English language IV

1. English language IV March 5th Translation shifts Servitude and option Loss and gain Translation procedures (direct and oblique translations) Relevance theory

2. Task 1 Essays on Translation. Task: choose 4 among the following and write a ppt adding (your) examples when possible(for March 21st) - work in groups of max. 4 • Benjamin, The task of the translator: an introduction to the translation of Baudelaire’s Tableaux Parisiens • Blum-Kulka, Shifts of cohesion and coherence in translation • Chamberlain, Gender and the metaphorics of translation • Derrida, What is a relevant translation? • Harvey, Translating camp talk: gay identities and cultural transfer

3. Hoffman, Lost in translation: life in a new language (fotocopie) • Jakobson, On lingustic aspects of translation • Lefevere, Mother Courage’s Cucumbers: text, system and refraction in a theory of literature • Lefevere, Why waste our time in rewrites: the trouble with interpretation and the role of rewriting in an alternative paradigm (fotocopie) • Nabokov, Problems of translation: Onegin in English • Nida, Principles of correspondence • Schleiermacher, On the different methods of translating • Simon, Translation, Postcolonialism and Cultural Studies

4. Snell-Hornby, From Translation Studies: An integrated approach. (fotocopie) • Spivak, The politics of translation • Steiner, The Hermeneutic motion • Venuti, Translation as cultural politics, regimes of domestication in English (fotocopie) • Venuti, Translation, community, utopia • Vinay and Darbelnet, A Methodology for Translation I saggi in grassetto saranno distribuiti in fotocopie, gli altri sono reperibili ai link http://www.tlu.ee/files/arts/7820/ebooka46d8c7d3aab9a860ae2b1122c758b7e.pdfTHE TRANSLATION STUDIES READER http://www.erudit.org/revue/META/1997/v42/n2/004153ar.pdf (Simon, Translation, Postcolonialism and Cultural Studies)

5. TRANSLATION SHIFTS NE PAS SE PENCHER AU DEHORS NICHT HINAUSLEHEN È PERICOLOSO SPORGERSI DO NOT LEAN OUT OF THE WINDOW

6. The meaning is clear, but the form is different. The number of words varies from 7 to 2, the Italian warning is a statement, the others are negative imperatives etc. These small linguistic changes are called translation shifts. Definition by Catford (the first to use the word ‘shift’ in A linguistic theory of translation): TS = departure from formal correspondence in the process of going from the SL to the TL. (A comprehensive taxonomy of translation shifts was afterwards set out by Vinay and Darbelnet in A comparative stylistics of French and English)

7. Before looking at the translation approaches… ...some concepts are fundamental: SERVITUDE and OPTION In the passage from a ST to a TT, ‘servitude’ is an obligatory shift due to systemic differences between the two languages (unavoidable shift); ‘Option’ implies a non-obligatory shift the translator chooses for reasons other than systemic differences (style for ex.). In this case we have specific choices made by translators.

8. Compensation, loss and gain When there is a loss, translators have to compensate, by means of a ‘compensatory translation gain’. For instance, the examples found in Alice (in the well – well in or the double meaning of ‘draw’) can’t be perfectly translated and that is a loss. If the translator finds an appropriate solution, by means of an effective compensation, can gain something in spite of the loss.

9. Translation procedures: a model • Direct translation: borrowing, calque and literal translation; (no definition needed) • Oblique translation: transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. These procedures are applied at different levels: - lexicon - grammar - message (compensation: loss and gain concepts)

10. Transposition: replacing one word class with another without changing the meaning. Ex.: He announced he would return Ha annunciatoilsuoritorno Modulation: variation of the form of the message when, although a literal translation is acceptable, it is considered unidiomatic, unsuitable or strange. Sometimes M is obligatory. Ex. The time when…/ ilmomento in cui. Some other times the choice is quite stylistic as in: ‘it is not difficult to show…’ / ‘è facile dimostrare…’ .

11. Equivalence: the same situation can be rendered using completely different stylistic and structural procedures. Classic example: When I use a knife or a hammer and I cut or hit my fingers, my cry of pain is: ‘Ahi!’ In English it is ‘Ouch!’ or ‘Ow!’ In French it is ‘Aïe!’ Translatorsmust take into account thesevariations. Idiomaticexpressions: ‘like a bull at a gate’ ‘A testa bassa’ ‘a monthofSundays’ ‘un’eternità’ ‘forall the tea in China’ or ‘once in a bluemoon’ etc. (or the other way round, forinstance ‘in bocca al lupo’)

12. Adaptation: the extreme limit of translation, when the type of situation of the SL is unknown in the TL culture and a new situation must be created (a sort of situational equivalence). Aptronyms (and other names of characters, for ex. Disney’s) Units of measurement Cultural aspects unknown in the TC Social, political, historical events unknown in the TC Varieties of the SL (use of dialects and accents) In poems and similar texts: rhyme and phonetic force.

13. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free; We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.” La ballata del vecchio marinaio (trad. T. Tommaso Pisanti) Soffiava il buon vento, volava la bianca spuma seguiva libera la scia; I primi fummo che irrompemmo In quel tacito mare.

14. The Tyger by W. Blake Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? Tigre! Tigre! Divampante fulgoreNelle foreste della notte,Quale fu l’immortale mano o l’occhioCh’ebbe la forza di formare la tua agghiacciante simmetria?