Gideon Toury Research Articles

Ideological Manipulation in Aljazeera Live News Interpretation: A Normative Study

Translation and Interpretation has long been scrutinised from the linguistic, social, and cultural perspectives, with a recent emphasis on the impact of social, cultural, and ideological factors on translation. Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), pioneered by Gideon Toury, prioritise understanding translations within social and cultural contexts rather than prescribing norms. Political news translation and interpretation, particularly in conflict contexts, underscores the sensitive and controversial nature of translation decisions as they are influenced by political and ideological stances. This study investigates the dominant norms shaping the interpretating of international news on Al-Jazeera’s Live Channel. Through qualitative content analysis guided by Toury’s framework, the prevailing interpreting norms were identified. Analyses revealed the dominance of target-oriented norms in Al-Jazeera’s interpreters, reflecting adherence to the target culture's social, cultural, and ideological norms. The study contributes to our understanding of interpreting as a socially-embedded practice and its implications for political discourse and ideological representation.

La traduction, un processus évolutif vu en rétroaction par la théorie de construction de niche

Translation, an Evolving Process seen in Retroaction by Niche Construction Theory This article delves into the translation process as a complex, self-organised system, viewed through the lens of niche construction theory. It highlights three key aspects: the modification of translation’s environmental conditions, the selection pressures acting on translation as it shapes its environment, and the evolutionary responses observed within the translation process. Firstly, it underlines how translation modifies its own environmental conditions through feedback loops between translators and their practices. Drawing on the insights of Gideon Toury and Kobus Marais, this perspective portrays translation as a dynamic and retroactive system. For example, the semantic evolution of the term “translate” itself reflects the dynamic interaction between translators and their environments. This model illustrates how translation continually shapes and redefines its context, resulting in a continuously evolving discipline. Additionally, the article explores the selection pressures that impact translation, akin to natural selection, where translation serves as a cultural and linguistic vector undergoing processes of variation, adaptation, and heredity. It examines how translation adapts to changing environments while preserving knowledge. Moreover, the article examines evolutionary responses observable in the translation process, such as computer-assisted translation, machine translation, and translation memories. These examples underscore translation’s capacity for self-observation, self-organisation, and self-creation (autopoiesis), reflecting its inherent complexity and adaptability. In conclusion, the article draws parallels between the translation process and biological niche construction, particularly focusing on the feedback law. It proposes a conceptual framework for understanding the factors contributing to the translation environment, emphasizing the complexity and multiplicity inherent in translation processes. This niche construction theory provides insights into the dynamic nature of translation and its reciprocal relationship with its environment. As technology, particularly AI, advances, the translation niche may evolve into a cognitive niche, enhancing our ability to observe and control the translation process. Thus, this study advocates for an interdisciplinary approach that bridges sociological and biological perspectives, paving the way for future research in the evolving landscape of translation studies..

The Rhetoric of Indirect Translation: Out from the Shadows

This article seeks to contribute to the growing literature on indirect translation by exploring the phenomenon in the context of twentieth and twenty-first-century Russian-English translation flows. In addition to reflecting transnational networks and the cultural (and linguistic) asymmetries embedded therein, indirect translation became a defining other of "modern" translation practice, specifically, what Gideon Toury describes as the norm of directness. The first part of the paper investigates the cultural politics of relay translation in reference to two case studies: the one involving the first English translation of Dmitrii Merezhkovskii's Voskresshie bogi [Resurrected Gods], published in the early twentieth century, with Russian as the source language, and the other concerns the first English translation of Georgian dissident Levan Berzenishvili's Gulag memoir Sacred Darkness, with Russian as the intermediary language, published in the early twenty-first century. Both case studies raise the question of the relationship between relay translation and textual integrity while underscoring the persistence of the phenomenon. The second part of the paper explores the rhetoric of indirect translation in Soviet culture, as represented in theoretical works, intelligentsia discourse and works of trans-fiction, that is, fictional works featuring translators and translation. While directness claims in the pre-World War II period were used to define Soviet translation practice as superior to pre-Soviet practice, those claims were deployed in the post-War period to critique the Soviet literary bureaucracy and to expose the hypocrisy behind the official policy of "Friendship of Peoples."

