Translation Style Research Articles

The Role of Viewpoint in Linguistic Choices in Translation

Language used in communication involves viewpoint. Translation as a special yet common form of communication is no exception. This paper aims to present a view that translation is viewpointed in that the source text, the translator and the target text and other relevant contextual factors all make translation indispensible with viewpoint. This paper also demonstrates that a translator has automaticity and privilege in choosing language, narrative perspective and target text style in translation according to his preference and viewpoint, and that viewpoint plays an essential part in evaluating translation. In translation, though restricted by the source text, a translator can find one way or another to mingle his viewpoint into the translation.

Literary Style in the Arabic Translation of Charlotte Bronte’s The Professor

This article deals with the translation of stylistic features in Charlotte Bronte’s The Professor into Arabic. Aspects of Bronte’s versatile style include the French air (French words, expressions and stretches of French language), figurative language, and lexis with intellectual and social significance. Bronte’s text is compared with a published Arabic translation by Basil Saleem. The researchers highlight the translator’s attempts to make the text flow smoothly to engage Arab readers in Bronte’s universally appealing novel. The target text (TT) intimates modifications in author-text-reader relationships. The novelist’s bilingualism, which is noticed in using French language at several junctures in the novel, is mostly dispensed with in the TT. In addition, imagery embedded in Bronte’s figurative language is modified. Shifts can also be noticed in lexis conveying various associations. It is highlighted that translation is a sort of creative linguistic and cultural mediation. Keywords: Literary Style, Fiction Translation, Charlotte Bronte, The Professor, Victorian Fiction.

Prevođenje postkolonijalne afričke književnosti na evropske jezike - nemački prevod Purpurnog hibiskusa Čimamande Adiči

Literary hybridity necessitated by cultural differences is a distinct feature of Postcolonial Europhone African Literatures. This is evident in Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus (2000). This paper examines the hybridity in the source text (ST) and their translation from English into German. Instances of hybridity in the source text and their translation were identified. This highlights the translation strategies in the process of analyzing the translation choices and their implications, especially in transferring culture-specific elements in the source text into the target text (TT). Some challenges of intercultural translation are discussed in relation to the reflection of the author's style in literary translation. The paper reveals the consciousness of the translator to preserve the culture-specific elements that portray the author's culture and purpose through the adoption of ethnocentric strategies. Nida's equivalence theory was adopted to examine the translation of cultural phrases to determine how they were transferred to German language, and also discuss the implications of some choices made by the translator in propelling intercultural dialogue through translation. The study concludes that the translator's effort to strike a balance between the source and the target text was challenged as a result of inability to provide explanation for some unexplained culture-specific terms of vernacular origin in the source text.

ПЕРЕКЛАДАЦЬКА МІСІЯ МИКОЛИ ЛУКАША В РОЗВИТКУ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ЛІНГВОКУЛЬТУРИ

The relevance of the article is determined by the general focus of translation studies on the research of the heritage, as well as the practice of artistic translation of the Ukrainian theoretician Mykola Lukash. In fact, in translation studies, the author's method of translation of baroque literature in the polysystem of the Ukrainian literature still remains vaguely defined. The analysis of the influence of the translated baroque literature on the creative and life paths of the artisttranslator seems to be promising. The purpose of the study is to reveal Mykola Lukash’s translation mission as a significant figure in the history of the Ukrainian translation and development of Ukrainian language culture. Comprehensive understanding of the history of the Ukrainian literature, as well as its culture and people is not possible without an overall study of the history of the Ukrainian artistic translation, as well as the Ukrainian translation studies in general. The defender of the Ukrainian culture and, in particular, the language, the ascetic translator Mykola Oleksiyovych Lukash, takes a prominent position in the research. Acting as a mediator, the translator M. Lukash explains the incomprehensible, reveals the author to a new community. He often changes the established view of the work as an obvious and complete thing, convinces everyone with a fresh and deeper interpretation, cancels errors of perception. His characteristic was a bold approach to solving difficult translation tasks, he often experimented with linguistic means. The creative legacy of the master of the Ukrainian translation, M. Lukash, has always aroused the increased interest of specialists in his author's innovations, dominant features of the individual style and method of translation of a certain literary direction and genre. Actually, the translation of baroque literature, the specificity of which is the contrast between reality and illusions, heterogeneous combination of the tragic and the comic, the sublime and the vulgar, the terrible and the funny, i.e. the combination of the book and the folk, the sacred and the profane, brought M. Lukash to a completely new level as after the release of these translations, a language revolution took place in the field of professional translation.

