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Translation and Interpreting Studies. The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association - Online First
Online First articles are the published Version of Record, made available as soon as they are finalized and formatted. They are in general accessible to current subscribers, until they have been included in an issue, which is accessible to subscribers to the relevant volume
1 - 20 of 24 results
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How a translation impacts its translator
Author(s): Huarui GuoAvailable online: 01 December 2023More LessAbstractThe present article is a function-oriented case study within the framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, as developed by Gideon Toury, which posits translations as facts in the target culture where they interact with other works and influence them. The present article argues that a translation can have an impact on its translator whose relationship with the target culture is ambivalent. The British missionary Timothy Richard and his Chinese translation of Looking Backward is the case under investigation. Richard played multiple roles in late Qing China. He was a reformer as well as a missionary. His translation of Looking Backward influenced his own reform ideas, which in turn influenced the reformists in late Qing China.
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Cultural mediation in crisis translation
Author(s): Shuyin Zhang, Yingyi Zhuang and Liwen ChangAvailable online: 01 December 2023More LessAbstractThis article presents a snapshot of citizen translators as cultural mediators in public services settings by investigating their role in multicultural communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they attempted to resolve potential conflicts in a crisis situation. The study, which focuses on university communities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China, is one of the rare cases examining community translation and interpreting in a non-immigrant country where non-Chinese speakers are in a linguistically weaker position. The role of citizen translators in cultural mediation is outlined by recontextualizing mediation through interview-based qualitative research. During times of crisis, citizen translators arguably go beyond linguistic mediation and resolve conflicts by assuming extra duties and social responsibilities to ensure equal access to public services in multicultural communities, thus contributing to the emotional stability of the community and the smooth delivery of information on anti-epidemic measures.
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Fan translation and affective mediation
Available online: 27 November 2023More LessAbstractThis study seeks to foreground the concept of ‘affective mediation,’ which is defined as an interventionist process in translation wherein affect is matched, managed, and modulated between communicating bodies. Situated in the context of fan translation, this study utilizes a multimodal analysis of the subtitling practice of Hiddles’ Translation Army of China, a Chinese internet-based, celebrity-oriented fan translation group, and identifies three ways its fansubbers mediate affect toward the object of fandom, i.e., British actor, Tom Hiddleston. The findings suggest that the fansubber’s mediation is conducive to restructuring the affective configuration in the target text and creates a site for emotive performance in fansubbing. The study also argues that affect-mediated fansubbing opens a new space outside the diegetic zone for an imagined interaction and relationship between the entire fandom community and the object of fandom.
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Introduction
Author(s): Caiwen Wang and Raquel de Pedro RicoyAvailable online: 16 November 2023More Less
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Probing the cognitive load of consecutive interpreters
Author(s): Riccardo Moratto and Zhimiao YangAvailable online: 09 November 2023More LessAbstractThis study employs four purpose-built corpora to assess the frequency of the disfluency marker uh (emm) in Chinese-English consecutive interpreting (CI) renditions as a proxy measure of interpreters’ cognitive load. Based on Plevoets and Defrancq ( 2016 , 2018 ), the frequencies are compared across four informational load indicators: delivery rate, lexical density, proportion of numbers, and sentence length. The analysis also probes the potential influence of interpreting directionality on disfluencies. Results reveal differential effects of the four informational load indicators on disfluencies and, by extension, interpreters’ cognitive load, while Chinese-to-English CI is associated with an increase in disfluencies compared to English-to-Chinese for interpreters with Chinese as their A language.
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Mediatorship in the clash of hegemonic and counter publics
Author(s): Göksenin Abdal and Büşra YamanAvailable online: 06 November 2023More LessAbstractThis study discusses how the publication of Alice Oseman’s translation of the Heartstopper (Kalp Çarpıntısı) series in Turkey became a case of multiple mediatorship, from the stigmatization of the series as “propaganda of heresy” and the official restrictions of its sales to the support for its dissemination among the target audience. Closely relating to the mediation processes that turn sanctions into statements against the LGBTQ+ community or springboards for solidarity in support of equality and inclusion, the concept of multiple mediatorship embodies mediators or agents acting for or against the dissemination of the series among Turkish readers. In that vein, this study offers a nuanced understanding of how mediation cannot simply be deemed a collaborative act enabled by alliance, but, rather, of how it involves a clash of multiple mediators who are in conflict in the public sphere.
