Translation Studies and AVT

Transcription

1 Translation Studies and AVT Department of Oriental Studies WEEK 1 - LECTURE 1 Dr. Margherita Dore margherita.dore@uniroma1.it

2 Who is the Course for? ü ISO Second Year Students (hindi, persiano, arabo e coreano) Attendance is NOT compulsory but highly recommended 01/03/18 Pagina 2

3 When, where and how long for? Second Semester (starting in February 2018) Wednesday (Marco Polo) Thursdays (Marco Polo) 36 hours in total (9 weeks) Please note: NO lectures on March /03/18 Pagina 3

4 Course objectives: Course Introduction ü Introducing the key theories and concepts in Translation Studies ü Presenting and discussing the fundamental movements in the field, including a brief history of how TS developed to become a research field in its own right. ü Discussing TS according to its inter- and multidisciplinary relevance üdiscussing theories in Audiovisual Translation and their practical application (revoicing, respeaking, etc.), with particular reference to Video Games Translation/Localization

5 Course Outline GENERAL Main Issues in Translation Studies Translation Theories before the Twentieth Century Equivalence and Equivalent Effect Studying Translation Product and Process Functional Theories of Translation Discourse and Register Analysis Approaches System Theories Cultural and Ideological Turn The Role of the Translator: Visibility, Ethics and Sociology Philosophical Approaches to Translation Researching in TS Audiovisual Translation Dubbing, Subtitling, Voice-Over and Audio Description Video Games Translation

6 Important: This is your Textbook Munday, Jeremy (2016) Introducing Translation Studies. Theories and Applications, 4 th edition, Routledge, London/New York Bibliography

7 In addition: Bibliography Chaume, F. (2013) The Turn of Audiovisual Translation. New Audiences and New Technologies, Translation Spaces 2, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Chapter 3 of O'Hagan and Mangiron (2013) Game Localisation Translating for the global digital entertainment industry, John Benjamins

8 Exam The exam is in ENGLISH, ORAL and will normally be based on: 3 questions on theories developed in the field of Translation Studies. Students will explain the topic and support their discussion by means of examples taken from the literature or relating to their experiences. During the course (and time allowing), we will carry out some translation tasks that related to the theories at hand. IMPORTANTE: lo studente potrà sostenere l esame orale con la docente SOLO dopo avere superato la prova scritta con la lettrice, la dott.ssa Darcy Di Mona.

9 Translation Old French translation or Latin translatio At first, a merely practical activity used to reinforce language learning Now, Translation is an academic field in its own right Here we talk about written translation, rather than oral translation (a.k.a. interpreting)

10 Translation Can be... ü Very enjoyable ü Provide self-confidence ü Build-up commitment ü Give a sense of achievement ü Open up the mind ü Enter the passage from reading to writing ü Enhance communicative abilities

11 What is Translation? Which of the five points below do you most agree with? 1.Translation is more about people than about words 2.Translation is more about the jobs people do and the way they see their world than it is about registers and sign systems 3.Translation is more about the creative imagination than it is about rule-governed text analysis 4.The translator is more like an actor or a musician (a performer) than like a tape recorder 5.The translator, even of highly technical texts, is more like a poet or a novelist than like a machine translation system (Douglas Robinson Becoming a Translator 197: 35)

12 The Process Source text (ST) In Source Language (SL) Target Text (TT) in Target Language (TL) E.g. An English text (ST) is translated into Italian (TL) and becomes a target text (TT). This is an interlingua translation (see next slide)

13 Roman Jacobson Three categories of translation: a. Intralingual or rewording (in the same language, e.g. subtitles for hard-to-hearing people) b. Interlingual or translation proper (from one language into another, cf. Example above) c. Intersemiotic or transmutation (verbal signs into non-verbal sign systems, e.g. A novel into a musical )

