Lettere e FilosofiaLaurea Magistale

2018-2019

WEEK 2 - LECTURE 1Dr. Margherita Dore

margherita.dore@gmail.com

ENGLISH 1Module B – Stylistics and Translation

Overview• Vinay and Darbelnet’s model• Catford and ‘translation shifts’• Option, markedness and stylistic shifts• The cognitive process of translation• Ways of investigating cognitive processing

Vinay and Darbelnet

Jean Paul Vinay (1910-1999) and Jean Darbelnet(1904-1990) – In their Stylistique comparée dufrançais et de l’anglais (1958, Comparative Stylisticsof French and English, 1995) carried out acomparative stylistic analysis between English andFrench and noted differences between the languagesand translation shifts and identified differenttranslation strategies and procedures.

Translation Strategies and Procedures

Strategy – is an overall orientation of the translator (e.g. towards ‘free’ or ‘literal’ translation, towards the TT or ST)

Procedure – a specific technique or method used by the translator at a certain point in a text (e.g. the borrowing of a word from the SL, the addition of an explanation or a footnote in the TT)

Vinay and Darbelnet’s ModelStrategies:

– Direct translation occurs when two languages show close correspondence in terms of lexis and structure; it uses borrowing, calque and literal translation.

– Oblique translation applies when restructuring is involved; it uses transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation.

These categories operate at different levels oflanguage: the lexicon, the syntactic structuresand the message.

Three Strategies

:

Strategy Explaination Examples

Borrowing the SL is transferred directly intothe TL

perestroika, datcha, sushi, kimono,kebab, computer, mouse

Calque the SL expressionor structure is literally translated

Science-fiction; flea marketFinestra a bovindo;

LiteralTranslation

Word-for-wordrendering

The pen is on the tableLa penna è sul tavolo

Four Procedures

:

Procedure Explaination Examples

Transposition Change of one part of a speech for another

We try harder= Ci facciamo in quattro per voi!For patrons only= Riservato aiclienti.

Modulation Change the semantics or point of view of the SL

It is not difficult= è facileNo smoking = Vietato fumare

Equivalence Same situationby different stylistic or structural means

Like a bull in a china shop=Come un elefante in un negozio d cristalli

Adaptation Changing the cultural reference that does not exist in the TC

Mr Potato Head= ET*

*although it should normally be a target culture reference.

Other Techniques

:

Procedure Explaination Examples

Amplification TL uses more words The charge against him= la condanna a suo carico.

False Friend Similar term in SL and TL but different meaning

This is a library=Questa è una biblioteca (non una libreria)

Compensation If a ST nuance can’t be save in the TL, one can be insert in another place

Tu/lei= Mr/Sir; Mrs/Madam

Explicitation Implicit information in the ST are made explicit in the TT

The doctor= dottore/dottoressa?

Generalization A more general word is used in the TT

Cottage cheese= formaggiofresco

‘Servitude’ and ‘option’Servitude refers to the obligatory transpositions andmodulations due to a difference between the twolanguage systems (e.g. cold water -> acqua fredda)

Option refers to non-obligatory changes that may bedue to the translator’s own style and preferences, or toa change in emphasis. It is ‘option’, according to Vinayand Darbelnet, that should be the translator’s mainconcern (e.g. my mother calls at 6.00pm -> alle 6:00 michiama mia madre)

John CatfordJohn C. Catford (1917-2009) – In his book A LinguisticTheory of Translation (1965), Catford applies advances in linguistics to translation by following the linguistic model of Firth and Halliday.

Catford distinguishes between formal correspondence and textual equivalence in Translation. He also makes a detailed description of the translation shifts that take place in the translation process.

