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- Volume 3, Issue, 2016
The Journal of Internationalization and Localization - Volume 3, Issue 1, 2016
Volume 3, Issue 1, 2016
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The adaptation of the terms ‘laicism’, ‘secularism’ and ‘laïcité’ in Arabic
Author(s): Abied Alsulaimanpp.: 1–17 (17)More LessThis article intends to study the adaptation of the terms laicism, secularism and laïcité in Arabic and the rendering of these three western terms into a single Arabic term: calmāniyyah. The paper intends also to trace the etymology of calmāniyyah first through a scrutiny of its original concepts and significations in western languages, and then describe its incorporation into Arabic, its development and the development of its significations in this language.
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Content profiling and translation scenarios
Author(s): Sheila Castilho and Sharon O'Brienpp.: 18–37 (20)More LessToday’s companies are overwhelmed with the need to create a huge amount of content, faster, customized, and for numerous media platforms, in order to support their products. Struggling with managing this amount of information, companies have now realised that the strategic management of multilingual enterprise content has become essential. Strategic management involves profiling content, its uses, its end readers and deciding what should be translated, into which languages, using which translation processes and technology. Profiling enterprise content is necessary in order to maximize the quality of the content and its translation at minimum effort and cost by reducing complexity. By targeting the audience, content could be categorized according to the expectation of the end-users, and so, different translation scenarios can be applied to different content types. This article will discuss the challenges of profiling content within the enterprise, as well as translation scenarios focusing on the decisions that push content in one or another direction.
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What is (not) web localization in translation studies
Author(s): Miguel A. Jiménez-Crespopp.: 38–60 (23)More LessIn the midst of a shift from paper to digital texts, web localization represents one of the fastest growing sectors in the translation industry. In this paper, I will argue that Translation Studies (TS) has not devoted enough attention to this phenomenon, partly due to the lack of definition and delimitation of the object of study, and partly due to the quickly evolving intersection of technology, digital text and novel forms of language and culture mediation. In order to overcome this situation and promote new research in this area, this paper extends the prototype approach advocated by Halverson (1999, 2002) to the definition of web localization. This type of approach can help bridge the gap between industry and TS disciplines, providing a framework to classify exemplars of web-mediated communication more or less at the core of the study of web localization phenomena. The main features that this paper will propose as prototypical features of web localization in relation to other translational phenomena are: (1) that the object of the process is web digital genres (i.e. corporate websites, social networking sites, institutional sites), and that (2) texts are digital and hyperlinked. The proposed web genre classification by Jimenez-Crespo (2013a) will be reviewed as a potential foundation to identify exemplars of the web localization prototype.
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Norms governing the localization of video games
Author(s): Hamid Sharifipp.: 61–73 (13)More LessGarshasp: Temple of the Dragon (2012) is a 3D, 3rd person action-adventure hack ‘n’ slash indie game developed by Dead Mage for English gamers and Fanafzar Sharif for local use. It was one of the early Persian forerunners to be majorly localized and distributed throughout the English community. It takes a mythology that westerners are probably not familiar with and presents it in a third person action setting that most audiences can understand (MetaCritic 2012). This and more is what Garshasp offers from its home country demonstrated through its lovely art design, pompous music, and a great narrator (GameSpot 2012). The present research investigates the norms governing the ‘language’ of Garshasp: Temple of the Dragon; a prequel to its 2011 Garshasp: The Monster Slayer. Toury (1978/2000) proposed various categories of norms among which ‘initial norms’ is our concern. These norms represents the side translators subject themselves to; source (adequacy) or target (acceptability). In other words, the initial norm refers to “the translator’s (conscious or unconscious) choice as to the main objective of his translation, the objective which governs all decisions made during the translation process” (van Leuven- Zwart 1989, 154). Van Leuven-Zwart (1989) also contents that, as is the case with most other norms, the initial norm is not directly observable, but may be inferred by identifying the shifts contained in target text. Using Toury’s categorization (1978/2000) and a modified Vinay and Darbelnet’s model (1958/1995), we found that the language of the video game under study tends to be more acceptable than adequate.
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Language localization in scientific drug information
Author(s): Maria-Cornelia Wermuthpp.: 74–94 (21)More LessAlthough localization is, in the first place, related to the cultural adaptation and translation of software and websites, it is important for written materials as well. In this paper we investigate how specialized medical discourse used in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) is localized in patient leaflets (PL). Both documents are issued by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and provide detailed information on the product compiled and distributed by the drug manufacturer, after EMA review and approval. We describe by means of a case study the formal and linguistic features of SmPCs and PLs and we investigate how the specialized source text is localized in its patient-friendly version. The aim of this investigation is to increase awareness and understanding of localization strategies adopted on the intralingual level in the communication of scientific-medical knowledge to a non-expert audience.
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Beyond instrumentalism
Author(s): Sun Xiaofeipp.: 95–112 (18)More LessThe Chinese domesticating translation norms and Sino-centric values have been historically dominating print media translation in China, hindering the introduction of foreignness in the form of written text. Recent Sino-centric values in the Chinese translation field further hamper the introduction of foreign translation study methods. In this context, this paper looks at the non-localization strategy of Apple’s official websites; this strategy produces original English texts, such as iPhone, on the target website. It verifies the point that this strategy could effectively give foreignizing and challenging exceptions to how texts have been traditionally domesticated in China with strategies that sit in line with Chinese translation norms. That is to say, characterized by industrial natures of localization, internationalization and digital media, the implementation of non-localization strategy and the display of highly foreign non-localized texts on the Chinese site are almost under the control of source website owner, i.e. Apple Company. This non-localization strategy, therefore, has a foreignizing impact on the Chinese translation norm, due to its source-driven and digital-media based industrial nature. The cultural study of localization is necessary, as it greatly transcends instrumentalism, which could have implications on mainstream translation studies.
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