Skopos Of Translation Research Articles

Translator's Style Through Lexical Bundles: A Corpus-Driven Analysis of Two English Translations of Hongloumeng.

Based on a corpus-driven analysis of two translated versions of Hongloumeng (one by David Hawkes and the other by Xianyi Yang and Gladys Yang) in parallel corpora, this article investigates the use of lexical bundles in an attempt to trace the stylistic features and differences in the translations produced by the respective translators. The Hongloumeng corpus is developed at the sentence level to facilitate co-occurrence of the source texts and the two corresponding translations. For this purpose, the three-word and four-word lexical bundles were first extracted and then analyzed with respect to the functional classification proposed by Biber et al. (2004). The results of the study show that Hawkes' translation is embedded with a greater number and variety of lexical bundles than the one by the Yang couple. The study also identified the differences between the two versions which can be traced back to the deployment of different translation strategies of the translators, appearing in turn to be influenced by the language backgrounds of the translators, the translation skopos and settings, and the social, political, and ideological milieu in which the translations were produced.

Translation of Tennesse Williams’s The Night of the Iguana as a Novel and as a Play: A Descriptive Study

The aim of this study is to explore translation of theatre texts through a comparative analysis of two Turkish translations of the play The Night of the Iguana (1961) by Tennessee Williams: Iguananin Gecesi (1990) translated by Ulker Ince as a play and Iguana Gecesi (1966) translated by Canset Unan as a novel, both of which are interlingual translations. What makes the case of the two Turkish translations under scrutiny unique is that while Ince’s translation is an intragenre translation, Unan’s translation is an intergenre translation. In the study, both target texts have been analyzed in terms of the strategies employed by the translators with a focus on additions, omissions and transformation of tense. The results of the analysis discussed in the light of Skopos Theory have revealed that the main source of difference between the translation strategies deployed by the two translators is the shift of genre. Thus, it is argued that the different strategies used in the translations might be explained on the basis of the two different skopoi as manifest in the translation strategies examined. It is further claimed that the case illustrates how agents of translation might take the liberty of specifying their own translation skopos under the shaping influence of socio-historical, cultural and even economic circumstances of the target literary system.

Qur’an-related Intertextuality: Textual Potentiation in Translation

Qur’an-related intertextuality, envisaged as an enriching communicative act both monolingually and interlingually, represents a case of semantic complexity that is wired to present inconceivable translation challenges. Drawing on Derrida’s (1977) dichotomy iterability/citationality, Kristeva’s (1980) vertical intertextuality, Fairclough’s (1992a; 1992b; 1995 & 2011) manifest intertextuality, and Bakhtin’s (1986) double voicing or re-accentuation, the study argues that Qur’an-related intertextuality is conducive of conceptual densities, the ‘harnessing’ of which requires ‘mobilizing’ those translation strategies that should exceed the lexicographical equivalence (Venuti 2009) to establish intertextual relations relevant to the form and theme of the foreign text. To resolve the arising translation problems, the study basically proposes two synthetic approaches: the gist-paratextual and the gist-exegetical. Translation skopos has been found to be central to the production and reception of intertextuality and to determining which of the two proposed synthetic approaches to operationalize. Finally, analysis shows that Qur’an proved to be a virtual breeding ground for textual dynamism and potentiation.

A corpus-based investigation of theme choice in English translations of Korean online tourist texts – with focus on interactional themes

The present study is a descriptive investigation into differences in the distribution of theme types and interactional themes across three corpora – online Korean promotional tourist texts (STC), their English translations (TTC) and comparable authentic English texts (TLC). The paper examines two hypotheses based on observed differences in thematic structure between Korean and English travel brochures, assuming that STC's thematic features are transferred into TTC in the process of translation; first, TTC will be more numerous in circumstance themes and less frequent in process themes than TLC, and, second, TTC will be critically deficient in interactional themes compared to TLC. Data analysis supports both hypotheses, but it also finds TTC to be a blend of both STC and TLC features. The practical implications of the research findings are discussed in the concluding section from the perspective of writer-reader interactivity and functional translation theory, advocating acceptability over adequacy if the skopos of translation is to achieve perlocutionary equivalence rather than locutionary equivalence.

성경 번역과 신앙인 공동체 : 성경 번역에 대한 역사적, 기능적 관점 : A historical and functional perspective on translating the Bible

1. Introduction<BR>2. Selectivity, ‘underdetermination’ and the skopos of translations<BR>3. An example of a community?based notion of “Bible” : the skopos of the Statenvertaling of 1637<BR>4. Paratextual features and the skopos of Bible translation<BR>5. Skopos and the style of Bible translations<BR>6. Skopos and the division of interpretative labour<BR>7. Concluding remarks<BR>참고문헌(References)<BR>〈Abstract〉<BR

DISCOURSE INTERFERENCE IN TRANSLATION

This article focuses on three major factors that may enhance the degree of hybridity of target texts: first, the ideological background, i.e., the prestige accorded to the source culture in relation to the target culture; second, translator's competence, i.e., the translator's ability to rationalise translation process and choose an adequate translation strategy; third, the skopos of translation, i.e., hybrid features may be deliberately imposed upon the translation to enable the text to serve a given function. Each of these factors is analysed within a framework of a concrete text. The conclusion of this analysis is that due to the functionalist approach, the concept of translation has become diffused and refers to texts whose relation with the original ranges from a faithful copy to free rewrites. Therefore there may be target texts which bear no obvious imprint of the source text. However, all translations by and large are transfers of one text into another language/culture system and therefore qualify as hybrids.

Pragmatic aspects of the translation of slang and four‐letter words

Abstract The article discusses linguistic and societal attitudes to slang in Latvia and their relevance to its rendition in Latvian translations. For historical reasons, there is a wide gap between spoken and written colloquial layers in Latvian. Slang, and especially four‐letter words, function differently in Latvian compared to English, where they are used much more frequently and have lost their disturbing connotations. Accordingly, in Latvian translations they must be softened to achieve ‘similar effect’. Today, however, there is a clear‐cut tendency to liberalize the attitude towards slang and taboos, which can be explained by the recent radical changes in Latvian society. Direct transfers are often found appropriate to render the formerly scorned substandard language. Changes in culture situation modify the expectations of the recipient, translation skopos, and old translation conventions, replacing them by new ones. Training of cross‐cultural awareness is an essential part of translation teaching. ...