Babel - Volume 68, Issue 1, 2022

Abstract

With the rapid development of digitization and the emergence of social networks and streaming platforms, audiovisual translation (AVT) has become one of the most prolific expressions of global communication in today’s society, able to overcome linguistic barriers when disseminating culture across the world. While audiovisual productions originally shot in English seem to be able to take full advantage of this situation, China’s domestic programs frequently encounter more challenges to make it overseas. Adopting a primarily translational approach, this paper borrows the concept of “cultural discount,” coined by Hoskins and Mirus (1988), to capture the notion that audiovisual productions are rooted in one culture and, therefore, may have diminished appeal among viewers from other communities. The study holds that the degree of cultural discount audiovisual productions may encounter when exported depends on numerous factors, which are explored through examples of recently localized films and TV series of Chinese origin.

Abstract

All countries issue certificates – marriage certificates, birth certificates, medical certificates, graduation certificates, degrees, driver’s licenses, and business permits – for various purposes, so the translation of certificates is common in the translation market. For cultural, practical, and administrative reasons, certificates issued by different countries and in different languages often take different forms and contain different information. Because translated certificates may be required for specific purposes, the appropriate translation of certificates can therefore pose challenges for translators. This paper presents a study on the translation of various certificates from Chinese into English. It attempts to compare and analyze different features of certificates in Chinese and English, identify issues encountered in the translation of certificates, and explore different translation strategies, taking into account linguistic, pragmatic, cultural, and communicative factors. Based on the findings of the data analysis, the study suggests that when translating Chinese certificates into English, it is necessary to consult the potential users of the translated certificates to identify the purposes of the translation and decide which translation strategy is appropriate.

Abstract

This article reports on a pilot study that aims to shed some light on how translation students construe specialized terms. More specifically, we verified their ability to associate environment terms with specific conceptual situations (as understood by Frame Semantics [Fillmore 1976; Fillmore and Baker 2010]). Respondents (27) were asked to complete a questionnaire containing 10 different questions that assessed the association of terms with conceptual situations from different angles. Results show that respondents can associate related terms and link sets of terms to conceptual situations and can make distinctions between the different components of conceptual situations when asked to produce lists of terms or select terms from a predefined list. However, when asked to assess the similarity or difference between specific terms, respondents are less likely to produce the anticipated answer. Our findings suggest that teaching and learning activities inspired by Frame Semantics may be helpful for students to structure their terminological analysis and deal with challenges such as ambiguity and fine semantic distinctions. We hope this can ultimately contribute to helping them make informed, precise and coherent terminological choices.

Abstract

Translating collocations is one of the problematic areas in translation studies, which becomes even more complicated when translating Qur’anic text is involved. The uniqueness of Qur’anic linguistic features, special context of the Qur’anic text, and stylistic differences between English and Arabic are barriers to accurate and natural rendition. Along these veins, this study attempts to investigate seven translations of the Qur’anic noun-noun collocations (Sarwar 1981; Al-Hilali and Khan 1996; Arberry 1996; Pickthall 1997; Sahih International 1997; Shakir 1999; Ali 2001) to unfold the degree of accuracy and naturalness of their translations. The present article follows the approach of corpus-based research to study seven prominent translations of the Noble Qur’an taken from The Qur’anic Arabic Corpus, using lexical, exegetical, and frequency-based analyses, which reveal that integrated lexical and exegetical analyses are perquisites for adequate rendition and prevent deviation in meaning and translation loss. Frequency-based approach in translation of collocations could assist in maintaining naturalness of rendition to some extent.

Abstract

The present considerations focus on the intersection of translation and memory. The starting point of these considerations is the lost letter of General Władysław Sikorski to the president of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš, dated 17 February 1941, known only in its German and Czech translations. In the history of translation, there are many known examples of texts saved only through translation that have been incorporated into a cultural system, thereby preserving their continuity. However, this is not what occurred regarding the translation described here. The historical and political context of the correspondence of General Sikorski to President Beneš concerning the post-war expulsion of German populations inclines one to consider the subject of the mutual relationships between collective memory and historical knowledge. The article describes the role of translation as an act of communication in cultural processes, thus in building and transferring knowledge resources, as well as in the processes of constituting collective memory and shaping a memory narrative. The question of the role of the described text centers on – in view of the lack of the original – the issue of its authenticity. It seems that the lack of the original text has become a pretext for excluding from discourse the translation whose content is not in accordance with the official narrative. The fact that it is impossible to settle this question also inclines one to view the translation as a possible tool of manipulation. The authors of the article thus pose the question as to whether the assumption of a transnational perspective would allow the incorporation of this translation into discussions concerning the memory of the expulsions.

Abstract

This article conducts a corpus-based comparative study of explicitation, one of the translation universals widely explored, by investigating the use of connectives in two versions of the Chinese translation of The Lord of the Rings from Taiwan and Mainland China. The two versions are compared with the originally produced Chinese text and their source text to find out whether explicitation through the use of connectives occurs in Chinese translation and to what extent such explicitation is influenced by the source text. A quantitative plus qualitative method is adopted to analyze the connectives in the two Chinese versions and compare them with their counterparts in the source text and the non-translated target text. The results show that explicitation occurs in both versions and that the Taiwan version exhibits a higher degree of explicitation than the Mainland version. Such findings may result from different pedagogical and regional translation norms, especially with greater importance attached to faithfulness in translation in Mainland China.

This article reviews May Fourth and Translation

This article reviews Recreating the Images of Chan Master Huineng: A Systemic Functional Approach to Translations of the Platform Sutra