Main issues of translation studies definitions

Introducing Translation Studies
Chapter 1
Main issues of translation studies
© Jeremy Munday

Chapter 1
Chapter 1
• Discusses what we mean by ‘translation’ and what the scope is of the discipline of
translation studies.
• It discusses the three types of translation defined by Jakobson: intralingual,
interlingual and intersemiotic.
• It then presents the well-known Holmes/Toury conceptual map of the discipline,
and critiques it with new conceptualizations and knowledge structures used in the
construction of the online publications database, the Benjamins Translation Studies
Bibliography
Jeremy Munday, Introducing Translation
Studies, 3rd edition, Routledge 2012
3

Overview
• The concept of translation
• What is translation studies?
• Developments since the 1970s
• The van Doorslaer ‘map’
4

The concept of translation
• The English term translation, first attested in around 1340 derives either from Old French
translation or more directly from the Latin translatio (‘transporting’), itself coming from the
participle of the verb transferre (‘to carry over’).
• In the field of languages, translation today has several meanings:
 The general subject field or phenomenon (‘I studied translation at university’)
 The product – that is, the text that has been translated (‘they published the Arabic
translation of the report’)
 The process of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating (‘translation
service’)
• The process of translation between two different written languages involves the changing of
an original written text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source
language or SL) into a written text (the target text or TT) in a different verbal language (the
target language or TL):
Source text (ST) >>>>>>>>>>>> Target text (TT)
Source language (SL) >>>> Target language (TL)
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 The traditional ST-TT configuration is the most prototypical of ‘interlingual translation’, one
of the three categories of translation described by the Russo-American structuralist Roman
Jakobson (1896–1982) in his seminal paper ‘On linguistic aspects of translation’. Jakobson’s
categories are as follows:
• Intralingual translation, or ‘rewording’ – ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other
signs of the same language’
• Interlingual translation, or ‘translation proper’ – ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means
of some other language’
• Intersemiotic translation, or ‘transmutation’ – ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means of
signs of non-verbal sign systems’. for example, occurs when a written text is translated into a
different mode, such as music, film or painting. From Roman Jakobson (1959/2004)
The question is : what we mean by ‘translation’, and how it differs from ‘adaptation’, ‘version’,
‘transcreation’ (the creative adaptation of video games and advertising in particular,
‘localization’ (the linguistic and cultural adaptation of a text for a new locale) and so on, is a
very real one
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• Sandra Halverson (1999) - as a prototype classification, that is, that there are basic core
features that we associate with a prototypical translation, and other translational forms which
lie on the periphery.
• Much of translation theory has also been written from a western perspective and initially
derived from the study of Classical Greek and Latin and from Biblical practice.
• However, the very different words and metaphors for ‘translation’ in other cultures,
indicative of a conceptual orientation where the goal of close lexical fidelity to an original
may not therefore be shared, certainly in the practice of translation of sacred and literary texts.
Maria Tymoczko (2005, 2006, 2007: 68–77
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• Translation – from Latin trans-ferre (‘to carry
across’)
• Bengali rupantar (= ‘change of form’)
• Hindi arnuvad (= ‘speaking after’)
• Arabic tarjama (= ‘biography’)
• Chinese fān yì (= ‘turning over’)
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What is translation studies?
• Translations (written and spoken) have played a crucial role in interhuman communication,
providing access to important texts for scholarship and religious purposes.
• As an academic subject, the study of translation began in the second half of the twentieth
century.
• In the English-speaking world, this discipline is now generally known as ‘translation
studies’, by the great efforts of the Dutch-based US scholar James S. Holmes (1924–1986).
• In his key defining paper delivered in 1972, but not widely available until 1988, Holmes
describes the then nascent discipline as being concerned with ‘the complex of problems
clustered round the phenomenon of translating and translations’ (Holmes 1988b/2004: 181).
• By 1995, Mary Snell-Hornby argues that translation studies is an independent discipline
in her second, revised, edition of Translation Studies: An Integrated Approach, and in the
preface of ‘the breathtaking development of translation studies as an independent discipline ’
and the ‘prolific international discussion’ on the subject (Snell-Hornby 1995, preface).
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• There are four very visible ways in which translation studies has become more prominent. The
practical side of professional translating and the often more abstract research activity.
1. As the demand for translation has soared, so has there been a vast expansion in specialized
translating and interpreting programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
2. The past decades have also seen a proliferation of conferences, books and journals on
translation in many languages.
3. As the number of publications has increased so has the demand for general and analytical
instruments such as anthologies, databases, encyclopedias, handbooks and introductory texts.
4. International organizations have also prospered. Such as The Fédération Internationale des
Traducteurs (International Federation of Translators, FIT) 1953.
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• Cicero and Horace (first century)
• St Jerome (fourth century).
• In St Jerome’s case, his approach to translating the Greek Septuagint Bible into Latin would
affect later translations of the Scriptures.
• In western Europe, the translation of the Bible was to be the battleground of conflicting
ideologies for well over a thousand years and especially during the Reformation in the
sixteenth century.
• In China, it was the translation of the Buddhist sutras that inaugurated a long discussion on
translation practice from the first century AC.
• Translation had often been relegated to an element of language learning.
• From the late eighteenth century to the 1960s and beyond, language learning in secondary
schools in many countries had come to be dominated by what was known as grammar-
translation. (study of the grammatical rules and structures of the foreign language.)
• These rules were both practiced and tested by the translation of unconnected and artificially
constructed sentences exemplifying the structure(s) being studied. This is an approach that
persists even today in certain contexts.
An early history of the discipline
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• Grammar-translation fell into increasing disrepute, particularly in many English language
countries, with the rise of alternative forms of language teaching such as the direct method
and the communicative approach from the 1960s and 1970s.
• Translation workshop: were intended as a platform for the introduction of new translations
into the target culture and for the discussion of the finer principles of the translation process
and of understanding a text.
• This creates another approach, which is comparative literature, through studying and
comparing literature translationally and transculturally. This leads to new approach.
• Contrastive linguistics: another area in which translation became the subject of research.
• This is the study of two languages in contrast in an attempt to identify general and specific
differences between them.
• The contrastive approach heavily influenced important linguistic research into translation,
such as Vinay and Darbelnet (1958) and Catford (1965).
• The continued application of linguistics-based models has demonstrated their obvious and
inherent link with translation.
• Generative grammar, functional linguistics and pragmatics: among the specific models.
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The Holmes/Toury ‘map’
The Holmes/Toury ‘map’
• This framework was subsequently presented by the leading translation scholar
Gideon Toury.
• Holmes drew attention to the limitations imposed at the time because translation
research was dispersed across older disciplines (languages, linguistics, etc.).
• He also stressed the need to forge/form ‘other communication channels, cutting
across the traditional disciplines to reach all scholars working in the field.
• Holmes put forward an overall framework, describing what translation studies
covers.
13

