1

English translation

Munday’s book Introducing Translation Studies chapter 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9

Тranslation

 As a phenomenon
 As a product
 As process

Soft skills: collaborative work, being able to react quickly

Translation from Latin trans-ferre (to carry across)

Translation as a linguistic and cultural challenge rather than a problem. A linguistic act of communication
across cultures. (Julian House)

ONELOOK DICTIONARY

COLLINS DICTIONARY

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Corpora sketch engine; corpora a collection of written or spoken material stored on a computer and used
to find out how language is used:

All the dictionary examples are taken from a corpus of billions of words.

Corpus: a specific collection of texts, organized by genre, divided into written and spoken. Collected
homogeneously you can understand how language works. Texts that show how the meaning can be
communicative (strings of text)

Working on translation why should we identify something that it’s standard from something that it’s not
standard? Standard is about the speaker to present the information plainly

Non-standard: To create a dynamic shrift, create an extra meaning, for instance if you move NP or VB in the
sentence in a way that could sound nonstandard and at the same time grammatical.

It is unclear what this group of people are…

This group of people are ….

L1 speakers will perceive the intended meaning of the shrift within the sentence.

Tendency is the frequency. We do have patterns and regularity- standard.

Strings: translation units

Protesters= false friend is manifestanti non protestanti!

English-Corpora: iWeb

LIS- lessico dell’italiano scritto per le corpora italiane

Region – zona/aerea/ territorio

Respond – associative endophora numbers of neutral words that become value loaded due to the co-text
1
Per sedare la rivolta- reagire

Security forces – le forze di sicurezza

Syntax

Distinguish between simple and complex sentences.

Non finite clause: non explicit subjet

Is said=

They say = si dice

Lexis- collocations :

 Iranian security forces- what do we mean? Police? Maybe it’s better to be more generic with forze
 Present perfect usually is used in the fresh news for the first sentence.
 In their thousands- fixed phrase to mention an approximative large number

Equivalence as a theoretical concept

Polysemic word.

Equivalence has been neglected attention for a long time. Function became more important, so we moved
from equivalence to function. Equivalence became strategy, a technical idea as compared to what we
found in Jakobson, Nida. Jakobson – equivalence in difference is the best concept. J. starts off from
structuralism, language as a process rather than a product(structuralism) Language is a process because we
can use the same form to say something different (grammatical point of view)

 Sign= arbitrary signifier + signified. A sign is a match for word.

 There Is no full equivalence between code units
 Should we rely on determinism/relativism or universalism (investigation into the languages) – the
question of translatability. Against Relativism: we do some lexical items missing here and there, but
we have items that can compensate.
 Poetry, grammatical gender, myth – the value of intralingual translation. Translation is a compare
and to contrast. Intralingual translation is useful to face the challenges and create a Target text.
 Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey
 Synonyms are not perfect match like cheese and formaggio

In NIDA

He says much more about equivalence.

1. Formal equivalence (formal correspondence) message should match as closely as possible the
different elements in the source language.
2. Dynamic equivalence (functional equivalence) the closest natural equivalent to the source language
message
Proximity and distance between cultures.

He is considering more aspects such as

Time equivalent is a component

audience equivalence

The genre (any text can be differently understood in different communities in terms of genre)

Naturalness: he is taking us back to the layers of language like Jakobson. Nida takes over from J. but
trying to move into the professional conditions of a translator (considers time, audience, culture, interest
of audiences, age, education)

Spirit of the text should match the response in the target culture.

Koller’s equivalence

We are taking back to structuralism. Equivalence looking at the product rather than the process: relates to
equivalent items in specific ST-TT pairs and contexts. Parameter of Saussure’s parole (the language as it is
used)

Correspondence is a good broad category, comparing and contrasting linguistics (two language systems)

Formal equivalence is more related to the formal aspects of language. Equivalence is no longer seen as an
identical item -As a perfect match- that is good enough to cover an item.

Baker’s equivalence

1. Equivalence at word level – what is a word? One- to -one equivalence between words and
meaning, propositional vs. expressive meaning, presupposed meaning, evoked meaning etc..
2. Above word level- collocations, idioms, fixed expressions
3. Grammatical e. grammatical categories across languages, word order
4. Textual equivalence thematic and information structures – Halliday and information flow, thematic
structure (theme- rheme) information structure (given, new). Textual equivalence: cohesion
5. Pragmatic: coherence, implicatures, background knowledge
6. Beyond e: ethics and morality
How much you can stretch your ethics? Swearwords but also social cultural values not shared
between other cultures

Venuti’s historical reading-

Equivalence has been understood as accuracy, adequacy, correctness, correspondence, identity,
fidelity. It is a variable notion of how the translation is connected to the foreign text.

Equivalence as a strategy
MALONE’s equivalence
It’s called equation. Translation strategies: dichotomy one is meant to be the positive and the other
negative
1. Equation v substitution: one to one equivalence v an item is replaced with another item (at a
grammatical level or relative to idioms or culture bound items)
2. Divergence v convergence: the equivalent is chosen from a potential range of alternatives, the
relation is one to many (e.g che- that, which, who.)
3. Diffusion v condensation: adding elements or taking away based on the requirements of each
language. Condensation is phrasal verbs – put up with/ tolerate (intralingual translation: British
 will be familiar with put up with but not with tolerate- mismatch between adopting an item
despite of the semantic of it)
4. Amplification vs reduction is about the number of information- making it more explicit, explain
something that is cultural bound or unfamiliar to the target reader.
5. Recording: word order and basic inversion procedure, e.g adj+ noun in EN is noun+adj in IT

Vinay and Darbelnet’s equivalence is about the idiomatic translation, fixed phrases.
Amplification sounds a bit more like diffusion in Malone.

