scholarly journals Investigating Cognitive and Psycholinguistic Features of Translation Universals

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-134
Author(s):  
Сергій Засєкін
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Procedural Information ◽  
Discourse Relations ◽  
Language Survival

Traditionally, translation is viewed as a reliable shield over linguistic diversity, one of the ways to ensure a target language survival. However, translation is also reported to distort a translated language due to introducing ‘the third code’ (Frawley, 1984) features. These “deforming tendencies” (Berman, 1985) destroy the translated language by erasing its natural pattern and by adding there a bundle of alien features that cause its lexical, syntactical, and stylistic deficiencies. The current study is aimed at detecting those destructive features treated in translation studies as “translation universals” (Chesterman, 2004). To this end, a psycholinguistic analysis was held to establish the use of language which is not the result of intentional, controlled processes and of which translators may not be aware. These subliminal translation-inherent processes can be traced in the use of function words that encode procedural meaning. Relevance Theory (Wilson & Sperber, 1993) explains a conceptual-procedural distinction as a major distinction made between two types of linguistically encoded information. Conceptual information expressed by content words is viewed as encoding concepts whereas words with procedural meaning contribute to the derivation of implicatures, certain ways of processing propositions. Discourse connectives, conjunctions, prepositions, particles, pronouns, modal words constitute that group of function words with procedural meaning. To uncover certain variations in the use of these linguistic units, a parallel English-Ukrainian corpus made up of an 8,000-character excerpt from Franny by J.D. Salinger, its professional translation, and forty novice translators’ target versions, was compiled. The corpus data were processed by Textanz and SPSS computerized tools. The results of the psycholinguistic analysis proved that the Ukrainian versions as contrasted to the original text contained the following S-universals: implicitation expressed through the shortage of discourse markers of global coherence, simplification due to the lack of personal pronouns, decreased mean number of words per sentence, and greater number of sentences; normalization embodied in vernacular network impoverishment due to the decreased amount of pragmatic markers and fillers, explicitation due to higher lexical variety and density rates, and rationalization as a result of abundant marking of discourse relations. Conclusions. Taken together, these findings have significant implications for the understanding of how procedural information processing by novice translators is manifested in translation.

A comparable comparison? A corpus stylistic analysis of the Italian translation of Julian Barnes’Il Senso di una Fineand the original textThe Sense of an Ending

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Helen Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Stylistic Analysis ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Italian Translation ◽  
Julian Barnes ◽  
Original Language ◽  
Stylistic Elements

Foregrounding (e.g. Leech, 1965, 1985; Leech and Short, 1981), whereby certain linguistic elements in literary works differ consistently and systematically (Mukařovský, 1958: 44) from norms represented by a particular benchmark, has often been measured using corpus stylistic methods (e.g. Mahlberg, 2013; Stubbs, 2005). While most such studies have focused on works in their original language, this study compares the translation with the original text. More specifically, I explore the stylistic elements identified in Julian Barnes’ novel The Sense of an Ending in both the original and its Italian translation. The study applies notions of tertiary or internal deviation (Leech, 1985) in order to explore to what extent an analysis of keywords and key clusters in Part One compared with Part Two of the target text concurs with the results of the same process in the source text. Corpus stylistic methods were used to identify ‘good bets’ (Leech, 2008: 164) which were then subjected to qualitative analysis. Findings suggest that elements identified as being frequent in Part One of the source text, such as a predominance of ‘uncertain impressionistic perceptions’ (Shepherd and Berber Sardinha, 2013), and an emphasis on first person narration in Part Two, did not play such an important role in the target text, where other elements such as time references and discourse markers of explanation emerged instead. The article concludes that discrepancies between a stylistic description of source and target texts might be due to translating strategies as well as target language conventions.

Alfred Schütz : une autre théorie de la pertinence et son application en traduction

Fachsprache ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Margarete Flöter-Durr ◽  
Thierry Grass
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Alfred Schutz ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Translation Techniques ◽  
Alfred Schütz ◽  
One Year

Despite the work of Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson (1989), the concept of relevance has not enjoyed the popularity it deserved among translators as it appears to be more productive in information science and sociology than in translation studies. The theory of relevance provides underpinnings of a unified account of translation proposed by Ernst-August Gutt. However, if the concept of relevance should take into account all parameters of legal translation, the approach should be pragmatic and not cognitive: The aim of a relevant translation is to produce a legal text in the target language which appears relevant to the lawyer in the target legal system, namely a text that can be used in the same way as the original source text. The legal translator works as a facilitator from one legal system into another and relevance is the core of this pragmatic approach which requires translation techniques like adaptation rather than through-translation or calque (in the terminology of Delisle/Lee-Jahnk/Cormier 1999). This contribution tries to show that relevance theory, which was developed in the field of sociology by Alfred Schütz, could also be applied to translation theory with the aim of producing a correct translation in a concrete situation. Some examples extracted from one year of the practice of an expert law translator (German-French) at the Court of Appeal in the Alsace region illustrate our claim and underpin an approach of legal translation and its heuristics that is both pragmatic and reflexive.

