CC BY-NC-ND
0Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 197 (2015) 1195 - 1202
7th World Conference on Educational Sciences, (WCES-2015), 05-07 February 2015, Novotel
Athens Convention Center, Athens, Greece
Can the specialized translator be creative?
Alexandra-Valeria POPESCUa*, Marion-Ivonne COHEN-VIDAa
a Politehnica " University of Timisoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Department of Communication and Foreign Languages,2, P.
Râmneantu, Timisoara, 300596,Romania
Abstract
The translation process of specialized texts should take into consideration two essential dimensions: the content and the form, as they are exactly the elements the translator has to transfer from a source language A to a target language B. It is an interdisciplinary process as it implies translation methods and techniques and at the same time documentation work and terminological research in that field. The aim of this article is to analyze the process of teaching specialized translation through film subtitling, proving that it must deal with a double aspect: notional and linguistic. The student has to learn how to gather information quickly and efficiently and how to use the new knowledge. We shall analyze, as well, the way the documentation and the terminological work fit into the process of translation. They must not replace the student's translation competence, because a text which is the result of a good documentation is not necessarily a well translated text. We shall prove that, even if he/she has to translate a specialized text, the translator has his/her freedom and must use his/her creativity in translating it. © 2015TheAuthors. Published by ElsevierLtd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center. Keywords: specialized translation, documentary work, creativity, film subtitling
1. Introduction: What makes the specificity of specialized translation?
The training of professional translators is, traditionally, focused on the acquisition of the competence in general translation. We know that the ability to put in place a general translation implies mainly knowledge and know-how. The knowledge is that of the source language and the target language. The know-how is the ability to decode a written text in a language and to project the meaning into another one in the form of an equivalent text. Contrary to what one might think, experience has shown that very few people naturally possess this expertise. This explains why its acquisition occupies a prominent place in the training of professional translators. But for many
*Alexandra-Valeria POPESCU. Tel.: +40-722-219-056; . E-mail address: anda_vp@yahoo.com
1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.378
years now, the translation of specialized texts has become an important activity around the world. That is why Lethuillier (2003: 379, our translation) states that "the ability to perform this type of translation is a vital component in the training of the professional translator." Thus, the competence of the modern professional translator is not limited to general translation. The future professional translator must be prepared for the specialized translation. What does this "preparation" mean? Answering this question is not easy. A simple approach to the problem implies to analyse what makes the difference between general and specialized translation.
We will define, for the purposes of this article, specialized translation as the translation of specialized texts, that is, within an area of specialization or of a particular activity. These texts are characterized by a specific topic within a given field of specialization and specific vocabulary and phraseology. The translation of a specialized text therefore has two key dimensions: the purpose of the text or the content and the language of the text or the form. The content and the form must be transferred from language A to language B respecting all the components. It is an interdisciplinary process because it involves translation methods and techniques and at the same time, a documentation work in the field. The purpose of a specialized translation course is precisely to teach the student to make this transfer.
The translation of specialized text courses must aim the double aspect, the notional and the linguistic ones. The student must learn to make the documentary work on a specialized subject quickly and efficiently and to use the new knowledge in an appropriate way.
This documentary and terminological research involves the acquisition and the practice of a method of work. This method will allow the student to appropriate the concepts, the terminology and the phraseology he needs to translate specialized texts submitted to him first in class, then in the professional environment. We must emphasize the fact that it is a process of self acquisition, which should be encouraged in the case of the apprentice translator. This process is similar to that of the professional environment. When a text is assigned to a professional translator, he is expected to make the documentary and the terminological research. It seems to us important from a pedagogical point of view that the learning situation should reflect reality.
