International Journal of Multilingualism (14790718)21(2)pp. 974-996
Producing polyglot films has turned into a global cinematic trend lately. The Iranian cinema is no exception, and the number of Iranian polyglot films has also increased recently. Therefore, there is a greater need for the systematic analysis of different aspects of multilingualism in audiovisual translation (AVT), particularly in modes like the subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) in which the audiences have limited or no access to the original audio content. In this study, first, the concepts of multilingualism in Iranian cinema and Persian SDH were discussed. Then, the representation of multilingualism in three Iranian polyglot films was examined. The results depicted that, in most cases, multilingualism is masked, and the subtitlers were neglectful of the importance of the conveyance of multilingual instances in the plot for the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). Therefore, it can be claimed that the Persian SDH is yet to reach quality standards. Studies like this have immediate implications for audiovisual translators and film distributors by drawing attention to the importance of SDH, as a relatively understudied area, in promoting media accessibility (MA) for the DHH in the Persian speaking context and beyond. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Methodology anchors ontological, epistemological and axiological assumptions to specific research methods. As such, it permeates all aspects of academic activity, and its significance in Translation Studies (TS) cannot be underestimated. In this chapter, after discussing the impact of different philosophical worldviews or paradigms on methodology, we will bring under the spotlight some aspects that we think have had a substantial influence on the methodologies for TS. These include interdisciplinary (r)evolution in the field, globalisation of TS, the impact of (digital) technologies, and finally, expansion of research objects. In the first section, we will go over four worldviews that researchers might bring to an inquiry: (post-)positivism, constructivism, pragmatism, and transformative. We will also discuss complexity thinking at the end of the section. The next section deals with interdisciplinarity of the TS. The interdisciplinary approaches have changed the landscape of research in the field and several sub-disciplines have been established. In Section 4, we will shed light on some recent (digital) technologies that have exerted a tremendous impact on TS and its research, including the new venues for research created with the advent of new (digital) technologies; redefinition of texts, authors, translators, and readers; and finally, enhancement of research, both in terms of data collection and quality. In the subsequent section, we will address the issue of the globalisation in TS and the significance of adopting a global perspective toward translation. In the penultimate section, we will review new types of texts and subjects that have taken the limelight of research in TS (e.g., community interpreting, signed language interpreting, non-professional translation, subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio-description for the visually impaired, fansubbing and fandubbing, funsubbing and fundubbing, etc.). The chapter is concluded by providing a summary of the entire chapter in the concluding remarks section. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Anne Lange, Daniele Monticelli and Christopher Rundle; individual chapters, the contributors.
Kervan (1825263X)28(1)pp. 203-220
The present study aimed at identifying strategies used by the English translators in rendering the allusive references of The Holy Qur’an, specifying their distribution, and revealing whether the general inclination of the translators was towards domesticating or foreignizing strategies. To this end, Leppihalme’s (1997) taxonomy, as the only model exclusively dealing with allusive references in literary texts, was selected as the model of the study. The data were extracted from 28 English translations of The Holy Qur’an. The paper exclusively concentrated on the temporospatial allusive references. Leppihalme’s model included the strategies of retention (with or without informative notes), replacement of the source-language name by another name (from either the source-or the target-language), and omission of the name. The findings revealed that all these three strategies were adopted by all translators. The strategy of replacement had the highest frequency (77.10%) while the strategy of omission was adopted only in rendering 1.00% percent of the names. Retention (by 21.90%) was found to be the second most frequent strategy adopted by English translators of Qur’anic allusive names. Additionally, it was found that 77.9% of the strategies inclined towards domestication, while only 22.10% showed tendency towards foreignization strategies. © 2024, Universita degli Studi di Torino, Facolta di Lingue e Letterature Straniere. All rights reserved.
Teaching English Language (2538547X)18(2)pp. 157-183
Community of Inquiry is a term that identifies the elements that are essential for the delivery of effective instruction (i.e., teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence). While it has been the subject of many studies in face-to-face settings, less attention has been accorded to it in online classes. This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between Iraqi English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' community of inquiry and their attention to and engagement in online classes. To this end, 311 undergraduate students were selected from Basrah province in southern Iraq. The Google Form link for the community of inquiry scale as well as the online student engagement scale and sustained attention scale were shared among the participants via telegram and WhatsApp groups. The results of the Pearson correlation revealed that there was a significant relationship among the variables. A linear multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the best predictor of the components of the community of inquiry for students' online engagement in and their attention to online classes. The results showed that social presence contributed more to the changes in learners' engagement in and attention to online classes. The findings of the study can encourage Iraqi EFL teachers to focus on specific aspects of community of inquiry to promote students' engagement and attendance in online classes. © 2024 – Published by Teaching English Language and Literature Society of Iran.
