ACROSS LANGUAGES AND CULTURES
Editor-in-chief: Kinga Klaudy
Volume 7, Issue 1, 2006
pp. 1-21
PAUSES AS INDICATORS OF COGNITIVE EFFORT IN POST-EDITING MACHINE
TRANSLATION OUTPUT
SHARON O’BRIEN
School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
Dublin City University
Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland
Phone: +353 1 7005832
E-mail: sharon.obrien@dcu.ie
Abstract: In translation process and language production research, pauses are seen as indicators of cognitive
processing. Investigating the correlations between source text machine translatability and post-editing effort involves
an assessment of cognitive effort. Therefore, an analysis of pauses is essential. This paper presents data from a research
project which includes an analysis of pauses in post-editing, triangulated with the Choice Network Analysis method
and Translog. Results suggest that the pause-to-keyboarding ratio does not differ significantly for sentences deemed to
be more suitable for machine translation than for those deemed to be less suitable. Also, results confirm the finding in
research elsewhere that pause duration and frequency is subject to individual differences. Finally, we suggest that while
pauses provide some indication of cognitive processing, supplementary methods are required to give a fuller picture.
Key words: post-editing, machine translatability, pauses, cognitive processing, Choice Network Analysis, Translog
pp. 23-36
TRANSLATING FOREIGN OTHERNESS
SUN YIFENG
Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 26167974
E-mail: sunyf@ln.edu.hk
Abstract: Central to translation is cultural anxiety and ambivalence about foreign otherness, which is essentially
reified in cultural politics underlying translation. The ubiquity of ideology may be exaggerated or overstated, but it is
manifest in a tendency to be seen as primarily bound up with language and art, and the needs of translation are
inseparable from the political or cultural concerns in the target language system. The cultural politics of difference has
a lot to do with truth-telling, sincerity, intelligibility and empathy. Effective translation depends not only upon a
reasonable understanding of the content of the message that has been translated, but also on an ability, on the part of the
target reader, to relate that message to the relevant cultural situation by developing a necessary knowledge of foreign
otherness in its cultural political context. The artifice or artificiality of sameness entails turning away and reduction, yet
cultural impositions are understandably considered as intrusive, and debates on literature and translation, often
ideologically charged, tend to center around what foreign otherness is capable of doing or undoing. In defiance of the
prevailing political conditions, translation may embrace and introduce foreign political and ethical values.
Key words: otherness, foreignization, difference, interpretability, sameness, dialogism
pp. 37-47
THE TRANSLATIONAL SIGNIFIED. SLIPS OF THE TONGUES IN FREUD’S
WORKS
BRUNO ARICH-GERZ
Technische Universität Darmstadt (Darmstadt University of Technology)
Institut für Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft
Hochschulstr. 1, D – 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
Phone: + 49 6151 162037
E-mail: arich-gerz@linglit.tu-darmstadt.de
Abstract: This article deals with the significance of translation in two selected texts by Sigmund Freud: Dream
and Delusion in Wilhelm Jensen’s ‘Gradiva’ (1907) and Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood (1910).
The discussion of the functional role which translations from one language into another play in Freud’s case studies
will lead to the working hypothesis of a “translational signified”. Derived from what deconstructive criticism calls the
‘transcendental signified’, this concept seems to be central for Freud’s use of “foreign language” evidence. More
specifically, and against the grain of the assumptions held by poststructuralist critics for whom Freud was an influential
predecessor, it can be demonstrated how the argumentation of Freud’s analyses crucially requires a warrant of
significational equivalence between the Italian original and the German translation. The example of Freud’s interpretive
use of the Italian word sole (as ‘Sonne’, or ‘sun’) as well as the counter example of Freud’s mistranslation of the word
nibbio in the study on da Vinci will help to substantiate the argument.