Legal Equivalence in International Agreements Case Study: Morocco-European Union Agreement Association

This study is comparative, qualitative and exploratory in nature. It aims at exploring the types of equivalence and translation procedures used in legal translations. The representative data consists of three authentic versions of the Morocco-European Union Association Agreement. This study has started by providing a brief overview of the translation theories and schools of thought as well as the issue of equivalence in translation, important translation techniques and procedures often employed in the translation of law are presented, discussing each translation procedure and its applicability to legal translation, and then a succinct description of the Morocco-EU FTA Association. This is followed by a comparative analysis of the English, French and Arabic translations in relation to the translation procedures used by translators. Because this study is mainly descriptive, Gideon Toury‘s comparative analysis translation approach will be used. It consists of the identification of the source text, and then the mapping of target text’s segments on their counterparts in order to determine the relationships that link a target text to its source.

Challengıng the Other Translatıon: Frederıck Burnaby's on Horseback through Asia Minor's Adventure ın Turkish

This article sets out to scrutinize two different Turkish translations of the English writer Frederick Burnaby’s travel writing On Horseback through Asia Minor (1878/1996). On Horseback through Asia Minor’s adventure in Turkish is an interesting case because the first translation was published in 1998 by Sabah Kitapları but just one year after this publication, another translation appeared on the Turkish book market, which was published by İletişim Yayınları. However, what is more interesting than these translations, which were published almost simultaneously, is the discourses of the publisher regarding the first translation on the cover of the presentation of the second translation. The publisher claims that the text is a “meticulous”, “uncensored” and “complete” translation, which points out that the previous translation included “censored” and “incomplete” parts. Therefore, this study questions the publisher’s claims by conducting a paratextual and textual analysis of the source text and target texts and also seeks to understand whether the causality created by the publisher led to the second translation or a retranslation. In its theoretical framework, it uses the concept “paratext” put forward by the French scholar Gérard Genette and “operational norms” introduced by the translation scholar Gideon Toury. The findings suggest that the second target text, rather than a “retranslation”, is a simultaneous translation that emerged incidentally almost in the same period, addressed the same target readers, and tried to bring out its difference from the other translation. It is also seen that the claims of the publisher in the second target text on the grounds of “censorship” and “incompleteness” are valid and this causes a rivalry between translations in the translated book market by not only strongly challenging the other translation but also forming market negativity towards it.

How Do Translators Handle Literary Deviations in Poetry? A Case Study: Arabic Translation of The Waste Land

The present study sought to analyze linguistic deviations in poetry from a translational perspective, a case study: Arabic translation of The Waste Land by Nabil Ragheb, a popular Egyptian critic, writer and intellectual. The analysis of the translation of linguistic deviations reveals to what extent the translator tries to strike a balance between the aesthetic dimensions of language sought through deviations and the universal normalization process that translations go through. Gideon Toury (1995, 265) states that “normalization could be generalized based on inferences drawn from observations of large quantities of data”. The translator usually looks for alternative deviations in the target language (TL) in order to create a similar literary effect in the receiving audience, whereas, in others, they strive to replace them with the normal typical structures and meanings. The study is based on a mixed methodological approach to data analysis, i.e. quantitative and qualitative methods. The study concludes that T.S. Eliot makes use of seven out of eight linguistic deviations: lexical deviation, grammatical deviation, phonological deviation, graphological deviation, semantic deviation, deviation of register and deviation of historical period. As to the translation of such linguistic deviations, the translator opts most of the time for the normalization strategy to conform to the (TL) system and culture.