2. The role of documentary and terminological research in specialized translation
The problem is how the documentary and terminological research fits into the translation process and what place it should have in specialized translation teaching. Before answering this question, we would like to clarify that it is the text that guides the documentary and terminological work, not the area of specialization which the text belongs to. Secondly, we would emphasize that this is a one-time non-thematic research, that is a work on isolated words or small groups of words in the same field and not on the set of terms belonging to a particular area. Although translation and terminology are inseparable, the specialized translation course is not a terminology course. Its goal is to teach how to translate and even if this teaching necessarily involves the acquisition of concepts and their designation, these activities are secondary and subordinate to the translation process
The translation process begins with a global understanding of the text to translate. This acquisition can go from the complete reading of the text when it is not a long one to the overview of the table of contents in the case of a scientific treatise, through the partial reading of the chapters of a large document. The depth of this first stage of the translator's work depends largely on his/her skills, on the size and the nature of the document. In the case of an apprentice translator, a full reading is required, "first because the texts that are presented are generally short ones and then, especially because he/she has not yet acquired the experience and the competence required to locate a text on the basis of a mere glance" (Mareschal, 1988: 260, our translation). The first reading is primarily designed to allow the translator to determine the subject matter of the document to be translated so that, in a second step, he/she should select the useful information tools for the understanding of the text and its translation. The precise determination of the subject matter is extremely important; the translator must know that the fields (law, economics, cybernetics, etc.) have sub-domains which themselves are divided into sub-categories and he/she has to identify with precision, from the text submitted to translation, the sub-domain or sub category the text belongs to.
After the stage of reading of the text and determining the field it belongs to, the stage of selection of the documentary literature comes, a stage during which the student will select the information tools that will enable him/her to understand the text to be translated and finally to translate it. The translator and, in our case, the apprentice translator must get two types of documentary works: para-lexicographical ones, those which initiate him /her to the topic and lexicographical ones, those which help him/her to translate the text. Basing his/her work on the research techniques and the documentary evaluation criteria which he/she has acquired during the terminology
course, the student will learn to select relevant and useful tools for his/her present translation.
We consider important, precisely in this stage that the specialized translation teacher promotes this learning by giving the student the opportunity to select himself/herself the tools he/she needs rather than to provide a specialized bibliography. The teacher will then have the opportunity to analyze the works proposed by the student and suggest one or two basic lexicographic works and a limited number of lexicographical works to better train and refine the student's critical thinking regarding the available documentation literature.
A major problem at this stage of the translation process is whether para-lexicographical literature must be selected and read in source language or target language, or both. The literature search in the source language exclusively, can illuminate and clarify certain concepts, but provides no support for the re-expression in the target language. Durieux (1988: 56, our translation) states that:
"However, this is something not to be neglected, especially (1) if it is translated from the student's native language into a foreign language, as information is immediately available in his/her own language, (2) if one wishes to get the explanation of certain notions from the text which are totally unknown; it is indeed easier to understand the keywords in the native language".
But the study of the same subject in documents written both in the source language and in the target one -provided they are not translations from one language to another and that both are well written texts in the native languages of their authors- can be extremely profitable. This allows, according to Durieux (1988: 56, our translation):
"1) to fully understand a subject, because it is not always seen in the same light in documents written in different languages; often the information from the English literature supplement or clarify the data contained in the French literature, and vice versa;
2) to become familiar with the technical language used in the field;
3) to identify the terminology of the studied subject, not by establishing word equivalences in the texts, but by identifying relevant contexts in order to create terminological files and to gather a complete documentation"
We have personally chosen the documentation in the target language, because the role of basic works is to initiate the translator to a subject, to make him/her acquire a minimum of notional background in the subject field, to allow him/her to understand the text. The primary role of these materials is informative. Reading these target language documents is more profitable professionally since it allows achieving two goals at the same time: an introduction to the field the text belongs to and to the terminology in the target language. Concepts and terms are inseparable; the translator has to assimilate simultaneously a number of concepts and their terminological equivalents.
Lexicographically, the selection made by the student must be both from bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, in the source language and in the target language. Allowing to make these cross-checks and verifications from one language to another, the combination of bilingual and unilingual works guarantees the quality and the accuracy of the established equivalencies. We fully agree with Mareschal (1988: 260, our translation) who states:
"... There are good lexicographical works in many speciality areas, but they are often far from being complete and updated and they do not always include synonyms and lexical variants. The translator has frequently to establish himself/herself the equivalences of terms from monolingual documents."