Formal Correspondence and Textual Equivalence

• Formal correspondent is defined as ‘any TL category (unit, class, element of structure, etc.) which can be said to occupy, as nearly as possible, the "same" place in the "economy" of the TL as the given SL category occupies in the SL’

(e.g. belongings = effetti personali)

• Textual equivalent refers to ‘any TL text or portion of text which is observed… to be the equivalent of a given SL text or portion of text’

(e.g. he searched through my belongings = controllò la miaborsa)

(Catford 1965: 27)

Translation shifts and Taxonomies • In Catford’s own words (1965: 73; 2000: 141), translation shifts are

‘departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the SL to the TL’– level shifts (when something is expressed by grammar in one

language and by lexis in another, (e.g. due turisti sarebberostati uccisi = two tourists have been reported killed)

– Category shifts:– structural shifts (grammar structure)– class shifts (parts of speech, e.g. adj. vs adv.)– unit (or rank) shifts (sentence vs clause) – intra-system shifts (advice= consigli)

Taxonomies are classifications of such shifts in anattempt to uncover the translation procedures andstrategies

Markedness and Stylistic ShiftsJiří Levý (1926-1967) Literary and translationtheoretician. In his book, The Art of Translationhe introduces the literary aspect of the‘expressive function’ or style of a text and thegoal of a translation is achieving and equivalentaesthetic effect.

• Markedness – a choice or patterns of choices that stand out as unusual or prominent

• Stylistic shifts – linguistic fingerprint of the translator

Markedness – Ex 1

You haven’t all the time beenhere if not seen, not thoughtof as present, for when I looked I saw nothing, whenI looked again, you hadreturned. This echo, sweetspring, makes a human soundyou have no need of, factsso precede, but you hear; youhear it, must feel the intentwetness, mushy. I melt againinto your ample presence.

Bob Creeley “Translation” (from Echoes, 1982)Invisibile sei sempre stataNon pensata come presentePerché quando ti cercavo Vedevo nienteE quanto guardavo ancoraEri tornata.Eco, dolce sorgenteChe crea suono umano Di cui non c’è bisognoI fatti lo precedonoMa senti, soltanto Devi sentire l’intento Molle umore Mi sciolgo ancoraAlla tua immane presenza

The Cognitive Process of Translation

• Observation of the translation process and what skills and competences are required (Bell)

• Seleskovitch and Lederer’s Interpretative model, initially applied to conference interpreting, explains translation as an overlapping three-stage process of: understanding, to grasp the sense of the STdeverbalization, rephrase the sense of the STre-expression, create the TT on the basis of the deverbalized sense.

The Cognitive Process of Translation

• Relevance Theory: Gutt describes translation as an example of a communication based around a cause-and-effect model of inferencing and interpretation. Translators need to decide if it is possible to communicate the informative intention, whether to translate descriptively or interpretively, what the degree of resemblance to the ST should be, and so on. These decisions are based on the translator’s evaluation of the cognitive environment of the receiver (see slides in WK 2 Lecture 2 below).

Ways of Investigating Cognitive Processing• Think-aloud protocols is a method of investigating the

translation process, coming from the field of psychology and developed by Ericsson and Simon (1984). The translator is asked to verbalize his/her thought processes while translating or immediately afterwards (the latter known as ‘retrospective protocol’), often with no prompting on content.

• Triangulated with technological innovations:– Video-recordings– Interviews/questionnaires– Key-stroke logging (recording of keyboard activity)– Eye-tracking

Lettere e FilosofiaLaurea Magistale

2018-2019

WEEK 2 - LECTURE 2Dr. Margherita Dore

margherita.dore@gmail.com

ENGLISH 1Module B – Stylistics and Translation

Overview• Text type and genre• Snell-Hornby’s integrated approach• Translatorial action• Skopos theory• Documentary and instrumental translation• The Role of Style in Translation• The spirit of a text • Universals of style and creative transposition • Context, Pragmatics, Cognitive Stylistics• Relativity and thinking for translating • Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Katharina Reiss • German linguist and translation scholar • Communication is achieved at the text level• Equivalence must be sought.

• Drawing from Karl Bühler’s earlier categorization of the three functions of language, Reiss formulated a functional model of genre and text type which describes three types of text: informative, expressive and operative.

• Each of these text types requires a different type of translation method and the translation of the predominant function of the ST should be the determining factor guiding the translation.

Text Type and Genre• Reiss’s text-type/genre taxonomy:

– Informative, a plain communication of facts: information, knowledge opinions; language is logical and communicating the content of text is also its main function (e.g. encyclopaedia)

– Expressive, creative texts, the aesthetics of the language used is important, author and message are foregrounded (e.g. Novel, poem, etc.)

