Cover not available
Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 63:5 (2017) ► pp.621–642

When translation is not about meaning

| York University, Toronto |

Translation is typically thought of as conveying the meaning of a text written in another language. However translators frequently engage in operations that do not start from textual meaning but from phonetic form, typographic form or some other formal feature of a text. In this article, I look at several such operations, and how they are used in handling proper names, numerical expressions, text in a third language, so-called untranslatable words, passages of uncertain meaning, and poetry, as well as their use in translation studies and linguistics journals, and in pronunciation guides for tourists and for choirs singing in languages unknown to their members. I also briefly consider operations that are based on the form of non-linguistic text elements.

Keywords: phonological translation, glosses, transliterating, proper names, numerals, machine translation
Article outline
  • 1.Textual form
  • 2.Translation of numerical expressions and measures
  • 3.Text in a third language or in the target language
  • 4.Scholarly writing in linguistics and translation studies
  • 5.Passages of uncertain meaning
  • 6.So-called untranslatable words
  • 7.Proper names
  • 8.Poetry
  • 9.Pronunciation guides for tourists and singers
  • 10.Translating non-linguistic textual forms
  • 11.Summary
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 April 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00001.mos
References
Apter, Ronnie, and Mark Herman
2016 Translating for Singing: The Theory, Art and Craft of Translating Lyrics. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Ballard, Michel
2001 Le nom propre en traduction [Proper names in translation]. Paris: Ophrys.Google Scholar
Catford, John
1965 A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fraser, Ryan
2012 “Evading Frames: D’Antin van Rooten’s Homophonic Mother Goose”. TTR 25 (1): 51–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lodge, Ken
2003 “Phonological translation and phonetic repertoire”. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 13 (2): 263–276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Melnick, David
1983 Men in Aida. Tuumba 47. Berkeley, California: Tuumba Press. [URL].Google Scholar
Meschonnic, Henri
1999 Poétique du traduire [Poetics of translating]. Paris: Verdier.Google Scholar
Mossop, Brian
2012 “Translators and math: the case of approximators”. Translation Journal 16 (3). [URL].Google Scholar
2013 “Singing in Unknown Languages: a small exercise in applied translation theory”. Journal of Specialised Translation 201: 33–48. [URL].Google Scholar
Nichols, John
1988 An Ojibwe Text Anthology. London, Ontario: Centre for Research and Teaching of Canadian Native Languages, University of Western Ontario.Google Scholar
Pym, Anthony
2016 Translation Solutions for Many Languages. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Rozmyslowicz, Tomasz
2014 “Machine translation: A problem for translation theory”. New Voices in Translation Studies 111: 145–163.Google Scholar
Storm, Marjolijn
2016 Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles in German and Dutch Translation. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tomb, Howard
1989 Wicked French for the Traveler. London: Workman Publishing.Google Scholar
de la Torre, Mónica
2011 “Listening Device: Unreliable Self-Translations”. Translation Review 81 (1): 94–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toury, Gideon
1980 In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University.Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence
1995 The Translator’s Invisibility. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vermes, Albert
2003 “Proper names in translation: an explanatory attempt”. Across Languages and Cultures 4 (1): 89–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Von Flotow, Luise
2004 “Sacrificing sense to sound: Mimetic translation and feminist writing”. In Translation and Culture, Bucknell Review, ed. by Katherine Faull, 91–106. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

George, Anna
2023. From classical to cosmopolitan. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation / Revista Internacional de Traducción 69:5 ► pp. 625 ff. DOI logo
Mossop, Brian
2019. ‘Intersemiotic translating’. Translation and Interpreting Studies 14:1 ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.