02. Holmes&Toury, Main issue of interdiscipline

1.

Translation Studies:
Different viewpoints
The Holmes «map»
The Toury «map»
Developments since Holmes
Developments since Toury
The van Doorslaer «map»
Main issues of discipline

2.

Previous Lesson Check
The concept of Translation (meaning, need, goal?)
What are Translation Studies? (key branches?)
Translation theory
Descriptive translation studies
Applied translation studies
Main issues of Translation Studies
Equivalence
Untranslatability
Cultural Transfer
Ethics&Ideology

3.

The Holmes «map»; The Toury «map»
• Holmes proposed name for the new
discipline was “Translation Studies” and this
proved to be seminal to the establishment of
the new field of research
• The name “Translation Studies” received
further recognition in Gideon Toury’s major
volume Descriptive Translation Studies.
Toury reproduces a 6 visual representation
of Holmes’ basic “map” of Translation
Studies in the form of a tree diagram
James S. Holmes (1924-1986)
Gideon Toury (1942-2016)

4.

The Holmes «map»; The Toury «map» (cont.)

5.

Pure – Descriptive
• Product Oriented – description or analysis of ST-TT
pair or several TT of the same ST.
• Function Oriented – the description of (a) function
of translation in the recipient sociocultural
situation, (b) a study of contexts rather than texts,
(c) research of translated text, when and where
they are done, (d) what influences the text exerted
• Process Oriented – psychology of translation and
study of what happens in the mind of a translator

6.

1. Medium-restricted theories – subdivide machine translation and human
translation
2. Area-restricted theories – are restricted to specific languages or groups of
languages and cultures
3. Rank-restricted theories – linguistic theories that have been restricted to a
level of word or sentence
4. Text-type restricted theories – Pure – Theoretical – Partial
look at the discourse types and
genres (literary, business, medical, etc.
5. Time-restricted theories –
Theories and translations limited
to specific frames and periods
6. Problem-restricted theories –
refer to certain problems like
equivalence of the translation

7.

Applied framework of Translation
• Translator training: teaching methods, testing
techniques, curriculum design
• Translation aids: such as dictionaries and grammars
• Translation criticism: the evaluation of translations,
including the marking of student translations and
review of published translations

8.

Developments since Holmes
In his contribution, Holmes described a series of weaknesses that need to be
remedied in future research in Translation Studies. Some of them are summarized
below, together with a brief comment on how the situation has evolved
1. The lack of communication between scholars in different disciplines. There is far
more inclusivity and openness with scholars in other disciplines.
2. A tendency to generalise from the particular without rigorous methodology.
Methodology is far more rigorous now.
3. Linguists work too much on decontextualised lexis. The linguistic approach
nowadays is far more about pragmatics and communication; even forms of machine
translation now work on patterns of language rather than individual words.
4. Too much focus on the microstructural. The microstructural is almost invariably
contextualised in studies of translation shifts.

9.

Developments since Holmes (cont.)
5. The need to describe the features of the text and the context in which it
functions communicatively. The advances of text type and genre analysis,
together with the systemic functional approach solved this issue.
6. The question of equivalence. Questions of equivalence and
correspondence have been advanced enormously.
7. The question of norms and laws was raised. Holmes’ argument was that
any descriptions of what happens to meaning, pragmatics or form in the
process of translation can only ever be a description of the norms that obtain
in a specific time, place or text.
8. The function of the target text was overlooked by the theorists. Skopos
theory developed this area in the 1980s.

10.

Developments since Holmes (cont.)
9. The need for studies to bring together specialists from various fields. There
have been enormous advances in this area and practising translators are
routinely included in observational experiments and studies in the fields like
psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, literary studies, psychology and sociology
10. The need to involve practising translators in research. These were through
interviews carried out with translators who were observed producing the first
draft of a translation and text. Such interviews, Holmes said, had already
demonstrated that translation is not a serial process but involves a
restructuring on a strategic level that leads to the revision and revisiting of the
text in a non-linear way.
11. The question of linguistic or physical barriers to the transfer of
knowledge. The physical barriers to knowledge transfer have mostly
disappeared in the digital age.

11.

Developments since Toury
Gideon Toury's work has significantly shaped translation theories and models,
particularly through his development of the translation norm theory, which
categorizes norms into preliminary, initial, and operational types. This
framework has facilitated a deeper understanding of how translations
function within cultural contexts, emphasizing the relational dynamics
between translated texts and their target cultures
His proposed laws of increasing standardization and source text interference
have also prompted further investigation into translation universals,
highlighting the probabilistic nature of translation practices influenced by
sociocultural conditions.
Overall, Toury's contributions have fostered a more nuanced understanding
of translation as a complex, context-dependent activity, integrating insights
from various disciplines, including cultural studies and cognitive science

12.

The Van Doorslaer
«map»
Van Doorslaer subdivided
translation into:
• Lingual mode – interlingual
and intralingual
• Media – printed, audiovisual,
electronic
• Mode – direct/indirect
translation, mothertongue/other tongue
translation, retranslation,
etc.
• Field – political studies,
journalistic, technical,
literary, religious, etc.

13.

Main issues of discipline
• In the early 1950s and throughout the 1960s, translation studies was
largely treated as a branch of applied linguistics, and indeed linguistics
in general was seen as the main discipline which is capable of
informing the study of translation. In the 1970s, and particularly
during the 1980s, translation scholars began to draw more heavily on
theoretical frameworks and methodologies borrowed from other
disciplines, including psychology, communication theory, literary
theory, anthropology, philosophy and, more recently, cultural studies.
Equivalence
Untranslatability
Cultural Transfer
Ethics&Ideology

14.

Divide into Groups
One group takes one period
• Ancient Period
• Classical Era
• Middle Ages
• Renaissance
• 20th century
Questions to cover:
• Accepted timeframe
• The context of this period
• The main characters who made the
change (with pictures and lifetime if
possible to find)
• The nature of the change
• How the change influenced the
Translation Studies field
• Any other relevant/interesting
information