14 Translation Studies In 2008, EU estimated the turnover of the translation and interpreting industry at 5.7 billions Translation has always been part of human communication, used in particular to transmit religious texts Only after the second half of the Twentieth Century, TS became an academic subject, with specialised translating and interpreting programmes

15 History of the discipline Cicero and Horace (first century BCE) and St Jerome (forth century CE), by now the patron saint of all translators From the late 18 th century to the 1960s grammartranslation method replaced by the direct method or communicative approach in the 1960s and 1970s In the 1960s, the USA promoted the translation workshop concept based on Richards s reading workshops and practical criticism approach that began in 1920s; running parallel to this approach was that of comparative literature where literature in compared transnationally and trasculturally.

16 History of the discipline The USA 1930s-1960s/70s contrastive analysis of similarities and differences in languages More systematic, and mostly linguistic-oriented, approach 1950s-1960s: 1. Jean Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet (French/English) 2. Alfred Malblanc (French/German) 3. Georges Mounin (linguistic issues of translation) 4. Eugene Nida (based on Chomsky s generative grammar) 5. James S. Holmes s The name and nature of translation studies is considered to be the founding statement of a new discipline 6. Theo Hermans s Manipulation School 7. Vieira s Brazilian cannibalist school 8. Postcolonial theory 9. Laurence Venuti s cultural-studies-oriented analysis

17 The Holmes/Toury map of translation studies Pure Theoretical (translation theory) 1)General 2)Partial (a) Medium restricted i) By machine: alone/ with human aid ii) By humans: written/ spoken (consecutive or simultaneous ) (b) Area restricted (specific languages) (c) Rank restricted (word/sentence/text) (d) Text-type restricted (genres: literary, business, technical translations) (e) Time restricted (periods) (f) Problem restricted (specific problems e.g. equivalence)

18 The Holmes/Toury map of translation studies Pure Descriptive (DTS) 1)Product-oriented (examines existing translations, single ST-TT pair or ST and many TTs) 2)Function-oriented (a study of context; sociotranslation studies ; cultural-studies-oriented translation) 3)Process-oriented (what happens in the mind of a translator, e.g. Think-Aloud-Protocols)

19 The Holmes/ Toury map of translation studies Applied 1) Translator training a) Teaching evaluation methods b) Testing techniques c) Curriculum design 2) Translation aids a) IT applications (machine, translation, corpora, translation software (CAT tools), on-line databases, internet searches, online forums) b) Dictionaries, grammars c) expert informants 3) Translation criticism a) Evaluation of translations b) Revision of students translations c) Reviews of published translation

20 The Holmes/ Toury map of translation studies (Munday 2016: 20; adapted from Gideon Toury [1995]

21 The van Doorslaer s Map Translation 1) Lingual mode (interlingual, intralingual) 2) Media (printed, audiovisual, electronic) 3) Mode (covert/ overt translation, direct/indirect translation, mother tongue/ other tongue translation, pseudo-translation, retranslation, self-translation, sight translation, etc.) 4) Field (political, journalistic, technical, literary, religious, etc.) Translation Studies 1) Approaches (cultural. Linguistic) 2) Theories (general translation theory, polisystem theory) 3) Research methods (descriptive, empirical) 4) Applied translation studies (criticism, didacticts, institutional environment)

22 The van Doorslaer s Taxonomy Strategies - the overall orientation of the TT: a) Free translation b) Idiomatic translation c) Functional translation d) Literal translation (sentence by sentence, word for word, interlinear) e) Source-oriented approach f) Target-oriented approach g) Foreignizing h) Exoticizing i) Neutralization j) Localization k) Domestication

23 The van Doorslaer s Taxonomy Procedures the specific techniques used at a given point in the TT: Acculturation Amplification Calque Compensation Condensation Direct transfer Expansion Implicitation Interpretation Modification Recategorization Addition Adaptation Borrowing Coinage Concision Denominalization Dilution Imitation Interchange Modulation Paraphrase Reformulation Omission

24 Interdisciplinarity A true interdiscipline is... not easily understood, funded or managed in a world divided along disciplinary lines, despite the standard pieties Rather it is an entity that exists in the interstices of the existing fields, dealing with some, many or all of them. (McCarthy 1999 in Munday 2012) Translation can have a primary (not ancillary) relationship with Linguistics, modern languages and language studies, comparative literature, cultural studies and philosophy.

