scholarly journals جوانب نصية في دراسات الترجمة الحديثة / Textual aspects in Modern Translation Studies

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Majdi Haji Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Text Linguistics ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
Traditional Language

ملخص البحث: يهدف هذا البحث إلى عرض بعض الجوانب النصية المستقاة من لغويات النص في دراسات الترجمة الحديثة على المستويين النظري والتطبيقي. ويبدأ بتقديم أهم الأسباب والدوافع وراء تحول دراسات الترجمة الحديثة من الاعتماد على النظريات اللغوية التقليدية إلى الاعتماد على النظرية التأويلية التي تدعو إلى اعتماد النص وحدة الترجمة الأساسية، ثم ينتقل إلى الحديث عن أنماط النص في الترجمة للتأكيد على ضرورة استيعاب كمالية النص الأصلي من أجل خلق كمالية النص المترجم. وأخيراً، يقدم البحث المعايير النصية التي اعتمدها روجر بيل من أجل قياس جودة الترجمة. وجدت الدراسة أن النظرية التأويلية في دارسة الترجمة اليوم أثبتت جدارتها وتفوقها على النظريات اللغوية التقليدية، من منطلق أن الترجمة لا توجد قبل النص، وعلى هذا الأساس فإن النص في عملية الترجمة يجب أن يكون وحدة الترجمة، وليست الكلمات والجمل المنفردة، وأن نظرية الترجمة بحاجة إلى ماسة إلى النظرية التأويلية.   الكلمات المفتاحية: المدخل التأويلي- أنماط النصوص-القصد- المقبولية – البينصية.   Abstract: The paper aims to present theoretically and practically some of the textual aspects derived from text linguistics in modern translation studies. It points out the impetus that led translation studies to turn to textual unit as the focus after relying sometimes on traditional language theories. It discusses text types in translation to ensure the absorption of every aspects of the source text to produce its reflection in the target text. Another textual aspect touched by the paper is the standards of textuality which became a foundation in Bell’s assessment scheme for translation quality. The paper concludes that the hermeneutic theory had managed to gain considerably solid footing in translation studies over the traditional linguistic theories, since there will not be a translation without a text, therefore text should become the focus of translation theory no single words or phrases.   Keywords: Hermeneutic approach – Text types – Intentionality – Acceptability – Intertextuality.   Abstrak: Kajian ini menumpukan secara teoretikal dan praktikal terhadap beberapa aspek tekstual yang dirumuskan daripada bidang teks linguistik dalam kajian penterjemahan moden. Ia menjelaskan tentang sebab yang mendorong kajian penterjemahan moden untuk berpaling kepada teks sebagai unit tumpuan kajian setelah beberpa ketika memberikan perhatian kepada dapatan teori-teori bahasa tradisional. Ia membicarakan jenis-jenis teks dalam terjemahan untuk memastikan pencernaan setiap aspek tekstual teks asal untuk dilahirkan semula dalam teks sasar. Aspek tekstual lain yang dibicarakan dalam kajian ini ialah piawaian tekstual yang menjadi asas kepada skima penilaian kualiti terjemahan yang dicadangkan Bell. Kajian ini merumuskan bahawa teori takwili telah diberikan tumpuan yang lebih penting dalam kajian penterjemahan daripada teori bahasa tradisional memandangkan terjemahan itu sendiri tidak akan terhasil tanpa teks. Ini memberikan satu sebab untuk memberikan keutamaan kepada teks dalam terjemahan dan bukan perkataan atau frasa.   Kata kunci: Pendekatan takwili – Jenis-jenis teks – Tujuan teks – Penerimaan teks – Hubungan antara teks.

scholarly journals Information Entropy in Translation: Psycholinguistic Aspects

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-113
Author(s):  
Маргарита Дорофеєва ◽  
Тетяна Андрущенко
Keyword(s):  
Translation Method ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Informational Entropy ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Incorrect Choice ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Research Procedure ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Universal Nature ◽  
Contextual Meaning

