La revisione della traduzione editoriale dall'inglese all'italiano tra ricerca accademica, professione e formazione: stato dell'arte e prospettive future

Quando si parla di traduzione, si pensa spesso solo al risultato di un processo, valutato e analizzato come tale. Sembra ci si dimentichi del fatto che, prima di arrivare a quel risultato finale, il traduttore applica più o meno consapevolmente tutta quella serie di strumenti di analisi, critica, correzione, rilettura, riformulazione e modifica che rientrano nell’attività di revisione. A questa prima fase, di cui ogni traduttore fa esperienza nel lavorare alla propria traduzione, segue di norma una fase successiva in cui la traduzione è rivista da un’altra figura professionale della filiera editoriale (di solito, e auspicabilmente, un altro traduttore) e infine altre fasi ancora del processo di lavorazione e pubblicazione del testo tradotto. Oltre a essere un’attività cruciale di ogni attività di traduzione e processo editoriale, la revisione riveste anche un fondamentale ruolo didattico nella formazione dei traduttori. L’idea alla base di questo progetto di ricerca nasce dal bisogno di triangolare riflessioni e dati concreti sulla revisione provenienti dalla ricerca accademica, dalla pratica professionale e dall’esperienza didattico-formativa, in un triplice approccio che informa l’intero progetto, di cui si illustrano i principali obiettivi: • formulare una nuova e chiara definizione sommativa del termine “revisione” da potersi utilizzare nell’ambito della ricerca, della didattica e della prassi professionale; • fornire una panoramica tematica, critica e aggiornata sulla ricerca accademica e non-accademica in materia di revisione; • condurre un’indagine conoscitiva (tramite compilazione di questionari diversificati) sulla pratica professionale della revisione editoriale in Italia, allo scopo di raccogliere dati da traduttori e revisori, fornirne una lettura critica e quindi individuare peculiarità e criticità di questa fase del processo di lavorazione del libro tradotto; • presentare ipotesi di lavoro e suggerimenti su metodi e strumenti da applicare all’insegnamento della revisione in contesti didattici e formativi.

Creazione e sviluppo di corpora multimediali. Nuove metodologie di ricerca nella traduzione audiovisiva