25 Exercise 1 Can you decide what approach I used for this paper?

26 Food for Thought How does research-based translation studies fit into the Italian university system? What is the status on TS in Italy? Look at some of the online journals in TS (JosTrans, Meta etc.), choose and article and try and locate it within the Holmes/Toury map. Is it easy to do so? If not, why? Try and do the same with van Doorslear s schema.

27 Bibliography What we studied so far: Munday, Jeremy (2016) Introducing Translation Studies. Theories and Applications, 4 th edition, Routledge, London/New York - CHAPTER 1

28 Translation Studies and AVT Department of Oriental Studies WEEK 1 - LECTURE 2 Dr. Margherita Dore margherita.dore@uniroma1.it

29 Useful Website Jeremy Munday s 4 th edition textbook has a devoted website: And one section is entirely dedicated to Students

30 Overview Literal or free? Word-for-word or sense-for-sense? Chinese translation of Buddhist sutras Translation practice in Baghdad The Protestant Reformation in Europe Early attempts at more systematic theory Schleiermacher and the foreign

31 Marcus Tullius Cicero (46 BCE) Translation of Greek Attic orators. In his work De optimo genere oratorum (46 BCE) he outlines his approach to translation as avoiding the then normal practice of wordfor-word translation, which replaced each individual word of the ST with its closest grammatical equivalent in the TL. In his words: And I did not translate them as an interpreter, but as an orator, keeping the same ideas and forms, or as one might say, the figures of thought, but in language which conforms to our usage. And in so doing, I did not hold it necessary to render word for word, but I preserved the general style and force of the language (Cicero 46 BCE/1997 CE: 364)

32 Literal or Free? Literal translation (or direct translation s Vinay and Darbelnet): a type of translation that adheres closely to the surface structures of the ST message, both in terms of semantics and syntax. Versus Free translation (or oblique translation s Vinay and Darbelnet): a type of translation that attempts to translate the meaning of the word within its context and within target language requirements.

33 St Jerome (395 CE) Theologian and historian who in 395 completed his translation of the Bible commissioned by Pope Damasus. This would later become known as the Latin Vulgate. To do this, he used the Greek Septuagint and its Hebrew version Now I not only admit but freely announce that in translating from the Greek except of course in the case of the Holy Scriptures, where even syntax contains a mystery I render not word-for-word, but sense-forsense (St Jerome 395 CE/1997: 25)

34 Chinese Translation of Buddhist Sutras Wide-ranging project translating oral texts into written form The translation of Buddhist Sutras from Sanskrit into Chinese - First phase: initially, a zhìyì (word-for-word) strategy that adhered closely to the SL, often using transliteration

35 Chinese Translation of Buddhist Sutras Second phase: the approach was later modified and the Yìyì (sense-for-sense) approach was preferred Dào ān s (4 th century) third preface to the translation of the Prajñāpāramitā identifies Five losses Three difficulties Kumārajīva (4 th 5 th century CE) Xuán Zàng (7 th century CE) advocated a translation that replicated the style of the original text.

36 Translation practice in Baghdad Abbāsid period ( CE) A period of intense translation activity centred in Baghdad. Translation of Greek scientific and philosophical works into Arabic First method was literal with borrowings Later methods were more sense-for-sense But social, political and ideological factors involved Groups of translators

37 The Protestant Reformation in Europe Humanist advances in the study of ancient Hebrew and Greek (15 th 16 th centuries CE) Use of translation of the Bible to challenge the Roman Catholic Church and promote the vernacular languages Martin Luther In Germany, he translated first the New Testament (1522) and later the Old Testament (1534) into East Central German, which went a long way to reinforcing that form of the German language as standard. William Tyndale in England, - English scholar and translator, he was said to have mastered ten languages, including Hebrew. His English Bible, produced in exile, was later used as the basis for the Geneva Bible (1560) and King James Version (1611). Étienne Dolet in France, translated Plato s dialogues but he was charged with blasphemy as he was said not to believe in immortality.