The article deals with the category of informational entropy in the source text as a matter of translation psycholinguistics. The informational entropy of the lexical units on different levels in the source text refers to subjective factors that reduce the translation quality. Lexical units-carriers of the source text’s informational entropy cause informational deficits in the translator’s consciousness. The aim of the search is to consider the category of informational entropy from the standpoint of psycholinguistics and cognitive translation theory, identify the causes of informational entropy, establish linguistic and genre-stylistic markers of the lexical entropy units in the source text, identify ways to minimize entropy in the specialized translation. The research procedure involves a psycholinguistic experiment with the participation of 85 informants with semi-professional translation status. The participants produced a German-Ukrainian translation of a specialized text, in which the number of lexical units contained informational entropy as a percentage of the total words’ number was 17.9%. The results of the translation’s comparative analysis indicate similar psycholinguistic mechanisms for understanding lexical units with informational entropy, leading to false translation solutions in the target texts. Such mechanisms include an incorrect choice of the translation method and a lack of attention to the extralinguistic information in the source text. The conclusions of the psycholinguistic experiment confirm the universal nature of the informational entropy, resulting in translation quality degradation. The psycholinguistic factor for the false translation solutions is an automatic suppression the contextual meaning of the source text’s lexical item by its subject-logical meaning in the translator’s mind, realized in the incorrect choice of the translation method.

Syntax, Discourse Analysis, and Translation Studies

Babel ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Colina
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Text Linguistics ◽  
Formal Systems ◽  
Discourse Functions ◽  
And Linguistics ◽  
Professional Translator

Abstract The linguistics of the 60s and 70s did not prove to be of much help to translation and translation theory, due to the emphasis placed on languages as formal systems. However, newer directions of linguistics research which focus on the communicative function of language, such as text linguistics, discourse analysis, pragmatics, have much to offer to translation studies. This paper shows how discourse analysis can be applied to translation and highlights some of the benefits of knowledge of linguistics and discourse analysis for the translation teacher, the student and the professional translator. In addition, it joins recent literature on translation studies and linguistics (House and Blum-Kulka 1986; Hatim and Mason 1990; Neubert and Shreve 1992; Baker 1992) in calling for a more influential role of linguistics in translation studies and translation theory. Working within discourse analysis and, in particular, syntax in discourse, i.e. discourse functions of syntactic constructions, the present study examines the discourse functions of the passive in Spanish and in English. The paper first presents a contrastive description of the textual functions of the passive in English and in Spanish based on a corpus of original texts in both languages. Then a discourse-based explanation for the differences is provided. Finally, the author examines the solutions found in translation as well as the analysis' efficiency in predicting and/or explaining such solutions. Résumé La linguistique des années 60 et 70, période pendant laquelle la langue était conçue comme un système formel, ne se prêtait pas bien à la traduction et à sa théorie. La recherche portant sur la linguistique a depuis changé d'orientation; on reconnaît maintenant l'aspect communicatif de la langue. On accorde donc une importance particulière à la linguistique, à l'analyse du discours et à la pragmatique, entre autres, ce qui se prête beaucoup mieux au concept de la traduction. La présente étude démontre comment on peut appliquer l'analyse de la rédaction à la traduction et souligne quelques-uns des avantages qu'offre la connaissance de cette analyse et de la linguistique pour l'enseignant, l'étudiant et le traducteur professionnel. De plus, l'auteur se joint aux auteurs d'études récentes portant sur la traduction et la linguistique (House et Blum-Kulka, 1986; Hatim et Mason, 1990; Neubert et Shreve, 1992; Baker, 1992) en recommandant un rôle plus important pour la linguistique dans l'étude et la théorie de la traduction. A l'aide d'une analyse du discours, et plus particulièrement de la syntaxe, c'est-à-dire de la fonction de la syntaxe dans la rédaction, le rapport examine l'emploi du passif dans les langues espagnole et anglaise. On établit d'abord le contraste entre la fonction textuelle du passif dans la langue anglaise et celle dans la langue espagnole en étudiant un corpus de textes dans les deux langues. On explique ensuite la différence du point de vue de la rédaction. Enfin, l'auteur examine les solutions qu'apporte la traduction et l'efficacité de l'analyse pour prévoir et pour expliquer ces solutions.