The construction and use of multimedia corpora has been advocated for a while in the literature as one of the expected future application fields of Corpus Linguistics. This research project represents a pioneering experience aimed at applying a data-driven methodology to the study of the field of AVT, similarly to what has been done in the last few decades in the macro-field of Translation Studies. This research was based on the experience of Forlixt 1, the Forlì Corpus of Screen Translation, developed at the University of Bologna’s Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Translation, Languages and Culture. As a matter of fact, in order to quantify strategies of linguistic transfer of an AV product, we need to take into consideration not only the linguistic aspect of such a product but all the meaning-making resources deployed in the filmic text. Provided that one major benefit of Forlixt 1 is the combination of audiovisual and textual data, this corpus allows the user to access primary data for scientific investigation, and thus no longer rely on pre-processed material such as traditional annotated transcriptions. Based on this rationale, the first chapter of the thesis sets out to illustrate the state of the art of research in the disciplinary fields involved. The primary objective was to underline the main repercussions on multimedia texts resulting from the interaction of a double support, audio and video, and, accordingly, on procedures, means, and methods adopted in their translation. By drawing on previous research in semiotics and film studies, the relevant codes at work in visual and acoustic channels were outlined. Subsequently, we concentrated on the analysis of the verbal component and on the peculiar characteristics of filmic orality as opposed to spontaneous dialogic production. In the second part, an overview of the main AVT modalities was presented (dubbing, voice-over, interlinguistic and intra-linguistic subtitling, audio-description, etc.) in order to define the different technologies, processes and professional qualifications that this umbrella term presently includes. The second chapter focuses diachronically on various theories’ contribution to the application of Corpus Linguistics’ methods and tools to the field of Translation Studies (i.e. Descriptive Translation Studies, Polysystem Theory). In particular, we discussed how the use of corpora can favourably help reduce the gap existing between qualitative and quantitative approaches. Subsequently, we reviewed the tools traditionally employed by Corpus Linguistics in regard to the construction of traditional “written language” corpora, to assess whether and how they can be adapted to meet the needs of multimedia corpora. In particular, we reviewed existing speech and spoken corpora, as well as multimedia corpora specifically designed to investigate Translation. The third chapter reviews Forlixt 1's main developing steps, from a technical (IT design principles, data query functions) and methodological point of view, by laying down extensive scientific foundations for the annotation methods adopted, which presently encompass categories of pragmatic, sociolinguistic, linguacultural and semiotic nature. Finally, we described the main query tools (free search, guided search, advanced search and combined search) and the main intended uses of the database in a pedagogical perspective. The fourth chapter lists specific compilation criteria retained, as well as statistics of the two sub-corpora, by presenting data broken down by language pair (French-Italian and German-Italian) and genre (cinema’s comedies, television’s soapoperas and crime series). Next, we concentrated on the discussion of the results obtained from the analysis of summary tables reporting the frequency of categories applied to the French-Italian sub-corpus. The detailed observation of the distribution of categories identified in the original and dubbed corpus allowed us to empirically confirm some of the theories put forward in the literature and notably concerning the nature of the filmic text, the dubbing process and Italian dubbed language’s features. This was possible by looking into some of the most problematic aspects, like the rendering of socio-linguistic variation. The corpus equally allowed us to consider so far neglected aspects, such as pragmatic, prosodic, kinetic, facial, and semiotic elements, and their combination. At the end of this first exploration, some specific observations concerning possible macrotranslation trends were made for each type of sub-genre considered (cinematic and TV genre). On the grounds of this first quantitative investigation, the fifth chapter intended to further examine data, by applying ad hoc models of analysis. Given the virtually infinite number of combinations of categories adopted, and of the latter with searchable textual units, three possible qualitative and quantitative methods were designed, each of which was to concentrate on a particular translation dimension of the filmic text. The first one was the cultural dimension, which specifically focused on the rendering of selected cultural references and on the investigation of recurrent translation choices and strategies justified on the basis of the occurrence of specific clusters of categories. The second analysis was conducted on the linguistic dimension by exploring the occurrence of phrasal verbs in the Italian dubbed corpus and by ascertaining the influence on the adoption of related translation strategies of possible semiotic traits, such as gestures and facial expressions. Finally, the main aim of the third study was to verify whether, under which circumstances, and through which modality, graphic and iconic elements were translated into Italian from an original corpus of both German and French films. After having reviewed the main translation techniques at work, an exhaustive account of possible causes for their non-translation was equally provided. By way of conclusion, the discussion of results obtained from the distribution of annotation categories on the French-Italian corpus, as well as the application of specific models of analysis allowed us to underline possible advantages and drawbacks related to the adoption of a corpus-based approach to AVT studies. Even though possible updating and improvement were proposed in order to help solve some of the problems identified, it is argued that the added value of Forlixt 1 lies ultimately in having created a valuable instrument, allowing to carry out empirically-sound contrastive studies that may be usefully replicated on different language pairs and several types of multimedia texts. Furthermore, multimedia corpora can also play a crucial role in L2 and translation teaching, two disciplines in which their use still lacks systematic investigation.

Lingue meno diffuse e corpora: studio empirico sulla terminologia amministrativa ladina

This study aims to the elaboration of juridical and administrative terminology in Ladin language, actually on the Ladin idiom spoken in Val Badia. The necessity of this study is strictly connected to the fact that in South Tyrol the Ladin language is not just safeguarded, but the editing of administrative and normative text is guaranteed by law. This means that there is a need for a unique terminology in order to support translators and editors of specialised texts. The starting point of this study are, on one side the need of a unique terminology, and on the other side the translation work done till now from the employees of the public administration in Ladin language. In order to document their efforts a corpus made up of digitalized administrative and normative documents was build. The first two chapters focuses on the state of the art of projects on terminology and corpus linguistics for lesser used languages. The information were collected thanks to the help of institutes, universities and researchers dealing with lesser used languages. The third chapter focuses on the development of administrative language in Ladin language and the fourth chapter focuses on the creation of the trilingual Italian – German – Ladin corpus made up of administrative and normative documents. The last chapter deals with the methodologies applied in order to elaborate the terminology entries in Ladin language though the use of the trilingual corpus. Starting from the terminology entry all steps are described, from term extraction, to the extraction of equivalents, contexts and definitions and of course also of the elaboration of translation proposals for not found equivalences. Finally the problems referring to the elaboration of terminology in Ladin language are illustrated.

