The translation of food-related culture-specific items in the COVALT corpus: A study of techniques and factors

This article aims to analyse the translation of food-related culturespecific items (CSI) in the English–Catalan subcorpus of the Valencian Corpus of Translated Literature (COVALT). This general aim can be broken down into two specific aims: to find out what techniques prevail in the translation of these cultural items, and to determine what factors influence the choice of specific techniques. Corpus analysis is carried out by means of the Corpus Query Processor. The theoretical framework deals with the definition and scope of the concept of CSI, the classifications of techniques put forward in the literature for the translation of CSI, and the position of food- and drink-related elements within the broader category of CSI. Analysis of the results yielded by the corpus shows that neutralising techniques prevail over foreignising and domesticating ones, with the latter coming last in descending order. The most prominent factors identified are nonexistence of the source text (ST) item in the target culture, different degrees of institutionalisation, the ST item having been imported into the target culture, and different degrees of granularity. Correlations between techniques and factors are never very strong, but some are strong enough to deserve further attention

Les tècniques de traducció (dels referents culturals) : retorn per a quedar-nos-hi

Aquest article té com a objectiu fer una revisió d'algunes de les classificacions de tècniques de traducció que s'han proposat en la literatura, agrupar aquestes classificacions en tipus (d'acord amb el criteri subjacent), discutir la conveniència de fer servir classificacions generals (vàlides per a qualsevol problema de traducció) o específiques per a cada problema i, finalment, fer una proposta de tècniques de traducció dels referents culturals (com a problema concret que pot servir d'il·lustració dels punts anteriors). En tot treball descriptiu, el concepte de tècnica de traducció ha d'ocupar una posició central (juntament amb la tipologia del fenomen estudiat i els factors que incideixen en la presa de decisions) a l'hora de determinar les regularitats o normes en la conducta traductora.This article aims to survey some classifications of translation techniques put forward in the literature, to group these classifications into types (according to the underlying criterion), to discuss the issue of whether it is more suitable to use general (i.e. valid for any translation problem) or problem-specific classifications, and finally to make a proposal of techniques of translation for cultural references (as a specific translation problem that can illustrate the questions just mentioned). In any descriptive piece of research, the notion of technique is bound to play a central role (together with the typology of the phenomenon under scrutiny and the factors influencing decision making) in determining the regularities or norms in translational behaviour

Normalisation and the Translation of Phraseology in the COVALT Corpus

In this article, it is assumed that phraseological usage can be regarded as an indicator of normalisation in translated texts, as phraseological units are target-language standardised forms belonging to its lexical repertoire. Drawing on data yielded by the English-Catalan subcorpus of COVALT (Valencian Corpus of Translated Literature), it was found that Catalan translated texts are less phraseological than their corresponding English source texts, though only by a narrow margin. The narrowness of the margin seems to bear witness to some effort on the translators’ part to retain or recreate a noticeable degree of phraseological activity in translated texts. However, further research is needed into the motives underlying translator behaviour in this respect.Le présent article traite de l’hypothèse selon laquelle l’emploi d’unités phraséologiques dans les textes traduits peut être considéré comme un indicateur d’une tendance vers la normalisation. En effet, les unités phraséologiques sont des formes conventionnelles de la langue cible appartenant au répertoire lexical de cette dernière. Des données puisées dans le sous-corpus anglais-catalan de COVALT (corpus valencien de textes littéraires traduits) indiquent que les textes traduits en catalan sont moins phraséologiques que les textes sources anglais. Toutefois, cette différence est faible, ce qui semble témoigner d’un effort, de la part des traducteurs, pour préserver ou recréer une phraséologie significative dans les textes cibles. Cependant, il faudra mener d’autres études pour identifier les motivations sous-jacentes à cette pratique

