Babel - Volume 65, Issue 3, 2019

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the importance of pragmatics in translation, paying particular attention to the difficulties posed by two non-clausal units or inserts (Biber et al. 1999). These elements have been classified into nine categories, namely interjections, greetings and farewells, discourse markers, attention signals, response elicitors, response forms, hesitators, polite formulae and expletives. In this article we will discuss two of them, interjections and expletives, both of which express stance. We will consider the possible renderings of these elements in Spanish and Chinese and the difficulties they pose in the translation of fictional dialogue in connection with previous research into this issue in order to identify future lines of enquiry. As regards the translation of expletives, it seems that recent publications point towards a greater presence of swearwords in Spanish dubbed versions than in the past, referred to in this article as a “vulgarization hypothesis”.

Résumé

En contexte canadien, les discours politiques du premier ministre du pays sont généralement présentés dans les deux langues officielles depuis au moins la seconde moitié du vingtième siècle. Pour étudier les discours politiques classiques de l’histoire canadienne du temps présent, il faut donc nécessairement prendre en compte le phénomène de la traduction. Dans cette contribution, le discours politique classique est défini comme une allocution politique d’importance. Pour arriver à la constitution d’un canon de discours politiques représentatifs, l’article avance l’importance d’étudier cinq acteurs susceptibles de répertorier et d’évaluer les allocutions politiques, soit les institutions politiques, les maisons d’édition, les établissements d’enseignement, les médias traditionnels et les médias sociaux. Pour qu’une allocution devienne un classique, elle doit avoir été remarquée et reprise par plusieurs de ces acteurs. Enfin, en analysant la façon dont deux déclarations politiques célèbres ont été reprises dans différents médias, l’article met en évidence le caractère inéluctablement mouvant des traductions de classiques politiques : il semblerait que la retraduction soit de rigueur lorsque journalistes et auteurs québécois citent des déclarations politiques canadiennes-anglaises.

Abstract

This article analyses the semiotic construction of the Other in the peritexts of three Medieval Arabic chronicles from al-Andalus (the Arabic name for the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims from 711 to 1492), published under the title Andalucía contra Berbería by the outstanding Spanish Arabist Emilio García Gómez. Few studies have dealt, from a critical perspective, with the discourse (or discourses) concerning Arabic cultures and societies constructed by European academic Orientalism in general, or by the Spanish Arabism in particular. Assuming that translation, given its hybrid nature, plays a crucial role in the construction of othering discourses, this article attempts to analyse the identification and othering strategies used by García Gómez on the basis of a methodological approach that combines Genette’s notion of paratext (1987), the notions of text, context and pretext proposed by Widdowson (2004 and 2007) and the “Model of semiotic construction of the Other” developed by Carbonell (2003 and 2004), all within the general framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The results of this analysis show a significant othering of Berber and/or African references. This is further reinforced by García Gómez’ identification with al-Andalus, which pivots between his own identification with the medieval authors of the three chronicles, and the parallels he establishes between medieval al-Andalus and the Spain of the first half of the 20th century.

Abstract

Research on Goldblatt’s translation of Red Sorghum has attracted more attention in recent years after its author Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for this work. This translation study has addressed the imagery and symbolism in this classic Chinese work, an area that has yet to be investigated with the use of empirical data. The study employed the corpus-based approach, and analysed the translation of images and symbols based on a parallel translation corpus of Chapters 1 and 2 found in the text of Red Sorghum. Most important images and symbols are represented by 30 distinct nouns in the novel as successfully translated into English as a result of the translator’s adoption of a literal translation strategy. A more focused examination of a translation of the most prominent key word, sorghum, finds that the translator has faithfully adopted the imagery and symbolism techniques in the source text whenever conveying the images and symbols of sorghum across cultures. Based on the findings, this study argues that images and symbols in the source text may present themselves in the translation of novels if translators adopt a source-oriented translation strategy. Our analyses of the translation of figures of speech, namely similes, personifications and repetitions further highlight the importance of taking concert and literal translation strategies into the realm of literary translation.

Abstract

Over recent decades, translation studies have witnessed how descriptive studies have taken over prescriptive approaches. This essay deals with this subject, proposing that the two theoretical perspectives are not so far apart as may be inferred from the literature available and that, paradoxically, they are very close as regards their ultimate objectives. To develop this proposal, we establish a typology of hypotheses that a translation study should consider from the beginning; once the proposed hypothesis is checked, the implementation of the strategies for the given translation at stake seems to be the same as for descriptive approaches. In order to illustrate this apparent paradox, we observe and analyze some examples of the translated subtitles into Spanish of the first season of the acclaimed American series The Wire, paying special attention to the informal use of language in the dialogues. Following the theoretical frame designed in the first part of the essay, we first analyze the available subtitles in Spanish, and then propose some details pertaining to the translation that might perhaps have permitted a better reception of the series in the target system, that is the Spanish-speaking system.

Abstract

This paper fills the missing the link in the research on the history of interpreter and translator training in the P. R. China. After the restoration of China’s seat in the United Nations on October 25, 1971, the UN Secretariat suggested, as early as in 1972, to the P. R. C. Permanent Mission in New York, that a training course be established to train interpreters and translators. But it was not until 1979 that the UN Training Program for Interpreters and Translators (译训班) was established at Beijing Foreign Studies University. What happened during the period of 1972–1978 and how the first cohort of students were recruited and trained remain, to a large extent, unexplored areas. By combining newly-discovered historical materials and interviews with former staff members and students of the program, this paper presents details about the preparatory work carried out in mid-1970s that laid the foundations for the establishment of the program, the month-long negotiations between Chinese and the UN representatives in 1978 that led to the founding of the program, as well as the recruitment and training of the first cohort of students.

This article reviews Language, Media and Culture: The Key Concepts

This article reviews Translation and Social Media: in theory, in training and in professional practice