Development Of Translation Studies Research Articles

Rabbinic Traditions in Jerome's Translation of the Book of Numbers

Although the possibility of rabbinic traditions informing Jerome's translation of the Bible "according to the Hebrews," the so-called Vulgate, has long been acknowledged, identification of these traditions remains a desideratum. Such identification involves challenging but manageable source-critical issues. We now know more about Jerome's more general methods from the works of Adam Kamesar, Hillel Newman, and Michael Graves. They indicate that Jerome's grammatically informed recentiores-rabbinic philology provides a basis for incorporating unreferenced oral rabbinic traditions in his translation. In this article, I examine several texts from the book of Numbers that reflect Jerome's practices, including his utilization of these Jewish traditions. In addition, I outline a method for securely determining rabbinic influences. Finally, the close textual analysis contributes to recent developments in translation studies and Hieronymian studies. Attention to the process of the translator offers a perspective that differs from a simple comparison between the source text and target text. Such a "thick" description of Vulgate Numbers shows how translation can create a bridge, not a wall, between Jews and Christians.

Introduction: Literary Texts and their Translations as an Object of Research

This special issue of the International Journal of Literary Linguistics offers seven state-of-the-art contributions on the current linguistic study of literary translation. Although the articles are based on similar data – literary source texts and their translations – they focus on diverse aspects of literary translation, study a range of linguistic phenomena and utilize different methodologies. In other words, it is an important goal of this special issue to illuminate the current diversity of possible approaches in the linguistic study of translated literary texts within the discipline of translation studies. At the same time, new theoretical and empirical insights are opened to the study of the linguistic phenomena chosen by the authors of the articles and their representation or use in literary texts and translations. The analyzed features range from neologisms to the category of passive and from spoken language features to the representation of speech and multilingualism in writing. Therefore, the articles in this issue are not only relevant for the study of literary translation or translation theory in general, but also for the disciplines of linguistics and literary studies – or most importantly, for the cross-disciplinary co-operation between these three fields of study.The common theme that all these articles share is how the translation process shapes, transfers and changes the linguistic properties of literary texts as compared to their sources texts, other translations or non-translated literary texts in the same language and how this question can be approached in research. All articles provide new information about the forces that direct and affect translators’ textual choices and the previously formulated hypotheses about the functioning of such forces. The articles illustrate how translators may perform differently from authors and how translators’ and authors’ norms may diverge at different times and in different cultures. The question of how translation affects the linguistic properties of literary translations is approached from the viewpoint of previously proposed claims or hypotheses about translation. In the following, we will introduce these viewpoints for readers who are not familiar with the recent developments in translation studies. At the same time, we will shortly present the articles in this issue.

From Translation Studies and audiovisual translation to media accessibility

Abstract Recent developments in Translation Studies and translation practice have not only led to a profusion of approaches, but also to the development of new text forms and translation modes. Media Accessibility, particularly audio description (AD) and subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH), is an example of such a ‘new’ mode. SDH has been evolving quickly in recent decades and new developments such as interlingual SDH and live subtitling with speech recognition bring it closer to established forms of translation and interpreting. On the one hand, interlingual SDH reintroduces Jakobson’s (1959) ‘translation proper’ while the use of speech recognition has led to the creation of a hybrid form that has affinities with both subtitling and interpreting. Audio description, for its part, cannot even be fitted into Jakobson’s ‘intersemiotic translation’ model since it involves translation from images into words. Research into AD is especially interesting since it rallies methods from adjacent disciplines, much in the same way that Holmes ([1972] 1988) described TS when it was a fledgling discipline. In 2008, Braun set out a research agenda for AD and the wealth of topics and research approaches dealt with in her article illustrate the immense complexity of this field and the work still to be done. Although AD and SDH research have developed at different paces and are concerned with different topics, converging trends do appear. Particularly the role of technology and the concept of multimodality seem to be key issues. This article aims to give an overview of current research trends in both these areas. It illustrates the possibilities of technology-driven research – particularly popular in SDH and live-subtitling research – while at the same time underlining the value of individual, human-driven approaches, which are still the main ‘modus operandi’ in the younger discipline of AD where much basic research is still required.

Discourse Analysis and Its Possible Contribution to Bible Translation

Abstract This article examines the possible contribution of discourse analysis to the field of Bible translation. Drawing upon some developments in translation studies regarding discourse, this article proposes that attention to discourse considerations can help Bible translation move beyond the usual opposition of formal and dynamic equivalence.

