What is the publication language in humanities? The case of Translation Studies scholars

English Today ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-49
Author(s):  
Xiangdong Li

English is becoming the default language of knowledge construction and dissemination (Kuteeva & McGrath, 2014; Zheng & Gao, 2016; Fuentes & Gómez Soler, 2018). However, English as a monolingual and mono-rhetorical means of disseminating knowledge may maximize its ‘Tyrannosaurus rex’ side (Tardy, 2004; Espinet et al., 2015; Zheng & Gao, 2016). The use of English as an Academic Lingua Franca (EALF) is depicted as hegemonic, totalitarian, colonial and imperialistic, silencing other academic traditions, imposing Anglophone ideologies of norms and rhetorical conventions, and controlling other academic territories (Phillipson, 1992; Bennett, 2013). It is claimed that an orientation towards the norms and rhetorical conventions of the Anglo-Saxon discourse demotes non-English languages, cultures and rhetorical conventions (Tardy, 2004; Espinet, Izquierdo & Garcia–Pujol, 2015), disadvantages non-native English-speaking scholars and their scholarship (Flowerdew, 2013; Zheng & Gao, 2016), erodes alternative forms of knowledge construction (Martín–Martín, 2005; Bennett, 2011), and reduces intellectual, cultural and epistemological diversity (Tardy, 2004; Bennett, 2011).

Author(s):  
Eda Başak Hancı-Azizoglu

The majority of scientific research in the world is published in English. The chapter expands the discussion on English as a lingua franca a step further to initiate a discussion on English as a scientific lingua franca. English as a scientific lingua franca poses a significant challenge for the non-Anglo-Saxon scholars by disregarding their data sets and research unless the research is written in academic English with culturally determined rhetorical conventions. This chapter investigates why different cultures have tendencies to write in culturally affected writing styles and forms. Toward that end, the chapter shows how the failure to give proper attention to other rhetorical styles results in losing crucial intellectual information from the non-Anglo-Saxon scholars. With this in mind, the chapter offers short-term solutions for academicians to join in the scientific world despite possible language barriers.


2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Scanlan

This study creates life history portraits of two White middle-class native-English-speaking principals demonstrating commitments to social justice in their work in public elementary schools serving disproportionately high populations of students who are marginalized by poverty, race, and linguistic heritage. Through self-reported life histories of these principals, I create portraits that illustrate how these practitioners draw motivation, commitment, and sustenance in varied, complicated, and at times contradictory ways.


Target ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Snell-Hornby

Terminology has often proved to be a problem in scholarly discourse, and Translation Studies is a case in point. Even the name of the discipline has been an issue since James Holmes brought it up in 1972, and the central concept of the time, equivalence, despite incessant debate and revaluation in some schools of thought, has in others long since been discarded as an illusion. Basically there are three possibilities open to the scholar wanting to introduce a new technical term: – As in the case of norm (Toury), a word from general language can be used in a specified sense and defined as such. The danger arises that it can be misinterpreted and used differently in other languages (as with Vermeer’s Norm). – the invention of completely new terms, as with Justa Holz-Mänttäri’s Botschaftsträger. – A word is taken over from a classical dead language, such as Latin or Greek, and given a specific definition for the theory concerned, as was the case with skopos in the functionalist approach. Referring to experience in editing the Handbuch Translation, the essay discusses this issue in detail. It also deals with the use of English as a lingua franca in the metadiscourse of Translation Studies.


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