1 / 9

A history of translation

A history of translation. Anthony Pym Spring School for Translation Studies in Africa 29 November – 4 December 2010. A history of technologies. Voice Alphabet Stone, papyrus, parchment Wax tablets, paper Print Electronic communication. So what?.

eilis
Download Presentation

A history of translation

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. A history of translation Anthony Pym Spring School for Translation Studies in Africa 29 November – 4 December 2010

  2. A history of technologies • Voice • Alphabet • Stone, papyrus, parchment • Wax tablets, paper • Print • Electronic communication

  3. So what? • Social systems comprise communication (Luhmann) • Technologies extend and direct communication • Technologies configure social systems • … and thus the groups between which we translate.

  4. Oral communication • Small social groups (tribes, clans) • Numerous languages; polyglottism • No translation in the contemporary sense • Anuvad • Interpres

  5. Heavy alphabetic communication • Complex social groups with historical identity • Writing as sacred • Hierarchy of languages • Translation restricted to privileged social castes • Rosetta stone • Kēryxvs.ángelos • Translation moves down the hierarchy, to develop languages • “Primitive literalism” (alien-I) • Spoken teaching (explanation, gloss)

  6. Paper communication • Ages of translation: • Embassies to the Khan • School of Baghdad (9th-10th centuries) • School of Toledo (12th-13th centuries) • Revision produces more copies • Knowledge circulates among nobilities and intellectuals • Translation plus explanation • Complex social groups – incipient nationalities with contestational knowledge.

  7. Print communication (from 1455) • Nations with vernaculars • Fixed texts to which a translator can be equivalent • JoanLluís Vives, De rationedicendi (1533): • The third kind of commentary is when the matter and the words keep their balance and equivalence, that is, when the words add force and grace to the meaning […] • The end of the hierarchy of languages • Translators controlled by nations (censorship of books) • Professionalism • Struggle between types of equivalence.

  8. Electronic communication • Communication between small specialized groups • Source texts are unstable – no equivalence • Constant localization • Return to the pre-equivalence dichotomy: • Literalism from translation technologies • Explanation, pedagogy, adaptation to compensate for the technologies. • Translators move into more-than-translation • Crisis of professionalism.

  9. Electronic communication • Communication between small specialized groups • Source texts are unstable – no equivalence • Constant localization • Return to the pre-equivalence dichotomy: • Literalism from translation technologies • Explanation, pedagogy, adaptation to compensate for the technologies. • Translators move into more-than-translation • Crisis of professionalism.

More Related