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• The ‘Pure’ areas of research are:
1. The description of the phenomena of translation;
2. The establishment of general principles to explain and predict such phenomena (translation
theory).
The ‘theoretical’ branch is divided into general and partial theories:
1. General: writings that seek to describe or account for every type of translation and to make
generalizations that will be relevant for translation as a whole (e.g. Toury’s ‘laws’ of
translation).
• Aimed at elaboration of a general theory capable of explaining and predicting all
phenomena regarding translating and translation.
• The formulation of a general theory is a long-term goal for a discipline as a whole.
2. Partial: theoretical studies are restricted according to certain parameters such as (medium,
text-type, … etc.).
• The descriptive branch of ‘pure’ research in Holmes’s map is known as descriptive
translation studies (DTS). It examines: (1) the product; (2) the function; and (3) the process.
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1. Product-oriented DTS: examines existing translations.
• This may involve the description or analysis of a single ST–TT pair or a comparative
analysis of several TTs of the same ST (into one or more TLs).
• These smaller-scale studies can build up into a larger body of translation analysis looking
at a specific period, language or text/discourse type.
• Larger-scale studies can be either diachronic (following development over time) or
synchronic (at a single point or period in time).
• A goal of product-oriented DTS might possibly be a general history of translations.
2. Function-oriented DTS:
• The description of the ‘function of translations in the recipient sociocultural situation: it
is a study of contexts rather than texts’.
• For example, the study of the translation and reception of Shakespeare into European
languages, or the subtitling of contemporary cartoon films into Arabic.
• Holmes terms this area ‘socio-translation studies’.
• Nowadays, it would probably be called the sociology and historiography of translation.
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3. Process-oriented DTS: the act of producing translation:
• is concerned with the psychology of translation. i.e.
• it is concerned with trying to find out what happens in the mind of a translator. Work
from a cognitive perspective includes think-aloud protocols (where recordings are made
of translators’ verbalization of the translation process as they translate).
• More recent technologies such as eye-tracking shows how this area is now being more
systematically analyzed.
Partial theories of translation:
1.Medium-restricted theories: translation by:
•Machine (computer) is working alone (automatic machine translation) or as an aid to the human
translator (Computer-assisted Translation), CAT tools
•Human: human translation is written or spoken and to whether spoken translation (interpreting)
is consecutive or simultaneous
2. Area-restricted theories: (theories relating to specific language communities)
•are restricted to specific languages or groups of languages and/or cultures. These theories are
closely related to work in contrastive linguistics and stylistics.
3. Rank-restricted theories: are linguistic theories restricted to a level of the word or sentence.
text linguistics, i.e. analysis at the level of the text.
17