基于语料库的《呐喊》英译本译者风格对比研究

基于语料库的《呐喊》英译本译者风格对比研究

STYLE IN TRANSLATION: PERİHAN MAĞDEN IN ENGLISH

Preserving style in translation is not an easy task. Such a task tends to get even more difficult when the author of the source text combines a variety of genres and fuses them with their unique language. The present study provides a comparative stylistic analysis of Perihan Mağden’s Haberci Çocuk Cinayetleri and Richard Hamer’s translation thereof: The Messenger Boy Murders. The study begins with a critical discussion of what style is at the micro level. Reviewing Jean Boase-Beier’s definition of style, the study underscores two notions relevant to the intersection of style and translation: maximum relevance and optimum relevance. Linking such a definition of style at the micro level to an understanding of glocalization at the macro level, the study reviews Victor Roudometof’s interpretation of the concept and discusses its relevance to a deeper understanding of the importance of style in translated works. The descriptive analysis in the final part is carried out focusing on hybrid lexical and generic aspects the interplay of which constitutes Perihan Mağden’s unique style in the novel as well as its translation into English.

Assessment Of Indigenous Radio Broadcasters' Translation Strategies And Words Usage: A Study Of Sobi 101.9 Fm Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

This paper discusses the translation style and methods adopted by Sobi FM 101.9 Ilorin broadcasters to find equivalent versions for some selected English lexis and structure, translated into the Yoruba language. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relevance of translation and trace the etymological foundation of the lexis and structure which compel radio broadcasters to use self-lexical coinage and neology. The work was carried out within the purview of Newmark levels of translation (level of naturalness, Referential, cohesive level) to trace the content and function of the lexis and structure. The theory adopted for this work is the knowledge gap theory; the main thrust of this theory is to bridge the language gap that exists in media through the use of the native language. Data for this research were gathered through the elicitation of a recorded news item from Sobi 101.9 FM Ilorin. Our research findings show that most translations from the source language (English) to the target language (Yorùbá) by broadcasters are self-invented, which could either suit the original version in the target language or not. It was observed that radio broadcasters adopt suitable translation methods to retain the content of messages broadcast in a bilingual program. We conclude our work by saying categorically that broad knowledge of the source language helps the productivity of a translator to transmit the message to the audience in the language without any vacuum or gap, and that radio broadcasters adopt any translation method in as much as the audience comprehension of the intended messages are the same with the target language.

Study on the Translation Thoughts and Translation Styles of Gladys Yang

Since the 1980s, the English translations of Chinese classical literary works have been emerging, most of which are classic literary works and famous novels in modern times. In the 21st century, the exchanges between China and foreign countries in various fields are more in-depth, especially in the cultural exchanges, and their forms are more diverse. During this period, there emerged outstanding translators represented by Gladys Yang and others. This paper discusses the research status of the famous translator Gladys Yang from two aspects of her works, translation thoughts and translation style, in order to provide some enlightenment for translation learners and benefit for subsequent translation studies of Gladys Yang.

Rethinking Film Adaptation Through Directors’ Discourse and Auteur Theory: Approaching Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code

This article examines the apropos of Dan Brown’s novel - adaptation, The Da Vinci Code, to the director’s discourses around the film adaptation of a literary work. Ron Howard’s stance as an auteur is assessed to gauge him as an illustrator of American filmmaking in terms of auteur discourses and formulate that his work disavows significant portions of the Catholic conspiracies, sidestepping the subject of authenticity, which is at the forefront of contemporary literature adaptation discourses. Despite appearing to be more ‘authentic,’ the film falls short of the fidelity to source material that was an avowedly auteurist vision and is shown to have issues with authorship. This paper proposes the contemporary auteur influence, examining how the concept of directors’ discourse functions in the Hollywood film industry and the director’s stature as an auteur and the works’ creative style in literary, screen adaptation and movie translation.

Point of View in Translator's Style

Based on self-built parallel and comparable corpora, this paper explores the translator's style manifested in two Chinese translations of Moment in Peking (one by Zhang Zhenyu and the other by Yu Fei). The findings demonstrate that the corpus statistics, such as standardized TTR, lexical density, mean sentence length, frequencies of reduplicated words and the reporting verb, are significant for distinguishing translator's styles. Quantitative analysis shows that Yu's translation is embedded with fewer content words, while Zhang's translation uses less diversified vocabulary and shorter sentences. Qualitative analysis displays that Yu tends to use more words full of Chinese characteristics, such as reduplicated words and corresponding Chinese idioms. At the sentence level, Yu's translation is more faithful to the English source texts, while Zhang's translation is closer to the non-translated Chinese language, such as Zhang's use of synonymous idioms in the translation of English parallel structure as well as frequent word-order modification in the translation of reporting verb “ask”.

