Trust and risk in translation acts Anthony Pym

1. Trust and risk in translation acts • Anthony Pym

2. Trustworthiness results from non-translational translatorial action

3. What is trustworthiness (or status)? Accreditation/certification is a way of signaling status. So is a degree. So is experience. So is word of mouth.

4. What is the opposite of trustworthiness? 40 police in Malaga interrogated for corruption Two interpreters arrested, one of them accused of selling information

5. What is the opposite of trustworthiness? Three police interpreters sentenced for falsifying nationality of immigrants

6. What is the opposite of trustworthiness? Two sworn translators arrested for relations with money forgery operation

7. What is the opposite of trustworthiness? Trial suspended because Chinese translator does not know Spanish

8. What is the opposite of trustworthiness? Trial suspended because the only translator of Chinese was the accused

9. Asymmetric information (Applying Alerkof, The market for lemons…) The translator knows more than the client. The client knows more than the translator. So they lie to each other… Akerlof, George (1970). “The market for lemons: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism”. Quarterly Journal of Economics 84(3), 488–500.

10. Adverse selection If trustworthiness cannot be signaled effectively: - The risk of bad quality is higher - No one pays high prices - Good quality leaves the market. Akerlof, George (1970). “The market for lemons: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism”. Quarterly Journal of Economics 84(3), 488–500.

11. What is a signal of status?

12. With translation technologies? Translators sell their trustworthiness rather than their effort. The signals of status can be falsified and attached to raw MT. This is the most significant negative consequence of NMT.

13. Problem 1: Translation policy in Australia (Gentile, Hlavac, LoBianco) Henderson Report: Poverty in Australia (1975) “All the submissions relating to migrants mentioned the problems and poverty that language difficulties caused such as isolated mothers, under-employed fathers, accidents in factories, educational problems for children, and difficulty is getting help when needed.” (Hlavac 2017) Translators and interpreters were friends or family members, often children. 1977 – Establishment of NAATI (National Accreditation Authority forTranslatorsand Interpreters)

14. Translation policy in Australia Joe LoBianco, National Policy on Languages (1987) Interpreting and translating ought to be regarded as an aspect of service provision in Australia rather than a welfarist program for the disadvantaged. A multilingual society needs to guarantee that language does not become a barrier to access to information and services.

15. Problem 2: Translation policy in Australia (Maricel Botha) • South African translation started with the abduction of two Khoikhoi men by an English ship in 1613 (Elphick 1977:84). • The Khoikhoi learned Dutch in five to eight years; the Dutch did not learn Khoikhoi. • Khoikhoi interpreters were drawn from the lowest stratum of Khoikhoi society: “The fact that Autshumato and a female interpreter called Krotoa (or Eva), both well-known early interpreters, were taken from the Goringhaikona clan (known to the Dutch as the Strandloper clan) is also significant. The Goringhaikona owned no livestock and foraged on the beaches, which earned them the lowest social ranking among the Khoikhoi and made it easy for the Dutch to impose the role of interpreter on them.”

16. Problem 2: Translation policy in Australia (Maricel Botha) • “Khoikhoi interpreters were often distrusted. Autshumato, or Harry die Strandloper, who was in the service of Jan van Riebeeck, was exiled to Robben Island, and Doman, or Anthonij, was distrusted to the extent that Van Riebeeck wished that he had never learnt Dutch (Olsen 2008:11). • Olsen (2008:12) “South Africa’s first ‘translators’ […] were pre-literate and comparatively unsophisticated interpreters, the first of whom had been abducted as a curiosity to be shown-off to the people back home, and the others adopted as household servants.”

17. Problem 3: Official radio for Black South Africans (Maricel Botha) The reason for opting for the announcing of previously-translated material by black announcers was to ensure understanding and control, and the reason for the choice of black announcers was to remove any negativity that may have resulted from the use of white announcers (Monama 2014:129). One might also add that the use of black announcers was an attempt to convince listeners that the war was not a “white man’s war”, but was relevant to Africans. Linguist Carl Faye was initially put in charge of producing the programmes in English. • Faye believed that the rhetoric of the target group had to be imitated, which entailed extensive use of figurative language (Wiederroth 2014: para. 24). Faye also deliberately employed a simple style of writing.

18. Problem 3: Official radio for Black South Africans (Maricel Botha) Listeners complained about their paternalistic and dismissive style and about the use of moral topics and idioms in obviously propagandistic ways (some specific elements which attracted critique, mentioned by Wiederroth (2012: para. 76), include playing sounds of roaring lions, lullabies and drums). The government’s manipulative intentions were thus quite obvious to listeners. Interestingly, critique by listeners that the announcers lacked enthusiasm and “sounded like interpreters” introduces the possibility of subversive conduct on the side of announcers, which is not unlikely, considering the existence of proven subversive presentation of radio programmes by black announcers during the apartheid years.

19. Problem 4: DGT translators DGT translators are very well paid: The average cost of one page of translation was 150 euros in 2003 and rose to 194 euros in 2005 (European Commission 2006), despite 23.7 million euros having been spent on technology in 2003. • Slator 2017: “While the report did not elaborate on the new pricing structure, the preliminary budget document details the price of translation per page at the Centre in 2018, which averages EUR 82 for ordinary documents (i.e. not scheduled or urgent).

20. Problem 4: DGT translators

21. Problem 5: DGT revises outsourced translations (Strandvik 2017)

22. Problem 5: DGT revises outsourced translations (Strandvik 2017)

23. Problem 5: DGT revises outsourced translations (Strandvik 2017)

24. Problem 6: ”God is the author” • Francisco de Enzinas (also known as Dryander, Duchesne, Eichmann, and Van Eyck) translated the New Testament into Spanish, working from Erasmus’s Greek. The Holy Office regarded Enzinas as a Protestant heretic. The translation was printed in Antwerp and was presented to Emperor Charles V (Carlos I of Spain) in Brussels on 21 November 1543. The narrative comes with a dialogue: • Charles: “Are you the author?” • Francisco: “The Holy Spirit is the author. I am only its faithful servant and weak instrument.”

25. Problem 6: ”God is the author” • Francisco is imprisoned in Brussels but escapes to • Antwerp • Wittenberg • Strasbourg • Constance • Cambridge (Professor of Greek) • Strasbourg • Geneva, where he dies in 1552 while preparing a complete edition of his bible in Castilian.

26. Questions about trust Who trusts the translator? (Downstream) The Protestant community in European languages. The Protestant printer. How did the translator gain trust? By studying Greek with Protestants in Spain.

27. Questions about trust Who does not trust the translator? The Inquisition The Spanish State (the emperor) How did the translator gain try to gain trust? By claiming God was the author – an authority higher than the emperor. Why did this fail? Because the church was stronger than the emperor.