginative, experimental, interactive and unstable: “to make a transition to
the child’s mindset through the medium of the original writer’s style” (Lathey 2006: 9)
• To adopt a child’s perspective
• To preserve the duality that characterises much of the best writing for children (playing with the
unequal relationship between adult and child)
Reading
• Oittinen, R. 2006. ‘No Innocent Act: On the ethics of translating for children’. In Van Coillie, J. And W.P.
Verschueren Children’s literature in translation. Challenges and strategies. Manchester: St. Jerome
Publishing
References
• Van Coillie, J. & W.P. Verschueren. 2006. Children’s literature in translation. Challenges and strategies.
Manchester: St Jerome Publishing.
• Lathey, G. (ed.) 2006. The translation of children’s literature. A reader. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
LTD.
7. SUBTITLING
7.1. Subtitling
A subtitle is text which represents what is being said on the screen
“while a good subtitler has to be a good translator, not every good translator is automatically a good
subtitler” (1998: 85)
Subtitling and dubbing procedures
 Conventions and rules operate ‘by force of habit’
 The audiovisual industry developed practical guidelines for producers to contribute to a high standard
of language transfer of their productions
 Conventions are not exhaustively defined as a set of rules, but are indicative of policies that are
broadly implemented
The practice of subtitling:
3 stages
 the subtitler views the entire film to check how closely the script corresponds to the film
 the actual subtitling
 the subtitler proofreads the text and lets the videotape run with the subtitles
The subtitler’s resources
 A script or dialogue list in the source language, preferably with an additional glossary covering any
unusual terms or words
 A copy of the film: usually a video/DVD which is time coded: the time code enables the subtitler to
define the exact frame where a subtitle is to begin and end
Parameters
 The audiovisual media: the cinema, television, video or DVD
 The audience: the hard of hearing, ‘MTV’ generation
The pros and cons of subtitling
 The sound you hear is the original sound
 It is relatively inexpensive
 The instructive value of subtitles: it consolidates over time the viewers’ familiarity with the language,
esp. if they have a working knowledge of it already (to increase literacy)
 The disturbing subtitles divert the viewer’s attention from the picture
 The translation does not cover everything that is said
 The subtitles often flit in and out without being synchronised with the takes, in disregard of the film’s
rhythm and intention
Subtitling practice
 Dialogue compression
 Subtitle breaks
 How long should subtitles remain on the screen?
 Punctuation conventions
 Displays and captions
 Legibility
 Position of subtitles
 Visibility
(1) Dialogue compression
 In some cases, dialogue has to be condensed: selecting what to translate and what to omit (most
difficult part of subtitling!)
 The condensed dialogue should be coherent and should contain the essential content that needs to
be conveyed to the viewers
Paraphrase
 Anything that is not considered strictly necessary for an understanding of the dialogue can be omitted
 “Well, it’s just that this morning Mr. Smith came into the office and told us that he has heard that we
will all be fired some time during next week.”
Muddled speech
 There is no point in trying to give a true reproduction the muddled speech (no complete phrases,
confused syntax, repetitions, hesitations) as it would only make the translation incomprehensible
 Better to translate relatively freely, giving the gist of what the person has said in a reasonably
coherent form, including just enough of the speaker’s inarticulate diction to give the viewers a hint of
the delivery
Merging short dialogues
 Usually much better to represent a series of short questions and answers by statements
o Do you live in Newcastle? Yes.
And you work in a coal mine? Yes.
o Do you like the work? No.
That’s too bad.
Simplifying the syntax
 Simple syntactic structures instead of complex ones are easier to read
o Here’s something
We haven’t seen before
o We’ll go when we’ve had dinner.
o It was usually done
By the police.
(2) Subtitle breaks
 Each subtitle must be a coherent, logical semantic and /or syntactic unit (viewers cannot turn back
the page!)
 No subtitle breaks between words that belong together, either logically or grammatically
o She had furnished the room well.