Die wichtigsten Charakterzüge der Übersetzungsmethode des Übersetzers František Benhart beim Übersetzen slowenischer Prosa ins Tschechische

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-189
Author(s):  
Jana Šnytová
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Translation Method ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Basic Features

Summary In this paper, I focused on the translation work by František Benhart which, due to its extensiveness, was of crucial importance to the reception of Slovenian literature in the Czech cultural environment of the second half of the 20th century. The aim of this study is the linguistic analysis of the literary translations of selected literary works of the canon of Slovenian literature into Czech. Translation can be considered to be a cultural transposition, i. e. a transfer of the text and cultural environment from the source language into the text and cultural environment of the target language. In the analyses, I focused on some partial issues that either dominated in the particular text (expressivity, phraseology, idiomatic or proper names) or occurred across the texts analysed (realia) and in this context, I searched for his specific translation solutions. I also examined short excerpts of the original text and its translated counterpart looking for the presence of stylistically marked elements. Based on the results of individual analyses, I presented Benhart’s specific translation approaches and I attempted to summarize and indicate the basic features of his translation method. Furthermore, my second objective was to point out the possible consequences of Benhart’s translation method for the reception of the Slovenian literature in the Czech cultural environment.

Emphatic Sentences: A Comparative-Translational Study of Formal-Functional Relations in English and Romanian

Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Mona Arhire
Keyword(s):  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
John Fowles ◽  
Translational Study ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Functional Relations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
And Function ◽  
Stylistic Device

Emphasis, a well-acknowledged stylistic device, is a carrier of a considerable load of emotional content in the fictional dialogue. Its manifestation can take sundry forms and can be attached to a wide range of feelings and can take different degrees of intensity, all of which determines the creation of the atmosphere and impacts the reception by the readership. This paper reports on the investigation of the occurrence of emphasis embedded in the dialogic utterances of John Fowles’ novel Mantissa. The focus lies on the relation between the formal construction of emphatic sentences and the functional values deriving therefrom. The study entails a comparative analysis of emphatic utterances depicted from the English original text and its translation into Romanian. The three research questions refer to the comparative-contrastive realization of emphatic sentences in the two languages, to the extent to which the functional component succeeds in being transferred to the target language and to possible means of compensation when structural differences pose translational problems. The analysis is structured along a typology of sentences adapted to the nature of the text under scrutiny and to the aims of this study. The findings and conclusions ultimately indicate the importance of establishing a relation between form and function in matter of emphasis in the literary dialogue as an act of communication depending on linguistic devices for its effectiveness.

scholarly journals FOREIGN WORDS: ON THE ISSUES OF FUNCTIONING AND TRANSLATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (10(78)) ◽  
pp. 62-65
Author(s):  
Olga Grynko
Keyword(s):  
Popular Science ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Relevant Feature ◽  
Science Texts ◽  
Foreign Word ◽  
Stylistic Device ◽  
Individual Style

When used in the texts, foreign words often function as a stylistic device and become a relevant feature of the author’s individual style. The article looks at the issues of functioning and translation of foreign words with the focus on those not being “adapted”, that is preserving its original “foreign” form (unlike those being transcribed without morphological and syntactical changes). The work systematizes the ways these elements are introduced into the original text. It shows they can either be introduced with no explanation, relying on the reader’s general expertise and creating certain environment, flavour etc. or be accompanied by any kind of their meaning’s explanation). The article also offers the insights into the key functions of the foreign words in popular-science texts (specifically, they make the text sound more authentic and documentary, and also display author’s intelligence and competence). Further, the research finalizes the classification of the ways to translate/render the foreign words in the translated text in the view of the genre peculiarities of popular-science texts. Among other ways, such as preserving a foreign word with a translation of the author’s comment, transcription/transliteration, translator’s comments, actual translation into the target language, etc., such texts allow for science editor’s comments in translation.

scholarly journals Mehrsprachigkeit in transmodaler Kommunikation

2021 ◽  
Vol 112 (7) ◽  
pp. 39-64
Author(s):  
Katharina König
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Discourse Relations ◽  
Arabic Speaking

The paper is concerned with codeswitching in transmodal WhatsApp messenger chats. Based on a corpus of text and audio postings from a group of German-Lebanese cousins that is complemented by ethnographic interviews, the study shows that language alternations can be associated with particular metapragmatic or indexical functions in the different modalities. In audio postings, switching between German and Arabic contextualises varying discourse relations. Also, the cousins use Arabic discourse markers (such as ya'ne, ‘it means’) frequently to structure their talk. In contrast, when they switch to Arabic in their text-postings – using Arabizi, a CMC-register in the Arabic-speaking world – this recurrently establishes a playful or ironic frame for ritual teasings. The final section discusses these transmodal and multilingual practices as multi-layered identity positionings vis-à-vis a monolingual society, their multilingual family and networked communities.

