scholarly journals Translating Magic: balancing art and science in the translation of Harry Potter

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Destruel
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Book Series ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Thin Line ◽  
Scientific Approach

Literature is rightfully regarded as an art, but when translation enters the fray, it can require a somewhat scientific approach. Throw in a little bit of “Harry Potter” magic, and it can really become tricky. Translation is challenging, as it requires us to look not only at problems such as equivalence and the use of names, but also culture itself. Linguistic factors are also an issue, as a certain type of word might be abundant in the source language, but not very common in the target language. The role of the translator is therefore to distinguish what in a text is potentially translatable from what is fundamentally not. From there, one must walk the thin line between the art of translation – our personal hunches – and the science of translation – which is often too literal. In the case of J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, another difficulty arises. She has revealed herself as a wordsmith, not only with her writing skills, but also through her ability to coin and construct original words. Whether using terms from ancient mythologies, extinct languages or everyday life, her writing is known for an abundance of puns, linguistic jokes and other allusions that are mixed to create a brand new lexicon. Some examples include Harry Potter’s school, Hogwarts, the magical sport, Quidditch, as well as an array of supernatural creatures such as Thestrals and Jobberknolls. This may be the reason why her books have caught the interest of the linguistics and translation studies communities; their richness and diversity make the possibilities nearly endless. Each name or word created comes with a baggage of undertones and veiled references that translators must track and recognize before they attempt to translate them. As an additional complication, the Harry Potter books were first thought to be children’s literature, and only later attracted an older audience more prone to read between the lines and detect the hidden meanings of words. As a result, the series is known for its ambivalence, since children and adults alike can enjoy it for different reasons. Keeping these facts in mind, this research aims at using today’s linguistic theories and looking at word creation in both English and French in order to establish patterns of translation, and suggest possible equivalents for some of J. K. Rowling’s inventions.

Revisited Strategies of Politeness Translation in 'The Simpsons' Sitcom

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Alireza Akbari ◽  
Mohammadtaghi Shahnazari
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Special System ◽  
The Simpsons ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
The Right

Generally, the role of politeness in society can never be legitimately repudiated. In this direction, politeness and its role in translation studies would be considered as a universal phenomenon across languages and cultures. However, every language has its special system of expressing and translating politeness expression in order to satiate the needs of the target audience completely. Therefore, translator as 'Sprachmittler' may confront with particular and culture-bound politeness facets which can a paramount source of difficulty for them. Hence, deciphering the points of similarities and differences across languages and cultures is of significance importance for the translator who is responsible for amalgamating and reconciling source language regulations to the target language ones. The present study strives for tracing one stable and durable politeness framework for the translator of which their aims are to transfer the main essence of the source language into the target one. This framework was proposed by Akbari (2014) consisting two particular strategies namely solidarity and deference strategies along with eight procedures showing the right path to translator in order to produce an indelible rendering. Also this study utilizes Pearson chisquare (χ2) to see the correlation between solidarity and deference strategies found in the source and target languages.

scholarly journals TRANSLATION PROBLEMS WITHIN THE EU CONTEXT

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Indra Grietēna
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Source Language ◽  
General Aspects ◽  
The University ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Interference Problems ◽  
State Language

The paper reviews publications by Latvian linguists looking at the main translation problems within the context of the EU between 2005 and 2010. The author analyses the publications from three aspects: general aspects of translation problems and practices within the EU context, particular translation problems, and methodological publications providing guidelines for translators working within the EU context. The author reveals discussions on the ways translation influences language in general, the role of the source language for the development of the target language, and the role and responsibility of a translator at the ‘historical crossroads’. The article discusses a number of EU-specific translation problems, including source language interference, problems of the translator’s visibility and a translation’s transparency, ‘false friends’, and linguistic and contextual untranslatability. The author briefly summarizes the contents of guidelines and manuals for translators working within the EU context, highlighting the main differences between English and Latvian written language practices, literal (word-for-word) translation and the translator’s relationship with the source text. The publications selected and analysed have been published either in conference proceedings or in academic journals from the leading Latvian institutions in the field of translation: Ventspils University College, the University of Latvia, the State Language Commission of Latvia and Translation and Terminology Centre of Latvia.

scholarly journals The Effect of Collocation on Meaning Representation of Adjectives such as Big and Large in Translation from Two Languages Used in the Article to English Language Texts

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Malahat Minaabad
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Meaning Representation ◽  
Contextual Meaning

Translation is the process to transfer written or spoken source language (SL) texts to equivalent written or spoken target language (TL) texts. Translation studies (TS) relies so heavily on a concept of meaning, that one may claim that there is no TS without any reference to meanings. People’s understanding of the meaning of sentences is far more reliable than their understanding of the meaning of words. Since what people know when they know the meaning of a word is important, but the skill of incorporating that word appropriately into meaningful linguistic contexts is more important. Our interest here lies in the shift of emphasis from referential or dictionary meaning to contextual meaning of adjectives such as big, and large in translation to English language texts or vice versa. Since big and large are synonyms, it is not surprising that they can be used to describe many of the same nouns. However, they are not perfect synonyms, and there are some differences in the distribution of these adjectives which make some problems for translators especially from those languages which these kinds of differences are not so obvious.    

