Andrew Chesterman

Memes of translation : the spread of ideas in translation theory

This revised edition of Memes of Translation includes updates that relate the books themes to more recent research in Translation Studies. The book contributes to the debate about whether it is worth seeking a coherent theory of translation, by proposing an approach based on norms, strategies and values, which are all seen as kinds of memes, i.e. ideas that spread. The meme metaphor allows us to see translation in the context of cultural evolution, and also highlights similarities with the philosopher Karl Poppers analysis of another kind of evolution: that of scientific knowledge. A translation is, after all, itself a theory – a theory about the source text. And as Popper stressed, theories of all kinds are like nets we make in order to catch something of reality: never perfectly, but always in the hope of better understanding.

Proposal for a Hieronymic Oath

Abstract Four current models of translation ethics are described, based on the ideas of representation, service, communication and norms. There are problems with all these models: they are in several respects incompatible, and have different ranges of application. An alternative approach is therefore offered based on Alasdair MacIntyre’s ideas about virtues and the deontic force of excellence in a social practice. This leads to a fifth possible model, an ethics of professional commitment, comparable with Maria Tymoczko’s suggestion that translation is a commissive act. At the centre of such a model there might be an official oath, comparable to the Hyppocratic Oath for the medical profession. I end with a proposal for a Hieronymic Oath for translators.

Readings in Translation Theory

Inhoudsopgave : -- 1. John Dryden: Metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation -- 2. Walter Benjamin: The task of the translator -- 3. George Steiner: The hermeneutic motio -- 4. R.J. Jumpelt: On the objectivizability of translation -- 5. Jifii Lev˘: Translation as a decision process -- 6. Roman Jakobson: On linguistic apsects of translation -- 7. J.-P. Vinay and J. Darbelnet: Translation procedures -- 8. J.C. Catford: Translation shifts -- 9. Eugene A. Nida: Science of translation -- 10. W. Koller: Equivalence in translation theory -- 11. Katharine Reiss: Text types, translation types and translation assessment -- 12. Peter Newmark: Communicative and semantic translation -- 13. Albrecht Neubert: Translation, interpreting and text linguistics -- 14. Juliane House: Translation quality assessment -- 15. Peter Toma: An operational machine translation system -- 16. Hans J. Vermeer: Skopos and commission in translational action

Translation Studies Forum: Cultural translation

In the following, we present the second round of responses to the article ‘‘Cultural translation: An introduction to the problem’’, by Boris Buden and Stefan Nowotny of the European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies in Vienna (Translation Studies 2, no. 2 (2009): 196 208). The first round of responses has prompted reactions from a wide range of perspectives, and we will continue this stimulating discussion in Translation Studies 3, no. 3. We very much welcome further responses (deadline for submission: February 2010).

Description, Explanation, Prediction: A Response to Gideon Toury and Theo Hermans

Norms When norms entered Translation Studies, they offered solutions to two kinds of theoretical problems. First, they offered a way of escape from the tradition of prescriptive studies: much of the older thinking was prescriptive in tone and intent, with translators proposing general principles about what translations should be like, or appealing to such principles in justifying why they had translated the way they had. The concept of norms allows modern translation scholars to take a distance from this prescriptiveness: we can describe the norms which appear to exist in a given culture at a given time, but it is the norms that do the prescribing, not the scholars. That is, the norms are experienced by those who translate as being prescriptive, regulatory. To break these norms is to run the risk of criticism; but it may also, of course, lead to the establishment of new norms. As Toury stresses, norms are thus of central importance in the training of translators, in their socialisation into the profession. Second, norms offered a way of explaining why translations have the form they do. Given certain features of a translation, or of translations in a particular culture at a particular period, we can propose norms as causes of these translation features, or of these translator’ s decisions: the translator did this, because he or she wished to conform to a given norm. In translation research, norms are thus not really ends in themselves, but means; they are explanatory hypotheses that may help us to understand more about the phenomenon of translation. One major result of the introduction of translation norms has been the expansion of the object of study. We now have a wider concept of what translation is, and of what it can be, than earlier. The move from an essentialist position (a translation must have feature X) to a relativist one (let us see what kinds of texts are called translations in this culture) has been enormously beneficial here, in freeing research from unnecessary constraints. However, the essentialist position cannot be rejected entirely: there must be some constraints on what we take as translations, otherwise we might as well study any text at all, or even the universe in general. Toury himself (1995: 33‐ 35) has proposed three postulates (that there is a source text, that there has been a transfer process, and that there is an accountable relationship between source and target) which look like conditions for a text to be called a translation, although he says that these postulates are not factual but indeed ‘ posited’ , to be tested against the data. If all

