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Introducing Translation Studies
Main Issues of Translation Studies
Munday, J. (2016). Introducing Translation Studies
(Pp. 7-28). London: London & New York: Routledge
Presented by: Mostafa Amiri
3 Professor Jeremy Munday
Professor of Translation Studies
[email protected] Summary: Translation studies; translation
theory; discourse analysis; ideology and
translation; translator archives and
manuscripts
Overview
I teach and research in the Spanish subject
area and in Translation Studies. My
specialisms are: linguistic translation
theories, discourse analysis (including
systemic functional linguistics), ideology
and translation, translator manuscripts and
Latin American literature in translation. I
am author of Introducing Translation
Studies (Routledge, 4th edition 2016).
I am a member of
Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American St
udies
(SPLAS), as well as the
Centre for Translation Studies (CTS). I
collaborate with Language at Leeds and
with the
Centre for Hispanic and Lusophone Cultural
Key Concepts
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• Definitions of translating and interpreting.
1
• The practice of translating is long established, but the
discipline
2 of translation studies is relatively new.
•In academic circles, translation was previously relegated to just
3 a language-learning activity.
• A split has persisted between translation practice and theory.
4
• The study of (usually literary) translation began through
comparative literature, translation ‘workshops’ and contrastive
5 analysis.
•James S. Holmes’s ‘The name and nature of translation studies’
is considered to be the ‘founding statement’ of a new
6 discipline.
• Translation studies has expanded hugely, and is now often
7 considered an interdiscipline.
5 Translation: Etymology
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’).
Cross-cultural’ concept of translation
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the Bengali rupantar (= ‘change of form’)
Different the Hindi anuvad (= ‘speaking after’,
words for ‘following’),
translation
in different
cultures and the Arab world tarjama (= ‘biography’)
languages
the Chinese fan yi (= ‘turning over’).
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●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.
● Each of these construes the process of translation
differently and anticipates that the target text will
show a substantial change of form compared to the
source.
translation today has
8 several meanings
the general subject field or
phenomenon (‘I studied
translation at university’)
Three the product – that is, the text
main that has been translated (‘they
meanings published the
of Arabic translation of the
translation report’)
today
the process of producing the
translation, otherwise known
as translating (‘translation
service’).
9 The traditional definition of translation
Target text
Substitution
Source text (ST) (TT)
in source Change in target
language (SL) language
Transformation
(TL)
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)
Three categories of translation described by the Russo-American
10 structuralist
Roman Jakobson (1896–1982)
• or ‘rewording’ – ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by means of
other signs of the same language’ (when we produce a
Intralingual summary or otherwise rewrite or rephrase a text or expression
Translation in the same language, say children’s version of an
encyclopedia.
Interlingual • or ‘translation proper’ – ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by
Translation means of some other language’.
• or ‘transmutation’ – ‘an interpretation of verbal signs by
Intersemiotic means of signs of non-verbal sign systems’ (as when a
Translation written text is translated into a film).
It is interlingual translation, between two different verbal sign
systems, that has been the traditional focus of translation
studies
11 What is “Translation Studies”
The study of translation as an academic discipline in the
English-speaking world is now generally known as ‘translation
studies’.
The study of translation as an academic discipline only really
began in the second half of the twentieth century
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’
Four very visible ways in which “translation studies” has become more
12 prominent
as the demand for translation has soared
Third, as the
number of
First, there has
publications has
been a vast Second, the past
increased so has
expansion in decades have also
the demand for
specialized seen a Fourth,
general and
translating and proliferation of international
analytical
interpreting conferences, organizations
instruments
programs at books and have also
such as
both journals on prospered.
anthologies,
undergraduate translation in
databases,
and postgraduate many languages.
encyclopedias,
Level.
handbooks and
introductory texts.
Translation before recognition as an academic discipline
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● Translation had often been relegated to an element of language learning
(Grammar-Translation Method) from late 18 th C. to 1960s.
● The gearing of translation to language teaching and learning may partly
explain why academia considered it to be of secondary status.
● In 1960s USA, starting in Iowa and Princeton, literary translation was promoted
by the translation workshop concept. The translation workshops 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.
● Running parallel to the workshop approach was that of comparative
literature, where literature is studied and compared transnationally and
transculturally, necessitating the reading of some works in translation.
● Another area in which translation became the subject of research was
contrastive linguistics. This is the study of two languages in
contrast in an
attempt to identify general and specific differences between
them.
14 Importance of contrastive linguistics for translation studies
● Contrastive linguistics is the study of two languages in contrast in an attempt to
identify general and specific differences between them.
● It developed into a systematic area of research in the USA from the 1930s
onwards and came to the fore in the 1960s and 1970s.
● Translations and translated examples provided much of the data in these studies
(e.g. Di Pietro 1971, James 1980 and later Connor 1996).
● 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.
● The more systematic, linguistic-oriented, approach to the study of translation
began to emerge in the 1950s and 1960s.Among the specific models used
are those related to generative grammar, functional linguistics and
pragmatics.