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The translator’s imperial experience and the dual role of translation
Author(s): Rui LiuAvailable online: 02 November 2023More LessAbstractThe present research, which focuses on the rarely examined dynamic reception process, aims to extend and enrich the current discussion of the role of translation in colonial and postcolonial history. Based on a case study of George Jamieson’s English translation of the Qing Code, this study examines how this translation operates in Hong Kong courts, paying special attention to judges and expert witnesses, who interact closely with Jamieson’s work. The cooperative and competing relationship between experts and Jamieson’s translation sheds light on the centrality of the translator’s imperial experience, highlighting both the colonizing and decolonizing roles of the translation. Moreover, the findings illustrate that Jamieson’s imperial experience facilitates the court’s acceptance, on the one hand, while making his translation obsolete and subject to challenges from experts, on the other.
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Beyond cannibalism
Author(s): Gabriel BorowskiAvailable online: 23 October 2023More LessAbstractCommonly associated with the concept of cultural cannibalism, the artistic and critical legacy of Haroldo de Campos (1929–2003) has constituted a significant metaphor in translation studies. Despite growing interest that this concept has received in the European and North American discourse of the discipline, the idea of anthropophagy spreads unchecked, circulating freely and contributing to a vast array of analytical approaches. Given a noticeable lack of in-depth insights into the nature of de Campos’ theory, this process has resulted in a gradual loss of its original specificity. This article aims to provide an analysis of instances of the use of the cannibalistic metaphor in the English discourse of translation studies, to help understand the refractions detectable in the reception of de Campos’ concepts.
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Translation norms and bilingual dictionaries
Author(s): Hyongrae KimAvailable online: 20 June 2023More LessAbstractThis article applies translational norm theory to bilingual lexicography, arguing that the bilingual lexicographer serves as a “norm authority,” and the bilingual dictionary functions as a “norm statement” that prescribes the scope of what is considered legitimate interlingual equivalence within a given society. To demonstrate how the content of a bilingual dictionary can be used to promote specific translation norms, the headwords, equivalents, directives, and examples found in the North Korean bilingual dictionary, Jo-Yeong Sajeon (JYS) [Korean–English Dictionary] (1987/1991) , were analyzed as a case study. The Korean–English lexical pairings presented in the JYS are matched with exemplary Korean–English translations listed in two North Korean translation textbooks, Jo-Yeong Beonyeokbeop [Korean–English Translation Method] ( Min 2012 ) and Yeong-Jo Beonyeokbeop [English–Korean Translation Method] ( Min 2014 ), affirming that the translation norms featured in the JYS hold normative force over the decisions made by professional translators.
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Teaching the art of “judicious” translators’ interventions
Author(s): Hélène JaccomardAvailable online: 15 June 2023More LessAbstractIn the capstone unit of a Master of Translation, students were required to write “judicious” interventions ( Lefevere 1996 ) by way of peritextual commentary, be it an introduction, a preface, or a postface. Such interventions are at heart a reaction against the well-documented translators’ invisibility. The hope is that studying patterns of published translators’ interventions of this type and teaching trainee translators to write their own will foster self-reflexivity, confidence and “the virtues of courage and determination” ( Chesterman 2001 ). The article describes how learners were encouraged to meet this outcome, the tasks involved, and how some students in the 2020 cohort fared. It concludes with some suggestions on how to promote best practice in teaching to combat translators’ invisibility.
