Translation and interpreting as situated communication

1. Ian Mason Heriot-Watt University, UK Sichuan University, China October 2013 Translation and interpreting as situated communication

2. Sichuan University, October 2013 1-Text and MeaningTranslators and Interpreters as communicators

3. A translation problem • You are serving as an interpreter between two clients, one English-speaking, one Chinese-speaking. • In the middle of the exchange, the English-speaking client says: • “Tell him he’s an idiot!” • What is your translation?

4. A translation problem • A test case for our theories about translation and interpreting • The non-professional interpreter • Data from Harris & Sherwood (1978): • Business negotiation, Canada, interpreted by daughter of Italian businessman

5. Father to Interpreter (in Italian): Tell him he’s a fool! Interp. to English speaker: My father won’t accept your offer.

6. Father: Tell him he’s a fool! Interp: My father won’t accept your offer Father (angrily): Why didn’t you tell him what I told you?

7. Problem • The translation does not resemble what was said. • Is it even possible to state definitely what the source text means?

8. Example from translating • Source Text (French): • “The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Nice (MAMAC) was inaugurated in 1990. We are a structure on an international scale. We have done a lot of work on a movement that is well represented here in the region, I’ll come back to it, on New Realism… So this region has a very high density. Why?”

9. Example from translating • Target Text: • The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, MAMAC, was inaugurated in 1990. Our organisation has an international outlook. We have worked a great deal on a movement which is very well represented here in this region, and I shall return to this, namely, on New Realism… In short, this region is particularly rich in this type of artist. Why should this be?

10. The Indeterminacy of Meaning • Models of communication • Models of translation

11. Indeterminacy of Meaning • The words in the text are only a partial guide to what the writer of the source text intended to communicate. • In communication, we often mean more than we actually say.

12. Linguistic meaning

13. Indeterminacy of meaning • 小心 = ‘be careful’ (VERB) or ‘careful’ (ADJ) • 滑= ‘slippery’ (ADJ) or ‘slip’ (VERB) • This is not just Contrastive Grammar: • The words and the grammar do not fully express the meaning

14. Indeterminacy of meaning • ‘SLIPPERY WHEN WET’ • In communication, we match what is said against the context in which it is said • Pragmatics

15. The ‘Conduit Metaphor’ • The way we talk about language • Common understanding of communication

16. The ‘Conduit Metaphor’ • “This expression conveys a sense of…” • “The meaning doesn’t come across” • “I want to put my thoughts down on paper” • “He’s not very good at getting his ideas through to people”

17. The ‘Conduit Metaphor’ • It is as if “linguistic expressions are vessels or conduits into which thoughts, ideas or meanings are poured, and from which they can be transmitted… [and then] extracted exactly as they were sent” Green 1989: 10

18. According to this theory, communication consists of sending ‘messages’ in ‘codes’. Theory now discredited. But still found in writing on T & I The code model

19. SENDER → MESSAGE → RECEIVER encodes decodes LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE

20. The code model • Assumes meanings are stable and definable: each word means exactly what it says. • Does not allow for ‘noise’ (interference). • Does not allow for human factors. • Ignores cultural and social factors.

21. A model based on assumptions • The text producer intends to communicate something. • The text producer assumes what the text receiver already knows/does not know. • The text itself is a record of this process. • The text receiver makes assumptions from the textual record and from experience to infer the producer’s intentions and build a mental model of meanings (a ‘text-world’).

22. PRODUCER mental RECEIVER model intends infers contextual contextual assumptions assumptions [TEXTUAL RECORD ]

23. A model based on assumptions • We do have direct access to our own intentions and assumptions. • We do not have direct access to other peoples’ intentions and assumptions. • We can only infer them – from TEXTURE (the words on the page) and CONTEXT (assumptions, intentions, etc.).

24. Intended meanings • If we can only infer what others intend to communicate, this means that: • We can never, with total confidence, express in one language (all of and only) the full meaning of what someone has said in another language. • Translating is about making choices.

25. Texture and Context • An example of the way in which texture serves context and context informs texture: • Transitivity • Provides us with clues about intended meanings.

26. Transitivity (传递) • Reflects the ways in which speakers/writers represent in language their mental picture of reality.

27. Transitivity and translation • Actor/Process/Goal/Circumstances • Tom [actor] cooked [process] a meal [goal] for Sally [circumstance]. • Translation example: • ST ‘The land is losing its farmers’ • TT ‘The farmers are leaving the land’

28. Transitivity • ST: The land is losing its farmers. ACTOR – PROCESS – GOAL • TT: The farmers are leaving the land. ACTOR – PROCESS – GOAL • Different actors, different responsibility.

29. Transitivity intention action supervention Material processes event ‘being’ Relational processes ‘having’

30. Transitivity in L’Etranger(Albert Camus) • Nobel prize-winning novel. • Key episode: the narrator shoots an unknown man on a beach in Algeria. • The narrator’s account of the incident: see example 1

31. Transitivity in L’Etranger • ST = 8 material processes • 4 action-intention processes • ‘I clenched my hand on the revolver’ • ‘I touched the polished butt’ • ‘I fired four more times’ • ‘I was striking on the door’ • 4 event processes • ‘My whole being tensed’ • ‘the trigger yielded’ • ‘everything began’ • ‘the bullets sank’

32. Transitivity in L’Etranger • TT = • 1 action process • ‘I fired four shots more’ • 5 event processes • ‘my grip closed on the revolver’ • ‘the trigger gave’ • ‘the smooth underbelly of the buttjogged my palm’ • ‘it all began’ • ‘(shots) left no trace (on the inert body)’ • 2 relational processes • ‘every nerve in my body was a steel spring’ • ‘each shot was another rap on the door of my undoing’

33. Transitivity in Chinese and English • www.cscanada.net/index.php/ccc/article/download/j.ccc • ‘A comparison of transitivity system in English and Chinese’ • Sun Yuli & Zhao Yushan (2012)

34. Conclusion • The ‘motivatedness’ of texture: • Not pre-determined by the events or processes referred to. • Translators have choice. • The choice is guided by judgements about: • Inner context: users (who is talking to whom?), use (what for?), signs (the anti-hero), intentions (critique of society) • Outer context: culture, ideology, etc.