La didattica della traduzione specializzata dallo spagnolo in italiano: competenza traduttiva, genere testuale e nuove tecnologie

Il progetto di ricerca che presentiamo nasce dalla virtuosa combinazione di teoria e prassi didattica nello spirito della ricerca-azione. Scopo del presente lavoro è elaborare un percorso didattico di formazione alla traduzione specializzata in ambito medico-scientifico, tecnico ed economico-giuridico per la combinazione linguistica spagnolo-italiano all’interno della cornice istituzionale concreta dell’università italiana oggi. La nostra proposta formativa si fonda su tre elementi: la ricognizione del mercato attuale della traduzione per la combinazione linguistica indicata, l’individuazione degli obiettivi formativi in base al modello di competenza traduttiva scelto, l’elaborazione del percorso didattico per competenze e basato sull’enfoque por tareas di traduzione. Nella progettazione delle modalità didattiche due sono gli aspetti che definiscono il percorso proposto: il concetto di genere testuale specializzato per la traduzione e la gestione delle informazioni mediante le nuove tecnologie (corpora, banche dati terminologiche e fraseologiche, memorie di traduzione, traduzione controllata). Il presente lavoro si articola in due parti: la prima parte (quattro capitoli) presenta l’inquadramento teorico all’interno del quale si sviluppa la riflessione intorno alla didattica della traduzione specializzata; la seconda parte (due capitoli) presenta l’inquadramento metodologico e analitico all’interno del quale si elabora la nostra proposta didattica. Nel primo capitolo si illustrano i rapporti fra traduzione e mondo professionale; nel secondo capitolo si presenta il concetto di competenza traduttiva come ponte tra la formazione e il mondo della traduzione professionale; nel terzo capitolo si ripercorrono le tappe principali dell’evoluzione della didattica della traduzione generale; nel quarto capitolo illustriamo alcune tra le più recenti e complete proposte didattiche per la traduzione specializzata in ambito tecnico, medico-scientifico ed economico-giuridico. Nel quinto capitolo si introduce il concetto di genere testuale specializzato per la traduzione e nel sesto capitolo si illustra la proposta didattica per la traduzione specializzata dallo spagnolo in italiano che ha motivato il presente lavoro.

La traduzione interculturale nell’Austria-Ungheria della Jahrhundertwende Analisi critica delle traduzioni in tedesco e in italiano del romanzo ungherese I ragazzi della Via Pál di Ferenc Molnár

Riconoscendo l’importanza delle traduzioni all’interno della cosiddetta repubblica democratica dell’infanzia, il lavoro analizza le prime traduzioni tedesche e italiane del classico della letteratura per l’infanzia I ragazzi della Via Pál di Ferenc Molnár, al fine di metterne in luce i processi non solo prettamente traduttivi, ma anche più ampiamente culturali, che hanno influenzato la prima ricezione del romanzo in due contesti linguistici spesso legati per tradizione storico-letteraria alla letteratura ungherese. Rispettando la descrizione ormai comunemente accettata della letteratura per ragazzi come luogo di interazione tra più sistemi – principalmente quello letterario, quello pedagogico e quello sociale –, il lavoro ricostruisce innanzitutto le dinamiche proprie dei periodi storici di interesse, focalizzando l’attenzione sulla discussione circa l’educazione patriottica e militare del bambino. In relazione a questa tematica si approfondisce l’aspetto della “leggerezza” nell’opera di Molnár, ricostruendo attraverso le recensioni del tempo la prima ricezione del romanzo in Ungheria e presentando i temi del patriottismo e del gioco alla guerra in dialogo con le caratteristiche linguistico-formali del romanzo. I risultati raggiunti – una relativizzazione dell’intento prettamente pedagogico a vantaggio di una visione critica della società e del militarismo a tutti i costi – vengono messi alla prova delle traduzioni. L’analisi critica si basa su un esame degli elementi paratestuali, sull’individuazione di processi di neutralizzazione dell’alterità culturale e infine sull’esame delle isotopie del “gioco alla guerra” e dei “simboli della patria”. Si mostra come, pur senza un intervento censorio o manipolazioni sensibili al testo, molte traduzioni italiane accentuano l’aspetto patriottico e militaresco in chiave pedagogica. Soprattutto in Italia, il romanzo viene uniformato così al contesto letterario ed educativo dell’epoca, mentre in area tedesca la ricezione nell’ambito della letteratura per ragazzi sembra aprire al genere del romanzo delle bande.

Dark humour as a culture specific phenomenon: a study in screen translation

The present study aims at analyzing how dark humour as a cinematic genre travels cross-culturally through a specific mode of audiovisual translation, i.e. dubbing. In particular, it takes into consideration the processes involved in dubbing humour from English into Italian as observed in the English- and Italian-language versions of ten British and American dark comedies from the 1940s to the 2000s. In an attempt to identify some of the main mechanisms of the dark humour genre, the humorous content of the films was analyzed in terms of the elements on which specific scenes are based, mainly the non-verbal and verbal components. In the cases in which verbal elements were involved, i.e. the examples of verbally expressed humour, the analysis was concerned with whether they were adapted into Italian and to what effect. Quantification of the different kinds of dark humour revealed that in the sample of dark comedies verbal dark humour had a higher frequency (85.3%) than non-verbal dark humour (14.7%), which partially disconfirmed the first part of the research hypothesis. However, the significance of contextual elements in the conveying of dark humour, both in the form of Nsp VEH (54.31%) and V-V (V+VE) (21.68%), provided support for the hypothesis that, even when expressed verbally, dark humour is more closely linked to context-based rather than purely linguistic humour (4.9%). The second part of the analysis was concerned with an investigation of the strategies adopted for the translation of verbal dark humour elements from the SL (English) into the TL (Italian) through the filter of dubbing. Four translational strategies were identified as far as the rendering of verbal dark humour is concerned: i) complete omission; ii) weakening; iii) close rendering; and iv) increased effect. Complete omission was found to be the most common among these strategies, with 80.9% of dark humour examples being transposed in a way that kept the ST’s function substantially intact. Weakening of darkly humorous lines was applied in 12% of cases, whereas increased effect accounted for 4.6% and complete omission for 2.5%. The fact that for most examples of Nsp VEH (84.9%) and V-AC (V+VE) (91.4%) a close rendering effect was observed and that 12 out of 21 examples of V-AC (PL) (a combined 57%) were either omitted or weakened seemed to confirm, on the one hand, the complexity of the translation process required by cases of V-AC (PL) and V-AC (CS). On the other hand, as suggested in the second part of the research hypothesis, the data might be interpreted as indicating that lesser effort on the translator/adaptor’s part is involved in the adaptation of V-AC (Nsp VEH) and V-V (V+VE). The issue of the possible censorial intervention undergone by examples of verbal dark humour in the sample still remains unclear.

La traduzione intralinguistica, interlinguistica e intercodica della trilogia marsigliese di Jean Claude Izzo

Il testo ripercorre le origini del romanzo poliziesco, la sua struttura, le tecniche narrative utilizzate e l’evoluzione del genere che ha condotto alla nascita del Noir francese e del Noir Mediterraneo. Arrivando ad osservare che per le sue caratteristiche, la letteratura noir in generale presenta specificità di tipo culturale, ambientale e linguistico, che risultano molto evidenti nell’opera di Izzo, si giunge a considerare come sia necessario per il traduttore porsi rispetto all’opera come un antropologo o un etnologo, di farsi cioè interprete di una “cultura”. Nella terza parte del lavoro vengono presentati la Trilogia di Izzo, la struttura narrativa e gli elementi socio-culturali presenti nell’opera. La quarta parte propone le teorie relative sia al problema della traduzione interlinguistica, sia a quello della traduzione intralinguistica e successivamente dopo una analisi della traduzione italiana dei testi, presenta, in appendice, una possibile traduzione del prologo di Total Khéops, inteso come sintesi delle caratteristiche narrative e culturali dell’autore. La parte conclusiva di questo lavoro riguarda la traduzione intercodica e, seguendo la linea di pensiero che ha governato l’analisi della Trilogia vengono presi in esame e messi a confronto col testo narrativo alcuni dialoghi significativi dell’adattamento per la televisione.

Eduardo Zamacois: attività editoriale e opera letteraria

Eduardo Zamacois (Pinar del Río, 1873- Buenos Aires, 1971) was a main actor of the spanish’s literature and edition movement from the first third of the 20th century. He was the founder of magazines that had a big impact like “Germinal”, introductive of the sicalipsis (“La Vida Galante”) or so innovative that deserved an special chapter in the history of literature (“El Cuento Semanal” e “Los Contemporáneos”). With this work, it is intended to recreate the most significant stages from his autobiography adventure including the new information that offers his non before published letters exchange with his last sentimental partner. As a writer, his work was very popular in his homeland, translated to the world and reissued in Ibero-America. His literature work is based in three different phases. He began with the use of gallant literature (with books like La enferma, Punto negro) and took an adventure with the pays of mystery and irony (El otro, El misterio de un hombre pequñito, La opinion ajena) to finally focused in a narrative style of a realistic kind, that includes social critique (Las raíces). His last published novel in Spain is a portrait of Madrid during its long siege by the nationalist troops (El asedio de Madrid), a profound tribute to the people’s heroism and a declaration of love to the capital, that was his place of residence for a long time. While his exile, that took him to Cuba, New York and Buenos Aires, he worked in the radio, the dubbing industry and in finishing his most detailed bibliography, Un hombre que se va, a valuable document of that time.