Impact of technology on Translation and Translation Studies

The landscape in translation and interpreting is changing deeply and rapidly. For a long time, but not necessarily everywhere, translation was denied as a need (except for the political and religious powers), as effort (translation being defined as a kind of mechanical work, as substitution of words), and as a profession (translators embodying a subaltern position). Technology is bringing in certain changes in attitudes and perceptions with regards international, multilingual and multimodal communications. This article tries to define the changes and their consequences in the labelling and characterisation of the different practices. It is organised in five sections: first, we recall that translation and interpreting are only one option in international relations; then, we explain the different denials of translation in the past (or the refusal to recognize the different values of translation). In the third section, we consider how and to what extent technology is transforming today practices and markets. The ongoing changes do not boil solely to developments in Machine Translation (which started in the 1960s): community, crowdsourced/collaborative translation and volunteer translation encompass different practices. In many cases, users provide their own translations, with or without formal qualifications in translation. The evolution is not only technical but also economic and social. In addition, the fragmentation and the diversity of practices do have an impact on a multi-faceted market. In the fourth section, we emphasize that there are nowadays different concepts of translation and competitive paradigms in Translation Studies. Finally, we tackle the organisational challenge of the field, since the institutionalisation of translation and Translation Studies cannot remain the same as when there was a formal consensus on the concept of translation.

Revealing Possible Truths Behind “Coolest Monkey in The Jungle”: Ideational Making Analysis Approach

Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)-commonly defined as a discourse analysis approach that focuses on both linguistic and non-linguistic resources- has been witnessing increasing popularity in the research area. It has been argued, on the one hand, that the greater level of practicality the approach has to offer compared to its predecessor (Critical Discourse Analysis) becomes the main reason of why researchers gradually turn their reference on analysing discourses to this method (Han, 2015). An increasing trend of multimodal communications - that no longer use speech or writing exclusively in their occurrences - has become the logical ground on the other (Kress, 2011). This paper, using H&M ‘monkey’ hoodie advertisement (refer to appendix) as a form of multimodal communication, employs MCDA to explore the possible advantages one can learn through the process. To start with, a brief account of the key factors in the development of MCDA will be presented. This part is then followed by the discussion of the analysis approach employed in the paper and also the rational basis for choosing the approach over others. The analysis of the advertisement is done by drawing on related language and social theories to scrutinize the ideologies the company implanted on their advertisement. A thoughtful discussion on what is understood through the analysis process and what and how one can relate the practicality of multimodality analysis to another social area such as pedagogy will mark the end of this paper’s discussion.

Revealing Possible Truths Behind “Coolest Monkey in The Jungle”: Ideational Making Analysis Approach

Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)-commonly defined as a discourse analysis approach that focuses on both linguistic and non-linguistic resources- has been witnessing increasing popularity in the research area. It has been argued, on the one hand, that the greater level of practicality the approach has to offer compared to its predecessor (Critical Discourse Analysis) becomes the main reason of why researchers gradually turn their reference on analysing discourses to this method (Han, 2015). An increasing trend of multimodal communications - that no longer use speech or writing exclusively in their occurrences - has become the logical ground on the other (Kress, 2011). This paper, using H&M ‘monkey’ hoodie advertisement (refer to appendix) as a form of multimodal communication, employs MCDA to explore the possible advantages one can learn through the process. To start with, a brief account of the key factors in the development of MCDA will be presented. This part is then followed by the discussion of the analysis approach employed in the paper and also the rational basis for choosing the approach over others. The analysis of the advertisement is done by drawing on related language and social theories to scrutinize the ideologies the company implanted on their advertisement. A thoughtful discussion on what is understood through the analysis process and what and how one can relate the practicality of multimodality analysis to another social area such as pedagogy will mark the end of this paper’s discussion.

Multimodal Communications and Effective Communication

Minerva’s Multimodal Communications cornerstone course brings together theory and findings in rhetoric, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, neurobiology, and design theory and applies them both to new forms of communication--made possible by the technological revolution of the last few decades--and traditional forms of expression, such as speech, gestures, music, and art. The aim of the course is to teach our students to become persuasive communicators who will have an impact in the world. The tools they hone in the course provide them with essential skills they can apply to careers in the sciences, humanities, business, the arts and in their everyday lives. This chapter summarizes the highly interactive and iterative approaches we use in the course to cultivate the core competency of effective communication, which students must master in order to meet their potential to become leaders and innovators.