The (Trans)national Appeal within Babylon Berlin?

Functionalism in translation studies

The problem of translation and loss is a cardinal concern in translation studies. Conventional wisdom tells us that translation must necessarily entail loss. However, some translation studies scholars have argued that translation can yield significant originality in the target text. Christiane Nord, for one, argues that literary translators can claim authorial presence by actually causing the source text to “grow” in a way that is quantitative and qualitative. Although Nord’s idea applies mainly to literary translation, it raises questions about how this could apply to translations of other types of creative source texts, such as audio/visual translation. The format of interlingual subtitling between two disparate languages, such as English and Japanese, burdens translation with severe constraints and considerable loss text is taken for granted. But what is lost? Meaning? Nuance? This paper argues that these need not be lost in subtitling. In fact, by applying Nord’s model of source text growth to subtitling, we can see how subtitling produces new value to the source text. Through a close analysis of the Japanese subtitles of the 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, this paper will demonstrate that despite the severe constraints placed on the translation found in film subtitling, subtitles can promote “qualitative growth” by transferring the poetic function of the source text into new configurations in the target text, prompting target text viewers to interpret content in new ways.

Since its inception, Translation Studies has hinged on theoretical concepts of effects and reception, with various reader-oriented notions such as equivalent effect,skopos, acceptability and adequacy, and user-centredness, to name but a few, having pervaded the discipline for decades. Despite this preoccupation with the phenomenology of translations, we still know very little about how translations are actually experienced –writtentranslations especially. This article calls for an expansion of research into the reception and experience of source texts and their translations, reviewing the opportunities afforded by recent technological developments in eye-tracking, galvanic skin response sensors, echocardiogram monitors, and other multi-sensory devices. Using a short case study, a number of research questions and an outline of an experimental method are proposed to contrast the reading experience of two translations of the same source text, serving as a prompt for future research of this kind. By drawing inspiration from the few existing examples of research in this incipient paradigm and the considerations offered in the example, this article aims to stimulate future research to explore the vast untapped potential in this area and to arrive at a better understanding of the effects that different translation approaches yield and the potential variation in effects between source and target text.

Some changes always take place in the process of transferring the meaning embedded in the source text into the target text. The present paper aims at investigating the formal dissimilarities between the source and target texts through the examination of all optional shifts made at word, phrase and clause/sentence levels. To this end, Pekkanen’s (2010) model was applied to the English translation of a Persian novel ‘Journey to Heading 270 Degrees’ into English. Optional shifts were identified and analyzed through a comparative linguistic analysis between the source and target texts. 926 instances of optional shifts were identified in translation of the novel into English, amongst which shifts of expansion-addition (203 instances) were the most dominant type. Moreover, it was revealed that optional shifts at a clause/sentence level with a total of 554 instances were more frequent than optional shifts at a phrase level (161instances) and word level (220 instances).

Investigating 'Unfaithful' Translations Via the Appraisal Theory: A Case Study of Public Notices

This paper presents a study of English-Indonesian translation of the humorous utterances in Walt Disney’s Donald Duck comics. Twenty one Indonesian translated comics of the 2008 issues and their original English versions were used as the source of data. A total of 480 humorous English utterances were identified and verified by 4 native English speakers. These 480 English utterances and their translations were used as the data. Analyses of the collected data were then made to see the translation techniques used by the translator in translating the humorous utterances and to see the resulted pragmatic equivalence viewed from the equivalence of pragmatic force between the source text (ST) and target text (TT), involving implicture analysis of the utterances. The findings of the research reveal that 647 uses of translation techniques are made to translate the 480 utterances, as more than one techniques are used in some of the utterances. Seventeen out of 18 translation techniques proposed by Molina & Albir (2002) are chosen by the translator. It is also found out that the translator’s choice of translation techniques has resulted in 96.87% of the translated humorous utterances being equivalent in their pragmatic force, compared to the original English utterances. The use of such translation techniques as generalization, established equivalent, linguistic compression, amplification, literal translation, compensation, linguistic amplification, variation, particularization, borrowing, transposition, description, and calque has resulted in equivalent pragmatic force between ST and TT. Only minor portion (3.13%) of the translated text is not equivalent in its pragmatic force, and this is caused by the use of amplification, discursive creation, reduction, adaptation, and modulation techniques. The high rate of pragmatic equivalence shows the translator’s success in translating the text. Key words : implicature, pragmatic force, pragmatic equivalence, translation technique

