Translation Theory Research Articles

The Construction of Chinese Ecological Discourse Power from the Multimodal Translation Perspective: A Case Study of the Documentary Amazing China

The global contest for discourse power over environmental and ecological issues has a long history, with nations vying to establish their own paths in the global competition for a voice on ecological civilization. Ecological documentary, by virtue of its authenticity, narrative feature, and communicative superiority, has emerged as effective vehicles for constructing ecological discourse. This paper, focusing on the documentary Amazing China, examines China's efforts in building its ecological discourse power through a multimodal translation perspective. It not only dissects the multimodal relationships and translation strategies employed in Amazing China, but also analyzes the constructed ecological discourse of China presented in Amazing China from three dimensions: the practices of China’s ecological civilization construction, the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, and the concept of a community of life. This study contributes a fresh perspective to the creation of ecological documentaries and the advancement of multimodal translation theory, while also offering new insights into establishing China's ecological discourse power.

Research on Translator Subjectivity from the Perspective of Hermeneutics: A Case Study of English Translations of the Analects

This paper explores the manifestation of translator subjectivity in translating the Analects from the perspective of hermeneutics. Modern hermeneutics suggests that translators and readers are influenced by time, space, and cultural backgrounds, calling for the demonstration of subjectivity in the translation process. Steiner's hermeneutic translation theory introduces the four steps of "trust," "aggression," "incorporation," and "compensation," emphasizing the active role of translators in translation. Through a comparative analysis of the English translations of the Analects by James Legge and Gu Hongming, this paper discusses the translator subjectivity within these four steps.

Another touch to the theory and practice of translation

Another touch to the theory and practice of translation

John Donne in Slovenian and the “Reflexive” Translation Theory of Antoine Berman

In his last book, Antoine Berman developed his theory of “translation criticism” by considering the poetry of John Donne in French translation. The present article applies that theory to Slovenian translations of Donne by Janez Menart and Marjan Strojan. It makes particular use of Berman’s concept of “marked” textual features to consider the survival of Donne’s “far-fetched” stylistic devices in Menart’s and Strojan’s translations. The article suggests that translation critics outside the Slovenian milieu should be aware of the preconceptions fostered by the hierarchy of “high” and “low” impact cultures. Silvia Kadiu, commenting on Berman, stresses the importance of “reflexivity” on the part of literary translators. When, as translation critics, we consider these two translators’ place within Slovenian culture and investigate the critical erudition they display towards Donne’s historical milieu, we find that Strojan and Menart pay exceptional respect to the principle of reflexivity.

Ontological and philosophical basis of the causal status of ethnopsychological idiosyncrasy in translation/interpretation

The causal status of the phenomenon of ethnopsychological idiosyncrasy is considered in the article in relation to the process of translation in the format of activity ontology. In translation studies, activity ontology uses not only comparison of idiomatic units and structures, but also, for research purposes, draws on textual, cultural, psychological, philosophical, pragmatic, cognitive and other aspects and phenomena which underlie translation process as a unique manifestation of interlingual and intercultural mediation. The activity paradigm opened up new prospects for studying fundamental problems of the translation theory. Among these problems are factors (determinants) of an adequate translation that are prerequisites of a translator’s work. Ethnopsychological idiosyncrasy, the concepts world picture and closely connected world idiomatic picture are considered from philosophical, and linguistic perspectives as well as from the point of view of translation theory.The article proves the causal status of ethnopsychological idiosyncrasy as one of the most important factors determining translation activity. In order not to “lose yourself ” in the idiomatic picture of the target language, which is conditio sine qua non for an adequate translation, translators should possess professional skills to overcome conceptual stereotypes and peculiarities of the ethnic and psychological idiosyncrasy in the source language. If it doesn’t happen, translations are perceived as not quite natural and therefore are not fully adequate.The differences in ethnic and psychological peculiarities in the communities, which enter into bilingual communication, form an ethnic and psychological differential, which should be neutralized during translation.The author established certain manifestations of the Spanish ethnic and psychological idiosyncrasy relevant for the translator’s communicative activity in the Spanish-Russian idiomatic combination.

Za'ba's Approach in the Translation of Anak Raja dengan Anak Papa

One important figure in the history of translation in Malaysia is Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad or Za‘ba. He is the translator of Anak Raja dengan Anak Papa (1958), the first translated novel published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka after its establishment in 1956. Za‘ba’s talent as a translator, however, is rarely discussed. Taking this into account, this article focuses on Za‘ba, specifically to discuss how he dealt with the translation of Anak Raja dengan Anak Papa, which was translated based on the English novel The Prince and the Pauper. To achieve this objective, a comparison is carried out between the translation, Anak Raja dengan Anak Papa (1958), and its source text, The Prince and the Pauper (1882). The changes that occur in the translated text are determined based on Nida’s (1964) framework of techniques of adjustment in translation. The analysis points to the fact that Za‘ba attempted to accommodate his translation for his target readers through the use of addition and alteration. Through this target-oriented approach, the conveyed meaning is clearer, and the resulting text is more reader-friendly. In view of the importance of this translation in the context of the history of publishing in Malaysia, this study hopes to contribute to the documentation of the history of translation in Malaysia, particularly involving translation into Malay in the early years after independence.

