Vol. X Nr. 2
Cay Dollerup
Relay in translation
Abstract: This article focuses on the phenomenon of relay in translation. Relay is by nature difficult to discuss and therefore it is no surprise that even scholars who know of its existence usually do so only in passing. Scholars unaware of relay occasionally come across a relayed translation (namely a translation using a first translation from the language of the original as a relay). When they do so in comparative studies, they tend to consider the relayed rendition as either a poor or heavily manipulated translation. Historically, relay has been an important factor in translational activity. It is obscured by e.g. the delay in the spread of ‘international fame’ of prominent writers in the past as well as the fact that not all translators and publishers informed audiences that the translation they published was based on a translation from another language than that of the original text. The article attempts to differentiate ‘relayed translations’ from other types of non-direct translation. It discusses their occurrence in translation, interpreting, and subtitling, and ends with a few comments on how relay can(not) be tackled in practical translation work.
Keywords: relay; indirect translation; retranslation; relayed translation; relay in interpreting
Carmen Valero-Garcés
Translation and interpretation as an intentional, interpersonal, communicative, intercultural and text-processing action. The skopos theory applied
Abstract: In the last decades population movements are facilitating connexions between groups of minority languages and cultures and a majority and dominant language and culture in limited time and space. This situation is producing changes in the role of the intermediary or third party in the communication chain when people talking in different languages meet. At the same time, new scenarios appear and the need to communicate between the providers of services and the users of these services forces the creation of mechanisms and tools that help in this endeavor. Assuming that one of the first steps is linguistic communication, a pragmatic use of the language when translating and/or intepreting is expected. From this prespective, my objective is to analyze both translated written and oral texts (TT) recently produced in minority languages in Spain in the light of the Skopos theory. Results show that when applying the notion of ‘text function’ to the production and analysis of TTs, the translators and interpretes do not consider their role to be so invisible. To a greater or lesser extent, they perceived that they play a visible and active role in facilitating communication, and the act of transfering the information becomes an intentional, interpersonal, communicative, intercultural and text-processing action.
Keywords: translation; community interpreting; skopos theory
Daniela Ionescu
The role of cognitive representation in consecutive interpretation – a case study
Abstract: A long-standing source of conceptual difficulty and confusion in interpretation has been the overall construal of the world in the interpreter’s mind when listening to the source language speech. Hence, the target language rendition can be dramatically marked by lack of understanding or by conceptual misrepresentations. The present paper deals with possible landmarks in the follow-up of the target renditions, on the basis of research conducted in the European Master’s Programme for Interpreters’ training in the University of Bucharest. Ultimately, it is not only knowledge of the world and knowledge of the topic that determines appropriate comprehension, it is also knowledge of language grammar that can decisively contribute to a correct, fluent and reliable message in consecutive interpretation.
Keywords: short-term memory, familiarity coefficient, speaker’s communicative intention, interpreting coping skills, cognitive modelling.
Roxana-Cristina Petcu
The interpreter as editor
Abstract: The paper will look into the tasks facing an interpreter working for the European Institutions when he/she has to interpret speeches that are read out rather than delivered freely. The paper will explore the structural differences between various types of speeches and reach the conclusion that the interpreter has to both interpret and edit a read-out speech to the best interest of the listeners, be they colleagues from the other booths or national delegates.
Keywords: interpreting, speech type, structural differences
Daria Protopopescu and Nadina Vişan
Compensation and Translation: James Ellroy’s White Jazz
Abstract: The current paper explores the Romanian translation of James Ellroy’s text “White Jazz”, with a view to explaining away the translator’s choices. The main issues at hand are the solutions provided for the ellipsis present throughout the novel and the slang used by the author, which is typical of L.A.’s ’60’s. The paper provides theoretical data supporting the translator’s choice of rendering certain slang expressions by paraphrase, explanation or even coinage of new words. We also look into how much has been compensated for and what was lost during the process of translation.
Keywords: coinage, compensation, slang, translatability, translation loss
Titela Vîlceanu
Intercultural communication, prerequisites for translation effectiveness
Abstract: The paper is intended to raise awareness of some recurrent problems related to cultural and linguistic security in translation alongside strategies of achieving it. Globalisation means global thinking, individual accountability and the development of new sensitivities and capabilities. Different models of Intercultural Communicative Competence are scrutinised in an attempt to identify a common core of generalisable traits, which could be further applied to a wide range of translation situations. The (inter)cultural load is of paramount importance in translation being, more often than not, the cause of serious misunderstanding if the translator does not adequately equate the two cultures or bridge the cultural gap.
Keywords: cultural diversity, intercultural communication, translation optimization
Isabela Ieţcu-Fairclough
Critical discourse analysis and translation studies: translation, recontextualization, ideology
Abstract: This paper explores the role that critical discourse-analytical concepts such as recontextualization, strategy and ideology might play in theorizing translation practice. It also relates translation-as-recontextualization to the sociological concepts of field and agency-structure dialectic. Translations may function at once in the cultural and the political field, and may thus be part of political strategies of resistance and (de)legitimation. Social actors’ strategies for action are however inherently constrained by the structural properties of the recontextualizing field, understood as a field of forces, of contests for different forms of (cultural, economic, political) capital. There is, in any context, an agency-structure dialectic that will govern the way in which a text is recontextualized from one cultural context into another, as well as particular relations between fields (for instance, the cultural field may be heavily ideologized and politicized, or relatively independent from the political field). These structural properties will affect translation practices and will be manifest in textual features of translated texts.