Translating the translingual text

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Russian Translation ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Source Language ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Russian Linguistic

This article examines strategies applied in selected passages of Elena Petrova’s Russian translation of Olga Grushin’s anglophone novel The Dream Life of Sukhanov (2005). The novel is set in Moscow during the late Soviet period and depicts a crisis precipitated by the changes brought by glasnost in the life of a loyal apparatchik. Although the Russian-American writer Grushin composed the novel in her adopted language of English, it reflects a Russian cultural subtext and contains numerous Russian linguistic elements and cultural allusions. It is therefore interesting to analyze how these elements are rendered in the Russian translation, entitled Zhizn’ Sukhanova v snovideniiakh (2011). The analysis is followed by a consideration of challenges posed by translingual texts to theoretical understandings of translation. It argues that established concepts within translation studies, such as domestication, foreignization, source language and target language, are not well-suited to cases of literary translingualism.

Language contact through translation

Target ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-455
Author(s):  
Shuangzi Pang ◽  
Kefei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sample Points ◽  
Chinese Texts

Abstract This article investigates the role of translations from English in language change in Chinese. It employs a new corpus, the Chinese Diachronic Composite Corpus (CDCC), which incorporates a parallel corpus and comparable corpus in three sampling periods in the twentieth century, and a refe­rence corpus as a starting point in the timeframe. We examine whether explicitness in English–Chinese translations has exerted an impact on the target language, focusing on adversative conjunctions as a measure of explicitness. The results of the study demonstrate that: (1) translated Chinese texts have changed in step with original Chinese texts in the frequency of adversative conjunctions; (2) translated Chinese texts and original Chinese texts are interrelated throughout the three periods, but the correlation between them has changed perceptibly over the three sample points; and (3) source language interference found in translated Chinese texts increases over the three periods.

Study in cultural semantics of translation

Babel ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-188
Author(s):  
Khan Farhadiba ◽  
Mahameed Mohammed
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Complete Fusion ◽  
Indian Language ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Cultural Interface ◽  
Technical Rules

The aim of this paper is to consider the role of Cultural Semantics in Translation. This paper argues that it will never be a fair translation if something new has not been added to it. Therefore a degree of cultural interface between two language groups from (English to Indian language) is required for translating any text. Furthermore, this paper also gives an account of how in nineteenth century India the colonial agenda of translating indigenous texts was a part of a larger enterprise of Imperialism to the recent times where the attempt has been to rescue the work of translation from the restrictions imposed by the rhetoric of technical rules regarding transference from Source Language to Target Language. The result is one of complete fusion between the Source language and the Target Language.

Translation studies in China or Chinese-related translation studies

Babel ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 332-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunshen Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Language ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Chinese Translation ◽  
Source Language ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Entity ◽  
Positive Engagement ◽  
Partial Translation

