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Transcript of Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino Testi in viaggio © 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino,...
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Translation competence
In this lesson …
we will start from the experts’ definition of ‘translation
competence’ to build up our personal idea
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Translation competence as an underlying knowledge
Language ability on which …
Transfer competence (Nord)
Translational competence (Toury)
Translator competence (Király)
… is built
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
“Any old fool can learn a language, if he has enough determination to do so, but it takes an intelligent person to become a translator, and
basically his work is the measure of his intelligence” (Newmark, 1969).
Translation competence
- as intelligence (Newmark)
- as an innate quality (Vannerem Snell-Hornby)
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Holmes/Hönig: mapping theory
“I have suggested that actually the translation process is a multi-level process; while we are translating sentences, we have a map of the
original text in our minds and at the same time, a map of the kind of text we want to
produce in the target language. Even as we translate serially, we have this structural
concept so that each sentence in our translation is determined not only by the
sentence in the original but by the two maps of the original text and of the translated text which we are carrying along as we translate”
(Holmes, 1988).
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Holmes: macrostrategy → Hönig: central processing unit. This
transfers the text from its natural environment into the translator’s
mental reality.
Uncontrolled Workspace (UW): 1st phase, difficult to detect
Controlled Workspace (CW): mental processes which monitor what has
already happened in the UW.
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Hönig rejects the idea of a ‘native translator’:
“A translator without a macro-strategy would be a native translator in the sense that he relies exclusively on the products offered by his
uncontrolled workspace.
It would be hard to imagine a translator who gets through any translation by just relying on his linguistic reflexes and his associated world-
knowledge. It is safe to assume that problem-solving strategies are an integral part of any translation task, and it therefore follows that
innate translation competence has to be supplemented by strategic competence in order to create an overall translation competence” (Hönig,
1990).
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Attention must be redirected from microstrategies to macrostragies (how a
translator chooses among different alternatives):
“There can be no question that translators need transfer competence; it could be
compared to the driving force in a car. But as a car has to be steered, so transfer
competence must be controlled and directed by a macro-strategy if the translation task is
to be carried out according to the client’s needs and specifications” (Hönig, 1990).
Transfer competence is innate. Translation/translatory competence may be
acquired.
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
More recent theories:
PACTE project 2000/2005
http://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2005/v50/n2/011004ar.html
Pym (2003) - specific translation abilities:
“ - The ability to generate a series of more than one viable target text (TT1, TT2 … TTn)
for a pertinent source text (ST);
- The ability to select only one viable TT from this series, quickly and with justified
confidence.
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
We propose that, together, these two skills form a specifically translational competence; their union concerns translation and nothing but
translation. There can be no doubt that translators need to know a fair amount of
grammar, rhetoric, terminology, computer skills, Internet savvy, world knowledge, teamwork
cooperation, strategies for getting paid correctly, and the rest, but the specifically translational part of their practice is strictly
neither linguistic nor solely commercial. It is a process of generation and selection, a problem-solving process that often occurs with apparent
automatism” (Pym, 2003).
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Our approach:
Translation competence can be acquired as any language ability.
In line with current translation studies which reject “any notion of immutable correctness” (Pym, 2003).
Any communicative act implies translation/reformulation, i.e. any individual already possesses a macrostrategy which has
to be trained at interlingual, intercultural level → raising awareness of the cultural, sociological, communicative issues
any act of translation implies.
“(T)here is no fixed knowledge in this field”, because “(t)ranslation is a question of solving problems, not of moving
meanings” (Pym, 2003).
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
“(T)here is no fixed knowledge in this field”, because “(t)ranslation is a question of
solving problems, not of moving meanings” (Pym, 2003).
Translation competence has to be built first through such intralingual translation
activities as paraphrasing, summarising, text reformulation;
and through the development of socio-pragmatic competence.
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Compare this text and its translation:
Step 2: Make sure you have the latest iPod and iTunes software.1 Download and install the latest iTunes software to
your computer from www.apple.com/itunes.2 Connect the device to your computer, then select it in the iTunes sidebar
and click Summary.3 If iTunes indicates that your iPod needs an update, click Update and follow the onscreen instructions.
Passo 2: assicurati di disporre del software iPod e iTunes più recente.1 Scarica l’ultima versione del software iTunes da
www.apple.com/it/itunes e installala sul computer.2 Collega il dispositivo al computer, quindi selezionalo nella barra laterale
di iTunes e fai clic su Riepilogo.3 Se iTunes comunica che iPod deve essere aggiornato, fai clic su Aggiorna e segui le
istruzioni su schermo.
Apple, 2010, Nike + iPod Sensor User’s Manual.
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Register in instructions/operating manuals is more informal in
English:
make sure you have/assicurati di disporre
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Government/public advertising (pubblicità sociale)
Italian advertising is more ‘emotive’
British advertising is more ‘factual’
“Le culture emotive […] tenderanno a evidenziare più che i fatti le emozioni e le relazioni, e lo faranno anche
attraverso un’accentuata comunicazione non verbale. Al contrario, le culture non emotive quali la tedesca, l’inglese
e l’americana sono portate a dare precedenza ai fatti e alle questioni più che agli individui. Ciò che viene detto ha
maggiore rilevanza di come viene detto. Esprimere l’emozione è considerato imbarazzante e perdere il
controllo è percepito negativamente” (Katan, 1997, pp. 50-51).
Conoscenze di genere/conoscenze di sfondo (Mazzotta 2007).
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
An important complement to sociopragmatic competence is conceptual knowledge
If you do not know anything about the subject you read about it might be very difficult to understand the meaning of what
you read
“The work carried out by Stazione Sperimentale per i Combustibili (SSC) covered the investigation of typical wood
and vegetable oils fuel combustion for domestic heating under real operation conditions. The aim was to quantify
emission factors for typical
gaseous pollutants and for ultrafine particles in terms of particle number concentration and size distribution, in order
to increase the knowledge about the environmental performances of small scale heating appliances and help
policy makers in the regulation of these appliances.”
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Language competence is not the major problem. The same text in your language is equally difficult to understand if you
are not an expert in combustion.
“Il lavoro presentato in questo articolo, svolto presso la Stazione Sperimentale per i Combustibili (SSC), descrive i
risultati ottenuti durante un’indagine sperimentale sulla combustione di biomassa legnosa e oli vegetali in apparecchi
per il riscaldamento domestico di medio-piccola potenza durante un tipico ciclo di funzionamento reale. L’obiettivo
dello studio è stato quello di quantificare i fattori di emissione per i principali inquinanti gassosi prodotti dalla combustione,
compreso il particolato ultrafine, espresso in termini di concentrazione in numero [#/cm3] e distribuzione
granulometrica delle particelle”.
Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di MartinoTesti in viaggio
© 2011 Bruna Di Sabato, Emilia Di Martino, Testi in viaggio
Assignment:
Complete the Test about the reading strategies you use before
translating and check your answers (file “Attività Reading
Strategies”).