After gathering a lexicographical documentation and basic para-lexicographical works, the student will continue the research by reading the para-lexicographical works selected. This initiation, at this very basic level, should enable the student to understand the essence of the text to translate. This is why the choice of the basic structures is of great importance.
The depth and the orientation of the documentary research are based on the content of the text, but depend on the translator himself/herself. The less knowledge he/she has (especially if he/she is an apprentice translator, as it is the case of our students), the broader and the deeper the documentary research should be: broader that is to cover the main aspects of the question, if not all, deeper that is to induce a real understanding. "A superficial documentary research may, indeed, be a source of confusion and misinterpretation." (Durieux, 1988: 43, our translation).
The next step of the translation process involves a detailed analysis of the source text in order to understand its content. This analysis includes an important terminological dimension since it aims to precisely and accurately determine the meaning of the text and of the terminological units. The terminological research which, at this level, is a semasiological one, going from the concept to the term, will seek to identify the unknown or imperfectly mastered concepts. The determining of the meaning is usually done in the source language, using monolingual lexicographical
works, but it can also be done in the target language when reliable bilingual documentation works exist. If lexicographical works do not establish the meaning of terms, the use of para-lexicographical documents in the source language is required. Although the search for meaning is the essential activity of the analysis stage, it is often accompanied by a first operation of establishing equivalences or lexical transfers. This is the case if we consult bilingual documents where equivalents are already provided. The search for the equivalents may also facilitate the understanding of the terminological units and the notions that they cover. The understanding of the text being acquired, the stage of the transfer or of the translation begins. The terminological work during the transfer process consists in the establishing of the equivalences. They are of two types: terminological and phraseological ones. First of all, it is about finding the translation in the target language of the terms or terminological units identified in the source language and to ensure the accuracy of the proposed or established equivalences. Secondly, as a term commonly exists in a context and that a good translation implies an equivalence of speech, it is about integrating the equivalent in its context by taking into account the idiomaticity of the language of specialty concerned. Thus, at this stage of work, three sources of documentation are useful: bilingual and unilingual lexicographical works, para-lexicographical works and parallel documents in the target language.
The lexicographical works will mainly be used to establish the equivalencies. The use of dictionaries, glossaries and bilingual vocabularies could help find the specific equivalent, but the data provided by bilingual books are incomplete or unreliable. Therefore, the use of monolingual, lexicographical and para-lexicographical works is required. The terminological research which the translator must carry out is called onomasiological, starting from the concept to the term.
The reading and the consulting of the parallel documents will determine whether the use actually proves the rightness of the phraseological equivalents and respects the idiomaticity of the specialized discourse concerned. We believe that the interest of these works is huge as they provide a model and provide ready-made solutions in the field of specialized phraseology. As a learning tool, they are of great value for the students, who can study the parallel texts and then produce a translation accordingly to the usage in the specific field.
Thus, the documentary and terminological activity mainly occurs during the first three steps of the translation process (comprehensive reading of the text to be translated, analysis / understanding of the text, transfer from the source language to the target language) and its role is to help to elucidate the text to be translated and provide equivalencies in the target language. A phraseological research activity can still occur during the next step, that of restructuring to ensure that the text is consistent and in accordance with the practice in the field of specialization concerned.
However, if the transfer step was done rigorously, the last three steps (restructuring, proofreading and revision) will not involve any more terminological or documentary research.
The apprentice translator must be taught that he/she can "take a distance" from the original text. He should take into consideration that only the translated text interests the recipient who needs a translation in order to understand the text. Fidelity just to the structure of the language brings him nothing. He has to focus on to the content of the text, on the way of thinking of its author.
3. Freedom and creativity in the specialized translation
If freedom and creativity are compatible terms, creativity and technical translation are two concepts that seem to be mutually exclusive, creativity would be the defining characteristic of literary translation while respect to fierce constraints, including terminological ones would define the technical translation. We have seen the important role of terminological documentation in certain stages of technical translation (see above 2), we will show in what follows the role of creativity in technical translation.
