Issues, Challenges, and Promises in Chinese Bible Translation

2021 ◽  
pp. 180-198
Author(s):  
Kuo-Wei Peng
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Authoritative Text ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
Translation Techniques ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Syntactic Differences

This essay discusses three broad issues faced by today’s Chinese Bible translations: the continuation and discontinuation of the legacy of the authoritative text, the issue of syntactic differences between Chinese and languages of the source texts, and the issue of differences between the Chinese culture and those behind the source texts. To tackle these issues, the essay highlights the importance in the definition of the Skopos (purpose) of any given Bible translation project, the importance of consistency in the use of translation techniques, and the importance of coherency of the materials used in translational action.

Exploring the differences between Jin Di’s translation theory and Eugene A. Nida’s translation theory

Babel ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui-juan Ma
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Chinese Translation ◽  
Dynamic Equivalence ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Equivalent Effect ◽  
Definition Of

Some translation scholars hold that Jin Di’s theory of equivalent effect and Nida’s theory of dynamic equivalence are essentially same because Jin has basically adopted the definition of Nida’s dynamic equivalence in formulating his own translation theory. However, this paper reveals that there are some fundamental differences between the two theories in three aspects: (1) Nida’s theory is reader-oriented while Jin’s is text-oriented; (2) Nida’s theory is flexible while Jin’s tends to be inflexible; and (3) Jin’s theory is an ideal one in the sense that it cannot be realized in translation practice whereas Nida’s theory is a realistic one. Examples from Jin’s Chinese version of James Joyce’s Ulysses and Bible translations are given to illustrate these differences between Nida’s theory and Jin’s theory. This paper further explores the two major reasons that lead to such discrepancies: (1) the deficiency of Nida’s theory in dealing with transference of aesthetic elements for literary translation; (2) the influence of traditional Chinese translation theories upon Jin’s translation principle. Although Nida’s theory is not restricted to Bible translation, it has some limitations in guiding literary translation because it fails to address the transference of aesthetic elements for literary translation. When Jin translated Joyce’s Ulysses, he had to face the problem of aesthetic transference of literary works. This is the reason why Jin eventually turns to traditional Chinese translation theory and classic literary criticism to seek for support for his translation theory of equivalent effect.

AN APPRAISAL OF SOURCE MATERIAL FOR THE STUDY OF TARGUM MINOR PROPHETS

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-469
Author(s):  
Gudrun Lier ◽  
Anna Fransina Van Zyl
Keyword(s):  
Source Material ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
Integrated Research ◽  
Translation Techniques ◽  
Former Prophets ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
History Of Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Minor Prophets

The study of Aramaic Bible translations (Targumim) continues to be a valuable source of information, not only for uncovering the history of biblical interpretation but also for providing insights for the study of linguistics and translation techniques. In comparison with work done on the Pentateuchal Targumim and Targum Former Prophets, research on the individual books of Targum Minor Prophets has been scant. By providing an overview of selected source material this review seeks (i) to provide incentives for more focussed studies in the field of Targum Minor Prophets and (ii) to motivate new integrated research approaches which are now made possible with the assistance of highly developed software programmes.

scholarly journals History and theory of Scripture translations

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole
Keyword(s):  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History And Theory

This article argues for the importance of Bible translations through its historical achievements and theoretical frames of reference. The missionary expansion of Christianity owes its very being to translations. The early Christian communities knew the Bible through the LXX translations while churches today still continue to use various translations. Translations shape Scripture interpretations, especially when a given interpretation depends on a particular translation. A particular interpretation can also influence a given translation. The article shows how translation theories have been developed to clarify and how the transaction source-target is culturally handled. The articles discuss some of these “theoretical frames”, namely the functional equivalence, relevance, literary functional equivalence and intercultural mediation. By means of a historical overview and a reflection on Bible translation theories the article aims to focus on the role of Africa in translation history.