Journal of War and Culture Studies (17526272)17(4)pp. 466-485
Translation of cultural conceptualizations in the war literature seems to be an overlooked area of research both in Translation Studies and cultural studies dealing with war. In this study, we employed the framework of Cultural Linguistics at the heart of which lies the notion of cultural cognition to analyse translation of cultural schemas and categories in four books selected from the genre of Iran–Iraq war literature. The analysis indicated that typical translation techniques might lead to a change of cultural identity and may not be able to adequately transfer cultural conceptualizations. Therefore, ‘thick translation’ is suggested as a better way of translating them. This study can have implications for the theory and practice of translation and for those studying war from a cultural vantage point. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Cadernos de Traducao (21757968)43(1)
Translation of masterpieces of a nation’s classic literature poses great challenges to translators. One of the major challenges is the issue of dealing with culturally-bound expressions (CBEs). In the current study, the researcher aimed at exploring the effect of time-span on rendering Sa’di’s Gulistan. To this end, two English translations by Ross (1823) and Arnold (1899) were studied based on Davies’s (2003) model. She has proposed seven procedures among which ‘Preservation’, ‘Transformation’, and ‘Omission’ were deemed low-productive. These, together with ‘Mistranslated’ CBEs, were regarded as a criterion for assessing the performance of the two translators on lexical-semantic level. As far as rendering CBEs were concerned, findings of the study showed that time- -span has had no positive effect on avoiding low-productive procedures. Since most of the challenging CBEs were categorized in the realm of ‘Social life’ and ‘Religion’, the prospective translators, who intend to re- -translate a classical Persian masterpiece, are highly recommended to gain adequate knowledge in the two realms. Inaccessibility to other translations of the Gulistan was a limitation of the study; therefore, researchers are suggested to find other translations from the 20th or 21st century and also focus on other potential factors affecting the quality of rendering CBEs © Esta obra utiliza uma licença Creative Commons CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/lice
Multilingua (01678507)42(5)pp. 675-706
Multilingualism serves an important function in the characterization of an audiovisual product; thus, its representation in translations demands scientific attention. The task of rendering multilingualism in translation becomes more complicated when no or limited access to the original audio content is possible. This being so, this study investigates the representation of multilingualism in English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) and Persian dubbing of four polyglot films. It examines and discusses the strategies adopted by translators in eight translations, both the SDH and dubbed versions. The results indicate that translators employ a variety of solutions and strategies to tackle challenges and render the third language (L3), but still dubbing tends to neutralize L3 in most instances. In the case of SDH, L3 was made explicit, but the high frequency of homogenising strategies and the loss of L3 in the translations were noticeable. These results could be of use for both cinema and translation professionals and non-professionals, particularly for enhancing media accessibility (MA) for the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) community, besides adding to the body of studies on the translation of multilingualism. © 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
SKASE Journal of Translation and Interpretation (13367811)15(1)pp. 2-14
The present study concentrates on Sa‘di’s Gulistan and its two English translations by Burton (1888) and Eastwick (1880) to explore the way they coped with challenging religious-bound terms. The Gulistan, abounding with RBTs, is a world-renown literary-religious masterpiece. Ivir’s (2003) taxonomy was employed as the model of the study. Findings revealed that the categories of ‘concrete religious concepts’, ‘proper names’, ‘religious verdicts’ and ‘abstract religious concepts’ posed great challenges to translators. It was also found that while most of the RBTs were rendered via the use of ‘substitution’ and ‘definition’ (84%), ‘lexical creation’ was never used by any translator. © 2022 Slovak Association for the Study of English. All rights reserved.
Cadernos de Traducao (21757968)42(1)
Translation is not merely a mater of linguistics. The major goal of the present paper is to investigate the relationship between ‘culture’ and ‘translation’. To this end, the researcher drew on a corpus from English and Persian languages. The findings indicated that although different languages, like English and Persian, employ different linguistic forms, this variety cannot be considered as a real challenge. Since during the process of translation, source text’s container (i.e. form) usually undergoes a sort of lexical, phonological, graphological and grammatical change, and source text’s content (i.e. meaning) is logically required to be held constant, accurate understanding of ST meaning and natural rendition into TL depends on the translator’s deep acquaintance with both TL and SL cultures. Resorting to a descriptive equivalent or using explanatory notes would be of great help for accurate rendition and would, consequently, lead to a deep and clear understanding of the TT on the part of the target audiences. © Esta obra utiliza uma licença Creative Commons CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Kervan (1825263X)26(1)pp. 365-386
The present study aims at formulating a tentative hypothesis for the issue of ‘Nativity.’ It focuses on the readability level of the translations by source-language native and target-language native translators. The corpus selected for analysis was the Persian Modern novella The Blind Owl. The original work was written by the most widely-known Persian short-story writer Sadeq Hedayat (1903-1951) and it was translated by Bashiri (the SL native translator) in 2016 and Costello (the TL native translator) in 1957. The corpus was investigated in terms of total word number, ‘Long Words’ number, ‘Hard Words,’ ‘Gunning Fog Index’ and ‘Lexical Density’ in order to give a clear picture of the readability of the two translations. One principle in favour of the tentative ‘Nativity Hypothesis’ was found to be that TL native translators produce a wider, more domesticated, more target-reader friendly, more fluent and more readable translation than SL native translators.’ The study was just a single and humble step towards formulating the NH. Prospective researchers are encouraged to conduct confirmatory research focusing on different text-types, such as classical literary texts, and sacred texts. A researcher working on such subjects would hopefully take a further step towards the formulation of a somehow reliable ‘Nativity Hypothesis.’. © 2022, Universita degli Studi di Torino, Facolta di Lingue e Letterature Straniere. All rights reserved.
