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Translation Theory
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The Science of Translation: How Our Brains Process Different Languages
In today's globalized society, being able to connect with people from other origins and cultures is becoming crucial. Effective communication between people who speak various languages depends on translation. This blog will explore the science behind translation and how our brains process different languages...
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LGP vs LSP - The Language of Medicine: Vocabulary and Terminology
The goal of this work is to create something that will be of value to nursing students, nursing instructors, ESL and ESP students and instructors, and other English language learners interested in studying English for the healthcare professions…
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Translation Shifts in English and Arabic
Translation is, in practical terms, an ongoing practice that never reaches completion or perfection, contrary to the popular saying "practice makes perfect". In fact, the more one practices translation, the more one realizes that translation is an open-ended learning process which always reveals new tricks of the trade, unlike probably many practical fields…
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Strategies of Translating Metaphors in Foreign Movies employed by
Iranian Subtitlers
The purpose of the present thesis was to investigate the approaches
and strategies employed by Iranian subtitlers in the translation
of metaphors into Persian. The material gathered for this purpose
consisted of six subtitled films. The films were selected among
those originally produced in English and subtitled to Persian. In
order to have a contrastive analysis of metaphors and their translations,
the movies dialogues and their subtitles were contrasted…
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the full article…
Translation on the Basis of Frequency:
Compliment and Compliment Response
Compliments are a social phenomenon. In English, there are general
rules of their usage, but because of a series of social factors,
they vary according to the situation. They also consist of frequently
occurring structures/words. In this article, compliments together
with compliment responses are briefly discussed. Then, we will try
to show that a structure/word that frequently occurs in the source
language should be translated to a structure / word occurring with
a fairly similar frequency in the target language…
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the full article…
The Illusion of Transparency
The choices made by the translator during the process of translation
are an essential part of producing an adequate target text. They
constitute an essential factor in interlingual communication and,
effectively, constitute the translator's voice. However, the search
for transparent translations attempts to silence this voice and
seems to be clearly linked to the subordinate role translation has
traditionally had in the past…
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the full article…
Who’s Listening/Reading?
The first job I ever had in the language business was interpreting
a meeting between an American businessman and the management team
of a French company in the mid-1970s. Things kicked off in a rather
unpromising manner. The American came across as surly and uncooperative
as the French chitchatted about all sorts of topics. After an unrewarding
first few minutes, the French CEO, who was obviously trying to break
the ice, told me “let our dear guest know that we will be having
lunch in an excellent restaurant.”…
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the full article…
The Transposition of Form
A derivative describes a work that is related to a previously existing
original. We currently have two common types of derivatives: adaptation
and translation. Adaptation uses the original as a rough template
for a new text. Translation is more or less a direct copy of the
original in a different language. Somewhere between these two types
is transposition…
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A Typology of Derivatives: Translation, Transposition, Adaptation
What would The Nose be if Nikolai Gogol were an American writing
in the twenty-first century?
Certainly we would see a different text: The content wouldn’t include
a horse and carriage or cobblestone streets; the form, in all likelihood,
would consist of shorter sentences with fewer clauses; the position
of the narrator would move closer to the protagonist(s)...
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the full article...
Is every bilingual a translator?
All over the world, translation has become a universal activity.
Bilingualism as a concept is based On the field of psycholinguistics
with different scholars having divergent views about its role in
the theory of translation. What is translation activity? What is
bilingualism? Is there any peculiar relationship between these two
concepts? What are the specific functions of bilingualism in the
general theory of translation?..
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the full article...
The Art of Poetry and its Translation
According to Oxford English Dictionary poetry is “The art or work
of poet”. Another depiction of it is given by John Ruskin in his
“Lectures on Art” (1870), “What is poetry? The suggestion, by the
imagination, of noble grounds for the noble emotions”. According
to T. S. Eliot “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an
escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but
an escape from personality”. Percy Bysshe Shelly describes poetry
as the eternal truth...
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the full article...
Translating Literary Prose: Problems and Solutions
This
article deals with the problems in translating literary prose and reveals
some pertinent solutions and also concentrates on the need to expand the
perimeters of Translation Studies. The translation courses offered at
many universities in Bangladesh and overseas treat the subject mostly
as an outcome of Applied Linguistics...
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Towards an inclusive mould of translation and interpretation requisite
competence
This piece of research will address the concept of requisite competence
in translation and interpretation. Competence is a broad concept
which signifies certain sorts of expertise and aptitude that language
users (e.g. translators, interpreters, foreign language speakers/learners)
in the general sense need to master. Professional translators and
interpreters work within the realm of interlingual communication.
Translation and interpretation share basic grounds (competences),
thus, they intersect at some points and diverse in others...