Nida
audience 1) age 2) interests 3) education. Nida and J. don’t clash, but Nida anticipated
functionalism in translation.

Different types of literal translation for different purposes:

 free/ paraphrastic
 Close or literal 1)interlinear (for each item u will have a correspondence – impossible except for
glossal translation 2) highly concordant relationship 3)over translation

Naturalness: a a piece of terminology

 what to avoid in natural translation (vulgarism , slang, onomatopoeic, old fashioned language)
(anacronisms – falsifying the language at historical different periods) (appropriateness of the
message within the context -words and the real world they symbolize, stylistic selection of symbols)
 What to incorporate in a natural translation (proper emotional tone specific to each discourse – like
poetry) (social class, geolect…)
 The extent to which the message fits the receptor-language audience (level of experience and
capacity of decoding)
 Naturalness and form (rhythmic forms, aesthetic appeal) – specific literary forms, semantically
exocentric expressions (based on figurative language and idiom) intraorganismic meanings
depending on the total cultural context (connotation and culture-bound expressions)

Texts have different values within a specific community.

There is a coding way, we are in a specific verbal code: within such code we expect some
rules to be there. We still rely on them even if these rules are broken.

Jakobson and Nida draw from linguistics, but they aren't focused on specific branches of
linguistics, they are more focused on understanding translation.

Catford's language is accessible in general. He tackles translation and provides a

systematic approach. He's organised in different areas and has a scientific approach so
labels every aspect with a new term.
There are general English words but compounds, collocations different from their usual
meaning.
Problem: the texts take from Halliday --> language not anymore as a product
The semantic is layered.

Various branches of linguistics, focusing on the rank scale (morpheme, word classes,
phrases, clauses, sentences). These 5 ranks are part of the idea of the rank shift.
The level shift is moving within the language through various levels (phonology,
graphology).
Grammar and lexis are the levels already discussed by Jakobson --> there is equivalence
is difference. When there is no equivalence, we rely on periphrastic expressions or
different grammatical structures ??

Category shift: granular analysis and comparison of language pairs. The aim of achieving
formal equivalence is about investigating the patterns of a language and comparing them
to other patterns.

Structural shifts: grammar structure

--- shift
Unit shift/rank shift
Intra-system shift: thinking about two languages as systems which have similarities.

The text requires some prerequisites (metalanguage of Halliday).

Marked and unmarked

Related to morphology
A morpheme marks for tense or for aspect
-ing form: marks a verb for aspect (gerund or present participle)
Words may be marked phonetically
It is about how to include a grammar information within a word and how morphology
signals this situation
Markedness is about more frequent or less frequent: something unmarked is standard,
marked is non-standard and unexpected.

Category shift
Unbounded translation is free or normal translation.
Unbounded is when we find equivalence that may bring shift on the rank scale and
established at a lower level than the sentence.
A translation unit is a chunk
A chunk is a string, often a phrase or shorter,

Formal equivalence: it is possible for each item to find a formal equivalent

A complement in syntax is compulsory, it is a component.

Typically, subject = noun phrase (NP) but also subject = that clause
The head in the NP is the noun

Catford used linguistics as a tool to understand language pairs

Linguistics helps us reword

In poetry language is intentionally disrupted. The poet articulates a story

Polarity is when we have a markedness that is bipolar = negative and positive. In the different languages,
we have different typologies of polarity- the way we morphologically change lexis. (Catford- polarity)

FIRST ASSIGNMENT - FEBRARY 5TH

- Read either Jakobson, Nida, Catford

- And one between the list on aulaweb
- Isolate keywords – key phrases (nida: formal correspondence or formal equivalence so it’s not a
single word) from both texts. In some cases the terminology will clash ( e.g markedness,
correspondence, equivalence !) glossary: 10 words for each text.
- Concept maps or venn diagram for each essay relying on the two glossaries you prepared in task
one. This task may show you that some of the words you selected are incomplete or not the right
ones for your concept map or Venn diagram. If this is the case, go back and revise them. (usare
simboli, schemi…) Make sure that you used the same words of the glossary.
- Summary of both essays. (in two different slots)
- Task 4: work on a compare and contrast essay (task four) starting from the 5 options offered at the
top that are already randomly allocated to each of you, i.e.
By the way If I would have had option B, I would have said (aggiungi tuoi punti di vista personali
anche su altri punti se vuoi)

Nel 4 task sottolineare se hanno significati diversi i termini messi nel glossario all’inizio.
 2 SEMESTER
Nida
Naturalness of expression in the receptor language is a problem of co-suitability on several levels:
(He was trying to unpack the difficulties of languages)
Jakobson dynamic correspondence – Ortega y Gasset the logic of street items that we need to
include in any part of speak and writing is limited. Ortega y Gasset is a translation of the original
essay! The importance of dialogue, where we come up with better ideas: different point of views
( philosophic)
 Word classes: may not match or they may be there but in particular context they tend to be
polysemic (there is no noun for ‘love’ one must often say ‘God loves’ instead of ‘God is
love’ – smoking is dangerous -gerund as a noun)
 Grammatical categories (in some languages so called predicate nominatives must agree in
number with the subject, so that the two shall be one cannot be said, and accordingly, one
must say the two persons shall act just as though they are one person)
 Semantic classes (swear words in one language)

Nida: in spoken language, we have pitch and intonation.

A natural translation must be in accordance with the context of the particular message.

Ortega y Gasset: the translator is portrayed as less than a writer, always less!