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Text as haunt
Author(s): Kelly Washbourne and Camelly Cruz-MartesAvailable online: 06 June 2023More LessAbstractThe spectral in translation may be considered an opportunity for opening, and the textual haunting that results, a way of conceiving of other-inhabitedness. Texts, translations, authors and translators have long been framed in the discourse of hauntedness as a way of coming to terms with their complex subjectivities. A hauntological approach to translation allows for an engagement with the presence-in-absence of a ‘source,’ the translational disjunctures of time and space, the return of the traumatic and the repressed, and the promise of alterity. We posit three potential components of translational spectrality: (1) translation and trauma; (2) haunted texts and readings, including acts of translation; and (3) the spectral author and translator. The figure of the ghost confronts that of the autonomous author, at the same time giving voice to the (dis)embodied translator and attendant invisibilities of their status.
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A comparative interpreting studies view of interpreting in religious contexts
Author(s): Jonathan DownieAvailable online: 30 May 2023More LessAbstractThis article applies Comparative Interpreting Studies to research on interpreting in religious contexts and the relevance of this literature to interpreting studies more broadly. Comparative Interpreting Studies is an approach that looks to plot the commonalities of all interpreting practice. It is argued that actual observed interpreter behaviors, rather than assumed professional standards, provide a justifiable unit of comparison. The behavior of interpreters in religious contexts is discussed, alongside the split between prescriptive and descriptive approaches to analyzing this behavior and the importance of spiritual and emotional aspects. Differences in research approaches on interpreting in religious contexts are shown to shadow debates within interpreting studies and thus offer insights that may be cautiously generalized. Such generalizations align with recent research in a variety of interpreting contexts and lead to a call for interpreting researchers to give more attention to the wider social, organizational, and personal contexts of interpreting.
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Communication in child language brokering
Author(s): Claudia V. Angelelli and Federica CeccoliAvailable online: 04 May 2023More LessAbstractChild Language Brokering (CLB) refers to the mediation and translation activities performed by bi/multilingual children and adolescents for their peers, family members, and/or other people belonging to their linguistic community who may not be proficient enough to communicate in the societal language. Since child language brokers engage in interpreted communicative events and implement communicative strategies, one interesting but also controversial area of CLB is the communicative role children play and the expectations of other parties about that role. In this paper we examine frequent communication strategies implemented by a child language broker and study if/how they meet the other parties’ expectations. Specifically, two child language brokering strategies are examined: replacement of a monolingual interlocutor and summarizing of the monolingual interlocutors’ statements. We also discuss child language brokers’ roles and their alignment with adults’ expectations, an innovative focus that merits deeper discussion.
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Conducting research on and with your own students
Author(s): Gro Hege Saltnes UrdalAvailable online: 10 March 2023More LessAbstractResearchers’ proximity to their field of interest can make it difficult to create what Bourdieu called “the strange point of view” needed to look beyond the field’s implicit beliefs when producing new knowledge. Based on a Bourdieusian approach to reflexive sociology, this article discusses proximity and distance when conducting research on and with one’s own students. To problematize proximity and distance in a research project, this article discusses a case in which a teacher/researcher conducted research on and with her own students in a bachelor’s degree program in sign language and interpreting as part of a project focusing on the students’ development of professional characteristics as interpreters for individuals with deafblindness. This article argues that student participation and input created an epistemological rupture and represented the strange point of view that became a counterweight to the researcher’s proximity to the field.
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How should metaphors be rendered in audiovisual translation?
Author(s): Petar BožovićAvailable online: 16 February 2023More LessAlthough metaphors are one of the most challenging problems in translation, their treatment is still understudied under the specific constraints of audiovisual translation. The research is especially scarce regarding empirical reception studies as most research is product or process but not user-oriented. The main questions that the present study aims to answer are what are the general preferences and expectations of viewers regarding the translation strategies used for rendering metaphors in subtitling and what could be the underlying reasons for these. To this end, we conducted an experiment with 322 participants and compared the results with a semi-structured interview with 53 participants. The results suggest that viewers prefer a domesticated approach both for lexicalized and non-lexicalized metaphors except for visualized metaphors regardless of their level of transculturality. The potential underlying reasons for this are also discussed.
