Pub Date : 2021-03-18DOI: 10.1075/TARGET.21034.DUB
Tomáš Duběda
Abstract The article reflects on the problem of L2 legal translation, paying specific attention to the role of L1 revision and its impact on the overall quality of the final product. Twenty non-native translations (Czech–French) of a legal text were subjected to a two-stage assessment procedure: First, by two native revisers without legal training (revision stage), and second, by two native experts (metarevision stage). In the revision stage, the average quality of the translations was rated between B (good) and C (borderline). During the metarevision stage, the experts identified a higher number or errors, especially in the domain of legal meaning. No less than 84% of the revisions made by the non-expert revisers were confirmed by the expert revisers, while the remaining cases were mostly under-revisions (12%), and, less frequently, over-revisions (4%). In situations where L2 translation is inevitable, L1 revision, even when carried out by professional revisers with little or no legal background, seems to be a viable option. However, all stakeholders should be aware of the risks associated with this practice, bearing in mind the specific nature of legal translation.
{"title":"Legal translation into a non-mother tongue","authors":"Tomáš Duběda","doi":"10.1075/TARGET.21034.DUB","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/TARGET.21034.DUB","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The article reflects on the problem of L2 legal translation, paying specific attention to the role of L1 revision and its impact on the overall quality of the final product. Twenty non-native translations (Czech–French) of a legal text were subjected to a two-stage assessment procedure: First, by two native revisers without legal training (revision stage), and second, by two native experts (metarevision stage). In the revision stage, the average quality of the translations was rated between B (good) and C (borderline). During the metarevision stage, the experts identified a higher number or errors, especially in the domain of legal meaning. No less than 84% of the revisions made by the non-expert revisers were confirmed by the expert revisers, while the remaining cases were mostly under-revisions (12%), and, less frequently, over-revisions (4%). In situations where L2 translation is inevitable, L1 revision, even when carried out by professional revisers with little or no legal background, seems to be a viable option. However, all stakeholders should be aware of the risks associated with this practice, bearing in mind the specific nature of legal translation.","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89898044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-04DOI: 10.1075/TARGET.20206.ENG
Janice M. Engberg
{"title":"Review of Simonnæs & Kristiansen (2019): Legal Translation: Current Issues and Challenges in Research, Methods and Applications","authors":"Janice M. Engberg","doi":"10.1075/TARGET.20206.ENG","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/TARGET.20206.ENG","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90748392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-02DOI: 10.1075/TARGET.21003.PRI
F. Prieto Ramos, D. Guzmán
Abstract Studies of institutional translation have traditionally focused on European Union (EU) institutions and legislative genres. In order to develop a more comprehensive characterization of translation at international organizations beyond EU supranational law, this study compares a full mapping of multilingual text production at EU institutions to that of two representative intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), over three years (2005, 2010, and 2015) in three common official languages (English, French, and Spanish). The corpus-driven quantitative analysis and categorization of all texts from a legal-functional perspective corroborate the interconnection of a wide range of textual genres that perform, support, or derive from central law-making, monitoring, and adjudicative functions, or fulfill other administrative purposes. The findings also highlight interinstitutional variation that reflects the features of each legal order, in particular the prominence of hard law-making at the EU (with a high proportion of drafts and input documents) as opposed to larger translation volumes in monitoring procedures at the UN and the WTO. This mapping is considered instrumental to further analyze legal and other specialized translation practices in international institutional settings, and ultimately to inform translator training and translation quality management.