Translation Studies Forum: Universalism in translation studies

It is sometimes said that the way to develop current translation theory is to look at specifically non-Eurocentric and non-Western approaches and learn from them. Against such a position I take a Popperian view. I argue that this proposal is flawed because it commits the genetic fallacy, where an idea or hypothesis is assessed according to its origin. Rather, any hypothesis should be tested as widely as possible, regardless of where it comes from. This includes taking account of the context of discovery. I illustrate my main point with reference to some basic conceptualizations of translation (such as the transfer metaphor), so-called translation universals and the debate about whether translation studies should have a standardized terminology.

The successful translator: The evolution of homo transferens

Abstract Using Karl Poppers idea about how theories change over time as the point of departure, the author discusses the development of translation theories and relates them to the development in individual translators. This view is pursued through a brief presentation of translation theory as it started out with a focus on individual words. Subsequently theory concentrates on to literal translations (of religious texts), then on rhetorically founded rewriting, and then a reaction arguing that translation brought enlightenment to the target culture. The next approach was linguistic and was eventually supplanted by a theory emphasising communication. In due turn this has been replaced with descriptive theories of translational action, which then vie with cognitive approaches with the translator in focus.

The View from Memetics

The View from Memetics - This essay proposes a memetic view of translation, as an alternative and perhaps more fruitful way of conceptualizing the issues involved. After a brief introduction to memetics as a theory of cultural transfer, we outline its relation to genetics and then consider its relevance for Translation Studies. Particular attention is given to a recent article by Maria Tymoczko which challenges some of the traditional assumptions of Translation Studies. Can memetics offer a way to meet these challenges? The essay closes with an assessment of some of the criticisms that have been directed against memetics. Keywords: Meme, Imitation, Cultural evolution, Transfer, Modification, Translation. Parole chiave: Meme, Imitazione, Evoluzione culturale, Trasmissione, Modificazione, Traduzione.

Response to the responses

intellectual resources that we (in our great wisdom) think should have been better developed, but as we look into those areas, we find that a few people are already working to develop them, to win an audience for them, to populate a field of relative ignorance with knowledge, with knowers. We also find creative, original thinkers, some of whom have returned from the global centers for family reasons, or patriotic reasons, or have been lured back by a high salary or attractive research conditions; others have never left, have simply never felt the pull of the powerful cultures. Talking to them, we don’t feel the global power differentials. From a God’s-eye perspective, perhaps, that is an illusion: the power differentials are still there. But for a while it’s nice not to feel them.

Book review: Dictionary of research methodologies in Translation and Interpreting Studies