Keywords: critical discourse analysis, political field, recontextualization, strategy, translation studies
Simona Mazilu
Strategic use of dissociation in ethical argumentation on abortion
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the dialectical and rhetorical consequences of the use of dissociation in ethical argumentation on abortion. Disputants make strategic use of dissociation to advance their standpoints, to establish the starting points of the discussion and to argue in favor or against abortion as well. From the pragma-dialectical perspective (van Rees 2002, 2003, 2005a, 2005b, 2006), dissociation is defined as an argumentative technique by which a unitary concept is divided into two different concepts of which one is intended as positive while the other one as negative. The analysis of a religious text on abortion shows that by means of dissociation abortion can be conceived of as “an unspeakable crime” or “the deliberate killing of an innocent human being” as opposed to “interruption of pregnancy”, the term preferred by pro-choice supporters. I claim that the protagonist uses dissociation as a rhetorical strategy aimed at persuading both the interlocutor and the audience.
Keywords: dissociation, strategic maneuvering, dialectical (un)soundness, fallacies
Daniela Sorea
Humour and irony at work: the case of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Abstract: The present paper endeavours to probe into the way humorous exchanges among the protagonists in the TV series ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ become a resourceful tool in the delineation of social identity and interpersonal rapports at work. The pragmatic analysis of several conversations unfolding in the medical milieu is intended to evaluate the role itirony and humour play in highlighting the characters’ intentions and behavioural patterns. Teasing and mocking remarks as well as scathingly critical or disdainful repartees constitute linguistic resources which, although expected to damage the interlocutor’s face, often lead to engender solidarity and enhance empathy.
Key words: workplace irony, relevant inappropriateness, supportive versus contestive humour, social identity.
Zsuzsanna Ajtony
The language of humour – the humour of language irony and humour in interpersonal verbal encounters
Abstract: In this paper the problem of verbal humour and irony is approached from a sociolinguistic perspective, starting from the Semantic Script Theory of Humour (Raskin 1985), which establishes that all humour involves a semantic-pragmatic process. Humour should be understood and appreciated shared socio-cultural knowledge; a common code should exist between speaker and recipient. As humour is subjective, this is especially true for the humour of nations, the root of which is hiding in national or ethnic stereotypes, in close relationship with ethnic and national prejudices. All these theoretical issues are put into practice in the analysis of G.B. Shaw’s humour as displayed in Caesar and Cleopatra. Concentrating on the target as one of the knowledge resources, it is concluded that choice of the target person has an effect on the identity of the person uttering the humorous remark.
Keywords: general theory of verbal humour, script opposition, target; solidarity, in-group identity
Diana Hornoiu
Avoiding disagreement in Romanian conversational discourse: the use of diminutives
Abstract: The paper examines the role of diminutives, a subclass of softeners, in Romanian conversational discourse as positive politeness devices for avoiding disagreement. Like many other pragmatic particles softeners are multifunctional. In addition to mitigating the imposition of face-threatening acts, softeners (diminutives being no exception) tend to serve another equally important interactional function: that of expressing shared knowledge thereby offering the addressee the opportunity to provide support and understanding, i.e., to show that both speaker and addressee are on the same wavelength. By inviting shared knowledge between speaker and addressee softeners become instrumental in avoiding disagreement. The function served by diminutives in the excerpts analysed in this paper is to stress the emotional bond among the participants in the interaction, rather than being intended as purely descriptive items that indicate the smallness of the referent. These affective connotations thus shift from applying to one lexical item to applying to the whole conversational encounter, which turns them into markers of small talk.
Keywords: conversation analysis, diminutives, positive politeness, softeners, small talk
Daniela Muraru
Dissociation in mediation
Abstract: This paper approaches several texts that are part of the so-called discourse of mediation, adopting a pragma-dialectical perspective of the theory of dissociation. It is an attempt to identify the uses of dissociative patterns, with special emphasis on the indicators of dissociation. The paper investigates the various uses of the concept of dissociation as a discursive technique in the argumentation on the different aspects that are involved in international conflict, such as the discussion of the notion of peace. The purpose is to identify the role of dissociation, as a device strategically used by the mediator to help the parties minimize the disagreement space, and come to a conflict resolution.
Keywords: indicators of dissociation; international conflict; philosophical pairs; separation, negation, value clues.
Mariana Neagu
‘Please do not crack skull…!’– a glimpse at (g)localized English
Abstract: Using examples of entertaining signs, directions, publicity materials and hotel notices which prove to be fertile territories for the misuse of English abroad, the paper focuses on minor varieties of English that seem to have been neglected in translation theory and practice. More specifically, we look at the registers mentioned above with a view to discuss three major types of translation problems: pragmatic translation problems (including culture-bound terms and space restrictions), intercultural translation problems (arising from differences between formal conventions, text-type conventions, conventional forms of address) and interlingual translation problems (arising from structural differences in vocabulary and syntax).
Keywords: glocalization, genre, discourse, register, text-type, translation
Diana Ioniţă
What is said, what is implicited, what is implicated
Abstract: The present paper, which takes Bach’s (1994) distinction between ‘what is said’, ‘implicature’, and ‘impliciture’ as a starting point, shows that Grice’s tests of non-detachability and cancellability are able to clarify the distinction among different elements of utterance meaning that are pragmatically determined. We establish that conversational implicature is cancellable and detachable.By using examples, we emphasize the difference between what is explicitly said and what goes implicit in what is said.
Keywords: impliciture, implicature, cancellability, explicit, implicit.