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TRANSLATION THEORY AND PRACTICE: SITUATION IN LATVIA AFTER WORLD WAR II Sintija Blumberga

2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS Languages and people: dialogues and contacts 23 – 24 September 2010 Vilnius University. TRANSLATION THEORY AND PRACTICE: SITUATION IN LATVIA AFTER WORLD WAR II Sintija Blumberga Ventspils University College. THE OVERALL SITUATION

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TRANSLATION THEORY AND PRACTICE: SITUATION IN LATVIA AFTER WORLD WAR II Sintija Blumberga

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  1. 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS Languages and people: dialogues and contacts 23 – 24 September 2010 Vilnius University TRANSLATION THEORY AND PRACTICE: SITUATION IN LATVIA AFTER WORLD WAR II Sintija Blumberga Ventspils University College

  2. THE OVERALL SITUATION • Role of translation in Latvia grows • Companies providing translation services are being established • Educational programmes for translators and interpreters are being offered • Experienced faculty, dictionaries, specially equipped lecture-roomsand specific programmes as well as a theoretical basis is needed

  3. DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSLATION THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LATVIA • Few doctoral theses dedicated to some historical aspects of translations • Some short reviews on translations covering a particular period • Several studies of literary contacts • Some translations and translators occasionally mentioned in publications on the history of Latvian literature ↓ There is no single bibliography covering translation theory and practice in Latvia

  4. “TRANSLATION THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LATVIA: ANNOTATEDBIBLIOGRAPHY 1945 – 2006” Three sub-periods: • 1) From the end of WW2 to 1968 • 2) From 1969 to 1991 when Latvia regained its independence • 3) From 1991 to the present Aims of the project: • To find and study all publications in Latvia related to the problems of translation • To classify the publications into groups according to definite principles • To place the whole bibliography on the Internet

  5. LATVIA – PART OF THE USSR • Main area of translation – literary translations • Translation is neither a private affair nor a fully domestic concern of Latvia • Translation is an important part of ideological, administrative, and cultural integration • Rapid development of translation science takes place • Translation quality becomes an important issue

  6. SITUATION AFTER REGAINING INDEPENDENCE IN 1991 • Latvia faces unlimited access to information on translation theory and practice in the West • Lack of information on translation theory and practice in Latvia in the past still remains a problem • English becomes the dominant contact language • Literal or word-for-for translation – one of the most alarming translation problems

  7. MOST COMMON FEATURES OF LITERAL TRANSLATION 1) Foreign (English) syntactic constructions and punctuation.

  8. MOST COMMON FEATURES OF LITERAL TRANSLATION 2) False friends of translator – pairs of words in two languages thatlook or sound similar, but partly or fully differ in meaning.

  9. MOST COMMON FEATURES OF LITERAL TRANSLATION 3) Use of capital letters (in headlines, titles) and other graphical features (use of double brackets, colon, hyphen, & and other)

  10. CONCLUSIONS • Word-for-word or literal translation has deep roots in Latvian • Since the last quarter of the 19th century standardisers have eliminated many undesirable contact-influenced features • In recent 15 years increased outside pressure has left some new unacceptable footprints in Latvian • Language specialists try to draw public attention to widespread deviations from Standard Latvian • Small languages always feel pressure from large languages • Most important thing is not to be indifferent or neglectful towards native language

  11. Thank you! E-mail:blumberga@gmail.com Mobile phone: + 371 2 6566564

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