Reframed narrativity in literary translation: an investigation of the explicitation of cohesive chains

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-171
Author(s):  
Xi Li ◽  
Long Li
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Hong Lou Meng ◽  
Different Types ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Chinese Classic ◽  
Logical Links

Abstract Explicitation is a key concept in translation studies referring to turning what is implicitly narrated in a source text into explicit narration in a target text; it has been widely studied from different aspects across language pairs and genres. However, while most previous studies investigate explicitation through a few indicators of explicitness, most of which are specific logical links and connectives, textual explicitness encompasses far beyond these. To date, little attention has been paid, especially in literary translation, to semantic explicitation, which is realized through cohesive chains in textual development. Since cohesive chains represent the development of events and characters throughout the text, it is assumed the more there are of them, the more tangible a text is in realizing its meaning within its context. This research, therefore, sets out to investigate the cohesive chains in a Chinese classic novel, Hong Lou Meng, and in its two English translations, The Dream of the Red Mansions and A Story of the Stone, with an emphasis on how the texts are manifested as narratives in the respective contexts with different readers. It has found a trend of explicitation in translation from Chinese source text to English target texts in terms of the numbers of cohesive chains and the lexical items forming the chains. It has also found differences in the distribution of different types of cohesive chains (identity chains and similarity chains), which represent distinctive patterns of realizing the context in each text. The interpretation of these different stylistic features in narrative reflects both typological differences and translators’ choices.

scholarly journals Translation of Narrative Voice and Reproduction of a Simulated Storytelling Mode

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110603
Author(s):  
Yunhong Wang ◽  
Gao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Professional Role ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Narrative Voice ◽  
Narrative Style ◽  
Vernacular Fiction ◽  
Different Types ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Shuihu Zhuan ◽  
Narrative Mode ◽  
Chinese Classic

Chinese vernacular fiction is characterized by a simulated storytelling mode through which the narrator manipulates narration and facilitates interaction with the reader. There is little research on the representation of this distinctive Chinese narrative mode across languages and cultures. Recently scholars in translation studies have begun to focus on how different types and levels of voice are represented in translated texts. The present article investigates how the overt voice of the simulated storyteller characterizing the Chinese vernacular narrative style is represented in three complete English translations of a Chinese classic entitled Shuihu Zhuan. The article includes a comparative study of how the storyteller-narrator manifests his narrative voice through storytelling formulae and rhetorical narratorial questions and more importantly, on how the storyteller-narrator’s voice has been rendered by different translators. Besides, by relating the reproduction of narrative voice to translatorship, it shows that the professional role and status of each translator influence their strategy-making as to whether, and to what extent, the narrative voice of the source text should be reconstructed.

Taming iconicity in the Spanish and Italian translations of Shakespeare’s Sonnets

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Gonzálvez-García
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Selected Lines ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Secondary Predication

Abstract Building on Tabakowska’s (1993, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013) full-blown defense of a cognitive linguistic approach to literary translation as well as on previous research dealing with the implementations of Construction Grammar(s) for translation studies (Szymańska 2011a, 2011b; Serbina 2015), this paper critically examines the role of iconicity in selected lines from Shakespeare’s Sonnets capitalizing on the passage of Time-Death and their corresponding translations in present-day Spanish and Italian. Specifically, drawing on Cognitive Construction Grammar (Goldberg 2006) and Contrastive Construction Grammar (Boas 2010a; Boas & Gonzálvez-García 2014), I focus on instances of secondary predication with verbs of sensory perception, causative constructions and aspectual constructions iconically connected with the above-mentioned motif and demonstrate that iconicity emerges as a very useful communicative ‘filter’ that can help to minimize any undesirable arbitrariness which may obscure the semantico-pragmatic interpretation of the source text and/or its rendering into the target text.

scholarly journals ПО НЯТТЯ КУЛЬТУРИ В ПЕРЕКЛАДІ ТА ПЕРЕКЛАДОЗНАВСТВІ: ДО ПИТАННЯ ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-91
Author(s):  
Тетяна Ляшенко
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Cultural Information ◽  
Systematic Description ◽  
Empirical Level