Purpose of the study: Not all languages have a universal concept of the same object, and this creates problems in translation. This paper aims to examine the semiotic model for equivalence or non-equivalence in translation which attempts to define the semiotic model, to use the model for translation, and to offer the benefits of this model to solving translation’s problem in equivalence and non-equivalence. Methodology: The data of this research are derived from the novel Lelaki Harimau, as the source language and L'homme Tigre, as the target language. This model is used in the Indonesian novel which has been translated into 14 languages, one of which is in French. The authors use a semiotic approach to analyze the equivalence and non-equivalence in the translation. Main Findings: This study reveals that the concept of signified in the semiotic theory proposes two models: the first: translation using the same concept in the source text (ST) and target text (TT), which is broadly known as equivalence, the second: translation using different concept between ST and TT, this called non-equivalence. This article not only explores the issue of meaning contextually in translation, but also the use of the semiotic model in translation which shows that the language perspective depends on the relationship between the sign and the object. Applications of this study: The model for this study can be used not only in translation studies at universities but also in providing supporting data for applied linguistic studies. Novelty/Originality of this study: This study provides a novelty in translation research with a semiotic approach. The contribution of this study is that the semiotics perspective suggests that a sign in the concept level (signified) will not be universal due to different cultural backgrounds.

Equivalence is a central concept in translation theory, but it is also a controversial one. Approaches to the question of equivalence can dier radically: some theorists dene translation in terms of equivalence relations (Catford 1965; Nida and Taber 1969; Toury 1980a; Pym 1992a, 1995a, 2004; Koller 1995) while others reject the theoretical notion of equivalence, claiming it is either irrelevant (Snell-Hornby 1988) or damaging (Gentzler 1993/2001) to translation studies. Yet other theorists steer a middle course: Baker uses the notion of equivalence ‘for the sake of convenience – because most translators are used to it rather than because it has any theoretical status’ (1992: 5-6). us equivalence is variously regarded as a necessary condition for translation, an obstacle to progress in translation studies, or a useful category for describing translations. Given that the concept has been particularly associated with linguistic theories of translation – which were heavily critiqued in the 1980s and 1990s (see Pym 1995a; Kenny 2001) – and, sometimes unfairly, with the idea that translations could somehow convey the ‘same’, necessarily stable and language-independent meaning as their source texts (as argued, for example, by Rabin 1958), it is not surprising that equivalence has been in and out of fashion in translation studies (Pym 1992a). Yet linguistic approaches to translation have proved tenacious (Malmkjaer 2005), and it is di cult to nd any contemporary theorists who subscribe to the ‘same meaning’ approach to translation (Baker 2004). Under the in uence of post-structuralism and the analytical philosophy of Quine (1960) and Davidson (1973/1984) in particular, meaning is now more likely to be construed as eeting and inherently unstable, highly subjective andcontext-bound, and thus not amenable to replication, whether in the same or another language (Malmkjaer 2005:15). us, when contemporary theorists posit relationships of equivalence between texts, they do so without appeal to language-neutral, objective meanings, and they acknowledge the role of translating subjects, translators, in creating and maintaining these relationships (Pym 1992a, 2004; Teubert 2002; Eco 2003). As already indicated, proponents of equivalence-based theories of translation now dene equivalence as a relationship between two texts: a source text (ST) and a target text (TT). Equivalence relationships are also said to hold between parts of STs and TTs. In many cases, it is this relationship that allows the TT to be considered a translation of the ST in the rst place. is denition of equivalence is not unproblematic, however. Pym (1992a: 37), for one, has pointed to its circularity: equivalence is supposed to dene translation, and translation, in turn, denes equivalence. Unfortunately, few attempts have been made to dene equivalence in translation in a way that avoids this circularity. Earlier theorists interested in equivalence concentrated, for the most part, on developing typologies of equivalence, focusing on the rank (word, sentence or text level) at which equivalence is said to obtain (see, for example, Baker 1992) or on the type of meaning (denotative, connotative, pragmatic, etc.) that is prioritized in particular instances of translation. Investigations of the essential nature of equivalence remain the exception.

