Beeby, Allison

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

Those familiar with Hatim and Mason’s
first joint book Discourse and the
Translator (1990) will welcome the oppor-
tunity to follow the authors’ continued
explorations in translational phenomena.
InThe Translator as Communicator the
focus has been inverted. Whereas the first
book was structured around the elements
of discourse analysis that can be used to
study translation, with examples from a
variety of texts, the second book is orga-
nized to cover different fields and modes
of translating. On the one hand it em-
phasizes unity in diversity, the core of
common concern that is present in any
translation, and on the other hand, it
shows how in different fields and modes
of translation one aspect of text in con-
text may be more significant than others.
Both books share the same strengths
and weaknesses. They are extraordinarily
fertile books, in the sense that they open
up a great many paths from which to
study translation. Hatim and Mason are
exceptional in the field of translation stu-
dies because they bridge the gap between
the linguistic approach and literary, rhe-
torical and ideological approaches. They
do full justice to the complexity of the
relation between text and context. The
first book has already been very influen-
tial and The Translator as Communicator
is as stimulating.  Hatim and Mason pro-
vide theory as I understand it «an inte-
llectual framework meant to clarify, make
sense of and illuminate objects, events,
phenomena, attitudes which otherwise
seem inchoate». They also provide us with
the disciplines, «or particular trained
approaches to that material itself, sets of
tools with which to analyze, measure and
evaluate the material»1.
However, both books are complicated,
as is inevitable in any book that tries to
take into account all the elements invol-
ved in an activity as complex as transla-
ting. The kinds of analyses described in
The Translator as Communicator are drawn
from different disciplines and the reader
needs some background in these disci-
plines in order to make the most of the
book. Each chapter opens up many
HATIM, Basil; MASON, Ian
The Translator as Communicator
London and New York: Routledge, 1997
1. The definitions of ‘theory’ and ‘discipline’ are from Richard Hoggart’s The Way We Live Now (1995: 173).
Quaderns. Revista de traducció 1, 1998 153-162
RESSENYES
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opportunities for empirical research. The
authors are perfectly aware of the restric-
tions they are working with, «It would of
course be desirable to proceed by obser-
vation based solely on sound empirical
evidence. But text being what they are 
—an imperfect record of communicati-
ve events— we sometimes find it neces-
sary to settle for what may be described
as heuristic procedures» (Hatim and
Mason, 1997: 14).
Chapter 1 establishes what all transla-
tions have in common, despite the
dichotomies that are often set up by pro-
fessionals and theoreticians. Translation is
defined as «an act of communication
which attempts to relay across cultural and
linguistic boundaries, another act of com-
munication (which may have been inten-
ded for different purposes and different
readers/hearers)» (2). Even a poem, seen
as an act of self expression, not as a com-
municative act, if it is to be translated it
has to be read and the act of reading is a
part of communication. 
Chapter 2 lays out the foundations for
a model of analysing texts. On a first rea-
ding this is a difficult chapter and it
should be returned to in the light of the
following chapters (3-9) that provide case
studies of different kinds of translations.
The model used in Discourse and the
Translator is expanded to include
Halliday’s ideational, interpersonal and
textual categories as used in Critical
Discourse Analysis and the static (expec-
tation-fulfilling, norm-confirming)/dyna-
mic (expectation defying, norm-flouting)
continuum, developed by the authors.
Chapters 3 and 4 are about modes of
interpreting and different priorities are
suggested for the different modes. In
simultaneous interpreting the restrictions
of the mode oblige the interpreter to rely
heavily on texture to negotiate meaning,
in consecutive interpreting the emphasis
is on structure and in liason interpreting
on context. Chapter 5 discusses polite-
ness in screen translating in terms of Face
Threatening Acts and Audience Design
and suggests that interpersonal meaning is
the aspect of meaning most likely to suf-
fer from the restrictions of subtitling.
Chapter 6 is about register membership
in literary translating and concentrates on
user related aspects of the message, in par-
ticular, idiolect and tenor. The case study
in this chapter is based on Arabic trans-
lations of Eliza Dolittle’s use of tagging
in Shaw’s Pygmaleon, «I’m a good girl, I
am». Chapter 7 analyses form and func-
tion in the translation of sacred and sen-
sitive texts. Here, the translations are from
the Qur’an and the Bible and the analysis
draws on foregrounding and defamiliari-
zation devices used in classical rhetoric,