Basics of English-Ukrainian translation in an intercultural educational environment

The article covers the study of the basics of English-Ukrainian translation in the intercultural educational environment of Transcarpathia. The concepts of bilingual and trilingual education in institutions of higher education are defined as well as the process surrounding the formation of theoretical and practical translation skills. In the second half of the 20th century, the long-term analysis of translation activity reached such a level that it led to the creation of independent disciplines known as translation theory, translation studies, foundations of translation studies, etc. Translation studies not only developed rapidly and in a short period of time but it became an independent subject of study. The discipline also developed its own terminology which has been used for more than 50 years. The purpose of the scientific article is three-fold: 1) to study the specifics of English-Ukrainian translation; 2) to clarify the concepts of «bilingual» and «plurilingual» education; 3) to form theoretical and practical skills of English-Ukrainian translation in students while taking into account the specifics of the intercultural educational environment. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that we investigated the concept of «bilingual» and «plurilingual» education. The content and specificity of the intercultural educational environment gained further development during the English-Ukrainian translation. In the future, it is planned to study the specifics of the language components of English-Ukrainian and Ukrainian-English translations. Keywords: language, bilingual, plurilingual education, translation, intercultural educational environment.

Wie viel Translationstheorie braucht die Historiographie? Zu Hans Vermeers translationshistorischen Studien

Abstract Between 1992 and 2000, Hans Vermeer published some comprehensive monographs on the history of translation from the Antiquity to the Renaissance. In these publications, the historiography of translation theory and practice is based on functionalist translation theories, especially Vermeer’s skopos theory. In this paper, I will try to show how the theoretical framework of Vermeer’s analyses influences the evaluation of particular translations and translation theories. In three case studies from different periods, Vermeer’s approach will be compared to other approaches of translation analysis, especially philological and linguistic ones.

“Ink and paper”

Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra boasts a peculiar typographical and editorial history. Despite the fact that the version contained in the so-called First Folio is “the only authoritative” (Ridley 1954: VII), several variations differentiate the text published in 1623 from the copies that were printed in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Nevertheless, such copies ineluctably affected the English contemporary editions as well the Italian translations of the selected Roman play that were published from the nineteenth century onwards. The present paper aims to reconstruct the history of both the English and the Italian editions of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, in order to understand how the evolution of both the translation theories and the editorial tendencies have shaped the structure as well the stylistic features of the tragedy, consequently affecting its reception.

Relevance theory in translation and interpreting: A cognitive-pragmatic approach. Routledge advances in translation and interpreting studies

Relevance theory in translation and interpreting: A cognitive-pragmatic approach. Routledge advances in translation and interpreting studies

How social network analysis informs translation studies: A systematic review

AbstractSince the early 2000s when the possibility of a network approach in translation studies (TS) was noted, social network analysis (SNA) has been applied to explore the relational complexity of various translational agents in practical, industrial, academic, and educational settings. Through a systematic review, this paper shows that SNA's major contributions to TS have been mainly in areas of translation history, translation economy, translation scientometrics, translation education, and online collaborative translation. It also identifies how SNA has adapted to and complemented other methodological and theoretical approaches in TS under two paradigms, i.e., explanatory structuralist and exploratory complex paradigms. In light of the review, strengths and weakness of these paradigms are discussed, and suggestions are provided for further research on their confluence, which is characterized by a less reductionist analytic model with appropriate explanatory power in a closer symbiosis between complexity theory and SNA.

A Study on English-to-Chinese Translation Strategies of Country Driving from the Perspective of Newmark’s Translation

Country Driving is one of the China trilogy by American writer Peter Hessler. Based on what he saw and heard in his driving around mainland China, he presents with concise language and rich cultural connotations. Its simplified Chinese version was translated by the translator Li Xueshun. Since its publication, it has been well-received by the majority of readers, which proves its literary and documentary value. Country Driving is a typical non-fiction literature work. Based on Newmark’s theory, this paper will analyze the Chinese translation version of Country Driving under the guidance of communicative translation and semantic translation in terms of language structure, rhetoric, culture-loaded words, and special language forms. It is hoped that this paper will enrich the research on the translation of non-fiction Chinese translation literary works and provide some references for future translation practice of documentary literature from the perspective of Newmark’s translation theory.

The Application of Translation Theory and Practice in Chinese Regular High School English Writing

The Application of Translation Theory and Practice in Chinese Regular High School English Writing

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.

Translation techniques of the positive politeness utterances in the Pay It Forward movie

This descriptive qualitative research employed the methods of observation and auto-expert judgment for the data collection and applied Brown & Levinson’s politeness theory (1987) and Molina & Albir’s translation theory (2002) for the data analysis. This research focused on finding the positive politeness strategies and the translation techniques of the utterances obtained from Pay It Forward movie as the data source. Based on the findings of the research, there were 40 utterances with positive politeness strategies as the data under analysis. The research findings, among others, showed that the strategies of Intensify interest to hearer (17.50%) and Exaggerate (17.50%) were dominantly used in the Pay It Forward movie, while the translation strategy of Established equivalent (40.00%) was mostly used in the translation of positive politeness utterances in the movie. It can be concluded here that the translator translates the positive politeness utterances of the source language (English) into the target language (Indonesian) appropriately through the Established equivalent strategy without making any significant changes to maintain the meaning relatively the same in the Indonesian translation subtitles.