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A comparative study of 9 reviews on Why Translation Matters
This paper makes an analysis of nine book reviews on Western Medias
such as New York Review of Books, Sunday Times, The Smart Set”,
Global & Mail, The Telegraph, Open Letter Monthly, National
Post, Complete Review and The Australian in March and July 2010.
The book in question is Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman,
one of the widely acclaimed Spanish translators in the West, whose
translation of Don Quixote is both masterpiece and bestseller...
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the full article...
A Taxonomy of Human Translation Styles
While the translation profession becomes increasingly technological,
we are still far from understanding how humans actually translate
and how they could be best supported by machines. In this paper
we outline a method which helps to uncover characteristics of human
translation processes. Based on the translators' activity data,
we develop a taxonomy of translation styles. The taxonomy could
serve to inform the development of advanced translation assistance
tools and provide a basis for a felicitous and grounded integration
of human machine interaction in translation...
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A Model of Translation Based on Proverbs and Their Metaphors: A
Cognitive Descriptive Approach
This paper demonstrates that representation of translation by way
of a model is possible. As a corpus, proverbs offer a vast and reliable
source of previously translated metaphors, in this case, French
to English. Proverbs and their metaphors constitute a sign with
inherent components that include, but are not limited to, message,
meaning(s), connotations, and syntactic structure, as well as information
derived from sources such as the text or an individual's personal
knowledge...
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Hybridity in Immigration Literature and Translated Literature
The main purpose of the present study was to detect and compare
the signs of hybridity in immigration literature and translated
literature. The research was designed to answer these questions
‘Are there any similarities between the literature produced in Persian
and in English by immigrant writers and the literature translated
into Persian, in terms of hybridity?’...
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Problem of Equivalence in Translating English Articles into Tamil
The art of translation has had a very long history. It is almost
as old as written literature. It has been shown that fragmentary
versions of the Sumerian Gilgamesh epic have been founded in four
or five Asiatic languages of the 2-nd millennium B.C. Even in China
about 781, according to the Nestorian inscription of singantu, 27
books of Jesus were known, probably as translations...
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Translation of Proper Names
“Proper names are never translated” seems to be a rule deeply rooted
in many people’s minds. Yet looking at translated texts we find
that translators do all sorts of things with proper names: non-translation,
non-translation that leads to a different pronunciation in the target
language, transcription or transliteration from non-Latin alphabets,
morphological adaptation to the target language, cultural adaptation,
substitution, and so on. It is interesting to note, moreover, that
translators do not always use the same techniques with all the proper
names of a particular text they are translating...
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What Is to Be Considered as A Unit of Translation?
Being one of the fundamental concepts always argued about in the
realm of translation, the unit of translation (UT) has been given
various definitions by different theorists. Shuttleworth and Cowie
(1997) define it as: "a term used to refer to the linguistic
level at which ST is recodified in TL" (p. 192). In other words,
it's an element with which the translator decides to work while
translating the ST...
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the full article...
How to Translate Personal Names
Translation has many challenges, one of which is the problem of
translating proper nouns (PNs), a term used here interchangeably
with the term 'proper names,' adequately from one language to another.
The focus of this study lies within translation of personal names,
which are a subclass of proper nouns. Notwithstanding the fact that
a challenge that translators often encounter in their work comes
from personal names, this paper presents some translation techniques
proposed by various researchers in this regard. It should be mentioned
that this paper does not intend to prescribe any special rules...
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Literary Approach to Translation Theory
In the 1970s a literary approach to translation theory began to emerge, partly
as a response to the prescriptive linguistic theories that had monopolized
thinking for the previous two decades. Key elements of this new
literary approach are the writings of the Manipulation School...
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Risk Management in Translation
Translation practice is a purposeful activity requiring constant
decision making. The decision making process however, won’t ultimately
lead to success unless accompanied by a proper management tool.
This tool which has been rapidly developing and actively used in
many disciplines, organizations and industries is Risk Management...
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Translation from Hallidayan Perspective
In this paper we are going to find a rational answer to the question
of "What is a good translation?" You may have heard this question
before and encountered cases when different students of translation
have evaluated the same piece of translated text as high and low
quality simultaneously. Problem is that criterion for quality assessment
isn't determined by teacher in advance...
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Linguistic Approach to Translation Theory
Joseph F. Graham in his article Theory for Translation (p.24) asks
the question if the time-honoured act of translation really is a
subject that begs to be theorized. It seems to me that this is indeed
the case if the wealth of literature on the subject available today
is any indication...
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Is Translation a Rewriting of an Original Text?