How a translation impacts its translator

Abstract The present article is a function-oriented case study within the framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, as developed by Gideon Toury, which posits translations as facts in the target culture where they interact with other works and influence them. The present article argues that a translation can have an impact on its translator whose relationship with the target culture is ambivalent. The British missionary Timothy Richard and his Chinese translation of Looking Backward is the case under investigation. Richard played multiple roles in late Qing China. He was a reformer as well as a missionary. His translation of Looking Backward influenced his own reform ideas, which in turn influenced the reformists in late Qing China.

Übersetzungsstrategien und -prozesse in Hänsel und Gretel-Übersetzungen

Abstract The story of Hansel and Gretel, published by the German Brothers Grimm, has been translated from German to Turkish many times by many translators. In this context, our study aimed to examine the translation approaches, processes and strategies of translation works produced by different translators and in different years. The sentences forming the source text were selected at random and their equivalents were searched for in three different translation texts. Our research evaluated general translation strategies and included the similarities/differences found in the source and target translation works. As a result, it can be seen that translation strategies such as addition, rearrangement, enlargement and reduction are applied. Our study was examined according to Gideon Toury‘s goal-directed translation theory and tried to determine within the framework of adequacy and acceptability using examples.

Interlingual Subtitling of Ethno/Cultural Representation in Selected Episodes of Yahya and Kunooz Animated TV Series (2022)

The present study examines Audiovisual Translation (AVT) strategies in selected episodes of Yahya and Kunooz animated TV Series (2022). AVT is quite a unique sub-discipline of Translation Studies (TS) due to its polysemiotic nature in which it functions on verbal, acoustic and visual levels. Within this rationale, the study conducts an interrogation of the verbal auditory or acoustic channel, the non-verbal auditory channel, the verbal visual channel, e.g. written signs on the screen and the non-verbal visual channel. As such, the aim of the study is to scrutinize the constraints and challenges that the AVT translators face during the subtitling process within the paradigm of translation strategies. The present study is carried out within the boundaries of the target-oriented approach developed by Gideon Toury and the foreignization/domestication approaches developed by Lawrence Venuti to interrogate culture-bound characteristics. Foreignization as a translation strategy seems principally appropriate for a historical and cultural text to recreate the source text in target language in such a way that the reader or the audience would feel the cultural effect of the source text. The contribution of the research is hopefully twofold. One, it is the first-ever study of Yahay and Kunooz Series in the academia; the other, this study incites further studies in the future to develop a comprehensive and sound-based theoretical frame for AVT.

Translating Postmodern Picturebooks: The Incredible Book Eating Boy in Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese

Metafiction emphasises a text’s fictionality by drawing the reader’s attention to how texts create meaning through numerous textual devices. This paper examines translations of the postmodern picturebook The Incredible Book Eating Boy (2006) by Oliver Jeffers. It compares the original English text to its Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese translations across verbal translation, visual and verbal-visual interactions, specifically focusing on metafictive devices. Using Gideon Toury’s model for descriptive translation analysis indicates that socio-cultural contexts influence preliminary norms and are closely related to operational norms applied by both translators and publishing houses.

Von Lipowanern, Merja und Mari: Denis Osokins Poetisierung ethnokultureller Diversität

Summary In the current Russian literary scene the writer Denis Osokin (*1977) takes on the role of a poet of ethno-cultural diversity. In his texts, Osokin evokes other languages and cultures. In doing so, he makes use of various textual operations of mystification, which, besides a primitivist author’s mask, include pseudotranslation. The aim of this article is to explore this literary technique central to Osokin and its implications for a general understanding of (Russian) culture and ethno-cultural diversity. Thereby the text-centred model of pseudotranslation introduced by the Israeli literary scholar Gideon Toury will be extended and pseudotranslation will be conceptualized, as proposed by Brigitte Rath, as “a mode of reading” (Rath 2014) – a literary technique through which an original is imagined that is not accessible as the original itself, but only through this imagination. In Osokin’s work, this original can take on the form of a text, a language, or an entire culture. By imagining an original and/or origin that is marked as fictional, Osokin undermines identity discourses and destabilizes seemingly stable categories and assumptions, such as centre and periphery or majority and minority cultures. The aesthetic-poetic and the critical-deconstructionist potential of Osokin’s prose will be exemplified by the short prose text Eugen Lwowskis Geschlechtsbeziehung mit einem Spiegel, which presents itself as a pseudotranslation from German, and the short story Ovsjanki, which is a miniature pseudo-epic reviving the Finno-Ugric people of the Merja, who were assimilated centuries ago by the Slavic-Russian population.

