The translation studies reader PDF

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Riassunto dei saggi di: Lawrence Venuti, Lori Chamberlain, James Holmes, Shoshana Blum Kulka, Gideon Toury...

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JAMES S. HOLMES – THE NAME AND NATURE OF TRANSLATION STUDIES Michael Mulkay: “Science tends to proceed by means of discovery of new areas of ignorance.” When a problem comes into view in the world of learning, researchers form adjacent areas bring their paradigms and model that have been fruitful in their own fields. This leads to two results:  

The problem can be annexed as a legitimate branch of an established field of study. The paradigms or models fail to produce sufficient results; awareness that new methods are needed to approach the problem --> tension between researchers investigating the new problem and colleagues in their former fields that can lead to the establishment of new channels of communication and the development of a new disciplinary utopia (new sense of a shared interest in a common set of problems, approaches, and objectives on the part of anew grouping of researches). “Possibility for scientists to identify with the emerging discipline and to claim legitimacy for their point of view when appealing to university bodies or groups in the larger society.”

Application of the second situation for translating and translation. Translation had an increase in interest from scholars in recent years (turning point with the Second World War). More and more scholars have moved into the field from linguistics, linguistic philosophy, literary studies and also logic and mathematics (each of them carrying paradigms, quasi-paradigms, models and methodologies). There are a series of indication concentrating on the problems of translation and Hagstrom’s disciplinary Utopia is taking shape. Focus on the matters there are impeding its development (impediments): (1) Lack of appropriate channels of communication. Most of them still tend to run via older disciplines (periodicals and journals). (2) The name for this field of research. Through the years, diverse terms have been used to refer to translating and translations. The choice: - can reflect the attitude, point of approach or background of the writer - can be determined by the fashion of the moment in scholarly terminology There have been few attempts to create “learned” terms; with the active disciplinary suffix -ology; “translatology” in English, “traductologie” in French (since -ology derives from Greek, purists reject a contamination with the Late Latin translatio). Other terms as “translatistics” or “translistics” have been suggested, hardly accepted. “Theory of translating” – “theory of translation”: now usually compressed into “translation theory”. Übersetzungswissenschaft – “science de la traduction”: these terms won the field in German and French as designation for the entire discipline. One of the first use in English was with Nida’s Towards a Science of Translating (1964), where he focused only on one aspect of the process of transalting. Others, mostly non-native speakers of English, advocated the term “science of translation” / “translation science” as the appropriate designation for this emerging discipline as a whole.

Another term used was “studies”; it raised a few new complications, but the designation “translation studies” was the most appropriate of all those available in English (its adoptions would remove confusion and misunderstanding). Koller stated that: “translation studies is to be understood as a collective and inclusive designation for all research activities taking the phenomena of translating and translation as their basis or focus”.

Translation studies is an empirical and pure discipline; two objectives (Carl G. Hempel): 1- describe particular phenomena in the world of our experience 2- establish general principles by means of which they can be explained and predicted two branches of pure translation studies concerning themselves with these two objectives: 1- Descriptive translation studies (DTS) – Translation description (TD) 2- Theoretical translation studies (ThTS) – Translation theory (TTh) Descriptive Translation Studies Closest contact with the empirical phenomena under study Three major kinds of research, distinguished by their focus (PRODUCT, FUNCTION, PROCESS) (1) Product-oriented DTS: it describes existing translations. - Description of individual translations, or text-focused translation description. - Comparative translation description (made of various translations of the same text, either in a single language or in various languages). - The comparative descriptions provide the materials for surveys of larger corpuses of translations (those made within a specific period, language, and/or text or discourse type). (2) Function-oriented DTS: it describes the function of transaltions in the recipient sociocultural situations (study of contexts). (3) Process-oriented DTS: process or act of translation itself. (very little attempt at systematic investigation of this process under laboratory conditions; the process is complex, “may very probably be the most complex type of event yet produced in the evolution of the cosmos” Richards.) Theoretical Translation Studies Interest in using the results of descriptive translation studies, in combination with the information available from related fields and disciplines, to evolve principles, theories, and model that will explain and predict what translating and translation are and will be. The goal is to develop a full, exclusive theory accommodating so many elements that can explain and predict all phenomena of translation and translating--> a general translation theory (will be highly formalized and complex). Most of the theories are a collection of axioms, postulates, and hypothesis that are formulated as to be both inclusive and too exclusive Others are not general theories, but partial or specific in their scope, dealing with only one or a few of the various aspects of translation theory. The most significant advances have been made in recent years

