Introduction: The Gender and Queer Politics of Translation: New Approaches

Translation issues have long been in the field of view of translators and philologists-researchers. The focus was on the definition of the translation process in view of its psychological and lexical-semantic features and its perception as a certain creative action. The translation process is always functionally and thematically defined and controlled. Its main purpose is to provide the necessary information and establish communication between people of different languages and cultures. Considering translation as an interlingual communication process, we address the question of what language operations should be performed to ensure the integration of source and target texts and at the same time eliminate their interlinguistic structural differences at the conceptual and stylistic levels. The dominant of any translation is its goal (skopos), because differences in the definition of translation goals cause, in turn, differences in interlingual translation strategies. The translator's understanding of the text presupposes his knowledge of the history of society, institutions, social conditions, religious beliefs, culturally and situationally determined patterns of speech activity and behavior of the "source culture", as well as knowledge of the syntax and semantics of the "source text" and their structures. Each translation creates a dynamic connection and is an intercultural transfer of the text insofar as it takes into account the culturally specific comparison of language, situation and object in question. From the standpoint of hermeneutics and from the point of view of translation, the difference of cultures means the difference between "source culture" and thus – the culture of "source language" and "target culture" and thus - the culture of "target language". The analysis focuses on the translation of the most famous poems of German classics. In J. Goethe, along with the ballad "Erlkönig" ("The Forest King"), it is his popular excerpts from the tragedy "Faust". The translation was made by famous writers B. Hrinchenko and M. Rylsky. F. Schiller's poetry is represented by his ballads "Pirnach" ("DerTaucher") and "Glove" ("DerHandschuh"). The latter was translated by the famous poet and translator M. Orest. Heine's works were translated into Ukrainian by such well-known writers as I. Franko, L. Pervomaisky and others.

Functionalism in translation studies

A fundamental issue with reference to the translation process concerns the type of relation between the original and the translated text. Peirce indicates three possibilities: icon, index and symbol. For many scholars it is a given that the relation of similarity between the original text and the translated text predominates and that the iconic relation ordinarily describes the character of translation. However, evidence is provided in this paper to show from a theoretical viewpoint (i.e. from that of translation studies) and a practical viewpoint (with examples provided) that a relationship between source text and target text which is characterised as iconic can only be weakly iconic because a target text can never fully resemble its source text in every respect linguistically and culturally. Furthermore in certain cases an indexical or symbolic relationship rather than an iconic one may even predominate. Since the 1980s, discourses about translation have broadened steadily. An outflow of these developments is a greater understanding of the superordinate categories of translation and the fact that the relation between source and target text is no longer only one of resemblance (i.e. iconicity). An example of iconicity from the Koran and its translation is provided as evidence for a predominant, but weak iconic relationship between source text and target text. Examples from the Sesotho Bible translation and Das neue Testament illustrate that the predominant relationship can also be indexical or symbolic (rather than iconic), respectively.

While volumes of works have been published on adaptation as a concept, little has been done on the issue of adaptation in literature and translation. Adaptation can, therefore, be defined generally as an action or a process of changing something or of being changed to suit a new situation. It is the act of changing something or changing an act to make it suitable for a new purpose or situation. The idea of adaptation is not limited to both literature and translation only but it can be extended to films and their contemporary features. In literature, adaptation serves as a technique of narration and it is applicable in all genres of literature. The concept is equally applicable in translation studies; it serves as a technique of translation which may be applied to isolated parts of the text in order to deal with specific differences between the language and culture of the source text and that of the target text. Adaptation ameliorates cultural narrative, by considering the cultural links between the source language and the target language in translation studies. This is going to show us that adaptation elucidates more on the cultures and how these can be adapted into a real sense of newness of ideas in another cultural cycle. It is further explicated that the concept can be employed as an interdisciplinary one which can be applied in anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies, history, sciences and in all fields of arts. Diverse examples of adaptation are explored in series of African literature, western literature and translation studies. The major objective of this is to examine how adaptation can be described as a twin concept in literature and translation. This study also attempts to explicate the areas of convergence and divergence in the concept and application of adaptation in literature and translation studies. In this study, we adopt descriptive, narrative and expository methods where we describe, narrate and reveal the necessary issues on adaptation as a technique in both literature and translation. In this study, we adopt Skopos theory, which is formulated by the German translator, Hans Vermeer in 1970’s. The theory suggests that the mission and the purpose of translation are of paramount importance. The process of translation is determined by the function of the product. This function is specified by the addressee. This theory is one of the functionalist approaches whose aim is to dethrone the source text (ST). The word “Skopos” was from Greek, meaning purpose or aim. It is used as a technical term for the purpose of translation. The Skopos theory principally suggests that translations should focus on the target culture and language illustrating the source text, their effects on the reader, and the original author’s purpose as decisive factors, rather than the effects and purposes of the source language. The study concludes that Adaptation makes the old literary work popular and marketable because it is a trend to the original work. Literary adaptation that is done rightly has more advantages than disadvantages. One of the common reasons a book or story is adapted is because the characters in that story are already well-known and this help the adapted one. Adaptation will remain relevant in all fields of arts as long as the concept of masterpiece is adapted into the current trends in literary and translation studies. The concept will continue to be significant all over the world because it exposes literary ideas to different audience. Adaptation is as old as the world and it cannot cease because of its pertinence in a changing world.