This is an exploratory inquiry into signed language interpreters’ perceptions of interpreter e-professionalism on social media, specifically Facebook. Given the global pervasiveness of Facebook, this study presents an international perspective, and reports on findings of focus groups held with a total of 12 professional signed language interpreters from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Denmark, all of whom are also Facebook users. The findings reveal that Facebook is seen to blur the traditional boundaries between personal and professional realms – an overlap which is perceived to be compounded by the nature of the small community in which signed language interpreters typically work –necessitating boundary management strategies in order to maintain perceptions of professionalism on the site. Facebook is considered a valuable professional resource to leverage for networking, professional development, problem solving and assignment preparation, but it is also perceived as a potential professional liability for both individual interpreters and the profession at large. Maintaining client confidentiality was found to be the most pressing challenge Facebook brings to the profession. Educational measures to raise awareness about e-professionalism were generally viewed favourably.The study probes into translation students’ perception of the value of online peer feedback in improving translation skills. Students enrolled in a translation degree in Australia translated a 250-word text on two separate occasions. On each occasion, the students were given another fellow student’s translation of the same text to mark and provide anonymous peer feedback. The original translations from all the students, together with any peer feedback, were uploaded onto an online forum. The students were encouraged to download their own translation to review the peer feedback in it. They were also encouraged to download and peruse other students’ peer reviewed translations for comparison. Upon completion of the project, the students were surveyed about their perceptions and appreciation of their engagement in the process in the following three capacities: (i) as a feedback provider, (ii) as a feedback recipient, and (iii) as a peruser of other students’ work and the peer feedback therein. Results suggest that translation students appreciate online peer feedback as a valuable activity that facilitates improvement. The students found receiving peer feedback on their own translation especially rewarding, as it offered alternative approaches and perspectives on tackling linguistic/translation issues. In comparing the three capacities, students perceived reviewing feedback on their own work and perusing other students’ work as more beneficial than engaging in giving feedback to others.Title: Tarjamat al-khadamaat al-’aammah ( Community Interpreting and Translation) Author: Dr. Mustapha Taibi (University of Western Sydney) Year of publication: 2011 Publisher: Dar Assalam , Rabat (Morocco) ISBN: 978-9954-22-088-7 191 pagesAccent is known to cause comprehension difficulty, but empirical interpreting studies on its specific impact have been sporadic. According to Mazzetti (1999), an accent is composed of deviated phonemics and prosody, both discussed extensively in the TESL discipline. The current study seeks to examine, in the interpreting setting, the applicability of Anderson-Hsieh, Johnson and Koehlers (1992) finding that deviated prosody hinders comprehension more than problematic phonemics and syllable structure do. Thirty-seven graduate-level interpreting majors, assigned randomly to four groups, rendered four versions of a text read by the same speaker and then filled out a questionnaire while playing back their own renditions. Renditions were later rated for accuracy by two freelance interpreters, whereas the questionnaires analysed qualitatively. Results of analyses indicated that 1) both phonemics and prosody deteriorated comprehension, but prosody had a greater impact; 2) deviated North American English post-vowel /r/, intonation and rhythm were comprehension problem triggers. The finding may be of use to interpreting trainers, trainees and professionals by contributing to their knowledge of accent.The title Conference of the Tongues at first sight raises questions as to the particularities of its pertinence to translation studies, i.e. the range of possible subject matters subsumed, and is somewhat loosely explained in the preface by a short and factual hint to its historical origins (in sixteenth-century Spain in a paratext to a translation of Aesop). There is no further elaboration on the motivation for the choice of this title however.The market for translation services provided by individuals is currently characterized by significant uncertainty because buyers lack clear ways to identify qualified providers from amongst the total pool of translators. Certification and educational diplomas both serve to reduce the resulting information asymmetry, but both suffer from potential drawbacks: translator training programs are currently oversupplying the market with graduates who may lack the specific skills needed in the market and no certification program enjoys universal recognition. In addition, the two may be seen as competing means of establishing qualification. The resulting situation, in which potential clients are uncertain about which signal to trust, is known as a signal jam . In order to overcome this jam and provide more consistent signaling, translator-training programs and professional associations offering certification need to collaborate more closely to harmonize their requirements and deliver continuing professional development (CPD) that help align the outcomes from training and certification.Interpreting is rather like scuba diving. With just a bit of protective equipment, we interpreters plunge for a short time into an often alien world, where a mistake can be very serious, not only for ourselves but for the other divers who are depending on us to understand their surroundings. And as all who dive, we interpreters find this daily foray into a new environment fascinating, exhilarating, but also at times, challenging. One of the high-risk dive sites into which we venture often is the sea of healthcare, where the strange whale-song of medical dialogue, the often incomprehensible behavior of local denizens such as doctors, and the tricky currents of the healthcare system itself require special knowledge and skill to navigate successfully. Did you ever wish for a dive manual for unique world of healthcare? Well, here’s a good one, from linguist, RN and interpreter trainer, Dr. Ineke Crezee of New Zealand.Among all the difficulties inherent in interpreting, numbers stand out as a common and complex problem trigger. This experimental study contributes to research on the causes of errors in the passive simultaneous interpretation (SI) of numbers. Two groups of Italian Master’s degree students (one for English and one for German) were asked to interpret simultaneously a number-dense speech from their respective B language into their mother tongue, Italian. Note-taking was allowed during the test and both the study participants and their lecturers completed a questionnaire afterwards. Data analysis was conducted with statistical and qualitative methods, combining the cognitivist and contextualist approach. The objective was to ascertain whether one main variable may be held responsible for the high error rate related to interpreting numbers and the difficulty perceived by students in the task. The analysis quantifies the relative impact of different causes of difficulties on participants’ delivery of numbers. It stresses the crucial role of the subjective variable represented by interpreters’ skills. Didactic implications and directions for future research are discussed in the conclusion.