What Is a Translating Translator Doing?

Brian Mossop
Government of Canada Translation Bureau and York University School of Translation

Abstract

Translating is here defined as the quoting, in sequential chunks, of the wording of a written, oral or signed text, with an imitative purpose. These features distinguish it from other sorts of language activity—intralingual paraphrasing, re-expressing of ideas, fictive quoting, speaking from a script, ghostwriting—and thus provide an object for a theory of translation production. The defining feature 'quoting ' is taken to involve demonstrating to someone selected features of the source text. Thus the translational quoter is engaged in a dual activity: quoting OF the source text (rendering work) and quoting TO the readers or listeners (pragmatic work). The texts commonly called translations arise from some combination of rendering, pragmatic and non-translational work.

Table of contents

The title question is not to be confused with the psycholinguistic question: what is happening in the mind of the translator? Nor is it to be taken as [ p. 232 ]inquiring about the diverse economic, cultural or political functions which the translator is serving: extending a literary tradition by retranslating a novel; censoring information from foreign sources; enlarging a company's market by translating product information; allowing people to avoid learning the language of a neighbouring community.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Bandia, Paul
1993 “Translation as Culture Transfer: Evidence from African Creative Writing”. TTR VI:2. 55–77.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Banfield, Ann
1982Unspeakable Sentences: Narration and Representation in the Language of Fiction. Boston: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berk-Seligson, Susan
1990The Bilingual Courtroom: Court Interpreters in the Judicial Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bhaskar, Roy
1978A Realist Theory of Science (2nd ed.). Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert and Richard Gerrig
1990 “Quotations as Demonstrations”. Language 66:4. 764–805.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Compagnon, Antoine
1979La Seconde main ou: le travail de la citation. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Cruse, David
1992 “Levels of Translation: A Linguistic Perspective”. Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Marcel Thelen, eds. Translation and Meaning, Part 2. Maastricht: Rijkhogeschool 1992 19–34.Google Scholar
Folkart, Barbara
1991Le conflit des énonciations: traduction et discours rapporté. Montreal: Éditions Balzac.Google Scholar
Gorp, Hendrik van
1978 “La Traduction littéraire parmi les autres métatextes”. James S Holmes, José Lambert and Raymond van den Broeck, eds. Literature and Translation: New Perspectives in Literary Studies. Leuven: Acco 1978 101–116.Google Scholar
Gutt, Ernst-August
1991Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman
1959 “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation”. Reuben Brower, ed. On Translation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1959 232–239.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaufert, Joseph and John O’Neil
1990 “Biomedical Rituals and Informed Consent: Native Canadians and the Negotiation of Clinical Trust”. George Weisz, ed. Social Science Perspectives on Medical Ethics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1990 41–63.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levý, Jiří
1967 “Translation as a Decision Process”. To Honor Roman Jakobson vol II. The Hague: Mouton 1967 1171–1182.Google Scholar
Mel’chuk, Igor
1978 “Théorie de langage, théorie de traduction”. Meta 23:4. 271–302.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
[ p. 263 ]
Mossop, Brian
1983 “The Translator as Rapporteur: A Concept for Training and Self-Improvement”. Meta 28:3. 244–278.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
unpublished. “Is Paraphrasing Intralingual Translation?
Neubert, Albrecht
1985Text and Translation. Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie.Google Scholar
Nida, Eugene A. and Charles Taber
1969The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Nord, Christiane
1988Textanalyse und Übersetzen. Heidelberg: Groos.Google Scholar
Opfell, Olga
1982The King James Bible Translators. London: McFarland.Google Scholar
Popovič, Anton
1976 “Aspects of Metatext”. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 3. 225–235.Google Scholar
Pym, Anthony
1992Translation and Text Transfer: An Essay on the Principles of Inter-cultural Communication. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
1993 “Performatives as a Key to Modes of Translational Discourse”. Kinga Klaudy et al., eds. Transferre necesse est...: Current Issues of Translation Theory. Szombathely: Pädagogische Hochschule Berzsenyi Dániel 1993 47–62.Google Scholar
1995 “Schleiermacher and the Problem of Blendlinge ”. Translation and Literature 4:1. 5–30.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schleiermacher, Friedrich
1813 “Ueber die verschiedenen Methoden des Uebersetzens”. Translated as “On the Different Methods of Translating” in André Lefevere, ed. Translating Literature: The German Tradition from Luther to Rosenzweig. Assen: Van Gorcum 1977 67–89.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Michael
1993Übersetzung und Bearbeitung: Zur Differenzierung und Abgrenzung des Übersetzungsbegrijfs. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Séguinot, Candace
1989 “The Translation Process: An Experimental Study”. Candace Séguinot, ed. The Translation Process. Toronto: H.G. Publications, School of Translation, York University 1989 21–53.Google Scholar
Seleskovitch, Danica
1984 “La Traductologie entre l’exégèse et la linguistique”. Danica Seleskovitch and Marianne Lederer, eds. Interpréter pour traduire. Paris: Didier 1984 264–272.Google Scholar
Sternberg, Meir
1981, “Polylingualism as Reality and Translation as Mimesis”. Poetics Today 2:4. 221–239.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tannen, Deborah
1989Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon
1995Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vermeer, Hans J.
1982 “Translation als Informationsangebot”’. Lebende Sprachen 3/1982 97–101.Google Scholar
Voloshinov, Valentin (= Mikhail Bakhtin)
[1930]/1973Marxism and the Philosophy of Language, part III: Toward a History of Forms of Utterance in Language Constructions. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wadensjö, Cecilia
1995 “Dialogue Interpreting and the Distribution of Responsibility”. Hermes: Journal of Linguistics 14. 1–19.Google Scholar
Whitman-Linsen, Candace
1992Through the Dubbing Glass: The Synchronization of American Motion Pictures into German, French, and Spanish. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Witte, Heidrun
1986Review of Mossop 1983 . TEXTconTEXT 1:1. 63–74.Google Scholar