Urban tourist icons such as Paris, Istanbul or Sydney are major pull factors of a destination and are often represented in tourist promotional texts (TPTs) to persuade potential tourists to visit a destination. The use of the 'iconic advertising approach'( Litvin & Mouri, 2009 ), which capitalises on the iconicity of tourist icons, is one of the most effective advertising approaches in affecting a destination image. The strength of this approach lies in its key function of representing easily recognisable and positive images that reinforce or simply recall the audience's previously held perceptions about the destination. However, the ways in which urban tourist icons are represented and perceived differ from one audience to another, for it is based on the cultural background of the audience. The differences in how these icons are represented and perceived pose a key challenge for translators of TPTs, whose role is to produce an effective translation in the target language and culture in order to persuade potential tourists in that language and culture. This paper discusses some of the cultural issues involved in translating tourist icons and analyses how a particular 'tourist icon' is represented in a published English TPT (source text) for an Anglo audience and how it has been translated into the Malay language for a Malay audience. The translation (target text) is analysed in terms of its functionality and effectiveness within the cultural context of the target audience. The discourse analysis of the source and target texts is complemented by findings derived from focus group discussions and an analysis of authentic TPTs in Malay (parallel texts). Based on the analysis, a functionally adequate translation which takes into consideration the cultural differences, hence preserving the iconicity of the destination, is proposed. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/GEMA-2014-1403-10

Radikan kavramı son dönemlerde özellikle de çağdaş sanatlar ve sosyoloji alanlarında sıkça kullanılan bir kavramdır. “Kök salma” olarak tanımlanan radikan aynı zamanda içerisinde değişim, gelişim ve ilerlemeyi de barındırmaktadır. Radikanda kökler ilk ortaya çıkışta değil sonradan oluşmaktadır çünkü radikan olan şey, farklı durumlar arasında hatta farklı dil, düşünce ve kültürler arasında bir geçiş yaparak ilerleyen, gelişen ve kök salandır. Radikanın doğasında hep bir ilerleme, gelişme ve bu yolla kök salma vardır. Radikan durumu aynı şekilde doğasında yer değiştirme, ilerleme, geçiş yapma ve gelişme olan dillerarası çeviride de kendini göstermektedir. Doğasında radikan olma durumu olan dillerarası çeviri sürecinden hareketle, çeviribilim açısından bakacak olursak çeviri kuramının da radikan olma özelliği gösterebileceğini söyleyebiliriz. Çeviribilim alanının en önemli kuramlarından biri olan Çoğuldizge Kuramı yazınsal metin çevirisi üzerine yoğunlaşan bir kuramdır. Kaynak bir dilde, belirli bir kültür için yazılmış olan orijinal metnin erek bir dil aracılığı ile erek kültüre aktarılması onun erek kültürdeki konumunu da belirlemektedir çünkü çeviri metin, erek kültürde merkez konuma gelip daha popüler bir durumda olabilir ve erek kültür yazınına katkıda bulunabilir. Hatta erek kültür yazınını etkisi altına alarak şekillendirebilir. Böylece erek kültürde yeni yazınsal türlerin ortaya çıkmasını veya onların daha popüler bir hale gelmesini sağlayabilir. Diğer bir deyişle, kaynak metin erek metne dönüşerek başka bir dil ve kültürde kök salıp gelişimine devam etmektedir. Kuramsal düzeydeki bu çalışmanın amacı, Çoğuldizge Kuramı’na radikan kavramı açısından farklı bir şekilde yaklaşarak kuramın radikan bir çeviri kuramı olduğunu göstermektir.