38 Fidelity, Spirit and Truth Fidelity, or faithfulness, Horace (65 8 BCE) dismissed it as literal word for word translation. However, in the 17 th century it was identified as faithfulness to the meaning rather than the words. Spirit: (1) the Latin word spiritus denotes creative energy or inspiration; (2) the creative energy of a text or language Truth (veritas) in the the sense of content of the text.

39 Early Attempts at More Systematic Theory Étienne Dolet ( ), French scholar and translator. In his 1540 manuscript La manière de bien traduire d une langue en aultre he set Five principles of the process of translation in order of importance: (1) The translator must perfectly understand the ST (2) The translator should have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL (3) The translator should avoid word-for-word rendering (4) The translator should avoid Latinate and unusual forms (5) The translator should avoid clumsiness

40 Early Attempts at More Systematic Theory John Dryden ( ) - English poet and translator. In the preface to his translation of Ovid s Epistles he reduces all translation to three categories: (1) metaphrase, or word by word and line by line translation, which corresponds to literal translation; (2) paraphrase: [where the author s] words are not so strictly followed as his sense and which this more or less corresponds to faithful or sense-for-sense translation; (3) imitation, a free adaptation, forsaking both words and sense (today s adaptation)

41 Early Attempts at More Systematic Theory Alexander Tytler ( ) - Scottish historian and professor. He defines a good translation as being oriented towards the target language reader and set out three general laws : (1) it should fully represent the ideas of the original (2) it should render the style of the original (3) it should have the ease of the original composition.

42 Early Attempts at More Systematic Theory Yán Fù ( ) - Chinese thinker and translator who proposes three translation principles: (1) xìn (fidelity / faithfulness / trueness) (2) dá (fluency / expressiveness / intelligibility / comprehensibility) (3) yă (elegance / gracefulness)

43 Schleiermacher and the foreign Friedrich Schleiermacher ( ). German theologian and philosopher. In his seminal lecture Über die verschiedenen Methoden des Übersetzens [ On the different methods of translating ] (1813) he expounded a Romantic approach to interpretation based not on absolute truth but on the individual s inner feeling and understanding. He distinguished two types of translator: The Dolmetscher commercial texts The Übersetzer scholarly and artistic texts Schleiermacher considers there to be only two paths open for the true translation: Either the translator leaves the writer in peace as much as possible and moves the reader toward him, or he leaves the reader in peace as much as possible and moves the writer toward him (Schleiermacher 1813/2004: 49)

44 Schleiermacher and the Foreign The two methods of translation are: alienating or foreignizing : the value of the foreign is emphasised by bending TL wordusage to try to ensure faithfulness to the ST naturalizing : the foreign text is brought in line with the typical patterns of the TL.

45 Exercise 1 Accuracy is the modern equivalent of faithfulness and truth. Translators are human beings and they need the help of proofreaders. What do you think of this:

46 Food for Thought Modern translation theory tends to criticize the simplicity of the literal vs free debate. Why, then, do you think that the vocabulary of that earlier period often continues to be used in reviews of translation, in comments by teachers and examiners, and in writings by literary translators themselves? What view of language and communication do Cicero and St Jerome seem to hold? Do translators prefaces frequently appear in translations in Italy? If they do, what function do they serve, and what kind of language do they use to describe the translation?

47 Bibliography What we studied so far: Munday, Jeremy (2016) Introducing Translation Studies. Theories and Applications, 4 th edition, Routledge, London/New York - CHAPTER 1, CHAPTER 2