The field of Translation Studies (TS) has witnessed a shift from the focus on the transference of words, to the focus on the structure of the language and the culture of its users. The shift began with the works of Jakobson, Nida, Newmark, Vinay and Darbelnet, among others. However, and not very long after the mentioned shift, a new shift has been witnessed with the works of Reiss, Holz-Mänttäri, Vermeer, House, and Baker, among others, who focused on the context and function of the Source Text (ST). Nonetheless, the field has witnessed a third turn that shifted the whole field into a new level to fit the complexity of life, and of both language and translation. This turn was prominent in the 1990s and was called the ‘Cultural Turn in TS.’ The cultural Turn has turned the focus on the Target Text (TT) and Target Reader (TR) instead of on the ST and Source Reader (SR). The Cultural Turn focuses on, inter alia, the purpose of the text, publishing agency of the TT, translation norms and laws, rewriting, context, target message, gender, power relations, and ideology. The turn was initiated first by Toury, Hermans, Lambert, Baker, Simon, Bassnett, Venuti, Berman, Lewis, Pound, and Lefevere with their Descriptive and Post-Colonial Studies in the field in the early 1970s –1990s. Politics and political texts has gained and are still gaining broad attention from both scholars and researchers. This can be attributed to the fact that translation is the basic and strongest mean used by politicians. Political texts and their functions are many, but this paper sheds the light on one type of texts, namely: Political Speeches. The paper tries to answer questions related to the translation of political speeches by analysing King Muhammad VI speech on the 46th anniversary of ‘Green March’ in 2021.

In translation, an equivalent communicative effect will be more difficult to attain, as the cultural distance between the receivers of the source and target text is greater. This may lead into what is termed as a problem of untranslatability. Cultural distance between the receivers of the source and the target text can cause some problems in translating. Sometimes is necessary to omit some features having a little or no textual relevance in a given source text. It means sacrificing less relevant textual details and maintaining more relevant ones to attain a maximum equivalent communicative effect. The paper discusses some issues related to the problems in translation, especially the phenomena that appear in the German translation from Indonesian and English expressions. Keywords: problem in translation, Indonesian translation, German translation

ABSTRACTResearchers generally agree that retrieval practice of previously learned material facilitates subsequent recall of same material, a phenomenon known as the testing effect. There is debate, however, about when such benefits transfer to related (though not identical) material. The current study examines the phenomenon of transfer in the domain of analogical problem-solving. In Experiments 1 and 2, learners were presented a source text describing a problem and solution to read which was subsequently either restudied or recalled. Following a short (Experiment 1) or long (Experiment 2) delay, learners were given a new target text and asked to solve a problem. The two texts shared a common structure such that the provided solution for the source text could be applied to solve the problem in the target text. In a combined analysis of both experiments, learners in the retrieval practice condition were more successful at solving the problem than those in the restudy condition. Experiment 3 explored the degree to which retrieval practice promotes cued versus spontaneous transfer by manipulating whether participants were provided with an explicit hint that the source and target texts were related. Results revealed no effect of retrieval practice.

This research is a translation study that examines the process of cultural transfer. It focuses on translation works that preserve the cultural identity of the source text within the target text. To address this issue, the study draws on theories from Baker and Newmark regarding translation strategies and equivalence, Ahimsa-Putra’s cultural categorization, and Venuti’s concepts of resistance in translation. The primary material for this research is the English novel “Twilight in Djakarta,” which is translated from the source text “Senja di Jakarta.” These primary sources yield data in the form of words and phrases that reflect Jakarta's cultural translation and terminology through documentation. To achieve accurate results, the study employs identity and descriptive-qualitative methods to illustrate the translator’s strategies for conveying the source language culture while maintaining its cultural content. The findings reveal that resistance to cultural terms manifests through loanwords, mixed strategies, and word-for-word translations. This approach not only preserves but also enriches the cultural meanings in the target text. Additionally, this research aims to contribute to the preservation and promotion of Indonesian culture in a global context by retaining cultural terms during translation. Ultimately, it suggests that readers of the target text can gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the cultural context of the source text.