Translation norms have an important place in descriptive translation theory and these norms concern not only the translated texts but also the society and culture to which the texts belong. Norms are related to the behaviour and choices of translators in the translation process and therefore determine translation decisions. The decisions taken in translation process as lexical choices and preferred translation strategies determine which of the translators will be closer to the source or target languages and cultures. Thus, it becomes clear which of the poles of adequacy or acceptability is closer to translated text. The concepts of 'adequacy and acceptability' have recently been associated with the concepts of ‘overt translation' and 'covert translation'. In overt translation, the translator’s choices are in accordance with the values of the source text and its culture and therefore the translation text is conveyed without changing the foreign-the cultural elements- given in the source text. In this context it can be claimed that the reader can obtain information about the source text culture. On the other hand, in covert translation, the cultural elements given in the source text are domesticated and presented to the reader with expressions familiar to the reader. In this context, the translator’s choices prioritize the reader and the values of target culture.
 This study aims to provide a descriptive analysis of the two translation versions of Jane Austen’s "Pride and Prejudice", in the light of Gideon Toury’s descriptive approach to the translation studies. Through making a comparative analysis between the source text and the two translation versions (target texts) via selecting sentences randomly from the source text and comparing them with the target texts in terms of lexical choice, revealing a comparative and objective analysis in terms of their equivalences is the main focus of this study without searching for translation errors in comparison to the source text. In order to present a descriptive analysis, Gideon Toury’s norms will be used as a guide and on a macro level, Toury’s equivalence theory; “adequacy or acceptability” and the terms overt and covert translation will be used for the comparison of the target texts in terms of word level.

This paper aims to explore the strategies applied during the translation of chosen passages from the original Sesotho text of Chaka by Thomas Mofolo into English. Insights expressed here originate from participation in the translation workshops during the conference on “Translating Mofolo”. Different stages of the translation process are identified and discussed, while the main emphasis is placed on resolving instances of non-equivalence between the source text and the target text. Non-equivalence includes among other things, culture-specific words and expressions in the source language, grammatical considerations in both the source text and the target text, and the relationship between linguistic units in context. Culture specific words and expressions relate to idiomatic expressions and fixed combinations of words in the source and target texts. Grammatical considerations refer to the translation of Sesotho-specific moods and tenses, number, person, etc., into English, while the relationship between linguistic units is discussed with regard to cohesion, reference and other related cohesive devices in context.

Translation ethics have been strictly defined as the practice to keep the meaning of the source text undistorted (Robinson, 2003, 25). Obviously, this notion of translation ethics is too restricted as the translator in specific cases is required to distort parts of meaning of the original text to live up to the audience expectations (Robinson, 2003, 26). Two opposing views of scholars with regard to translation ethics can clearly be identified. The first view is represented by Humboldt, for instance, who insists on the need for keeping the foreign elements found in the original text intact in the target text. Schleiermacher calls the translator to enable the target reader to hear the voice of the original writer, rather than the voices of any other party. Berman's method for preserving translation ethics is to advocate literal translation in order to respect the source text's form and content (Hermans, 2009, 97-98). The second view is held by Nord (1997) in his 'functionalist studies', which raise particular questions, such as what purpose the target text is meant to serve in the target culture and who is responsible for commissioning the translation. The present paper will argue that the translator should strike a balance between following ethical aspects of translation, especially those related to the transfer of form and content of the source text into the target language and producing a target text that can fulfil in the target language the appropriate function for which it has been produced.

The aim of the article is to develop a methodology for translation analysis of specialized texts for application in the training of future translators. To achieve this objective, the author addresses several key tasks: establishes parameters for analyzing both source and target texts; defines the scope of the study; selects a representative English-language source text in the field of patents; analyzes it according to the established parameters; formulates a hypothesis about the translation strategies most likely to be used for this source text; analyzes the Ukrainian translation text to determine the translation methods used; and concludes whether the initial assumption based on the source text analysis is validated. The study employs linguistic analysis for the source text and translatological analysis for the target text. The material used is a 526-word fragment from a U.S. patent, specifically a brief description of an invention, within the specialized (technical) field that forms part of the training content for future translators. Following the study, the author draws conclusions that support the hypothesis made during the pre-translation analysis and provide additional refinements. At the syntactic level, the analysis reveals that the translation typically follows the structure of the source text in sentences with simpler constructs, while complex sentences main, subordinate, or coordinate clauses can maintain their structure, other segments necessitate transformations. The dealing with very long sentences, they often need toтранслатологічний сфери, яка входить до змісту навчання майбутніх перекладачів. За результатами дослідження, сформульовано його висновки, відповідно до яких проведений аналіз тексту перекладу загалом підтвердивm ost common transformation is the replacement of passive voice clauses with active voice. When be divided into shorter, more manageable units, leading to further structural changes. The article concludes that the proposed methodology for translation analysis of specialized source and target texts shows promise for use in training future translators. It can help develop the theoretical component of students' translation competence, as well as provide insights into many significant concepts in translation studies and mastery of translation analysis methodologies. However, the author notes that this assumption requires further verification, suggesting that additional research is needed to confirm the proposed methodology's effectiveness.