Material efficiency in a multi-material world

2013 ◽  
Vol 371 (1986) ◽  
pp. 20120002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reid Lifset ◽  
Matthew Eckelman
Keyword(s):  
Economic Effects ◽  
Material World ◽  
Multiple Resources ◽  
Material Efficiency ◽  
Material Choice ◽  
Multiple Materials ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Environmental Goals ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

Material efficiency—using less of a material to make a product or supply a service—is gaining attention as a means for accomplishing important environmental goals. The ultimate goal of material efficiency is not to use less physical material but to reduce the impacts associated with its use. This article examines the concept and definition of material efficiency and argues that for it to be an effective strategy it must confront the challenges of operating in a multi-material world, providing guidance when materials are used together and when they compete. A series of conceptions of material efficiency are described, starting with mass-based formulations and expanding to consider multiple resources in the supply chain of a single material, and then to multiple resources in the supply chains of multiple materials used together, and further to multiple environmental impacts. The conception of material efficiency is further broadened by considering material choice, exploring the technical and economic effects both of using less material and of materials competition. Finally, this entire materials-based techno-economic system is considered with respect to the impact of complex policies and political forces. The overall goal here is to show how the concept of material efficiency when faced with more expansive—and yet directly relevant—definitional boundaries is forced to confront analytical challenges that are both familiar and difficult in life cycle assessment and product-based approaches.

Digitization of Bibles in Greater China (1661–1960)

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-254
Author(s):  
Simon Wong
Keyword(s):  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Chinese Han ◽  
Greater China ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Eastern Christianity ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Language Groups

Bible translations in (or for) Greater China may be classified into three categories: Chinese, Han dialects, and indigenous languages. All these language groups witness translation activities by Protestant missionaries. However, in its earliest history, Bible translation was pioneered by missionaries of Eastern Christianity in the seventh century or even earlier, whereas from the Catholic side, clear historical narrative has recorded Bible translation work in the thirteenth century by John of Montecorvino (1247–1328) into a Tatar language. Sadly, this work was not preserved. The earliest extant Bible translation in this vast area was published in 1661 in the Siriya language of Taiwan. This article reports on two major digitization projects: digitization of old Chinese Bibles (1707–1960), including 51 translations in total, and digitization of Bibles in Han dialects/fangyan and indigenous languages (1661–1960)—about 50 languages (including dialects) and 60 translations. These two projects represent the largest and most systematic full-text digitization of the Bible heritage of the area ever undertaken.

Some Observations on William Carey’s Bible Translations

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-250
Author(s):  
H. L. Richard
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Church

William Carey’s historic role in Bible translation is widely recognized. That Carey’s actual translations were of an inadequately low quality is not so widely known. This article, while not undermining Carey’s importance as a pioneer, points out five reasons why Carey’s translations were never widely used. Modern understandings of translation inform this paper, and Carey’s historical context explains many of his weaknesses. Not only is this article historical, but it concludes with the modern repercussions of inadequate Bible translations, calling for new translations in all major India languages that focus on people outside the church.

James Curtis Hepburn and the Translation of the New Testament into Japanese

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-85
Author(s):  
Hamish Ion
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Standard Form ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Chinese Learning ◽  
Medical Missionary ◽  
Cultural Bridge

This study focuses on the role of James Curtis Hepburn (1815–1911), the pioneer Presbyterian missionary doctor in Japan and a lexicographer who gave his name to the standard form of transliteration of Japanese into English, in the translation of the New Testament into Japanese. Hepburn’s earlier experiences as a medical missionary in China had a significant impact on his attitude toward language study and translation work after his arrival in Kanagawa in 1859. This study shows the importance of the Chinese language Christian tracts, and Bible translations made by China missionaries in serving as a cultural bridge to help open and to expedite the transmission of Christian and Western ideas into Japan as Hepburn and his missionary colleagues struggled to master the Japanese language and to translate the Gospels. However, after 1873 when the open propagation of Christianity among the Japanese began, the greater fluency of missionaries in Japanese and the growing desire of the Japanese to learn English and to concentrate on Western rather than Chinese learning led to the decline in the importance of Chinese language both in the evangelization of Japan and in Bible translation.

scholarly journals Biblical conceptual sphere as a concept of Taras Shevchenko's idiostyle and its reverbalization in Ukrainian bible translations

2018 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
Oksana Dzera
Keyword(s):  
Word Of God ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
Complete Translation ◽  
Old Greek ◽  
Biblical Concepts