{"title":"Examining institutional translation through a legal lens","authors":"F. Prieto Ramos, D. Guzmán","doi":"10.1075/TARGET.21003.PRI","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/TARGET.21003.PRI","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Studies of institutional translation have traditionally focused on European Union (EU) institutions and legislative genres. In order to develop a more comprehensive characterization of translation at international organizations beyond EU supranational law, this study compares a full mapping of multilingual text production at EU institutions to that of two representative intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), over three years (2005, 2010, and 2015) in three common official languages (English, French, and Spanish). The corpus-driven quantitative analysis and categorization of all texts from a legal-functional perspective corroborate the interconnection of a wide range of textual genres that perform, support, or derive from central law-making, monitoring, and adjudicative functions, or fulfill other administrative purposes. The findings also highlight interinstitutional variation that reflects the features of each legal order, in particular the prominence of hard law-making at the EU (with a high proportion of drafts and input documents) as opposed to larger translation volumes in monitoring procedures at the UN and the WTO. This mapping is considered instrumental to further analyze legal and other specialized translation practices in international institutional settings, and ultimately to inform translator training and translation quality management.","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76285339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-16DOI: 10.1075/target.20023.guo
Huaru Guo
The paper explores the tension between the translator and target-cultural norms, using the British missionary, Timothy Richard (1845–1919), and his translation of Looking Backward: 2000–1887 in the late Qing dynasty as a case study. The study integrates a sociological framework as proposed by Pierre Bourdieu into Descriptive Translation Studies as developed by Gideon Toury. The related concepts include ‘norms’, ‘habitus’, ‘field’, and ‘capital’. Given that the translator was a professional missionary and not a professional translator, the dynamics of the translator’s habitus are connected with his professional role as a missionary and his position-taking in the broader social, cultural, and political contexts of the late Qing dynasty. The translator’s translation strategy at both the macro and micro levels are analyzed and interpreted. Interpretations are based on the translator’s habitus reconstructed from his early experiences and his position-taking in the broader context. The case study reveals the tension between the translator’s habitus and target-cultural norms, which in turn sheds some light on the situation in which missionaries found themselves in late Qing society.
{"title":"Between the translator and norms","authors":"Huaru Guo","doi":"10.1075/target.20023.guo","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20023.guo","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The paper explores the tension between the translator and target-cultural norms, using the British missionary, Timothy\u0000 Richard (1845–1919), and his translation of Looking Backward: 2000–1887 in the late Qing dynasty as a case study. The study\u0000 integrates a sociological framework as proposed by Pierre Bourdieu into Descriptive Translation Studies as developed by Gideon Toury. The\u0000 related concepts include ‘norms’, ‘habitus’, ‘field’, and ‘capital’. Given that the translator was a professional missionary and not a\u0000 professional translator, the dynamics of the translator’s habitus are connected with his professional role as a missionary and his\u0000 position-taking in the broader social, cultural, and political contexts of the late Qing dynasty. The translator’s translation strategy at\u0000 both the macro and micro levels are analyzed and interpreted. Interpretations are based on the translator’s habitus reconstructed from his\u0000 early experiences and his position-taking in the broader context. The case study reveals the tension between the translator’s habitus and\u0000 target-cultural norms, which in turn sheds some light on the situation in which missionaries found themselves in late Qing society.","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90073483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-12DOI: 10.1075/target.20071.lee
C. Lees
Abstract The purpose of this article is to investigate several key sociolinguistic aspects of texts that have been translated from Greek into English in public spaces in the Kastra neighbourhood of Thessaloniki. It approaches these translations through a sociolinguistic lens, drawing from the ethnographic methodology used in studies of linguistic landscapes, whilst also taking into account the need to combine approaches from the sociological turn in Translation Studies, which have largely adopted Bourdieu’s concept of habitus in an attempt to place the translator at the centre of related academic enquiry. The qualitative findings derive from public texts that can be grouped into the following categories: Official signs and notifications, ad hoc signs and notices, and translated texts for businesses offering services. The analysis of the texts focuses on issues concerning superdiversity, social background, identity, and translation practices.