15 The Holmes/Toury Map
●A seminal paper in the development of the field as a distinct discipline was James
S. Holmes’s ‘The name and nature of translation studies’ (Holmes
1988b/2004).
●Holmes drew attention to the limitations imposed at the time because translation
research, lacking a home of its own, was dispersed across older disciplines
(languages, linguistics, etc.).
●He also stressed the need to forge ‘other communication channels, cutting across
the traditional disciplines to reach all scholars working in the field, from whatever
background’ (1988b/2004: 181).
●Crucially, Holmes put forward an overall framework, describing what translation
studies covers. This framework was subsequently presented by the leading Israeli
translation scholar Gideon Toury as in Figure 1.1.
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17 Some comments on the map
(1) Description of the phenomena of translation (Descriptive
Objectives of the Branch)
“Pure” area of
translation
research (2) Establishment of general principles to explain and predict such
phenomena (Theoretical Branch)
By ‘general’, Holmes is referring to those writings that seek
The theoretical to describe or account for every type of translation and to
Branch is make generalizations that will be relevant for translation as a
divided into whole
“general” and
“partial” ‘Partial’ theoretical studies are restricted according to the
Theories parameters discussed below (medium, text-type, etc.).
18 It examines existing translations. This may involve
the description or analysis of a single ST–TT pair or a
Product- comparative analysis of several TTs of the same ST
oriented DTS (into one or more TLs). Larger-scale studies can be
either diachronic (following development over time) or
synchronic (at a single point or period in time).
Descriptive Holmes (ibid.) means the description of the ‘function
[of translations] in the recipient sociocultural situation: it
Branch of Function-
is a study of contexts rather than texts’. Issues that may
Translation oriented DTS
be researched include which texts were translated when
Studies (DTS) and where, and the influences that were exerted.
It is concerned with the psychology of translation, i.e.
Process-
it is concerned with trying to find out what happens in the
oriented DTS
mind of a translator.
Machine translation/Human translation/Computer-
Medium-
Assisted translation/Whether written or spoken/Whether
19 restricted
consecutive or simultaneous.
Area- Restricted to specific languages or groups of
The results of DTS restricted languages and/or cultures (Persian/English)
research can be fed
into the theoretical
branch to evolve Rank- Restricted to different levels of language, (normally)
either a general restricted the word or sentence or the whole text.
theory of translation
or, more likely,
partial theories of
translation Text-type Look at discourse types and genres; e.g. literary,
‘restricted’ restricted business and technical translation.
according to the
subdivisions in
Figure 1.1. time- Refers to theories and translations limited according
restricted to specific time frames and periods.
Refer to certain problems such as equivalence or to a
Problem-
wider question of whether so-called ‘universals’ of
restricted
translation exist
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Translator Methods, testing techniques, curriculum
training design;
The ‘applied’
branch of Holmes’s
framework concerns Translation
Such as dictionaries and grammars
applications to the aids
practice of
translation
The evaluation of translations, including the
Translation marking of student translations and the
criticism
reviews of published translations
21 The main merits of the map
● The crucial role played by Holmes’s paper is in the
delineation of the potential of translation studies.
● It allows 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.
Example of the expansion of the Applied Branch
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Developments since Holmes
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Contrastive linguistics generally fell by the wayside, but has resurfaced thanks
to the advances in machine translation and corpus-based studies.
The linguistics-oriented ‘science’ of translation has continued strongly in
Germany, but the concept of equivalence associated with it has been questioned
and reconceived.
Germany has seen the rise of theories centred around text types and text
purpose (the skopos theory)
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.
The late 1970s and the 1980s also saw the rise of a descriptive approach that
had its origins in comparative literature and Russian Formalism (Polysystem/
Manipulation/ Cultural turn)
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The 1990s saw the incorporation of new approaches and concepts: Canadian-
based translation and gender research led by Sherry Simon, the Brazilian
Cannibalist School promoted by Else Vieira, and postcolonial translation theory
with the prominent figures of the Bengali scholars Tejaswini Niranjana and Gayatri
Spivak
In the USA, the cultural studies-oriented analysis of Lawrence Venuti called for
greater visibility and recognition of the translator
Special interest devoted to, for example, translation, globalization
and resistance (Cronin 2003, Baker 2006, Boeri and Maier 2010, Marais 2014)
The sociology and historiography of translation (e.g. Inghilleri 2005a, Wolf and
Fukari 2007, Rundle 2014, Vorderobermeier 2014)
Process-oriented research (e.g. O’Brien 2011).
25 Summary
Translation studies is an academic research area that has
expanded massively over the years. Translation was formerly
studied as a language-learning methodology or as part of
comparative literature, translation ‘workshops’ and
contrastive linguistics courses. The discipline as we now know
it owes much to the work of James S. Holmes, who proposed
both a name and a structure for the field, but the context has
now advanced. The interrelated branches of theoretical,
descriptive and applied translation studies initially structured
research. Over time the interdisciplinarity and specialization of
the subject have become more evident and theories and
models have continued to be imported from other disciplines
but also forged from within translation studies itself.
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