A Corpus-Based Study on the Translation Style of Five English Versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji, Vol I

Using a corpus approach, this article investigates the translation styles of the first chapter of Fu Sheng Liu Ji at three levels: the statistical parameters, the translation of culture-specific lexis, and readability calculations. It is found that Lin's version uses simpler words which makes it easier for the average English reader to understand traditional Chinese literature; while Wu's translation borrows to a great extent from the Lin's version, and its style is consistent with Lin's translation. The Pratt and Jiang's translation is the most annotated and readable by the average English reader. Sanders' version is centered on the source language, showing the translator's translation stance of spreading Chinese culture, with a tendency to move closer to thick translation. Black's version is more special in that the translator often imitates the author's tone to add cultural information to the original text. The main reasons for the very different styles of the five translations are due to the differences in the translators' social-culture backgrounds and the target readers.

Membumikan Pesan Al-Qur'an: Analisis Terjemah Ayat-Ayat Penciptaan Manusia Pada Qur’an Karim dan Terjemah Artinya Cetakan UII Yogyakarta

Qur'an Karim dan Terjemah Artinya published by Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) Yogyakarta is one of the al-Qur'an translations in Indonesia. The work has characteristics that distinguish it from other translations. The translation tried to bring the meaning of Quranic verses ignoring literal meaning and looking for its equivalent in Bahasa Indonesia. This research is focusing on the verses of the creation of man with a question about the form and style of the translation of these verses. This study uses the theoretical framework of ḥarfiyyah and tafsīriyyah translation, as well as the theory of interpretation patterns in 'Ulūm al-Qur'ān. This study found that the translator uses two translation methods, the ḥarfīyyah, and tafsīriyyah translation methods. Sometimes a verse was translated with a shorter or longer Bahasa Indonesia sentence to clarify the meaning of the verse. The translation of the Qur'an is also considered as an interpretation in a limited version so that the translator has a style in translating the verse. The translation style used is the adabī-ijtimā'ī style with a language approach because the translator uses straightforward language in translating the verse.

A Study of the Subjectivity of the Translator in Zhu Shenghao's Translations

Through the study of translator's subjectivity, this paper finds that the research on translator's subjectivity mainly focuses on the translation style and translation strategy, and lacks the research on the initiative and importance of translator's subjectivity. Based on the theoretical framework of hermeneutics, this study takes Zhu Shenghao's initiative in translating Shakespeare's The Tempest as an example to explore the importance of translator's initiative in the translation process. This paper expounds that the translator's motivation is closely related to his translation practice, translation strategy, literary accomplishment and social and historical context, so as to explore the profound significance of focusing on the translator's subjectivity.

Using corpora to reveal style in translation: The case of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow.

This article reports on a corpus-based study of the English translation of Wang Anyi's award-winning novel, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow [, Chang Hen Ge] from the perspective of style. Using the keyword and concordance functions of corpus software packages AntConc and ParaConc, this research focuses on how the translator's style reveals itself in the target text (TT) as well as how the style of the source text (ST) is represented in the TT. Findings show that the translators have a preference for contracted negative verb forms and expressions such as "bit" over "little," making the text more colloquial. In general, the rendering of the ST style tends not to be entirely faithful. A distinction between reader-centered and text-centered keywords is made. While the reader-centered ST keywords are, as expected, largely altered, the translation of text-centered ST keywords is also rewritten, contrary to expectations. Presumably, the translators tended to reduce the ambiguity of the ST, resulting in a more explicit TT. The article argues that the translators chose to rewrite the translation to make it more understandable for the target audience since it concerned a work from a source culture very different from the target culture.

Design of Computer-Aided Translation System Based on Naive Bayesian Algorithm.

With the progress of society and the rapid development of science and technology, computer translation technology has become an important auxiliary tool in the fields of software localization and technical translation. This realistic demand has prompted translators to pay more attention to computer translation and have made some useful explorations on this basis. This paper aims to study and discuss computer-aided translation systems based on the fusion of naive Bayesian algorithms. This paper theoretically analyzes some key technologies in computer-aided translation. Computer-aided translation refers to helping translators to translate texts with a series of tools and then proposes a Bayesian classification algorithm. Translation memory technology can solve many practical problems, especially in the machinery manufacturing industry, processing some sentences in documents, which can reduce repetitive labor, unify vocabulary, and make translation styles more coordinated. The experimental results of this paper show that applying the naive Bayes method to the computer-aided translation system can better classify the documents in the translation system, thereby improving the ability of computer-aided translation. When the proportion of professional terms in the article reaches 85%, computer-aided translation has an auxiliary role for the translator. When the proportion of professional terms in the article reaches about 95%, computer-assisted translation can efficiently speed up the work speed and quality of translators. Due to the prosperity of computer translation systems, the duplication of labor for translators has been significantly reduced, and this ensures the consistency of terminology and translation style, so that the fruits of labor are fully utilized.

