Cover not available
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
References

References

Corpus texts referred to

Lyotard, Jean-François
1971 “Le travail du rêve ne pense pas”. Discours, figure. Paris: Editions Klincksieck 1971 239–270.Google Scholar
1974 Economie libidinale. Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
1977 Instructions païennes. Paris: Editions Galilée.Google Scholar
1979 La condition postmoderne: Rapport sur le savoir. Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
1981 “Discussions, ou: phraser ‘après Auschwitz’”. P. Lacoue- Labarthe and J.-L. Nancy, eds. Les fins de l’homme: à partir du travail de Jacques Derrida. Paris: Editions Galilée 1981 283–310.Google Scholar
1983 Le différend. Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
c1984 Extract from Chapter 13 of The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge, tr. Geoffrey Bennington. Typescript.Google Scholar
1984 The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge, tr. Geoffrey Bennington and Brian Massumi. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
1985 “Judicieux dans le différend”. Lyotard et al. La faculté de juger. Paris: Editions de Minuit 1985 195–236.Google Scholar
1986 “Missive sur l’histoire universelle”. Le postmoderne expliqué aux enfants. Paris: Editions Galilée 1986 45–64.Google Scholar
1988 The differend: Phrases in dispute, tr. Georges van den Abbeele. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
1989 The Lyotard reader, ed. Andrew Benjamin. Oxford-Cambridge, Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
1989a “Universal history and cultural differences”, tr. David Macey. Lyotard 1989 : 314–323.Google Scholar
1989b “Philosophy and painting in the age of their experimentation: Contribution to an idea of postmodernity”, tr. Maria Minich Brewer and Daniel Brewer. Lyotard 1989 : 181–195.Google Scholar
1989c “The dream-work does not think”, tr. Mary Lydon. Lyotard 1989 : 19–55.Google Scholar
1989d “Lessons in paganism”, tr. David Macey. Lyotard 1989 : 122–154.Google Scholar
1989e “Judiciousness in dispute or Kant after Marx”, tr. Cecile Lindsay. Lyotard 1989 : 324–359.Google Scholar
1989f “Discussions, or phrasing ‘after Auschwitz’”, tr. Georges van den Abbeele. Lyotard 1989 : 360–392.Google Scholar
1989g “The story of Ruth”, tr. Timothy Murray. Lyotard 1989 : 250–264.Google Scholar
1992 “Missive on universal history”. Julian Pefanis and Morgan Thomas, eds. The postmodern explained to children. Sydney: Power Publications 1992 35–47.Google Scholar
1993 Libidinal economy, tr. Iain Hamilton Grant. Bloomington- Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-François and Ruth Francken
1983 L’Histoire de Ruth. Talence: Le Castor Astral.Google Scholar

Other references

Bourdieu, Pierre
1994 Raisons pratiques: Sur la théorie de l’action. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Brownlie, Siobhan
2001 An investigation of methodological issues in Descriptive Translation Research drawing on a case study of the English translations of texts by Jean-François Lyotard. The University of Queensland. [Doctoral Dissertation.]Google Scholar
Chesterman, Andrew
1993 “From ‘is’ to ‘ought’: Laws, norms and strategies in Translation Studies”. Target 5: 1. 1–20.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1998 “Causes, translations, effects”. Target 10:2. 201–230.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000 “A causal model for Translation Studies”. Maeve Olohan, ed. Intercultural faultlines: Research models in Translation Studies I: Textual and cognitive aspects. Manchester, UK-Northampton MA: St Jerome 2000 15–27.Google Scholar
Coser, Lewis A., Charles Kadushin, and Walter W. Powell
1982 Books: The culture and commerce of publishing. New York: Basic Books Inc.Google Scholar
Denzin, Norman K.
1989 The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Even-Zohar, Itamar
1990 “The position of translated literature within the literary poly-system”. Poetics today 11: 1. 45–51.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hermans, Theo
1996 “Norms and the determination of translation: A theoretical framework”. Roman Alvarez and M. Carmen-Africa Vidal, eds. Translation, power, subversion. Clevedon-Philadelphia-Adelaide: Multilingual Matters 1996 25–51.Google Scholar
Ladmiral, Jean-René
1979 Traduire: Théorèmes pour la traduction. Paris: Petite Bibliothèque Payot.Google Scholar
Lamont, Michèle
1987 “How to become a dominant French philosopher: The case of Jacques Derrida”. American journal of sociology 93: 3. 584–622.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laplanche, Jean and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis
1988 The language of psychoanalysis, tr. Donald Nicholson-Smith. London: Karnac Books.Google Scholar
Little, Daniel
1991 Varieties of social explanation. Boulder-San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press.Google Scholar
NAATI
1995 The ethics of the profession of interpreting and translating: A compendium. Canberra: National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.Google Scholar
Nord, Christiane
1991 “Scopos, loyalty, and translational conventions”. Target 3: 1. 91–109.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pym, Anthony
1998 Method in translation history. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar
Rose, Marilyn Gaddis
1995 “What’s the English for approche floue?”. Meta 40: 3. 379–387.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996 “Like the paths around Combray, Humanistic translation theories diverge and converge”. Marilyn Gaddis Rose, ed. Translation horizons beyond the boundaries of ‘Translation spectrum’ [= Translation perspectives IX]. New York: Center for Research in Translation, State University of New York at Binghamton 1996 59–67.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon
1995 Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence
1995 The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation. London-New York: Routledge.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 10 other publications

Chesterman, Andrew
2007. On the idea of a theory. Across Languages and Cultures 8:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Chuanmao, Tian
2009. On Composite Interrelationship in Literary Translation: A Chinese–English Translation Perspective. Perspectives 16:3-4 ► pp. 143 ff. DOI logo
Cohen, Imogen
2018. On randomness. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 30:1 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Halverson, Sandra L.
2015. Cognitive Translation Studies and the merging of empirical paradigms. Translation Spaces 4:2 ► pp. 310 ff. DOI logo
Ji-Hae Kang
2013. On Empirical Research and the Case Study Method in Translation Studies. The Journal of Translation Studies 14:2 ► pp. 7 ff. DOI logo
Päivärinne, Meri
2012. Translating Grotius'sDe jure belli ac pacis: Courtin vs Barbeyrac. Translation Studies 5:1 ► pp. 33 ff. DOI logo
Tian, Chuanmao
2010. On composite interrelationship in literary translation. Across Languages and Cultures 11:1 ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Xavier, Catarina
2022. On norms and taboo. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 34:1 ► pp. 67 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2016. Memes of Translation [Benjamins Translation Library, 123], DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2017. Reflections on Translation Theory [Benjamins Translation Library, 132], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 september 2023. 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.