What is (not) web localization in translation studies

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Jiménez-Crespo

In 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.

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong King Lee

Abstract Translation has traditionally been viewed as a branch of applied linguistics. This has changed drastically in recent decades, which have witnessed translation studies growing as a field beyond, and sometimes against, applied linguistics. This paper is an attempt to think translation back into applied linguistics by reconceptualizing translation through the notions of distributed language, semiotic repertoire, and assemblage. It argues that: (a) embedded within a larger textual-media ecology, translation is enacted through dialogical interaction among the persons, texts, technologies, platforms, institutions, and traditions operating within that ecology; (b) what we call translations are second-order constructs, or relatively stable formations of signs abstracted from the processual flux of translating on the first-order; (c) translation is not just about moving a work from one discrete language system across to another, but about distributing it through semiotic repertoires; (d) by orchestrating resources performatively, translations are not just interventions in the target language and culture, but are transformative of the entire translingual and multimodal space (discursive, interpretive, material) surrounding a work. The paper argues that distributed thinking helps us de-fetishize translation as an object of study and reimagine translators as partaking of a creative network of production alongside other human and non-human agents.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-99
Author(s):  
Brian Mossop

This semi-autobiographical article reflects on the discipline known as Translation Studies from the point of view of the author, who was a full-time Canadian government translator from 1974 to 2014, but also taught and wrote about translation. The narrative begins with the emergence of Translation Studies in Canada and in Europe and continues through the present neoliberal era, with reflection on a variety of topics including the English name of the discipline, the lack of definition of an object of study, the original role of the journal Meta, and the notion of translation as applied linguistics. The last section considers two fictive scenarios in which Translation Studies does not emerge, and translation is studied, right from the start, in ways much more closely linked to the translation profession, with a focus on translators rather than translations, and therefore on translational production rather than the analysis of completed translations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 101-119
Author(s):  
Paul St-Pierre

It was in the 1970s that the object of study in literature departments began to change, under the impetus of novel approaches, some radically new and others renewed forms of older ones—structuralism, semiotics, intertextuality, psychoanalysis, pragmatics, deconstruction, reader-response theory, hermeneutics, discourse analysis, etc. Many (but not all) of these were French in origin, at least in part: the names of Lévi-Strauss, Barthes, Kristeva, Lacan, Derrida, Ricoeur, Foucault can be cited. And along with the change in the definition of the object of study came a change in the way literature departments defined themselves and their role. This is clear from the way department of literatures renamed themselves and introduced new programs. These changes came about at different times in different places, dependent in good part on the amount of access that existed to the publications—many of which were in French—but especially to the debates they gave rise to. It was in this context of expansion and of redefinition—presented here in terms of my own particular history—that an interest in translation, and later in Translation Studies, developed. Of course, translation was not an entirely new object of study; linguists and students of literature (especially of comparative literature) had on occasion acknowledged its existence, and even at times, its importance. However, it was only with the advent of the new approaches to texts, to reading, to interpretation, and to the context of the transmission of meaning(s) and of expression, that a conception of the importance of translation, and of its interest from a theoretical point of view, was able to develop. This led, in the 1980s, to the construction of a new discipline—Translation Studies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-194
Author(s):  
Marta Kajzer-Wietrzny ◽  
Ilmari Ivaska

Empirical Translation Studies have recently extended the scope of research to other forms of constrained and mediated communication, including bilingual communication, editing, and intralingual translation. Despite the diversity of factors accounted for so far, this new strand of research is yet to take the leap into intermodal comparisons. In this paper we look at Lexical Diversity (LD), which under different guises, has been studied both within Translation Studies (TS) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA). LD refers to the rate of word repetition, and vocabulary size and depth, and previous research indicates that translated and non-native language tends to be less lexically diverse. There is, however, no study that would investigate both varieties within a unified methodological framework. The study reported here looks at LD in spoken and written modes of constrained and non-constrained language. In a two-step analysis involving Exploratory Factor Analysis and linear mixed-effects regression models we find interpretations to be least lexically diverse and written non-constrained texts to be most diverse. Speeches delivered impromptu are less diverse than those read out loud and the non-constrained texts are more sensitive to such delivery-related differences than the constrained ones.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 1186-1216
Author(s):  
Nikola Simkova ◽  
Zdenek Smutny

An opportunity to resolve disputes as an out-of-court settlement through computer-mediated communication is usually easier, faster, and cheaper than filing an action in court. Artificial intelligence and law (AI & Law) research has gained importance in this area. The article presents a design of the E-NeGotiAtion method for assisted negotiation in business to business (B2B) relationships, which uses a genetic algorithm for selecting the most appropriate solution(s). The aim of the article is to present how the method is designed and contribute to knowledge on online dispute resolution (ODR) with a focus on B2B relationships. The evaluation of the method consisted of an embedded single-case study, where participants from two countries simulated the realities of negotiation between companies. For comparison, traditional negotiation via e-mail was also conducted. The evaluation confirms that the proposed E-NeGotiAtion method quickly achieves solution(s), approaching the optimal solution on which both sides can decide, and also very importantly, confirms that the method facilitates negotiation with the partner and creates a trusted result. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed method is economically efficient for parties of the dispute compared to negotiation via e-mail. For a more complicated task with five or more products, the E-NeGotiAtion method is significantly more suitable than negotiation via e-mail for achieving a resolution that favors one side or the other as little as possible. In conclusion, it can be said that the proposed method fulfills the definition of the dual-task of ODR—it resolves disputes and builds confidence.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Hollender

AbstractBased on Ivan Marcus’s concept of “open book” and considerations on medieval Ashkenazic concepts of authorship, the present article inquires into the circumstances surrounding the production of SeferArugat ha-Bosem, a collection of piyyut commentaries written or compiled by the thirteenth-century scholar Abraham b. Azriel. Unlike all other piyyut commentators, Abraham ben Azriel inscribed his name into his commentary and claims to supersede previous commentaries, asserting authorship and authority. Based on the two different versions preserved in MS Vatican 301 and MS Merzbacher 95 (Frankfurt fol. 16), already in 1939 Ephraim E. Urbach suggested that Abraham b. Azriel might have written more than one edition of his piyyut commentaries. The present reevaluation considers recent scholarship on concepts of authorship and “open genre” as well as new research into piyyut commentary. To facilitate a comparison with Marcus’s definition of “open book,” this article also explores the arrangement and rearrangement of small blocks of texts within a work.