pronominal reference switches and their
illocutionary force due to the flouting of
cooperation maxims. Register features are
recognised as intended signs in genre
structures, discourse attitudinal meanings
and text rhetorical purposes. Chapter 8
looks at argumentation strategies in cross-
cultural communication. 
Chapter 9, «Translation and Ideology»,
makes a distinction between the ideology
of translation and translating ideology, alt-
hough the two obviously interact. The aut-
hors discuss Venuti’s domestication or
foreignization strategies (ideology of trans-
lation) from the viewpoint of translating
into a minority language, «Thus, it is not
domestication or foreignization as such
which is “culturally imperialistic”, but the
strategy chosen in a particular socio-cul-
tural situation is likely to have ideological
implications» (146). Having made this
point, three translations are studied to see
what happens to ideologies when they are
translated by a domesticating or foreigni-
zing method. The translations from Arabic,
Spanish and French are examples of mini-
mal, maximal and partial mediation.
The last three chapters raise some inte-
resting questions about the implications of
what has gone before for translator trai-
ning. Chapter 10 suggests criteria drawn
from register membership, pragmatics and
154 Quaderns. Revista de traducció 1, 1998 Ressenyes
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semiotics for defining text level errors due
to mishandling text in context. Chapter
11 proposes curriculum design for advan-
ced translator trainees based on a conti-
nuum of static/dynamic texts. The course
would begin with ‘static’, non-evaluative
texts that belong clearly to one genre and
are fully coherent and cohesive.
Increasingly ‘dynamic’, evaluative, hybrid
texts would be introduced during the pro-
gramme. Chapter 12 is about assessing
translation performance, as distinct from
the quality of translations, translation cri-
ticism and translation quality control. In
the authors’ opinion, what is wrong now
is: the lack of criteria used for selecting
texts, setting exams (skopos), defining
errors and objective marking. What is
needed is clear criteria to distinguish bet-
ween: formative and summative testing,
proficiency and achievement testing,
norm-referenced and criterion-referenced
assesment. Hatim and Mason suggest des-
criptive profiles for assessing students,
based on a check list of translator abili-
ties (205).
The chapters on text level errors, curri-
culum design and assessing performance
show the authors’ wide experience as
translation trainers and, like the rest of
the book, open up many avenues for furt-
her research. In my opinion, one of the
most important areas for translation scho-
lars in Catalonia and Spain is the deve-
lopment of Catalan and Spanish text
grammars within a science of texts.
Allison Beeby
Facultat de Traducció i d’Interpretació
Univesitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Ressenyes Quaderns. Revista de traducció 1, 1998 155
Los nombres de Katharina Reiss y Hans
J. Vermeer —o la «escuela de Heidel-
berg»— están indisolublemente unidos a
las teorías funcionales y finalistas de la tra-
ducción, y sus aportaciones a la traducto-
logía moderna siguen siendo indiscutibles.
Me arriesgo a afirmar que todos los pro-
fesores de traducción —por lo menos en
nuestro ámbito cultural— han recurrido
en algún momento a estos conceptos
cuando se trataba de esclarecer, explicar y
proponer soluciones a determinados pro-
blemas translatorios. Paradójicamente, las
publicaciones en lengua española en torno
a este planteamiento teórico son casi ine-
xistentes, como bien podemos observar
en la bibliografía adjunta al libro que nos
interesa, aunque se conocen, por ejemplo,
aportaciones, artículos o ponencias de Pilar
Elena, Marisa Presas, Celia Martín de
León y Sandra García Reina, las dos últi-
mas traductoras de la presente obra, bajo
la supervisión de Heidrun Witte, antigua
discípula de Vermeer en Heidelberg.
Aunque solamente sea por la falta de
publicaciones sobre esta vertiente de la tra-
ductología, es de saludar el poder tener
acceso a la versión española de Grund-
legung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie,
pese a que llega con cierto retraso, ya que
el original fue publicado en 1984.
Fieles a su teoría, los autores —cate-
dráticos de traductología específica alemán-
español (K. Reiss) y alemán-portugués
(H.J. Vermeer), los cuales por afinidad lin-
güística han podido trabajar en estrecha
colaboración con las traductoras— subra-
yan que «se han tenido en cuenta las con-
diciones específicas de la cultura y la lengua
españolas, sobre todo en lo relativo a la ter-
REISS, Katharina; VERMEER, Hans
Fundamentos para una teoría funcional de la traducción
Traducción de Sandra García Reina y Celia Martín de León
Coordinación de Heidrum Witte.
Madrid: Akal, 1996, 206 p.
EUTI 1 153-162  16/4/98 11:06  Página 155


HATIM, Basil ; MASON, Ian. The translator as communicator

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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert