scholarly journals Hermeneutic Uncertainty and Prejudice

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-186
Author(s):  
Ineke Wallaert

Hermeneutic uncertainty is an inherent part of the art of translation, and its consequences are ineluctable features of translation products. In this article I support the claim that the teaching and practice of translation do not escape the social responsibility which resides in clearly declaring and acknowledging the existence of hermeneutic uncertainty. Investigating how Heideggerian hermeneutics led to Gadamer’s development of the concept of hermeneutic prejudice. I will show that the philosophical description of how this prejudice functions can be a useful part of the pedagogical materials presented by translation teachers, and can help students to approach ambiguous or difficult source text elements more confidently. Such hermeneutic consciousness-raising can also be applied to published translations, where it can be tested to reveal how translators have dealt with specific instances of hermeneutic uncertainty. The case studied here is a pair of terms occurring in Walter Benjamin’s Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers, chosen mainly for its ubiquitous presence in the field of translation studies. The story of how French and English translations differ in their understanding of this specific hermeneutic difficulty will be used to investigate the extent to which translators acknowledge (or ignore) the existence of hermeneutic uncertainty by allowing it to enter their translations or by discarding it from them.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 706
Author(s):  
Jing Chen

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-171
Author(s):  
Xi Li ◽  
Long Li

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.


Author(s):  
Lintao Qi

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.


Author(s):  
Richard F. Thomas

Domestication of ancient epics appears to be a focal theme in recent translation studies. This chapter explores a specific aspect of this theme by focusing on the domestication of aesthetic, linguistic, and metre-specific effects. Thomas raises the question of whether or not it is possible to translate language-specific idioms into the target language without losing the poignancy of the source text; and his discussion provides copious examples drawn from English translations of Virgil’s works. By juxtaposing and evaluating different translations of the same highly marked passages of Virgil, he asks whether adherence to or departure from the dynamics of the source texts leads to the ideal translation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (62) ◽  
pp. 66-81
Author(s):  
Adriana M. Moreno Moreno ◽  
Eduar Fernando Aguirre González

Social Responsibility is a concept that has been approached from different perspectives by theoreticians and institutions. Initially, this was limited exclusively to companies, however, the creation of the Social Capital, Ethics and Development Initiative by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) sought to make educational institutions aware that, like any other organization, they are responsible for the externalities they generate in their environment and their stakeholders. This research approaches the concept of University Social Responsibility (USR) from the scheme proposed by the IDB, which proposes four axes of action for Universities’ CR: Responsible Campus, Professional and Citizen Training, Social Management of Knowledge and Social Participation. The Universidad del Valle has a strategic plan entitled “Universidad del Valle’s Strategic Development Plan” and Regionalization attached thereto. It has also developed its action plan and in the five strategic issues raised herein, its socially responsible approach is clearly identifiable. The North Cauca Facility wherein this study is being developed, even though it does not have a University Social Responsibility Management Model, has attempted to align its practices with its strategic affairs that broadly conform to the four axes proposed by the IDB. This research addresses a relevant and current issue inasmuch as it proposes to develop a diagnosis on the relationship between the four axes of Social Responsibility proposed by the IDB and the practice of Social Responsibility applied at the Universidad del Valle, North Cauca Facility, for the period 2014-2015. In order to answer the research problem, a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive type of study is used, given that the work was based on the documentary information available at the University, while the interviews with the directors of the Institution are used as a tool for oral history. The research method used is the case study, which allows to address a unit of analysis in depth, in this case the USR within the Universidad del Valle, North Cauca Facility.


Author(s):  
Yaroslav Skoromnyy ◽  

The article reveals the conceptual foundations of the social responsibility of the court as an important prerequisite for the legal responsibility of a judge. It has been established that the problem of court and judge liability is regulated by the following international and Ukrainian documents, such as: 1) European Charter on the Law «On the Status of Judges» adopted by the Council of Europe; 2) The Law of Ukraine «On the Judicial System and the Status of Judges»; 3) the Constitution of Ukraine; 4) The Code of Judicial Ethics, approved by the Decision of the XI (regular) Congress of Judges of Ukraine; 5) Recommendation CM/Rec (2010) 12 of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member states regarding judges: independence, efficiency and responsibilities; 6) Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct. The results of a survey conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Center, the Council of Judges of Ukraine and the Center for Judicial Studios with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation based on the «Monitoring of the State of Independence of Judges in Ukraine – 2012» as part of the study of the level of trust in the modern system were considered and analyzed, justice, judges and courts. It is determined that a judge has both a legal and a moral duty to impartially, independently, in a timely manner and comprehensively consider court cases and make fair judicial decisions, administering justice on the basis of legislative norms. Based on the study of the practice of litigation, it has been proven that judges must skillfully operate with various instruments of protection from public influence. It has been established that in order to ensure the protection of judges from the public, it is necessary to create special units that will function as part of judicial self-government bodies. It was proposed that the Council of Judges of Ukraine, which acts as the highest body of judicial self- government in our state (in Ukraine), legislate the provision on ensuring the protection of the procedural independence of judges.


Oikos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (32) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Ma. Angélica Garza Arroyo ◽  
María Aurelia Bocanegra Noriega

RESUMENEl desarrollo sostenible es manejado como uno de los puntos importantes en las agendas del siglo XXI, es un concepto que las empresas deben contemplar en las actividades que realizan para cumplir con la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial. El presente trabajo pretende abordar los aspectos teóricos sobre las Memorias de Sostenibilidad así como mostrar que pueden ser consideradas como un instrumento de información de la Responsabilidad Social de las Empresas. Se hace un estudio en la base de datos de la Corporate Register del 2006 al 2011 respecto de la presentación de las Memorias de Sostenibilidad en América Latina; el reporte es de corte cualitativo de carácter descriptivo, con un análisis deductivo. Se puede percibir en el estudio que es de carácter exploratorio que las empresas de América Latina han incrementado de manera significativa la presentación de Memorias de Sostenibilidad así como un incremento en el número de empresas que las realizan, además de contemplar a la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial como parte de su misión y visión.Palabras clave: memorias de sostenibilidad, Responsabilidad Social Empresarial, América Latina. Memories of Sustainability in Latin America: instrument of information of the Social Responsibility of the CompaniesABSTRACTThe sustainable development is managed to be one of the important aspects in the planners of 21th century, it is a concept that companies have to contemplate in the activities they realize to achieve corporate social responsibility. this work pretends to raise the teoric aspects about sustainability report, and to show that they can be considered as an information instrument of social responsibility of the companies. a study has to be done in the data base of corporate register from 2006 to 2011 about the presentation of the sustainability report in Latin America; the report is qualitative and descriptive kind, with deductive analysis. in the study it can be perceived that is explorative that companies in Latin America have increased in a significative way the presentation of sustainability report, just as an increase in the number of companies that realize them, besides contemplating corporate social responsibility as part of their mission and vision.Keywords: sustainability report, Corporate Social Responsibility, Latin America.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document