Considerations About Translation: Strategies About Frontiers (original) (raw)

Methodological remarks on the study of translation and translating

Disciplinary identity depends on how the disciplinary research object is conceived of. If translation studies is a discipline studying translation and translating, it is natural that it can define its identity at the intersection between translation and translating. This intersection is translation process. The need for an epistemological description of translation process arises form the need to make the process describable or to find a possibility of its optimum description. To do this translation studies needs an elementary model of translation process that would ensure the comparability of di¤er-ent translations and describability of translation culture. New interest in the evaluation of translation quality and in the linguistic nature of translation brings along the necessity to reconceptualize di¤erent trends in translation studies. Translation studies is on the verge of a new self-description, and the language and attitudes of this self-description should derive from a systemic understanding of the research object of translation studies.

An Introduction to Translation Studies: An Overview

This study aims to observe the development of translation studies through three concepts of descriptive translation studies; product-based, process-based, and functionalbased translation studies. The readers are introduced to some famous translation scholars including their view of translation studies. At the further discussions, this study lets the readers to acknowledge the main issues on translation studies, focusing on the debate of equivalence versus variations in intertextual texts analysis. Some tendencies of variations, such as different grammar and sentence structure, diglossia leakage, and pragmatic consideration are also presented to present to what extent variations occur during investigation processes. Therefore, regarding those tendencies, this study is closed by the description of Matthiessen's proposals about points of consideration to construct a parameter to measure meaning variations. This study may help those who are interested to conduct translation researches and help them by giving options of which theories is beneficial to their analysis.

Translation: The Process of Success and Failure in the Transformation of the Target Language into the Source Language

Translation is acknowledged word in the gallery of literature. It is an expression in another language; it is a creative and meaningful rewriting and subsuming activities such as paraphrasing, reviewing, commenting etc. On the one hand the growing importance of research into the ethics of translation and on the other hand a much greater attention to the broader philosophical issues underpins translation. Texts are seen now as complex signifying system and the task of the translator is to decode or re-encode whichever of those systems is accessible. The cultural grids determine how reality is constructed in both source and target text and the skill of the translator in manipulating grids will determine the success of the outcome. This is a rejection of any linear notion of translation process and puts translation in a much broader cultural and historical framework. As has been stated above that all languages represent the social reality differently, it becomes clear that sameness cannot exist between two languages. Once this view is expected it becomes possible to approach the question of loss and gain in the translation process. Much time has been spent on discussing what is lost in the transfer of a text from source language to target language while ignoring what can also be gained, for the translator can at times enrich or clarify the source language text as a direct result of the translation process. Moreover what is often seen as ‘lost’ from the source language context may be replaced in the target language context. This paper is an attempt to underpin and clarify of this process of loss and gain in the process of translation in the light of the above discussed theoretical framework.

Theoretical Foundations of Translation Studies

International Journal of English Linguistics, 2016

Epistemologies of translation are a complicated subject that is beyond the scope of this article. As such, only the critical points have been addressed in this paper. One key epistemological issue is the analysis of discourse in any science. In this article, four scenarios of translation studies have been discussed. An underlying concept in translation studies is the issue of fidelity in translation. In this paper, the trajectory of this concept is analyzed in brief. It is followed by a reflection on two fundamental concepts of source oriented (Sources) and target oriented translation approaches, as they occupy a particular position in the translation. The last section of the article investigates dichotomies in the field of translation studies, including the theory of the action, the untranslatability versus translatability, art versus science, and etc. In this paper, we try to study theoretical principles of translatology. So we consider four important speeches of Jean Rene Ladmiral: Prescriptive translatology, Descriptive translatology, Productive translatology, scientific translatology and then we consider faithfulness in translation. Ladmiral suggests two concepts for fidelity in translation: The source oriented (sources) and target oriented. These two concepts are the fundamental concepts in translatology. In the next step the translation science is investigated in various languages such as English, German and at last in French. Finally, we take a look at binary concepts: Theory vs. action, Translatability vs. untranslatability, Art vs. Science. This paper is in epistemology scope of translation and does not have pedagogical aspect, in other words, it is a function-oriented translation.

TRANSLATION STUDIES: AN OVERVIEW

The article briefly outlines the main schools and approaches that make up the current landscape of Translation Studies. The purpose of this paper is to offer an introduction to translation theory for those who are beginning their studies in this field or whose knowledge of Translation Studies is tangential. The article starts with a few preliminary matters, such as the question of what Translation Studies is and how the discipline has been mapped out. Then it moves on to examine the theoretical considerations that have been developed since the second half of the 20 th century, with special attention being paid to the most recent decades. In this section, which is devoted to theoretical considerations, I will review some of the fundamental issues from a) theories of equivalence and comparisons between languages; b) functionalist theories; c) discursive approaches; d) polysystem theory, descriptive studies and norms; e) cultural studies; f) philosophical theories; g) latest contributions to the field of Translation Studies; and h) interdisciplinary and integrating approaches.