Translation is metaphorical, terminology is metaphorical (metaphorical conceptualization) they retain at

least one feature of the item they are associated to. “Fettered to mere words, the translator loses the spirit
of the original author” limited = fettered

Metaphors is always in any discourse type! ‘Metaphors we live by’ book – we technically understand the
words metaphorically.

Meaning: linguistic vs communicative meaning

Where does the meaning come from?

 Grammatical meaning (lexis, collocation)

 Figurative meaning (metaphors, metonymies)
 Communicative meaning (meaning that results in interaction, meaning in use in context)

Different types of meaning= propositional meaning- vs connotational

Meaning: intended vs perceived or implied

Meaning potential: intrinsically in words, as much as sentences

Reduction in explicitness: reduction may be necessary so as to be polite

1. LE (linguistic exponent) = the verbal and non-verbal form in which the message is encoded
(lexical item, grammatical pattern, idiomatic expressions) - communicative meaning+ language
in use
2. GF (grammar function) the meaning attached to the grammatical form.
3. CF (communicative function) the function of the LE which embodies the communicative intent
or purpose of the speaker – speaker’s intention.
It’s hot in here is a statement according to grammatical rules, but it may be used with an interrogative
meaning – intended meaning ‘ can u open the door? ‘

5 dimensions of lexical meaning

1. Denotation – denotative or propositional meaning ‘the literal meaning’

It doesn’t prevent words from being polysemic or having a multiple membership (belong to more
than one category)
‘Floor’: polysemic words a) flat surface 2) a level in a building …
2. Connotation: non-linguistic – cultural issues/ social/ emotive/ attitudinal associations which are
made with the denotation meaning of an item
Grey day: bad day
Value added meaning: positive or negative meaning.
Denotative: grey colour.
Connotation: sadness.
3. Collocation: lexical items are not free to be arranged with other lexemes, but are collocated in
meaning relationship with a restricted number of other lexical items. Collocation range: beautiful
woman vs handsome man. The frequency of usage is high.
Weak collocation: nice house there’s plenty of words they can collocate with
Strong collocation: the Opera House is a strong collocation.
4. Idiomatic expression: fixed expressions, need to be culturally contextualised to be fully
understood: She’s a pearl of a child.
Difference between collocations is that collocations are not fixed expressions! But the meaning of
idiom is not transparent as in fixed expressions!
5. Semantic field: words can be grouped together according to the denotational, connotational,
collocational, idiomatic meanings they hold in common. Presuppositional pool of words.
Rely on synonymy, antonymy = Jakobson

Value free or value loaded words: co-text and semantic field contribute to turning value-free words
( which do not convey judgements) into value loaded words ( words which convey judgments)
Unarmed- laden word value loaded word.
Civilians (value load word- war)

ORTEGA Y GASSET

 Presented as a fictional dialogue.

 translation can be seen both as misery and as a splendour.
 translation is utopian.
 Two directions: either the author is brought to the language of the reader (fake translation,
paraphrase) or the reader is carried to the language of the author. (Venuti)
 Pseudo language: we are not born with any language, we grow with a language.
Bilingualism. Pseudo language is any scientific language – intralingual translation (different
registers – ability) Pseudo language is intralingual translation (rephrase, rewording)
  Linguistic relativity: we can only say as much as our language allows us to say. Each
language silences us in a different way. There’s quite a lot of meaning in silence (pragmatics
Silence: turn taking, meaningful)

Poetry as transposition – full glossary (Nida) transposition (Jakobson) pag. 61

You must take into consideration the untranslatability, otherwise – bad utopian.

He decided to use paradox, trying to constantly shifting the prospective ( the topic is complex, he uses a
particular genre to express his ideas – Conversation (reference to Socrate) to offer not a finite solution but
to open up more threads.) Translation is fuzzy, clearly it is a challenge. Misery or splendour both. Language
is layered, culturally speaking we are using different logic and logic is semantical. Utopian is because human
beings have always been ambitious. He’s trying to create a play, it’s fictional. He is both using relativism
and universalism (so did Jakobson) You can’t find a perfect match in translation because languages are
formed in different landscapes, experiences. (that’s linked to Nida’s idea – identity in translation- no
absolute correspondence) Cultural sensitivity: linguistic politeness we can’t use the same linguistic
politeness strategy in all languages.

The grea eskimo vocabulary hoax (eskimo is not a language, but several different languages)

In society we are organised in different groups, you need to get into the way social relationship are based
on in different groups.

When languages borrow some words from other languages, they adapt it to their culture (like al fresco is a
borrowing from Italian but the meaning is different - a little place where u can sit outdoor and enjoy your
meal)

Conversation analysis is spoken, spontaneous – turn taking is slightly different from pragmatics. Silence is
attributable or not attributable Silence is part of non-verbal communication. However, silence can be
meaningful.

Silence can be investigated using conversation analysis turn-taking approach or pragmatics.

In conversation analysis, silence is considered as discontinuity and can be either attributable or non-
attributable. The first carries meaning, the second does not carry meaning. Silences can match a TRP (no
added meaning), can indicate a topic switch (no added meaning or maybe some), disagreement
(added/ambiguous meaning), embarrassment (added/ambiguous meaning), etc.

As for pragmatics, socio-cultural issues strongly shape context that in turn is crucial in disambiguating
implicit meaning or implicature. Socio-cultural differences can be detected in languages and cultures that
are identified as high- or low-context (E. T. Hall).

This reminds me of Venuti's domesticating process,

where the author gets closer to the reader and the
foreignizing process where the readers gets closer to
the author. Could we associate the two authors for
this specific reason?