Publication trends and co-citation mapping of translation studies between 2000 and 2015

Literature regarding translation studies has increased rapidly in recent decades, yet there have been few empirical studies to investigate the research context of translation studies at the global level. A bibliometric analysis was carried out in this research to probe the current status and the research themes of translation studies papers published between 2000 and 2015 in all journals indexed by the Web of Science database. Bibliometric methods and knowledge visualization technologies were employed to thoroughly investigate publication activities, geographic distributions, core literature, and the distinctive research areas of translation research. The study distinguishes three research areas in translation studies, namely, theoretical translation studies, translation and interpreting training, and descriptive translation studies. The dissemination of knowledge in these areas is realized by publication sources specializing in language and linguistics, applied linguistics and pragmatics, phonetics and acoustics, and translation and interpreting. The core literature in translation studies has been focused to focus on linguistic theories, research methodology, theoretical models, interpreting, and new perspectives. This study provides researchers with several useful insights to better understand developments in translation studies.

The case of the missing Russian translation theories

Translation Studies is performed through an international network of relations between largely isolated scholars, many of whom cooperate in order to create knowledge. The sparse nature of the relations, however, coupled with the difficulties of relatively opaque languages and hard-to-assemble materials, means that the cooperative production of knowledge is often fraught with difficulties: the network only vaguely discerns its international extension (rarely reducible to the West vs. the Rest) and has a very sketchy awareness of its own origins. Russian translation theories published between 1950 and 1953 constitute an acute case in point. Although highly innovative precursors of later theories of text types, purposes, and indeed of Translation Studies as a unified field, the formalist theories of Retsker, Sobolev and Fedorov were associated with the final years of Stalinism and were thus strangely cut off from the development of Translation Studies in most other languages. We recount our attempts to locate, construe and make known the translation theories trapped in a very particular time capsule.

Narration and translation

This opening essay of the special issue on ‘Narration and Translation’ discusses the overlaps between the fields of narratology and translation studies. The fact that translation scholars have merely skimmed the surface of narratological issues relevant for the study of translation can be understood within the context of early developments in translation studies. The first explicit use of narratological models in this discipline has grown out of unease with the extant focus on the macrostructural level of translations. In recent decades, translation scholars have begun to include narrative approaches in their research. Some conceptualize the translator’s discursive presence by referring to a model of narrative communication, or borrow concepts from narratology in order to analyse observed shifts in literary translations. Outside the domain of literary translation studies, scholars have looked into the way translation can refashion narratives in the real world. Conversely, narrative theories have rarely dealt with translational issues, even though they often rely on translations of literary texts. The issue as a whole wants to enhance the dialogue between narratology and translation studies. Each essay explores aspects of the relation between narration and translation.

Translation in cross-language international business research: Beyond equivalence

In this paper, we problematise the way translation has been treated in international business (IB) research. We start by conducting an interpretive content analysis of both qualitative and quantitative cross-language studies published in four core IB journals over the course of a decade. Our analysis shows the dominance of a technicist view of translation associated with the equivalence paradigm. In contrast, we advocate a shift to a more contextualised approach informed by theoretical developments in translation studies. More specifically, we focus on two theoretical perspectives – skopos theory and cultural politics – which offer related but distinct approaches to rethinking equivalence. We conclude by advocating that the translation process be reframed as a process of intercultural interaction, rather than a lexical transfer of meaning. This reconceptualisation would, we argue, open up what is currently a “black box” in most IB studies. The contextualised approach that we offer has the potential not just to enrich the findings of studies, but also provide insights that are of multidisciplinary relevance.

César Vallejo in English: Stanley Burnshaw, Paul Muldoon, and Lawrence Venuti's Ethics of Translation

The article reassesses Stanley Burnshaw's anthology of modern poetry, The Poem Itself (1960) in the light of more recent developments in Translation Studies. Burnshaw aimed to provide an alternative to the method of poetic recreation with a combination of source text, literal translation, and commentary. A comparison of the translation of Vallejo's ‘Piedra negra sobre una piedra blanca’ from Burnshaw's anthology with a poetic version by Paul Muldoon explores the effectiveness of Lawrence Venuti's critical vocabulary. Venuti's adoption of the target focus and cultural turn of Translation Studies creates obstacles for an understanding of Burnshaw's attempt to deliver an experience of the foreign text. Yet Venuti approves of The Poem Itself. The pedagogy outlined in his Scandals of Translation (1998) suggests a possible rehabilitation of Burnshaw's anthology as a vehicle for challenging interpretative norms.