Key words: ambiguity, deconstruction, German, Italian, psychoanalysis, signifier/signified, translatology
pp. 49-76
TRANSLATION OF CHINESE XIEHOUYU (SAYINGS) AND
RELEVANCE THEORY
CHIUNG-WEN LIU AND GRACE QIAO ZHANG
Department of Foreign Languages
Shu-zen College of Medicine and Management
452 Huangiu Rd, Luzhu, Shiang, Kaohsiung County 821, Taiwan
Phone: + 64 9 7-6979333 ext: 1114
E-mail: felicia@szmc.edu.tw
Department of Languages and Intercultural Education
Curtin University of Technology, GPOBOX U1987
Perth, WA 6845 Australia
Phone: + 61 8 9266 3478
E-mail: Grace.Zhang@exchange.curtin.edu.au
Abstract: This study pioneers in applying the relevance theoretical framework developed by Gutt (1991, 2000a)
and based on Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory (1986, 1995) to Chinese xiehouyu translations. A Chinese
xiehouyu is an idiom or an enigmatic folk saying consisting of two parts. This study examines direct approaches and
indirect approaches with or without the substitution of appropriate metaphors. It argues that while relevance theory is
effective in both approaches, it is particularly important for indirect translation because there are various ways of
translating a xiehouyu indirectly, depending upon what meaning aspects of the original the target audience will find
relevant. A match-up metaphor in the target language may not always be available, but whenever possible the strategy
of substituting metaphors should be utilised to maximise contextual effects and minimise the processing effort; this is
probably the most effective way to achieve optimal relevance. As an instance of interpretive use, a translation’s success
depends on the achievement of optimal relevance. The translator has to pay attention to the kind and degree of
interpretative resemblance the audience expects: that is to say, a translator should take the target audience’s cognitive
environment into account and choose the most applicable approach to guide the audience in achieving optimal
relevance.
Key words: Chinese, translation, xiehouyu, relevance theory, linguistics
pp. 77-92
LET’S TALK TRANSLATION ECONOMICALLY
A DEMONSTRATION OF RE-ARTICULATING TRANSLATION
THROUGH ECONOMICS TERMS
YONG ZHONG
School of Modern Languages
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
Phone: 612-93853812
E-mail: y.zhong@unsw.edu.au
Abstract: As a sequel to my paper The Second Best Thing (2005) on use of game theory in simultaneous
interpreting, this paper reviews application of economics concepts and terms, which can enable and facilitate game
theory in discussions and instructions of translation. I will begin with a list of the concepts and terms with their general
definitions provided, including opportunity cost, cost, cost management, risk, attitude to risk and game theory. Next, I
will reconstruct a real-life simultaneous interpreting assignment, which is meant to serve as an experimental context for
the application of the said concepts and terms. I will then proceed to demonstrate how the concepts and terms
mentioned can be applied to the discussion and operation of the assignment. There will be a passing listing of other
concepts and terms, including research, profiling, envisaging, investment, return, options, probability, credit and
accountability, which I reckon are also important for articulating and teaching translation. The paper will also state the
purposes of importing these economics concepts and terms, which were to establish an alternative, rationalized
discourse of translation not constrained by conventional terms such as equivalence, accuracy and adequacy.
Key words: translation and economics, game theory and game planning, cost and opportunity cost, risk and risk
management
pp. 93-103
TEAM WORK AS A METHOD IN TRANSLATION
KONRAD KLIMKOWSKI
Department of Applied Linguistics
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University
Sowinskiego 17, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
Phone: +48 81 7445900
E-mail: konrad.klimkowski@gmail.com, klimq@o2.pl
Abstract: As Guadec correctly remarked, “the job of a translator tends to become more and more of a team job”.
Anyone observing current tendencies in the translation market cannot but agree with this statement. Even a brief glance
at modern CAT technology solutions available shows beyond doubt that the tendency towards group translation rather
than individual translation is already a matter of fact. This state of affairs opens a very interesting domain of
theoretically-oriented studies on the meaning of the term “group translation”, its boundary criteria, measurements of
success and its logistical background. The present paper is an introductory study marking my first steps in this research
direction. I start by defining distinctive constituents of the group translation process, then reflect on modes of their
interaction – observed during the group translation sessions of the Warsztaty Translatorskie/Workshop on Translation
conference – and discuss the process’s influences on students of translation and translators in general.
Key words: team work in translation, group translation, translation/translator’s competence, translator training