The interior was mainly in red
o and green, as these were her
favourite colours
o I don’t know what will happen to
the insurance company’s yearly
o excursion, which is generally made
in May, as the manager
o of the sales department, who
usually arranges it, is ill.
o Welcome to the first
of four programmes
o in this series that every four
weeks will show how big money
o governs England, and how your
money can be used
o to change society. We’ ll see
a commercial, soon to be shown
o in our cinemas.
Fast dialogue
 Instead of writing a separate subtitle for each line, it is better to condense the dialogue of two or
more people into a single subtitle: taking a new line for each speaker and starting each line with a
dialogue dash
- Do you think this is right?
- I do indeed.
 To divide questions and answers between two speakers: writing the question on the first line and the
answer on the second
o We’ll go up to York.
Have you ever been there?
o -No, not yet.
-But your wife comes from there?
o -Almost: from Leeds.
-Shall we go?
o All right
Punch line
o -Jill, will you be my wife?
o -Well, I never …! Yes.
Pause
o
o
-Please, sit down with me.
-Thanks. My God, the roast!
2 lines of unequal length
 Centred:
o
He said that he would not be able to come
until tomorrow.
o He said
that he would not be able to come until
tomorrow.
 Left-justified lines:
o He said that he would not be able to come
until tomorrow
o He said
that he would not be able to come until tomorrow.
The practice of ‘spotting’
Spotting, timing or cuing: the process of defining the in and out times of each subtitle
 mark a subtitle break in the script by writing a slash/ where you want to cue the next subtitle, that is,
after the cue word
 make a note of how many seconds the title is to remain in the picture, e.g. /5
o Is it, if you speak sincerely,
absolutely necessary /4
o that you should behave in this way? /3
(3) How long should subtitles remain on the screen?
 “Public service corporations have an obligation to cater for all categories of viewers, and all
categories” includes not only fast-reading adolescents and the educated but also young children with
nascent reading skills, immigrants acquiring the language, average and below-average learners with
reading problems, the hard of hearing, the visually disabled, and the elderly with impaired sight and
hearing and slower reaction times.” (68)
 Most of the viewers need 4 to 6 seconds to read and understand a two-line subtitle
 The more words there are in each subtitle, the less time is spent on each word (tests)
 If a subtitle is very short (one word: yes or no), it could theoretically be taken off the screen after a
half-second; yet the risk is that the eye will not register it at all
Distinction in reading speeds in different media
Television and video subtitles:
 the minimum time is at least one and a half seconds
 the maximum time for a full two-liner should not exceed five to six seconds (if longer, the viewers
inevitably start to reread them)
 Parameters (not absolute!) : the level of literacy of the target audience, the viewers’ degree of
familiarity with the programme language, the pace of the visuals
Film subtitles
 Audiences need about 30% less time to read film subtitles on a big cinema screen than for the same
subtitles on a television screen
 Cinemagoers are generally younger, a generation that has been raised on computers and zapping
(MTV generation): used to seeing words on screens and rapid image changes, learned to absorb
information fast!
(4) Punctuation conventions
Suspension dots:
 Three dots without spaces are used to indicate hesitation in mid-sentence:
o You mean…you won’t do it?
 Suspension dots followed by a space indicate interruption:
o You mean… No, I won’t do it.
CAPITALS and italics
 Upper case: can be used to represent extremely loud exclamations or shouting by a crowd
 Italics are used to indicate “distant voices”, voices from a telephone, radio, interior monologue, from
another room, etc. (dream scenes, flash backs)
o -Hello? Who is speaking?
o -We have got your daughter…
Forms of address
 Some forms of address are characteristic of a language (tu, vous, u, jij): sometimes the distinctions
need to be expressed by other means:
o Si on se tutoyait?