Z polskich badań nad przekładem

FROM POLISH TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES: UNPUBLISHED DOCTORAL THESES (1874-2010) The present publication, the first in a planned series, presents the achievements of Polish translation scholars collected in the form of unpublished doctoral dissertations. An integral part of the study is a list of doctoral dissertations written from the second half of the 19th century to the end of the first decade of the present millennium (1874-2010), registering 136 years of Polish translation studies: the stage of early scientific development, the formation of the discipline, and the gradual achievement of maturity. During the period under study, 374 translation and interpreting studies dissertations were registered, defended at Polish universities and research institutes, disciplinary related to literary studies, linguistics, library science, theological and legal sciences. The created bibliographic database serves as a starting point for searching for sources and tracking the dynamics of the development of Polish studies on broadly understood translation and interpreting studies. It represents an attempt to illustrate their polydisciplinarity, subject diversity, and methodological heterogeneity.

Making Sense of the Political in Twentieth-Century China

Abstract At the opening of the twentieth century, some believed that there was a lack of political consciousness among the Chinese people. They introduced foreign political theories, attempting to engage Chinese citizenry with the political. Yet what the political entails remains an unresolved issue even in China today. This article traces the history of Chinese translation of the political through a dynamic process of language adaptation and cultural appropriation. It argues that two competing legacies, one that promises the politicization as a way to liberate individual subjectivity in a modernizing society and another that calls for the order and organization that subject individual will to the collective power of the state, have exerted combined influences on shaping the modern Chinese conception of the political. As a result, to many Chinese today, politics is not just about the daily business of people's affairs but also an orderly society with a centralized authority.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSLATION SEMANTOGRAPHY IN INTERPRETER TRAINING

This article aims to elucidate the fundamental nature, characteristics, and practical implementation of a rapid writing technique that utilizes symbols and abbreviations. This method is intended to streamline the job of interpreters. The rapidwriting technique in translation has been extensively examined by numerous international translation scholars, leading to the development of various translation symbol systems. However, this particular topic has not been explored within the field of translation studies in our country.

"The Language of the Eye Is Not the Language of the Ear": English, Translationality, and (Dis)Similarities between Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Devil on the Cross

ABSTRACT: Against the backdrop of the 60th anniversary of the African Writers Conference and the perennial question of English as an "African language," this article investigates the ways in which English has been used within the literary writings of Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. An overview of the (seemingly) divergent views on English articulated by Achebe and Ngũgĩ is presented, and two of their novels, namely Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Ngũgĩ's Devil on the Cross , are then situated within the frame of translationality. Extracts from the two novels are comparatively analyzed and discussed with reference to translation theory, specifically "thick translation," " omdigting ," and "foreignization," in relation to their lexical and ideological treatment of English. The article concludes that despite the differences in attitude toward English expressed in their polemical and philosophical writings, their literary treatment of English points to a number of similarities.

Formation of national image and translation practice of Chinese political discourse in the context of the digital age - on the example of Chinese diplomatic communiqués

This study aims to analyze the impact of Chinese political discourse translation practices on the formation of state image in the digital era, using Chinese diplomatic documents as illustrative material. Diplomatic documents, including diplomatic communiqués, play a crucial role in political propaganda and international communication, holding significant strategic value in international relations. Analyzing the processes and strategies involved in translating diplomatic documents allows for a deeper understanding of how different translation methods influence the portrayal of a state. The accuracy and cultural adaptation of diplomatic translation directly affect the perception of Chinese policies and the image of the state by foreign audiences. While literal translation may preserve the accuracy of the original, it does not always convey cultural context and political intentions. In contrast, free translation and cultural adaptation contribute to a better understanding and acceptance of political information and the state's image by the target audience. Thus, the translation practice of diplomatic documents is not only a linguistic process but also a crucial strategy for shaping the state's image. This study employs textual analysis methods and is grounded in translation theory to analyze the use of vocabulary and sentence structure in the translation of diplomatic documents. The research aims to identify translation strategies used and to uncover hidden national images. The findings indicate that different translation strategies significantly influence the formation of the national image. Literal translation maintains the accuracy of the original but may miss cultural nuances. Paraphrasing enhances the perception and understanding of the text. Cultural transformation facilitates better adaptation of the text to the local audience. The scientific novelty of this research lies in its empirical investigation based on the translation of political discourse to reveal the formation of the state's image. The research results can be applied in diplomacy, international communications, and intercultural interactions, providing empirical support and guidance on translation strategies to enhance the national image. The study underscores the importance of translating political discourse for shaping the national image in the digital era. Under the influence of national ideology, the translation of political texts requires reevaluation and a forward-looking approach. In the digital era, the translation of political texts should aim to maintain and strengthen the national image.