By definition, translators are intercultural mediators. This book explores some of the most important current approaches in defining intercultural competence for translators. At the same time, it provides real-life examples of different approaches in operationalizing intercultural competence and teaching it in a translator-training context. Written for a global audience, the book provides an informative overview of the field as well as practical examples from different academic and cultural contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Interpreter and Translator Trainer.
This selection of 30 contributions (3 workshop reports, 27 papers from 14 countries) concentrates on intercultural communication in its broadest sense: themes vary from dissident translation under the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines and translation as a process of power in the 3rd world context to drama translation and the role of the cognitive sciences in translation theory. Topics of current interest such as media interpreting, news translation, advertising, subtitling and the ethics of translation have a prominent position, as does the Workshop 'Contact as Conflict' which discusses the phenomenon of the hybrid text as a result of the translation process. The volume closes with the EST Focus debate on thorny issues of Methodology, Policy and Training. The volume demonstrates clearly the richness and breadth of the topics dealt with in Translation Studies today along with its complex interaction with neighbouring disciplines.
Culture has a significant influence on the emerging trends in translation and interpretation. By studying language from a diverse perspective, deeper insights and understanding can be gained. Redefining Translation and Interpretation in Cultural Evolution is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on culture-oriented translation and interpretation studies in the contemporary globalized society. Featuring coverage on a range of topics such as sociopolitical factors, gender considerations, and intercultural communication, this book is ideally designed for linguistics, educators, researchers, academics, professionals, and students interested in cultural discourse in translation studies.
As the 21st century gets into stride so does the call for a discipline combining culture and translation. This second edition of Translating Cultures retains its original aim of putting some rigour and coherence into these fashionable words and lays the foundation for such a discipline. This edition has not only been thoroughly revised, but it has also been expanded. In particular, a new chapter has been added which focuses specifically on training translators for translational and intercultural competencies. The core of the book provides a model for teaching culture to translators, interpreters and other mediators. It introduces the reader to current understanding about culture and aims to raise awareness of the fundamental role of culture in constructing, perceiving and translating reality. Culture is perceived throughout as a system for orienting experience, and a basic presupposition is that the organization of experience is not 'reality', but rather a simplified model and a 'distortion' which varies from culture to culture. Each culture acts as a frame within which external signs or 'reality' are interpreted. The approach is interdisciplinary, taking ideas from contemporary translation theory, anthropology, Bateson's logical typing and metamessage theories, Bandler and Grinder's NLP meta-model theory, and Hallidayan functional grammar. Authentic texts and translations are offered to illustrate the various strategies that a cultural mediator can adopt in order to make the different cultural frames he or she is mediating between more explicit.
The questions which this volume seeks to address include: what is translation competence? How can it be built and developed? How can the product of the performance be used to measure levels of competence? These questions are addressed with specific reference to the training situation. They are arranged in three sections, the first focusing on the identification of subcompetences.
To most people, translation means making the words of one language understandable in another; but translation in a broader sense-seeing strangeness and incorporating it into one's understanding-is perhaps the earliest task of the human brain. This book illustrates the translation process in less-common contexts: cultural, religious, even the translation of pain. Its original contributions seek to trace human understanding of the self, of the other, and of the stranger by discovering how we bridge gaps within or between semiotic systems. Translation and Ethnography focuses on issues that arise when we attempt to make significant thematic or symbolic elements of one culture meaningful in terms of another. Its chapters cover a wide range of topics, all stressing the interpretive practices that enable the approximation of meaning: the role of differential power, of language and so-called world view, and of translation itself as a metaphor of many contemporary cross-cultural processes. The topics covered here represent a global sample of translation, ranging from Papua New Guinea to South America to Europe. Some of the issues addressed include postcolonial translation/transculturation from the perspective of colonized languages, as in the Mexican Zapatista movement; mis-translations of Amerindian conceptions and practices in the Amazon, illustrating the subversive potential of anthropology as a science of translation; Ethiopian oracles translating divine messages for the interpretation of believers; and dreams and clowns as translation media among the Gamk of Sudan. Anthropologists have long been accustomed to handling translation chains; in this book they open their diaries and show the steps they take toward knowledge. Translation and Ethnography raises issues that will shake up the most obdurate, objectivist translators and stimulate scholars in sociolinguistics, communication, ethnography, and other fields who face the challenges of conveying meaning across human boundaries.
In this interdisciplinary book, Juliane House breaks new ground by situating translation within Applied Linguistics. In thirteen chapters, she examines translation as a means of communication across different languages and cultures, provides a critical overview of different approaches to translation, of the link between culture and translation, and between views of context and text in translation. Featuring an account of translation from a linguistic-cognitive perspective, House covers problematic issues such as the existence of universals of translation, cases of untranslatability and ways and means of assessing the quality of a translation. Recent methodological and research avenues such as the role of corpora in translation and the effects of globalization processes on translation are presented in a neutral, non-biased manner. The book concludes with a thorough, historical account of the role of translation in foreign language learning and teaching and a discussion of new challenges and problems of the professional practice of translation in our world today. Written by a highly experienced teacher and researcher in the field, Translation as Communication across Languages and Cultures is an essential resource for students and researchers of Translation Studies, Applied Linguistics and Communication Studies.