– Operative the text aims to persuade its receiver to do something; the language is dialogic and appellative (e.g. Adverts, political speeches, etc.)

(Audio-medial the text includes written and spoken material,including music and visual elements, e.g. films, TV ads, Politicalprogrammes, etc.)

Text Type and Genre

Text Type and Genre• Translation method

– Informative > ‘plain prose method’, the TT should be content-focused and transmit the ST’s full referential content; no redundancy and use of explicitation if required

– Expressive > ‘identifying method’, the TT should be form-focused and transmit the ST’s aesthetic form; accuracy of information; the ST style is a priority

– Operative > ‘adaptive method’, the TT should aim for full equivalence in term of response; it should aim to transmit the ST’s intended effect

– Audio-medial > ‘supplementary method’ the TT should supplement the non verbal text of the ST

Text Types - Example 1In this paper I apply Fauconnier and Turner’s theory of Conceptual Integration, or Blending, to the analysis of a central aspect of the main characters’ mental lives in Virginia Woolf ’s story‘Lappin and Lapinova’: the fantastic world in which the story’s two protagonists, Rosalind and her husband Ernest, are, respectively a rabbit King called Lappin and a hare called Queen Lapinova. My analysis shows how the application of recent theories of cognition to literature can plausibly shed light on the creative processes involved in the production and interpretation of literary texts.

In questo lavoro applico la teoria di Fauconnier e Turner sull’integrazione concettuale, altresì denominata blending, al fine di analizzare un aspetto centrale della psicologia dei protagonisti del racconto breve di Virginia Woolf dal titolo ‘Lappin e Lapinova’: il mondo di fantasia in cui i due protagonisti della storia, Rosalind e il marito Ernest, sono, rispettivamente, un re coniglio chiamato Lappin e una lepre chiamata regina Lapinova. La mia analisi dimostra come l’applicazione di recenti teorie cognitive alla letteratura possa spiegare in modo plausibile e illuminante i processi creativi che fanno parte della produzione e interpretazione dei testi letterari.

E. Semino (2011) translated by M. Dore

Text Types - Example 2

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.

Amici, Romani, concittadini, prestatemi attenzione; io vengo per seppellire Cesare, non per elogiarlo. Il male che gli uomini compiono vive dopo di loro; il bene è spesso interrato con le loro ossa. Quindi lasciate che sia così per Cesare. Il nobile Bruto vi ha detto che Cesare era ambizioso. Se così era, era una colpa grave. E gravemente Cesare le ha risposto.

Shakespeare’s Julius Cesar – Mark Anthony’s Speech:

Text Types - Example 3(Bad) advertising translation…

Criticism

• Why there should only be three types of language functions?

• Are Reiss’s preferred translation methods reversible?

• Can text types and genres be differentiated on the basis of the primary function?

• Reiss’s divisions is really feasible?

Snell-Hornby

• Mary Snell-Hornby — Austrian-based scholar and translator.

• Her work, Translation Studies: An Integrated Approach (1988/95), reviews and attempts to integrate a wide variety of different linguistic and literary concepts in an overarching ‘integrated approach’ to translation based on text types.

Snell-Hornby’s Integrated Approach• Level A: continuum of literary, general and special

language• Level B: prototypical text types (e.g. Literary, Bible,

film, poetry, etc.• Level C: relevant non-linguistic disciplines (including

specialized translation)• Level D: the function of the translation (understanding

the ST’s function, the TT focus and its communicative function)

• Level E: linguistics • Level F: phonology (e.g. Alliteration, rhythm,

speakability for dubbing)

Snell-Hornby’s Integrated Approach

Translatorial Action (Holz-Mänttäri)• Justa Holz Mänttäri, Finnish-based German theorist. • Her model of translation views translation as purpose-

driven, outcome-oriented human interaction involving intercultural transfer.

• From communication theory to action theory, she points out roles and players with own (primary and secondary) goals:– Initiator– Commissioner– ST producer– TT producer– TT user– TT receiver

Hans J. Vermeer

• German linguist and translator scholar who , with Reiss, developed the skopos theory of translation.

