Research In Translation Studies Research Articles

Multimodal exploration of the thank God expressive construction and its implications for translation

Abstract Multimodal research in communication and translation studies is increasingly recognized, yet it remains incompletely explored. Leveraging computational linguistics with both Praat for acoustic analysis and the OpenPose and Rapid Annotator tools for visual analysis, this study delves into the intricate dynamics of the expressive construction thank God, providing a comprehensive examination of both visual and acoustic dimensions. Our objective is to uncover nuanced patterns of multimodal communication embedded within this expression and their implications for Translation and Interpreting. Through an analysis of linguistic features and co-speech gestures present in thank God, we aim to deepen our comprehension of how meaning crisscrosses modalities. Our findings underscore the necessity of a multimodal approach in language studies, emphasizing the requisite to preserve emotional and contextual nuances. The analysis unveils the phonological relevance of the duration of the construction’s second vowel, a key factor for translation. Additionally, data reveals a correlation between the emotion of relief and gestures executed with both hands closer to the chest. Overall, these findings contribute to advancing both multimodal communication research and translation studies, shedding light on the role of multimodal analysis in understanding language and translation dynamics, particularly in the context of constructions like thank God.

A Sociological Study into the Impact of Capital on Moss Roberts’ Translation—<i>Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel</i>

The study of translation has undergone a shift from language-level analysis to a cultural turn and, subsequently, a return to a more macroscopic social perspective. As social research in translation primarily targets external factors, it falls under centrifugal research in translation studies. To sustain the vitality of translation studies, there is a need for a balanced approach, combining centrifugal research with centripetal research. Moss Roberts’ translation of <i>San Guo Yan Yi</i> is initiated by China Foreign Language Press and co-published by China and the US presses in 1991. It is considered the most academic complete English version of <i>San Guo Yan Yi</i>. Drawing on the social practice theory of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this study analyzes Moss Roberts’ translation practices of and the influence of capital in the English translation and dissemination field. It attempts a micro-level and reverse study of sociological aspects of translation by examining three key aspects: the influence of cultural capital, the impact of social capital, and the manipulation of power capital. The results showed that Moss Roberts’ translation practices are deeply influenced by his cultural, social and power capital. Among them, his cultural capital enables the translation to be academic; his social capital empowers it to be accurate and faithful; and his power capital manipulates it where religious information arises.

Pragmatic Strategies in Artistic Translation: Balancing Creativity and Cultural Adaptation

This study investigates the communicative-pragmatic aspects of artistic translation, focusing on how translators navigate the complexities of preserving the original text's artistic and aesthetic integrity while adapting it to a different cultural and linguistic context. Despite extensive research in translation studies, a systematic exploration of pragmatic motivations and strategies in artistic translation remains underdeveloped. This research addresses this gap by employing a comprehensive methodological approach that includes descriptive-analytical, semantic-stylistic, and literary analysis of original texts and their translations. The findings highlight the critical role of the translator's creative interpretation in maintaining the balance between fidelity to the original text and the need for cultural adaptation. The results demonstrate that pragmatic strategies significantly influence the translation process, particularly in how verbal-artistic information is transformed to resonate with the target audience. The study also suggests that these strategies are essential for achieving functional equivalence and preserving the artistic value of the original work. The implications of this research are significant for both translation theory and practice, emphasizing the need for enhanced training programs that focus on the development of creative and pragmatic skills in translators. Further research is recommended to explore the emotional and experiential dimensions of translation, as these aspects remain crucial yet underexplored in current literature.

A Paratextual Approach to Disney’s New Mulan in China: Localization and Reception

ABSTRACT This article examines both industry-created and viewer-created paratexts of Disney’s new Mulan (2020) to shed light on the localization of industry-created paratexts for Chinese audiences, the reception of the film, and the tensions between industry-created and viewer-created paratexts in China. It reveals that Disney has localized the poster, trailers and promos of Mulan for Chinese audiences by highlighting the film’s all-star cast and creating an illusion of its faithfulness to The Ballad of Mulan, and the extolled virtues of filial piety and patriotism cherished in Chinese culture. The viewer-created paratext, danmu, of Mulan challenges the industry-created paratexts and demonstrates unfavorable reception of the film in China. It criticizes the film for its inauthenticity to The Ballad of Mulan, cultural appropriation, promotion of American values to meet the needs of English-speaking audiences for exoticness and cultural otherness. By investigating danmu as a viewer-created paratext, the present study has enriched paratextual research and reception studies in translation, media and film studies in the digital age.