Translation of strategic ambiguity: A relevance-theoretic analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasheed S. Al-Jarrah ◽  
Ahmad M. Abu-Dalu ◽  
Hisham Obiedat
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Strategic Ambiguity ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractThe purpose of our current research is to see how Relevance Theory can handle one specific translation problem, namely strategic ambiguous structures. Concisely, we aim to provide a conceptual framework as to how the translator should cope with a pervasive ambiguity problem at the discoursal level. The point of departure from probably all previous models of analysis is that a relevance-theoretic analysis would, we believe, require that a “good” translation benotthe one that representsan interpretationof the text, but the one which leaves the door open for all interpretations which the original text provides evidence for. Hence,the role of translator is not to ‘interpret’ but to ‘translate’. If this is true, ambiguity resolution should not be a viable alternative. In other words, what the translator should do is empower the audience with all it takes to let them work out all the explicatures (linguistically inferred meanings) and entertain themselves with the implicatures (contextually inferred meanings) of the original. Direct Translation, along the lines laid down by Gutt (1991/2000), is the method of translation which can, we believe, bring about the desired results because “it tries to provide readers with contextual information that enables them to draw their own inferences” (Smith 2000: 92).

Meaning assembly in simultaneous interpretation

Interpreting ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Setton
Keyword(s):  
Critical Points ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Intermediate Representation ◽  
Simultaneous Interpretation ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Production Stage

Existing simultaneous interpretation (SI) process models lack an account of intermediate representation compatible with the cognitive and linguistic processes inferred from corpus descriptions or psycholinguistic experimentation. Comparison of SL and TL at critical points in synchronised transcripts of German-English and Chinese-English SI shows how interpreters use procedural and intentional clues in the input to overcome typological asymmetries and build a dynamic conceptual and intentional mental model which supports fine-grained incremental comprehension. An Executive, responsible for overall co-ordination and secondary pragmatic processing, compensates at the production stage for the inevitable semantic approximations and re-injects pragmatic guidance in the target language. The methodological and cognitive assumptions for the study are provided by Relevance Theory and a 'weakly interactive' parsing model adapted to simultaneous interpretation.

Comprehensie van Vreemdtalige Input

1988 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Diana C. Issidorides
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Word Order ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Theoretical Issue ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Processing Strategies

Within a psycholinguistic approach to second language learning, an attempt is made to investigate the question of how morphology, syntax (word order phenomena), semantics and pragmatics affect the comprehension of Dutch sentences for normative learners of that language. When talking to nonnative language-learners, native spea-kers often tend to dehberately modify their speech -'simplify' it - in an attempt to make the target language more comprehensible. Omitting semantically redundant function words and copulas, or deliberate-ly modifying the word order in a sentence, are but a few characteris-tics of sucn 'simplifications'. In trying to determine whether, and what kinds of, linguistic simplifications promote comprehension, an important theoretical issue arises, namely, the relationship between linguistic (structural) and cognitive (ease of information processing) simplification. That one form of simplification is by no means a guarantee for the other form is an important assumption that forms the backbone to our approach. The results from research on morphological simplifications (omission of redundant function words in utterances) in two parallel experiments - an artificial and a natural language one (Dutch) - are discus-sed. They suggest that the presence of semantically redundant functi-on words is not experienced as bothersome "noise" in the successful inference of the meaning of unfamiliar utterances, as long as supra-segmental cues are present. The suprasegmental structure provides the listener/learner with cues for locating the potentially meaningful elements of such utterances. Research on syntactic simplifications is also discussed. Its aim was to examine the role and effect of syntactic and semantic cues on sen-tence interpretation. Two important questions were: (a) What are the processing strategies and cues responsible for the interpretation of Dutch sentences by native speakers, and how do they compare to those employed by nonnative speakers? (b) Are the processing stra-tegies and cues that are responsible and decisive for first language comprehension also those employed in second language comprehension? The performance of Dutch control subjects on a Dutch sentence interpretation task is presented, and hypotheses are put forward as to the locus and cause of eventual performance differences in a nonnative subject population (English learners of Dutch). Some relevant theoretical implications of our findings are also mentioned.

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