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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 15:1 (2003) ► pp.111–152

Investigating explanations of translational phenomena

A case for multiple causality

| The University of Queensland

The article investigates the issue of providing explanations for translational phenomena through discussion of data provided by a case study of the English translations of works by French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard. In the study four major sources of explanation are proposed: individual situations (the context of production of a particular translation and different translators’ attitudes); textuality (the conditions governing textuality implied in translation); translators’ norms; and intersecting fields (academic translation is envisaged as being situated at the intersection of three fields: academia, publishing, and professional translation). The paper makes a case for multiple causality in translation, and also considers the issue of relations between the different sources of explanation.

Keywords: descriptive-explanatory translation research, multiple causation of translational phenomena, individual situations, textuality, translators’ norms,, social fields, English translation of Jean-François Lyotard
Article outline
  • 1.Translation and causality
  • 2.Data and method
  • 3.Sources of explanation
    • 3.1Individual situations
      • 3.1.1Context of production
      • 3.1.2Translators’ different attitudes and choices
    • 3.2Textuality
      • 3.2.1Condition 1: TT as a text in its own right
      • 3.2.2Condition 2: TT as a TL text produced for a TC audience
      • 3.2.3Condition 3: TT represents ST, acting as a substitute
      • 3.2.4Condition 4: Intertextual relations
      • 3.2.5Co-existence of the conditions
    • 3.3Translators’ norms
      • 3.3.1Types of relationship between survey data and corpus data
      • 3.3.2Discussion of the findings
    • 3.4Target culture context
      • 3.4.1Relations of conjunction between the three fields
      • 3.4.2Relations of disjunction between the three fields
  • 4.The functioning of sources of explanation
    • 4.1Governing relations
    • 4.2Conjoint or alternative sources of explanation
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Appendices
    • Appendix A: Comparison of two translations of the same source text
      • a. Missive sur l’histoire universelle
        • a.0 Technical lexis and key terms
        • a.1 Reduction of clarity in TT1
        • a.2 Shift of meaning in TT1
        • a.3 Mistranslations in TT1
      • b. La condition postmoderne
        • b.0 Sentences split in TT2
        • b.1 Grammatical transposition in TT2
        • b.2 Imitation in TT1
        • b.3 Clarity in TT2
        • b.4 Modulation in TT2
        • b.5 Minor shifts of meaning in TT2
    • Appendix B: Examples from single translations displaying particular issues
      • a. Conditioning between textual levels
      • b. Increase of cohesion in TT
      • c. Clarity achieved by pronoun explicitation
      • d. Naturalization—Loss of ST stylistic features
      • e. Loss of language play
      • f. Meaning reinforced through punctuation
      • g. Transfer of ST terms
      • h. Imitation of author’s particular choice of expression
      • i. ST unusual terms and expressions
      • j. ST stylistic features imitated
      • k. Mistranslations due to imitation
      • l. Prior rendering of technical term not used
      • m. Naturalness but loss of ST emphasis
      • n. Imitation but expression not natural
      • o. Non-natural expression not directly related to ST influence
  • Glossary
  • References
Published online: 20 November 2003
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.15.1.06bro
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