• Their book Grundlegung einer allgemeinenTranslationstheorie [‘Groundwork for a General Theory of Translation’] (1984) aims for a general translation theory for all texts.

• The first part sets out a detailed explanation of Vermeer’s skopos theory, whereas the second adapts Reiss’s functional text-type model to the general theory.

Skopos Theory

• ‘Skopos’ = aim or purpose (of TT)• The TT (‘translatum’) must be fit for purpose =

‘dethroning of ST’ (Vermeer)• The skopos is stipulated by the client, commissioner or

initiator and determines the translation method and strategy to be employed in order to provide a functionally adequate text in the target culture

• Skopos theory allows for the possibility that the same text may be translated in different ways according to the purpose of the TT

Skopos Theory

• TT judged on functional adequacy:– Intratextual coherence (the TT must be translated

in such a way that it makes sense for the TT receivers) + intertextual fidelity (there must be coherence between the TT and the ST)

– Functionality + loyalty to ST author intentions (Nord)– So, skopos needs to be explicitly stated in the

brief/commission

If the TT fulfils the skopos outlined by the commission, itis functionally and communicatively adequate.

Nord’s Translation-Oriented Text Analysis

• Christiane Nord – the model of translation put forward in her book Text Analysis in Translation (1988/2005) is a detailed functional translation-oriented text analysis model which examines text organization at or above sentence level.

• Nord’s model enables understanding of the function of the features and the selection of translation strategies appropriate to the intended purpose of the translation.

• Her model stresses the importance of a ‘functionality plus loyalty’ principle. She distinguishes two basic types of translation: documentary translation and instrumental translation.

Documentary andInstrumental Translation

• Documentary translation– ‘a document of a source culture communication

between the author and the ST recipient’ (Nord 2005: 80)

• Instrumental translation– ‘is intended to fulfill its communicative purpose

without the recipient being conscious of reading or hearing a text which, in a different form, was used before in a different communicative situation’

(Nord ibid.)

Text Analysis for Translation (Nord)

• Subject matter (culture-bond to ST and TT)• Content (the meaning of the text)• Presuppositions (ST and TT conventions)• Text composition (microstructures)• Non-verbal elements (illustrations, italics, etc.)• Lexis (dialect, register, etc.)• Sentence structure (rhetorical features)• Suprasegmental features (stress, intonation, etc.)

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The Role of Style in Translation

• On the one hand, the translator is a reader of the sourcetext, and so the effects of its style upon the translator needto be examined. Important issues to consider here are howstyle is read, how it achieves its effects upon the reader, andwhat its relationship to various factors in the creation of thesource text is seen to be.

• On the other hand, the translator writes a new text intranslating, and so the style of the target text is anexpression of the translator’s choices. Some studies oftranslation consider how the style of the target text conformsto certain norms (of the genre, of the target language, or ofthe linguistic, literary or cultural system into which the targettext fits).

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The Role of Style in TranslationWe can thus consider style in translation from at least four potential viewpoints:

• i) the style of the source text as an expression of its author’s choices

• ii) the style of the source text in its effects on the reader (and on the translator as reader)

• iii) the style of the target text as an expression of choices made by its author (who is the translator)

• iv) the style of the target text in its effects on the reader.

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Boase-Beier’s The spirit of a text Though Snell-Hornby (1995), one of the few translation theorists toconsider style in detail, is keen to show that meaning cannot simplybe read off from the source text, and that therefore we need to havea sense of what the style might convey, her description tends torely on early stylistic theories (Leech & Short 1981) and functionalistapproaches (e.g. Reiß & Vermeer 1984), so it cannot offer anexplanation for the sort of inferences a translator might make. It isonly when such inferences are taken into account that an alternativeto the old structuralist code-model of language can begin to bemade available (e.g. Gutt 2000). (…)Cognitive stylistics, through its concept of context as cognitiveentity, involves a concern with social and cultural factors. It hasbeen able to develop, in ways relevant to translation.Tabakowska calls it the “human factor” (1993:10) in the study oflanguage.

