Babel - Volume 61, Issue 1, 2015

Phraseological Units rank high among the most complex linguistic segments for translators, whether because of their figurative nature, their culturally specific meaning or their pragmatic peculiarities. Such difficulties increase exponentially when PUs are expressed in a multimodal fictional environment, especially if the situated meaning of the unit relies on visual elements for its correct interpretation: the so-called visual phraseological units (PUs). In these cases, the literal wording of a PU is portrayed physically, thus making both the phraseological and literal meanings overlap. These visual PUs have progressively become a common device in TV programs such as sitcoms and cartoon series — this paper, in particular, uses the case-study of the well-known American cartoon series The Simpsons. However, their ubiquity has not triggered a comparable scholarly response, either from the field of phraseology or from that of translation studies, with some notable exceptions. The combination of a limited theoretical framework and the inherent traductological obstacles these units pose accounts for the poor or, at times, non-existent solutions when it comes to rendering them in other languages. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the felicity of the Spanish translations of visual PUs appearing in The Simpsons. Some tentative traductological solutions will also be provided alongside the inevitable shortcomings of the target language versions, in an attempt to provide practical ground with which to foster further research on the question.

One of the prominent features of the fawāṣil, i.e., recurrent clauses that occupy the final position of the Qur’ānic verse, is that they begin with the particle wāw, which is usually identified as wāw l-isti’nāf. In Arabic, this starts a new sentence that is semantically and grammatically independent from the previous sentence. Thus, according to this explanation, there is no logical connection between the fawāṣil and what precedes it, a fact that may harm the meaning of specific parts of the sūra. Because the Arabic sources, such as grammar books, Qur’ānic exegeses and morpho-syntactic books analyzing the Qur’ānic text (kutub l-’i‘rāb), do not much contribute to the understanding of the connection between the sentences, the approach adopted refers to different translations of the Qur’ān in five languages: Hebrew, English, German, Russian and French. These translations typically refute the lack of connectedness between the sentences because they do identify a semantic relation between the sentences, or a type of dependency between the sentences, a relation that is well-expressed in their translations. This article presents the various translations of this particular particle that indicate the different cohesive ties between the fawāṣil and what precedes them. It is noteworthy that in some cases there is a uniform translation of wāw l-isti’nāf, while in other cases various translations are to be found, which leads to different meanings of the same sentence. The article thus deals with the question of cohesive ties within the Qur’ān on one hand, and, on the other, examines the differences and variations that exist in the Qur’ānic translations.

The study presented in this article analyses the influence that translation has exerted on the work of Basque writer and translator Joseba Sarrionandia. This analysis shows that the interaction between his original works and his translations is bidirectional, and that the distinction between creation and recreation is much more confused that it can seem in the beginning. By means of intertextual references, rewriting of poems, variations or imitations of texts written by his predecessors, or even by composing translations without originals, Sarrionandia throws into question some of the notions of the modern discourse of translation, and suggests a new way of understanding literature and translation. His strategies aim to demonstrate that it is impossible to create from scratch, that each poet writes over the traces left by the poets he has read, and that each of his texts will necessarily be a conversion or a translation of the literary tradition he has inherited. Therefore, there is no original text, and each text is no more than a translation of a translation. However, the links and relations that each writer/translator suggests with regard to this literary tradition will be new and original, and it is in these new relations that the creating power of translation lies.

Through a bibliometrical analysis of a database of quality articles in interpreting studies published between 2008 and 2012 in the 14 CSSCI and CORE journals that have published interpreting researches in China, this article describes the status quo of interpreting studies in China during the past five years, which provides latest information following up Wang & Mu (2009)’s survey about developments of the field from 1958 to 2007. A quantitative survey is conducted to reveal the annual production, the distribution of articles in different journals and active researchers of the field. More in-depth qualitative analysis is also done over the content and citation sources of the articles in order to examine distribution of research themes and topics, research methods and theoretical sources. It is found that the total publication of this period is comparable to 53.5% of the previous five decades. Their research themes range from interpreter training to theoretical issues, interpreting techniques and issues in practice, interpreting product, interpreting process and community, telephone and sign-language interpreting. Their research methods include theoretical conceptualization, literature analysis and reviews, theory-application analysis, summary and reflection of experiences, experimental studies, survey studies and observational studies. It is concluded from the bibliometrical analysis that new progress has been achieved in interpreting studies in China during the past five years, which is evident in more wide-ranging research themes and topics, more diversified theoretical sources and better utilization of methodology. The bibliometrical analysis also indicates the emergence of a new generation of researchers, who are expected to take interpreting studies to a new height with favorable institutional and academic environment in place in China.

In western translation theories, Lawrence Venuti and Eugene Nida appear to be standing at too opposing poles regarding the equivalence theory, and are notable for their prominent disagreement on the issue. Their theories diverge in their responses to equivalence, and disagree, essentially, on the functions of translation as well as the aspects of an acceptable translation. This disagreement unfolded itself clearly during a conference at Binghamton University in 1991. In this essay, I intend to juxtapose the exceptionally different theoretical approaches of these two prominent translation scholars. I also intend to show how Venuti’s views on translation in practice challenges Nida’s theoretical approaches to translation, and surprisingly enough his own theories particularly speaking, foreignizing and domesticating translations in which he has been extensively engaged. Finally I intend to show how Venuti’s practice of translation challenges his earlier attack on Nida’s conceptions of the “dynamic equivalence,” “naturalness of expression” (Nida 1964: 159) and the notion of “the equivalent effect” (de Waard & Nida 1986: 9).

Translators in Singapore face the dilemma of serving the needs of a heterogeneous population in this multi-racial and multilingual city-state and have often become the “scapegoat” in the event of a controversy arising from the translation. A case in point is the heated debate triggered by a newspaper article in the Straits Times, translated from a Chinese article in Lianhe Zaobao. Drawing on two sociological notions, that is, erasure and indexing of social identity, this paper sets out to investigate whether the translator who worked in an institutional setting positioned himself in favour of an institutionally-aligned culture and ideology in order to strengthen the institutional voice. It will first review the key concepts, namely, institutional power, ideology and positioning, and their relevance to the Singapore context, and then scrutinize the source text and its two translated versions in an effort to detect any traces of cultural and ideological shifts that lead to the controversy. The paper reveals that the translator working in an institutional setting in Singapore does align himself with the authority and the erasure of translators paradoxically jeopardizes the author’s social identity and ideological positioning.

The complex variables involved in mediating between asymmetrical legal realities explain, to a great extent, the limitations of traditional terminological resources (particularly, bilingual legal dictionaries) as working tools for legal translators. After a brief review of these limitations, a new approach to the development of terminological resources is presented that responds to the real needs of legal translators and draws on advances in Legal Translation Studies. This change of paradigm is illustrated by a terminological database designed for the English-Spanish translation of technological law, more precisely, for the localization of software license agreements (mostly from the United States) for Spain. The lexicographical work is contextualized, and the features and advantages of the proposed terminological entries are described in detail. These entries are called “translation-oriented terminological entries” (fichas traductológicas) because of their distinctive translation dimension, particularly the inclusion of comments on the acceptability of terminological options on the basis of comparative legal analysis in different translation scenarios. This aspect greatly contributes to the added value of the approach, which is intended as a model for similar applications in legal translation.