Lefevere (1992a: xi) describes translation "a rewriting of
an original text." This paper will reevaluate Lefevere's concept
of translation through examining my chosen texts. In order to demonstrate
how the translator of the example text transports the source text
messages in the target language, some excerpts will be analyzed
using a Systemic Functional Linguistics (systemic linguistics) approach
which provides "a semantic account of the grammatical structures
of the language" (White, 2001: 3)...
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Equivalence in translation
Much ink has flown on discussing the term equivalence in translation. Nida (1964), Newmark (1981), Jacobson (1959-2000) and Bayar (2007) have written extensively on the nature, types, and degrees of equivalence in translation, whereas its opponents like Broek (1978), Mehrach (1997) and Leuven Zwart (1990) considered it an impossible point for the translator to reach and a hindering matter in the development of translation theory. The aim of this discussion is to shed light on writings which have dealt with equivalence in translation...
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Meaning: The Translators’ Role in Clarifying Some Misconceptions
This paper has been encouraged by the publication of Maite Aragonés
Lumeras: Meaning: The Philosopher's Stone of the Alchemist Translator?
(Translation Journal, Volume 12, No. 3 July 2008). She seems to
be brave enough to raise the issue of the definition of meaning
in a context where even theoretical and applied linguists fail to
provide a decent definition of the term. For instance, a prominent
professor of Linguistics in Hungary has only this to say: „meaning
(sense) is a relational term..."...
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Skopos in Practice: Building an Appealing Brand Image in the Translation
of Soft News
The Skopos theory posits that translation is produced for particular
recipients with specific purpose(s) in a given situation. The maturing
of the Skopos theory results in the dethroning of the source text
and the de-mystification of "equivalence," foregrounding
the significance and implication of "purpose" that contributes
to the translation as a sort of social construction...
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The Comparable Corpus-Based Chinese-English Translation - A Case
Study of City Introduction
Since only a limited pool of qualified native English-speaking translators
can do Chinese-English translation, it is inevitable for native
Chinese-speaking translators to translate out of their native language.
Influenced by their mother tongue, Chinese translators often use
some awkward expressions, which do not exist in English, in the
translated texts...
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Beyond Translation Theories
This article aims at depicting how most of translation
theories that seem to be fairly linguistic are deeply influenced
by ideological motives lying behind them. Trying not to address
any theory specifically, the current article approaches the translation
theories in a holistic way from a different perspectives...
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Word sense disambiguation
In computational linguistics, word sense disambiguation
(WSD) is the process of identifying which sense of a word is used
in any given sentence, when the word has a number of distinct senses.
For example, consider two examples of the distinct senses
that exist for the word bass...
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Meaning: The Philosopher's Stone of the Alchemist Translator?
This paper aims at analyzing the way technical translators
construct the textual meaning. The methodological framework based
on genre theory and its application is used to reveal the complex
relationships between the semiotic, pragmatic, rhetorical, semantic
and linguistic approaches. The understanding of meaning will depend
on the interaction between textual and contextual factors...
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Wikipedia about dynamic and formal equivalence
Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence are two
approaches to translation. The dynamic (also known as functional
equivalence) attempts to convey the thought expressed in a source
text (if necessary, at the expense of literalness, original word
order, the source text's grammatical voice, etc.), while formal
attempts to render the text word-for-word (if necessary, at the
expense of natural expression in the target language)...
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Pseudo-translation
Pseudo-translation is a technique needed for pseudolocalization
that is used in software localization. In contrast to the usual
translation process it is the process of creating text that mimics
a foreign language without the goal of expressing the source text
meaning in the target language. The intent is instead to ensure
that there is enough room in the GUI to allow for a full string
of localized text based on the size of the GUI in the original language...
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Translation procedures
Translation theorists have devised various procedures to deal with different types of texts in translation. In addition to word-for-word and sense-for-sense translations, translators may use a variety of procedures which differ according to the contextual aspects of both the ST and the TT...
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Proper Names and Translation
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, defines
proper name in the following way: "Proper name is a
word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we
are talking about, but not of telling anything about it."...
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A Use of Thematic Structure Theory in Translation
According to systematic functional grammar
model; language is said to fulfill three functions: the ideational
macrofunction, the interpersonal macrofunction, the textual macrofunction.
The textual function is as it is the focus of this study, express
the discoursal meaning by drawing on the system and network of THEME
to create text in actual communicative event...
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Wikipedia about translation
Translation is the action of interpretation
of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent
text, also called a translation, that communicates the same message
in another language. The text to be translated is called the source
text, and the language it is to be translated into is called the
target language; the final product is sometimes called the "target
text." Translation must take into account constraints that
include context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their
writing conventions, and their idioms...
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The Explicitation of the Implicit in English-Ukrainian-English Translation
Indeterminacy in translation has always been
the cornerstone of numerous scientific works, and not without reason—translation
implies an explicit conveying of things so far unknown to the addressee.
