Semantic Isotopies in Interlingual Translation: Towards a Cultural Approach

This paper discusses the interlingual translation of utterances based on the notion of semantic isotopy, as developed by Algirdas Julien Greimas who, since the late 1960s, has been the central figure in the Paris School of Semi­otics. More precisely, I will examine utterances such as film titles and newspaper titles translated from French into English and Greek, in order to demonstrate how isotopies are translated and, in essence, how cultural elements are reflected in the translation process. The study aims at enhanc­ing a theoretical understanding of the cultural function of translation, an understanding also based on certain semiotic parameters such as intertextual elements and connotation reservation or equivalence

INTRODUCTION: INTERDISCIPLINARITY AND TRANSLATION STUDIES

Translation Studies was established from the beginning in dialogue with adjacent fields such as Comparative Literature, Philosophy and Linguistics and it has always been conceived as an open scientific field in which the openness of the concept of translation itself is taken for granted (Tymozcko 1998, 2006). The increasing number of disciplines with which translation studies interrelate, apart from literary and linguistic ones (Political Science, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Communication Studies, Semiotics, Film studies, Neurosciences, Computational Linguistics etc.), has led to the contribution of concepts and taxonomies to the field by different scholars. These concepts are gradually entering its research nucleus as shown in the relevant international literature (Snell-Hornby, Pöchhacker & Kaindl 1994; Wills 1999; Chesterman 2002; Floros 2005; Gambier 2006; Lambert 2012; Gentzler 2014; Abend-David  2014; Ehrensberger-Dow, Göpferich & O’Brien 2015; Gambier & van Doorslaer  2016; Rojo López & Campos Plaza 2016). Following the trends in interdisciplinary academic research (Klein 1990 and 1996; Hübenthal 1994; Salter & Hearn 1996; Boden 1999; Bal 2002), Translation Studies move in-between interdisciplinarity, which derives from concept and tool borrowing and an arborescent perception of knowledge (Blumczynski 2016), and transdisciplinarity, a form of  interdisciplinary synergy which views knowledge in a rhizomatic way (Blumczynski 2016). In this sense, transdisciplinarity is realized when two or more fields of knowledge mutually open up to each other broadening their research perspective (Gambier & van Doorslaer 2016; Yasici 2016; Odacıoğlu 2015). Such perceptions tend to bring about major changes even to the perception of Translation Studies as an interdisciplinary field and to such a degree that reference is now being made to a post-discipline (Gentzler, 2014) and to post-Translation Studies: “We imagine a sort of new era that could be termed post-translation studies, where translation is viewed as fundamentally transdisciplinary, mobile, and open ended” (Nergaard and Arduini 2011)

Cultural semiotics, translatability, and informational loss in visual texts of the biotech industry

The paper examines a specific advertising campaign of a biotech company characteristic of the whole biotech industry and discusses how the evocation of universal values, such as the protection and correct management of the planet’s resources, the struggle against poverty and against the shortage of raw materials, the support of farmers and their families, distorts information about nature, global agriculture and the biotech industry’s products. This distortion is a necessary and vital part of this industry’s existence. The rhetorical techniques of conscious informational repression and distortion, which are often discussed only in terms of informational loss, are expressly evident and even taken to their extremes in the case of biotechnology. Yet on the other hand they are characteristic of a translation process that takes place in the rhetoric of advertisement in general, as is evident in the use of Göran Sonesson’s translation model which we suggest is appropriate for the definition and study of advertising codes

Semiotics and Translation in support of mother tongue teaching

This paper includes a number of observations which derive from an interdisciplinary approach to teaching Greek as a mother tongue using the course books recommended by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. Semiotics, translation and teaching are studied comparatively, perhaps for the first time in Greece, in an attempt to record the effectiveness of multi-semiotic texts in the teaching and learning of mother tongue in primary schools

Διεπιστημονικές προσεγγίσεις στη μεταφραστική διαδικασία: η Σημειωτική της Μετάφρασης

Recently, a growing number of researchers study Semiotics as a research tool in translation. At the same time, Semiotics of translation or Translation Semiotics has gained its place as a theoretical approach in the collective work Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (1998 and 2009). From the perspective of Semiotics, translation is studied as a purely semiotic act that involves the transition from one semiotic system (source language) to another (target language). This semiotic act can be interlingual, intralingual or intersemiotic translation. This study examines the interdisciplinarity of Translation Semiotics and the new perspectives of study not only of intersemiotic translation but also of interlingual translation which is the main field of Translation Studies. The Translation Semiotics approach is interdisciplinary also within the boundaries of semiotic theories since researchers often apply different semiotic theories in their study of translation. The study also raises a concern as to the highly theoretical approaches of most studies in the field of Translation Semiotics. Such a trend runs the risk of narrowing down the field to a purely theoretical sphere that does not conform to translation as a practice, though