Schleiermacher is the starting conceptual point for

both scholars, but Venuti is moving the discussion
towards a different direction that has to do with a
postcolonial approach in the humanities at large and
thus with accountability, voice and translation as an
act of responsibility and disclosure/discomfort that
promotes visibility.

Syntax and lexical verb

Syntax is about the link within pragmatics in semantic that is creating connection between the chunks.

 Intransitive – 1 argument SV
 (Mono)transitive 2 arguments (1 argument subject, 2 argument direct object) SVO
 Ditransitive 3 arguments (subject + d.O + i. O) SVOiOd
 Copular linking verb 1 argument (grow, become, verbs of feelings) those that connect the subject to
the complement. SVSbC
 Complex transitive 3 arguments (he made her angry) SVOOc

Example to prove that a verb may belong to different syntactic structures:

He made a tea (transitive)

He made himself a tea (ditransitive)

Some verbs may be forced into specific syntactic structures.

Sentences are ambiguous, may be chanted in different ways – She hit the man with a telescope.

Embedded clause: an embedded clause is a clause used in the middle of a sentence, or in the root clause.

-She named the baby Sally (name typical transitive verb)

-She laughed herself silly (laughed is intransitive, but in this case, it has been forced into the structure of
complex transitive construction)

 Adverbials: adjuncts (time, space – here, there, tomorrow, manner) conjuncts (connectors that are
meant to link longer chanks, e.g however, in addition to…)

-The younger girl wrote and email quickly there (quickly adjuncts how, there)

 Disjuncts (they are casting a completely different meaning over the entire clause) A disjunct is a
word or phrase that explicitly expresses someone's attitude towards the manner or content of
the text or sentence. Disjuncts are a type of adverbial

Compound: 2 clauses coordinated by a coordinating conjunction.

Rank scale of clauses:

 1. Word level (open class words – lexical or content words e.g noun, verb, adj, adverbs, prepositions,
or close class words or grammatical or function words e.g pronouns, aux, determiners,
conjunctions, prepositions)
2. Phrase level – NP, VP, AP, PP (match with VP)
3. Clause level – main , subordinate
4. Sentence level – simple, complex, compound

Finite clause: verb agrees with the subject.

Non-finite clause: gerund and particle

Head nouns and head adjectives can be post- modified by a range of clause types- we need to identify
the head of the phrase to understand the meaning.

Reduced relative clauses- non finite clause: the subject is covered ( zero item): u use present participle
or past participle – the lifeguards discussed the storm (which was) brewing at sea.

Clause types:

1. Declarative
2. Interrogative
3. Imperative

Cleft clause – it is obvious that she left.

Nonstandard/ marked constructions-

o Interrogative: negative adverbs ask for inversion.

o Preposing/fronting/topicalization – this one she accepted. It is a mechanism of syntax that
establishes an expression as the sentence or clause topic by having it appear at the front of the
sentence or clause.
o Existential there – there was a cat on the mat. Dummy subject to say that something happens or
exists. When used as such, the pronoun there doesn’t refer to anything specific but merely
introduces a situation that exists.
o Extraposition – discontinuity – it is important to book early.
o Passives – the key was taken.
o Exclamations

Blum- Kulka

Similarly, to Catford she refers to shifts of cohesion. According to Catford there are two kinds of shifts: level
shifts and category shifts. Level shifts mean that an SL item at one linguistic level has a TL translation
equivalent at a different level, with the most common being those from grammar to lexis. Category shifts
are those where equivalence is sought at a different category of structure, unit, word class, or system. The
shifts of cohesion are mainly concerned with the level of explicitness. The shifts of coherence are of two
kinds: (a) reader-centred shifts, and (b) text focused shifts.

Similarly, to Catford, she refers to shifts of cohesion. He argued that there are 2 kinds of shifts: 1) level shift
meaning that an item from the SL has a TL translation equivalent at a different level (from grammar to lexis)
2) category shift: equivalence is sought at a different category of structure, unit, or word-class... The main
difference is that she focuses more on the level of explicitness and that's why she introduces the idea of
reader-centered shifts and text focused shifts.

Utterances can be made explicit or implicit. She sees translation as an act of communication.
Shifts in coherence.

-The target text may be more explicit than the source text (you need more explicitness – the exploitation
hypothesis

When it’s cultural bound, the footnotes may not be enough to retrieve the meaning (Nida says that
footnotes are very unlikely only for gloss translation) Formal equivalence (formal correspondence) message
should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language.

Cohesion is the network of link based on grammar and lexicon – you can always detect (punctuation, deixis,
repetitions, reiterations…)

Coherence is a partnership between the text and the reader ( I need to bring in background knowledge that
the text requires)

The text may be very cohesive but incoherent!

We are moving beyond pragmatics.

Cohesion is pretty much grammatical, grammatical and lexical unity of the text – the way the text links with
and within itself- the way the co-text hangs together. Grammatical cohesion (reference, substitution,
ellipsis, conjunction) vs lexical cohesion (repetition, lexical reiteration)

Coherence is a social cultural issue, about time (what was coherent may not be now) based on cohesion. It
is in the meaning. Unity of meaning and thematic and logical progression to be considered coherent.
Pragmatics considers coherence as relevance.

Reference grammatical cohesion refers to the external word or in the text – reduction in explicitness.

1. Exophoric (outside) – first mention or intertextuality

2. endophoric (inside) – anaphora, cataphora

associative endophora: assumptions – we create a presupposition pool of the word a lexical item creates an
association with another one. Nps which are not explicitly linked to each other but 1 of them is linked to
entities associated with the other NP and impact on its meaning. Related to expectations.

