Towards a Methodology for Investigating the Style of a Literary Translator

Target ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Baker
Keyword(s):  
Original Writing ◽  
With Original Writing ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Creative Writers ◽  
Traditional Sense

Abstract Translation studies has inherited from literary studies its preoccupation with the style of individual creative writers and from linguistics the preoccupation with the style of social groups of language users. It also inherited from both disciplines the association of style with ‘original’ writing. Little or no attention has been paid so far to the possibility of describing the ‘style’ of a translator or group of translators in terms of what might be distinctive about the language they produce. This paper offers a first attempt to outline a methodological framework for investigating the question of style in literary translation—not in the traditional sense of whether the style of a given author is adequately conveyed in the relevant translation but in terms of whether individual literary translators can be shown to use distinctive styles of their own.

scholarly journals Image in Translated Novels from English into Persian

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Gholam-Reza Parvizi
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Mind

The question of image in literary studies and in recent years in Translation Studies is one of the most problematic innature. In the present study an attempt was made to define the nature of translating linguistic constructions – evokingimages in the mind of reader – in English novels and their rendered versions in Persian translations. In this studyseven types of images (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, kinesthetic and organic) in two English novelsand their rendered versions in Persian were analyzed based on two theoretical frameworks, the first one is Jiang’sImage-Based Model to Literary Translation (2008) by which the nature of translation of images were examined andthe other is Chesterman’s translation strategies (1997) which help to systematize translation strategies adopted bytranslators in rewriting the images in English novels. The results have shown that in most of the cases the images thatare intended by original author have been changed in the translations, and the aesthetic experience of the ST reader isdifferent from that of the TT reader.

scholarly journals Quantifying Phraseological Style in Two Modern Chinese Versions of Don Quijote

2009 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 937-941
Author(s):  
Meng Ji
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Scientific Methodology ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Don Quijote ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Methods And Techniques ◽  
Linguistic Units ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Abstract Quantifying style, or stylometry, has always been one of the oldest traditions in Western literary studies. It seems, however, that such a well-explored and long-standing scientific methodology has been rarely applied to translations, as opposed to original literary texts. The present paper, which focuses on the stylistic use of phraseology in two contemporary Chinese versions of Cervantes’ Don Quijote, shall endeavour to address the two current problems in corpus-based translation stylistics, i.e., the lack of debate on the question of semantically-rich linguistic units in quantifying style of translations, and the need for testing the use of methods and techniques adapted from corpus statistics in detecting stylistic traits in translations. It is hoped that this study, which aims at expanding the current methodological framework for translation stylistics, will help in the development of this growing area of research in Translation Studies.

A Multivariate Approach to Lexical Diversity in Constrained Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-194
Author(s):  
Marta Kajzer-Wietrzny ◽  
Ilmari Ivaska
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Multivariate Approach ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Word Repetition

Empirical Translation Studies have recently extended the scope of research to other forms of constrained and mediated communication, including bilingual communication, editing, and intralingual translation. Despite the diversity of factors accounted for so far, this new strand of research is yet to take the leap into intermodal comparisons. In this paper we look at Lexical Diversity (LD), which under different guises, has been studied both within Translation Studies (TS) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA). LD refers to the rate of word repetition, and vocabulary size and depth, and previous research indicates that translated and non-native language tends to be less lexically diverse. There is, however, no study that would investigate both varieties within a unified methodological framework. The study reported here looks at LD in spoken and written modes of constrained and non-constrained language. In a two-step analysis involving Exploratory Factor Analysis and linear mixed-effects regression models we find interpretations to be least lexically diverse and written non-constrained texts to be most diverse. Speeches delivered impromptu are less diverse than those read out loud and the non-constrained texts are more sensitive to such delivery-related differences than the constrained ones.

Taming iconicity in the Spanish and Italian translations of Shakespeare’s Sonnets

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Gonzálvez-García
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Selected Lines ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Secondary Predication

Abstract Building on Tabakowska’s (1993, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013) full-blown defense of a cognitive linguistic approach to literary translation as well as on previous research dealing with the implementations of Construction Grammar(s) for translation studies (Szymańska 2011a, 2011b; Serbina 2015), this paper critically examines the role of iconicity in selected lines from Shakespeare’s Sonnets capitalizing on the passage of Time-Death and their corresponding translations in present-day Spanish and Italian. Specifically, drawing on Cognitive Construction Grammar (Goldberg 2006) and Contrastive Construction Grammar (Boas 2010a; Boas & Gonzálvez-García 2014), I focus on instances of secondary predication with verbs of sensory perception, causative constructions and aspectual constructions iconically connected with the above-mentioned motif and demonstrate that iconicity emerges as a very useful communicative ‘filter’ that can help to minimize any undesirable arbitrariness which may obscure the semantico-pragmatic interpretation of the source text and/or its rendering into the target text.