Detailed yet accessible, Translation and Localization brings together the research and insights of veteran practicing translators to offer comprehensive guidance for technical communicators. The volume begins with the fundamentals of translation before leading readers through the process of preparing technical documents for translation. It then presents the broader area of localization, again beginning with its key competencies. Concluding chapters examine the state of the field as computers take on more translation and localization work. Featuring real-life scenarios and a broad range of experienced voices, this is an invaluable resource for technical and professional communicators looking to expand into international markets.
Translation and Cultural Identity: Selected Essays on Translation and Cross-Cultural Communication tackles the complexity of the concepts mentioned in its title through seven essays, written by most highly regarded experts in the field of Translation Studies: José Lambert (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium), Raquel Merino (University of the Basque Country, Spain), Rosa Rabadán (University of Leon, Spain), Julio-César Santoyo (University of Leon, Spain), Christina Schäffner (Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom), Gideon Toury (Tel-Aviv University, Israel) and Patrick Zabalbeascoa (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain). The essays are varied and innovative. Their common feature is that they deal with various aspects of translation and cultural identity and that they contribute to the enrichment of the study of communication across cultures. These major readings in translation studies will give readers food for thought and reflection and will promote research on translation, cultural identity and cross-cultural communication.
Praise for the previous edition of the Encyclopedia of Translation Studies: 'Translation has long deserved this sort of treatment. Appropriate for any college or university library supporting a program in linguistics, this is vital in those institutions that train students to become translators.' – Rettig on Reference 'Congratulations should be given to Mona Baker for undertaking such a mammoth task and...successfully pulling it off. It will certainly be an essential reference book and starting point for anyone interested in translation studies.' – ITI Bulletin 'This excellent volume is to be commended for bringing together some of [its] most recent research. It provides a series of extremely useful short histories, quite unlike anything that can be found elsewhere. University teachers will find it invaluable for preparing seminars and it will be widely used by students.' – The Times Higher Education Supplement ' ... a pioneering work of reference ...'– Perspectives on Translation The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies has been the standard reference in the field since it first appeared in 1998. The second, extensively revised and extended edition brings this unique resource up-to-date and offers a thorough, critical and authoritative account of one of the fastest growing disciplines in the humanities. The Encyclopedia is divided into two parts and alphabetically ordered for ease of reference. Part One (General) covers the conceptual framework and core concerns of the discipline. Categories of entries include: central issues in translation theory (e.g. equivalence, translatability, unit of translation) key concepts (e.g. culture, norms, ethics, ideology, shifts, quality) approaches to translation and interpreting (e.g. sociological, linguistic, functionalist) types of translation (e.g. literary, audiovisual, scientific and technical) types of interpreting (e.g. signed language, dialogue, court). New additions in this section include entries on globalisation, mobility, localization, gender and sexuality, censorship, comics, advertising and retranslation, among many others. Part Two (History and Traditions) covers the history of translation in major linguistic and cultural communities. It is arranged alphabetically by linguistic region. There are entries on a wide range of languages which include Russian, French, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and Finnish, and regions including Brazil, Canada and India. Many of the entries in this section are based on hitherto unpublished research. This section includes one new entry: Southeast Asian tradition. Drawing on the expertise of over 90 contributors from 30 countries and an international panel of consultant editors, this volume offers a comprehensive overview of translation studies as an academic discipline and anticipates new directions in the field. The contributors examine various forms of translation and interpreting as they are practised by professionals today, in addition to research topics, theoretical issues and the history of translation in various parts of the world. With key terms defined and discussed in context, a full index, extensive cross-references, diagrams and a full bibliography the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies is an invaluable reference work for all students and teachers of translation, interpreting, and literary and social theory. Mona Baker is Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Manchester, UK. She is co-founder and editorial director of St Jerome Publishing, a small press specializing in translation studies and cross-cultural communication. Apart from numerous papers in scholarly journals and collected volumes, she is author of In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation (Routledge 1992), Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account (2006) and Founding Editor of The Translator: Studies in Intercultural Communication (1995), a refereed international journal published by St Jerome since 1995. She is also co-Vice President of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS). Gabriela Saldanha is Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is founding editor (with Marion Winters) and current member of the editorial board of New Voices in Translation Studies, a refereed online journal of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies, and co-editor (with Federico Zanettin) of Translation Studies Abstracts and Bibliography of Translation Studies.