There is plenty of "vague" information types in speech
messages—preterition, irony, parody, intertextuality, etc.—all of
these can be combined under a single term—implicit information...
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Hybrid texts, sources and translation
Since long, war and attempts to dominate
a nation, colonialism, and more recently, advances in technology
and globalization have made people communicate widely with each
other. These phenomena, more strongly the more recent ones, have
influenced the whole levels of the human life. Among such levels,
the linguistic one is to be elaborated on in this paper...
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The Problems of Third Person Pronoun in Translation
Translation is an activity comprising the
interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language –the source-
and in the other language-the target. Translation must take into
account a number of constraints, including context, the rules of
grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their
idioms. In translation, both the source language and the target
one are important...
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¿Es la traducción una ciencia o una tecnología?
A lo largo de este artículo se analiza si
la traducción debe considerarse una ciencia o una tecnología. Para
ello, se presentan las definiciones más aceptadas de lo que es la
ciencia. Posteriormente, estudiaremos los autores que no aceptan
el estatus de ciencia para esta disciplina y, en último lugar, los
argumentos de los teóricos que otorgan a la traducción dicho estatus...
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The expanded system of the coordinated dictionaries and its using
for universal semantic coding and translation of the polysemous
source text
Semantic coding is based on supplementing
the polysemantic words and word-combinations by components of dictionary
entries that the author chooses in the basic explanatory dictionary
of the source language (the native language for the author). The
universality consists in subsequent machine translation into other
languages using bilingual dictionaries coordinated with a basic
explanatory dictionary. The process of coding takes into account
not only the wide range of meanings of polysemantic words, but also
the ambiguity or incompleteness in the expression of actions and
states, where in one language such features as gender and number,
character of action and state, etc., are determined only by the
context, while in another language they may be reflected in concrete
grammatical forms...
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Difference Between Marked and Unmarked Translation of English Thematized
Sentences Regarding Their Effect on the Audience
The aim of this paper is to find cross-linguistic
data, English vs. Persian, in examining markedness in relation to
thematization. The question is “Is there any difference between
marked and unmarked translation of English thematized sentences
regarding their effect on the audience?...
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Good Translation: Art, Craft, or Science?
Throughout history, translation has made
inter-linguistic communication between peoples possible. Theoretically,
one can consider translation a science; practically, it seems rational
to consider it an art. However, regardless of whether one considers
translation as a science, art, or craft, one should bear in mind
that a good translation should fulfill the same function in the
TL as the original did in the SL...
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Compare and contrast two theoretical approaches to translation
During the course of this essay, two theoretical
approaches to translation – Skopos and Polysystems – will be examined.
They will be placed in historical context before the main features
of each, accompanied by relevant critique, are discussed in some
detail. Case studies will then help determine advantages and disadvantages
before a final comparison is made to reveal similarities and differences
between the two positions...
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Translation
of Proper Names in Children’s Literature
Translation of Children's literature is a significant area of study,
due to the fact that books for children have always been written
by real authors at real places in different languages, and they
have been and still are read, in translations into other languages,
in all over the world. As a result of internationalism and multiculturalism,
children's literature is translated into languages more increasingly,
which means that the translated works need to be adapted to the
young reader's language in every instance...
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Mentality and Language
It is well known that human culture, social
behavior and thinking cannot exist without language. Being a social
and national identity, and a means of human communication, language
cannot help bearing imprints of ethnic and cultural values as well
as the norms of behavior of a given language community. All is reflected
in the vocabulary of a language. But it should be noted that the
grammatical structure of a language more exactly reflects the mentality
of a nation as it is closer to thinking...
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Why is translation into the mother tongue more successful than into
a second language?
It is commonly believed that translators
are better at translating into their native language than into a
second language. The underlying reason for this assumption is that
translators have a more profound linguistic and cultural background
of their mother tongue than of a second language which they have
to learn in order to be well-versed translators. By the same token,
the translator who translates into his or her native language has
a more natural...
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Blue Lines on Black Ink:
A Look at a New Book on Censorship and Translation
The TJ's editor asked if I would do a write
up on a volume on censorship and translation edited and introduced
by Francesca Billiani, a Lecturer in Italian Studies and member
of the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University
of Manchester in the UK. I immediately agreed, for censorship is
one of the things that have fascinated me for a number of years...
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Problems of dynamic equivalence in Translation
Formal Equivalence and Dynamic equivalence
caused heated controversy. The concept of equivalence has been one
of the key words in translation studies. Equivalence can be said
to be the central issue in translation although its definition,
relevance, and applicability within the field of translation theory
have caused heated controversy, and many different theories of the
concept of equivalence have been elaborated within this field in
the past fifty years...