Interlingual re-instantiation – a new systemic functional perspective on translation

AbstractFrom a systemic functional perspective, translation has been dealt with mostly by means of the hierarchy of realization and has been modeled against parameters of difference between language systems – equivalence and shift. Such a concern with equivalence between language systems reflects the primary focus of research on the supporting language theory itself. As recent developments in systemic functional linguistics have shifted focus from system to uses and users, proposing three complementary hierarchies – realization, instantiation, and individuation – a more comprehensive perspective on translation has been enabled, which includes the systems, uses, and users involved. In tune with recent developments in translation studies, it views translation as a negotiation of meanings (including the notion of “equivalence”) between users via a specific use – the translated text. This article introduces this new model, its foundations, proposed concepts, and suggested methodology, as well as a glimpse of the model at work.

Changes of Translation Definition and Turns of Translation Studies

Since the twentieth century, translation studies has made great progress. The study of translation ushers one turn after another. Throughout the recent history of translation studies, few scholars review the appearance of the turns from the perspective of translation definition. From the academic perspective and on the basis of Thomas Samuel Kuhn’s paradigm theory, this article discusses the relationships between the changing definitions of translation and the turns of translation studies. It chooses the definitions of translation proposed by the most famous theorists to analyze. And, the mainly two turns and the new trend of contemporary translation studies are attributed into three paradigms (linguistic paradigm, cultural paradigm, and social and psychological paradigm) to discuss. By a careful research, the article comes to a conclusion that the changes of definitions and the turns of translation studies affect and contact each other closely. The definition of translation determines the scope of translation studies. A new definition that is widely accepted always generates a new turn and the new turn tends to breed a next new definition, and so on and so forth, hence the development of translation studies. Key words: Definition of translation; Translation studies; Paradigm; Paradigm shift; Turn

Translation Practices and the Issue of Directionality in China

Directionality is one of the most interesting recent developments in translation studies in the West. The scene, however, is rather different in China with a long history of inverse translation. This article aims to outline translation practices in China and Chinese thinking on directionality while providing a few pointers for further research. Part one surveys major translation projects that were carried out or are being carried out and how Chinese translation scholars thought/think about directionality. The survey covers nineteen centuries from the 2nd century A.D. through the present time, albeit most of the data are devoted to the periods from the turn of the 20th century. It is found that although inverse translation is an age-old practice in China, the issue of directionality began to be seriously considered and debated only in the early 1980s, and that there has been increased attention to the topic in recent years. Part two briefly reviews the current status of research and concludes that directionality is an under-researched area in Chinese translation studies. The article ends with some suggestions for further research on the subject in the Chinese context, drawing on the latest research conducted in the West.

The Bible in Afrikaans: A direct translation – A new type of church Bible

Translating the Bible so that target audiences can easily understand the meaning of the text has dominated the theory and practice of Bible translation since the 1960s. Source oriented translations that are typically associated with word-for-word translations received little theoretical reflection. However, developments in Translation Studies have made it clear that the latter type of translations do not provide the type of equivalence more conservative churches really call for. The story of the Bible in Afrikaans relates to how the Bible Society of South Africa (BSSA) has taken seriously the needs of churches in South Africa for a source- oriented translation and teamed up with scholars to develop an academically justifiable model for a new type of church Bible. The functionalist model of Christiane Nord (1997) was used as point of departure and complimented by that of Ernst-August Gutt (2000). Pointing out the accomplishments and challenges of this pioneering project, this article paves the way for a scholarly discourse on source-oriented translations of the Bible.

The representation of agents of translation in (South) Africa

This article discusses agency in translation as conceptualized in recent developments in Translation Studies. As a subtext, it poses the representation of its own data as a methodological problem. The article discusses Donald Strachan as a possible agent of translation, probing the implications of his interpreting and translation work in a border setting in South Africa in the late 1800s. It then juxtaposes this perspective with the translation theory of Edwin Gentzler, who claims that translators are creating cultures by way of their work. From this encounter, the author suggests a number of implications for researching translation in Africa. The paper ends by reflecting on its own subtext.