In the paper, we off er the translatological defi nition of the concept of culture, relevant for literary translation as a culturological phenomenon. We believe that the given defi nition combines the main aspects of its interpretation in culturology, socio-cultural anthropology, and intercultural communication. Such an approach allows outlining cultural background knowledge of the translator, which is necessary, on the one hand, for understanding of the text and, on the other, for the adequate translation of cultural information. The article analyses various theories of the understanding of culture and the tradition of its research in the translation studies, particularly in German translatology. The combination of interpretive, linguistic and translational turns in the cultural sciences is identifi ed as a perspective for translation studies. The attention focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of common interpretations. The paper considers the issues of meaningful and spatial defi nition of the concept of culture. The study characterizes the understanding of culture in the process of intercultural communication and the role of literary translation in it as well as clarifi es the peculiarities of the refl ection of culture in the literary text. The elements of culture that constitute translation problems are both extralinguistic concepts, i.e. phenomena and events that take place in a particular linguocultural community (the culture described by language), and “culturally conditioned” units of language as markers of a particular culture (the culture in language). In this research, we exemplify the possible ways of solving the problem of identifi cation and translation of cultural information in literary translation. It is important to complete a systematic description of culture in literary texts to enable its identifi cation at the macro- and microstructural levels. The article points out the need to consider the issue of identifi cation and translation of cultural information not only at the stage of implementation of the message in the language of translation, but also at the stages of decoding the source text and its recoding. The prospects for further research are outlined, which consist in the operationalization of the concept of culture at the empirical level, a systematic description of cultural manifestations in the source text, and a systematic approach to the reproduction of cultural information in the translated text. Key words: culture, translation studies, intercultural communication, literary translation, literary text.

READDRESSING TRANSLATION STRATEGY IN LITERARY TRANSLATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (31) ◽  
pp. 148-163
Author(s):  
Natalya Zhmayeva ◽  
Iaroslav Petrunenko
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Compensation Technique

Modern translation studies which are of descriptive nature mainly presuppose the opportunity of altering the function of the source text in translation, reconstruction of sense and structure in correspondence with the aim of translation. The investigation has been carried out in the framework of the communicativefunctional approach to translation which accounts for the entire spectrum of linguistic and extra linguistic factors influencing translation in the broad sense. This fact proves the relevance of the article. The translations of both narrations intended for the children’s audience exclusively conform to the ideology of the children’s fiction aimed at socialization and attraction of young addressees. It results in the loss of the worldview reflection by the originals and focusing on reproducing their fairy–tale plots. The applied readdressing translation strategy has been implemented by the following tactics: the tactic of relevant information rendering, the tactic of pragmatic adaptation of the source text, the tactic of stylistic features rendering, the tactic of the source text formal and structural features rendering. Common operations for the applied tactics have proved to be as following: search for a variant equivalent, omission, restructuring and compensation. The compensation technique has turned out to be the most universal operation within the applied translation tactics. This fact can be explained by the complex nature of transformations the source text is subjected to, the need to omit, rearrange amounts of information and to preserve the chosen genre along with its adaptation for the potential addressee.

scholarly journals What is Gained in Subtitling: How Film Subtitles Can Expand the Source Text

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Tom Kabara
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Poetic Function ◽  
Considerable Loss

The problem of translation and loss is a cardinal concern in translation studies. Conventional wisdom tells us that translation must necessarily entail loss. However, some translation studies scholars have argued that translation can yield significant originality in the target text. Christiane Nord, for one, argues that literary translators can claim authorial presence by actually causing the source text to “grow” in a way that is quantitative and qualitative. Although Nord’s idea applies mainly to literary translation, it raises questions about how this could apply to translations of other types of creative source texts, such as audio/visual translation. The format of interlingual subtitling between two disparate languages, such as English and Japanese, burdens translation with severe constraints and considerable loss text is taken for granted. But what is lost? Meaning? Nuance? This paper argues that these need not be lost in subtitling. In fact, by applying Nord’s model of source text growth to subtitling, we can see how subtitling produces new value to the source text. Through a close analysis of the Japanese subtitles of the 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, this paper will demonstrate that despite the severe constraints placed on the translation found in film subtitling, subtitles can promote “qualitative growth” by transferring the poetic function of the source text into new configurations in the target text, prompting target text viewers to interpret content in new ways.

scholarly journals On Re-instantiation of Literary Dialects: A Systemic Functional Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 706
Author(s):  
Jing Chen
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
New Development ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
New Perspective

With the developments in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the functional approach to translation studies (TS) has offered new perspective into understanding how translation can be viewed as the re-instantiation of Source Text (ST) in another language system as Target Text (TT).In literary texts, language variations such as literary dialects have long been considered challenges in translation, but literary dialects are also believed to be “valued” linguistic elements since non-standard language such as dialects are socially related and may trigger linguistic stereotypes among readers. In tune with the new development in SFL, the current research focuses on the English translations of dialects in Li Jieren’s Si Shui Wei Lan (死水微澜) which is rich in Sichuan dialects and are with linguistically varied voices. The purpose of this article is threefold: firstly, to briefly present the linguistic features of ST, revealing author’s intentional arrangement in his choices of dialects; secondly, with case studies to compare and discuss the translators’ choices in re-instantiating dialects from the perspective of coupling and commitment; finally, to offer suggestions for translating literary dialects. This paper argues that SFL helps translators pinpoint the linguistic features that are valued in ST and inform translators of alternative renderings. This paper adopts a descriptive approach to the triplet on how translators re-coupled and re-committed the language variations in the ST into TT, and it serves as a manifestation of how SFL applies to TS from a new angel.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of Shifts in English Translations of The Quran: A Case Study on “Yusuf” Chapter

