200174ddcoverv05b.jpg

Introducing Translation Studies

Introducing Translation Studies is among the few very best textbooks on translationstudies that brings together translation theory and practice. In the book, Munday hasdone a superb job in presenting the myriad of up-to-date translation theories in a concise,lucid and interesting manner. Its translation studies made easy, hence good for trans-lation students, teachers, professional translators or simply anyone who wants anintroduction to the subject.Defeng Li, SOAS, UK

Praise for the first edition:Jeremy Mundays book responds to the challenge not only of having to provide for the

profound plurality now characteristic of the field, but also to present a snapshot of a rapidlydeveloping discipline in a clear, concise and graphic way. This is a book which raises strongawareness of current issues in the field and will be of interest to translation trainers andtrainees alike.Basil Hatim, American University of Sharjah, UAE

An established bestselling textbook, used on translation courses and PhD programmesworldwide, Introducing Translation Studies provides an accessible overview of the key con-tributions to this dynamic and growing field.

In this book Munday explores each theory chapter by chapter and tests the differentapproaches by applying them to texts. The texts discussed are taken from a broad range oflanguages Bengali, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Punjabi, Portuguese andSpanish and English translations are provided.

Analysing a wide variety of texts including the Bible, Beowulf, the fiction of GarcaMrquez and Proust, European Union and Unesco documents, films, a travel brochure, achildrens cookery book and the translations of Harry Potter, Munday provides a balancedintroduction to the subject.

Each chapter includes a box presenting the key concepts; an introduction outlining thetranslation theory or theories; illustrative texts with translations; case studies; a chaptersummary and discussion points and exercises.

New features of this second edition include:

A new chapter on translation and new technologies, focusing on audiovisual transla-tion and also including globalization/localization and corpus-based translation studiesRevision of each chapter with new material on the development of translation theoryand practice, including cognitive translation theories and relevance theory, the histori-ography and sociology of translation, and translation and ideologyAn updated discussion on the future of translation studiesRevised exercises and fully updated further reading lists, web links and bibliographyA new companion web site.

This is a practical, user-friendly textbook which gives a comprehensive insight into transla-tion studies.

An accompanying website can be found at: http://routledge.com/textbooks/9780415396936

Jeremy Munday is Senior Lecturer in Spanish studies and translation at the University ofLeeds and is a freelance translator. He is author of Style and Ideology in Translation(Routledge, 2008) and co-author, with Basil Hatim, of Translation: An Advanced ResourceBook (Routledge, 2004).

Introducing TranslationStudies

Theories and applications

Second Edition

JEREMY MUNDAY

First edition published 2001by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canadaby Routledge270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Second edition published 2008

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2001, 2008 Jeremy Munday

The right of Jeremy Munday to be identified as the Authorof this Work has been asserted by him in accordancewith the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted orreproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafterinvented, including photocopying and recording, or in anyinformation storage or retrieval system, without permission inwriting from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataA catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN10: 0415396948 (hbk)ISBN10: 041539693x (pbk)

ISBN13: 9780415396943 (hbk)ISBN13: 9780415396936 (pbk)

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

ISBN 0-203-86973-7 Master e-book ISBN

5.0 INTRODUCTION

The 1970s and 1980s saw a move away from the static linguistic typologies of translationshifts and the emergence and flourishing in Germany of a functionalist and communicativeapproach to the analysis of translation. In this chapter, we look at:

(1) Katharina Reisss early work on text type and Mary Snell-Hornbys integrated approach;(2) Justa Holz-Mnttris theory of translational action;(3) Hans J. Vermeers skopos theory which centred on the purpose of the TT;(4) Christiane Nords more detailed text-analysis model which continued the functionalist

tradition in the 1990s.

5.1 TEXT TYPE

Katharina Reisss work in the 1970s builds on the concept of equivalence (see Chapter 3)but views the text, rather than the word or sentence, as the level at which communicationis achieved and at which equivalence must be sought (Reiss 1977/89: 11314). Herfunctional approach aims initially at systematizing the assessment of translations. Itborrows Karl Bhlers three-way categorization of the functions of language.2 Reiss linksthe three functions to their corresponding language dimensions and to the text types orcommunicative situations in which they are used. These links can be seen in Table 5.1.The main characteristics of each text type are summarized by Reiss (1977/89: 1089) asfollows:

(1) Plain communication of facts: information, knowledge, opinions, etc. The lan-guage dimension used to transmit the information is logical or referential, thecontent or topic is the main focus of the communication, and the text type isinformative.

(2) Creative composition: the author uses the aesthetic dimension of language. Theauthor or sender is foregrounded, as well as the form of the message, and thetext type is expressive.

(3) Inducing behavioural responses: the aim of the appellative function is to appealto or persuade the reader or receiver of the text to act in a certain way. The formof language is dialogic, the focus is appellative and Reiss calls this text typeoperative.

