Translation and Bakhtin's "metalinguistics"

This contribution applies a Bakhtinian perspective to Translation Studies, according to which the source-text gets represented in the target-text thanks to the dialogic relations that are created by translators in the process of translating. Translation is neither a complete rewriting nor a transparent mirroring of the source text, but an understanding that involves what Bakhtin calls "outsideness". By positioning themselves in this "outsideness", translators achieve the understanding that is a prerequisite for their task. We examine the role that Bakhtin's "metalinguistics" flow lays translators. Bakhtin's concern was with utterances, the basic speech units. We discuss discuss how a source text becomes an utterance and hence unrepeatable for translators. Using specific examples, we then illustrate the relevance of Bakhtinian "double-voiced words" - a metalinguistic category - for translators

The plant perceptron connects environment to development

Plants cope with the environment in a variety of ways, and ecological analyses attempt to capture this through life-history strategies or trait-based categorization. These approaches are limited because they treat the trade-off mechanisms that underlie plant responses as a black box. Approaches that involve the molecular or physiological analysis of plant responses to the environment have elucidated intricate connections between developmental and environmental signals, but in only a few well-studied model species. By considering diversity in the plant response to the environment as the adaptation of an information-processing network, new directions can be found for the study of life-history strategies, trade-offs and evolution in plant