A Corpus-based Study of Gaoxin Huang’s Poetry Translation Style

Though he himself is not a poet, Gaoxin Huang (1936-) has published a dozen of translated poetry collections. Huang has further developed the poetry translation strategy of “yidun daibu” (substituting pause for foot) on the basis of his predecessors and proposed quantitative standards of poetic meter and the “Emulation Method”. This study attempts to examine Huang’s poetry translation style with a corpus-based quantitative and qualitative study. For the study two corpora are constructed: a bilingual parallel corpus of 100 English poems with their Chinese translations and a monolingual comparable corpus of Chinese translations of 100 English poems and 280 original Chinese poems. Data on lexicon, syntax and phonology are collected from the two corpora to address the stylistic characteristics of Huang’s poetry translation at the lexical, syntactic and phonological levels. Huang’s translation employs a richer vocabulary than the original English poems, and the choice of words is more akin to the original Chinese poems. Huang does not replicate the original poem, but preserves the original poem’s harmony of structure, rhythm, and word count by substituting the Chinese pause for the English foot and making full use of the Chinese conjunctions.

A Comparative Study of the Poem Translation Styles of the German Translation of A Dream of Red Mansions From the Perspective of Corpus-Translatology

A Comparative Study of the Poem Translation Styles of the German Translation of A Dream of Red Mansions From the Perspective of Corpus-Translatology

Is the Corpus Ready for Machine Translation? A Case Study with Python to Pseudo-Code Corpus.

The availability of data is the driving force behind most of the state-of-the-art techniques for machine translation tasks. Understandably, this availability of data motivates researchers to propose new techniques and claim about the superiority of their techniques over the existing ones by using suitable evaluation measures. However, the performance of underlying learning algorithms can be greatly influenced by the correctness and the consistency of the corpus. We present our investigations for the relevance of a publicly available python to pseudo-code parallel corpus for automated documentation task, and the studies performed using this corpus. We found that the corpus had many visible issues like overlapping of instances, inconsistency in translation styles, incompleteness, and misspelled words. We show that these discrepancies can significantly influence the performance of the learning algorithms to the extent that they could have caused previous studies to draw incorrect conclusions. We performed our experimental study using statistical machine translation and neural machine translation models. We have recorded a significant difference (sim 10% on BLEU score) in the models’ performance after removing the issues from the corpus.

Translation Style in Two English Versions of Lu Xun’s Gushi Xinbian -- A Case of “Flight to the Moon”

Of Lu Xun’s third story collection, Gushi Xinbian (故事新编), there are only two translated English versions available today. This article compares the translation style of the two versions through a case study of “Flight to the Moon” in the collection. Our qualitative and quantitative analysis establishes that the Yangs’ version is stylistically different from Lovell’s. At lexical level, simple words thread through the Yangs’ version, whose style is very close to that of the original. Lovell’s version uses refined and polished words, producing a somewhat flowery style. At syntactic level, the Yangs’ version stays close to Chinese sentence structures whilst Lovell’s features a habitual use of addition, condensation, and reordering. At discoursal level, the number of paragraph rearrangement is similar in both versions, but the type of paragraphs rearranged and the way they are rearranged are different. At cultural level, Yang and Yang show a penchant for using conservation strategies, while Lovell prefers to deploy substitution strategies when translating culture-specific items in the Chinese original. It is argued that the stylistic differences between the two versions can be ascribed primarily to the translator’s professional habitus and to the target readers the translators aimed for.

Homogenized literary co-translation: A Hero Born and A Bond Undone

Abstract Although co-translation has received considerable scholarly attention recently, how co-translated texts converge and diverge stylistically, and how co-translators affect translated texts and each other remain under-researched. Based on two specialized corpora, this paper innovatively employs L2SCA and MAT to investigate the various stylistic and linguistic features of A Hero Born (translated by Anna Holmwood) and A Bond Undone (translated by Gigi Chang), English translations of the two consecutive volumes of “射雕英雄传” (shè diāo yīng xióng zhuàn), a Chinese wuxia novel by Jin Yong. It then explores the dynamics of collaboration between the two translators in translating and promoting Jin Yong's wuxia novels, based on interview records, email exchanges, and public discourses. The study reveals that the two translations are homogenized to a considerable degree and at various syntactic and lexico-grammatical levels, and that the two translators' discourses concerning Jin Yong's wuxia are also essentially identical. These similarities are attributed to several factors. In particular, Holmwood, as the principal translator and co-literary agent of the translation project, has played a dominant role and has put her “fingerprints” on Chang's translation, thus considerably smoothing out stylistic divergences of their translated texts. The two translators have deftly co-projected Jin Yong's wuxia as modern, cosmopolitan, and entertaining, thus facilitating the reception of their translations. This study sheds new light on the dynamics of collaboration between literary translators and contributes to the research methodology of translation style.