Let’s drop the mister and miss, shall we?/ Shall we use first names?
o Je n’aime pas q’on me tutoie
You’re being too familiar
Strong language
 Swearwords and obscenities often seem to have a stronger effect in writing than in speech, especially
if they are translated literally
 Difficulty is to determine exactly where they range on the scale of rudeness
 Often better to have an idiomatic equivalent in the target language?
 Motherfucker (force in English has become diluted)
(5) Displays and captions
 should appear and disappear simultaneously with the original
 should correspond typographically as closely to the original as the subtitling system allows: capitals as
capitals and handwritten texts as italics.
(6) Legibility
Choice of typeface:
 optimum legibility is achieved by using a simple, stark, sans serif typeface (Helvetica, Arial).
 the need for a sans serif type to minimize the loss of legibility that you already have due to the black
on white type.
 Sans serifs (embellishments) make the type more attractive on paper, but tend to impair legibility on
the screen.
 Italics are more difficult to read in running text than upright characters
 Capitals are less easy to read than lower case characters because the eye reads word by word or
phrase by phrase and not letter by letter, so it is important that each word forms a clearly legible
image. Moreover, all-capital printing takes at least one-third more space than lower case.
 Proportional versus monospace types: proportional letter spacing makes the text easier to read and
makes it possible to increase the number of characters in a given line by up to 20% compared with
monospaced text
 Courrier is a monospaced typeface and Times is a proportional typeface
(7) Position of subtitles
Layout on the screen
 Film: centered
 Television: generally aligned at a fixed margin that corresponds to the standard form of printed text,
that is, the same left margin throughout.
Length of the line:
 cannot usually exceed about 40 letters and spaces
 there is no need to change to a second line if the first one is not filled
Placing:
 The best place is at the bottom of the screen
 The most important part of the picture (faces) is usually in the upper section of the screen
(8) Visibility
 Text background: the most legible results are achieved on monochrome rather than speckled or
mottled backgrounds
 the text is printed on a black strip (black box, letter box, ghost box)
 The subtitle letters are given a border or a drop shadow
Code of Good Subtitling Practice (Ivarsson, & Carroll 1998: 157-159)
= HANDOUT
 The Black Adder (Richard Curtis – Rowan Atkinson – Ben Elton- 1983)
 24 (Kiefer Sutherland-2001)
8. DUBBING
8.1. Introduction
Audiovisual translation:
• subtitling is visual: written text onto the screen
• dubbing is oral: the technique of covering the original voice by another voice
• Two types
Dubbing (lip-sync dubbing):
‘the replacement of the original speech by a voice track which attempts to follow as closely as possible
the timing, phrasing and lip movements of the original dialogue’ (Luyken et al. 1991: 31)
Revoicing:
 may take the form of a voice-over, narration or free commentary
 no attempts to adhere to the constraints of lip synchronization
 may be pre-recorded or transmitted live
Where most common?
• France, Germany, Italy and Spain
• Also in the ‘subtitling countries’ for programmes aimed at children under 7 years old
Professionalisation
• The fact that dubbing is more labour intensive than subtitling has resulted in the dubbing
industry becoming more professionalised than the subtitling industry.
• Often experienced actors (no money to take several takes), but always the same voices!
8.2. Pros and cons
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The dialogue can be understood even by those who have reading difficulties or the illiterate
It does not affect the composition of the picture and involves less textual reduction
It produces a more homogeneous discourse: oral translation of an oral source text
It is more professionalized (higher quality)
The content of the script is often altered for the sake of better lip synchronisation
The audience does not hear the voices of the original actors; the authenticity is often lost
Dubbing is ten to twenty times more expensive than subtitling
8.3. Functional translation
Luyken et al (1991) argue for a mix of methods based on:
• programme genre
• audience profile
• Recommendations
•
•
Subtitling: close link between the linguistic content and the character of a programme (news,
educational broadcasts, life entertainment programmes, etc.)
Revoicing: programmes for the very young and the very old (cartoons, science and art
programmes, sports, drama in which entertainment is the predominant factor)
Practice
• Cars (Disney – Pixar -2006)
References
• Dries, J. 1995. Dubbing and subtitling. Guidelines for production and distribution. European
Cultural Foundation.