4. Text-type restricted theories: look at discourse types and genres; e.g. literary, business and
technical translation. Text-type approaches came to prominence with the work of Reiss and
Vermeer, in the 1970s.
5. The term time-restricted theories: refer to theories and translations limited according to
specific time frames and periods. The history of translation falls into this category.
6. Problem-restricted theories: may refer to certain problems such as equivalence or to a wider
question of whether so-called ‘universals’ of translation exist.
•The ‘applied’ branch of Holmes’s framework: concerns applications to the practice of
translation:
1.Translator training: teaching methods, testing techniques, curriculum design.
2.Translation aids: such as dictionaries and grammars.
3.Translation criticism: the evaluation of translations, including the marking of student
translations and the reviews of published translations.
Translation policy: another area that Holmes mentions, where he sees the translation scholar
advising on the place of translation in society. This should include what place, if any, it should
occupy in the language teaching and learning curriculum. Pros and Corn next
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•There are drawbacks to the structure. The divisions in the ‘map’ as a whole are in many ways
artificial, and Holmes himself points out that the theoretical, descriptive and applied areas do
influence one another.
•Holmes’s map omits any mention of the individuality of the style, decision-making and
working practices of human translators involved in the translation process.
•The main merit of the divisions is that they allow a clarification and a division of labour between
the various areas of translation studies which, in the past, have often been confused.
•The divisions are still flexible enough to incorporate developments such as the technological
advances of recent years
19

Applied branch
Applied branch of translation studies
20

Developments since the 1970s
Developments since the 1970s
• Equivalence (see Chapter 3)
• Taxonomies of the translation product and investigation of the translation process (Chapter 4)
• Text type and skopos/purpose (Chapter 5)
• Discourse analysis (Chapter 6)
• Descriptive translation studies (Chapter 7)
• The cultural turn (Chapter 8)
• The invisibility of the translator (Chapter 9)
• Deconstruction and the challenge to equivalence (Chapter 10)
• Audiovisual translation, localization, corpus-based studies (Chapter 11)
• Internationalization of the field
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Developments since Holmes
Developments since Holmes
• The surge in translation studies since Holmes has seen different areas of the map come to the
fore. Such as:
1. Contrastive linguistics: because of the advances in machine translation and corpus-based
studies. Cap 11
2. The linguistics-oriented ‘science’ of translation. Chap 11
3. The concept of equivalence. Chap 3
4. The rise of theories centred around text types and text purpose (the skopos theory of
Katharina Reiss and Hans Vermeer. 5
5. The Hallidayan influence of discourse analysis and systemic functional grammar, which
views language as a communicative act in a sociocultural context, came to prominence in
the early 1990s. 6
6. The late 1970s and the 1980s also saw the rise of a descriptive approach that had its origins
in comparative literature and Russian Formalism. 7
7. A pioneering centre was Tel Aviv, where Itamar Even-Zohar and Gideon Toury pursued
the idea of the literary polysystem in which, among other things, different literatures and
genres, including translated and non-translated works, compete for dominance. 8
8. ‘Manipulation School’ Hermans.8
9. Term ‘cultural turn: Bassnett and Lefevere.8
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10. The 1990s the incorporation of new approaches and concepts: Canadian-based translation and
gender research led by Sherry Simon. 8
11. 1990s postcolonial translation theory with the prominent figures of the Bengali scholars
Tejaswini Niranjana and Gayatri Spivak. 8
12. The cultural studies-oriented analysis of Lawrence Venuti called for greater visibility and
invisibility i.e. recognition of the translator. 9
13. New technologies. These new areas include machine and automatic translation, audiovisual
and multimodal translation, localization and corpus-based translation studies. 11
23