Dede Korkut Hikâyeleri ve İngilizce Çevirisi Üzerine Cinsiyet Söylem Analizi

The Book of Dede Korkut is a Turkish epic significant in Turkish history, literature, and culture. It comprises a prologue and twelve epic stories that tell the lifestyles, customs, and traditions of Oghuz Turks. Up to the present, The Book of Dede Korkut has been translated into English three times, firstly by Sumer, Uysal, and Walker (1972), secondly by Lewis (1974), and lastly by Mirable (1990). It is a work rich in gender roles such as heroism, bravery, manhood, womanhood, fertility, and maternal instincts. For this reason, the present study utilizes Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model to highlight the deviations in translating the selected extracts involving gender discourse. The corpus consists of Dede Korkut Hikâyeleri by Orhan Şaik Gökyay (1938) and its English translation by Geoffrey Lewis in 1974. Additionally, the research findings have been evaluated within the scope of Gideon Toury’s (1995) translation norms. As a result, it has been observed that the translator tries to balance the two cultures, but in some cases, subjects himself to the norms that are active in the target culture. In this regard, the findings reveal that the translator is closer to the acceptability pole, besides proving that the target text cannot be merely adequate/acceptable.

Translation and diaspora

Abstract This article revisits Gideon Toury’s (1995, 2012) definition of translation as a fact of the target culture by highlighting the transfer of cultural images through literary translation in the periodicals of a US diaspora in the interwar period between the US Immigration Act of 1924 and the beginning of World War II in 1939. I argue that literary translations in diaspora periodicals fulfilled different roles and were used for strengthening not only intercultural but also intracultural links. The analysis of 4897 interwar issues of two periodical publications of the Slovene Americans shows that these periodicals continuously published literary translations: not only from different languages into Slovene, but also from Slovene into English. By means of the latter, Slovene immigrant diaspora attempted to construct their own representation of Slovene culture, and communicate this image to other immigrant communities, mainstream US culture, and the new generations who no longer spoke Slovene. The immigrant community thus became the promoter, creator, and receiver of these translations and simultaneously represented the source and target cultures, blurring clearly circumscribed borders of a distinct cultural unity.

Translation as a method of learning and teaching English

This paper argues that translation can be an effective method of learning and teaching English. It explores various translation theories and methods to show how the act of translation may enhance the learning and teaching of English Walter Benjamin's essay "The Task of the Translator" is analyzed in reference to how translation recreates the values that accrue to a foreign text over time. Vladimir Nabokov's essay "Problems of Translation Onegin in English" is analyzed for its emphasis on the value of literal translation Eugene Nida's essay "Principles of Correspondence" is analyzed for the different types of equivalence it proposes. Itamar Even-Zohar and Gideon Toury's ideas of translation are analyzed and their argument that literary translations are facts of the target system is investigated George Steiner's essay "The Hermeneutic Motion" is analyzed for its view that translation is an interpretation of the foreign text that is profoundly sympathetic, exploitive, and ethically restorative. I analyze Steiner's argument that language is not instrumental in communicating meaning but is constitutive in reconstructing meaning Hans J Vermeer's essay "Skopos and Commission in Translational ction" is analyzed for its idea of the translators skopos or aim as a decisive factor in translation Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's essay "The Politics of Translation" is analyzed for its advocacy of literalism in postcolonial translation issues By exploring and understanding the various relevant translation theories and methods, I will show how the learning and teaching of English may be done through translation.