La colección «Estudis sobre la traducció» de la Univeristat Jaume I

El presente artículo persigue dos objetivos: a) dar cuenta del origen de la colección «Estudis sobre la traducció», de Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I, e informar sobre algunos de los rasgos que la definen, como el perfil del destinatario, las lenguas que se utilizan y los tipos de obras que incluye (volúmenes colectivos, monografías, etc.); y b) proporcionar un listado de los libros de que consta la colección y ofrecer una breve glosa de cada uno de ellos, en la que se presentan de modo muy sucinto su estructura y contenido.G.I. HUM 767 (ayudas a Grupos de Investigación de la Junta de Andalucía) / Editorial Comares (colección interlingua

Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia in Catalan and Spanish translation

This article examines the Catalan and Spanish translations of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia published by Ariel in 1969 and 1970 (respectively) from two perspectives: that of the censorship files preserved at the Archivo General de la Administración in Alcalá de Henares, and that of the published translations. First, relevant information is provided on the setting in which those translations were published, as regards institutionalised censorship and the reception of Orwell’s work under Franco. This is followed by analysis of data from the files and from the texts. Such an analysis allows us to determine in the present case that, whereas the censor’s injunctions were mostly followed by the publisher, advantage was also taken of the censor’s hesitations to preserve as much of the source text’s memorial content as possible in the translations. Results of the analysis are finally linked with general concepts at the interface of translation and memory studies. If translators and publishers are seen as secondary witnesses in accounts of traumatic events, then censors may be regarded as tertiary witnesses, and censored texts as sites of dialectic tension between memory and forgetting

An analysis of the use of vernacular in Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End and its Spanish and Italian translations

This chapter aims to analyse the use of non-standard language in Sebastian Barry’s novel Days Without End (2016) and how it fares in its Spanish and Italian translations, both published in 2018 and authored by Susana de la Higuera Glynne-Jones and Cristiana Mennella, respectively. The study draws on Mair’s (1992) framework for the analysis of the function of non-standard language in fiction, which focuses on three issues: assessment of the representation, limits to the use of non-standard language, and valuation. It then provides an overview of the debate on dialect translation and a four-fold typology of dialect translation techniques. Analysis of the source text throws light on a number of non-standard features of both American and Irish origin that make an important contribution to the prevailing tone of the novel. Analysis of the translations reveals that technique categorisation does not tell the whole story about the treatment of non-standard language in translation, as there is room for difference within a single category

Una aproximació a l'habitus de Carles Capdevila, traductor i home de lletres

Aquest article té com a objectiu analitzar la figura de Carles Capdevila en tant que traductor i home de lletres en general des del punt de vista de la noció d'habitus, encunyada pel sociòleg Pierre Bourdieu. L'habitus és el conjunt de disposicions interioritzades per l'agent en el decurs de la seua socialització en un camp determinat, l'angle de la mirada amb què contempla el camp(en aquest cas, el literari). L'anàlisi de la figura polièdrica de Capdevila se centra en les seves facetes d'home de teatre (incloent-hi la de traductor teatral), periodista i traductor de narrativa. Com a traductor teatral, destaca el seu compromís amb la renovació de l'escena catalana i el seu eclecticisme, que el fa parar esment als gustos de diferents sectors del públic. En les traduccions de narrativa, en canvi, semblen pesar-hi menys els seus gustos personals, que se subordinen a l'afany socialitzador d'una col·lecció com la «Biblioteca Univers», dirigida per Carles Soldevila.The present article aims to analyse the figure of Carles Capdevila as a translator and man of letters generally from the viewpoint of the notion of habitus, as put forward by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. A habitus is a set of dispositions incorporated by an agent in the course of their socialisation in a given field, the angle from which they look at the field -the literary field, in this case. The analysis of Capdevila's multi-faceted figure focuses on three aspects of his intellectual activity: work for the theatre (including drama translation), journalism and translation of narrative fiction. As a drama translator, he was committed to the renewal of the Catalan scene and often adopted an eclectic standpoint, which led him to pay attention to the tastes of different sectors of the audience. As a fiction translator, however, his personal taste seems to have receded into the background and yielded priority to the socialising urge underlying the «Biblioteca Univers», a series edited by Carles Soldevila