Translation As Systemic Interaction

Studying the nature of translation theory and offering the reasons for success or failure of translation - this book is for anyone with an academic or professional interest in translation. It presents a new approach - combining a complex model of reality and a biocybernetic computeraided methodology for the study of translation processes. The study is discussing translation as systemic interaction and connecting for the first time Translation Studies with biocybernetics, fuzzy logic, information theory, intercultural communication, action theory, psychology and various technical disciplines (including Russian, German and English examples). It is a breakthrough in the understanding of irregularities in translation processes in theory and practice as well as in the training of translators and interpreters. Dr. Heidemarie Salevsky is professor of Translation Studies at Okan University, Istanbul, and worked as an interpreter, translator and lector. She was Head of the Translation Studies Department at Humboldt University in Berlin and professor of Translation Studies and Technical Communication in Magdeburg. She was a visiting professor at the Universities of New York/Binghamton, Heidelberg, Innsbruck and Vienna.Dr. Ina M ller works as a research assistant at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. She worked as a graduate technical translator and lecturer.

The field of translation studies has grown rapidly over recent decades, with critical questions being investigated across the globe. Drawing together this scattered research, Systemic Functional Linguistics in Translation Studies consolidates important propositions by drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL). Using the SFL dimensions of stratification, rank, axis and delicacy to show how languages are more similar or more different, this book provides a state-of-the-art critical assessment of the interaction between SFL and translation studies. Highlighting the major contribution SFL can make in developing translation theories, a team of world-leading experts investigate how intricate and wide-ranging translation questions, such as re-instantiation and multimodality, can be most efficiently explored through a detailed meaning- and function-oriented linguistic theory. Examining the theoretical concepts and practical applications of SFL in the translation of a range of languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese, Systemic Functional Linguistics in Translation Studies provides a stimulus for new work spanning the two fields and suggests new directions for future research.

The notion of systems has helped revolutionize translation studies since the 1970s. As a key part of many descriptive approaches, it has broken with the prescriptive focus on what translation should be, encouraging researchers to ask what translation does in specific cultural settings. From his privileged position as a direct participant in these developments, Theo Hermans explains how contemporary descriptive approaches came about, what the basic ideas were, and how those ideas have evolved over time. His discussion addresses the fundamental problems of translation norms, equivalence, polysystems and social systems, covering not only the work of Levý, Holmes, Even-Zohar, Toury, Lefevere, Lambert, Van Leuven-Zwart, Dhulst and others, but also giving special attention to recent contributions derived from Pierre Bourdieu and Niklas Luhmann. An added focus on practical questions of how to investigate translation (problems of definition, description, assessment of readerships, etc.) makes this book essential reading for graduate students and indeed any researchers in the field. Hermans' account of descriptive translation studies is both informed and critical. At the same time, he demonstrates the strength of the basic concepts, which have shown considerable vitality in their evolution and adaptation to the debates of the present day.

A critically acclaimed foundational text, Translation in Systems offers a comprehensive guide to the descriptive and systemic approaches which have shaped translation studies. Theo Hermans considers translation norms, equivalence, polysystems and social systems, covering a wide range of theorists in his discussion of the principles of translation studies. Reissued with a new foreword by Kathryn Batchelor, which updates the text for a new generation of readers, Translation in Systems endures partly on account of Hermans’s vivid and articulate writing style. The book covers the fundamental problems of translation norms, equivalence, polysystems and social systems, encompassing not only the work of Levý, Holmes, Even-Zohar, Toury, Lefevere, Lambert, Bassnett, D'hulst and others, but also giving special attention to contributions derived from Pierre Bourdieu and Niklas Luhmann. Hermans explains how contemporary descriptive approaches came about, what the basic ideas were, how those ideas have evolved over time, and offers a critique of these approaches. With practical questions of how to investigate translation (including problems of definition, description and assessment of readerships), this is essential reading for graduate students and researchers in translation studies and related areas.

This book aims to provide a philosophical underpinning to translation and relate translation to development. The second aim flows from the first section’s argument that societies emerge out of, amongst others, complex translational interactions amongst individuals. It will do so by conceptualising translation from a complexity and emergence point of view and relating this view on emergent semiotics to some of the most recent social research. It will further fulfill its aims by providing empirical data from the South African context concerning the relationship between translation and development. The book intends to be interdisciplinary in nature and to foster interdisciplinary research and dialogue by relating the newest trends in translation theory, i.e. agency theory in the sociology of translation, to development theory within sociology. Data in the volume will be drawn from fields that have received very little if any attention in translation studies, i.e. local economic development, the knowledge economy and the informal economy.

Tyulenev develops an original way of applying Luhmann's social systems theory to translation, viewing translation as a social-systemic boundary phenomenon.

The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics presents the first comprehensive, state of the art overview of the multiple ways in which ‘politics’ and ‘translation’ interact. Divided into four sections with thirty-three chapters written by a roster of international scholars, this handbook covers the translation of political ideas, the effects of political structures on translation and interpreting, the politics of translation and an array of case studies that range from the Classical Mediterranean to contemporary China. Considering established topics such as censorship, gender, translation under fascism, translators and interpreters at war, as well as emerging topics such as translation and development, the politics of localization, translation and interpreting in democratic movements, and the politics of translating popular music, the handbook offers a global and interdisciplinary introduction to the intersections between translation and interpreting studies and politics. With a substantial introduction and extensive bibliographies, this handbook is an indispensable resource for students and researchers of translation theory, politics and related areas.

Interpreting in Interaction provides an account of interpreter-mediated communication, exploring the responsibilities of the interpreter and the expectations of both the interpreter and of other participants involved in the interaction. The book examines ways of understanding the distribution of responsibility of content and the progression of talk in interpreter-mediated institutional face-to-face encounters in the community interpreting context. Bringing attention to discursive and social practices prominent in modern society but largely unexplored in the existing literature, the book describes and explains real-life interpreter-mediated conversations as documented in various public institutions, such as hospitals and police stations. The data show that the interpreter's prescribed role as a non-participating, non-person does not -and cannot - always hold true. The book convincingly argues that this in one sense exceptional form of communication can be used as a magnifying glass in the grounded study of face-to-face institutional interaction more generally. Cecilia Wadensjö explains and applies a Bakhtinian dialogic theory of language and mind, and offers an alternative understanding of the interpreter's task, as one consisting of translating and co-ordinating, and of the interpreter as an engaged actor solving problems of translatability and problems of mutual understanding in situated social interactions. Teachers and students of translation and interpretation studies, including sign language interpreting, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics will welcome this text. Students and professionals within law, medicine and education will also find the study useful to help them understand the role of the interpreter within these frameworks.