Semiotics in foreign language teaching. Book illustrations as intersemiotic translation in English language course books

This article discusses a specifi c aspect of English language teaching as a foreign language in Greece. This subject is further aided by Semiotics and Translation through the synergy of semiotic systems incorporating the views of Charles S. Peirce. More specifi cally, after a brief survey of what existed in the past, concerning the teaching of English as a foreign language in Greek primary schools, readers will be introduced to the English language teaching curriculum for sixth grade primary school students which mentions non-verbal forms of communication, as well as to the role of course book illustrations. Both approaches focus upon the intersemiotic value of illustrations in connection with the texts that accompany them. This study proves that the sixth grade English course book includes a broad variety of visual systems which constitute the symbols and icons of the book according to Charles S. Peirce’s categorization

Semiotic and Translation Studies: An Epistemological Interplay

The study probes into the epistemological confluence of semiotics and translation studies through the adoption of common conceptual tools. It begins with a reflection on the scientific character of the two research areas, semiotics, and translation, through the positions of both semioticians and translation scholars. In this context, it presents the positions of semioticians on translation and the positions of translation scholars on the usefulness of semiotics in the study of translation phenomena, as well as the research field of translation semiotics. The study argues that translation studies seek semiotic conceptual tools, different methods of analysis, and an appropriate theoretical framework since both disciplines study translation as a cultural phenomenon. The study records three major findings: first, the influence of semiotic theory is most evident in disciplines of translation studies where verbal and nonverbal semiotic systems cooperate and interact together, especially in audiovisual translation. Second, that the breadth of the field of semiotics seems to be viewed with caution by translation scholars, and third, that the subfield of translation semiotics seems to reflect more the views of semioticians into translation and less of translation scholars into semiotics. 

La traduction intersémiotique dans les dictionnaires du français argotique

Cet article porte sur l’utilisation de l’illustration en tant que traduction intersémiotique dans les dictionnaires du français argotique. Bien que la présence de l’illustration puisse connoter l’insuffisance de la traduction intralinguale sur laquelle les dictionnaires argotiques du français s’appuient, nous allons voir que l’illustration devient un dispositif de médiation intraculturelle pour le lecteur francophone. Nous examinerons aussi les différents types d’illustration utilisés par les rédacteurs de dictionnaires. Le rôle de l’illustration dans les dictionnaires du français argotique étudiés semble être celui de fournir une orientation sémantique pour le traitement des lexèmes argotiques et leur consolidation dans la mémoire collective culturelle. De même, les diverses formes des illustrations montrent leur valorisation dans la communication intralinguale.This article deals with the use of illustration as intersemiotic translation in dictionaries of French slang. Even though the presence of illustration may suggest a lack of intralingual translation on which slang dictionaries are built, it shows as we shall see, that illustration becomes an intracultural mediation’ mechanism for the French reader. The different types of illustration used by dictionaries’ writers are also examined. In the dictionaries of French slang that were analysed, it seems that illustration aims at providing a semantic orientation for the treatment of slang lexemes and their consolidation in the collective cultural memory. Similarly, the diverse forms of illustration show how valorise they are in intralingual communication

Image, traduction et idéologie nationale : les lithographies grecques des guerres balkaniques (1912-1913)

La lithographie a toujours été un moyen de reproduction, traduisant au début des peintures et ensuite des photos. Cette étude porte sur la fonction idéologique des lithographies grecques en couleur des guerres balkaniques de 1912-1913. Nous étudions comment la synergie des messages linguistiques (message grec et sa traduction française) et iconiques (images) se mettent au service d’une communication orientée s’inscrivant dans la promotion du sentiment national grec en Grèce et en Europe. Cette démarche se réalise sous forme de présentation et de glorification des grands moments de l’histoire néo-hellénique, à une époque où l’état hellénique n’avait pas ses frontières actuelles. Nous allons voir que le caractère artistique, publicitaire, et surtout médiatique a permis à ces lithographies grecques des guerres balkaniques de devenir un moyen d’information, comparable aux messages photographiques de la presse actuelle, mais s’adaptant aux préférences du public, principalement celui des récepteurs grecs.Lithograph was always a means of reproduction. In other words, it always translates something into something else. The function it served to reproduce all paintings it later served to copy for photographs. This paper examines the ideological function of coloured Greek lithographs that support the establishment of an ideology of national pride and the promotion in Greece and in Europe of national consciousness of Greeks during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. In these lithographs, the synergy of linguistic messages (interlingual translation of Greek into French) and of the iconic message (picture) serve an oriented communication aiming at the glorification of the important moments of modern Greek history, in a period where the Greek State as we know it today did not yet exist. We will see that their artistic, advertising and meditative character made them a means of information comparable with that of the contemporary press, adapted to the preferences of the public, especially to that of the Greek target audience