According to Durieux (1991: 170 our translation) "each technical text has a mission to accomplish: to inform, to explain, to persuade, to sell, to perform a task, etc. But the same text can fulfill a transparent main task and one or more secondary, but not less important missions. For example, the annual report of a company is primarily a financial document whose main mission is to inform the public about the results of the company's business, but it has for second mission, on one side to reassure their shareholders showing that their capital is well placed and on the other side to attract new investors". In reality, it becomes a commercial document, whose mission is to be the vehicle for a dynamic and powerful image. Another example could be the manual of a device, such as the computer, whose primary mission is to inform about the features and functions of the product, to make the customer use it correctly, but obviously its secondary mission is to sell the product.
The mission of the text is a parameter that the translator must identify and which he must take into consideration. The translator must identify the text mission/missions before starting the execution of the translation. In this sense, Durieux (1991: 171, our translation) states that the translator "has to marry the mission of the text" and get involved in the execution of this mission. If the mission of the text is to inform, the translator will adopt a specific technical presentation; if the mission of the text is to convince, he/she will adopt a formulation highlighting the arguments.
The same fact may be rendered differently depending on the effect you want to obtain:
• Neutral formulation - "To execute the function X, press the A and then the B buttons»
• Positive Formulation (promotional) - "To run the X function, simply press the A and the B buttons»
• Negative formulation (critical) - "To run the function X, not only must you press the A button , but also the B one»
To fulfill his/her task which is to write a text having the same mission as the original one, the translator has a large area of freedom. The Encyclopedic Dictionary Hachette (1994: 383, our translation) defines creativity as "the ability to create, to invent." The technical translation, according to the interpretive theory of translation, is the invention of a new solution, not the recognition and adoption of an already existing one.
One could say that the original text is only a source of information among others that the translator will use as inspiration in order to write an equivalent text in the target language that is a text having the same mission, but new recipients. That is why the quality of the translation does not necessarily depend on the quality of the source text.
If we reproached to a translator the quality of his translation, he would, undoubtedly, bring up the poor quality of the source text. However, the translator must not hide behind the shortcomings of the original text. The objectives of the technical translation which are "transparency, efficiency and functionality" (Durieux, 1991: 177, our translation) must be respected, regardless of the quality of the source text. Again we emphasize that the original text can be considered as a source of information, among others. If it is insufficient or of bad quality, the translator will seek to learn more about the machine or device in question, will examine the user's needs and will work to provide clear instructions to meet his/her legitimate expectations. From this point of view, it is obvious that a notice relating to a product for the general public does not result in the same translation than a leaflet aimed to a specialized user. The expectation of the user will be different and the response of the translator must be targeted accordingly. The translator's job is to provide the recipient a text equivalent to the original text, and meeting the objectives of transparency, efficiency and functionality. Translating is going towards the reader and bringing him the information that will respond to his/her expectations.
4. Teaching specialized translation through documentary film subtitling
If the translation of specialized texts can be a creative one, this characteristic is even more obvious if the students practise specialized translation by documentary film subtitling. First we would like to make some considerations concerning the translation of audio-visual documents, as the documentary film is such a document.
As types of text, audio-visual materials cover all possible typology: dialogue, narration, poetry, argumentative text, advertising text, informative text, scientific text, science fiction etc. It also meets all literary genres (drama, comedy, tragedy, poetry) and all language levels: standard, familiar, jargon, slang etc., being aimed for all recipients: adults, children, adolescents. This way the translator of audio-visual materials must have complex skills, textual knowledge and translation studies.
Audio-visual materials are a mixture of various semiotic codes: images, sounds and sometimes texts. The important role is that of the image with the words of the characters that are in or out of the frame and a sound track that doubles most often the actions, but also the words of the characters.
There are several types of translation for such documents. Subtitling is the most important form by its frequency and refers to the transfer to written form of the words or sound elements of a film. We are going to refer only to this type, as it is the most used in Romania. It can be inter-language that is from one language to the other, or intralinguistic, within the same language. This second type is mainly conceived for the use of immigrants or dumb-deaf, in which case the subtitling contains specific elements such as colours and different positioning on the screen.