Abstract The paper begins with an observation of the paradoxical status of Chinese as a lesstranslated source language but a much-translated target language, and that of Chinese translation studies as a much studied subject in China but a little-noted branch of translation studies in the world. It then analyzes the implications of the two current conceptions of Chinese translation studies: either (1) as a self-contained system of "translation studies in China", with China construed as a geopolitical body; or (2) as an open system of "Chinese language/culture-related translation studies", with the Chinese as a nation, a linguistic and cultural entity in an anthropological sense. It points out that the fi rst, exclusive conception has for too long kept Chinese translation studies from advancing a positive engagement with translation studies in other traditions, encouraging polarization of Chinese and non-Chinese translation studies into two opposite systems; while the second, inclusive conception relates the discipline more closely to other fields of Chinese-related academic study in the world, as well as translation studies in other languages/cultures. As such, Chinese translation studies, alongside an "applied" parallel which is more language-specific and practice-oriented, represents a linguistically medium- and culturally area-restricted branch of Partial Translation Studies under Pure Translation Studies. To substantiate its argument, the paper shows how the two conceptions may have infl uenced the interpretation of the time-honoured tenet of faithfulness-accessibility-elegance in Chinese translation studies for its conceptual sensibility and explanatory power. Résumé L’article commence par souligner le statut paradoxal du chinois, qui est une languesource moins traduite mais une langue-cible frequemment traduite, et dont les etudes de traduction chinoises constituent un sujet frequemment etudie en Chine mais une section peu cotee de la traductologie dans le monde. Il analyse ensuite les implications des deux conceptions actuelles de la traductologie chinoise : soit (1) un systeme independant de traductologie en Chine., la Chine etant consideree comme un organe geopolitique ; soit (2) un systeme ouvert d’etudes de traduction liees a la langue et a la culture chinoises., les Chinois etant une nation, une entite linguistique et culturelle au sens anthropologique du terme. Il montre que la premiere conception exclusive a trop longtemps empeche la traductologie chinoise d’avancer un engagement positif avec les etudes de traduction dans d’autres traditions, en encourageant la polarisation de la traductologie chinoise et nonchinoise en deux systemes opposes ; tandis que la seconde conception inclusive rapproche la discipline plus etroitement d’autres domaines d’etudes academiques liees au chinois dans le monde, ainsi que des autres etudes de traduction dans d’autres langues et cultures. En tant que telle, la traductologie chinoise, a cote d’un parallele .applique. qui est plus specifique a la langue et oriente vers la pratique, represente un moyen linguistique et une branche culturellement limitee a un domaine d’etudes partielles de traduction dans les etudes de traduction pures. Pour etayer son argument, l’article montre comment les deux conceptions peuvent avoir influence l’interpretation du principe, consacre par l’usage, de la fidelite — accessibilite — elegance dans la traductologie chinoise pour sa sensibilite conceptuelle et son pouvoir explicatif.

scholarly journals Alienation in Harry Potter

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayman Khaled Hussein ◽  
Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi ◽  
Mohammad Nusr Mohammad Al-Subaihi
Keyword(s):  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Discrimination ◽  
Book Series ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Postcolonial Discourse ◽  
The One

This is a thematic study of Harry Potter (1997-2007) concerning the theme of alienation. Joanne Rowling is a British novelist famous for writing her best-known fantasy book series, Harry Potter (1997-2007). This study argues that Rowling employs fantastical elements in Harry Potter to present symbolic and real-life themes that summon the postcolonial discourse of alienation. In addition, the study aims to raise the role of fantasy in serving Humanity and the dignity of people and understanding the conflicts among the members of society. Moreover, this study investigates how racial discrimination and postcolonialism work against the Humanity of heroes and their companions in their community. Therefore, that relationship causes a realistic commentary on real-life situations. The theoretical platform deployed in this study is a postcolonial perspective that purports to grasp the striking overlaps between the theme of alienation and the insights of the racial and social postcolonial discourse. The findings achieved in this paper prove the juxtaposition between alienation on the one hand and racial and social discrimination on the other hand. The researcher seeks to demonstrate that Harry Potter reflects the suffering and alienation of characters.

scholarly journals Dialectic aspects between periphery and center: the translations of Aeschylus’ tragedies into French by Olivier Py

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
Maria Baïraktari
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
First Century ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
Cultural Mediator ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Spatio Temporal

“Periphery” and “centre” are two concepts which could be examined in terms of geographic, linguistic, or cultural variations and constants at different periods of human history. If world literature is a united system, with an unequal center and periphery, the interlinguistic translation of Aeschylusʼ tragedies into French by Olivier Py in the twenty-first century will serve as an example in order to highlight the various facets of this multidimensional relationship. Olivier Py, an award-winning prose and theatre writer, poet, director, actor, translator, director of the Avignon Festival since 2013, translated and directed all seven surviving Aeschylean tragedies between 2008 and 2017. He thus played the role of a cultural mediator who ensured the transition from the source language to the target language by creating texts designed to be presented on stage, and following the priorities of the codified theatrical discourse of tragedy. Based on this process, the author exam-ines the various spatio-temporal and cultural relationships between periphery and centre in order to present the main points of Olivier Py’s translation strategy.

scholarly journals Error Analysis in the Formal Training for Simultaneous Interpreting

Linguaculture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
Oana-Maria Franțescu
Keyword(s):  
Error Analysis ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Formal Training ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Basic Training ◽  
Original Source ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Source Language

Training interpreters is conventionally understood as predominantly ensuring that they have a sufficient amount of practice in specially equipped laboratories and some theoretical knowledge from the field of translation studies. However, despite the established existence of quality standards for interpreters and their work, very little can be standardized in what concerns their training due to the numerous levels of difference between the languages in which interpretars operate. This paper aims to explore the errors occuring in the basic training of third-year students in simultaneous interpreting by using a selected sample of recorded and scripted speeches delivered in class in the original (Source Language) and Target Language versions. The study focuses on the interpreting issues occuring between English and Romanian and explores the factors these issues originate from.

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