{"title":"The translation landscape of Thessaloniki’s Kastra neighbourhood","authors":"C. Lees","doi":"10.1075/target.20071.lee","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20071.lee","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The purpose of this article is to investigate several key sociolinguistic aspects of texts that have been translated from Greek into English in public spaces in the Kastra neighbourhood of Thessaloniki. It approaches these translations through a sociolinguistic lens, drawing from the ethnographic methodology used in studies of linguistic landscapes, whilst also taking into account the need to combine approaches from the sociological turn in Translation Studies, which have largely adopted Bourdieu’s concept of habitus in an attempt to place the translator at the centre of related academic enquiry. The qualitative findings derive from public texts that can be grouped into the following categories: Official signs and notifications, ad hoc signs and notices, and translated texts for businesses offering services. The analysis of the texts focuses on issues concerning superdiversity, social background, identity, and translation practices.","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72382705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-12DOI: 10.1075/target.20057.pan
Feng-chuan Pan, Tao Li
Abstract The past three decades have witnessed an increase in research on retranslation. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, this study examines the retranslation of political texts – specifically Work Reports by the Communist Party of China – as a special genre in its own right. By concentrating on the retranslation of a recurring set of Chinese political concepts, culture-specific items, and preferred usages into English from the early 1990s to the late 2010s, this study shows how and why the retranslations have been carried out, as motivated by the evolving ideologies of the original author – the Communist Party of China. The retranslations are shown to be influenced by the broader social, economic, and political dynamics within China, rather than by prevailing factors within the receiving culture or variables associated with the individual translators, as is commonly suggested in the literature. Our findings add to the existing body of research into retranslation by extending the genres and contexts of retranslation research.
{"title":"The retranslation of Chinese political texts","authors":"Feng-chuan Pan, Tao Li","doi":"10.1075/target.20057.pan","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20057.pan","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The past three decades have witnessed an increase in research on retranslation. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, this study examines the retranslation of political texts – specifically Work Reports by the Communist Party of China – as a special genre in its own right. By concentrating on the retranslation of a recurring set of Chinese political concepts, culture-specific items, and preferred usages into English from the early 1990s to the late 2010s, this study shows how and why the retranslations have been carried out, as motivated by the evolving ideologies of the original author – the Communist Party of China. The retranslations are shown to be influenced by the broader social, economic, and political dynamics within China, rather than by prevailing factors within the receiving culture or variables associated with the individual translators, as is commonly suggested in the literature. Our findings add to the existing body of research into retranslation by extending the genres and contexts of retranslation research.","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76401967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-07DOI: 10.1075/target.19130.mir
Leila S. Mirsafian, Hossein Pirnajmuddin, D. Nejadansari
Seeking to fill the gap in economics-related research in the subfield of translator studies, this article aims to identify the best approach to estimate the earnings penalty and forgone income of Iranian professional literary translators. The data were collected through interviews with 118 Iranian professional literary translators. A multiple regression analysis done to estimate the translators’ annual income equation shows that male Tehran-based literary translators who have no other jobs and spent less time on higher education earn more than their colleagues who are female, do not live in Tehran, have other jobs, and spent more time on higher education. However, the multiple regression analysis for estimating the average forgone income equation of the interviewees indicates that the more experience and the fewer award jury/editorial board memberships female non-Tehran-based literary translators have, the more they suffer from earnings penalties. Building on these findings, the article highlights the implications of cultural economics research for translator studies.
{"title":"Estimating literary translators’ earnings penalty","authors":"Leila S. Mirsafian, Hossein Pirnajmuddin, D. Nejadansari","doi":"10.1075/target.19130.mir","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/target.19130.mir","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Seeking to fill the gap in economics-related research in the subfield of translator studies, this article aims to identify\u0000 the best approach to estimate the earnings penalty and forgone income of Iranian professional literary translators. The data were collected\u0000 through interviews with 118 Iranian professional literary translators. A multiple regression analysis done to estimate the translators’\u0000 annual income equation shows that male Tehran-based literary translators who have no other jobs and spent less time on higher education earn\u0000 more than their colleagues who are female, do not live in Tehran, have other jobs, and spent more time on higher education. However, the\u0000 multiple regression analysis for estimating the average forgone income equation of the interviewees indicates that the more experience and\u0000 the fewer award jury/editorial board memberships female non-Tehran-based literary translators have, the more they suffer from earnings\u0000 penalties. Building on these findings, the article highlights the implications of cultural economics research for translator studies.","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80416642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-05DOI: 10.1075/TARGET.19181.BOW
A. Bowen
Abstract Difficulties have long been observed in communicating legal rights to some Aboriginal people in Australia. In the Northern Territory, audio translations of the right to silence in Aboriginal languages can be used in police interviews. This study examines two sets of audio translations in two Aboriginal languages. Also included in each case are front-translations – intermediate English texts used to facilitate translation – as well as the legal texts that likely informed the translations. The audio translations include far more explicit information than either legal texts of the right, or oral explanations from police (evidenced in transcripts from police interviews). Analyses of context and implicature highlight that the legal text of the right is indeterminate: It is unclear what the text is intended to imply and communicate. Aboriginal translators are better placed than legal communicators to develop informative texts, because of their audience knowledge and intercultural skill. However, translators can only work with meaning provided or approved by their clients. Legal authorities, not translators, should be responsible for deciding the information to be communicated about rights, to meet the objectives of policies about rights. When the challenging and imperfect nature of intercultural legal translation is recognised, translators can use their insight into legal meaning to greatly improve communication with target audiences.