• Baker, M. 1998. Dubbing. In Baker, M (ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies.
London: Routledge: 74-76.
9. INTERPRETING
9.1. Defining interpreting
“Interpreting is a form of Translation in which a first and final rendition in another language is produced
on the basis of a one-time presentation of and utterance in a source language” (Pöchhacker 2004: 11)
• Main distinguishing criterion is its immediacy, not the fact that it is rendered in spoken language
Immediacy
• the source-language text is presented only once and thus cannot be reviewed or replayed
• the target-langage text is produced under time pressure, with little chance for correction and
revision
9.2. Types of interpreting
Catagorisation according to a set of typological parameters (Pöchhacker 2004: 113-22):
1) Language modality
2) Working mode
3) Social setting of the interaction
4) Directionality
5) Use of technology
6) Professional status
1) Language modality
•
•
Spoken-language interpreting
Sign-language interpreting
2) Working mode
•
•
•
•
Consecutive interpreting
Simultaneous interpreting
Whispered interpreting
Sight interpreting
Consecutive interpreting
= interpreting after the source-language utterance has been presented
• It involves a lower level of immediacy than simultaneous interpreting: begins only after the
speaker has verbalized a group of words or sentences
• It involves a continuum which ranges from the rendition of utterances as short as one word to
the handling of entire speeches
2 subtypes
•
•
Classic consecutive: the interpreter listens for about 5 min to a speaker and resumes in the
target language on the bases of his/her notes (systematic note-taking)
Short consecutive: usually without note-taking, for person-to-person communication during
which the interpreter sits near both parties (e.g. discussion between the presidents of France
and the US: consecutive interpretation in both directions)
Simultaneous interpreting
= interpreting as the source-language text is being presented: the interpreter begins to convey a
sentence being spoken while the speaker is still talking
commonly used when there are numerous languages needed (e.g. international conferences and
organisations)
Whispered interpreting
fluistertolken
• In business settings: with microphone and hearset receivers (guided tours)
• In legal settings: interpreting by speaking in low voice (e.g. court interpreting for witnesses)
Sight interpreting (vertalen van ‘t blad )
= the oral rendition of a written source text ‘at sight’ in the target language
• the interpreter’s target-text production is simultaneous not with the delivery of the source text
but with the interpreter’s real-time visual reception of the written source text
3) Social setting of the interaction
•
•
•
Liaison interpreting or bilateral interpreting or dialogue interpreting
Community interpreting
Conference interpreting
Liaison interpreting- verbindingstolken
= the prototypical constellation of interpreting as ‘three-party interaction’, with a (bilingual) interpreter
who mediates between two individuals who do not speak each other’s language
• mostly consecutive
• mostly in institutional settings: community interpreting
Community interpreting - gemeenschapstolken
= interpreting in institutional domains
• Social interpreting: interpretation of what is said in a social context (immigration, social work,
educational services, etc.)
