Assessing shifts in animal intentionality and anthropomorphism in the translation of popular science texts from English into Polish (original) (raw)
Related papers
Anthropomorphism in translation: human/animal binary, distance and proximity
The language used in scientific texts and popularisations tends to be anthropocentric and, despite criticism,1 anthropomorphic overtones are found in the descriptions of the natural world. Apparently, our (human) attempts at understanding nature or science through analogies to human categories are common, if not automatic or innate. What we can observe is that translators seem to approach anthropomorphism as a special element, which is not only transferred to the target text but also becomes accentuated, explicitated, and – as far as available analyses show – rarely attenuated. This phenomenon needs to be further explored but due to its complexity an adequate model of analysis is necessary to encompass its various aspects. This paper discusses anthropomorphism in translation, various approaches to the issue and challenges in its analysis.
A Comparative study of Translation of Animal-Related Words in English, Portuguese and Persian
The study aimed to illustrate how exploring the origins of metaphors contribute in a better understanding of the nature of metaphors and, thus, in preventing mistranslation. In translation of animal personification, where the metaphoric meanings of animals in the source language (SL) are different from or contradictory to those in the target language (TL), the translators usually choose a different animal in the target text (TT) whose characteristics match the ones attributed to it in the source text (ST). The task becomes more complicated in translation of Animal Farm (Orwell, 1945) (the present study), where the image of some animals is different even between the SL and the ST. Accordingly, different translation strategies were proposed depending on the relationship between the SL, the ST, and the TL. We studied personification in three languages of Persian as a high-context culture, Portuguese as a low context-culture, and English as a lower-context culture language in comparison with the Portuguese. We tried to examine if the degree of context culture between languages involved in translation influences the degree of differences in personification of the animals in theses languages. The proposed translation strategies were based on the premise that a translator in normal circumstances would go through these translational phases. However, this study (translation of Animal Farm) revealed that theory cannot bring about a satisfactory answer to all the translation problems. Because theories are descriptive and each text is singularly different from the other and nothing can be deemed wholly predictable in terms of translation.
BELLS90 proceedings, 2020
There has been little research in emotiveness in academic discourse (see e.g. Bednarek 2008, Łyda 2013) and even less attention paid to the problem of 'emotive shifts' in the process of translation. While the former results from the widespread belief in the neutrality and objectivity of science, the latter seems to be derived from the tacit assumption that translators generally tend to preserve the sense of the source language text and that their presence in the translation is marginal and negligible. The present paper addresses both of these issues. It takes as its starting point a cross-linguistic study on emotive markers in Polish and English research articles (Łyda 2013; Łyda 2014), which demonstrates differing patterns in the distribution of these markers in the two languages. Next, it moves to an analysis of emotive markers in a parallel corpus of popular science texts compiled from English popular science journal Scientific American and Polish Wiedza i życie. The third study concentrates on shifts in the process of translating English emotive markers in Scientific American articles in its Polish edition only to show a tendency of neutralising strong emotion markers in the target text.
Dimensionen der Humantranslation / Dimensions of Human Translation, ed. by Larisa Cercel, Marco Agnetta, Tinka Reichmann, Zetabooks, 2022
Die Beiträge in diesem Band stellen Ergebnisse von interdisziplinären Arbeiten des Forschungszentrums Hermeneutik und Kreativität (https://hermeneutik-und-kreativitaet.de/) dar. Das 2012 von Prof. Dr. Alberto Gil an der Universität des Saarlandes gegründete Zentrum verlegte seinen Sitz 2019 an das Institut für Angewandte Linguistik und Translatologie (IALT) der Universität Leipzig. In dieser Publikation finden sich Aufsätze von Forschenden, die sich seit der Gründung des Zentrums einbringen, wie von dem "Gründungsvater" Alberto Gil, aber auch von neuen Interessierten an dem Austausch an der Schnittstelle von Kommunikation, Humantranslation, Hermeneutik, Performanz und Kreativität. Auch in Zeiten des Anstiegs der maschinellen Übersetzung bleiben humane Verstehensprozesse, Kommunikationsdimensionen und Kreativität wichtige Dimensionen der Translation. Die humanbedingten Voraussetzungen der Translation liegen bereits seit geraumer Zeit im Blickfeld der Forschung.
The Translator, Volume 17, Number 2, 2011
This study is based on an analysis of 1354 translated metaphor examples drawn from a corpus consisting of the official published translations into French, Italian, German, Russian and Polish of 62 Scientific American articles that appeared between January 2003 and July 2004. It investigates what happens to metaphor in scientific discourse when translated into another language, on both micro- and macro-levels. Since one of the main advantages of a data-rich multilingual study of this kind is that it can potentially produce results that allow us to draw conclusions about this aspect of scientific translation at a high level of generalization, particular attention is paid to tendencies that appear to be common to translators regardless of the target language. The study distinguishes between macro-level mappings and micro-level metaphorical expressions and examines individual mappings and clusters of mappings in the English source text and their renderings into all five languages. It adopts a bottom-up approach, in that all mappings and other high-level structures are posited on the basis of the metaphorical expressions identified rather than trying to fit the metaphorical expressions into a pre-determined framework of categories.