‘youtube is a popular video sharing’ considering the presuppositional pool of ‘website’ =not physical you
understand it’s not a physical video sharing but online

Substitution (use of ‘one’, ‘did’…) to hold the text together and avoid unnecessary repetition.

Ellipsis: leaves it to the hearer to retrieve the missing words from the co-text ‘She cooked dinner and –
washed the dishes’

conjunction (coordination another piece of info equally important or subordination ‘ less’ important info)

lexical cohesion (like repetition – sometimes is necessary sometimes it is related to genre (brochure) to
clarify, underline, vocative – persuasive purpose, memorise (poetry) or lexical reiteration synonyms,
hypernyms, hyponyms, general words to avoid unnecessary repetitions )

Context ‘umbrella term’

1. The situational context is the situation where the action is taking place even non verbal
communication
a. Topic
 b. Setting
c. Medium
d. Participants

2. Background context: knowledge of the world both as encyclopaedic (open access, shared by
members of the same community) or interpersonal (unique knowledge acquired through previous
conversations, closed access)
3. Co textual context – co-text is the context of the text itself; it contains linguistic information and
linguistic signals

Meaning in context relies on context. Based on assumptions of knowledge, hypothesis based on

factual evidence or previous shared knowledge. The speaker constructs the intended meaning
which in not always implied! If the hearer is not able to decode the implied meaning, the
misunderstanding takes place.

 Direct speech act explicit there is a specific signal whose function is to encode illocutionary
force.
 Indirect speech act- we create an implicature, implicit illocutionary force -illocutionary
uptake) the locutionary act and illocutionary force do not overlap (GF and CF do not
overlap, what I say is not what I intended to say and vice versa)

Baker’s equivalence

Equivalence at word level, above word level (grammatical, textual level, textual and pragmatic equivalence)

Mona baker and Ortega y Gasset: she

says that there are 2 different silences
(engaging conversation 2 people start
to diverge and they start to be silent in
order to think more deeply about the
argument) Each language is a different
equation of statements and silence.

Hatim and Mason

1. Shift from speech to writing.

2. Physical constraints of available space (limits the number of words)
3. Reduction of the source text
4. Requirement of matching the visual image

Politeness is often sacrificed

Example: Like it? Yes,but ( positive face + threat

Not necessarily going against reduction in explicitness- maybe it’s explicitating even more than usual

I found an interesting example by Perego discussing the development of audiovisual translation. Assuming
that reduction and decimation are the most common strategies, he lists several strategies with examples
from the translation of the film Frankenstein Junior

1) Expansion: expanded expression rendered to fit the original

2) Paraphrase: expression reformulated with other words

3) Transposition: fully corresponding expression in the TL

4) Imitation: identical expression

5) Transcription: anomalous expression

6) Dislocation: different expression with adapted content

7) Condensation: condensed expression

8) Decimation: reduced expression and content

9) Deletion: omission of irrelevant content

10) Resignation: altered content for 'untranslatable' terms Microsoft Word - 2_Sottotitolazione_RILA.doc
(units.it)

A similar process happens in the captioning for the deaf (from the spoken to the visual semiotic code) and
in the audio description for the blind (from the visual to the spoken semiotic code).

Handling those implicatures that are strictly related to the relationship between the hearer and the speaker
(intimate relation = you can use intimacy up to a point even positive face can be a threat

Being to direct is being bold on record

Baker’s equivalence

Each chapter of his manual is focused on different types of equivalence.

1. Equivalence at word level : what is a word? One-to-one equivalence, between words and meaning,
propositional vs evoked meaning.
2. Equivalence above word level: collocation, idioms, and fixed expressions
3. Grammatical equivalence: grammatical categories across languages: grammatical categories across
languages
4. Textual: thematic and information structures -Halliday
5. Textual equivalence: cohesion
6. Pragmatic equivalence: coherence, implicatures, context, background context
7. Beyond equivalence: ethics and morality

Thematization is a way to understand longer chanks of text (the way info is presented, organized)

Mona Baker ‘Distinction between theme and rhyme is more or less identical to the traditional grammatical
distinction between subject and predicate...’ theme and rhyme are not grammatical notions!

When we speak, we decide what we want to be the subject and what we want to add, so there’s a
distinction between theme (usually at the beginning- FRONTED) and rhyme (comes second).
To understand coherence through cohesion and find the theme, we need at least one page of text (to grasp
the full layering of meaning in the text) longer chanks.

N.B remember that a NP is not always a subject; how they alternate theme and rhyme in the text is
important (linked to the GENRE – a specific way of organizing the text) – place adjuncts is expected in some
genres (location adjuncts in travel brochures is expected in theme position, when not expected then it’s in
the position of rhyme)

THEME

Is the given information, shared.(the speaker gives from granted that the theme has to be taken for granted
as shared info) -Givenness is assigned by the speaker. Given should not be understood as face value!

A) point of orientation (guiding part) maintaining a coherent point of view

B) it acts as a point of departure by connecting forward and contributing to development of later stretches.
Theme represents the speaker’s departure = suggests that organization role is more important than the
rhyme.

‘A Ptolemy’s model (theme) provided a reasonably accurate system for predicting the position…(rheme)’

RHEME: Is the goal of the discourse. Is the new information.

