Memes of Translation
The spread of ideas in translation theory
Published on 5. June 1997
VII, 219 pages
978-90-272-8309-2 (ISBN)
Description
Memes of Translation is a search for coherence in translation theory based on the notion of Memes: ideas that spread, develop and replicate, like genes. The author explores a wide range of ideas on translation, mapping the "meme pool" of translation theory with chapters on translation history, norms, strategies, assessment, ethics, and translator training. The aim of the book is to search for a perspective from which the immense variety of ideas about translation can be related.
The unifying thread is the philosophy of Karl Popper. The book proposes the beginnings of a Popperian theory of translation, based on the fundamental concepts of norms, strategies, and values. A key idea is that a translation itself is a theory or hypothesis concerning the source text. This hypothesis is then subjected to testing, refinement, and perhaps even rejection, just like any other hypothesis.
The unifying thread is the philosophy of Karl Popper. The book proposes the beginnings of a Popperian theory of translation, based on the fundamental concepts of norms, strategies, and values. A key idea is that a translation itself is a theory or hypothesis concerning the source text. This hypothesis is then subjected to testing, refinement, and perhaps even rejection, just like any other hypothesis.
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06/1997
John Benjamins Publishing Co
€111.30
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Content
- Intro
- Table of contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1. Survival machines for memes
- 1.1 Introducing memes
- 1.2 Five translation supermemes
- 12.1 Source-target
- 12.2 Equivalence
- 12.3 Untranslatability
- 1.2.4 Free-vs-literal
- 1.2.5 All-writing-is-translating
- 1.3 The locus of memes
- 1.4 A Popperian meme
- Chapter 2. The evolution of translation memes
- 2.1 Words
- 2.2 The Word of God
- 2.3 Rhetoric
- 2.4 Logos
- 2.5 Linguistic science
- 2.6 Communication
- 2.7 Target
- 2.8 Cognition
- 2.9 Theory in the current meme-pool
- 2.10 What next?
- 2.11 Review
- Chapter 3. From memes to norms
- 3.1 Normative vs. prescriptive
- 3.2 Norm theory
- 3.3 Norms of language
- 3.4 What counts as a translation?
- 3.5 Translation norms
- 3.5.1 Toury's norms
- 3.5.2 Expectancy norms
- 3.5.3 Professional norms
- 3.6 General translation laws and normative laws
- 3.6.1 Translation laws
- 3.6.2 Normative laws
- 3.6.3 Explanations
- 3.7 Norms as constraints
- 3.8 On expectancy norms for English
- 3.9 Implications
- Chapter 4. Translation strategies
- 4.1 General characteristics of strategies
- 4.2 A classification
- 4.2.1 Syntactic strategies
- 4.2.2 Semantic strategies
- 4.2.3 Pragmatic strategies
- 4.3 Motivation
- 4.3.1 The significance threshold
- 4.3.2 Compensation
- Chapter 5. Translation as theory
- 5.1 Tentative Theory, Error Elimination and translational competence
- 5.2 Retrospective assessment
- 5.3 Prospective assessment
- 5.4 Lateral assessment
- 5.5 Introspective assessment
- 5.6 Pedagogical assessment
- 5.7 Mind the gap!
- Chapter 6. The development of translational competence
- 6.1 Stages of expertise
- 6.2 The significance of memes
- 6.3 Teaching strategies
- 6.4 Ontogenetic = phylogenetic?
- 6.5 Bootstraps
- Chapter 7. On translation ethics
- 7.1 Background issues
- 7.2 Norms, actions and values
- 7.3 Clarity
- 7.4 Truth
- 7.5 Trust
- 7.6 Understanding
- 7.7 The Translator's Charter
- 7.8 Emancipatory translation
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- References
- Author index
- Subject Index