Flaubert’s Parrot

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-468
Author(s):  
Jelena Pralas ◽  
Olivera Kusovac
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Meeting Point ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross Fertilization

Abstract The strict boundaries between disciplines have been seriously challenged by various links established between them through cross-fertilization. Links between literary and translation studies are not new. However, in the (post)-modern world, when interdisciplinarity is starting to give way to transdisciplinarity, a new meeting point has been found in transfiction, enabling translation to become an interpretative paradigm for literature. Attempting to support this rather neglected approach, this paper analyzes Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot in the light of the relationship between source and target texts and the concept of the invariant as a reflection of the postmodern quest for truth, claiming that the novel makes a fictional dethronement of the source text and calls for a shift from instrumentalism to the hermeneutic approach in translation.

scholarly journals A Functional Approach to Audio Description

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Mazur
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Functional Model ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Audio Description ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Selection Of

The article discusses a functional approach to audio description (AD) and first proposes a classification of text types, followed by a model of source text (ST) analysis which encompasses three layers: the contextual, the macrotextual and the microtextual. The functional model helps identify the functional priorities in a given ST, which may then guide the audio describer’s decision-making process: the results of contextual and macrotextual analyses will assist the describer in the selection of the so-called macro strategy, while the microtextual analysis may help in making lower-level decisions called micro strategies. Although the model has been designed primarily for didactic purposes, its principles may also be useful for more experienced describers. Additionally, the model constitutes a theoretical conceptualisation of AD and attempts to better integrate AD within the field of translation studies.

A Hermeneutic Reading of the Works of Jiři Levý

2021 ◽  
pp. 375-394
Author(s):  
Tomáš Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Decision Process ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
Direct Predecessor ◽  
Partial Overlap ◽  
The One ◽  
Good Number

The work of Jiři Levý, the pioneering Czech translation scholar of the 20th century, shares a lot of common ground with the (neo)hermeneutic approach in translation studies. A closer look reveals, however, a good number of differing, and even opposite stances. For chronological reasons, Levý himself cannot be regarded a member of the neohermeneutic movement in translation studies; thus, the following questions arise: 1) What is the extent of overlap between Levý’s work and that of the main representatives of the hermeneutic approach in translation studies, mainly in Germany, and 2) how can this overlap be explained? This article seeks to demonstrate the following: There are full ‘matches’ between the two approaches, including some aspects of methodological approach, the value of texts, creativity, translating as a decision process as well as Levý’s concept of perception on the one hand and the hermeneutic circle on the other. A partial overlap between the two approaches has been identified in terms of the following matters: the applicability of translation theory, the language and style of theoretical works, the application of game theory, and the focus on individuals (recipient, translator). As regards differences, these include thematic focus, the idea of a personal link between the text and its recipient, and the concept of subjectivity. The purpose of the article is to show that, rather than being a (direct) predecessor, Levý can be regarded as a precursor of the hermeneutic approach in translation studies. Hopefully, illustrating this affinity between Levý and the hermeneutic approach will foster an interest in his theory, which is marked by openness and dynamism – qualities that also abide in the hermeneutical approaches of our present time.

scholarly journals Translation quality in English-Arabic translation of tourist texts: A product perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Mutahar Qassem ◽  
Lamis Ali ◽  
Nabil Muhayam
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Inappropriate Use ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Main Ideas

Translation of tourist texts engenders textual, linguistic and cultural hurdles before achieving translation quality, which has not been given due account in translation studies. To bridge this gap, this study aimed to assess postgraduates' performance in translation of tourist texts from English to Arabic and vice versa, using a translation task (Arabic and English tourist texts) and a questionnaire. The questionnaire took a form of a 5-point Likert scale in which the students rated the texts they translated. Further, it retrieved information about translation time and postgraduates' translation experience. Findings revealed low translation quality and inappropriate use of translation procedures in rendering the tourist texts into English and Arabic. The postgraduates encountered hindrances in formulating the main ideas of the source text (ST), composing the target text (TT) and communicating the TT to the target language (TL) readers. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications have been discussed.