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Translation procedures, strategies and methods
Translating culture-specific concepts (CSCs)
in general and allusions in particular seem to be one of the most
challenging tasks to be performed by a translator; in other words,
allusions are potential problems of the translation process due
to the fact that allusions have particular connotations and implications
in the source language (SL) and the foreign culture (FC) but not
necessarily in the TL and the domestic culture...
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Formulating Strategies for the Translator
The ability to formulate strategies for translators
lies at the heart of the tensions between translation studies (TS)
and professional translators and between the applied and non-applied
branches of TS. It also affects the relationship which TS has with
neighboring disciplines such as linguistics...
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Global Translation: The Dream of a Translation Tower of Babel
After the destruction of the Tower of Babel
sons of Adam are restoring their talents to reconstruct and pose
a symbol of power with the same ramifications. But the stature of
a unified language in the form of English language, the World Wide
Web, Global Economy and other cultural strategies are not enough
to overpower the divinely established human diversity...
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GILT-Internationalization,
a right-brainer approach
In GILT literature, you will encounter the
following: G11n, I18n, and L10n. They simply mean Globalization,
Internationalization, and Localization respectively, taking the
first and last letters of these words with the number of letters
tucked in between. This is a way of making these long words short...
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Theta
Theory in English and French
As the title of this paper indicates, I am
going to focus on Theta Theory in English and French. In this way,
the first chapter will be concerned with Theta Theory in English.
In the first section, I am going to discus Universal Grammar and
its sub-theories, such as X-bar theory, Case theory, Government
theory, Binding theory, Bounding theory, Control theory and a brief
introduction to Theta theory...
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Domesticating
the Theorists: A Plea for Plain Language
Throughout the history of translation, those
who we now call theorists expressed their views in respect to the
translation process and the desired results to be achieved by translation.
They formulated their views by advocating translation ad verbum
or translation ad sensum and, more recently, by defending or opposing
the theory that a translation must read like an original text...
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Translation
of Proper Names in Non-fiction Texts
The present article deals with the translation
of proper names in non-fiction texts. Starting with the delimitation
of the category of proper names on a linguistic basis, it examines
the various strategies of translating proper names. The effect of
the communicative situation is an important factor in the choice
of the appropriate translation strategy...
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Translation
And Interpreting Methods And Approaches
The disciplines of language translation and interpreting serve the
purpose of making communication possible between speakers of different
languages. In the past there has been a tendency
to perceive interpreting as an area of translation, but from the
second half of the 20th century differentiation between the two
areas has become necessary...
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Dynamic
Equivalence (D.E.) and Idioms Translation
The meaning of the word equivalence can be described as "equal
in value, measure, force, effect, significance." Based on the
word's etymology, however, its first half can also be taken to mean
"like."
Throughout the history of translation, equivalence has revealed
itself both as a phenomenon that can be located on different levels
and as a concept eventually so riddled with contradictions ...
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Translation
as a Psycho-Semiotic Phenomenon
The article sketches the outlines of a theoretical framework for
the analysis of translation of literary texts, viewed as psycho-semiotic
phenomenon and based on evaluation of earlier attempts in this direction,
and on the results of a psycholinguistic empirical study of translations.
Central to this framework is the recent insight that the human cerebral
hemisphere functional asymmetry somehow plays a role in structuring
the fictional text by its author and in its processing by the interpreter...
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“Heads
I Win, Tails You Lose”: Logical Fallacies and Ethics in Everyday
Language
Throughout our daily oral and written communications with others,
we rely on basic rules of reasoning which guide our arguments. Whether
a particular argument is valid or not—logically speaking—is not
always evident. Indeed fallacious arguments can point to seemingly
compelling conclusions that are, however, invalid and often misaligned
with ethical principles. By focusing on the inextricable link between
ethics and language, this article reviews some of the most common
logical fallacies to help in detecting (and avoiding) them...
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Maxim
of Manner and Metaphoric Address in Translation
Neither Grice, nor any other speech act theorist has ever opened
the scope of monolingual communication, - during which speech acts
arise and work, - to cross -cultural communication.
However, this cross-examination would actually make sense for pragmatic
theorists, and what is more, would benefit a lot translation theorists
and practitioners...
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The
Importance of Adequacy in Translation
There are both linguistic and extralinguistic aspects that hinder
to reach adequacy in fiction translation. Semantic information of
the text differs essentially from the expressive-emotional information
of the text but they have one common trait: both can bear and render
extralinguistic information. Extralinguistic information often becomes
a stone to stumble over by a translator, as it is a lingvoethnic
barrier for a fiction translator; Misunderstanding or misinterpretation
of the extralinguistic information means to misrepresent...
