ETI 102 Introduction to Translation A brief history of translation (3)

Outline Discourse and register analysis approaches – Halliday (Model of language and discourse) – House (Model of TQA) – Baker (Text and pragmatic level analysis) – Hatim and Mason (Semiotic level of context and discourse) Systems theories – Polysystem theory – Toury and DTS – Chesterman (norms)

Outline Cultural Studies – Postcolonial – Feminist Philosophical theories – The question of meaning

Discourse and register analysis approaches Discourse analysis came to prominence in TS in the 1990’s. Text analysis (e.g. Nord) looks at describing the way the texts are organized—sentence structure, cohesion, etc. Discourse analysis, on the other hand, looks at the way language communicates meaning and social and power relations. Influenced by Halliday’s systemic functional grammar, discourse analysis has come to be used in translation analysis—translation is viewed as a communicative act in a socio-cultural context.

Relation of register and genre to language Sociocultural environment | Genre | Register | (field, tenor, mode) | Discourse semantics | Lexicogrammar | (transitivity, modality, theme-rheme/cohesion

Relation of register and genre to language Genre: the conventional text type that’s associated with a specific communicative action (e.g. a business letter). Genre is conditioned by sociocultural environment. Register: comprises three variable elements – field: what is being written about (e.g. delivery) – tenor: who’s communicating to whom (e.g. a sales representative to a customer) – mode: the form of communication (e.g. Written)

Discourse and register analysis approaches In House’s model of translation quality assessment the central concept is register analysis, designed to compare an ST-TT pair for situational variables, genre, function and language. Her model is based on comparative ST-TT analysis leading to the assessment of quality, highligting ‘mismatches’or ‘errors’ – Overt translation: a TT that does not purport to be an original (e.g. a political speech by Churchill after WWII, which is tied to a particular source culture, time and historical context). Readers of such a translation are aware that they are not directly adressed. – Covert translation: a TT which enjoys the status of an original ST in the target culture cultural filter: a device by which the cultural differences are verified and mitigated (modifying cultural elements and thus giving the impression that the TT is an original)

Discourse and register analysis approaches Mona Baker In Other Words (1992) Basil Hatim and Ian Mason Discourse and the Translator (1990), Translator as Communicator (1997) Their works bring together a range of ideas from pragmatics and sociolinguistics that are relevant for translation and translation analysis.

Systems theories A reaction to static prescriptive models, polysystem theory saw literature as a system operating in the larger social, literary, historical systems of the target culture The theory pays attention to the ways in which source texts are received by the target culture and its "literary polysystem". Itamar Even-Zohar emphasizes: (a) "the way source texts are selected by the target literature, the principles of selection never being uncorrelatable with the home co-systems of the target literature", and (b) "the way in which [translated works] adopt specific norms, behaviours, and policies - in short, their use of the literary repertoire - which results from their relations with the other home co-systems" (Venuti 2000: 192-3).

Systems theories Even-Zohar gives three major cases when translated literature occupies the primary position: – when a ‘young’ literature is being established and looks initally to ‘older’ literatures for ready-made models – when a literature is peripheral or weak and imports those literary types that it’s lacking – when there is a critical turning point in literary history at which established models are considered no longer sufficient Polysystem theory has had a profound influence on translation studies, moving it forward to less prescriptive observation of translation within its different contexts.

Systems theories Gideon Toury’s descriptive translation theory extends Even-Zohar’s discussion by his emphasis on norms, particularly the literary norms of the receiving literature. Toury describes norms as "the general values or ideas shared by a community -as to what is right and wrong, adequate and inadequate", which are the basis for sanctioned "performance instructions appropriate for and applicable to particular situations" (Toury 2000: 199).

Systems theories--norms Toury sees different kinds of norms operating at different stages of the translation process initial norm: refers to a general choice made by translators. If the choice is towards the ST, then the TT will be adequate; if the target culture norms prevail, then the TT will be acceptable. – The poles of adequacy and acceptability are on a continuum since no translation is ever totally adequate or totally acceptable. preliminary norms: – translation policy: refers to factors determining the selection of texts for translation – directness of translation: relates to whether translation occurs through an intermediate language

Systems theories--norms operational norms: describe the presentation and linguistic matter of the TT – matricial norms: relate to the completeness of the TT (omission/ relocation of passages, addition of passages/footnotes, textual segmentation) – textual-linguistic norms: govern the selection of linguistic material—lexical items, phrases and stylistic features.

Systems theories--norms Chesterman goes a little further with the idea of norms and suggests: – Product or expectancy norms - or what readers expect. – Professional norms - which emerge from the readers’ expectations accountability norm (ethical) communication norm (social) ‘relation’ norm (linguistic)

Holmes’ conception of translation studies (from Toury 1991:181)

Descriptive Translation Studies product-oriented DTS (examines existing translations diachronically and synchronically) function-oriented DTS (function of the translation in the recipient socio-cultural situation) process-oriented DTS (psychology of translation)

Cultural Studies Postcolonial (Niranjana 1992, Robinson 1997b, Bassnett and Trivedi 1999) and feminist (Levine 1991, Simon 1996) translation theories see the relationship between source and target not as a relationship of equals, but as one containing a basic quality of power. In both of these theories, the receptor (the colonizer, patriarchal society) claims the moral authority of domination over which texts are chosen and how they are to be translated. Translators who attack these ideological norms become, in various ways, "subversive scribes" seeking to liberate and transform Others.

Philosophical theories of translation George Steiner draws upon the German hermeneutic tradition in After Babel (1975). His ‘hermeneutic motion’ examines the interpretation of meaning. Ezra Pound’s translations and criticisms emphasize the way that language can energize a text in translation. Walter Benjamin talks about the release of ‘pure’ language through ‘literal’ translation. Jacques Derrida ‘deconstructs’ some of the long-held certainties of translation, including the opposition between source and target language and the stability of linguistic sign.

Main Issues literal vs. free vs. faithful unit of translation contrastive analysis the equivalence problem translatability vs. untranslatability ST vs. TT relation translation types translation strategies communication factors cognitive factors machine translation translation quality assessment translation ethics/manipulation etc.