The article elaborates the analysis of Ukrainian translations of the Holy Scripture through the prism of Shevchenko’s metabiblical images. Biblical conceptual sphere is defined as a fragment of biblical picture of the world shaped on the basis of Old Hebrew, less frequently Old Greek imagery and represented by the totality of concepts which are connected through overlapping, interrelation, hierarchy and opposition and are thematically grouped. Verbalizers of biblical concepts contain the complex accumulation of senses reflecting correlations between God and people through specific world perception of ancient Hebrews. The mediating link between the Bible prototext and biblical metatexts is created by national translations of the Holy Scripture that shape national biblical conceptual spheres via multiple deviations of the Hebrew and Greek sources. The deviations affect national phraseology as well as individual authors’ interpretations of the Book of Books. Special attention is devoted to recursive deviation which manifests itself when a national biblical conceptual sphere and even national translations of the Bible contain elements of authors’ biblical intertexts. Taras Shevchenko’s poetry is viewed as the primary Ukrainian recursive biblical intertext. His idiostyle is characterized by the verbalization of biblical concepts through overlapping biblical and nationally-bound senses. Metabiblical images of Shevchenko’s idiostyle are tracked down to the Bible translation done by I. Khomenko and edited by I. Kostetskyij and V. Barka. The editors who represented the baroque tradition of the Ukrainian translation domesticated Khomenko’s version and introduced into it elements of the Ukrainian metabiblical conceptual sphere, predominantly Shevchenko’s metabiblical images. I. Khomenko himself did not approve of this strategy and regarded it as a violation of the Word of God. Yet the monastic order of St. Basil the Great that commissioned this translation did not consult the translator before publishing its edited version. Similar domesticating strategy is observed in the first Ukrainian complete translation of the Bible done by P. Kulish, I. Puluj, and I. Nechuj-Levycjkyj in 1903. Shevchenko’s influence is particularly felt in epithets specifying key biblical images, such as enemy (лютий / fierce) and heart (тихе / meek). Though each book of the Holy Scripture in this translation is ascribed to only one translator of the three it seems logical to surmise that P. Kulish, the founder of the baroque translation tradition in Ukraine, was the first to draw images from Shevchenko’s metabiblical conceptual sphere. The article postulates the necessity to perceive Shevchenko’s poetry as a complete Biblical intertext which not only interprets national biblical canon but also generates it.

scholarly journals Modeling of a Forest Monitoring System to Control the Movement of Forest Materials Based on Radio-frequency Method

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-113
Author(s):  
Andrey Pobedinsky ◽  
Vladimir Pobedinsky ◽  
Sergey Sannikov
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Forest Resources ◽  
Forest Monitoring ◽  
Radio Waves ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Frequency Method ◽  
Channel Resource ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Definition Of

Introduction. The article discusses the topical problem of designing a specialized forest resources tracking system. The analysis of domestic and foreign literature on the creation of monitoring information systems is carried out. One of the requirements for the system should take into account the instantaneous receipt of information about the state of the forest environment, take into account the specificity of the variability of many parameters of the forest environment, which may vary to a large extent, compliance with many rules regulated by legislation in the field of forest management. On the basis of the requirements presented the system of RFID-devices. Materials and methods. The materials used were wireless sensors, an information system for information collection and notification. Methodological work is based on the theory of radio waves propagation of different frequencies, mathematical statistics and experimental theory. Results. The results of the research are radio waves passing through a certain number of obstacles in the forest area, reflecting their geometric dimensions, determined by the parameter characterizing the occupancy of the channel resource, necessary for the transfer of information. Discussions and conclusions. The scientific novelty of the researches offers an information system of control over the forest resources, the monitoring of which is carried out continuously, taking into account all the necessary requirements, namely: the absence of harmful radiation, efficiency, energy consumption, durability, the propagation of radio waves at not prohibited frequencies for the Russian Federation, the definition of natural parameters, the detection of movement, the detection of fire at the initial stage.

scholarly journals Lexical Aspects of Russian Bible Translations

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-77
Author(s):  
G. A. Kazakov
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
English Language ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
Church Tradition

The article is devoted to the study of the lexical aspects of Russian Bible translations of the 19th—21st centuries in comparative coverage and is a continuation of a study pre-viously conducted by reference to English Bibles. A historical overview of the existing Russian translations is given (the Synodal translation and the texts preceding it, the New Testament of Bishop Cassian, the Bible of the World Bible Translation Center, the “Central Asian translation”, the translation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Bible of the Inter-national Bible Society, the modern translation of the Russian Bible Society, the “Zaoksky Bible”). Special attention is paid to modern editions. Samples of texts are compared according to the lexical parameters of adaptiveness, terminologicalness, style and literalness. On the basis of this comparison, a classification of the considered translations is proposed, and their typological features and interconnections are established. The lexical nature of translations is interpreted in terms of their sociolinguistic effect (public perception). The data obtained confirms the pattern previously found in the English-language Bibles — the inverse relationship between adaptiveness on the one hand and terminologicalness, high style and literalness of the translation on the other.  In terms of lexical characteristics, the Synodal and the “Central Asian” translations differ most from each other, which is probably due to their focus on church tradition and missionary goals, respectively. 

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