• Medical interpreting or healthcare interpreting or hospital interpreting (therapeutic
consultations)
• Legal interpreting or court interpreting or judicial interpreting (courtroom interpreting)
Conference interpreting- conferentietolken
•
interpreting in multilateral communication (as in conferences attended by delegates and
representatives of various nations and institutions)
Media interpreting (broadcast interpreting, TV interpreting)
= to make foreign-language broadcasting content accessible to media users within the socio-cultural
community
• Dubbing
• Re-voicing
4) Directionality
•
•
•
Bilateral interpreting
One-directional interpreting
Relay interpreting
Bilateral interpreting
• The interpreter works in both directions, back and forth between the 2 languages involved
direction
• Typically linked with liaison or dialogue interpreting
• Also used in conference interpreting (bilingual booths)
One-directional interpreting
• The interpreting process proceeds in one direction, from source to target language
• Usually linked to conference interpreting: favours simultaneous interpreting from B- or Clanguages into an interpreter’s A-language
Relay interpreting
• Indirect interpreting via a third language, which links up the performance of two (or more)
interpreters, with one interpreter’s output serving as the source for another (when the language
combination of the interpreters available does not allow for ‘direct interpreting’)
• E.g. English – Amharic-Tigrean
•
Relay interpreting in the Belgian asylum procedure
T1
Tran s lation from En glis h into
Amharic
T2
Trans lation from Amharic into
Ti grean
Amharic
Englis h
Tigrean
I
AS
Englis h
Tigrean
Amharic
Tran s lation from Amharic into
English
T1
Trans lation from Tigrean in to
Amharic
T2
Multiple entextualisations
• Multiple phases in the information exchange involve different stages of de- and
recontextualization: at each stage, the produced meanings need to be picked up and reproduced
in a different language
• The ultimate question is what actually survives this tangled entextualization process
• No control over the interpretation process
5) Use of technology
=Remote interpreting: neither the interpreter nor the parties are in the same physical location
• Telephone interpreting (over-the-phone interpreting or OPI)
• Telephone interpreting is a fast-growing industry that is becoming the staple work for a lot of
interpreters.
• Special communicative requirements: due to a lack of visibility, the interpreter has to rely on
voice tone, which is the only nonverbal element that can be captured
Settings
• In social settings such as healthcare, police interrogations, etc.
• In business settings: used for negotiations, when great distances are involved (e.g. one partner is
based in Japan and another in the US)
• The biggest asset of this method is that costs are lower than organising a full meeting
6) Professional status
•
•
Professional interpreting
Lay interpreting or natural interpreting: interpreting done by bilinguals without special training
for the task
• Debate: the professional status of interpreters
Pro natural translation
•
Idea that translating is coextensive with bilingualism: all bilinguals have at least some
translational ability (Harris and Sherwood 1978)
Pro professionalism
• Idea that interpreting requires special knowledge of the culture involved/ the subject matter and
of the skills (in memorizing and note-taking or simultaneous interpreting)
Tolken: watwordtgezegd
(mondeling) overbrengen van
de ene taal in de anderetaal
Factor TIJD!
Simult aan
Consecut ief
conferentie
tolk
conf erent ie
t olk
verbindingst olk
>>
"chuchot age"=
f luist ert olken
gebartentaaltolk
zakelijk
-
...
verbindingstolk=
- gesprekst olken~=
- liaisont olken
("cont act "/Scandinavia)
("t hree-concerned-dialogue"/A ust ralia)
gebartentaalt olk
diplomat ie
medisch
t olk
gemeenschapst olk
communit y int erpret er
("public services" (UK))
juridisch
t olk
gerecht st olk
sociaal t olk
9.3. Practice
1) Consecutive interpretation (CI): one person speaking at the same time
2) Simultaneous interpretation (SI): 2 people speaking at the same time
1) CI
Memory exercises and listening skills
• To develop the discipline to stick to keywords and retrieve ideas from memory
• Balance: no excessive note taking (at the expense of listening)
• Notes should be regarded as an aid to memory, not as a substitute for it
Summarizing from memory
• Luister naar de tekst, vertel wat erin staat
• Listen to the text, explain what’s in there
Key words as an aid to memory
• Listen to the text and write down key words or symbols that help you to recall the passage
afterwards.
•
Take as many notes as you feel are necessary, but wherever possible, try to limit yourself to one
word or symbol per idea
Combining memory and listening skills in CI
• Kurt Cobain: interview
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WflnA_ 3vE20
• Listen to the interview while taking notes
• When the interview is finished, render the question-answer patterns in Dutch
2) SI
Shadowing:
• repeating what the speaker says, word for word (1st language - 2nd language)
• To accustom yourself to speaking and listening at the same time
Dual tasking:
• while shadowing, write something totally unrelated on a piece of paper (numerals from 1 to 100,
backwards, write your name, copy information from a book, etc.)