Go back to Nida naturalness and acceptability: in addition to being appropriate to the receptor language
and culture, a natural translation must be in accordance with the context of message. (quite a lot in Nida
becomes more transparent if we have more info from linguistics)

Thematization in translation

1) Thematic organization in translation: you stick to it, you preserve the original text but it doesn’t’
have to distort the natural meaning ( naturally as Nida)
2) You may not preserve the thematic patterning of the ST because you are distorting the meaning of
the TT (grammar – jakobson and catford like ‘andiamo’ cannot be translated as ‘ go us’) It’s
important to pay attention to REGISTER.
3) You may fin that Halliday’ model of thematic analysis does not apply to your language TT at all or
does not apply to some of its sentence patterns.
N.B degree of markedness depends on the frequency with which an element occurs in theme
position and the extent to which it is normally mobile within the clause.

Meaning, choice, and markedness – are interrelated concepts. If there is unexpectedness- implied
meanings. Grading by Nida (?) Going back to Catford welsh vs. English example
‘Beautiful were her eyes’ it is uncommon to find a complement in the initial position

Focus shift- Passive

Standard : simple sentence, active. This suggests that a marked theme has an additional or different
function. (lei dice che il passive è marked, anche se la Baker dice di no). In scientific text, it means
that the theme is more important than the agent, but in another genre it depends.
Local/ temporary prominence (theme9 vs overall discourse prominence (rheme)
How we can alter syntax: Fronting – moving clause items in the front position to English
 Fronting of time and place adjuncts: not a highly marked structure in English because adverbials are
fairly mobile elements (typical in travel brochures)
 Fronting of object or complement e.g ‘a great deal of publicity the book received in China’ (most
common in English)
 Thematization is the best way to find subjectivity.
 Fronting the predicator
 It or cleft structure: it is for identify.
 Wh – or pseudo cleft structure: what is to specify.

Thematization find rhyme and theme

Munday: Chapter on cultural ideological terms, including Harvey’s paper – it’s not true that linguistic tools
in the 90 were dismissed (like denying the knowledge for so long we have investigated, so basically Santini
disagrees with Munday)

HARVEY

The city and the pillar: the conjunctions are not translated in French translation (as you know…)

Harvey is a bridge between the importance of linguistics and Cultural differences. In that period, France did
not have a homosexual literature. The time gap is not an absolute factor, but for once it is.

Camp talk is a social act, the way a group of people that in a way is isolating themselves (safety reasons) –
coded language (as well as in criminal organizations). It is building identities. Language can also be used as a
threat (politeness theory – positive face you and I belong to this group or it is used blatantly as a banter).
Relation between identity, ideology (politics of language as Brisset) you can almost see these people
moving when they pronounce those utterances (define and make a statement, being allowed to be extreme
vs social constraints) At certain times and places we come across special forms of language generated
some kind of anti-society; these we may call "anti-languages." An anti-language serves to create and
maintain social structure through conversation (resistance to the main accepted social roles). Harvey writes
about the role that cultural differences play in translation. He however mentions cultural values.
Homosexuality, for example, can be considered a taboo subject in some cultures, and the choices made by
the French translator Mikriammos that we read from page 457 may have been made to respect the social
norms shared by French readers. – Nabokov and the English translation of the Onegin Nabokov discusses
cultural and autobiographical issues in his “Problems of Translation: Onegin in English,” (Venuti, pp. 71-

See e.g.
"I shall now make a statement for which I am ready to incur the wrath of Russian patriots: Alexandr
Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799–1837), the national poet of Russia, was as much a product of French literature
as of Russian culture; and what happened to be added to this mixture, was individual genius which is
neither Russian nor French, but universal and divine."
Or e.g.,
"Anyone who wishes to attempt a translation of Onegin should acquire exact information in regard to a
number of relevant subjects, such as the Fables of Krilov, Byron’s works, French poets of the eighteenth
century, Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Héloïse, Pushkin’s biography, banking games, Russian songs related to
divination, Russian military ranks of the time as compared to Western European and American ones, the
difference between cranberry and lingenberry, the rules of the English pistol duel as used in Russia, and the
Russian language."
Harvey

The camp talk has a double layered nature. Macro dimension: subcultural values of marginalities. Linguistic
of contact: real language reflects the social linguistic roles in which they belong.

Angels in America example: we have some cultural appropriation of the French language, it helps create the
girl talk (the vulgarity emphasises the way of talking like a woman – theatrical type of femininity-
exaggerated! )

Ambivalence solidarity: face threatening acts.

1. Identity: language that creates identity and belonging, generates a bond within the community and
generates the community. Politically incorrect is meant to be adopted – antilanguage (being
creative with language borrowing from French, theatricalization of prototypical girl talk –
exaggerating the tone of voice, adjectives- to tailor an identity. It was meant to be a way to hide.
The need to analyse the social acts. There is a strong clash between what is considered normal.
Foregrounding your identity to create a pragmatic/specific situation. It is a countercultural
phenomenon: everything that is considered secondary by the mainstream society
2. Appropriateness in pragmatics is about adopting the correct register in specific contexts. It is a
target within a camp talk. Appropriating stereotypes, playing with them (theatricalization, faking a
character, play with a double identity)
3. Positive face: we want to belong to the community, u can be politically incorrect if u know the
other speaker (part of the banter, playing together)

If I understood correctly, the problem is language associated with gayness is mostly discouraged by
parents, so the question is why should we base queer linguistics on 'linguistics community' that assumes
that language is a homogeneous system? would the best solution be to opt for Pratt's definition of
'linguistics of contact' (that also Venuti supported) which is that community and identity cannot be
defined externally by rules or definitions?