This thesis is a re-evaluation of Lin Shu (1852-1924) and his literary translations. Lin Shu is one of China’s most influential translators. He initiated modern literary translation in China, and his translations imported new ideas, literary concepts, styles and techniques from the West. These, in turn, influenced the emergence and development of modern Chinese literature. Nevertheless, Lin Shu and his translations have been belittled and even dismissed for various reasons over the years. The emergence and development of target/culture-oriented translation theories offer the possibility of re-assessing Lin Shu and his translations. The re-assessment of Lin Shu and his translations in this study is based on target/culture-oriented translation theories, which emerged in the 1970s. Target/culture-oriented translation theories focus on the mutual influence between a translation and its target culture, especially on the influence of a translation on the target culture and readers as a criterion for successful translation rather than examining whether the target text is faithful to the source text, as in the traditional linguistic approach. These target/culture-oriented theories can effectively explain the translational phenomenon of Lin Shu, as Lin Shu translated with the needs of the target culture and readers in mind. He attached great importance to the cultural function and influence of his translations during a period of historical transition in China. The criticisms of Lin Shu and his translations in China and elsewhere have largely been negative, often highlighting political issues - his endorsement of the constitutional Qing monarchy and his conservative attitude to the New Culture Movement - as well as his free translation method. Target/culture-oriented translation theories offer a framework for the re-assessment of Lin Shu and his translations that bypasses these narrow approaches. Adopting target/culture-oriented translation theories, this thesis examines Lin Shu’s translations in a trans-cultural context. Lin Shu based his translations on the needs for the Chinese culture and readers of that time, which was clearly embodied in his choice of, and response to, the originals works. The prefaces and postscripts that he wrote for his translations illustrate the new cultural and literary factors that Lin Shu introduced into China. In this respect, Lin Shu’s translation of La Dame aux Camelia is perhaps the most famous case study of his translation method. Through a comparative analysis of the Target Text (TT) and Source Text (ST), the thesis discusses the ‘truthfulness’ of Lin Shu’s translation, and stresses that ‘truthfulness’ lies in seeking poetic equivalence rather than formal equivalence between the target and source texts. We argue that poetic equivalence is similar to Nida’s principle of correspondence, but is beyond his dynamic equivalence. It lays special stress on literary or aesthetic equivalence. Poetic equivalence in Lin Shu’s translations relates to the stylistic expression in China’s literary language and is therefore intrinsic to sinicization. Lin Shu’s skill in classical Chinese is central to our notion of poetic equivalence. However, I argue that Lin Shu’s translation strategy is actually also beyond equivalence. It is primarily embodied in his constant adaptation of the original to the perceived needs of Chinese culture and the acceptability of his translations to Chinese readers. Adaptation includes omission, addition, alteration and abridgment. In terms of target/culture/reader-oriented translation theories, Lin Shu’s adaptations were acceptable in the cultural context of his time. In brief, this study clarifies Lin Shu’s contribution in introducing Western culture and literature into China. The study also stresses the cultural influence of Lin’s translations on modern Chinese culture and on later generation of Chinese writers and translators. This thesis concludes that Lin Shu played a role of utmost importance in the establishment and evolution of early-modern and modern Chinese translation, particularly of modern literary translation in China. Therefore, Lin Shu is the father of modern Chinese literary translation.