(4) Audiomedial texts, such as films and visual and spoken advertisements whichsupplement the other three functions with visual images, music, etc. This isReisss fourth type, which is not represented in Table 5.1.

Examples of text varieties or genres (Textsorte) associated with each of the three text typesare given by Reiss (1976: 20) and presented visually by Chesterman (see Figure 5.1).Following this diagram, the reference work is the text variety which is the most fully informa-tive text type; the poem is a highly expressive, form-focused type, and an advertisement isthe clearest operative text type (attempting to persuade someone to buy or do something).Between these poles are positioned a host of hybrid of types. Thus, a biography might be

INTRODUCING TRANSLATION STUDIES72

somewhere between the informative and expressive types, since it provides informationabout the subject while also partly performing the expressive function of a piece of litera-ture. Similarly, a sermon gives information (about the religion) while fulfilling the operativefunction by attempting to persuade the congregation to a certain way of behaving.

Despite the existence of such hybrid types, Reiss (1977/89: 109) states that thetransmission of the predominant function of the ST is the determining factor by whichthe TT is judged. She suggests specific translation methods according to text type (Reiss1976: 20). These methods occupy the last two rows of Table 5.1 and can be described asfollows:

(1) The TT of an informative text should transmit the full referential or conceptualcontent of the ST. The translation should be in plain prose, without redundancy andwith the use of explicitation when required.

(2) The TT of an expressive text should transmit the aesthetic and artistic form of the

Figure 5.1 Reisss text types and text varieties (Chesterman 1989: 105, based on a handout pre-pared by Roland Freihoff).

Table 5.1 Functional characteristics of text types and links to translation methods (translated andadapted from Reiss 1971)

Text type Informative Expressive Operative

Language function Informative (representingobjects and facts)

Expressive (expressingsenders attitude)

Appellative (making anappeal to text receiver)

Languagedimension

Logical Aesthetic Dialogic

Text focus Content-focused Form-focused Appellative-focusedTT should . . . Transmit referential

contentTransmit aesthetic form Elicit desired response

Translation method Plain prose, explicitationas required

Identifying method,adopt perspective ofST author

Adaptive, equivalenteffect

FUNCTIONAL THEORIES OF TRANSLATION 73

ST. The translation should use the identifying method, with the translator adopting thestandpoint of the ST author.

(3) The TT of an operative text should produce the desired response in the TT receiver.The translation should employ the adaptive method, creating an equivalent effectamong TT readers.

(4) Audio-medial texts require what Reiss calls the supplementary method, supplement-ing written words with visual images and music.

Reiss (1971: 5488) also lists a series of intralinguistic and extralinguistic instructioncriteria (Instruktionen) by which the adequacy of a TT may be assessed. These are:

(1) intralinguistic criteria: semantic, lexical, grammatical and stylistic features;(2) extralinguistic criteria: situation, subject field, time, place, receiver, sender and

affective implications (humour, irony, emotion, etc.).

Although interrelated, the importance of these criteria varies according to text type (Reiss1971: 69). For example, the translation of any content-focused text should first aim atpreserving semantic equivalence. For a TT that is a news item, second place might probablybe occupied by grammatical criteria, whereas a popular science book might pay moreattention to the individual style of the ST. Similarly, Reiss (p. 62) feels that it is moreimportant for a metaphor to be retained in the translation of an expressive text than in aninformative TT, where translation of its semantic value alone will be sufficient.

There are, of course, occasions, as Reiss allows (1977/89: 114), when the function ofthe TT may differ from that of the ST. An example she gives is Jonathan Swifts GulliversTravels. Originally written as a satirical novel to attack the government of the day (i.e. amainly operative text), it is nowadays normally read and translated as ordinary entertainingfiction (i.e. an expressive text). Alternatively, a TT may have a different communicativefunction from the ST: an operative election address in one language may be translated foranalysts in another country interested in finding out what policies have been presented andhow (i.e. as an informative and expressive text).

5.1.1 Discussion of the text type approach

Reisss work is important because it moves translation theory beyond a consideration oflower linguistic levels, the mere words on the page, beyond even the effect they create,towards a consideration of the communicative purpose of translation. However, over theyears there have been a number of criticisms, which are summarized by Fawcett (1997:1068). One of the criticisms is why there should only be three types of language function.Nord, although working in the same functionalist tradition as Reiss, perhaps implicitlyaccepts this criticism by feeling the need to add a fourth phatic function, taken fromRoman Jakobsons typology,3 covering language that establishes or maintains contactbetween the parties involved in the communication (Nord 1997: 40; see also section 5.4below). A simple example would be a greeting or phrase such as Ladies and gentlementhat is used to signal the start of a formal speech or an announcement made by a companyemployee to clients.

INTRODUCING TRANSLATION STUDIES74

Pages from Introducing Translation Studies 2nd Edition 2008Pages from Introducing Translation Studies 2nd Edition 2008-2