Towards an understanding of the distinctive nature of translation studies

Journal of King Saud University - Languages and Translation, 2011

This paper has emerged out of the conviction that linguistic theory has more to offer to translation theory than is so far recognized and vice versa. As Gutknecht (2001) claims, the translation theorists have made little systematic use of the techniques and insights of contemporary linguistics. However, two points must be emphasized: (1) although translation has existed for many centuries, it was not until the second half of this century that 'Translation Studies' developed into a discipline in its own right, and (2) although translation has taken on concepts and methods of other disciplines, ''it is still conceived as a subdiscipline of applied linguistics'' (Schaffner, 2004, p. 2). On the other hand, the past fifteen years or so have seen the focus of translation studies shift away from linguistics and increasingly to forms of cultural studies. There has also been a shift towards studies that have incorporated models from functional linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, locating the text within its sociocultural context. More recently, technological advances, which have transformed the working conditions of professional translators and researchers and have spawned new forms of translation, have also produced new areas of research, some linked to the effects of globalization and some to forms of intersemiotic translation. The present study, therefore, attempts to outline the scope of the discipline of translation studies (TS), to give some indication of the kind of work that has been done so far. More importantly, it is an attempt to demonstrate that (TS) is a vastly complex field with many far-reaching ramifications.

Perspectives in Translation Studies

2009

Based on a great deal of recent research performed by academics investigating works translated from/into English, this book provides fresh perspectives to the field of translation studies. It combines theoretical and practical aspects of the translation process with a comprehensive set of thoroughly commented examples. Perspectives in Translation Studies is a structurally complex volume which: * Is especially designed to cover insights into a wide range of British and American literary products (novels, short stories and poetry) * Comparatively examines patterns of language use in English and other languages, referring both to pairs of verbs and phraseological constructions (collocations and idioms, pre-fabricated or ready-made phrases and proverbs) * Explores some of the globalization challenges in the translation of national films into English It is ideal for every person with an interest not only in the art or the making of a translation but also in the result of the translation ...

A Survey of Different Theories of Translation in Cultural Studies

Studies in Media and Communication

The need for translation for communication between speakers of various language groups makes the statement that translation has been around for as long as language itself seem almost obvious. Since translating is such an essential task, many different ideas and theoretical reflections have been developed to help guide the process. The study of translation theory focuses on the processes involved in identifying the categories that underpin translation and the widest possible variety of texts and materials subject to translation. Any background theory of translation concerned with a text's context may include techniques that ought to be taken to solve issues and challenges in specific challenging texts. The purpose of this research is to provide translators with theoretical guidelines for practical translation by conducting a comprehensive survey of the various theories of translation as its primary emphasis and then reporting the findings within the direction of the premises of t...

Theorizing in Unfamiliar Contexts: New Directions in Translation Studies

This thesis attempts to offer a reconceptualization of translation analysis. It argues that there is a growing interest in examining translations produced outside the discipline‟s historical field of focus. However, the tools of analysis employed may not have sufficient flexibility to examine translation if it is conceived more broadly. Advocating the use of abductive logic, the thesis infers translators‟ probable understandings of their own actions, and compares these with the reasoning provided by contemporary theories. It finds that it may not be possible to rely on common theories to analyse the work of translators who conceptualize their actions in radically different ways from that traditionally found in translation literature. The thesis exemplifies this issue through the dual examination of Geoffrey Chaucer‟s use of translation in the Canterbury Tales and that of Japanese storytellers in classical Kamigata rakugo. It compares the findings of the discipline‟s most pervasive theories with those gained through an abductive analysis of the same texts, finding that the results produced by the theories are invariably problematic. The thesis demonstrates that understandings of translation practice have been given to change over time, and vary substantially across cultures. Therefore, an individual theory is unlikely to be able to rationalize particular practices or features of translations irrespective of the cultural context in which they are found. Abductive logic aims to describe translations in particular, rather than translation in general. It can be used to infer factors that may have influenced translators‟ understandings of the roles their texts will take, and hence, their aims in translating. Many theories tend to be underpinned by inductive logic, which essentially restricts textual analysis to the application of pre-defined labels of translation phenomena. Abductive logic forms hypotheses based on the context in question, going far beyond this kind of textual categorization.