Translation of Personification and Suspension of Disbelief
This study calls the translators´ attention to animal personification in texts where in some cases the image of the animal is not only different from or contradictory to those in the target language but also different from or contradictory to those in the source text. The proposed translation strategies in this study are based on the specificity of the situations. The translator must reflect on three factors: a) the features of the animal in the source text, b) the image of that animal in the source language, and also c) its image in the target language. However, in this study, we conclude that the burden is put on the readers, rather than on the author or translators. They make use of the reader´s willing suspension of disbelief which helps them in encountering breakdown in established conventions and norms, to "suspend" their disbelief about odd or eccentric entities and concepts.
A Comparative and Conceptual Study on the Translations of Animal Metaphors
Social Sciences Studies Journal, 2021
From a traditional view, metaphors refer to one object in terms of another implying a resemblance between two objects. Challenging the traditional perspective Lakoff and Johnson (1980) have developed a conceptual approach to metaphors in their seminal study Metaphors We Live By. The debates on the translatability of metaphors have been at the centre of research for the last 50 years. In particular, the conceptualisation of emotions becomes a challenge for translators in the process of transferring the implied meaning in the source culture. This problematic translation issue has paved the way for scholars and translators to suggest different strategies in transferring metaphors to the target language. In this regard, the present study aims to comparatively analyze the translations of the animal metaphors and similes expressing emotions in the two target texts of The Virgin and The Gipsy (1930), a novella by D. H. Lawrence. In order to do so, the metaphors and similes conceptualising emotion in terms of animals were identified in the source text and analyzed from Goatly's (1997) perspectives. Then, the Turkish translations of the data were classified according to Newmark's (1988) procedures. As a result of the multi-facet analysis, the present study has revealed what animals are utilized to express what kind of emotions in the source text. It has also been observed that the translation procedures adopted by two translators in translating animal metaphors differ considerably in most instances. In Target Text 1, the translator omits 45 % (n = 9) of the data by adopting the procedure of deletion. However, in Target Text 2, 55 % (n = 11) of them are rendered by reproducing the same image in Turkish.
Problematic of Languages in the Translation of Animal Science Terms
e-Journal of Linguistics, 2019
Animal science terms have their specialty in scientific works because the different results of translation from the source language (SL) and target language (TL) can give effect to the meaning. A translator should understand the terms in both languages to be able to consider the problems and finding equivalence of terms for the result of the product. Problematic of languages may occur not only in SL but can be on both sides, SL and TL when the translator is not the native speaker of the language. This study aims at finding problems of language translation for animal science terms and finding the equivalence of terms using English as SL and Indonesian as TL. Qualitative method used in analyzing the data with a description of the meaning of terms in their translation within the direct interview information. Majorly, problems found in TL but also SL and TL which affected the meaning of animal science terms. Different lexical choices of terms findings in the translation gave the effect ...
2016
This study calls the translators ´ attention to animal personification in texts where in some cases the image of the animal is not only different from or contradictory to those in the target language but also different from or contradictory to those in the source text. The proposed translation strategies in this study are based on the specificity of the situations. The translator must reflect on three factors: a) the features of the animal in the source text, b) the image of that animal in the source language, and also c) its image in the target language. However, in this study, we conclude that the burden is put on the readers, rather than on the author or translators. They make use of the reader´s willing suspension of disbelief which helps them in encountering breakdown in established conventions and norms, to “suspend ” their disbelief about odd or eccentric entities and concepts.
A HARD-SCIENCE LINGUISTICS VIEW OF TRANSLATION
LACUS Forum, 2017
THE PRESENT STUDY deals with the specific aspects of translation of texts between two languages and two cultures, the source and target cultures. The task of translation is a complex one, and it includes discussion not only of possible dictionary translation equivalents but also the workings behind the so called task of decoding and re-encoding from one language to another. This involves the discussion of expectations triggered in the source text reader and the task of the translator to match the expectations triggered in the target text reader. This can be done by anticipating the expectations of the target audience, which is based on previous experience of translators with the particular text genres. These complex subtasks are presented within the HL (Human Linguistics) model of the task of translation. IN A TRADITIONAL VIEW, the role of a translator is to decode the language of a text and then re-encode it into another language. Although this view is still widely held in practice in the field of translation, it is well-known to be deficient, as it leaves out important aspects of social and psychological effect. This paper will discuss some of the key issues and then through an example under study will present an overview of a Hard-Science Linguistics (HSL) approach to translation. 1. SOME CURRENT RESEARCH BACKGROUND. There is a reasearch project underway (Burazer, in progress) dealing with the sociolinguistic aspects of translation and the way in which and the extent to which they influence the quality of translation. The interim results of the investigation into translation of a piece of legal document from English into Slovene have shown roughly that if we compare the quality of translation of a legal text of a translation studies student (TS student) to that of a law student, TS students will show a higher level of proficiency in micro level language skills such as the use of grammar and vocabulary, while law students will show more skill on the macro linguistic level such as the overall use of register (appropriate to legal texts) and overall meaning of the text. One such example 1 shows that legal students were much less reluctant to use repetition of a certain expression within the same sentence than TS students. TS students were more concerned with the overall text form than with translating the actual meaning. Therefore, being concerned with the actual text effect on the target reader, they used reference words instead of repetition: instead of repeating [MANAGER] several times, 1 The example is taken from a short text, a confidentiality clause in an employment contract. The text was used in the experiment to which we refer throughout the paper (Burazer, doctoral dissertation, in progress).