Is Translation Studies going Anglo-Saxon?

Critical comments on the globalization of a discipline

Mary Snell-Hornby | University of Vienna, Austria

The paper focusses on the dominant role of English in the academic discourse of Translation Studies and the effects this has on communication within the scientific community: the danger is increasing that the language English is not only used as a means of communication (e.g. with publications and conferences exclusively in English), but actually forms part of the object of discussion, dealing with facets of languages contrasted to English, and using English examples, whereby non-native speakers are disadvantaged, other approaches are ignored, and “pseudo-English” discourse is increasingly tolerated. The paper discusses the subtle difficulties involved in English academic discourse and presents a number of possible solutions, concentrating on the concept of passive multilingualism and the introduction of “bridge languages” as a means of gaining access to languages other than English or the active working language of the individual scholar.

Published online: 25 February 2010
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.88.09sne

Cited by

Cited by 11 other publications

Castro, Olga

2012. Translating Gender. Translation Studies 5:3 ► pp. 376 ff.

Echeverri, Álvaro

2017. About maps, versions and translations of Translation Studies: a look into themetaturnof translatology. Perspectives 25:4 ► pp. 521 ff.

Lee, Hyang & Won Jun Nam

2019. The past and future of translation studies in South Korea. Perspectives 27:3 ► pp. 419 ff.

Megale, Fabrizio

2015. Mondialisation et Traduction Juridique: Nouveaux Parcours de Recherche. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 28:1 ► pp. 31 ff.

Schedlitzki, Doris, Pasi Ahonen, Paresh Wankhade, Gareth Edwards & Hugo Gaggiotti

2017. Working with Language: A Refocused Research Agenda for Cultural Leadership Studies. International Journal of Management Reviews 19:2 ► pp. 237 ff.

Snell-Hornby, Mary

2012. From the Fall of the Wall to Facebook. Translation Studies in Europe twenty years later. Perspectives 20:3 ► pp. 365 ff.

Snell-Hornby, Mary

2014. EST 2012—A vision fulfilled?. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 26:2 ► pp. 239 ff.

Steyaert, Chris & Maddy Janssens

2013. Multilingual scholarship and the paradox of translation and language in management and organization studies. Organization 20:1 ► pp. 131 ff.

Valdeón, Roberto A.

2011. Traducción y asimetría. Perspectives 19:3 ► pp. 279 ff.

Valdeón, Roberto A.

2013. Gambier, Yves & Luc van Doorslaer, eds. 2009. The metalanguage of translation. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 25:3 ► pp. 439 ff.

Zhang, Junfeng & Yingping Pang

2014. Mirroring, reformulation and functional translation. A complementary TEFL model for advanced learners. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 8:1 ► pp. 52 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 april 2021. 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.