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Rezvani ◽  
Peyman Nouraey
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Different Types ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Level Shifts ◽  
Descriptive Theories

Long since Translation Studies emerged as a nascent academic discipline, it has seen a considerable number of descriptive theories and models, among which, Catford’s (1965) translation ‘shift’ approach has garnered particular attention within the realm of translational comparative studies. Quranic texts have constantly been the center of attention, as the Quran has established itself as the most famous and sublime text in Arabic. As such, the present comparative study aimed at investigating the frequencies of different types of translation shifts occurring in translations form Arabic into English drawing on Catford’s (1956) shift typology. To this end, seven translations of the first thirty verses of the Chapter ‘Yusuf’ rendered by Sarwar, Arberry, Irring, Pickthall, Saffarzade, Shakir and Yusef Ali were selected to be studied. First, each element was compared for any probable shift(s). Then, the Chi-square procedure was applied in order to establish the existence of any statistically significant differences in shift frequencies. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between five types of shifts. The results also revealed that the most frequent translation shifts from Arabic into Persian were Unit shifts and Level shifts with a mean of 83 and 49 respectively.

scholarly journals Retranslations of Faulkner’s Sanctuary in Turkish Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gülsüm Canlı ◽  
Ayşe Banu Karadağ
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
William Faulkner ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Version ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Turkish Literature ◽  
Translational Process

This study is based on a comparative analysis of Turkish translations of Sanctuary (1931) by William Faulkner and aims to review the assumptions of literary translation by Antoine Berman’s “retranslation hypothesis” and “deforming tendencies”. The novel was exposed to an obligatory rewriting process by the editor and was reworded by Faulkner who acted as a self-translator to make the original version acceptable. The rewritten version, which can be regarded as an intralingual translation, became the source text for interlingual translations. The novel was first translated by Ender Gürol as Kutsal Sığınak (1961); then by Özar Sunar as Lekeli Günler (1967) and finally by Necla Aytür as Tapınak (2007). Among Faulkner’s fifteen books which have been translated into Turkish thus far, Sanctuary is the only one with three translations in total. The translational process will be described to understand the rationale behind translators’ decisions within the context of translation studies.

scholarly journals Domestication in the Translation of D. Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (29) ◽  
pp. 87-97
Author(s):  
Gintarė Aleknavičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Da Vinci ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Cooperative Principle ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
The One

Literary translation is one of the most widely discussed topics in Translation Studies. There are different opinions and approaches to literary translation. On the one hand, some theorists and translators suggest that linguistic aspects such as syntax, lexis, etc., are of great importance to literary translation; one must keep to the rules of the target language without digression from the original meaning, after all. On the other hand, some scholars believe these factors are insignificant, because turning translation into a linguistic exercise undermines the more important textual, cultural, and situational factors (Leonardi 2000). However, the application of Grice’s Cooperative Principle to literary translation allows the mixture of both the linguistic aspects and all that is left beyond the meaning. The study was inspired by Kirsten Malmkjaer, Gideon Toury and Kristina Shaffner’s debate on Norms, Maxims and Conventions in Translation Studies and Pragmatics (Shaffner 1999). The aim of the article is to analyse the Lithuanian translation of D. Brown’s The Da Vinci Code within the framework of Grice’s Cooperative Principle and the strategy of domestication by reviewing domestication and foreignization and introducing Grice’s Cooperative Principle. The research proves that even though it is virtually impossible for a translator to convey the meaning of the source text exactly as it is given, the insufficient use of domestication in the Lithuanian translation of The Da Vinci Code emphasises the presence of the translator and disrupts the ease of reading.

Translating sexuality in the context of Anglo-American censorship

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lintao Qi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Anglophone World ◽  
Jin Ping Mei ◽  
Target Culture

Abstract This article presents a descriptive study of the English translations of the classic Chinese novel Jin Ping Mei in the context of the Anglo-American literary censorship of obscenity in the twentieth century. By scrutinizing the strategies employed in the English translations of Jin Ping Mei, this article uncovers the dynamic interactions between literary translation activities and the evolving socio-historical contexts in the target culture. The resurrection of the archaic source text, particularly its erotic component, in the Anglophone world in the twentieth century was based on the (re)discovery of its value in the contemporary target context. In the case of Jin Ping Mei, equivalence at the linguistic and textual levels was simply not a concern of the translators and publishers, who had to decide how they would deal with the social reality of literary censorship, by submissively conforming to its demands, or by creatively confronting them.

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