FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction / International Journal of Interpretation and Translation - Volume 23, Issue 2, 2025

Abstract

This study explores how affective manifestations are translated and received by studying the intra-ethnic, inter-ethnic, and social/political tensions presented in Alfian Sa’at’s Malay Sketches. The results reveal that Alfian used relevant scenarios and encounters as the prevalent means of affective manifestation, with translanguaging narration and conversation. Additionally, Alfian utilized cultural and historical references featured more often in stories about inter-ethnic tension and social/political tension, respectively. Regarding affective reception among ST and TT audiences, authors may wish to convey affects to readers to motivate them to take action, which is enabled by the process of affective reception, encompassing (1) the cognizance of the intended affect and (2) the perception of empathy. In addition, the translator of Malay Sketches acts as a mediator to simultaneously attend to linguistic and cultural transmissions. To fill the contextual lacuna and ensure the successful delivery of intended affects, the translator often employs annotation and alteration strategies.

Abstract

The present study, following a sequential mixed-methods design, mainly aims at determining the possible predictors of translation performance in reading emotions, regulation of emotion, and translation involvement. In so doing, a sample of 114 homogeneous university students majoring in English translation participated in the quantitative part of the study and a pool of eight students participated in the qualitative part of the study. A number of instruments were used to measure the variables. The results confirmed that reading emotions, emotion regulation, and translation involvement were positively correlated with translation performance. Moreover, the results showed that emotion regulation made the strongest contribution to explaining translation performance. After calculating the inter-coder reliability of the common themes that emerged from the responses to the interviews, the results revealed eight themes, including focused attention, interest, higher motivation, effective feedback, engagement, fun, management of emotions, and interaction. Finally, some implications are offered for translation teachers and students.

Résumé

Cet article explore l’utilisation de la verbalisation rétrospective dans la formation en traduction. La verbalisation rétrospective, au même titre que les autres protocoles de processus, constitue un outil efficace pour soutenir le développement de l’autoréflexion sur le processus et le produit de traduction chez les apprentis. Les formateurs peuvent s’en servir pour évaluer l’appropriation des connaissances et repérer les pratiques et les modes de pensée problématiques. En examinant les protocoles de verbalisation rétrospective issus d’une tâche de traduction des métaphores, nous remarquons que les apprentis font preuve de conscience des problèmes de traduction et de compétences métalinguistique et autoévaluative. Cependant, les protocoles verbaux révèlent également des éléments perturbateurs susceptibles d’entraver les processus de traduction et de causer des erreurs, tels que des difficultés à caractériser les problèmes de traduction, une attention excessive portée aux formes linguistiques et un manque de confiance en soi. L’identification et l’analyse de ces éléments perturbateurs sont essentielles pour les formateurs afin de les aborder efficacement dans la formation en traduction.

Abstract

This paper examines the re-presentation of Arab women in modern Arabic translations of two 19th-century British travelogues: John Lewis Burckhardt’s Travels in Arabia (1830) and Richard Burton’s Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Mecca (1855). The study analyses how gendered portrayals from colonial-era texts are reinterpreted and re-presented for 21st-century Arabs through translation. A combined socio-ethnographical approach is used to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities involved in re-presenting Arab women in translated works produced for contemporary audiences. Sociologic analysis of translated examples reveals systematic strategies that reflect translators’ habitus and institutional influences to align with modern socioreligious norms, mediating between historical ethnography and contemporary norms. Through close analysis of examples, the paper identifies systematic strategies, including manipulation, omission, toning down contentious terms, and paratextual interventions. Findings highlight the role of translators in challenging 19th-century source-text Orientalist descriptions and in conforming to modern Arab socioreligious norms.

Abstract

The debate on Quran translation has recently shifted to a particular focus on questioning its problematic state of the art. Beyond the oft-repeated discourses that routinely circulate around the (un-)translatability debate, crucial issues have come to the fore of current discussions on Quran translation, including Eurocentrism, theoretical inconsistencies, and the lack of clarity and balance with regard to concepts and definitions, among others. Following Lawrence Venuti’s standpoint in favour of hermeneutics as a way out of the impasse of the dominant yet instrumental thinking in translation studies, this article further contributes to the current debate on Quran translation, drawing more attention to the ambivalence and contradictions inherent in its scholarship. By means of conceptual analysis, the article aims to spell out the ramifications and negative implications of the instrumental orientation for Quran translation through the prism of the linguistic paradigm of translation; a paradigm that not only prevails over the translation theory and practice of the Quran but also translation studies as a whole due to the ongoing linguistic returns in the field. Also, the study argues that the special genre of the Quran lacks a consistent translation model entrenched in hermeneutic thinking, one that treats the activity of Quran translation as a form of interpretation.

Abstract

This article examines the translation of English passive structures into Arabic commonly found in news reports. Drawing on Systemic Functional Grammar, the article provides a functional assessment of all strategies used in the translation of a corpus of passive clauses collected from a variety of newspapers and news websites. The main theoretical underpinnings of this study draw on a functional definition of language, assuming that changes in structural choices inevitably lead to shifts in meaning. The analysis, therefore, identifies the different meanings/functions that are made available by the different grammatical configurations at a clause level. The findings of this study show that translators adopt four translation strategies in rendering passive clauses: translation by using nominalizations, translation by using the active voice, translation by using a direct passive translation, and translation by using adjectivals. These strategies seem to correlate with morphological and syntactic specificities, which make their employment predictable. More importantly, some grammatical realizations of these strategies involve functional shifts in one or more of the three meta-functions of language.

This article reviews Translating for Museums, Galleries and Heritage Sites

This article reviews Ideology and Conference Interpreting: A Case Study of the Summer Davos Forum in China