ITS_ 07 Lesson_6

Elena Zagar Galvão - ITS 07 - FLUP

1

WHAT IS WHAT IS TRANSLATION TRANSLATION

STUDIES?STUDIES?

ITS – Power Point 5ITS – Power Point 5

10 October 200710 October 2007


2

Brief historical overviewBrief historical overview• TRANSLATION as an academic subject is

only about 50 years old.• Before: T was mainly used for language

teaching (thus secondary status in academia)

• 1960s-1970s: communicative approach in TEFL

• 1960s-1970s: translation workshop (USA); comparative literature; contrastive analysis


3

• 1950s and 1960s: more systematic, scientific (mainly linguistic) approach to T:

e.g., Vinay and Darbelnet (1958), George Mounin (1963); Nida (1964); Catford (1965);

EUGENE NIDAToward a Science of Translating, 1964


4

Eugene Nida Eugene Nida (with me and Dr. Hirci)(with me and Dr. Hirci) Rome, Rome, Università La Sapienza, 2004Università La Sapienza, 2004


5

What name to give to the What name to give to the new, budding discipline?new, budding discipline?

• Übersetzungswissenschaft used by Wolfram Wills (Uni Saarlandes, Saarbrücken), Werner Koller (Heidelberg), Otto Kade and Albert Neubert (Leipzig School)

• Translatogy?? (FR:Translatologie; PT,ES: Traductologia; IT: Traduttologia, etc.)


6

TRANSLATION STUDIESTRANSLATION STUDIES“The name and nature of translation

studies” by James S. Holmes (1924-1986), paper given at the translation section of the Third International Congress of Applied Linguistics, Copenhagen, 1972,

– “founding statement for the field” (Gentzler:92)


7

• “[Holmes] realized as did few others that the 1950s had heralded a revolution in translation studies” (van den Broeck, 1988,1994:3)

• Holmes highlighted the existence of 3 main impediments to the further development of the discipline:- scholars and researchers scattered in different fields and therefore lack of common channels of communication;- “the seemingly trivial matter of the name for this field of research”; van den Broeck, 1988,1994:68)- “lack of any general consensus as to the scope and structure of the discipline” (ibid.:71)


8

Holmes concludes that :• the most appropriate name for the discipline in

English is TRANSLATION STUDIES (TS), for this term would avoid a lot of “confusion and misunderstanding”;

• There should be communication channels able to reach all scholars in the field, from whatever background;

• TS can be divided into 2 main research areas:

‘PURE’ ‘APPLIED’


9

Pure TS has 2 main goals (descriptive and theoretical):

1. “to describe the phenomena of translating and translation(s) as they manifest themselves in the world of experience” (Descriptive Translation Studies, DTS)

2. “to establish general principles by means of which these phenomena can be explained and predicted.” (Translation Theory, TTh)


10

Holmes’s map of TS Holmes’s map of TS

Figure 1 Holmes’ conception of translation studies (from Toury 1991:181); in Munday’s book on p.10. Also available at: http://isg.urv.es/library/papers/holmes_map.doc


11

The Holmes MapThe Holmes Map of Translation Studies (1) of Translation Studies (1)

James S Holmes’ seminal ‘The Name and Nature of Translation Studies’ (1972) set out to orient the scholarly study of translation. It put forward a conceptual scheme that identified and interrelated many of the things that can be done in translation studies, envisaging an entire future discipline and effectively stimulating work aimed at establishing that discipline. Historically, this was a major step forward, none the least because it involved a frontal attack on the hazy but self-assured categories that had long been used to judge translations.


