3 - Translating Intended Meanings

1. 3 - Translating Intended Meanings What is said and what is meant Ian Mason Sichuan University, October 2013

2. The Pragmatic Dimension • Speech acts • Text acts • The Co-operative Principle • The Principle of Relevance

3. Use of language to get things done • “Watch out!” • As a TEXT above all performs an ACTION • J. Austin (1960) How to Do Things with Words

4. The Speech Act • 1. Locutionary Act • 2. Illocutionary Act • 3. Perlocutionary Act

5. Illocutionary Force • as a standard of translation equivalence: • Does the translated text do what the ST does?

7. An example from interpreting • A murder is committed on board a Russian ship • The police interview all crew members in an English port • Different interpreters serve for different interviews • Witnesses report a suspect as saying to the dead man:

8. An example from interpreting • “Ya tebya uroyu” (lit. I’ll dig you)

9. An example from interpreting • “I’ll get you” (interpreter A)

10. An example from interpreting • “I’ll get you” (interpreter A) • “I’ll kill you” (interpreter B)

11. An example from interpreting • “I’ll get you” (interpreter A) • “I’ll kill you” (interpreter B) • “I’ll stitch you up” (interpreter C) • Krouglov (1999)

12. Receivers’ interest: • Does it count as a death threat?

13. Classification of Speech Acts • Representatives • Expressives • Verdictives • Directives • Commissives • Performatives

14. From Speech Act to Text Act • Sequences of speech acts • Each speech act influences the illocutionary force of those speech acts around it. • A whole sequence of speech acts will contribute to a text act.

15. The illocutionary structure of texts • plans toward goals • structural alterations are standard practice in translation but attention must be paid to the effect of the alterations on illocutionary structure.

16. Case study: illocutionary structure • Text 1: Opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens • Russian translation by S. Bobrov & M. Bogoslovskaja, Povest’ o dvukhgorodakh, 1957, (cited in Gutt 2000). • IDENTIFY THE CHANGES AND COMMENT ON THE EFFECT.

17. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts • Performatives: illocution is signalled explicitly, e.g. “I promise you…” • Indirect speech acts: illocution is not contained in words used, e.g. • “Could you shut the door?” • “Have you got the time?”

18. Problem: • How do language users routinely pick up the meanings that are intended? • H.P.Grice (1975): the Co-operative Principle.

19. The Co-operative Principle “Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged”

20. Conversational Maxims • QUANTITY (‘Be as informative as required; do not be more informative than required’) • QUALITY (‘Do not say what you believe to be false’) • RELATION (‘Be relevant’) • MANNER (‘Be clear, be orderly’)

21. Grice’s insight: • When a maxim is apparently flouted, look for unexpressed meanings that would make the utterance co-operative. • Implicature.

22. Example of implicature A: “I’m out of petrol”. B: “There’s a garage round the corner”.

23. Case Study 2: Implicature • A bill-signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Washington, USA, 1973 • President Nixon • Journalist: Helen Thomas

24. A bill-signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Washington, USA PRES “Helen, are you still wearing slacks? Do you prefer them actually? Every time I see girls in slacks it reminds me of China”. [slacks = kuzi裤 子] from Goffman 1981, p124

25. Implicature • “are you still wearing…?” = quantity • Implicature:it’s time you stopped wearing them. • “Do you prefer them actually?” = quantity • Implicature: most people, including me, don’t.

26. Implicature • “Every time… China” = relevance • Implicature: • “girls in slacks” = you = You remind me of China. • “China” = Chinese women = All Chinese women wear slacks • + “still, actually” = I prefer American to Chinese dress.

27. PRES “This is not said in an uncomplimentary way, but slacks can do something for some people and some it can’t… but I think you do very well. Turn around”

28. Implicature • “slacks can do something for some people and some it can’t” = Relevance + Manner • Implicature: • You belong to the second category! • You don’t look good!

29. Voice of the newspaper • “a gentleman of the old school” = Manner: old-fashioned. • “somewhat abashed” = Quantity: thoroughly embarassed. • “hastened to add” = Relevance: cancel an implicature. • “grin… laughter” = Manner (the conclusion): it’s all a joke.

30. How could implicatures be translated? • Translate literally and leave readers to make sense of the story? • Make all implicatures explicit (by expanding the text)? • Adjust degree of indeterminacy to suit TL culture?

31. Criticisms of Grice • Anglocentric • Rules for good behaviour • Implies that pragmatic inferencing is occasional, not permanent

32. Adjustments • Add intercultural dimension (session 5) • Guidelines (not ‘rules’) for understanding intended meaning • Assume that what is said/written is only part of what is communicated: pragmatic ‘enrichment’ (Relevance Theory)

33. Under-determinacy and enrichment • Linguistic expression under-determines what is meant. • Users do ‘inferencing’ in order to pragmatically ‘enrich’ communication. • Principle of Relevance: communicators will always seek to achieve the greatest communicative effect for the least processing effort.

34. Case study 3: Under-determinacy and enrichment • Speech by newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. • October 25th, 2005, Ministry of Interior conference hall in Tehran. • Comments about Israel caused outrage in the West with potentially serious consequences.

35. Under-determinacy and enrichment: an example • Western media: • Iran's President threatened to "wipe Israel off the map“. • Taken up by Western politicians in order to justify a possible military intervention in Iran. YET • Ahmedinejad did not say this!

36. Actual words in Farsi: "Imam ghofteenrezhim-e ishghalgar-e qodsbayadazsafheh-ye ruzgarmahvshavad." • Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods (regime occupying Jerusalem) bayad (must) azsafheh-ye ruzgar (from page of time) mahvshavad (vanish from).

37. Translation problem • ST: "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time". • TT: "Israel must be wiped off the map". 

38. Linguistic meaning • [regime occupying Jerusalem] = referent: [Israel] or [regime]? • [must] = modality: [obligation] or [predictive]? • [vanish] = agency: [disappear] or [be made to disappear]?

39. What is said • [this regime must vanish from the page of time]

40. What is meant • A prediction: ‘Occupying regime is bound to disappear in time’ ? OR • A threat: ‘We have to wipe out Israel’ ?

41. Conclusion • Most translator decision making involves pragmatics. • (because meanings in texts are under-determined). • (because we have to make judgements about the likely effects of particular decisions in particular cultural contexts). • Getting it wrong can be serious!