A DESCRIPTIVE AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TWO TURKISH TRANSLATIONS OF JANE AUSTEN’S "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE"

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.

Translating the unspeakable: activist translation of sexuality into Chinese via social media

ABSTRACT Previous studies on the translation of sexuality into Chinese have been primarily limited to literary texts and scientific works. In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the fansubbing of queer audiovisual material into Chinese. Against the backdrop of a global digital expansion of feminist and LGBTQ+ activists, this paper examines the translation of sexuality via social media. It focuses on the translations of JoinFeminism and Zhihe Society, two grassroots groups committed to addressing gender and sexuality issues in China. This paper uses Gideon Toury’s translation norms to analyse how the two groups collectively highlight sexuality as a means of resisting the repression of sexuality in the mainstream media. Moreover, it investigates the implications of the groups’ gender-sensitive translation and discusses their creation of an alternative sexual discourse. Drawing on insights from various areas of study such as fansubbing, feminist/queer translation and citizen media, this paper argues that the two groups’ translations, as a form of self-mediation, contribute to a specific type of feminist/queer activism in China: one that is less obsessed with political rights, but uses translation and social media to disseminate knowledge related to sexual diversity and therefore to create an online counter-discourse on sexuality.

The explanatory power of descriptive translation studies in the machine translation era

ABSTRACT Machine translation (MT) accounts for the largest, and increasingly growing, proportion of translated text produced today, yet the most influential theoretical frameworks developed in translation studies had preceded the contemporary MT era by decades. The question arises as to whether these theories are well-equipped to capture the makeup of today's corpus-based MT. The current article examines and compares the explanatory power of different theoretical frameworks with regard to MT processes and phenomena. The article discusses the incongruences between corpus-based MT algorithms and major paradigms of (human) translation such as natural equivalence, Skopos theory, and poststructuralist approaches. The article then argues that Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), in its classic formulation introduced and advanced by Gideon Toury, is the theoretical approach that best corresponds to, and is the most useful framework for conceptualizing, the features of corpus-based MT – and, consequently, of an overwhelming proportion of the translation produced today for multilingual communication and understanding.

Two translation approaches to sound orchestration in Wisława Szymborska’s poem “Hermitage”

AbstractThis paper explores two different translation strategies to the issue of sound (operetta) stylisation in the poem “Hermitage” [Pustelnia] by WisławaSzymborska (1981), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The methodology borrows from Gideon Toury’sDescriptive Translation Studies(1995,2012), Itamar Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory (1978,1990). A comparative study of two different translations of the poem conducted by two teams of prominent translators is carried out. This method of exploration intends to reveal the underlying translation mode, the first one towards the text’s accuracy and the second one towards the text’s adequacy.It is argued that the translators’ domesticating procedures, preeminent in the second translation, succeed in recreating the invariant source sound stylisation and the poem’s discursiveness, though at the expense of the semantics of the original. Relying on polysystem theory, the author concludes with the correspondence between the target texts’ divergent positions in the polysystem and their translation modes, each adopted in a different historical and cultural context.

Analysis of Jemal Karchkhadze’s novel “ანტონიო და დავითი” (Antonio ve David) in terms of translation strategies and operations

Çağdaş Gürcü edebiyatının önemli isimlerinden biri olan Cemal Karçhadze özellikle tarihsel romanlarıyla tanınmaktadır. Yazarın 1987 yılında yayımlanan “ანტონიო და დავითი” (Antonio ve Davit) adlı romanı, yazarın iki başyapıtından biridir. Roman, asıl olarak 1600’lerde Gürcistan’da geçer. Bir grup Avrupalı misyonerle birlikte ülkeyi ziyaret eden bir İtalyan gezgin tarafından anlatılmaktadır. “ანტონიო და დავითი” (Antonio ve Davit) dinsel ve tarihsel söylemin arka planında bir tür ruhsal mücadeleyi anlatan gerilimli bir romandır. Çevirmen Parna-Beka Çiladze tarafından 2020 yılında Gürcüce aslından Türkçeye aktarılmıştır. Roman, Türkçe dışında Rusça, Çekçe, Arapça ve İsveççeye de çevrilmiştir. Buradan hareketle romanın, farklı dillerde çevirilerinin olması çok yönlü bir araştırma ortamına olanak sağlamaktadır. Bu kontekste, çalışmamız Gideon Toury’nin Erek Odaklı Çeviri Yaklaşımı ışığında “ანტონიო და დავითი” (Antonio ve Davit) adlı eseri kuram ve strateji açısından ele almayı istihdaf etmektir. Bu sınırlar içerisinde, çalışmamızda Cemal Karçhadze’nin “ანტონიო და დავითი” (Antonio ve Davit) adlı romanı “kabul edilebilirlik” ve yeterlilik” normları bakımından ele alınmış ve kullanılan stratejiler ve çeviri işlemleri üzerinde çalışılmıştır. Toury’nin “yeterlilik” kavramından bahsettiği kaynak metne sadık kalınması, “kabul edilebilirlik” kavramından bahsettiği ise hedef metne yani erek dilin ilk ve kurallarına uygunluğudur. Araştırmanın bulgular kısmında, “ანტონიო და დავითი” (Antonio ve Davit) adlı eserin çözümlemesi yapılmıştır. Çalışma sonucunda çeviri metninde çıkarma, ekleme, değiştirme ve ödünç alma stratejilerinin kullanıldığı tespit edilmiştir.

Kafka’nın Ein Landarzt Adlı Öyküsünün Ara Dilden Çeviri Bağlamında Karşılaştırmalı Analizi

Ara dilden çeviri daha önce çevirisi yapılmış bir metnin yeniden başka bir hedef dile çeviri için kaynak metin görevi görmesidir; kısaca çevirinin çevirisidir. Ara dilden çeviri hem birbirine uzak diller ve kültürler arasında yazınsal iletişimi sağlamada hem de dünya klasiklerinin kabul görmesinde önemli bir yere sahiptir. Ayrıca kaynak metne ulaşılamaması ya da kaynak metnin zarar görmesi durumunda bu çeviri türünden faydalanılmaktadır. Ne var ki çeviride oluşabilecek kayıplar açısından ara dilden çeviri doğrudan çeviriye kıyasla iki kat risk taşıdığı için olumsuz bir çağrışımı da söz konusudur. Bu çalışmada Kafka’nın Ein Landarzt adlı öyküsü ara dilden çeviri bağlamında uygulamalı örnek düzleminde karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmiştir. İlgili öykünün Mehmet Harmancı tarafından aracı bir dil kullanılarak gerçekleştirildiği belirlenen Türkçe çevirisi, Willa ve Edwin Muir çifti tarafından yapılan İngilizce çevirisi ve Kamuran Şipal tarafından yapılan doğrudan çeviri betimsel çeviri araştırmaları ışığında analiz edilmiştir. İncelemede çeviri hatalarını bulmaktan ziyade ara dilden çevirinin etkisine odaklanılmıştır. Bu noktada çevirilerdeki farklı yorumlamaların ve söyleyişlerin ele alınan kaynak metinden mi yoksa çevirmen kararlarından mı kaynaklandığı sorgulanmıştır. Eser analizlerinde özellikle Gideon Toury tarafından geliştirilen “Betimleyici Çeviri Araştırmaları” yönteminden ve çeviri normlarından faydalanılmıştır. Bununla birlikte çoğulcu bir yaklaşım izlenmeye çalışılarak Eugene Albert Nida’nın “eşdeğer etki” kavramına dair görüşleri de göz önünde bulundurulmuştur.