Partial translation theories – 6 kinds: (1) Medium-restricted translation theories (according to the medium that is used): - Performed by humans (human translation) o Oral translation/interpreting (consecutive and simultaneous) o Written translation - Performed by computers (machine translation) - Performed by the two in conjunctions (mixed/machine-aided translation) (2) Area-restricted translation theories (restricted to the languages or to the cultures involved; the degree of actual limitation): - Language-pair: translation between French and German - Language-group: translation within Slavic language - Language-group pair: translation from Romance to Germanic languages - One-culture restricted: translation within Swiss culture - Cultural-pair restricted: translation between Swiss and Belgian cultures - Cultural-group restricted: translation within western Europe - Cultural-group pair restricted: translation between languages reflecting a pre-technological culture and the languages of contemporary Western culture (3) Rank-restricted translation theories (dealing with discourse or texts as wholes, but concerns themselves with lower linguistic ranks or levels) Traditionally: a lot of writing on translation was concerned with the rank of the word Recently: most linguistically-oriented research has taken the sentence as its upper rank limit, ignoring the macro-structural aspects of entire texts as translation problems. (4) Text-type/discourse-type restricted translation theories (dealing with problem of translating specific types of genre of lingual messages): Intrinsic problem for translating literary text or specific genres of literary texts. Efforts to develop a specific theory for the translation of scientific texts. Lack of a formal theory of message, text, or discourse types. (5) Time-restricted translation theories - Theories regarding the transaltion of contemporary texts - Theories regarding the translation of texts from and older period. Tendency to present the first theory as general one, the second as a cross-temporal translation. (6) Problem-restricted translation theories (confine themselves to one more specific problem within the entire area of general translation theory) - Limits of variance and invariance in translation - Nature of translation equivalence - Translation of metaphors or of proper nouns - Etc…

Theories can frequently be restricted in more than one way. Contrastive linguists interested in translation will produce theories that are not only languagerestricted but rank- and time-restricted. The theories of literary scholars are restricted as

to medium and text type, and generally also as to culture group. This does not necessarily reduce the worth of such partial theories. Applied Translation Studies A branch of the discipline which is, in Bacon’s words, “of use”. 

Fist area --> teaching. Two types: 1) Used (for centuries) as a technique in foreign-language teaching and a test of foreign-language acquisition. 2) Translating is taught in school and courses to train professionals translators. Translator training has raised a number of questions about teaching methods, testing techniques and curriculum planning.

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Second area --> the needs for translation aids (use in translation training and to meet the requirements of the practising translator). Two classes of needs: 1) Lexicographical and terminological aids 2) Grammar aids Clarify and define the specific requirements that these aids should fulfil of they have to meet the needs of practising and prospective translators.

 Third area --> translation policy - Render informed advice to others in defining the place and role of translators, translating, and translations in society at large. - Determining what works need to be translated in a given socio-cultural situation. - What is and should be the social and economic position of the translator. - What part translating should play in the teaching and learning foreign languages. 

Fourth area --> translation criticism

The relationship between descriptive, theoretical and applied translation studies is dialectical: o Each of the three branches supply materials for the other two, and make use of the findings which they in turn provide it. Translation theory cannot do without the solid, specific data yielded by research in descriptive and applied translation studies cannot even begin to work in one of the other two fields without having at least an intuitive theoretical hypothesis as one’s starting point. o In each of the three branches there are two further dimensions: 1. Historical: field of history of translation theory (valuable work has been done) + history of translation description and of applied translations studies (virgin territory) 2. Methodological/meta-theoretical: problems of what methods and models can best be used in research in the various branches of the discipline.

GIDEON TOURY – THE NATURE AND ROLE OF NORMS IN TRANSLATION Translation activities should be regarded as having cultural significance (fulfil a function assigned by a community) in an appropriate way in its own terms of reference. The acquisition of a set of norms for determining the suitability of that kind of behaviour, and for manoeuvring between all the factors which may constrain it, is a prerequisite for becoming a translator within a cultural environment. Nature of the acquired norm + their role in directing translation activity in socio-culturally relevant settings + transaltion norms as a second-order object f Translation Studies.

1. Rules, norms, idiosyncrasies Translation (socio-cultural dimension) is subject to restriction of several types and varying degree: -

Source texts Systemic differences between the languages and textual traditions involved in the act Possibilities and limitations of the cognitive apparatus pf the translator as a necessary mediator

Translators performing under different conditions (translating texts of different kinds and/or for different audience) adopt different strategies and come up with different products. Socio-cultural constraints have been described in a scale anchored between two extremes: (1) general and relatively absolute rules and (2) pure idiosyncrasies (they do not follow the rules); between them there are inter subjective factors designated as norms (they form a graded continuum along the scale; some are stronger and more rule-like, some are weaker and more idiosyncratic-like) Along the temporal axis, each type of constraint may move its neighbouring domain by rise and decline - norms can gain so much validity that they become as binding as rules; or vice versa. These two types of constraints can also be redefined in terms of norms: rules as “more objective (norms)” and idiosyncrasies as “more subjective” (norms). Sociologist and social psychologists considered norms as the translation of general values or ideas shared by a community (what is right or wrong, or adequate or inadequate) prescribing and forbidding and specifying what is tolerated and permitted in a certain behavioural dimension. The centrality of the norms is essential; they are the key concept and focal point in any attempt to account for the social relevance of activities, and the wide range of situations they apply to are the main factors ensuring the establishment and retention of social order and culture. When studying norm-governed behaviour, there is no necessary identity between the norms themselves and any formulation of them in language.

