Babel - Volume 38, Issue 1, 1992

One of the most promising investigational approaches to the study of simultaneous interpretation is towards the field of neurolinguistics and neuropsychology. Several related studies described in the present paper showed: i) the existence of neural systems for translating from L1 to L2 and from L2 to L1, which are independent of language comprehension and production systems; ii) the activation of both cerebral hemispheres during simultaneous interpretation; and iii) the absence of the usual right-ear advantage in the processing of verbal material due to the interpreters' general habit of listening to the incoming message with one ear only for the purpose of controlling their own output with the other ear.

In translating elements of language the question that is very often raised is how to deal with the aesthetic features, especially if they form part of a work of poetry. Aesthetic theory, since its emancipation from philosophy by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten in the 18th century, has developed our knowledge about the performance of aesthetic features; but in translation practice these aesthetic aspects are for the most part still being neglected. With translations of poetry, for example, the aspects of verse form and verse content of the original work of art are taken into account solely for the purpose of representing them in another language, disregarding the aesthetic values to which, from the time of their invention, their author owed his fame. Even in translations by poets of the work of colleagues, an understanding of the author's special aesthetic inventions is found to be lacking; here the translating — or "re-composing" (Stefan George) — process usually produces the aesthetics due to the interpreter's own composing attitudes. The article gives an introduction to aesthetic theory as a component of communication theory, and offers some examples of aesthetic structures in poetical works and in translations of them, as well as an example of representation of these structures in translated texts.

L'une des caractéristiques du style arabe est la répétition et l'insistance. Le présent article est un exposé de quelques-unes des difficultés stylistiques qui en résultent en traduction vers l'anglais, qui est perçu par beaucoup comme une langue caractérisée par la concision et l'économie pour exprimer les différentes fonctions communicatives. Ainsi l'article essaiera de comparer l'arabe et l'anglais au niveau du sens et des valeurs stylistiques et structurales.

The explosive development of the communicatións technology in this century has given rise to a new branch of translatión: translatión for the oral and written press. While sharing some features of both literary and scientific translatión, this new branch has its own characteristics:1. The translator's first goal is to transmit informatión. His first loyalty is to his reader, which gives him more freedom in dealing with the original text.2. The translatión is aimed at a massive audi- hand. The impossibility of having more than ence. Simple language and structures are to the assigned space requires good summarizing be preferred.3. The translatión is aimed at a specific geo- 5. It is quite usual for a journalistic translator graphical, temporal and cultural range. The to retranslate and to edit for style. use of localisms and neologisms is not Besides producing final texts, journalistic unusual.4. The translator suffers major time and space constraints. The need to work in a hurry requires having the right reference works at hand. The impossibility of having more than the assigned space requires good summarizing skills.5. It is quite usual for a journalistic translator to retranslate and to edit for style.Besides producing final texts, journalistic translators are expected to make partial or on-sight translatións, to write précis and to interpret.