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High-quality publications from all over the world: the Anglo-Saxon countries
As promised, we are publishing – both on our website and in our Newsletter – more reviews of works on traductology. It is now the turn of the Anglo-Saxon countries, namely the United States, Canada and Great Britain.
Six books are appraised, and, although few in number, they account for more than 2100 pages(!). They recently appeared in English in bookstores of the Western world, where linguistic culture has been highly developed for more than 70 years.
So we have taken the opportunity to draw attention to this fact, with contributions exclusively from professors and university academics. Where are all the industry experts from tens of thousands of companies, who are only notable for their absence from professional publications?
“Applied traductological culture” painfully lacking: no books written by professionals
We can see that, even in English-speaking countries, professionals from our sector, that of linguistic services and localization, continue to flee their commitment to publishing studies, at least on applied research.
On the other hand, who can we look to to fill this essentially professional, practical role, other that the directors of all these companies?
In fundamental research, university professors (albeit a very small minority) have valiantly been facing up to their challenge since the 1950s.
That which is painfully lacking – with regard to fundamental research that is rich and well-structured – is precisely applied traductological culture. Something which rarely appears on the agenda in our professional markets.
The traductological ignorance that promises clients services in all languages through monolocalization
Eurologos’ pride in having produced works on applied traductology is abated by the fact that we are almost the only ones to have published (even online on our website) works applicable to the industry.
As always, this cultural void is the greatest discredit to our profession. And it is not by chance that the mass of translation companies situated in markets all over the world (which we call “mailboxes”), while claiming to cater for all the languages in the world, are only based in one country!
Aspects of specialised translation
Aspects of Specialised Translation, published by Dr Lucile Desblanche in a collection edited by Daniel Gouadec (La maison du dictionnaire), is an excellent volume of essays. There is a foreword by the great traductologist, Peter Newmark, from the University of Surrey. The book is a useful resource for both teachers and translators working in the field of technical translation. Individual case studies allow for more detailed considerations of specialized language at work. A broad range of languages are also discussed in turn (Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Greek, Italian, Russian and Spanish), and subject fields covered include: medicine, technology, law, politics, media, philosophy.
Lucile Desblanche (Ed.)
Aspects of specialised translation
Collection dirigée par Daniel Gouadec
La maison du dictionnaire (191 p.)
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Verbomil : foundation of speech-to-speech translation
This book published by Springer-Verlag, under the direction of Professor Wolfgang Wahlster from the University of Saarland is an excellent volume of essays (around 50 in all, totaling some 700 pages).
It contains contributions from more than 150 linguist-authors, with more than 110 external contributions, including those of several large multinational industries.
Verbomil deals with spontaneous speech, including realistic repair phenomena, and uses deep semantic analysis to recognize speakers’ slips and to translate what they tried to say rather than what was actually said. This book is extremely technical in nature, so only those with a fervent interest in the finer details of its development should take a trip to the bookstore.
Wolfgang Wahlster (Ed.)
Verbomil: foundation of speech-to-speech translation
Springer-Verlag (700 p.)
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Working with specialized language
Written by Lynne Bowker from the University of Ottawa, and Jennifer Pearson, Chief of Translation at UNESCO, this book, bearing the sub-title “A practical guide to using corpora”, is ideal for translators, technical writers and subject specialists who want to explore the potential of a corpus-based approach to teaching and learning LSP (language for special purposes). The book’s emphasis is on the practical usage of corpora (pre-processing, alignment and exploitation).
Lynne Bowker and Jennifer Pearson
Working with specialized language
Routlege
(242 p.)
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The Oxford Handbook of Applied Linguistics (ed. Robert B. Kaplan)
This is a work of epic proportions, comprising no less than 13 parts and 39 chapters in the form of articles written by experts. These include discussions of the four language skills, discourse analysis, second language learning and teaching, variations in language use and performance (bilingualism, multilingualism, language policy and planning), translation and interpretation (evaluation, technological applications in Applied Linguistics).
Despite the impression that the discussions presented are a little too abstract or too academic (the lack of contributions from public and private sector professionals is regrettable, as this would have produced literature that was practical as possible), the work has a number of very strong sections. The chapter on translation is well worth a mention for its good and concise overview. The work provides a fascinating insight into the problems with which the Applied Linguistics professions are faced.
Robert Kaplan (Ed.)
The Oxford handbook of Applied linguistics
Oxford University Press (641 p.)
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Theatrical translation and film adaptation. A practitioner’s view
The author of this work, Phyllis Zatlin, is Professor of Spanish Translation at Rutgers University (New Jersey, United States).
She has accumulated a wealth of experience in the field of theater and film adaptation.
This book, of more than 200 pages, introduces, in a precise and well-documented way, the translation of visual works. The bibliography is thorough and well-detailed, even for dubbing and subtitling.
Not only does Zatlin offer precise information on the world of the cinema and the theatre, but she stresses the major stylistic point of any theatre or film adaptation: the need to ensure that characters all speak “with their own voice” (practical advice is provided as to how this can be achieved).
In the chapter entitled “Practical Approaches to Translating Theatre”, she provides a number of concrete suggestions for translation and adaptation strategies (shifting of location, translation or omission of cultural references, etc.)..
This is a thorough and extremely useful book: quite rare indeed.
Phyllis Zatlin
Theatrical translation and film adaptation
A practitioner’s View Topics in Translation; (222 p.)
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The meaning of Tingo (And other extraordinary words from around the world)
We could not resist presenting this little book by Adam Jacob de Boinod, described by Stephen Fry as “absolutely delicious”. This gives us the opportunity to speak a little about the vast and extremely diverse culture of the translator. Ad Hermans, the greatly missed linguistic researcher at the Brussels Centre for Terminology, brought this precious and silent culture within the scope of “doxology” (see the Dictionnaire des termes de la sociologie, ed. Marabout). This discipline studies the impact on scientific practices and vice-versa of the kind of “non-systematic knowledge”, typical knowledge, which is precisely that of all translators. Not a single line can really be translated. That is to say, nothing can be reproduced in its entirety in another language without the acquisition of a deep, detailed understanding of the “thing” to be translated: in both the source language and the target language.
All of humanity’s wealth of culture resides in this type of knowledge, which the specialism of modernist culture fails to recognize.
Drawing on the collective wisdom of over 280 languages, this very “British” book by Boinod is, we can say, arranged by theme so that you can compare attitudes all over the world on subjects such as food, the human body and the battle of the sexes.
Of course, the eternal “false friends”, the scourge of translators, are included. Did you know, for example, that mama in Georgian means papa or that a Japanese punk is a flat tire? There are even words for which there is no direct counterpart in English (such as pana po’o in Hawaiian – to scratch your head in order to remember something important).
Cultural baggage and books by translators don’t have to be a depressing affair.
Adam Jacot de Boinod
The meaning of Tingo
And other extraordinary words from around the world
Penguin
(209 p.)
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