2. Translation as a norm-governed activity Translation inevitably involves (at least) two languages and two cultural traditions. Two major elements of the “value” behind it:  

Being a text in a certain language, and occupying a position, or filling a slot in a determined culture Being a representation. in another language/culture, pre-existing in some other language, belonging to some other culture and occupying a definite position within it.

The tension between the two sources of constraints would have to be solved on an entirely individual basis. Translation behaviour within a culture tends to manifest certain regularities, even if they are unable to account for deviations in any explicit way, the person-in-the-culture can often tell when a translator has failed to adhere to sanctioned practises. Useful to regard the basic choice which can be made between two requirements of the two different sources as constituting an initial norm – a translator may subject himself to the original text, with the norm it has realized (translation will tend to subscribe to the norms of the source text), or to the norms active in the target culture (norms system of the target culture are triggered and set into motion), or in the section of which would host the end product. Shifts from the source text would be inevitable; the occurrence of shifts has been acknowledged as a true universal of translation. The actual realization of these shifts is already norm-governed: they occur everywhere and tend to constitute the majority of shifting in any single act of human translation. Initial norm: the initiality derives from its superordinance over particular norms which are related to lower, and therefore more specific levels. (1) Logical priority does not need to coincide with any “real” one (chronological order of application). The notion is designed as an explanatory tool; any micro-level decision can still be accounted for in terms of adequacy vs. acceptability. (2) In cases where an overall choice has been made, it not necessary that every single lowerlevel decision is made in full accord with it. Actual translation decisions involve some ad hoc combination or compromise between the two extremes implied in the initial norm. (similar things can be applied also to conference interpreting) – the application in different cultural sectors is one of the aspects that should be submitted to study + the claim is also valid for every society and historical period. 3. Translation norms: an overview Norma can operate at every stage in the translating event, and be reflected on every level of its product. Two larger groups of norms applicable to translation: (1) Preliminary norms: o Regarding the existence and actual nature of a definite translation policy (those factors that govern the choice of text types; or individual texts imported through translation into a particular culture/language at a particular point in time). Different

policies applied to different subgroups, in terms of text-types or human agents and group. (the interface between them offers a fertile ground for policy hunting) o Related to the directness of translation: it involves the threshold of tolerance for translating from languages (questions whether source languages or text-types are permitted/prohibited/tolerated/preferred, or if there are permitted/prohibited/tolerated/preferred mediating languages, etc.) (2) Operational norms: conceived of as directing the decisions made during the act of translation itself. They affect the matrix of the text (distribution of linguistic materials in it), and the textual make up and verbal formulation as such. They govern the relationships obtained between the target and source texts. o Matricial norms: they govern the existence of target-language material intended as a substitute for the corresponding source-language material, its location in the text and the textual segmentation. (large-scale omissions often entail changes of segmentation if the omitted portions have no clear boundaries or textual-linguistics standing – a change of location may be accounted for as an omission in one place compensated by an addition elsewhere. o Textual-linguistic norms: they govern the selection of material to formulate the target text in, or replace the original textual and linguistic material with. May either be general (applied to transaltion as translation) or particular (pertain to a particular text-type and/or mode of translation only. They serve as a model whether to (1) involve the norms realized by the source text (the translation it is made into a model language; the translation is imposed into the target language) + (2) certain modifications or purely target norms, or a particular compromise between the two (the translator is introducing into the target language a version of the original work, on the measure of a pre-existing model). Preliminary norms have logical and chronological precedence over the operational ones. These relations are not fixed and given, and their establishment is a fundamental part of any study of translation; at least we can assume that the relations have to do with the initial norm – they can even intersect it. The contradiction between any traditional concept of equivalence and the limited model into which a translation has been claimed, can be resolved by postulating that it is norms that determine the (type and extent) equivalence manifested by actual translations. The study of norms is a vital step for establishing just how the functional-relational postulate of equivalence has been realized (in one translated text, in the work of a single translator or school of translators, in a given historical period, etc.). Approach: retain the notion of equivalence, which various contemporary approaches have tried to do without, while introducing one change--> from an ahistorical, largely prescriptive concept to a historical one. TRANSLATIONAL NORMS ARE ALL DEPENDENT ON THE POSITION HELD BY TRANSLATION IN THE TARGET CULTURE.

4. The multiplicity of translational norms Two unique features of Translation Studies: (1) socio-cultural specificity of norms and (2) their basic instability. There is no need for a norm to apply to all sectors of society; significance is only attributed to a norm by the system in which it is embedded (the system remains different even if instances of external behaviour appear the same) + norms are unstable (changing entities) by their nature as norms. Many translators help shaping the process through translation criticism, translation ideology and activities where the translators are being trained – they all try to interfere with the “natural” course of events and to divert it according to their own preferences. Three types of competing norms, ea...