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Translation
of Vietnamese Terms of Address and Reference
This paper resulted from the author's study of the translation into
English of the Vietnamese terms of address and reference used in
four short stories, "A Marker on the Side of the Boat,"
"A Very Late Afternoon," "The General Retires,"
"Without a King," and selected chapters of two novels,
"The Sorrow of War" and "A Novel Without a Name."
The study investigates the strategies adopted in the translation
of the terms and the degree to which these strategies are effective
in conveying...
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Translating
Abbreviations
Translation is a complex process where fragile balance is achieved
between the equivalence of the text translated and the linguistic
means chosen. Abbreviations can cause many difficulties during the
translation. First of all despite the history of translation originates
since ancient times when people needed to communicate with people
from different communities, abbreviation is a comparatively new
linguistic phenomenon and thus its translating isn’t well studied
yet...
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Same
questions - different continent
Translating documents into any language requires using the appropriate
terminology and a clear and concise writing style. Terminological
accuracy and effective prose must blend seamlessly; otherwise, the
message will lack quality, efficacy and reliability needed in documents
destined to the target market...
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La
traduction français-espagnol des titres journalistiques du Monde
Diplomatique : un exemple de tension entre adéquation et acceptabilité
Press headlines are short and multi-functional textual segments
strongly influenced by the discourse genre and the journalistic
tradition in which they are produced. Their interpretation requires
a complex construction of meaning on the part of the translator.
The aim of this paper is to study the translation strategies applied
in a corpus made up of press headlines taken from the French newspaper
Le Monde Diplomatique and their Spanish versions. The study shows
the «tension» between adequacy and acceptability brought to bear
by the translation process, as well as the important role of the
source culture to determine the global translational behaviour...
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Back
Translating Some Collective Nouns From English into Arabic
This paper deals with backtranslating some of the collective nouns
and analysis of the results of the test. It also explains what is
meant by back translation as little research has been done about
it in the literature of translation. It also sheds light on the
grammatical and semantic treatment of collective nouns in English...
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the full article...
Narrowing
the Gap between Theory and Practice of Translation
Since its inception, translation has not ceased to play its indispensable
role of transferring messages across languages and cultural barriers.
By so doing it continuously weakens the fences between languages,
exposing their similarities, getting a consensus on their differences
and easing interactions that will assist in developing cross-cultural
integrative skills useful in an interdependent world. Several theories
have been suggested to explain the concept of translation...
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the full article...
Translation
in Context
Translation, seen as a mode of being in the world, should not be
regarded per se but should be contextualized as a social system.
Infidelity is built in translation because it inevitably describes
domestic scenes that are loaded not only linguistically and culturally,
but also socially and politically. Translation is simultaneous decontextualization
and recontextualization, hence is productive rather than reproductive...
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Equivalence
in Translation
The main purpose of this paper is to explain the concept of equivalence
in translation. To this end, first language and translation are
defined. Later, examples are provided to develop the discussion.
Each example indicates an area of standards in English and Persian.
In fact, the process of finding equivalents in the two languages
is that the translator should first decode the source text (ST),
that is, to figure out the meaning / message/ intention of the original
speaker or writer and then ask himself or herself how the same decoded
meaning/ message/ intention is encoded in the target text (TT)...
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A
few words on translations
Hum. I ain't gonna make a course, but here are a few basic data
you should know if you ever get to deal with translations.
Well, translation is a rather codified science. And that is one
of the first things to know about it...
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the full article...
Aesthetics & Translation
What is translation? As a most nontechnical definition the Webster's
New World dictionary define" to translate" as follows:
1. to move from one place or condition to another; transfer; specif.,
a) Theol. to convey directly to heaven without death b) Eccles.
to transfer (a bishop) from one see to another; also, to move (a
saint's body or remains) from one place of interment to another...
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Gender and Translation
In recent years, a considerable volume of academic literature and
researches in the field of translation are being focused on the
concept of gender in translation (e.g. von Flotow 2001, Simon 1996,
and Chamberlain 1998). According to Chamberlain (1998: 96), “the
issues relating to gender in the practice of translation are myriad,
varying widely according to the type of text being translated, the
language involved, cultural practices and countless other factors”...
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the full article...
Japanese and Korean: testing the links
I think the classification of Japanese and Korean is the biggest
remaining puzzle in philology. There are two issues: are these two
languages related to each other, and are they part of any known
family? The Japanese and Koreans call each other ‘close but distant
neighbours,’ and this phrase also roughly sums up the relationship
of their languages...
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the full article...
Inttranews Special Report: The end of the written word
The ways in which we use language are currently undergoing faster
change than ever before, principally due to technology. But if language
is the defining characteristic not only of who, but of what we are,
as human beings, how will those changes affect us, and the societies
we live in? One of the pioneers in this realm of research is William
Crossman, a philosopher, futurist, professor, and the author of
a new book, “VIVO [Voice-In/Voice-Out]: The Coming Age of Talking
Computers”...