It's dangerous to speak about a homogeneous system, language is dynamic. Pratt is a pioneer of

transgender community (e poi non mi ha risposto alla domanda ☹) The idea of imposing a homogenous
conception even on your body not only on the language (conservative society)

Exotic language that we associate with a way of speaking affected by social classes and status (feminine
and masculine definitions are not stable – dialogo esempio)

Brisset

Miron links his idea of mother-tongue to France and sees French as spoken in France (standard French)
as an imposed language from which people need to become independent as from the language of the
coloniser. In order to embrace their own native language (Québécois) that would let them free once and
for all as a nation, a community, a territory. (geolect – dialect)

Lalonde, on the contrary, understand mother-tongue as the language of the mother, i.e., the one
spoken in the early days of one's life within the people who truly love you. It's a nostalgic idea towards a
lost paradise and a primary unconditioned kind of living.

Mother tongue and native language are highly debated because there is nothing native, but rather
acquired and learned. Mother tongue= family. Native= territory
The theatre supports dialect (language which are not written

There is bilingualism in Canada: English and French

In linguistics, diglossia is a situation in which there are two different forms of the same language used
by a community, used in different social situations. Quebecois was only a spoken language (by working
people – consequence lower the status of the characters speaking) . Anne Brisset is not supporting the
entire movement! But often reminding us of the manipulation of this entire movement, she tries to
diminish the otherness (minority wants a space in the social debate, but eventually if u stick to the idea
of the homogenous idea of a unique language for a nation – totalitarian idea) Codifying a language, but
ideologically exploit the entire event, she is sarcastic at some point ‘here once again… ‘ (marked
phrasing per ironizzare sul fatto che la lingua non sia una e omogenea. Language is elusive, difficult to
grasp (jargon, camp talk) that takes u into becoming creative in translating. Target language may also
lacking a register (like quebecois) may be asked to be a parody.

Being to create language from scratch: she supports a non-homogenous idea of language, language is
constantly a borrowing calque that can become part of the new language (camp talk- start from
appropriating from other ways of speaking and then parodying tipo girl talk)

Anti mediative role: quebecois should restore mediation 366; she is not attempting at making quebecois
the only language!!

Cultural turn in translation studies

Pragmatics vs discourse analysis (context through pragmatics) discourse analysis is highly conventional,
perceived as genre. Translation embraces the idea that history, cultural, society have a role into
whatever communication. In the 1990s we find the cultural turn, Levefere’s book and Susan basset. It’s
not a sudden abrupt change but almost an awakening, the discipline was still young.

Theories anticipating interest in

 Ideological implication of translation ( a community is agreeing on some major ideas that

becomes ideological, political, they have an impact in society, become dominant)
 The power relationship involved as a text is transferred from one context to another.
 Moving away from source-focused theories to target text-oriented theories.
 The shift from source-oriented theories to target text-oriented theories.

Polysystems theory: primarily concerned with literary translation, focus on literary translation, focus on
literary history and the fortune of translated texts in the receiving culture. (Toury)

Skopos theory: primarily concerned with non-literary translation the objective or function of a
translation determines the translation strategies to be employed. The translator’s subjective takes
precedence. (Vermeer and ReiB). Even literature and art have a skopos: translation is an action, that has
a reason to be.

Itamar Even Zohar

(diagram from Monday)

Translated literature operates as a system in selection of STs to translate and in norms of translation
behaviour.
Polysystem= ‘ a multiple system, a system of various systems which intersect with each other and partly
overlap, using concurrently different options, yet functioning as one structured whole, whose members
are interdependent’

Toury ‘adequate translation’ subscribe to the norms of the ST (source oriented) vs ‘acceptable
translation’ norms systems of the T culture are triggered. (target oriented)

Replicable framework and methodology for research:

 Situate TT within target culture system

 Textual analysis of ST-TT pair
 Attempt generalizations about patterns identified

Skopos theory= aim or purpose of TT

Skopos (Greek: σκοπός) is a Greek word defined as “purpose” 1. It is a technical term, coined by
Hans Vermeer, that represents the aim of a translation 1. According to Vermeer, there are three
possible types of purposes. First, a general purpose that a translator strives for, such as translating
as a source of professional income. Second, a communicative purpose of a target text in a target
circumstance, such as to instruct the audience. Third, the purpose of a translation strategy or
approach that allows for presenting structural features of the source language 1

The TT must be fit for purpose ‘dethroning of ST’ (Vermeer)

TT judged on functional adequacy:

1. Intratextual coherence + fidelity

2. Functionality + loyalty to ST author intentions
3. So skopos needs to be explicitly stated in the brief commission.

Translational action leads to a target text, translation leads to a translatuum (the resulting translated
text) as a particular variety of TT.

REISS’s text type

 Informative e.g encyclopaedia

 Expressive (novel)
 Operative (advert)
Translation method
Informative, expressive, operative

Lefevere: was inspired by polysystem theorists such as Itamar Zohar, he conceived translation as a form
of rewriting in which the translator assumes the role of co-author and takes into account a series of
ideological and political constraints within the system of the receiving culture. The idea of refraction is
not necessarily shared. (Toury constraints). I looked it up online and I understood this concept better
thanks to the original idea of reflection, basically it is when the light hits the prism and it is refracted for
example when a rainbow shows the different colours; the white light is the original one (ST), but then it
goes off into different direction (TT), depending on who is reading and translating it (which is pretty
much related to most of the authors that we have analysed throughout the course e.g cultural values
and identities in Chamberlain, Harvey, and Brisset) In his 1982 essay, André Lefevere treats translation,
criticism, editing, and history as forms of “refraction” or “rewriting.” He develops a systemic approach to
literary translation which he regards as determined by such factors as “patronage,” “poetics,” and
“ideology.” This interpretive framework gives a new legitimacy to the study of literary translations by
illuminating their creation of canons and traditions in the receiving culture. Lefevere argues that
Romantic notions of authorial originality have marginalized translation studies, especially in the English-
speaking world. And so he approaches the translated text with the sort of analytical sophistication that
is usually reserved for original compositions. His case study consists of the English versions of Brecht’s
plays, particularly Mother Courage and Her Children. Translators always bring their own bias to the text.