The van Doorslaer ‘map’
The van Doorslaer ‘map’
• In the new maps, a distinction is drawn between ‘translation’ and ‘translation studies’.
 Translation: looks at the act of translating and, (van Doorslaer 2007: 223), is subdivided into:
1. Lingual mode (interlingual, intralingual);
2. Media (printed, audiovisual, electronic);
3. Mode (covert/overt translation (House 1997), direct/indirect translation, mother tongue/ other
tongue translation, pseudo-translation, retranslation, self-translation, sight translation, etc.). In
literature, a pseudo-translation is a text written as if it had been translated from a foreign
language, even though no foreign language original exists.
4. Field (political, journalistic, technical, literary, religious, scientific, commercial).
 Translation studies: is subdivided into:
1. Approaches (e.g. cultural approach, linguistic approach).
2. Theories (e.g. general translation theory, polysystem theory).
3. Research methods (e.g. descriptive, empirical).
4. Applied translation studies (criticism, didactics, institutional environment).
Also, ‘basic transfer map’ of terminology describe the linguistic manoeuvres that, despite the
cultural turn, remain central to the concrete translating process.
This consists of strategies, procedures/ techniques, ‘errors’, rules /norms/ conventions/ laws/
universals and translation tools.
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The taxonomy of ‘strategies’ and ‘procedures’.
•Strategy: is the overall orientation of a translated text (e.g. literal translation)
•Procedure: is a specific technique used at a given point in a text (e.g. borrowing, calque).
25

Procedures
26

Discipline, interdiscipline or multidiscipline?
Discipline, interdiscipline or multidiscipline?
• It is an entity that exists in the interstices/gaps of the existing fields, dealing with some, many
or all of them.
• An interdiscipline since it challenges the current conventional way of thinking by promoting
and responding to new links between different types of knowledge and technologies.
• The ‘conventional’ disciplines have either a ‘primary’ or a ‘secondary’ relationship to a new
interdiscipline.
• It has the potential for a primary relationship with disciplines such as:
 Linguistics (especially semantics, pragmatics, applied and contrastive linguistics,
cognitive linguistics).
 Modern languages and language studies.
 Comparative literature.
 Cultural studies (including gender studies and postcolonial studies);
 Philosophy (of language and meaning, including hermeneutics and deconstruction and
ethics).
 Recently with sociology, history and creative writing.
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• Multidisciplinary: since some current projects see so, involving the participation of
researchers from various disciplines, including translation studies.
• It is important to point out that the relationship of translation studies to other disciplines is
not fixed.
• This explains the changes over the years, from a strong link to contrastive linguistics in the
1960s to the present focus on more cultural studies perspectives and even the recent shift
towards areas such as computing and multi-media.
• Other, secondary, relationships come to the fore when dealing with the area of applied
translation studies, such as translator training.
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References
References
Holmes, James S. (1988b/2004) ‘The name and nature of translation studies’ in Lawrence Venuti
(ed.) (2004) The Translation Studies Reader, 2nd
edition, pp. 180–92.
Jakobson, Roman (1959/2004) ‘On linguistic aspects of translation’, in Lawrence Venuti (ed.)
(2004) The Translation Studies Reader, 2nd
edition, pp. 138–43.
Toury, Gideon (1995) Descriptive Translation Studies – and beyond, Amsterdam and
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Van Doorslaer, Luc (2007) ‘Risking conceptual maps’, in Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer
(eds) The Metalanguage of Translation, Special issue of Target 19.2: 217–33.
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