12

The Holmes MapThe Holmes Map of Translation Studies (2) of Translation Studies (2)

Holmes’ categories were simple, scientifically framed, andhierarchically arranged: ‘Applied’ was opposed to ‘Pure’, the latter

wasbroken down into ‘Theoretical’ and ‘Descriptive’, then ‘Descriptive’divided in turn into ‘Product Oriented’, ‘Process Oriented’ and

‘FunctionOriented’, and so on. Figure 1 (previous slide) shows the apocryphalgraphic form these categories received later from, I believe, GideonToury, who saw it as a legitimate point of departure (it is also in Toury1995: 10). Many wonderful things found a place in this map; a few

morehave benefited from the modifications and variants proposed since(notably Lambert 1991, Snell-Hornby 1991, Toury 1991, Toury 1995). Of course, translation studies cannot be reduced to this one map, and the map itself has been evolving dynamically, along with the lands it purports to represent.

from: Intercultural Studies Group, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spainhttp://isg.urv.es/library/papers/holmes_map.doc


13

DTS focuses on 3 areas of research:

PRODUCT (synchronic; diachronic)FUNCTION (translation sociology or socio-

translation studies)PROCESS (psychology of translation or

psycho-translation studies)

DESCRIPTIVE TSDESCRIPTIVE TS


14

The results of DTS research can then The results of DTS research can then be applied to Tth to develop:be applied to Tth to develop:

• a general theory of translation (very ambitious)

• partial theories restricted according to:– Medium– Area– Rank– Text type– Time– Problem


15

APPLIED TSAPPLIED TS

TRANSLATORTRAINING

TEACHINGMETHODS

TESTINGTECHNIQUES

CURRICULUMPLANNING


16


TRANSLATIONAIDS

IT APPLICATIONS DICTIONARIES GRAMMARS

Translation softwareOn-line databases

Use of Internet


17


TRANSLATIONPOLICY

PLACE AND ROLE OF TRANSLATORS

IN SOCIETY

PLACE AND ROLE OF TRANSLATING

IN SOCIETY

PLACE AND ROLE OF TRANSLATIONS

IN SOCIETY


18


TRANSLATIONCRITICISM

REVISIONEVALUATION

OF TRANSLATIONSREVIEWS


19

Gideon TouryGideon Tourypoints out that :points out that :

Theoretical, descriptive and applied areas of TS influence one another,

BUTHolmes’s divisions represent a flexibile

separation of the various areas of TS, which had very often been confused, thus pointing to the great potential of

the discipline.


20

??????????????????????????What’s missing in Holmes’s map?

Social networks & working practices: who are the players in the T process / the “translatorial activity” (Holz-Mänttäri,1984) (see Robinson, Fig. 7, 216)


21

TASK 2TASK 2Work in pairs, make notes and be

prepared to give feedback to the class:

Is translation theory relevant for practising translators?


22

Munday: Introducing TSMunday: Introducing TS1. Main issues in TS2. T until mid-20th century3. 1960s: some focus on the receiver: Nida,

Newmark, Koller4. Linguistic models: Catford5. 1970s-1980s: Text-type models and

skopostheorie (Reiss, Vermeer) ; text-linguistic approach (Nord)

6. 1990s: discourse-oriented approaches (House, Baker, Hatim, Mason)


23

7. The Manipulation School (Even-Zohar, Toury)

8. Other cultural approaches (gender TS and post-colonials TS)

9. Invisibility and naturalizing (Berman, Venuti)

10. Philosophical issues:lang and T11. Interdisciplinary approach to TS: Mary

Snell-Hornby’s integrated approach


24

Think about the following points Think about the following points and be prepared to actively discuss and be prepared to actively discuss

them in class.them in class.

a. Is a graduate or a postgraduate qualification a prerequisite for working as a professional translator in your country?

b. If someone (individual, company, etc.) needs a translation in your country, how do they go about obtaining it? Try to trace the phases of the process.


25

Homework Homework REMEMBER to READ:REMEMBER to READ:

FOR 10 OCT.• Intro+Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 (The User’s

View; The Translator’s View) from Robinson’s Becoming a Translator (BAT).

FOR 11 OCT.• Introducing TS (Munday) Chapter 2


26

BYE BYE

Documents

ITS_ 07 Lesson_6