• to increase your concentration and accustom to working on two different tasks at once
Combining shadowing and dual tasking in SI:
• process the source-language message while generating the target-language message
• Andre Agassi: farewell speech
• http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/andreagassifarewelltotennis.htm
10. CONFERENCE INTERPRETING
10.1. What is conference interpreting?
•
Spoken-language interpreting of what is said during a conference with the use of simultaneous
interpreting equipment in a sound-proof booth
Procedure
•
•
•
The interpreter sits in an interpreting booth, listens to a speech through a headset and
simultaneously interprets into a microphone while listening
People in the conference room listen to the target language version through a headset: each
target language has an assigned channel (e.g. Spanish speakers might turn to channel one for the
Spanish interpretation)
Because they need a high degree of concentration, simultaneous interpreters work in pairs, with
each interpreting for 20- to 30-minute segments (UN: max 7 three-hour meetings per week)
Competence
•
•
Most demanding: the interpreter talks at the same time as the speaker and has to convey the
meaning at the very same pace
Ideally, simultaneous interpreters should be so familiar with a subject that they are able to
anticipate the end of the speaker's sentence (best provided with relevant reference documents
beforehand)
Effort models (Gile 1989)
3 sets of ‘efforts’:
• Listening and analysis effort: aims at comprehension of the SL speech
• Production effort: aims at production of the TL speech
• Short-term memory effort: handles information between perception and production in the TL
10.2. AIIC
•
•
•
•
AIIC is the only worldwide association for conference interpreters (Association Internationale des
Interprets de Conference)
Founded in 1953
Brings together more than 2800 professional conference interpreters in over 90 countries
AIIC promotes the profession of conference interpretation in the interest of both users and
practitioners by setting high standards, promoting sound training practices and fostering
professional ethics.
Working languages
Categorisation according to the individual interpreter’s combination of working languages, classified by
AIIC as:
• A-language: native or best ‘active’ language
• B-language: ‘active’ language commanded with near-native proficiency
• C-language: ‘passive’ language allowing ‘complete understanding’
UN
•
•
6 official languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian
Requires most applicants to know at least 2 of these in addition to their native language
For EU and UN:
•
•
favours simultaneous interpreting from B- or C- languages into an interpreter’s A-language
the combination of A-to-B-interpreting and relay interpreting with English serving as the pivot
language
10.3. The history of CI
1945 (after WWII)
• UN set-up in London: CI
• Nuremberg Trials: SI
• UN-introduction of SI
 Experiments and debate between consecutive and simultaneous interpreters
1950’s-1960’s
• Cold War
• UN functions in the processes of:
 Peace-keeping
 De-colonization
1970’s-1980’s
• Longer speeches
• More technical subjects: science, technology, environment
 Different requirements for the interpreter
1990’s
Post Cold War:
• More technical and less ‘mortal combat’
• Diplomatic rhetoric has changed (better constructed arguments)
• Interpreters became more a member of the team
Gulf War
• Increased emotional stress
Technical aspects
•
•
•
The history of conference interpreting can be characterised by a growing distance between
diplomats and interpreters
From CI to remote SI by sattellite
Video-telephone conference interpreting
Universality through diversity
UN: conference interpreting versus English-only:
• It would impoverish the debates
• Restriction to concepts that belong to the Anglo-American system
Video
•
•
•
•
Bernet, D. & C. Beetz 2005. The whisperers: A journey through the world of interpreters.
Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion: Germany.
References
Gile, D. 1998. ‘Conference and simultaneous interpreting’. In Baker, M (ed.). Routledge
Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London: Routledge: 40-45.
Pöchhacker, F. 2004. Introducing interpreting studies. London: Routledge.