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¿Qué traducción?
Los métodos de traducción en el análisis contemporáneo
Todavía no existe uniformidad por indicar un método universal ni
una explicación al fenómeno de la entropía, la fatal pérdida de
significado que ocurre siempre que pasamos de un texto a otro. Tradicionalmente,
para superar este obstáculo, se ha intentado encontrar aquella
equivalencia dinámica de la que habla Nida, guardando el mensaje
y no la forma del original ...
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the full article...
Foreignization / Domestication and Yihua / Guihua: A Contrastive
Study
The debate on foreignization or domestication is still heated in
Chinese translation circles. Analysis reveals that the terms used
by Chinese scholars and Venuti look the same, but actually have
different origins and meanings and are used in different contexts
for different purposes. They are simply not discussing the same
thing ...
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the full article...
What Localization Models Can Learn From Translation Theory
Translation theory may have a lot to learn from localization models,
but the latter may have just as much to learn from the former. With
that in mind, Anthony Pym invites us to pause in our dismissal of
translation theory as academic clap-trap long enough to discover
what it has to offer ...
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the full article...
Writing and Translation
Writing plays a very important role in any translation. Since a
translation happens in a context and implies the transposition of
a source text into a target text, this must fulfill the same constraints
of an original text written in the target language ...
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the full article...
Translation Theory
The study of proper principle of translation is termed as translation
theory. This theory, based on a solid foundation on understanding
of how languages work, translation theory recognizes that different
languages encode meaning in differing forms, yet guides translators
to find appropriate ways of preserving meaning, while using the
most appropriate forms of each language ...
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the full article...
Some Images and Analogies about Translation
Over several decades I have sometimes reflected that writings about
the theory of translation can be too theoretical. By which, I probably
mean I have found them too wordy, too complex, too unreadable for
my taste. Others may choose to differ, but it has always seemed
to me that writing about language or linguistics or translation
ought by its very nature to qualify as an absolute model of good
and clear writing ...
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the full article...
The Language Contest
Fifty contestants enter a large hall. Inside the hall are fifty
desks. Each contestant sits down at oneof the desks. On each desk
is a large weirdly shaped package. All the packages on all the desks
have the same size and shape. They all jut out and scoop inwards
in strange ways, and they all have a large number of surfaces at
odd angles to each other. Some of the surfaces are very hard to
the touch, some very soft ...
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the full article...
1536—1546: Ten Years that Changed The Perception of the Translator
Those who suppose translators lead hard lives today might want to
consider the fate of their Sixteenth Century colleagues. During
the ten years between 1536 and 1546, three famous translators met
their death. One was tortured first and then burned at the stake
in that great center of civilization, Paris. The second was strangled
and then burnt in the city of Antwerp. And even though our third
colleague died more naturally, it wasn't because half of Europe
didn't long to see him hanged, drawn, quartered, and impaled in
pieces ...
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the full article...
Translators and Interpreters: The Binding Force of World Civilization
The following summary of displays, along with the "map"
showing one possible plan for installation, comes from the extended
text of a proposed multi-media museum exhibit on the subject of
Translators and Interpreters, which might in the ripeness of time
be mounted at major American institutions ...
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the full article...
Hermes - God of Translators and Interpreters
The case for Hermes as the god of translators and interpreters is
a clear and compelling one. While some European translators have
campaigned for St. Jerome as the patron saint of translation, there
are probably some good reasons, with all due respect to the translator
of the Vulgate, for having a god of translation rather than a saint
...
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the full article...
Mediation
as translation or translation as mediation?
Widening the translator's role in a new multicultural society
Contrary to expectations, globalization is not accompanied by the
use of a single language. It is obvious that the constant influx
of people from other countries and cultures is producing changes
in the way society is structured as well as in how relationships
are established in the European Union (EU). These changes also affect
interlingual mediation and the role that translators and interpreters
(T&I) have to perform ...
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the full article...
What Makes a Translator?
The "prison of language is only temporary...someday a merciful
guard ? the perfect translator ? will come along with his keys and
let us out," Wendy Lesser wrote in an article, "The Mysteries
of Translation," in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2002.
The following questions remain, however: Who is this translator?
What does he do? And what skills should he possess? ...
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the full article...
These Embarrassing, Costly, Terrible Typos
Typo n. pl. -os. Informal. A typographical error.
Typographical error. A mistake in printing, typing or writing.
That's what it says in the New College Edition of The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language. But it does not begin to tell
the story of these mistakes - these embarrassing, costly, terrible
typos. I know -- from collecting them, and from personal experience
...
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the full article...