Translation of Cultural Conceptualizations in War Literature: A Study of Cultural Schemas and Categories in Translation of Iran–Iraq War Literature

Translation of cultural conceptualizations in the war literature seems to be an overlooked area of research both in Translation Studies and cultural studies dealing with war. In this study, we employed the framework of Cultural Linguistics at the heart of which lies the notion of cultural cognition to analyse translation of cultural schemas and categories in four books selected from the genre of Iran–Iraq war literature. The analysis indicated that typical translation techniques might lead to a change of cultural identity and may not be able to adequately transfer cultural conceptualizations. Therefore, ‘thick translation’ is suggested as a better way of translating them. This study can have implications for the theory and practice of translation and for those studying war from a cultural vantage point.

Generational translation in the Jewish Museum, Berlin

Abstract This paper addresses the challenge museums of catastrophic history face, striving to translate between history and memory in creating a meaningful and sensitive experience for individual visitors, not only evoking the past but also impacting the present and future. This study focuses on the Jewish Museum Berlin and asks how the museum can impact individual visitor journeys and concurrently address the public demand for memory, the contradictions between museum mission and public perception, and the perceived distance of visitors from historical events. The study builds on memory and translation studies research and the concepts of history, story, and identity. An analysis of entangled memory (Feindt et al. 2014), here applied as an inspiration for generational translation, shows how the crossover between memory and translation studies provides insight into the work of memory museums. Previous research and the history, mission, identity, architecture, and conflicts of the Jewish Museum Berlin show that museums – as (unfinished) collective memories – allow the creation of space for individual reflection and the interpretation of past and present to create a narrative. The work of memory museums is complex, but the concepts of generational translation and entangled memory are valuable tools in provoking and enabling meaningful experience and reflection.

Interdisciplinarity in translation studies: a didactic model for research positioning

ABSTRACT The seminal role of the Holmes/Toury map within translation studies has led to its use as a didactic tool although neither scholar envisaged this purpose originally. This paper proposes a complementary didactic model to reveal the interdisciplinary layers of research projects after positioning them on the Holmes/Toury map. A critical overview of how maps have evolved from descriptions of the field to having didactic purposes is given, and criticism of the Holmes/Toury map is reviewed to demonstrate its importance for the first positioning of a work. An investigation of eight sample theses indicates the current interdisciplinary research trends and suggests the need for a more refined didactic tool. The proposed model is introduced as a way to fill an evident gap. Its aim is to help students and researchers position their own and other academic work within translation studies to gain deeper awareness in this regard. By presenting a general model for researchers' use, its concrete application to two cases – a book-long and a shorter publication – and a discussion of its strengths and weaknesses, I argue that it is a useful didactic tool for obtaining a clearer overview of the interdisciplinarity typical for research in translation studies.

A Look at What is Lost: Combining Bibliographic and Corpus Data to Study Clichés of Translation

Abstract This article presents the results of a corpus-assisted study focused on the expression lost in translation in a corpus of English-language online newspapers (NOW), and in two scholarly bibliographic databases (BITRA and SCOPUS). On the surface, the phrase may seem to indicate negative perceptions of translation practice. However, a study of several hundred occurrences of the cliché paints a more complex picture involving a variety of communicative practices and settings. Many occurrences of the phrase address, for instance, broader issues of cultural and interpersonal misunderstanding. In such cases, the perceived failure to establish a meaningful connection can often be ascribed to the absence of attempts at mediation or transmission, thus signalling recognition that the greatest losses occur not because of, but by lack of translation. In addition, the data indicate that lost in translation’s varied usage patterns can be understood in terms of two competing metaphorical frames, namely one of transportation and one of orientation: in translation, one can lose something, but one can just as well get lost. The implications of both metaphorical mappings are further addressed with reference to the issue of visibility, and to discussions about the proper scope of translation studies research.

