The Demonstrative Pronouns זֶה Zeh / זאֹת Zōʾt / אֵלּהֶ Ēlleh: Referring Backward or Forward?

In some places, it is not immediately clear whether the Hebrew demonstrative pronouns of the זֶה zeh paradigm refer backward (anaphoric) or forward (cataphoric). The translator cannot continue without deciding this. Standard resources do not discuss the problem satisfactorily. In this article, an exegetical “checklist” is presented as a guideline for determining the meaning of such pronouns. Then five debatable cases are discussed in detail, with reference to the pertinent literature and including the consequences for translation. The following four points emerge from the investigation: (1) The debatable cases are typically discourse deictic pronouns. These are an element of metadiscourse, and they link paragraphs. (2) General predictions are not possible. Context decides. (3) Nevertheless, there is a higher likelihood for backward-orientation. (4) The translation will guide the reader. Apart from choosing the right demonstrative pronoun, punctuation and layout need attention.

Dressing for Spiritual Battle and Other Challenges: Translating Passages with Underlying Conceptual Metaphors

Traditionally, the approach to translating metaphor in Scripture assumed that metaphors are descriptive literary devices with an underlying “literal meaning.” Research in cognitive linguistics has challenged this idea, and a new field of study, conceptual metaphor theory, has emerged. Conceptual metaphor theory draws a distinction between image metaphors, where a target is described in comparison to a source, and conceptual metaphors, where an abstract or complex conceptual domain is actually understood in terms of a more concrete or familiar conceptual domain drawn from embodied human experience. This paper examines the importance of identifying conceptual metaphors and analyzing their accessibility when translating Scripture. Translators who encounter figurative language derived from underlying conceptual metaphors that are not culturally conventional may try to convert the mapped elements of the source domain into a series of descriptive image metaphors. This skewing of meaning could be mitigated if translators were trained to identify conceptual metaphors licensing figurative language and consider making them explicit. As a case study, a translation of Ephesian 6:13–17 in Tlacoapa Meꞌphaa (tpl) produced by a translator guided by Paratext notes and trained in the traditional approach to the translation of metaphors (Larson 1984) is compared with a second translation produced after encouragement to make the underlying conceptual metaphor PREPARATION IS GETTING DRESSED explicit at the beginning of the passage.

Short Note: Chichewa and Hindi Back Translations of the Bible: A Comparative Check of Translation Techniques

The Bible in India has been seen by some as an offshoot of the missionary movement in pre- and post-independence times. Such allegations belie a technical or stylistic reading of the translated scriptures into Hindi, which is the great unread aspect of the Bible. The Bible translated into Hindi is titled Dharmasastra. The present study aims to compare the Hindi version with another translation in a completely different part of the world, the Chichewa Bible. Chichewa is a Bantu language widely spoken in SE Africa. It turns out that the Hindi translation of the Bible is surprisingly close to the Chichewa Buku Loyera translation, a fact which might motivate further comparative research into these two languages and cultural domains.

Toward a Best Practice in Representing The Authors’ Explanatory Notes in Old Testament Translation

This article will help translation teams to develop a best practice for dealing with explanatory notes that are made by the Biblical authors themselves. To my knowledge there is no standard resource for Bible translators that addresses in some detail the issue of explanatory (or: parenthetical) notes. However, every Bible translator will face numerous such notes and has to decide what to do with them. Some standard versions appear unsystematic in this and are of limited help. This article discusses what options a translator has in dealing with such notes. Special attention is given to explanatory notes that need explanation themselves for the modern reader. In order to explore translation problems and solutions regarding explanatory notes, I collected examples – partly when I encountered them incidentally, partly by reading through several Biblical books and looking for them. I discuss the options for translation on the basis of three types of examples. An annotated translation of Deuteronomy 3:8–17 shows how explanatory notes can be represented. I argue that each translation project should make two conscious choices: (1) whether or not to mark explanatory notes, and (2) if yes, in what way; this is largely a question of how punctuation and footnotes are used. The principles should be applied consistently. This is to achieve three goals: (1) doing justice to the Biblical text with its own history and different levels, (2) being systematic and transparent in the method of translation, and (3) having efficient ways of working within the translation team. A model guideline and a list of explanatory notes complete the article.

Polysemy and Homonymy in Biblical Hebrew

In the analysis of Hebrew lexical items there is sometimes a tendency to interpret words exclusively based on their root meaning. In fact, the one-sided etymological analysis of Hebrew words is particularly tempting, because most Hebrew words are constructed around lexical roots consisting of two or three (sometimes four) consonants that are shared in common by a family of related words. Deriving the meaning of a lexical item exclusively from its root meaning while disregarding the phenomenon of semantic shift, which is frequently caused by metonymy, can lead to incorrect interpretations. Hebrew lexicons such as Brown–Driver–Briggs (BDB) sometimes contribute to this error due to interpreting words as polysemous lexical items when they should be interpreted as homonyms with non-related meanings.

Short Note: Bē̂t Āb 'Father’s House' in Numbers

The purpose of this compilation is to give an overview over the use of the key phrase “father’s house” to alert to differences in meaning in various places and to discuss further issues connected with this phrase.

The Importance of Collaborative Discourse Analysis in the Training of Novice Translators

This paper outlines the key aspects of effective translator training regarding content, method and assessment drawing on a growing field of research in Translation Studies. The training of translators—whether in the professional or in the Bible translation context—should be influenced by the demands of the field as well as the profile of the students and therefore focus on the most required and most often lacking competencies in novice translators. The author suggests that collaborative discourse analysis is particularly beneficial in the training of beginner translators as it hones their skills in self-reflection, in handling discourse level translation problems, in providing a contrastive analysis of the SL and the TL and in correcting their most common translation errors. In addition, this method provides the learners with the opportunity to grow in teamwork and interpersonal skills which are also crucial competencies for a translator.

Using Features of Indigenous Poetry and Music in the Oral Performance of Some Praise Psalms in Isizulu

Translation needs to be accessible and acceptable to the receptor community. In the case of the Zulu people, the medium of communication most accessible to the majority is oral performance. Thus biblical text needs to be translated in a way that is prepared for the ear and not the eye. To be acceptable, the translation should sound like “my language,” using indigenous forms and contemporary vocabulary. When translating biblical psalms into isiZulu, they should sound like Zulu songs or poems, with all the richness of performance texture that is part of the long history of Zulu oral art. With this goal in mind, and given the tradition of Zulu praise poetry and the passion Zulu youth today have for poetry, a study was conducted in which young Zulu people, taking cognizance of their Zulu traditions in poetry and music, applied these to the translation and performance of some biblical praise psalms. The results show the value of focusing on orality, indigenous poetics, and performance in communicating effectively the message of some praise psalms.