Author(s):  
Thanh Quy Ngo Thi ◽  
◽  
Hong Minh Nguyen Thi ◽  

Proverbs are important data depicting the traditional culture of each nation. Vietnamese proverbs, dated thousands of years ago, are an immense valuable treasure of experience which the Vietnamese people desire to pass to the younger generations. This paper aims to explore the unique and diversified world of intelligence and spirits of the Vietnamese through a condensed and special literary genre, as well as a traditional value of the nation (Nguyen Xuan Kinh 2013, Tran Ngoc Them 1996, Le Chi Que and Ngo Thi Thanh Quy 2014). Through an interdisciplinary approach, from an anthropological point of view, approaching proverbs we will open up a vast treasure of knowledge and culture of all Vietnamese generations. The study has examined over 16,000 Vietnamese proverbs and analysed three groups expressing Vietnamese people’s behaviors toward nature, society and their selves, and compared them with English and Japanese proverbs. The research has attempted to explore the beauty of Vietnamese language, cultural values and the souls and personalities of Vietnam. Approaching Vietnamese proverbs under the interdisciplinary perspective of language, culture and literature is a new research direction in the field of Social Sciences and Humanity in Vietnam. From these viewpoints, it is seen that proverbs have remarkably contributed to the language and culture of Vietnam as well as and constructed to the practice of language use in everyday life which is imaginary, meaningful and effective in communication. Furthermore, the study seeks to inspire the Vietnamese youth’s pride in national identity and to encourage their preservation and promotion for traditional values of the nation in the context of integration and globalisation. In the meantime, it would be favourable to introduce and market the beauty of Vietnamese language, culture and people to the world, encouraging the speakers of other languages to study, explore and understand Vietnam.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-242
Author(s):  
K. Galiyeva ◽  
◽  
S. Isakova ◽  

The article is devoted to the definition of concept in modern linguistics. Various points of view and definitions of the basic concepts are considered: "concept", "conceptual sphere", "content". The aim of the article is to describe and explain such a complex unit as a concept from the point of view of linguistics. The object of research is studied in its various manifestations, the combination of verbal and nonverbal means of information expression in the conceptual sphere is revealed. the relevance of this topic is due to the need for a detailed consideration of the concept of concept based on the works of prominent scientists and linguists. Researchers treat the concept as a cognitive, psycholinguistic, linguocultural, cultural and linguistic phenomenon. The concept is an umbrella term because it "covers" the subject areas of several scientific fields: primarily cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics.


Author(s):  
D.V. Zhmurov ◽  

The article presents an analysis of the cybervictimization phenomenon. The author justifies the use of an integrative (interdisciplinary) approach to the study of this problem, proposes the definition of the term under study as a process or end result of becoming a crime victim in the sphere of unified computer networks. A theoretical and methodological matrix for the analysis of cybervictimization (PCPPE model) was developed. The model includes five system characteristics of cybervictimization, the comprehensive study of which to a maximum extent will simplify the understanding of the essence of the object of study. These characteristics include: profiling, conditionality, prevalence, predictability and epidemicity. Each of these aspects is explained in detail: the author developed a detailed nomenclature of cybervictimization forms. The problems of identifying its extent, as well as the determinant role of gender, age, behavioral and personal factors are discussed in the article, and a list of key cybervictimization acts is formulated. This meta-analysis includes thirteen global categories and about seventy of its accent forms. Among the global categories the following ones are identified: threats, harassment, illegal interest, infringement, insult, spoofing, disclosure, compulsion, seizure, infecting, access and use. The prevalence rates of cybervictimization on the example of the United States (Internet Crime Report) are also studied, certain aspects of the methodology of cyber victim number counting are considered.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Cristina Francisco de Almeida Fehr ◽  
Welington Rocha

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss the role of open-book accounting (OBA) and trust on buyer–supplier relationship satisfaction. The objective of this paper is to analyze how OBA and trust influence satisfaction on the relationship between suppliers and buyers in the Brazilian automotive sector’s supply chain.Design/methodology/approachThe research has been developed based on a qualitative strategy, characterized as explanatory. Data gathering has been conducted through document analysis and semi-structured interview, and content analysis has been used for discourse analysis.FindingsResults show that OBA is unilateral, imposed by the auto manufacturer, representing a selective information process, as suppliers try to protect their information value as far as possible. Trust is partial and cooperation is not spontaneous, both driven by the search for benefits. OBA may yield a positive or a negative outcome with regard to the social and the economic overall satisfaction of suppliers, depending on how the information is used by auto manufacturer.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this article is to provide an understanding of the difficulties of applying the OBA in companies and of the factors that may influence its operation and performance, impacting on satisfaction and continuity of relationships. The paper also contributes with the proposal of a clearer and more objective definition of OBA. Being the intention that new research in this area can be developed from a delimited, clear and objective definition of OBA, allowing better understanding on the subject and comparison among research studies.


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