Localisation Loss in the French Versions of Websites from the Andalusian Agri-Food Sector

Research in translation studies addressing the corporate website text genre has reported some content loss that occurs in localized versions when compared to the original versions. This study focuses on the contrastive analysis of a corpus of homepages and products sections from corporate websites from the Andalusian agri-food sector, studying their original versions (in Spanish) and the versions localised into English and French, according to a localization error taxonomy. The analysis focuses on assessing content loss in French versions, given that France is one of the main export destinations of the Andalusian agri-food industry. It is worth noticing that English versions tend to have less shortcomings than those localised into other languages, which may due to the international status of this language. Results show mainly shortcomings related to content omissions, untranslated text, and English text in versions localised into French, which puts French versions at a disadvantage in relation to English versions.

Audio described comics in the museum

Audio Description is typically used to describe the visual aspects of various cultural products in the creative industries: performed plays, films, sports matches, art gallery and museum items. Such descriptions offer alternative sensory input for blind or partially sighted audiences and have been the staple of research in Audiovisual Translation Studies. There are, however, rather few studies focusing on museum environments and none that examine the niche area of comic art. This article addresses such a gap in two ways. First, it explores comics from an audiovisual translation/accessibility perspective. Second, it reports findings from a pilot study of accessible comic art where the views of selected professionals (curator, comic artists, audio describer) were collected, descriptions for three comics were commissioned and the responses of blind visitors to a comic art museum were gauged. The audio described comics—not without their limitations, as will be shown—are the result of a contingent collaboration of actors in the space of the museum.

‘기계번역’ 관련 국내 번역학 연구동향 분석

This study focuses on the role and importance of machine translation in the digital transformation(DX) environment led by the artificial intelligence(AI) and examines the perspectives of translation researchers, focusing on the use of related terminology. The perspectives on ‘machine translation’(MT) from the research dataset(2014-2023) is categorized into seven types: user and object, detailed function, domain, translation quality, performance method, and purpose of use. The discussions in translation studies related to the perspective and status of MT terminology use can be comprehensively summarized as follows: 1) The status of MT and human translators; 2) Technological changes and innovative technologies in MT; 3) Coexistence of human and MT; 4) Hybridity and diversity in the use of terminology related to MT. The mixed use of different MT-related terminologies prevailing in translation academia reflects the rapid pace of changes in related technologies. Thus, it is necessary to keep options open to diversity rather than unity and consistency of terminology. In conclusion, this study provides a comprehensive overview and recognition of the topography of research, areas of interest, and the degree of focus of discussion on MT-related research in Translation Studies of Korea.

Translation of interjections and subtitling: a study based on the BETA corpus of TV series and film subtitles

Interjections, often considered minor and peripheral linguistic elements, have been disregarded in both linguistic and translation-studies research. The main aim of this study, in this sense, is to analyse the translation of three primary and three secondary interjections in a parallel English-Spanish corpus of subtitles. More specifically, the interjections under study were ah, wow, ugh, God, damn, and shit, and the corpus used was the BETA corpus. Four main translation solutions have been identified: literal translation, translation by an interjection with a different form, translation by a textual fragment which contains no interjection, and omission. The results of the study indicate that the most frequent translation solution in the whole corpus has been omission, followed by the translation by a different interjection. In a more fine-grained analysis, the two variables analysed, namely type of interjection and specific interjection, have been found to condition the choice of translation solution.

RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF TRANSLATION AS A COMPONENT OF THE PROCESS OF FORMING THE RESEARCH COMPETENCE OF FUTURE TRANSLATORS

The article attempts to reveal the problem of research in the field of translation as a component of the process of forming the research competence of future translators. The aim of the article is to study the peculiarities of translation studies and their role in the development of future translators’ research competence. The relevance of the study is substantiated, which is determined by the fact that the profession of translator is currently one of the most prestigious and popular professions in the world; there is the demand for new types of translators – fixer translators and military translators, which is due to the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is noted that the subject of translation studies is the study of the regularities of the translation process and the factors that affect the course of the translation process and determine the result of the translation. The features of the areas of research in the field of translation are considered. It is established that foreign scholars distinguish the following areas of research in translation studies: text analysis and translation; translation quality assessment; genre translation; multimedia translation; translation and technology; history of translation; translation ethics; terminology and glossaries; interpretation; translation process; training of translators; and the profession of translator. It is noted that translators have the opportunity to conduct their research in several fields with different directions and orientations. Some translators choose one of the areas of comparative research, while other translators use different types of questionnaires and interviews to measure the relationship or importance of a specific translation-related issue. Another important area of research in the field of translation is considered – research in the field of training future translators, since conducting high-level translation research requires a translator to have developed research competence. It has been proved that a higher education institution should train a specialist researcher who tries to disseminate and explore new methods of work, who should form new ideas and is able to put them into practice. The future specialist should develop the skills of independent creative scientific work, form a circle of their scientific interests, master the norms and scientific and methodological principles of experimental and research activities. The basis of the research competence of future translators is the ability to identify the problem in time, formulate a hypothesis, select and analyse the necessary information for the study, select the necessary methods of research and data processing, focus not only on the final but also on intermediate results of the study, discuss the possibility of interpreting the results of the study, and use the results of the study in practical activities. These characteristics determine the ability of future translators to conduct scientific research in the field of topical issues of modern humanities, linguistics, literary studies, translation studies and are an important indicator of the high qualification of these specialists. The study organizes and systematizes the available knowledge on the problem of the essence and directions of translation studies, allowing, after appropriate adaptation, applying it in the process of forming the research competence of future translators. The prospects for further research on this issue include the development of pedagogical conditions for the formation of future translators’ research competence, taking into account the peculiarities and directions of translation studies.

The Evolution of Empirical Research in Translation Studies: From Cognitive Insights to AI-Enhanced Horizons

This comprehensive essay traces the evolution and significance of empirical research in translation studies, from its nascent stages in the late 1970s to contemporary advancements. Beginning with foundational work such as that of Baddeley and Hitch in 1974, this paper chronicles key milestones such as Harris and Sherwood’s insights into natural translation, Hans-Peter Krings’s pioneering exploration of translators’ cognitive processes using Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs), and the intersection of cognitive science with translation. As the narrative unfolds, the potential of Artificial Intelligence and modern technological tools is also discussed, suggesting new horizons for understanding the intricate cognitive processes in translation. The essay concludes by emphasizing the imperative of future research at the nexus of human cognition, traditional translation practices, and modern AI technologies, signaling a bright trajectory for the field of translation studies in the era of technological advancements.

The invisible ubiquity of philosophy in translation studies: towards a re-articulation of the discipline’s relationship with philosophy

ABSTRACT The relationship between philosophy, translation, and translation studies has not been explicitly articulated. This article starts from the premise that philosophy is foundational to any academic discipline, and translation studies can critically reflect on itself by engaging its object of study and foundations philosophically. Three distinctions are offered as possible ways of articulating the relationship between translation studies and philosophy: (1) Philosophically informed research in translation studies / Philosophy of translation; (2) Philosophy of translation / Philosophy of translation studies; and (3) Philosophy as an imported doctrine / Disciplinary philosophizing. While philosophy of translation asks what translation is (ontology), philosophy of translation studies examines how we can know about translation (epistemology). The proposed distinctions ascribe philosophical agency to translation studies scholars and presuppose that philosophy can also emerge from within translation studies through disciplinary philosophizing. The proposed distinctions enable addressing ontological and epistemological underpinnings of translation studies.