We have seen that the audio-visual materials are a mixture of several semiotic codes, carriers of information, the most important being the sound track and the visual image. In the case of subtitling, the text that is inserted below the image introduces a third semiotic code: the written text that is added to the code shown in constant motion and the sound. It thus provides a unique situation of transition from an oral to a written code. The role of the
subtitling is to facilitate the comprehension of the film. That is why the main characteristics of the text are its simplicity, the eliminating of every redundant or repetitive element.
Subtitling creates a gap between the reading of the image and the reading of the text, it requires a permanent back-and-forth motion between the film and the reading of the subtitle. Studies concerning human perception have managed to establish an optimal duration of the subtitle on the screen and of the text length. The text has thus been limited to two lines, the first one shorter than the second, and containing about 60 characters. The text must remain on the screen for 5 seconds to be read. The reading speed depends, of course, on the degree of culture of the audience. Those less accustomed to a constant reading will have difficulty following the subtitles. Generally, the timing of the subtitles is calculated for an average reading speed and average knowledge of the language (Cf. Pitar, 2008: 166).
All the specific elements and constraints of the translation of the audio-visual documents, also determine the skills of a translator of such documents. Taking into account the diversity of the types of documents and texts, of the language levels, we can say that the skills of a translator of audio-visual materials combine the skills of a literary translator, a technical translator and an interpreter.
There are a variety of strategies (clarification, condensation, rephrasing etc.) and activities that the audio-visual translator must implement. This type of translation must take into consideration the types, the style of the film or of the programme, the receptors in their socio-cultural diversity and in their reading habits.
In what follows, we will briefly introduce the skills required for such a work, as they are specific for this type of translation. First of all it is about general translation expertise, linguistic competence, technical competence.
As far as the linguistic competence is concerned, we strongly state that it has to be better than that of the text translator. If the translator of a text can specialize in a certain genre, a certain area, a certain type of text, multimedia document translator cannot choose because he/she has to meet very different demands: types of documents, such as documentaries, art films, interviews; different types of texts, various fields. This is why the translator in question must have skills that combine scientific strictness (specialized vocabulary from various fields, specific phraseology, scientific discourse) with the imagination of the poet. Unlike the translation of texts that generally respects as much as possible the original, in the stylistic direction (language level), subtitling employs standard language, trying to avoid slang, regionalisms , jargons, swear words that have a much greater impact on the screen than in a book.
Concerning the technical competence, we consider that the translator of audio-visual materials must be able to work with subtitling software and perform the duties of a technician. Subtitling which is separately done by a technician and a translator is often doomed to failure. It is necessary that the translator makes himself the text segmentation and the synchronization between the words of the characters and the length and the duration of subtitles, obeying to some rules. Thus, subtitles should not appear before the words of the characters, they have to stay a while on the screen, fit the words' flow etc.
We shall present a subtitling experience of the 2nd year translation students studying French-Romanian specialized translation. The students were part of an international project of the French Institute. They worked on the subtitling of the documentary film "Ma poubelle est un tresor" ("My garbage bin is a treasure"), lasting one and a half hours. The subtitling of the same film was made by students from other countries in Albanese, English, Portuguese and Spanish. The subject of the film is a world-wide problem: the pollution of our planet and several solutions imagined in different parts of the world. It is a documentary of vulgarisation, aimed to a large audience. The language level is standard, but containing also a big number of specialized terms in the discourse of the specialists and familiar expressions in the discourse of ordinary people who are being interviewed. As text typology, the script is a very complex one, a mixture of narrative, informative, argumentative texts and dialogue.
As method of work, the students saw for the first time the film, discussed it concerning the typology, the register, the terminology. The students were divided in teams and they got the script which was also divided into parts, according to the parts of the film. We decided to make the documentary and terminological research, each team on the part of script and every team shared the results of the research. Thus we obtained a mini glossary of terms in the field of environment-pollution -recycling. After we had agreed on the terminology, each team translated the part of the film script. We saw the film for the second time and we made the corrections.
In this stage the students had to learn that in the case of subtitling there are supplementary constraints when compared to the written translation of texts. The essential fact is that subtitling is not an object in itself, as the translated text which fully replaces the original text, but a simple support of the real discourse and of all the action from above, on the screen. In this way it fulfils a merely informative function being subordinated to the semiotic verbal and non-verbal systems on the screen.