From submissiveness to agency: An overview of developments in translation studies and some implications for language practice in Africa

Since the 1980s, discourses about translation have broadened steadily. Beginning with a discussion of the name and content of the discipline, an overview of some translation approaches focusing on the source text, the process of translation, the reception of the translated text, and the culturally and socially bound character of translation are offered. Within translation studies, the pendulum has swung from normative and prescriptive approaches to a descriptive approach. Translation theorists attempt to account not only for textual strategies used to solve translation problems in the translated text, but also for the way in which the translator functions as an agent of cultural mediation in the target cultural system. The move is towards the ways in which translation transcends Eurocentric views and contemporary dominant Western translation practices. This article thus describes some implications of recent developments in translation studies for language practice in Africa.

The afterlives of C.P. Cavafy's unfinished poems

This article draws on recent developments in translation studies and textual scholarship to consider how the translator, like the editor, grapples with the instability of literary works, which almost always exist in multiple versions and varying textual conditions. It treats the process of translation as a series of overlapping interpretive acts, including not only lexical translation but the selection or construction of the original itself, and the creation of an edition in translation. It takes as its case study a group of poems whose instability begins with the “originals”: the unfinished poems of C.P. Cavafy. The unsettled nature of Cavafy's unfinished poems raises questions regarding how such works can be presented both in foreign-language translations and in the language of their original composition. The article discusses two English translations, by John Davis and Daniel Mendelsohn, as well as Renata Lavagnini's 1994 Greek-language scholarly edition.

“Soos ’n hamer wat ’n rots vermorsel”: die afrikaanse bybel van 1933 as vertaling

“like a hamer crushing a rock”: the afrikaans bible of 1933 as a work of translation The first complete Bible translation in Afrikaans was published in 1933. This article describes and analyses this translation. Given the new developments in translation studies, one should not evaluate a translation normatively, but rather describe it. Any new translation constructs a domesticated representation of a foreign text and culture, which simultaneously keeps intelligibility and ideology in mind. The representation refers to the linguistically inscribed preferences regarding the selection and construction of discourses in the Bible translation. The 1933 translation is analysed and explained in terms of the formation of particular cultural, political and religious identities. Some of the fixed perceptions of the 1933 translation are revisited by dealing with issues like the context of the translation, its source text, the translation team, the translation process and the sociocultural impact of the translation.

Introduction: Translatorial Joyce

The field of Joyce translation studies has emerged as a discipline of its own and is a new area through which to study Joyce. A few recent compilations on the subject continue the work of Fritz Senn’s seminal book, Dislocutions: Reading as Translation, and include the 2007 edition of Joyce Studies in Italy , entitled Joyce and/in Translation , and the 2010 issue of Scientia Traductionis with its multifaceted sections that range from translations of Joycean criticism into Portuguese to essays by Joycean translation scholars and a cross-section of five Portuguese versions of selections from Ulysses . This issue of the JJQ joins the ranks by presenting the newest developments in translation studies that pertain to Joyce and determine the reception of his works outside the English language. Since writing-as-translation is very much at the heart of Joyce’s artistic endeavor, one that positioned the writer at the crossroads of European literary and linguistic traditions, the context of translation opens up the discipline of Joyce and Irish studies to include questions of ethics and the politics of language. Essays in this issue join the existing scholarship on Joyce and translation as well as the wider discipline of translation studies. General readers of Joyce, as they reflect on the vast array of dictionaries, lexicons, annotations, and encyclopedias that aid their “translation”-riddled activities, will also catch a glimpse of the workshop of the “outsiders”: readers-as-translators and readers-translators.

Interpreter training and research in mainland China

Against a background of favorable socio-economic conditions and the development of Translation Studies into an autonomous discipline, translation and interpreting programs are mushrooming in mainland China. This article reports on the development of interpreter training and research here in recent years through an overview of different types of training programs, curriculum designs, training models or paradigms, new textbooks and interpreter accreditation tests. Some salient examples of interpreting research in mainland China are also critically reviewed.

A study of translatological dictionaries from the perspective of text linguistics

This study examines translatological dictionaries from the perspective of text linguistics with a discussion of the close relationship between translatological dictionary studies and text linguistics. This is done to promote translatological dictionary studies and further the development of translation studies. The study demonstrates the textual and extra-textual constraints on the research and compilation of translatological dictionaries by discussing how seven criteria of textuality can be integrated into translatological dictionary studies. The study discusses the following three topics: (1) an understanding of the translatological dictionary and its research methodologies; (2) theoretical basis and significance of the translatological dictionary as text; and (3) the integration of the seven criteria of textuality into translatological dictionary studies.