Religion and Representation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Rzepa
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Book History ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This review is divided into three sections: 1. Jeffrey T. Zalar, Reading and Rebellion in Catholic Germany, 1770–1914; 2. Edward Baring, Converts to the Real: Catholicism and the Making of Continental Philosophy; 3. ‘Translation and Religion: Crafting Regimes of Identity’, a thematic issue of Religion edited by Hephzibah Israel and Matthias Frenz. Taken together, these works provide an overview of approaches that demonstrate the value of interdisciplinary research into religion and representation. Drawing on the disciplines of social, political, and cultural history, literary studies, book history, theology, religious studies, translation studies, and postcolonial studies, they highlight the importance of research that contextualizes the relationship between religion and representation, bringing attention to its historically overlooked aspects.

scholarly journals Corpus Methodologies in Literary Translation Studies: An Analysis of Speech Verbs in Four Spanish Translations of Hard Times

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Ruano
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Basic Function ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Novel ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

In this article, speech verbs in Dickens’sHard Times(1854) and their translation into Spanish are analyzed. Apart from their basic function of introducing speech, these verbs can also contribute to characterization. The regular occurrence of a particular speech verb to report the direct speech of a particular character helps to create a fictional personality. Given the important role they may play, the rendering of such verbs in four Spanish versions of this novel is assessed. To do so, a corpus-based methodology has been employed. A concordancing software was used to retrieve speech verbs from the original novel, allowing their close analysis in context. Then, using an aligned parallel corpus containing the four versions, a comparison was carried out to see how they have been rendered. Evidence is provided that none of the four translations entirely preserves the characterizing value of the verbs, which may affect the way readers form impressions of characters in their minds. The use of this corpus metholodogy is thus seen to contribute to the field of literary translation studies.

scholarly journals Translation and the Application of Linguistics

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 374-386
Author(s):  
Probal Dasgupta
Keyword(s):  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
General Level ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
The One

Abstract This article explores some topics at the boundary between linguistics theory and the applied linguistic foundations of the practice of translation. Section 1, The irrelevance of the avant-garde , considers the relation between such academic adventures as semiotics and poststructuralism on the one hand and the theory of language and the practice of translation on the other, and argues that radical antiscientism does not bear on the foundations of translation. Section 2, The irrelevance of the technical , looks at formal syntax and semantics in relation to the concepts of applied linguistics and shows that careful contemporary linguistics cannot underpin an applied enterprise that includes translation studies. Section 3, The substantive hase of translation , indicates (in some detail for translation and at a general level for other applied linguistic activities) the direction that the contemporary integration of various lines of linguistic research is taking vis-à-vis the needs of such applied enterprises as translation, literary studies, language planning, lexicography, and language teaching. Section 3 invokes a concept of substance as opposed to form and thus sets the scene for the concluding section 4, Pragmatics, applied studies, and scientific progress , which argues that it is necessary to take help from linguistics in order to construct the field of translation studies in such a way that practitioners can truly benefit freely from all relevant branches of knowledge, in view of the fact that chaos is an obstacle to genuine freedom.

scholarly journals Translationese in Japanese Literary Translation

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-118
Author(s):  
Yukari Fukuchi Meldrum
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
The West ◽  
Comparable Corpora ◽  
General Lack ◽  
Preliminary Examination

Translationese in Japanese, despite its distinct characteristics when compared to natural Japanese, has so far been systematically studied by only one researcher (Furuno, 2005). In addition to this general lack of scholarly interest, the translational situations in Japan are not well-known in the West. In this paper, the notions of translationese in Japan are investigated from the perspective of Translation Studies and of Kokugogaku (studies of Japanese language). In addition, this study provides reasons for conducting systematic studies of translationese in Japan, where Translation Studies is still in its initial stages. Finally, the results of a preliminary examination of small comparable corpora using a translation and a non-translation are presented.

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