Babel - Volume 64, Issue 3, 2018

Abstract

In the early novels of the Carvalho detective series by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, set in the years of Spain’s transition to democracy, the negotiation of identities and political stance are paramount characterization resources. Given the role of speech in the construction of identity, translations may vary in the readings they afford beyond the detective aspects. We apply the sociolinguistic concepts of identity work and language style (albeit mediated by fictive orality), and the discourse analysis tools of Appraisal Theory, to analyse two working-class characters in Los mares del sur (1979) and in its English (1986) and Croatian (2007) translations.

In Spanish the language style of both characters reflects class allegiance, involvement and tenacity, intense feelings, a direct interpersonal approach and a rejection of altercasting. Their vocabulary and quotations from external sources index their ideology. The English translation is the least aware of identity work through language style and interaction. The characters’ standardized speech shows less involvement, tenacity and intensity. The Croatian translation follows the source text literally; involvement is maintained within a fictive colloquial spoken variety. Both translations maintain directness and a contractive dialogic style, and both make references to class and ideology more explicit.

Abstract

Languages play an essential role in China’s drive for modernization and in its interactions with the rest of the world. Discussions in this paper are designed to offer an overview of China’s language services, which have grown into a sizable industry with more than 70,000 businesses. In addition to its growth in size, the language services industry has also been a leader in introducing CAT technology in translation and adopting advanced technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, etc. Language service providers (LSPs) have also worked with institutions of higher learning in various forms of collaboration to provide internship opportunities to students of translation and other forms of support to universities. In order to promote the healthy development of the industry, the Translators Association of China (TAC) has done a huge amount of work in organizing industry efforts to develop guidelines for different kinds of language services, and help the industry to exercise self-regulation. This paper also discusses the challenges that the industry faces today and offers recommendations to the industry as it moves forward.

Abstract

My study is based on art exhibitions, fashion shows, photo books, movies, magazines, advertisements, blogs, scientific papers and interviews, and fashion vocabulary. Philology literally means love for the word. It is the love for the word that unites philologists with translators, researchers, scientists, and fashion specialists.

The translatological analysis of this specialist language is a reduced selection of 200 idioms, illustrative examples from English, Montenegrin or Serbian, and Italian. Also, habitual fashion collocations constitute a significant part of the translatological analysis. I have completed my analysis with contemporary terminology of fashion clothing terms and words in English and their equivalents in Italian, almost 150 of them, compiled in a small glossary. This small glossary will be of great help to fashion and clothing industry professionals.

Through their level of engagement, public figures from the world of art, music, fashion and politics, as well-known officials, actors or celebrities, have become the new trend-setters in all societies and also dictators of fashion, because they set the trends and fashion standards which others follow.

Abstract

This article attempts to illuminate one of the most elusive aspects of the study of translation: the translator’s ethic. With the exception of Lawrence Venuti’s The Scandals of Translation (1998), few scholars have ventured in-depth studies of the subject. The study I propose is two-fold, with individual focuses on the theory and practice of translation, each analysed from three distinct perspectives: the translator’s visibility, culpability and conscience. This dual focus combined with its varying angles of analysis will lead to relatively well-defined conclusions. The theoretical element of this study is based upon scholarly opinion regarding existing constraints on the translator’s task (Lefevere; Bassnett; Lambert), and the direct influence of those constraints upon the literary translator’s process and final result. With the purpose of illustrating these theoretical suppositions, this essay analyses a recent translation (2013) of a political essay originally written in English and later published in translation in a Spanish newspaper. The detailed theoretical and practical analyses of this text will reveal the translator’s performance in the case of study as well as answer the following questions: Is the translator visible? If so, why did she choose to be? Is the translator culpable or innocent in the final results of the translation? Lastly, did the translator make the decisions in question consciously or unconsciously? The ultimate objective of this essay is to provide answers to these questions, thus not only clarifying the translator’s performance in this specific case but also demonstrating a translator’s ethic in more general terms. And, perhaps, it can also begin the elaboration of a much-needed ethical code for translators.

Abstract

This study provides a framework that immediately and efficiently guides the selection of the message components for note-taking to successfully capture implicatures in consecutive interpretation. The framework revisits the Quantity, Informativeness, and Manner (Q, I and M) heuristics of communication by Levinson (1995, 2000). Three interpretation principles are suggested (I-Q, I-I and I-M) (I for interpretation). The principles are applied to the main parts of the message (vocabulary, connectives, and marked forms) following Johns (2014). The I-Q principle advises interpreters to select the words that are most consistent with the speaker’s best knowledge of the world and to communicate them as such; the I-I principle advises interpreters to simply and systematically notate the connectives that exemplify a similar connection to the SM; the I-M principle advocates that interpreters should mark any instances of marked forms such as over-lexicalization, prolixity, and repetition, and relay them with a similar level of markedness to communicate a similar attitude of the SM speaker in the TL.

Abstract

The article presents a Preliminary Pragmatic Model (PPM) with the practical levels of pragmatic features. Poetry translation pose great difficulty in retaining the ‘extra-linguistic features’ of the source text and target text. When placing more emphasis on linguistic features, ‘extra-linguistics’ are ignored by the evaluators. This lack is largely due to the non authentication of pragmatics of the languages involved and the non-development of ‘extra-linguistic’ parameters for evaluation. Focusing on this fact, the study takes pragmatic as the common denominator between poetry and translation, and develops a pragmatic model. The model adopts the concept and objective from the prominent Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) model of Juliane House, and the two models of Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi and his team: (a) Practical Model for Translation Analysis and Assessment of Poetic Discourse, and (b) Semiotic Model for Poetry Translation. The model is an extended part of Vahid’s model with pragmatic (features) layering. The article is prefaced with a brief description of the pragmatic features and functions to explain how and why it matters to compare poetry translation. Later, the effectiveness of the model is tested with a randomly-selected short poem by Gulzar and its English translation by Nirupama Dutt. Gulzar is an Indian poet writing in Hindustani (a mix of Hindi and Urdu). Versing mostly in free style, he makes his poems pragmatically poignant with unusual imagery. Evaluating his poems through the model verifies its working. The findings (tabulated, compared, and discussed) show literal translation of metaphors that becomes displaced as well as losing the sense in the poem. Thus, the translation misses the pragmatic force of Gulzar’s philosophy and does not achieve dynamic equivalence. The study recommends the application of pragmatic procedure for evaluation of poetry translation and offer new possibilities in translation research.

Abstract

Spain has traditionally been a dubbing country. Nevertheless, subtitled versions are becoming more visible nowadays. One of the reasons that explain the increasing presence of subtitled films may be the growing concentration of English-speaking people in some areas. But it is not the only factor that explains this often unnoticed transformation: the ease of access to subtitled versions of TV series on the Internet, and the habit of watching subtitled films in other contexts such as film festivals or cinema forums, might help to understand why audiences seem attracted to the subtitled versions of films. In any case, while there may be many surmises, there is little data to confirm them. This article analyses the results of an empirical study thought to provide some information about the reception of subtitled films within the context of a cinema forum held on a weekly basis in a specific Spanish area. The overall purpose of the work is to shed some light on both the audience’s profile and its opinion about subtitling as an alternative way of watching foreign films in a dubbing country. The study is carried out through a survey that allows us to interpret the resulting conclusions from a sociological perspective.

This article reviews Translation: The Basics

This article reviews Translation and Public Policy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Case Studies

This article reviews Translation and Web Searching