11. COMMUNITY INTERPRETING
11.1. What is community interpreting?
“interpreting which takes place in the public service sphere to facilitate communication between officials
and lay people” (Wadensjö 1998: 33)
• Also called ‘public service interpreting’
• Function: to enable those who lack fluency in the majority languages to receive equal access to
public service facilities
Settings
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Police departments
Court (court interpreting)
Immigration departments
Social welfare centres
Medical offices (medical interpreting)
mental health institutions (mental health interpreting)
Schools (educational interpreting)
Bi-directional (dialogue interpreting)
Consecutive
Both face-to-face situations and OPI
Function: both a language and social mediator
Most common type of interpreting
Still performed by untrained and often unpaid individuals (‘natural translators’)
Compared to conference interpreting
Conference interpreting
• Prepared (often written) monologues in the SL
• One-directional
• High status
• professionalised
Community interpreting
• Real-time dialogue: spontaneous and unpredictable exchange of talk
• Bi-directional
• Issue of neutrality
• Low-status profession
• Many ‘natural translators’
Training
•
Improve the command of the working languages
•
•
Practice the use of specialized terminology and particular subject areas and administrative
procedures
Develop awareness of potential cultural differences between the participants (conventions
concerning formality and appropriateness)
Deontology
The professional duty of the interpreter: 2 models
• The conduit model that sticks to the professional code of ethics: the interpreter as a neutral tool
for transferring messages
• The intercultural mediation model: the interpreter has to bridge a language and culture gap
The conduit model
• The interpreter’s task is confined to the transformation of messages from SL to TL
• The interpreter should not provide cultural information, even when it is necessary for an
understanding between official and client
The intercultural mediation model
The interpreter takes on an active role:
• To inform each of the parties about what is considered appropriate and acceptable by the other
party
• To help to avoid and repair misunderstandings (“I have the feeling that the patient may not
understand your line of questioning”)
11.2. Medical interpreting
Cultural mediation:
• To improve the accessibility and the quality of medical assistance
• “From a more current philosophical standpoint, the interpreter is obviously physically and
intellectually present in the interaction. (…) This gives rise to the possibility that the interpreter
becomes a third party in the conversation between patient and provider for a number of very
specific communication and cultural issues” (California Standard or Healthcare Interpreters:
2002)
The tasks of the intercultural mediator
•
•
•
•
•
Interpreting: to provide accurate translations of the messages produced by the interlocutors
‘Cultural brokerage’ (Kaufert 1985): “explaining the culture of the hospital and of the physician
to the patient and the world of the patient to the physician”, in particular when accurate
interpretation is not sufficient
Concrete assistance: information about documents, filling out documents, information about the
functioning of the hospital, etc.
Emotional assistance
Conflict mediation and advocacy
•
Signaling function
Problems
•
•
•
•
Main purpose is to sustain the interaction, sometimes at the cost of accuracy in rendering the
utterances of the participants
Risk: taking control of the interaction (as a language and culture expert): depriving the
participants of their responsibility and power to decide (patronizing!)
Lower quality of interpreting tasks due to a limited interpreting training (since 2003:
improvement!)
Limited use of cultural mediation: lay people
Interpreting at the hospital
(annex)
Is she allowed to step outside her role of interpreter?
• Altering the words of the midwife (‘must’ instead of ‘could’)
• Explaining to the midwife what the problem is
• Advising the mother to explain her fears to the midwife
Advantages of a professional code of ethics
•
•
•
The position of the interpreter is controlled and sustained by a professional association
The participants involved know what to expect from the interpreter
The emotional stress of ethical decision- making is taken away from the interpreter
Disadvantages of a professional code of ethics
•
•
•
The code cannot cover all eventualities
There may be many other factors that influence your professional behaviour and that compete
with your professional code of ethics (moral beliefs, political beliefs, cultural background)
If you break the code, even for valid reasons, you can expect disciplinary action from your
professional association
11.3. Legal interpreting
•
•
•
Interpreting in the courtroom (court interpreting), in police departments, customs offices,
immigration authorities
Extra attention to ethical issues reflected in legal interpreting techniques
Extra attention to the technical language used by legal professionals
Specific competences
• Basic knowledge of the law and its terminology
• The communication of accurate facts and detailed information
•
The confidence to speak in a formal setting: stand up in a public court and swear that they will
interpret everything to the best of their skill and ability
Legal interpreting techniques
• Consecutive interpreting of witnesses’ testimonies
• Simultaneous interpreting for the witness/ accused following other participants in the courtroom
(whispered)
• Liaison interpreting outside the courtroom with the council
• Sight translation of documents produced in court
Deontology
• Insistence on impartiality and confidentiality
• The evidence has to be preserved in its entirety: a close rendering of words and sentences but
also hesitations, self-corrections, prosodic and paralinguistic elements, etc.
