WHAT IS TRANSLATION

STUDIES?

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 Brief historical overview
 TRANSLATION as an academic subject is only
about 50 years old.
 Before: T was mainly used for language teaching
(thus secondary status in academia)
 1960s-1970s: communicative approach in TEFL
 1960s-1970s: translation workshop (USA);
comparative literature; contrastive analysis

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 1950s and 1960s: more systematic, scientific
(mainly linguistic) approach to T:
e.g., Vinay and Darbelnet (1958), George
Mounin (1963); Nida (1964); Catford (1965);

EUGENE NIDA
Toward a Science of Translating, 1964

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 What name to give to the new,
budding discipline?
 Übersetzungswissenschaft used by Wolfram
Wills (Uni Saarlandes, Saarbrücken),
Werner Koller (Heidelberg), Otto Kade and
Albert Neubert (Leipzig School)
 Translatogy?? (FR:Translatologie; PT,ES:
Traductologia; IT: Traduttologia, etc.)

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 TRANSLATION STUDIES
“The name and nature of translation studies”
by James S. Holmes (1924-1986), paper
given at the translation section of the Third
International Congress of Applied
Linguistics, Copenhagen, 1972,
– “founding statement for the field”
(Gentzler:92)

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 “[Holmes] realized as did few others that the 1950s had
heralded a revolution in translation studies” (van den Broeck,
1988,1994:3)
 Holmes highlighted the existence of 3 main impediments to
the further development of the discipline:
- scholars and researchers scattered in different fields and
therefore lack of common channels of communication;
- “the seemingly trivial matter of the name for this field of
research”; van den Broeck, 1988,1994:68)
- “lack of any general consensus as to the scope and structure
of the discipline” (ibid.:71)

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Holmes concludes that :
 the most appropriate name for the discipline in English is
TRANSLATION STUDIES (TS), for this term would avoid a
lot of “confusion and misunderstanding”;
 There should be communication channels able to reach all
scholars in the field, from whatever background;
 TS can be divided into 2 main research areas:

‘PURE’ ‘APPLIED’

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Pure TS has 2 main goals (descriptive and theoretical):
1. “to describe the phenomena of translating and translation(s)
as they manifest themselves in the world of experience”
(Descriptive Translation Studies, DTS)
2. “to establish general principles by means of which these
phenomena can be explained and predicted.” (Translation
Theory, TTh)

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 Holmes’s map of TS
Figure 1 Holmes’ conception of translation studies (from Munday p.10.)

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 The Holmes Map
of Translation Studies (1)
James S Holmes’ seminal ‘The Name and Nature of
Translation Studies’ (1972) set out to orient the scholarly study
of translation. It put forward a conceptual scheme that
identified and interrelated many of the things that can be done
in translation studies, envisaging an entire future discipline
and effectively stimulating work aimed at establishing that
discipline. Historically, this was a major step forward, none
the least because it involved a frontal attack on the hazy but
self-assured categories that had long been used to judge
translations.

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 The Holmes Map
of Translation Studies (2)
Holmes’ categories were simple, scientifically framed, and
hierarchically arranged: ‘Applied’ was opposed to ‘Pure’, the latter was
broken down into ‘Theoretical’ and ‘Descriptive’, then ‘Descriptive’
divided in turn into ‘Product Oriented’, ‘Process Oriented’ and ‘Function
Oriented’, and so on. Figure 1 (previous slide) shows the apocryphal
graphic form these categories received later from, I believe, Gideon
Toury, who saw it as a legitimate point of departure (it is also in Toury
1995: 10). Many wonderful things found a place in this map; a few more
have benefited from the modifications and variants proposed since
(notably Lambert 1991, Snell-Hornby 1991, Toury 1991, Toury 1995).
Of course, translation studies cannot be reduced to this one map, and
the map itself has been evolving dynamically, along with the lands it
purports to represent.

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 DESCRIPTIVE TS

DTS focuses on 3 areas of research:

 PRODUCT (synchronic; diachronic)

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 The results of DTS research can then be
applied to Tth to develop:
 a general theory of translation (very ambitious)
 partial theories restricted according to:
– Medium
– Area
– Rank
– Text type
– Time
– Problem

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 APPLIED TS

TRANSLATOR
TRAINING

TEACHING TESTING CURRICULUM

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 APPLIED TS

TRANSLATION
AIDS

IT APPLICATIONS DICTIONARIES GRAMMARS

Translation software
On-line databases
Use of Internet

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 APPLIED TS

TRANSLATION
POLICY

PLACE AND ROLE PLACE AND ROLE PLACE AND ROLE

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 APPLIED TS

TRANSLATION
CRITICISM

EVALUATION
REVISION REVIEWS
OF TRANSLATIONS

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 Gideon Toury
points out that :

Theoretical, descriptive and applied areas of

Work in pairs, make notes and be prepared to

Is translation theory relevant for practising

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 Think about the following points
and be prepared to actively discuss them in
class.
a. Is a graduate or a postgraduate qualification a
prerequisite for working as a professional
translator in your country?
b. If someone (individual, company, etc.) needs
a translation in your country, how do they go
about obtaining it? Try to trace the phases of
the process.

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 BYE BYE

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