'The prime minister said...': voices in translated political texts

A variety of texts are translated to fulfil functions for political communication across languages, cultures, and ideologies. For example, newspapers regularly provide quotes of statements by foreign politicians, without explicitly indicating that these politicians were actually speaking in their own languages. Politicians react to statements by other politicians as they were presented to them in translation. Political scientists and other experts often debate the potential political consequences of (the translation of) a statement. This chapter addresses the (in)visibility of translation in political communication and the link between textual profiles of translations and the socio-political contexts in which they are produced. The analyses are conducted from the perspective of Translation Studies. The focus is on institutionalised forms of political discourse, i.e. texts that originate in political or media institutions. The link between translation profiles and the social, institutional, ideological conditions of text production is illustrated with reference to authentic political texts (interviews, speeches by politicians, press conferences), mainly involving English, French and German as source and target languages.

The development of lexical meanings in texts

Description, on English political texts, difference between lexical direction and direction in context.

Parallel texts in translation

Creating an appropriate translation often means adapting the target text (TT) to the text-typological conventions of the target culture. Such knowledge can be gained by a comparative analysis of parallel texts, i.e. L2 and L1 texts of equal informativity which have been produced in similar communicative situations. Some problems related to (cross-cultural) text-typological conventions and the role of parallel texts for describing translation strategies are described, as well as implications for teaching translation. The discussion is supported with examples of parallel texts that are representative of various genres, such as instruction manuals, international treaties and tourist brochures.

Annotated texts for translation: English-German:Functionalist approaches illustrated

This text presents a functionalist approach to translation as a framework for dealing with recurring translation problems in a number of genres. On the basis of illustrative sample texts, the decisions taken in the production of the target texts are commented on in view of the specified translation assignments.

An applied linguistic analysis of the simplification of narrative texts

Simplification of texts has traditionally been carried out by replacing words and structures with appropriate semantic equivalents in the learner's interlanguage, omitting whichever items prove intractable, and thereby bringing the language of the original within the scope of the learner's transitional linguistic competence. This kind of simplification focuses mainly on the formal features of language. The simplifier can, on the other hand, concentrate on making explicit the propositional content and its presentation in the original in order to bring what is communicated in the original within the scope of the learner's transitional communicative competence. In this case, simplification focuses on the communicative function of the language. Up to now, however, approaches to the problem of simplification have been mainly concerned with the first kind, using the simplifier’s intuition as to what constitutes difficulty for the learner. There appear to be few objective principles underlying this process. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of simplification on the communicative aspects of narrative texts, which includes the manner in which narrative units at higher levels of organisation are structured and presented and also the temporal and logical relationships between lower level structures such as sentences/clauses, with the intention of establishing an objective approach to the problem of simplification based on a set of principled procedures which could be used as a guideline in the simplification of material for foreign students at an advanced level.

Knowledge acquisition from L2 specialist texts

This research aims to investigate knowledge acquisition and concept formation in the domain of economics and business studies through a foreign language, English, from the very initial to the very final stage of development in the context of Higher Education in Turkey. It traces both the processes as well as the product of acquisition in order to provide a detailed picture of how knowledge acquisition occurs. It aims to explore ways in which the acquisition process can be facilitated and promoted while prospective students of the Department of Economics and Business Administration receive a language training programme, following the completion of which they will join their academic community which offers part of its courses through the English language. The study draws upon (some) theories of mental representation of knowledge, such as schema, frame and script. The concept of discourse community with its characteristics is investigated, enculturation of prospective students to acquire knowledge of their domain through L2 is explored, and the crucial role of the constructivist theory in relation to knowledge acquisition is highlighted. The present study was conducted through a process of enculturation taking place partly at the language centre of Çukurova University and partly at the target discourse community. The data utilised for initiating knowledge acquisition was obtained by establishing a corpus of economics and business texts, which the learners are expected to read during their academic courses utilising computerised technology. The method of think aloud protocols was used to analyse processes taking place in knowledge acquisition, while the product of what was acquired was investigated by means of written recall protocols. It has been discovered that knowledge acquisition operates on the basis of analogical and to a certain extent metaphorical reasoning. The evidence obtained from the think aloud protocols showed that neophytes were able to acquire fundamental concepts of their future domain by reaching the level of shared understanding with the members of their target community of the faculty. Diaries and questionnaire analyses demonstrated that enculturation facilitated learners' transition from the language centre into the target community. Analyses of the written recall protocols and examinations from the post-enculturation stage of the research showed that neophytes' academic performances in their target community were much higher than those of their non-enculturated counterparts. Processes learners go through and strategies they spontaneously make use of, especially while acquiring knowledge of a specific domain through L2 have so far remained unexplored research areas. The present research makes a potential contribution to the language and knowledge acquisition theories by examining closely and systematically the language and the strategies they employ in acquiring such knowledge. The research findings offer useful implications to English language teaching at language schools. Language teachers are provided with useful guidelines as to how they can provide prospective students of a particular academic community with an experience of acquiring fundamental concepts of their discipline before they become members of their target community.

Translation strategies and cross-cultural contraints : a case study of the translation of advertising texts

Since the transfer of a message between two cultures very frequently takes place through the medium of a written text qua communicative event, it would seem useful to attempt to ascertain whether there is any kind of pattern in the use of strategies for the effective interlingual transfer of this message. Awareness of potentially successful strategies, within the constraints of context, text type, intended TL function and TL reader profile will enhance quality and cost-effectiveness (time, effort, financial costs) in the production of the target text. Through contrastive analysis of pairs of advertising texts, SL and TL, French and English, this study will attempt to identify the nature of some recurring choices made by different translators in the attempt to recreate ST information in the TL in such a manner as to reproduce as closely as possible the informative, persuasive and affective functions of the text as advertising material. Whilst recurrence may be seen to be significant in terms of illustrating tendencies with regard to the solution of problems of translation, this would not necessarily be taken as confirmation of the existence of pre-determined or prescriptive rules. These tendencies could, however, be taken as a guide to potential solutions to certain kinds of context-bound and text-type specific problem. Analysis of translated text-pairs taken from the field of advertising should produce examples of constraints posed by the need to select the content, tone and form of the Target Text, in order to ensure maximum efficacy of persuasive effect and to ensure the desired outcome, as determined by the Source Text function. When evaluating the success of a translated advertising text, constraints could be defined in terms of the culture-specific references or assumptions on which a Source Text may build in order to achieve its intended communicative function within the target community.