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Risk management in cross-cultural communication

Risk management in cross-cultural communication. Anthony Pym. When languages meet…. Lingua franca Pidgins, creoles Language learning Code-switching  Translation . But translation is expensive…. The state of translation theory. Equivalence died.

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Risk management in cross-cultural communication

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  1. Risk management in cross-cultural communication Anthony Pym © Intercultural Studies GroupUniversitat Rovira i Virgili Plaça Imperial Tàrraco 143005 Tarragona Fax: (++ 34) 977 55 95 97

  2. When languages meet… • Lingua franca • Pidgins, creoles • Language learning • Code-switching  • Translation © Intercultural Studies Group

  3. But translation is expensive… © Intercultural Studies Group

  4. The state of translation theory • Equivalence died. • Description, Skopos, deconstruction and localization lived. • No debate.  • Just data. © Intercultural Studies Group

  5. For a new theory… • Equivalence as a useful fiction. • Explain what happens. • Explain what should happen. © Intercultural Studies Group

  6. Example 1 • In a birth certificate, where can you make a mistake? • Name of person born? • Date of birth? • Name of midwife?   © Intercultural Studies Group

  7. This means • Only work hard where there is high risk. • Don’t work hard where there is low risk. • (Don’t work too hard!) • (These guidelines do not require equivalence.) © Intercultural Studies Group

  8. What is risk? • The probability of not meeting success conditions. • Success means mutual benefits. •  (ethically) • Minimally: The benefits must be greater than the efforts (transaction costs). © Intercultural Studies Group

  9. Example 2 • Foreign students will need to convalidar or homologar their first degree. • Convalidación = accreditation • Homologación = accreditation © Intercultural Studies Group

  10. This means: “seek accreditation” = low risk? Use Spanish terms = low risk? Omit phrase = high risk! ... More information is needed. © Intercultural Studies Group

  11. Linguistics is not enough: • Success conditions are not in the text. • High-risk texts are not “rich points” (Agar). © Intercultural Studies Group

  12. Risk aversion? • Risk-averse strategies: • generalization • explicitation • literalism (interference) • Non-translation. © Intercultural Studies Group

  13. Why risk aversion? • Translators do not see success conditions. • Translators are not responsible for risk management (Patton’s interpreter). • Translators reduce transaction costs in order to increase the probability of (minimal) benefits. © Intercultural Studies Group

  14. Risk-taking? • Translation of humour. • Translation in subtitles. • Highly localized texts. • Advertising. • Texts of salvation (Nida, Gutt). © Intercultural Studies Group

  15. Why more risk aversion? • Cross-cultural communication: • relatively high transaction costs • relatively low trust between participants • relatively tight success conditions. • Translation is an expensive strategy, only justifiable in high-risk situations. © Intercultural Studies Group

  16. Objection 1: trust • Trust reduces communicative complexity. • But translators are by definition open to mistrust. • Mistrust feeds on minor mistakes. • So,without trust, effort cannot be distributed away from low-risk messages. © Intercultural Studies Group

  17. Objection 2 (Hatim) • The calculation of success conditions itself increases transaction costs. • So the default norm for translation is to reproduce what is in the text. (back to square one?) © Intercultural Studies Group

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