IN THIS ISSUE...
Editorial
The Fourth Wave of
Translation Activity in China and Beyond
Leong Ko
University of Queensland
It has been generally acknowledged that
China is now experiencing a fourth significant wave of translation
activity. Broadly, despite interim breaks, the first wave of translation
activity was from around 220 to 1279, the second wave from 1580 to the
late 1700s for about 200 years, the third wave from the mid-19th century
to 1949, and the fourth wave extends from the 1950s to the present (Wang
& Fan, 1999). Each wave is characterised by unique aspects of China’s
interaction with the external world, demonstrating either contemporary
developments in the domestic society or influences from the external
world [...]
The fourth wave of translation activity in China is providing a valuable
opportunity for the Chinese translation practitioners and researchers to
interact with the Western world, and for Western translation researchers
to gain a good understanding of Chinese translation practice. We have
already witnessed a large number of research activities in this regard,
and are confident that with concerted efforts by keen researchers in the
field of Chinese translation, this unique branch of translation studies
will continue to flourish.
Translating
Heterolingualism: A Case Study of English Translations of Singapore
Chinese Short Stories
Tong King Lee
University of Queensland
This study analyzes the English translations
of three Singapore Chinese short stories which explore the contemporary
cultural crisis among Chinese Singaporeans, focusing on how heterolingual
elements in these stories are treated in translation. I postulate that the
tension between linguistic codes in the original Chinese texts is
metonymic of the larger tension between different cultural influences
within the identity constitution of the Chinese community in contemporary
Singapore. I find that in the course of translation, the heterolingual
elements in the source texts are often homogenized, thereby neutralizing
the metonymics of inter-linguistic tension generated through
code-switching.
The First Lecture on Legal
Translation in China:
a Broad and Balanced Approach
Clara H. Y. Chan
Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages, Taiwan
This paper aims to provide a macro-level
teaching approach that puts Chinese law into perspective through a
comparison of the Chinese legal tradition and Western legal culture. This
is essential because it is the differences between legal systems that
cause one of the main problems faced by legal translation, namely, a lack
of conceptual and terminological correspondence. However, in the process,
attention must also be paid to ‘striking a balance,’ by encouraging
students to impartially consider the Chinese legal system in its own
right. In response to widespread calls for translators to be equipped with
legal training, this approach aims to provide students with the big
picture of Chinese law, so that they can begin their legal translation
course with the necessary legal concepts. The paper will also provide an
overall review of the major literature on the drafting and translating of
Chinese law.
A Pragmatic Examination of
Translation of Implied Meaning
Vincent X. Wang
University of Macau
Implied meaning is one aspect of meaning
that translators need to deal with. Translators may encounter situations
in which the implied meaning in their own or another’s translation does
not sound right, but may lack the theoretical tools to distinguish between
what is acceptable and what is not. The aim of this paper is to draw on
relevant semantic and pragmatic theories to construct a working framework
for evaluating translations of implied meaning, which examine elements
including generalized and particularized conversational implicatures,
perlocutionary force to the readers, and the context invoked. The
evaluation framework is used to examine two translation texts, and is
found to be useful in distinguishing between good and problematic
translations. The merits and limitations of the working framework are also
discussed.
Why is /r/ rendered into
/l/ in Transliterating English Personal Names into Chinese?
Wenying Jiang
University of Alberta, Canada
When English personal names need to be
translated into Chinese, they are usually done through the method of
transliteration. However, pure transliteration does not always work due to
the phonetic differences of English and Chinese. This paper discusses the
phenomenon that the English phoneme /r/ in English personal names is
consistently rendered into /l/ in resulting Chinese character. It is
concluded that the technique of semantic transliteration should be
recommended in the case of translating English personal names into
Chinese.
Translatological Dictionary
Studies: A Text Linguistics Perspective
Fan Min
Shandong University, China
The present study strives to provide a
general framework of translatological dictionary from the perspective of
text linguistics by discussing the intimate relationship between
translatological dictionary studies and text linguistics studies, the
characteristics of translatological dictionary, the theoretical basis of
translatological dictionary as text, and the seven textual criteria and
translatological dictionary as text, so as to investigate translatological
dictionary comprehensively and systematically and further promote
translation studies as a whole.