Translation Misconceptions
Translation is occassionally taken too lightly by some. However,
translation is in fact a serious business that should be approched
sensibly in order to avoid poor results. Before starting a project
that invloves translation bear in mind the following misconceptions
regarding translation ...
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the full article...
Lost
in Translation?
How to get your marketing message to an international audience
Did you know that only 28% of the entire European population can
read English? This percentage is even lower in South America and
Asia. Even the growing Hispanic community in the U.S. still prefers
to read in Spanish for the most part. This means that if you want
to sell your products and services to these markets, you will need
to be able to communicate effectively in their languages ...
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the full article...
The Moving Text
Texts of every kind are produced in the source language (SL) and
they get translated into the target language (TL). If the process
were as simple as that, Pym would not have written The Moving Text
(further referred to as Text) ...
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the full article...
Frame-based interpretation of readers reception of the parallel
translations of Ady Endre, On Elijahs Chariot (Az Ills szekern)
Frame theory is intended to serve as a tool for linguistic and psychological
investigations. The latter two constitute what we call cognitive
linguistics, where the psychological processes, which take place
in the mind mainly in comprehension are explained within linguistic
boundaries, and vice versa, where the linguistic utterances are
observed as physical manifestations of brain work ...
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the full article...
Why is English the international lingua franca?
As a means of expression of an insular population with specific
political and social behaviour, English has become an international
communication tool, in the wake of the economic and scientific expansion
of Great Britain, and later the United States...
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the full article...
Causes
of Failure in Translation and Strategies
Translation is communication. When the translation causes trouble
in understanding or results in zero communication, it is a failure.
This paper makes an analytical study on what causes such failure:
one is a misconception that translation is a word-for-word process
whereas the other is the translators blindness to cultural differences...
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Style
and Stylistic Accommodation in Translation
Accommodation in translation emerges in perspectives such as cultural
accommodation, collocation accommodation, ideological accommodation
and aesthetic accommodation. This article focuses specifically on
stylistic accommodation in translation, proposing that accommodation
should be oriented to style which includes writers style, genre
style and historical style...
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Hermeneutics
and Translation Theory
Translation theory was once strictly confined within the scope of
linguistics for translation was merely referred to as a conversion
of languages, from the source language into the target language.
Nevertheless, when research is carried further and deeper, meaning
is found not only associated with the language or the text but also
with the author and the reader, which form the tripartite in understanding
of the appropriate meaning of any text. This paper starts with the
discussion of the relationship of hermeneutics and literary translation
and then goes on to propose that a perfect theory of translation
should be an overall concern of all the three aforementioned factors...
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Book
Review: Science in Translation
Scott L Montgomery, Science in Translation. Movements of Knowledge
through Cultures and Time. Chicago and London: University of Chicago
Press... The author set himself two major targets in writing this
volume...
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Accommodation
in Translation
Faithfulness
was once considered the iron rule in translation in the history
of translation in China as well as in the West. Yet when we take
a closer look, accommodation, or adaptation, is found in most published
translations. This article attempts to investigate the reasons why
accommodation is frequently needed and enumerates the following
types of accommodation translators or interpreters make in their
work: cultural accommodation; collocation accommodation; ideological
accommodation; aesthetic accommodation...
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How to Choose a Translator Wisely
Translation clients are often
buying blind. They seldom know what they are paying for, especially
when buying a translation into a language other than their own.
Translations are definitely not all born equal, a fact to which
anyone who has experienced the pain, amusement or confusion of reading
a bad one will attest...
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The
Invisible in Translation: The Role of Text Structure
It is conventionally believed
that familiarity with the source and target languages, as well as
the subject matter on the part of the translator is enough for a
good translation. However, due to the findings in the field of text
analysis, the role of text structure in translation now seems crucial.
Therefore, the present paper sets out with an introduction on different
types of translation followed by some historical reviews on text
analysis, and will then describe different approaches to text analysis…
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Constructing
a Model for Shift Analysis in Translation
The occurrence
of shifts in any translational activity is an unavoidable phenomenon.
Unfortunately, the bulk of research carried out in this regard has
not perceived the urgent need for a model to analyze or shown interest
in identifying these shifts. In this paper, the researchers attempt
to construct a workable eclectic model for shift analysis whose
major aim is to provide a sound machinery to analyze various types
of shifts in translation at various levels of linguistic and paralinguistic
description…
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Language
Ambiguity: A Curse and a Blessing
Despite the fact
that ambiguity in language is an essential part of language, it
is often an obstacle to be ignored or a problem to be solved for
people to understand each other. I will examine this fact and attempt
to show that even when perceived as a problem, ambiguity provides
value. In any case, language ambiguity can be understood as an illustration
of the complexity of language itself…
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