Investigating translator positioning and subjectivity

Investigating translator positioning and subjectivity Jeremy Munday j.munday@leeds.ac.uk Translation Research Summer School, London 21 June 2013

Register – situational variables Field What is the text about? Subject matter, conveyed through denotational choices, transitivity… Tenor What is the communicative relationship of speaker-listener? > modality, pronoun choice, evaluative epithets Mode Form of communication > cohesion and thematic and informationstructure Invetigating translator positioning

Evaluation in language • Volosinov (1973)/Bakhtin: all utterances have an evaluative orientation’; ‘intertextual freight’ of other utterances • Grant (2007): ‘axiological accentuation’.... ‘the penumbra of unselected information’ • Martin (2004) ‘Sense and sensibility’ Invetigating translator positioning

‘Evaluation’, ‘appraisal’… “For us [...], evaluation is a broad cover term for the expression of the speaker or writer’s stance towards, viewpoint on, or feelings about the entities or propositions that he or she is talking about”(Hunston and Thompson 2000: 5) Appraisal... “the global potential of the language for making evaluative meanings, e.g. for activating positive/negative viewpoints, graduating force/focus, negotiating intersubjective stance” (Martin and White 2005: 164) Invetigating translator positioning

Appraisal resources (adapted from Martin and White 2005: 38) Invetigating translator positioning

Explicit (inscribed) or implicit (evoked/invoked) evaluation? London is cosmopolitan, trendy and exciting, a trulywonderfulplace to visit. The city combines old-fashioned charmand cutting-edge fashion. Quiet courtesyand a great deal of fun. All of these characteristics will be revealed as you wander from museum to gallery, down Victorian arcades and busy streets, across vast parks and along cobbled streets. The contrasts are endless: next to every historical sight, there’s a skyscraper gleaming with the wealth of modern life. Discovering these contrasts is one of the city’s great pleasures. (TimeOut/HSBC Miniguide to London) Invetigating translator positioning

Evaluation in the ideational function… But despite all the progress we have made, we know that there is more work to do. If there’s a child stuck in a crumbling school who graduates without ever learning how to read, it doesn’t matter if that child is a Hispanic from Miami or an African American from Chicago or a white girl from rural Kentucky – she is our child, and her struggle is our struggle. Obama ’08 Latino Blueprint for Change Invetigating translator positioning

…ideational function… Pero a pesar de cuánto hemos progresado, sabemos que aún queda más por hacer. Si hay un niño atrapado en una escuela ruinosa que se gradúa sin haber aprendido a leer, no importa si ese niño es un hispano de Miami o un afroamericano de Chicago o una niña blanca de la zona rural de Kentucky: es nuestro niño y sus problemas son nuestros problemas. Obama ’08 Proyectolatino para el cambio Invetigating translator positioning

… in the textual function The campus is compact, being less than half a mile across, but is attractively laid out using the natural contours of the land, to give a real sense of space. It is almost surrounded by stone-built terraced housing, much of which is available for rent to students in their second and final years. Invetigating translator positioning

In modality choices… Nixon's meeting with Mao appeared inexcusable -- and yet it surely helped set China on a path ... la reunión de Nixon con Mao parecía inexcusable, pero no hay duda de que ayudó a llevar a China por un camino… it perhaps comes as no surprise that people fear the loss of what they cherish in their particular identities no debería sorprendernos que la gente tema perder lo que aprecia de su identidad particular For when we don't [follow the rules], our actions appear arbitrary Pues cuando no lo hacemos, nuestros actos puedenparecer arbitrarios Barack Obama, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 10 December 2009 Invetigating translator positioning

Critical points of evaluation in specific situations (Munday 2012) • Simultaneous interpreting • Professional technical translators – interviews and online forums • Literary drafts and correspondence • Multiple (student) translations of the same text • Crowdsourced subtitles (Munday 2012a) Invetigating translator positioning

Where does variation most occur in simultaneous interpreting? Barack Obama, inaugural address, 20 January 2009 Invetigating translator positioning

Classification of Attitude Affect – especially +/- security The trust you’ve bestowed (4); gathering clouds and raging storms (8) Judgement – capacity, tenacity, propriety Our capacity remains undiminished (51); enduring convictions (92); humbled (3); a new era of responsibility (143-4) Appreciation – reaction, composition, valuation Grandest capitals (89); narrow interests (52); set aside childish things (31); chooseour better history (32) Barack Obama, inaugural address, 20 January 2009 Invetigating translator positioning

Variation in evaluation in translation • Variation in linguistic realization rather than in category of evaluation/appraisal • More variation in verbal processes and evaluative epithetsthan nouns • Some omission of interpersonal markers • Variation in Graduation including reduced intensification of non-core words (‘slip out’>‘leave’, ‘harness’>‘use’) Invetigating translator positioning

Graduation above all may be lessened • Well understood (omitted by TT2, TT3) • far-reaching network of violence and hatred (omitted by TT2, TT3) • badly weakened (omitted by TT2) • fail too many(algunas [‘some’] TT2) • for fartoolong(por mucho tiempo [‘for a long time’] TT1, TT2, omitted by TT3) • demand even greater effort [...] evengreater cooperation (omitted by all TTs) • our spirit is stronger (comparative omitted by TT1) • old hatreds shall someday pass (change of point of viewTT1, omitted by TT2) Barack Obama, inaugural address, 20 January 2009 Invetigating translator positioning

Provoked and associative evaluation - in non-core vocabulary and metaphor For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whipand plowed the hard earth - by association For us, they fought and died... in places like Concord and Gettysburg, Normandy and Khe Sanh. Invetigating translator positioning

Cline of explicit and implicit evaluation Explicit Implicit Inscribe – true to our founding documents; our capacity remains undiminished Evoke – provoke: toiled in sweatshops; gatheringcloudsand raging storms – associate: our patchwork heritage; Concord, Gettysburg, Normandy, Khe Sanh – ideational token: the keepers of this legacy Invetigating translator positioning

Critical points of ideological difference Earlier generations faced down fascism and communism (92) To those..... who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history... but that we will extend a hand... if you are willing to unclench your fist. (117-119) Invetigating translator positioning

Critical point of evaluation For we know... that our patchwork heritage is a strength... not a weakness. Invetigating translator positioning

Patchwork semantic prosody “If you refer to something as a patchwork, you mean it is made up of many different parts, pieces or colours. The low mountains were a patchwork of green and brown” (Collins Cobuild Dictionary) • Confusing, feudal, hopeless, laborious, strange, unjustified, unruly, unwieldy.......... elegant, vividpatchwork • Hugely complex patchwork of pricing and regulatory systems • The EC has proposed sweeping away this patchwork of national restrictions Invetigating translator positioning

Potentially contested concepts oude Kunst old art old Masters antique art fine art Those values upon which our success depends – honesty... and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- ... these things are old.... These things are true... Invetigating translator positioning

Disambiguation requiring negotiation or interpretation anspruchsvoll: sophisticated, complicated, discerning, discriminating Das Hotel hält 13 anspruchsvoll eingerichtete Doppelzimmer und 4 klimatisierte Suiten für die Gäste bereit. [The hotel holds 13 ‘anspruchsvoll’ equipped/appointed double rooms and 4 air-conditioned suites for the guests ready] There are 13 fastidiouslyfurnished double rooms and 4 suites available for our guests Invetigating translator positioning

Newly-coined terms or collocations • blue-skyexploration potential > optimistisches Förderpotential [Gmn] • the bleeding edge of web design > nova tecnología (não aperfeiçoada) > vanguarda absoluta • new-fangled features > recém-criadas > inovadoras > modernas > novissimos > novas firulas > de última geração Invetigating translator positioning

Constraints and participant roles “In this domain of discourse, translation scholars have thus focused on the constraints placed on the translation process by the sociocultural context of communication. The ideological and cultural background initiated in the text by the author and read off by both reader and translator governs the way in which the overall meaning potential is realized at both ends of the communicative channel. Furthermore, the way in which a reader constructs a representation of the text and relates this to the real worldseems to be of crucial importance in dealing with discoursal meanings.” (Hatim 2009: 91) Invetigating translator positioning

Different readings By a tactical reading we refer to a typically partial and interested reading which aims to deploy a text for social purposes other than those it has naturalised; resistant readings oppose the reading position naturalised by the co-selection of meanings in a text, while compliant readings subscribe to it. (Martin and White 2005: 206) Invetigating translator positioning

Hall (1980) reading positions • Compliant = dominant-hegemonic position: Reader reproduces “preferred” meaning • Resistant = oppositional position: Reader recognizes but opposes expected reading • Tactical = negotiated position: Reader recognizes expected reading but re-interprets through alternative frame Invetigating translator positioning

What position does the translator adopt? ? Invetigating translator positioning

Deictic positioning (Chilton) Other/remoteness Modality/wrongness Time past Deictic centre here/now/I/we/rightness Time future Invetigating translator positioning

Deictic positioning Other/remoteness Evaluation: Attitude & Time past Graduation Deictic centre here/now/I/we/rightness Time future Invetigating translator positioning

Deictic positioning (translator) Translator’s identity positioning (Engagement?) Attitude & Graduation:Translator’s evaluative Translator’s spatio- positioning temporal positioning? Deictic centre here/now/I/we/rightness Invetigating translator positioning

Keys and others Evaluative keys – “patterns of occurrence and co-occurrence which are conventionalised in a given discourse domain” Voice – e.g. ‘reporter’, ‘correspondent’, ‘commentator’, [‘writer’] Stance – “[more local] reconfigurations which we predict will be recurrent across a range of texts and a range of authors in a given discourse domain” Signatures – ‘idiolectal reconfigurations’, personal style (White and Martin 2005: 164-69; Bednarek 2006: 208) Invetigating translator positioning

The position and voice of the interpreter? The question neither is if the market is a force... we know that... the power of.. the desire to generate money is clear, but this crisis has made us see that the country cannot prosper if it favors only the prosperous... Also he speaks about those sectors that remain on the margins of prosperity this is the surest way to common good, says Barack Obama, he makes reference to the economic crisis, to greed and in these moments we reject... we reject to have to choose between our ideas and national security (76-84) Barack Obama, inaugural address, simultaneous interpretation III, 20 January 2009 Invetigating translator positioning

Some references Chilton, Paul (2004) Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and practice, Abingdon and New York: Routledge. Grant, Colin (2007) Uncertainty and Communication: New theoretical investigations, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Hall, Stuart (1999 [1980]) ‘Encoding, decoding’, in Simon During (ed.) (1999) The Cultural Studies Reader, London and New York: Routledge, 507-17. Hatim, Basil (2009) ‘Discourse analysis’, in Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha (eds) The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 88-92. Hunston, Susan and Geoff Thompson (eds) (2000) Evaluation in Text, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Martin, Jim R. (2004) ‘Sense and sensibility: Texturing evaluation’, in Joseph Foley (ed.) Language, Education and Discourse: Functional approaches, London: Continuum, 270-304. Martin, Jim R. and Peter R. R. White (2005) The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English, London and New York: Palgrave. Munday, Jeremy (2012) Evaluation in Translation: Critical points of translator decision-making, Abingdon and New York: Routledge. Invetigating translator positioning

Investigating translator positioning and subjectivity