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Fan translation and film criticism in China
Author(s): Ting GuoAvailable online: 13 February 2023More LessAbstractFilm criticism in China has been changing due to a growing fan community and their active participation in online film reviewing. While social media has democratized who can write reviews, there remain distinct hierarchies of professional and amateur reviewers. Drawing upon Henry Jenkins’ (2006b) concept of “knowledge community” and Alex Bruns’ “produsage” model ( 2008 ), this article will explore how Chinese film fans use translation to shape the online reception of a film and participate in the debates over film criticism in the digital age. Through a case study of the Chinese translations of an English review of The Wandering Earth (2019), a Chinese sci-fi blockbuster, it argues that translation, as an alternative form of self-expression, constitutes both an important cinematic experience for fans and a response by grassroots consumers to the existing reviewing system influenced by media capital.
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Can the subaltern be heard?
Author(s): Mukile KasongoAvailable online: 07 February 2023More LessAbstractThis article examines translation strategies applied in the Russian version of Mariama Bâ’s francophone novel Une si longue lettre (USLL). The novel, which is often described as feminist, was translated into Russian during the period of late socialism, which was characterized by gradual societal changes involving the liberalization of the social order. Drawing on Spivak’s theorization of the subaltern and feminist translation, this article explores how the francophone African novel was translated into Russian and how specifically Soviet feminist discourses are reflected in the translation. Ultimately, this article argues that, by employing feminist translation strategies, the subaltern women characters in USLL were represented as less dependent on patriarchal structures and ‘inserted’ into the target culture as hegemonic subjects.
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Embodying dual actions as interpreting practice
Author(s): Camilla Warnicke and Mathias BrothAvailable online: 13 December 2022More LessAbstractThis study demonstrates how interpreters in a Swedish video relay service (VRS) between deaf and hearing users can simultaneously accomplish two different actions, each directed to a particular user of the service. The study takes a multimodal, ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA) perspective and is empirically based on a corpus of 25 recordings from authentic video calls. Our analysis shows how interpreters, through what we call dual action design, are able to: (1) offer the floor to one party while informing the other party, (2) refer to one of the participants using different forms of deictic reference for the two users of the service, and (3) request confirmation of a source statement from one party while rendering a statement to benefit the other party. The study contributes to current discussions relating to sequentiality, simultaneity, and positioning in interpreting studies and multimodal interaction research.
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The effectiveness of computer-assisted interpreting
Author(s): Sijia Chen and Jan-Louis KrugerAvailable online: 05 December 2022More LessAbstractFacing a new technological turn, the field of interpreting is in great need of evidence on the effectiveness of computer-assisted interpreting. This study proposes a computer-assisted consecutive interpreting (CACI) mode incorporating speech recognition (SR) and machine translation (MT). First, the interpreter listens to the source speech and respeaks it into an SR system, creating an SR text which is then processed by an MT system. Second, the interpreter produces a target speech with reference to the SR and MT texts. Six students participated in training on CACI, after which they performed consecutive interpreting in both the conventional and the new mode. The study finds that CACI featured fewer pauses and reduced cognitive load. Moreover, the overall interpreting quality, especially the accuracy, was increased. The effectiveness of the new mode is found to be modulated by the interpreting direction.
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Relating utterance fluency to perceived fluency of interpreting
Author(s): Chao Han and Liuyan YangAvailable online: 15 November 2022More LessAbstractThe prospect of automated scoring for interpreting fluency has prompted investigations into the predictability of human raters’ perceived fluency based on acoustically measured utterance fluency. Recently, Han, Chen, Fu and Fan (2020) correlated ten utterance fluency measures with raters’ perceived fluency ratings. To verify previous correlational patterns, the present study partially replicated Han et al. (2020) . Our analysis shows that most of the correlations observed in Han et al. (2020) were successfully replicated. To produce overall interim estimates of the true relationships, we conducted a mini meta-analysis of correlation coefficients reported in six relevant studies, informed by the “continuously cumulating meta-analysis” approach ( Braver et al. 2014 ). We found that phonation time ratio, mean length of run, and speech rate had relatively strong correlations with perceived fluency. We discuss these findings in light of automated fluency assessment and the need for replication and meta-analysis in translation and interpreting studies.
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