. This study investigated the strategies applied by the translator in translating a series of bilingual children storybook (Indonesia-English) entitled: Kancil Jadi Raja (Mouse Deer Becomes King) published by Dinar Media, Jakarta and the appropriateness of the translation result with Skopos theory. This study employed a descriptive qualitative study design. Total sampling was applied to collect the data. The data were collected from the texts of the bilingual children’s storybook or document analysis. The researcher analysed the documents using the microstructural analysis introduced by Leuven Zwart (1989-1990), an expert in translation studies which developed a comparative model of texts analysis, where the source texts and target texts was compared to identify the translation strategies, The texts consist of 59 sentences. The data shows that: 1.) There were eleven (11) types of translation strategies applied by the translator which was in line with skopos theory or more likely to emphasized on the Target Text (TT), among others: Transference strategy applied six (6) times , Cultural Equivalent strategy applied sthirty two (32) times, Transposition strategy applied nine (9) times, Modulation strategy applied seven (7) times, Reduction strategy applied eight (8) times, Expansion strategy applied six (6) times, Couplets strategy applied twelve (12) times, Triplets strategy applied eight (8) times, Quadruplets strategy applied four (4) times, Notes strategy applied two (2) times and Synonymy strategy applied two (2) times. This study concludes that the translation result was appropriate with skopos theory. Keywords : Translation, Skopos, translation strategies, Bilingual children’s storybook.

For many years translation was viewed as a faithful equivalent substitute for the source text. The cultural turn of the 1980s heralded a move on the part of contemporary translation studies away from the straightjacket of the earlier prescriptive and normative approaches. Two approaches to translation, the functionalist and the descriptive, developed independently but simultaneously and dethroned the primacy of the source text. Both proposed translation as a new communicative act that must fulfil a purpose for the target culture, so that target texts could potentially differ significantly from source texts. The establishment of postcolonial translation studies in the mid-1990s led to translations created to benefit the culture of the colonised at the expense of the culture of the coloniser/imperialist. The objective of this study is to indicate by means of critical analysis of several translations how a dominated target culture is rehabilitated, how a dominant source culture is subverted and how a dominant target culture is resisted by means of maintenance of the dominated source culture.

Introduction. There are many theories of translation study. The Skopos theoryis a newbranch, which can explain and instruct many translation activities. It was established bythe German linguists H.Vermeer and K. Reib, who comprised the idea that translating andinterpreting should primarily take into account the function of the target text. This functionis specified by the addressee. This theory is based on the functional approach, whose aimis to dethrone the source text (ST). This is done by emphasizing the role of the translatoras a creator of the target text (TT) and giving priority to purpose of producing TT.Purpose. The paper aims at analysis of such basic concepts of the Skopos theoryas “functional principle”, “loyalty principle”, “coherence”, “translation types”, “intratextual andnon-textual factors”, “translation brief”, “translation problems”.Methods. The research is grounded on the following methods: the descriptive method,deductive and inductive methods, the method of generalization and grammatical transformations.Results. According to Skopos theory, the prime principle determining any translationprocess is the purpose of the overall translational action. The basic underlying “rules” of thetheory are the following: the brief translation, a term suggested by Skopos theory, a trunslatum(or TT) is determined by its Skopos; a TT is an offer of information in a target culture and TL(target language) concerning an offer of information in a source culture and SL (source language);а TT does not initiate an offer of information in a clearly reversible way; а TT must be internallycoherent; а TT must be coherent with the ST. There are also some criticisms of Skopos theory by other scholars. These include: not all actions have an intention; not every translation can beinterpreted as purposeful, having such a purpose would limit the possible translation proceduresand thus the interpretations of the TT; what is to be a “general” theory is in fact that only validfor nonliterary textsConclusion. Skopos theory claims to be general or universal model of translation.The main idea of skopos theory could be paraphrased as the translation purpose justifiesthe translation procedures. Like any other theories, Skopos theory is also not perfect, but itsknowledge is a essential component of the translators background knowledge.