Babel - Volume 71, Issue 3, 2025

Abstract

This study focuses on a range of paratexts around an influential social media account in China named @subtitle girl, who dedicates herself to online feminist content production in the form of (editing) and subtitling feminist clips from English to Chinese. The study aims to identify how the feminist subtitled clips are paratextually (re)framed in the context of digital feminism. The study adopts a suitable theoretical conceptualization of paratextuality and views @subtitle girl’s translational activities under the online social translation/subtitling rubric. Different paratexts around @subtitle girl’s subtitling are examined on the macro and micro level. It is found that, on the macro level, the factual paratextual elements avatar, username, and short bio of @subtitle girl, and algorithm-generated statistics about their subtitling facilitate a (post-)feminist (self-)branding and (self-)promotion of their subtitled work. On the micro level, the hashtagged synopsis for each clip and the comments introduce, highlight, reconstruct, and repackage the subtitled feminist content for the Chinese female audience online. The study shows how the feminist (re)framing on two levels of @subtitle girl’s online social translation/subtitling is fulfilled against the backdrop of digital feminist content production: both the (self-)marketing of the producer/subtitler and the interaction between the producer/subtitler and their AV content consumers and among their consumers are valued.

Abstract

Health texts are a type of text where non-optimal translation can have serious consequences. In the eHealth/mHealth case study presented here, we explore how different categories of translational agents perceive risk and manage it in the process of translating texts from a Norwegian health app into English. Based on the notion of risk in translation (e.g., Pym 2005) and conceptual analysis, we developed a model — The Risk Scenario — which we used to analyze interview, observational, and think-aloud data gathered during the translation process. We found that while the LSP and translator/quality checker in our study expressed the most concern over the risk of non-optimal target texts, the author and client were more focused on the risk of harming the health of end-users. Such differences likely arise from the proximal versus distal positioning (see Gile 2012) of different agents in relation to the act of translation. Additionally, we discovered that the type of text found in this kind of app — oral and informal — does not effectively communicate its risks, reaffirming the need for detailed translation briefs and suggesting that risk should be a compulsory category for source texts in high-risk domains.

Abstract

The present study takes a postmodern approach to Sherry Simon’s views on translation, aiming to uncover the extent to which her ideas in translation studies align with postmodern thought. To this end, the works of prominent postmodern thinkers including Lyotard, Baudrillard, Derrida, Cixous, Deleuze, Guattari, and Irigaray are examined. Their postmodern claims are listed and described as scenarios. Then, Simon’s views are compared with these scenarios in quest of commonalities. The results indicate that Simon’s views on gender are indeed postmodern. Her rejection of the conventional definition of fidelity reflects a postmodern stance as it rejects rigid binary opposites. Similarly, her rejection of hierarchical structures aligns with postmodern principles. Furthermore, her advocacy for dismantling absolutes in polarity can also be considered postmodern. Finally, her view on handling texts in translation to foreground female subjectivity qualifies as a postmodern approach.

Abstract

Binomial expressions represent one type of formulaic sequences. Binomials have a distinguishing feature, known as “configuration restrictions” (for example, “black and white” is common in English, but “white and black” is not). However, research on how second language (L2) learners process and acquire such expressions is limited. Even more limited is the research examining how translation trainees handle such expressions when rendering texts to and from their first language. The present study aims to address this gap by examining the determinants of translating binomials into their preferred word order: congruency (similar or different configuration in the source and target language), translation direction, and L2 proficiency level. Eighty-six translation trainees (Arabic-English speakers) translated three types of binomials (“congruent,” “incongruent,” and “novel”) in both directions (from English to Arabic and from Arabic to English). Additionally, they completed a vocabulary test as a rough measure of L2 proficiency. Only congruency predicted the number of natural renderings of binomials; congruent items were rendered into their natural configuration above chance level (i.e., novel binomials). This was consistent regardless of translation direction or L2 proficiency level. These findings carry significant implications for translation education

Resumen

La comunicación multilingüe y la necesidad de intérpretes y traductores profesionales que sirvan de enlace entre las distintas partes es una realidad en los conflictos armados internacionales. Este artículo explora las relaciones de aprendizaje que surgen entre intérpretes y militares en dichas situaciones. El enfoque metodológico se basa en la teoría del aprendizaje situado de Lave y Wenger (1991) y en la obra de Engeström (1987, 1991, 2001, 2005) sobre comunidades de práctica, con énfasis en las nociones de aprendizaje horizontal y pedagogías duales, aplicado al caso concreto de las Fuerzas Armadas españolas (FF.AA) que actúan en operaciones nacionales o internacionales de pacificación o en conflictos armados. Los datos proceden de entrevistas con militares (españoles) responsables de misiones militares internacionales o que han trabajado con intérpretes. Las conclusiones del estudio indican el gran potencial que estas misiones tienen para el desarrollo de comunidades de práctica inter e intraprofesionales entre intérpretes y personal militar como forma para mejorar la calidad y eficacia de la comunicación en entornos multilingües y multiculturales cada vez más frecuentes en esta sociedad globalizada.

This article reviews The Languages of COVID-19: Translational and Multilingual Perspectives on Global Healthcare

This article reviews Translation and Repetition. Rewriting (Un)original Literature

This article reviews Translation of Contemporary Taiwan Literature in a Cross-Cultural Context: A Translation Studies Perspective

This article reviews Dancing with the Dead: The Essential Red Pine Translations

This article reviews Towards an Atlas of the History of Interpreting