{"title":"Intercultural translation of vague legal language","authors":"A. Bowen","doi":"10.1075/TARGET.19181.BOW","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/TARGET.19181.BOW","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Difficulties have long been observed in communicating legal rights to some Aboriginal people in Australia. In the Northern Territory, audio translations of the right to silence in Aboriginal languages can be used in police interviews. This study examines two sets of audio translations in two Aboriginal languages. Also included in each case are front-translations – intermediate English texts used to facilitate translation – as well as the legal texts that likely informed the translations. The audio translations include far more explicit information than either legal texts of the right, or oral explanations from police (evidenced in transcripts from police interviews). Analyses of context and implicature highlight that the legal text of the right is indeterminate: It is unclear what the text is intended to imply and communicate. Aboriginal translators are better placed than legal communicators to develop informative texts, because of their audience knowledge and intercultural skill. However, translators can only work with meaning provided or approved by their clients. Legal authorities, not translators, should be responsible for deciding the information to be communicated about rights, to meet the objectives of policies about rights. When the challenging and imperfect nature of intercultural legal translation is recognised, translators can use their insight into legal meaning to greatly improve communication with target audiences.","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87641335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-28DOI: 10.1075/target.19163.jin
Yi Jing
This study explores the coordination between subtitles and other semiotic resources in films, from within a systemic functional semiotic framework. The paper focuses on the subtitling of interjections (e.g., ‘oh’, ‘wow’, ‘yay’) to examine how subtitles are synthesized in films with respect to the presence of facial expressions and/or bodily gestures which might be perceived as conveying similar meanings. The analysis of multiple versions of intralingual subtitles of two English-language films shows that the seemingly random omission of soundtrack interjections from subtitles is patterned to a considerable degree – those interjections which are concurrent with semiotically correlated actions were frequently omitted. The findings suggest that subtitling is a complex process involving synergy between subtitles and other semiotic resources, which calls for interdisciplinary research integrating translation, multimodality, and linguistics.
{"title":"Audiovisual translation as orchestration of multimodal synergies","authors":"Yi Jing","doi":"10.1075/target.19163.jin","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/target.19163.jin","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study explores the coordination between subtitles and other semiotic resources in films, from within a systemic\u0000 functional semiotic framework. The paper focuses on the subtitling of interjections (e.g., ‘oh’, ‘wow’, ‘yay’) to examine how subtitles are\u0000 synthesized in films with respect to the presence of facial expressions and/or bodily gestures which might be perceived as conveying similar\u0000 meanings. The analysis of multiple versions of intralingual subtitles of two English-language films shows that the seemingly random omission\u0000 of soundtrack interjections from subtitles is patterned to a considerable degree – those interjections which are concurrent with\u0000 semiotically correlated actions were frequently omitted. The findings suggest that subtitling is a complex process involving synergy between\u0000 subtitles and other semiotic resources, which calls for interdisciplinary research integrating translation, multimodality, and\u0000 linguistics.","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90373494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-21DOI: 10.1075/target.20201.fen
Quangong Feng
{"title":"Review of Gerber & Qi (2021): A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation (1919–2019): English Publication and Reception","authors":"Quangong Feng","doi":"10.1075/target.20201.fen","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20201.fen","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51739,"journal":{"name":"Target-International Journal of Translation Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79598972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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