Analyzing Indo-European Language Similarities Using Document Vectors

The evaluation of similarities between natural languages often relies on prior knowledge of the languages being studied. We describe three methods for building phylogenetic trees and clustering languages without the use of language-specific information. The input to our methods is a set of document vectors trained on a corpus of parallel translations of the Bible into 22 Indo-European languages, representing 4 language families: Indo-Iranian, Slavic, Germanic, and Romance. This text corpus consists of a set of 532,092 Bible verses, with 24,186 identical verses translated into each language. The methods are (A) hierarchical clustering using distance between language vector centroids, (B) hierarchical clustering using a network-derived distance measure, and (C) Deep Embedded Clustering (DEC) of language vectors. We evaluate our methods using a ground-truth tree and language families derived from said tree. All three achieve clustering F-scores above 0.9 on the Indo-Iranian and Slavic families; most confusion is between the Germanic and Romance families. The mean F-scores across all families are 0.864 (centroid clustering), 0.953 (network partitioning), and 0.763 (DEC). This shows that document vectors can be used to capture and compare linguistic features of multilingual texts, and thus could help extend language similarity and other translation studies research.

Individual variations in information behaviour of professional translators: towards a classification of translation-oriented research styles

ABSTRACT In the era of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation, studying human behaviour is becoming ever more pressing. The variety of human behaviour within translation studies (TS) research has been given some attention, but the area of individual differences in translators, especially regarding their translation-oriented research activities, has received little consideration in either TS or Information Behaviour (IB) studies. This article reports on a quasi-naturalistic, observational, mixed methods study of professional translators’ research activities designed to capture the similarities and differences in how those activities are carried out. The outcome is a taxonomy of translation-oriented research styles which illustrates the wide spectrum of research behaviours as observed and reported by sixteen participants, but the article also points towards a potential tendency for the homogenization of translation-oriented research behaviour in the digital age.

Peripheral vision and challenging invisibilities

Abstract This article presents a discussion of the theoretical and methodological challenges posed by digitization processes and born-digital sources within translation and translator studies research, particularly in archival contexts. It begins by demonstrating how the digitization of archives and source materials remains an undertheorized issue in translation contexts, as well as the need to understand how digitization allows new forms of “peripheral vision” across our research and publication processes. Subsequently, the article problematizes the archiving and use of born-digital sources to research translation and translators, particularly in terms of issues surrounding data collection, access and ethics. In doing so, this article argues that care must be taken to properly understand and preserve the digital sources that will enable archival research in the future, whilst emphasizing the new opportunities presented by digitized and born-digital sources to challenge the invisibility of translation and translators within many of the world’s archives and histories.

Changes in web search query behavior of English-to-Chinese translation trainees

This article delves into the evolution of web search query behavior among translation trainees over a semester, using a repeated measures design. While prior research in Translation Studies has predominantly focused on information-seeking patterns and types of resources used, a crucial gap remains in understanding the web search query behavior of diverse translation practitioners. Specifically, this investigation analyzes intra-subject and inter-task level changes in web search query behavior within a group of 19 first-year master's students enrolled in an English-to-Chinese translation course, building upon key literature in the field. The statistical analysis conducted reveals changes in the examined variables—query time, complexity, and language—highlighting the importance of targeted research and training to enhance web search skills and search engine proficiency. These findings carry relevant implications for translation practitioners, particularly as new AI technologies continue to expand and enhance their search toolbox and skillset.

How does a national, multilingual news agency contribute to news diversity? A mixed-methods case study

News agencies are regularly mentioned in scholarly works among the principal sources of information for legacy news organisations and titles, particularly in the 24/7 online news environment. However, little is known about how these agencies themselves source news. To fill this gap in scholarship, we present a case study of how Belgium’s national, multilingual news agency sources its science news. We first position our study within a conceptual framework combining insights from news diversity and translation studies research. Next, we operationalise a triangulation of a content analysis, a survey, and interviews with newsroom staff to shed light on the practices and policies that shape and constrain the inner workings of a national news agency in a small, multilingual media market. Our findings reveal a large, potentially worrying, dependency on information subsidies and their assumed factuality from press releases and other news agencies, largely sourced locally. We contextualise our findings within wider news agency and science journalism research.