The Metalanguage of Translation


Book Description

Let the meta-discussion begin, James Holmes urged in 1972. Coming almost forty years later years filled with fascinating and often unexpected developments in the interdiscipline of Translation Studies this volume offers the reader a multiplicity of meta-perspectives, while also moving the discussion forward. Indeed, the (re)production and (re)use of metalinguistic metaphors frame and partly determine our views on research, so such a discussion is vital -as it is in any scholarly discipline. Among other questions, the eleven contributors draw the reader s attention to the often puzzling variations of usage and conceptualization in both the theory and the practice of translation. First published as a special issue of Target 19:2 (2007), the volume runs the gamut of metalinguistic topics, ranging from terminology, localization and epistemological questions, through the Chinese perspective, to the conceptual mapping of the online Translation Studies Bibliography."




Metalanguages for Dissecting Translation Processes


Book Description

This edited volume covers the development and application of metalanguages for concretely describing and communicating translation processes in practice. In a modern setting of project-based translation, it is crucial to bridge the gaps between various actors involved in the translation process, especially among clients, translation service providers (TSPs), translators, and technology developers. However, we have been confronted with the lack of common understanding among them about the notion and detailed mechanisms of translation. Against this backdrop, we are developing systematic, fine-grained metalanguages that are designed to describe and analyse translation processes in concrete terms. Underpinned by the rich accumulation of theoretical findings in translation studies and established standards of practical translation services, such as ISO 17100, our metalanguages extensively cover the core processes in translation projects, namely project management, source document analysis, translation, and revision. Gathering authors with diverse backgrounds and expertise, this book proffers the fruits of the contributors’ collaborative endeavour; it not only provides practicable metalanguages, but also reports on wide-ranging case studies on the application of metalanguages in practical and pedagogical scenarios. This book supplies concrete guidance for those who are involved in the translation practices and translation training/education. In addition to being of practical use, the metalanguages reflect explication of the translation process. As such, this book provides essential insights for researchers and students in the field of translation studies. The up-to-date versions of the metalanguages, related materials, and the corrigendum for the book content are available on our project website: https://tntc-project.github.io







A Concise Extensible Metalanguage for Translator Implementation


Book Description

A class of emitter augmented phrase structure grammars is defined which can specify simple translations of context free languages. A self-translating metatranslator for the description of these translation grammars is described. Several mutually recursive functions define an interpreter which will execute grammars as translated by this metatranslator. The evolution of more sophisticated translations systems is discussed and extensions to the metatranslator and interpreter are demonstrated. A very concise self-describing metalanguage and an interpreter which will directly execute its self-description are presented. (Author).




Metatranslation


Book Description

Metatranslation presents a selection of 14 key essays by leading theorist, Theo Hermans, covering a span of almost 40 years. The essays trace Hermans’ work and demonstrate how translation studies has evolved from the 1980s into the much more diverse and self-reflexive discipline it is today. The book is divided into three main sections: the first section explores the status and central concerns of translation studies, including the growing interest in sociological, ideological and ethical approaches to translation; the second section investigates the key concepts of translation norms and of the translator’s presence, or positioning, in translated texts; the historical essays in the final section are concerned with both modern and early modern discourses on translation and with the use of translation as an instrument of war and propaganda. This synthesis of the work of a highly influential pioneer in translation studies is essential reading for researchers, scholars and advanced students of translation studies, intercultural studies and comparative literature.




Translation and Literary Studies


Book Description

By nature a transdisciplinary area of inquiry, translation lends itself to being investigated at its intersection with other fields of study. Translation and Literary Studies seeks to highlight the manifold connections between translation and notions of gender, dialectics, agency, philosophy and power. The volume also offers a timely homage to renowned translation theorist Marilyn Gaddis Rose, who was at the forefront of the group of scholars who initiated and helped to institutionalize translation studies. Inspired by Gaddis Rose’s work, and particularly by her concept of stereoscopic reading, the volume is dynamically complementary to the burgeoning contemporary field of global comparative literature, underscoring the diversity of critical literary thought and theory worldwide. Arranged thematically around questions of translation as literary and cultural criticism, as epistemology, and as poetics and politics, and dealing with works within and beyond the Western tradition, the essays in the volume illustrate the multi-voiced spectrum of literary translation studies today.




The Translation Equivalence Delusion


Book Description

Translation entails transfer of meaning, even if the exact sense of the word "meaning" is vague. The same applies to the term "translation equivalence". Illustrated by numerous examples, this book is an attempt to cope with this and many other conceptual, terminological and practical difficulties resulting from this nebula of issues.




Translation as Metaphor


Book Description

In today’s ever-changing climate of disintegration and recombination, translation has become one of the essential metaphors, if not the metaphor, of our globalized world. Translation and Metaphor is an attempt to draw a comprehensive map of these new overlapping theoretical territories and the many cross-disciplinary movements they imply. In five chapters, this book examines: · The main metaphor theories developed in the West. · The way the notion of metaphor relates to the concept of translation. · Different theoretical perspectives on metaphors of translation in translation studies. · The main metaphors developed to describe translation in the West and in the East. · Spatial metaphors within translation studies, cultural studies and postcolonial theory. · The use of the metaphor of translation across psychoanalysis, anthropology and ethnography, postcolonial theory, history and literature, sociology, media and communication theory, and medicine and genetics. Comprehensive analysis of key metaphor theories, revealing examples from a wide range of sources and a look towards future directions make this is a must-have book for students, researchers and translators working in the areas of translation and translation theory.




Translating Irony


Book Description

Irony is a salient feature of common discourse and of some of contemporary art's more sophisticated representations. An intriguing characteristic of art and speech, irony's power and relevance reaches well beyond the enclaves of academic research and reflection. Translating irony involves a series of interpretative gestures which are not solely provoked by or confined to the act of translation as such. Even when one does not move between languages, reading irony always involves an act of interpretation which 'translates' a meaning out of a text that is not 'given'. The case studies and in depth analyses in "Translating irony" aim to monitor and explain the techniques and challenges involved in the translation of irony.




Translating Feminism in China


Book Description

This book explores translation of feminism in China through examining several Chinese translations of two typical feminist works: The Second Sex (TSS, Beauvoir 1949/1952) and The Vagina Monologues (TVM, Ensler 1998). TSS exposes the cultural construction of woman while TVM reveals the pervasiveness of sexual oppression toward women. The female body and female sexuality (including lesbian sexuality) constitute a challenge to the Chinese translators due to cultural differences and sexuality still being a sensitive topic in China. This book investigates from gender and feminist perspectives, how TSS and TVM have been translated and received in China, with special attention to how the translators meet the challenges. Since translation is the gateway to the reception of feminism, an examination of the translations should reveal the response to feminism of the translator as the first reader and gatekeeper, and how feminism is translated both ideologically and technically in China. The translators’ decisions are discussed within the social, historical, and political contexts. Translating Feminism in China discusses, among other issues: Feminist Translation: Practice, Theory, and Studies Translating the Female Body and Sexuality Translating Lesbianism Censorship, Sexuality, and Translation This book will be relevant to postgraduate students and researchers of translation studies. It will also interest academics interested in feminism, gender studies and Chinese literature and culture. Zhongli Yu is Assistant Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC).