AN INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION STUDIES rationale for translation studies

CHAPTER 2: TRANSLATION THEORIES
I.

Rationale for Translation studies
The study of translation as an academic subject began in the second half of the twentieth

century. In the English-speaking world, this discipline is now generally known as “translation
studies”, thanks to the Dutch-based scholar James S. Holmes (1924–1986). There are four reasons
explaining why translation studies has become more prominent.
First, there has been a vast expansion in specialized translating and interpreting programs at
both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These programs are mainly oriented towards training
future professional commercial translators and interpreters and serve as highly valued entry-level
qualifications for the professions. Take the example of 2010, the keyword search “translation”
revealed over twenty institutions offering a combined total of 143 MA programs. These may include
MAs in applied translation studies, scientific and technical translation, conference and bilateral
interpreting, audiovisual translation, sign interpretation, etc.
Second, there have been various conferences, books and journals on translation in many
languages. Longer-standing international translation studies journals such as Babel (the Netherlands)
and Meta (Canada), The Translator (UK) in 1995, etc. can be accessed online freely. There are also
various professional publications dedicated to the practice of translation.
Third, the number of international publications has increased, so has the demand for general
and analytical instruments such as anthologies, databases, encyclopedias, and handbooks. Their
number is ever-growing. Among these are Translation Studies (Bassnett 1980), Contemporary
Translation Theories (Gentzler, 2001), Introducing Translation Studies (Munday, 2008), etc.
Fourth, international organizations have also prospered. In more recent years, translation
studies scholars have banded together nationally and internationally in bodies such as the Canadian
Association for Translation Studies (CATS, founded in Ottawa in 1987), the European Association
for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST, Cardiff, 1995), the American Translation and Interpreting
Studies Association (ATISA, Kent, OH, 2002) and the International Association of Translation and
Intercultural Studies. As a result, international conferences on a wide variety of themes are held in an
increasing number of countries, leading to the development of translation studies.

To sum up, from being a relatively quiet backwater in the early 1980s, translation studies has
now become one of the most active and dynamic new areas of research encompassing an exciting mix
of approaches.
(Adapted from www.routledgetranslationstudiesportal.com)
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II.

Descriptive translation studies (DTS) of Holmes
Holmes draws attention to the limitations imposed at the time for this translation studies, and

puts forward an overall framework describing what translation studies covers. This framework was
subsequently presented by the leading Israeli scholar Gideon Toury as in the Figure below.

Figure 2-1: Holme’s map of Translation studies

1. The descriptive branch of “Pure” research in Holmes‘s map is known as Descriptive translation
studies (DTS). It examines: (1) the product; (2) the function; and (3) the process.

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Product-oriented DTS involves the description or analysis of a single ST–TT pair or a
comparative analysis of several TTs of the same ST. These smaller-scale studies can build up into
a larger body of translation analysis looking at a specific period, language or text/discourse type.
Examples would be translation in the twenty-first century, in the English-Vietnamese language
pair, or of scientific reports.

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Function-oriented DTS means the description of the function of translations in the recipient
sociocultural situations. For example, the study of the translation and reception of Shakespeare
into European languages, or the subtitling of contemporary cartoon films into Arabic. Nowadays
it would probably be called the sociology and historiography of translation.

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Process-oriented DTS is concerned with the psychology of translation, i.e. what happens in the
mind of a translator. Work from a cognitive perspective includes think-aloud protocols (where
recordings are made of translators‘verbalization of the translation process as they translate). More
recent research using new technologies such as eye-tracking shows how this area is now being
more systematically analyzed.

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2. As regards Partial theories of translation, there are some basic terms:
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Medium-restricted DTS subdivide according to translation by medium. E.g.: automatic machine
translation, computer-assisted translation, consecutive or simultaneous interpretation.

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Area-restricted DTS are restricted to specific languages, groups of languages, or cultures.
Language-restricted theories (e.g. for the Japanese-English pair) are closely related to work in
contrastive linguistics and stylistics.

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Rank-restricted DTS have been restricted to a level of the words or sentences.

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Text-type restricted DTS look at discourse types and genres. E.g.: literary, business and technical
translation.

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Time-restricted DTS refer to theories and translations limited according to specific time frames
and periods. E.g.: The history of translation in Vietnam.

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Problem-restricted DTS refer to certain problems. E.g.: Non-equivalence between Vietnamese
and English language.

3. The ”Applied‘ branch of Holmes‘s framework concerns applications to the practice of translation:
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Translator training: teaching methods, testing techniques, curriculum design...

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Translation aids: dictionaries, grammars, IT applications.

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Translation criticism: the evaluation of translations, including the marking of student
translations and the reviews of published translations.

(Adapted from “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies” of James S. Holmes)
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