They had to put in practice also their knowledge from the written expression seminar where they had been taught how to obtain a reduced text, transmitting the whole information and preserving the characteristics of the original text.
Finally, the students arranged the subtitles, using the software notepad++. This was a team work again, made by two teams of two students each. This task necessitates good technical competence and a lot of patience in order not to make mistakes with the codes.
5. Conclusions
Specialized translation teaching implies the acquisition of a method of documentary and terminological research. This acquisition must be made independently and individually, depending on the skills and abilities of each student. Some flexibility is required in the organization of the course to enable each student to analyze and evaluate regularly with the teacher the effectiveness of the approach and to allow the teacher to make all the students take profit from the experience of each one. But even if the acquisition of a method of work and research is the infrastructure of a specialized translation course, it is not its objective. The working method is a means and not an end in itself. A specialized translation course must have the ultimate goal of producing a qualitative text in the chosen field of specialization, and it is this text that should be the basis for the evaluation of the student's work. Although pedagogically, it is useful and necessary to appreciate the effort and the progress in training, the final evaluation should cover the final product, which is the translated text. The documentary and terminological competence should, in no case, replace the translational competence of the student, because a well-documented text is not necessarily a well-translated text.
Any translation can be done only taking into consideration the situation of translation. In order to determine the mission of the text to be translated and to follow this mission, the translator has to know very well the motivation of the task and the destination of the text. Under no circumstances has the specialized translator to be passive or obedient towards the original text, but he/she has to be constantly active, with his/her critical thinking and imagination awaken.
The area of freedom of a translator varies with each text, each passage which he translates. "There is no freedom without measure. The problem consists in establishing how wide the freedom is" (Cormier 1991: 91, our translation). The experienced translator does it instinctively. The apprentice translator can be initiated to do it. It is up to the teacher to give him guidance, a method that encourages him to ask questions about the freedom he/she has at his/her disposal. As there is no freedom without knowledge, the students should be encouraged to become aware of the greater or lesser degree of elasticity in the translation process. There is no freedom without choice, but all the choices are not of equal in value. The role of the teacher is to give the students the means to make good choices, to get them focussed more on the content of the message than on its form.
The situation is even more complex in the case of the translator of audio-visual documents, as it requires specific skills when compared to the text-based translation. There are additional constraints and specific elements in this translation which must take into account that it is only a support in the understanding of an audio-visual document, a semiotic code which is added to that of the image and of the sound.
The translation of the audiovisual documents requires the skills of a translator of literary texts, a translator of specialized texts and those of a technician. He/she must know both the theories of translation and the film language; he/she has to master the translation as a practice and the movie subtitling software.
Due to the progress of the IT tools, the translator- transcoder is to disappear. However, the professional world has increasingly need of professional creative translators, who are able to improve the original text, to correct its structure and the information it contains, so as to produce a text that might be better than the original one.
References
Cormier, M., (1991) La notion de « liberte » dans l'apprentissage de la traduction, in M. Lederer et F. Israel (eds.), La liberte en traduction,
Collection « Traductologie », no.7, Paris, Didier Erudition, p. 83-98 Durieux, C., (1988), Fondements didactiques de la traduction technique, Paris : La Maison du Dictionnaire, 175 p
Durieux, C., (1991), Liberte et creativite en traduction technique, in M. Lederer et F. Israel (eds.), La liberte en traduction, Collection
« Traductologie », no.7, Paris, Didier Erudition, p. 169-179 Lethuillier, J, (2003), L'enseignement des langues de specialite comme preparation a la traduction specialisee, Meta : journal des traducteurs, volume 48, no. 3, p. 379-392
Mareschal, G., (1988), Le roe de la terminologie et de la documentation dans l'enseignement de la traduction specialisee, Meta : journal des
traducteurs, volume 33, no. 2, p. 258-266 Pitar, M., (2008), Le sous-titrage de film, in Professional Communication and Translation Studies, volumel, issue 1-2, Timisoara, Politehnica
University Press, p. 165-169 *** Dictionnaire Hachette Encyclopedique, (1994), Paris : Hachette, 1725 p.