He believes that everyone REWRITES (reorganizing the concept) we give more importance to something
and less to something else.

Patronage consists of at least three components:

• An ideological one: literature should not be allowed to get too far out of the step with the
other systems is a society

• An economic one: the patron assures the writer's livelihood

• A status component: the writer achieves a certain position in society

Venuti connects lefevere and toury: refractions carry out a work of literature over from one system into
another and they are determined by such factors as patronage, poetics and ideology.

Cultural turn has greater emphasis on extra textual factors.

How many constraints or intentional choices were made to inform the final translation.

 Translation plays a major role in shaping literary systems (censorship)

 Translation does not take place on a horizontal axis.
 Is involved in complex power negotiation.
 Is always a rewriting.

Cultural turn- feminism, gender …

Example of the impact of the cultural turn: lorna Hardwick suggests ‘involves translating or
transplanting into the receiving culture the cultural framework within which an ancient text is
embedded.

(translation is an instrument of change, the portal through which the past can be accessed, as an
investigation tool)

CHAMBERLAIN

The feminist engagement, example of Schumann, production has a creative process (masculine)
translation is often sexualised. Les belles infideles: woman loyal and beautiful, it makes the woman
the only faithful of the marriage. Thomas Franklin: translator Is the male seducer, while the source
text is a woman who has to be seduced Painter= male figure, subject= is the female. His infedility
will lead to bastards. The essay examines how gender metaphors have shaped the discourse and
practice of translation from the seventeenth century to the present, revealing the patriarchal
assumptions and implications of such metaphors. Chamberlain argues that translation has been
traditionally conceived as a feminine activity, subordinate to the masculine authority of the original
author and text. She traces the origins and effects of this conception in various translation theories
and examples, such as Dryden's distinction between metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation,
Schleiermacher's opposition between domesticating and foreignizing translation, and Benjamin's
notion of pure language. She also critiques the binary oppositions that have structured translation
studies, such as fidelity versus freedom, literal versus free, and source versus target. She proposes
that a feminist perspective on translation can challenge these oppositions and offer new ways of
understanding and practicing translation that are more attentive to the ideological and cultural
dimensions of both the original and the translated texts. She suggests that such a perspective can
also recover the contributions of women translators who have been marginalized or erased from the
history of translation.

Figurative language, number of metaphorical ideas- Example prof The hand male’s tale (role of
human being’s in society, violence)- After Babel (feminist approach to dismantle the dominant ideas
in translation ideas)

Fidelity in the cultural turn is analysed for its figurative meaning. Translation is tailoring clothes, is
painting a portrait (mistress) Metaphor is a way of interpreting, intralingual translation (Jakobson)

Venuti: Every translation is ideological, contains a social political message, utopian community
=potential readership (it’s not yet) it’s not like Ortega y gasset (the action is utopian, every human
action is utopistic – language is the symptom of our misery)

Cercare finite non finite (non ha un soggetto, non è un main verb tipo infinito to play, gerunds
seeing, participle) verbs, marked/ unmarked – Baker’s idea that sustained a linguistic approach to
remind us how different languages achieve markedness differently (in spite of universals)

-Polysemic denotative

-Connotation- value loading= refugees’ citizen (semantic field and context will define and establish
the load) connotation is very sensible to culture (we define in an odd manner and changes through
the time: terrific was used as a positive adj. striking it was a terrif night! Vs. now it’s negatively
loaded – terrific event) playing with the power of world, a community can decide to play with value
loaded options.

Frawley

Antithetical concept of translation is identity and useless for translation. Third code: if you don’t
carry a 3 code, then it’s a mere copy. Moderative innovation: matrix code; innovative code: target
code; radical innovation is the one that carry the more semiotic info.

Recodification is about unpacking the different level of meaning. Identity= means perfect matching,
the same, synonymity.

Venuti, Berman, Venuti RELIENCE OF DIFFERENCE INSTEAD OF EQUATION. Languages are based on
differences.

Translation means recodification

Foreignness is a value rather than a problematic to finding sameness!

Berman

He is not in favour of literal translation known as glossal translation. This is about how translation as
a century long activity has created hybridization in language, has made language evolve, increase
their potential. Through the various analytics, we change the translating language (which is not only
 the language only – a variety that is related to social acts, regions, idiolects, slangs, jargons, and it’s
historical) The labour meaning a word that is not an easy task, working with fatigue.

To identify the unconscious in translation: positive and neg analytics, appropriating the foreign and
making it familiar to the target reader.

Pastiche= what lefevere called refraction

Only standard languages can be translated and he underlined this by talking about vernacular lang

Prima frase epreuve vs. trial vs erfahrung (experience) ( mismatch )

Controversial aspects of translation: dichotomy - Beautiful untruthful vs ugly truthful

Literal translation: Nabokov’s English variant of Puskin’s Onegin (source oriented text) ‘ I have sacrificed
everything: elegance, euphony, clarity, good taste, modern usage and even grammar’

Why literal translation? Ethical reasons, ‘to remain invisible- invisible translator, my personality should
not appear’, to shock the readers (you are reading a translation) (Venuti)

Transaptation – adapt to the reader, you don’t shift

Taming of the text addomesticare– make it familiar to the reader (domestication)

‘Food already chewed, to be served to the one who cannot chew by himself. Still such a food does not
taste the same as the original one.’