This chapter outlines a methodology to complement discussions on the notion of equivalence in translation studies, employing eye-tracking to measure readers’ responses, before and after translation, to stylistic language varieties in a literary case study. This research is unique in that there has not, to date, been any research using eye-tracking approaches to study how people read language varieties such as dialects and, furthermore, eye-tracking has not previously been used in translation studies to measure and compare cognitive responses between the source and target texts. Scholars have commented on the “levelling effect” of translation when a literary dialect is encountered in the source text, a phenomenon that could significantly alter a reader’s experience of individual characters within a novel or a novel as a whole. The research reported in this chapter proposes a method to gauge the degree of equivalence in cognitive effects between source text and target text over marked stylistic varieties, in terms of how readers react at certain points in the text, as manifested through the eye-tracking data, as a means to ascertain the extent to which this levelling effect is present at selected points in the given case study. The experiment employs three study groups: one reading extracts from the original French text, another reading the original English translation, and a third reading a modified translation in which the language varieties have been largely neutralised. The experiment method is explained in full, together with the accompanying statistical methods of analysis, which provide the quantitative basis for judgements regarding the notion of cognitive equivalence in the translation of the case study text. This chapter therefore presents an innovative methodology which can be developed and employed in other similar studies on other forms of marked language in future.

This study presents the Turkish translation of Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders by Nihal Yeğinobalı within the framework of the Interpretative Theory of Translation and Jean Delisle’s translation strategies. This article examines specific instances from the target text to explore the translation strategies used by Yeğinobalı, which exemplify the fundamental principles of interpretive theory. Within the scope of the research, a particular approach involved rephrasing the source text in a manner that aligned with the linguistic patterns and conventions prevalent in the target culture’s spoken discourse. Those mentioned above were taken after comprehending the intended significance of the message, achieved by eliminating the specific words and phrases used in the original text. The translator demonstrated the use of their linguistic and extralinguistic knowledge to uncover both the “explicit” and “implicit” significance rooted within the source text’s message. Next, they proceeded to reconstruct this comprehension within the target language context. The translator’s approach to translation is not limited to searching for linguistic equivalences but rather involves both linguistic and extralinguistic knowledge in the process. Instead of seeking precise correspondences between the source and target texts, this approach seeks contextual and textual counterparts. As a result, Delisle’s translation strategies displayed parallels with the techniques employed in every aspect of literary translation.

This paper describes the categories of shifts in the translation of the English Holy Bible; New International Version (NIV) into Dholuo Bible Muma Maler mar Nyasaye (1976). The aim is to evaluate the relevance of the translator’s style in rendering a religious text into the target language and the overall implication on the translation theory and practice. The data is collected through document analysis and Focus Group Discussions. We analyzed forty rank shifted segments purposively from six books from the source and target text based on the Relevance Theory by Sperber & Wilson (1986). The analysis is limited to rank-shifting at the level of clauses utilized in the source language which is translated into the target language. The data is analyzed using content analysis and descriptive method. The following categories of shifts are identified; structure shifts, unit shifts, class shifts and intra-system shifts. This study offers insight to bible translators to understand that since shifts are unavoidable in translation, they should aim to produce a target text that is as accurate and precise as possible to guard against loss of meaning. To do this, translators must understand the original source text and transfer it faithfully and accurately. Moreover, bible translators must understand the context of both the source text and the target text since context plays a great role in rendering translation.

The novel Jinpingmei is rife with various forms of language play, which produces special stylistic or poetic effects and contributes to characterization. Language play in Jinpingmei gives rise to cognitive effects on the reader and poses a serious challenge to interlingual translation. However, it has hitherto received little attention from translation studies researchers. The issue of how different forms of language play are treated in English translations of Jinpingmei has not been touched upon. This article aims to fill the gap by analyzing and discussing the translation of puns and wordplay in Jinpingmei. It takes a cognitive-pragmatic view and draws upon a relevance-theoretic approach to examine the way in which puns and wordplay is rendered into the target language. Within the relevance-theoretic framework, translation is viewed as an “interpretive use of language” and the relation between source and target texts is based on interpretive resemblance rather than equivalence (Sperber & Wilson, 1986; Gutt, 1991). The analysis undertaken in the article is based on two English translations of Jinpingmei. Following Delabastita’s (1996) taxonomy of puns and transferring strategies, the article examines the translators’ translation strategies and assesses the degree of relevance and interpretive resemblance achieved in the two translations vis-à-vis the source text. Research results demonstrate that most puns and wordplay are lost or misconstrued in translation and that the translators exhibit different patterns in their approaches to translating wordplay in Jinpingmei. Moreover, the degree of interpretive resemblance achieved in the two translations differs significantly. The article concludes that the translators’ choice is influenced by translational skopos, the sociocultural context of translation and reception, and the (un)translatability of wordplay effected by the linguistic and cultural difference between Chinese and English.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0935/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>