• The demeanour of the speakers as indexical of their credibility
• Replicability: the interpreter has to produce a factual representation of the witnesses’ words,
that could stand up in court at a later date
• Qualified representations: express the difference between information that is provided in a
definite manner on the one hand and vague impressions on the other
 If the witness is vague and hazy in his/ her description, so should the interpreter
 The interpreter should avoid simplification and clarification of the witnesses’ words
Pre-knowledge
• Pre-knowledge: the issue of excluding interpreters from pre-trial information in order to ensure
their impartiality (professional ethics!)
• Just like conference interpreters they need to be briefed about the material they have to
interpret, the topics, the documents, etc.
11.4. Practice
Interpreters are generally instructed to interpret in the first person :
• On the other hand, many public service agencies have resisted this style (the interpreter as a
muffler between client and officer: sanitized versions of the message)
• Time-saving (omitting “he says that”)
• It represents direct communication between the client and the officer (ignoring the physical
presence of the interpreter)
• It is more accurate
Compare
• I am in absolute agony, I don’t know if I can bear this pain much longer
• He says he is in severe pain. He says he doesn’t know if he can bear the pain much longer
1st/3rd person
•
•
Defendant addressing the police: “Fuck off, you bastards, I hate you all”
Dokter tegen kind: “nu ga ik je een spuitje geven”
Note-taking
• Personal system of summarizing and symbolizing words and phrases
• Technique:
 reducing words to ideas
 putting the ideas into symbols
 Re-express these symbols into another language
Some guidelines
• Invent your own way of writing phonetically
 Do not double consonants
 Delete any vowels that are not necessary to make the word recognizable (arpln, hstry)
• Make a list of symbols that are relevant to the subject you are dealing with
• Arrange your notes on the page in a meaningful way (e.g. main points at the top and minor
points at the bottom)
• Adopt or coin abbreviations or acronyms for often-used phrases (asap, iot)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
X
XXX+
+X
X to X
2X
X>
<X
Xtbl
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Time
Timeless, eternal
Many times more
More time
From time to time
Twice
Future
Past
Timetable
Using mainly abbreviations, pictures, lines, and symbols, make notes of the following news items:
• Foreign aid refused as cyclone hits Burma
• Many couples unfit for pregnancy
•
“An interpreter is not only someone who knows two languages, (s)he is also a communication
expert, a person who knows the most effective way to pass a message that the listener will
understand” (Rennie1999: 20)
At the Accident and Emergency Department
• Nurse to English friend:
“Are you the interpreter? Can you tell the mother that we’ve managed to extract the foreign
body and if she could just pop down to Radiology to make sure.”
• English friend to mother: ...
•
•
•
Roleplay
(handout)
“The English patient” in the Belgian clinic
Act as an interpreter to mediate between doctor and patient (liaison interpreting)
Reading
• Text on the relationship between interpreting and cultural mediation: to be inserted on
Minerva…
References
• Mikkelson, H & J. Willis. 1993. The interpreter’s edge. Acebo: USA.
• Nolan, J. 2005. Interpretation: techniques and exercises. Multilingual Matters LTD: Clevedon –
Buffalo – Toronto.