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Article published In: Target
Vol. 15:1 (2003) ► pp.111–152

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Investigating explanations of translational phenomena

A case for multiple causality

 | The University of Queensland
Published online: 20 November 2003
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.15.1.06bro
The article investigates the issue of providing explanations for translational phenomena through discussion of data provided by a case study of the English translations of works by French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard. In the study four major sources of explanation are proposed: individual situations (the context of production of a particular translation and different translators’ attitudes); textuality (the conditions governing textuality implied in translation); translators’ norms; and intersecting fields (academic translation is envisaged as being situated at the intersection of three fields: academia, publishing, and professional translation). The paper makes a case for multiple causality in translation, and also considers the issue of relations between the different sources of explanation.
Résumé
L’article aborde la question des explications de phénomènes de traduction, en s’appuyant surdes données procurées par une analyse des traductions anglaises d’oeuvres du philosophefrançais Jean-François Lyotard. Quatre grands principes d’explication sont mis en relief: lessituations individuelles (le contexte de production d’une traduction particulière et lesattitudes différentes des traducteurs); la textualité (les conditions qui gèrent la textualitéinhérente à la traduction); les normes des traducteurs; des domaines interreliés (la traductionacadémique est une pratique couvrant trois domaines: le monde académique, celui del’édition et celui de la traduction professionnelle). L’article argue que la traduction relève demultiples causes; il s’attache également aux relations entre les différents principesd’explication.
Article outline
  • 1.Translation and causality
  • 2.Data and method
  • 3.Sources of explanation
    • 3.1Individual situations
      • 3.1.1Context of production
      • 3.1.2Translators’ different attitudes and choices
    • 3.2Textuality
      • 3.2.1Condition 1: TT as a text in its own right
      • 3.2.2Condition 2: TT as a TL text produced for a TC audience
      • 3.2.3Condition 3: TT represents ST, acting as a substitute
      • 3.2.4Condition 4: Intertextual relations
      • 3.2.5Co-existence of the conditions
    • 3.3Translators’ norms
      • 3.3.1Types of relationship between survey data and corpus data
      • 3.3.2Discussion of the findings
    • 3.4Target culture context
      • 3.4.1Relations of conjunction between the three fields
      • 3.4.2Relations of disjunction between the three fields
  • 4.The functioning of sources of explanation
    • 4.1Governing relations
    • 4.2Conjoint or alternative sources of explanation
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Appendices
    • Appendix A: Comparison of two translations of the same source text
      • a.Missive sur l’histoire universelle
        • a.0Technical lexis and key terms
        • a.1Reduction of clarity in TT1
        • a.2Shift of meaning in TT1
        • a.3Mistranslations in TT1
      • b.La condition postmoderne
        • b.0Sentences split in TT2
        • b.1Grammatical transposition in TT2
        • b.2Imitation in TT1
        • b.3Clarity in TT2
        • b.4Modulation in TT2
        • b.5Minor shifts of meaning in TT2
    • Appendix B: Examples from single translations displaying particular issues
      • a.Conditioning between textual levels
      • b.Increase of cohesion in TT
      • c.Clarity achieved by pronoun explicitation
      • d.Naturalization—Loss of ST stylistic features
      • e.Loss of language play
      • f.Meaning reinforced through punctuation
      • g.Transfer of ST terms
      • h.Imitation of author’s particular choice of expression
      • i.ST unusual terms and expressions
      • j.ST stylistic features imitated
      • k.Mistranslations due to imitation
      • l.Prior rendering of technical term not used
      • m.Naturalness but loss of ST emphasis
      • n.Imitation but expression not natural
      • o.Non-natural expression not directly related to ST influence
  • Glossary
  • References
References (42)
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