Skopos translation theory, text-types, and the African postcolonial text in intercultural postcolonial communication

Babel ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph N. Eke
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
Skopos Theory ◽  
Text Types ◽  
And Function ◽  
Communicative Exchange ◽  
Single Statement

The Postcolonial text is a political and ideological text that is differentiable in translation. This is because of its location in the dialogic and discursive communicative exchange between former coloniser and former colonised cultures and societies. This communicative exchange takes place in the situation and condition of asymmetrical relations and relations of inequality and involves the contestation of histories, cultures, meanings, identities and representations. The functionality of the postcolonial text with its message is fixated on this dialogue and discourse; and each postcolonial text is a single statement directly and specifically responding to this dialogue and discourse in some way. This paper examines the African postcolonial text* and its communicative location in the light of postcolonial theory and the possibility offered by the skopos functional theory in translation to set aside the purpose and function of the source text intended by the author. Using Chinua Achebe’s texts, It would conclude that the mediatory role of the translator in the dialogic and discursive exchange between former coloniser and former colonised cultures and societies need not become interference in the application of the skopos theory.

scholarly journals Function + Loyalty: Theology Meets Skopos

Open Theology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Nord
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Skopos Theory ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Main Ideas

AbstractBible translation is traditionally in the hands of theologians, whose focus is on the meaning of the source text rather than on what modern readers are able to understand. This paper attempts to show where translation theory, or more specifically, the Skopos theory of translation, may help Bible translators to produce texts that “work” or “function” for the intended audience without betraying their trust that they are reading God’s word in their own language. After a brief overview of the development of Translation Studies, we shall take a quick look at some guiding principles of Bible translation, as explained in prefaces of modern versions, before presenting the main ideas of Skopos theory and illustrating them by a few examples from the New Testament. The conclusion will sum up the fundamental hypotheses of the skopos-theoretical concept “Function + Loyalty.”

A Register-Based Translation Evaluation

Target ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Language Typology ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Text Quality ◽  
Register Analysis ◽  
Opening Up

Abstract This paper illustrates key elements of a translation evaluation based on register analysis. In Section 1, the attempts in the current paper are related to linguistics and translation studies in general, and to the evaluation of translations in particular, arguing for a theoretically-based approach. A brief overview of the concept of register is also given. Sections 2, 3 and 4 cover the detailed analysis of the field, tenor and mode variables of the register of a translation, relating them critically to those of its source text. Section 5 argues that in addition to a 'register analysis, an evaluation of translations needs to take into account criteria based on comparative linguistics and language typology. Finally, it is suggested that a register-based approach links translation to co-generation under specific constraints, thus opening up the possibility of linking the translation quality to text quality in general.

scholarly journals Text Linguistics and translation: Redefining the concept of "cultural mark"

Tradterm ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
João Azenha Júnior
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Text Linguistics ◽  
Analytical Procedures ◽  
Brazilian Students ◽  
Demand Shifts ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
Concrete Reality ◽  
Cultural Turn

Since the works of Nida and Taber (1964, 1969) on the influence of target cultures on texts to be translated, theoretical considerations on the presence of ‘cultural marks’ and consequently on analytical procedures that would serve to identify these marks have been more systematically studied as a result of the so-called ‘cultural turn’ in Translation Studies (Reiss 1971, 1983; Nord 1988, 1993; Snell-Hornby 1986) and heavily criticized by the Deconstruction approach to translation (for instance, Arrojo 1986, 1992). The development of Text Linguistics has also contributed to enlarge the boundaries of the concept, bringing it, so to speak, from the outside world – where it seemed to be embedded in the 60s – to the inner domain of the text itself and discourse. This paper aims at briefly revising this conceptual turn and at discussing its consequences for translation teaching. Examples taken from German texts translated by Brazilian students shall demonstrate how efficient the systematic use of text linguistics concepts can be to help students in identifying layers of meaning which, distant from the idea of ‘cultural marks’ as a reference to a concrete reality, define a point of view in the source text, legitimate interpretations that demand shifts in the target text and therefore can also be taken as cultural in a broader sense.

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