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis When linguists and translation scholars consider thelanguage-thought link, they usually think of the Sapir-Whorfhypothesis:

1. Linguistic determinism à Language determines thought2. Linguistic relativity à Each language encodes different distinctions

Each language involves a unique way of seeing the world, butsome aspects of language were in fact universal (cf. the PPTsof Week 1)The consequences for translation are that it emphasizes thesource-target relationship and a view of the target text asinferior to the source text (Hyde 1993: 67).

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Universals of style and creative transposition • There is nothing wrong with universalism, as long as it is

combined with an awareness of its possible shortcomings (cf. Miner 1990).

• Just as everything can be translated, so too different types of transposition, rewording or adaptation are forms of translation.

• Once linguistics began to focus on the mind, and to explain linguistic data as the result of the structure of the mind, what Jakobson saw as the two defining factors of languages – their individual spirit and their unifying aspects – could be formulated as characteristics of the mind.

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Context, Style, Translation Context:

• i) the sociological, historical and ideological aspects of the genesis of source and target text are largely ignored;

• ii) there is sometimes little consideration of psychological aspects of the production and interpretation of texts;

• iii) pragmatic aspects, that is, aspects which have to do with the way people speak and understand texts beyond their actual linguistically- determined structures, are not taken into account; and

• iv) there is little consideration of the role of the reader.

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Criticism of Context-Based Approaches

• i) the sociological, historical and ideological aspects of the genesis of source and target text are largely ignored;

• ii) there is sometimes little consideration of psychological aspects of the production and interpretation of texts;

• iii) pragmatic aspects, that is, aspects which have to do with the way people speak and understand texts beyond their actual linguistically- determined structures, are not taken into account; and

• iv) there is little consideration of the role of the reader.

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Pragmatics in Style and Translation

• Pragmatics, with its emphasis on context, also touches on one of the central problems of translation: to what extent is the understanding of texts, especially literary texts, dependent upon a particular cultural background? An approach to style which focuses on its universal aspects will obviously see fewer problems (e.g. cultural references)

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Cognitive Stylistics and Translation

• Cognitive stylistics can be said in general to have brought together the pragmatic concern with what goes beyond a text’s relation to an observable reality with a concern for context as a cognitive construct (cf. Semino 1997:9) which takes in the social and historical aspects of the production and under- standing of texts.

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Relativity and thinking for translating Throughout the recent decades of generative linguistics, with its emphasis on the universality of grammar, it has become common to dismiss the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as leading to too great a relativity.

Slobin (2003:164) posits a “thinking for translating”, meaningthat, although individual languages may not represent an implacable, unique, untranslatable reality, they may nevertheless tend to relate to a particular mindset. Put more simply:

One “thinks differently in every language”

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Translating literary and non-literary texts

• The distinction between literary and non-literary texts, however it is formulated, is crucial to translators and translation researchers for an under- standing of the factors that influence translation.

• The distinction between literary and non-literary texts has consequences for the translator. These may vary from whether s/he will take on a particular com- mission, to whether a translation is evaluated as adequate, and even to the question of where postgraduate degrees in Translation Studies should be located in the structure of a particular university.

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Translating literary and non-literary texts A literary translation is both literary DQG a translation, often overtly so. In non-literary translation, the target text may be only covertly a translation (in the sense described by House 1981), and therefore not read as such. Taking all these factors into account, there are four possible ways in which a translated text might be read:

• i) as a literary text, overtly a translation • ii) as a literary text, but a covert translation • iii) as a non-literary text, overtly a translation • iv) as a non-literary text, covertly a translation

Cover Translation of Non-Literary Text

M. Dore (2016) translation of Tower Bridge

Cover Translation of Non-Literary Text

Your Homework

Find examples of ‘funny’ translations. There are countless examples online :o)

Bibliography

What we studied so far:• Munday, Jeremy (2016), Introducing Translation Studies.

Theories and Applications, 4th edition, Routledge, London/New York – CHAPTERS 1, 3, 4, 5

• Jean Boase-Beier (2006), Stylistic Approaches to Translation, London: Routledge CHAPTERS 1 (Chapter 2 is very similar to Chapter 4 in Munday (2016) in terms of content, so you can skip it or read it as further reading).