Hikma (24454559)21(1)pp. 107-134
Translatorial habitus is a key term incorporated Bourdieusian sociological concept of habitus and Translation Studies' translation norms. In light of Bourdieu's theoretical model of sociology, this study sought to address the translatorial behaviour of the Iranian translators of English romance novels in terms of the translation strategies of Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) before and after the Cultural Revolution of 1980 in Iran. 4282 sentences containing CSIs were obtained from Rebecca, Sense and Sensibility, the Great Gatsby, and their two Persian translations. Based on how each CSI was translated, they were grouped under one of Liang's proposed categorization. The frequency and percentages of each procedure were calculated using SPSS software. Moreover, the results were cross-checked with a qualitative analysis of some archived interviews printed in Motarjem [the translator] journal, newspapers, and WebPages. The evidence from this study suggests that there was a clear foreignizing trend among Iranian translators of the English romance novels when translating CSIs not only in the Pre-Cultural Revolution era but also in the Post-Cultural Revolution era. Also, a significant difference between various strategies utilized in the two eras was detected. © 2022 Universidad de Cordoba,Servicio de Publicaciones. All rights reserved.
Folia Onomastica Croatica (13300695)2022(31)pp. 1-27
Onomastics, dealing with culture-specific terms, poses great challenges for literary translators, especially for translators of sacred texts. Translating God’s Names requires profound cultural knowledge. The paper is aimed at investigating procedures of translating God’s Names in English translations of the Glorious Qur’an by adopting Liang’s (2016) model. After identifying the equivalents of proper names in 26 English translations, the procedures used for rendering them were identified. Finally, the general tendencies of procedures were specified. The findings revealed that two procedures used by the Qur’an translators (‘couplet’ and ‘transposition’) do not appear in Liang’s (2016) model. It was also found that the procedure of ‘convention’ was by far (60.50%) the most frequently used procedure. Additionally, the data analysis revealed that no translator used procedures of ‘naturalization’ and ‘rendition’. Moreover, it was found that 1.60% of procedures were source-oriented and 98.40% of them were target-oriented. In other words, all English translators of the Holy Qur’an showed greater tendencies to adopt target-oriented procedures in rendering God’s Names. Prospective researchers can work on other language pairs and translations of God’s proper names in other sacred texts. © 2022, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. All rights reserved.
Journal of Intercultural Communication Research (17475759)51(3)pp. 254-270
Sociolinguistics has integrated the study of language and society. A sociolinguistic viewpoint in film translation can uncover the maintenance or destruction of stereotypes. To contribute to the sociolinguistic study of film translations, Disney animations Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013) and their Persian dubbed versions were examined based on Androutsopoulos’s (2012) framework that works on both macro and micro levels of analysis. The results showed that social class was influential in allocating specific linguistic varieties to the characters in the translations. Jaheli, which is an old-fashioned variety, was observed among the male leading roles that belonged to the poor or working class. © 2021 World Communication Association.
Hikma (24454559)21(1)pp. 53-83
A translator needs to possess a wide socio-cultural and literary knowledge in order to be able to translate idiomatic expressions in general, and proverbs, in particular. The present study is an investigation into the Rehatsek's (1888) English translation of proverbs of Sa'di's Gulistan (1258/2000), as a classical Persian masterpiece. Baker's (2011) set of strategies for translating idioms was employed as an initial framework for data analysis. The findings indicated that Rehatsek had merely resorted to either literal translation or total omission. Moreover, it was found that Baker's consideration of 'paraphrasing' as the most common way of translating idioms could not be confirmed in the case of Persian proverbs in The Gulistan. It was found that literal translation is by far the most common strategy of translating Persian proverbs into English with 98 per cent. It was found that there could potentially be some other strategies, besides those referred to by Baker, for rendering proverbs. Finally, six strategies were proposed for translating proverbs in literary texts. © 2022 Universidad de Cordoba,Servicio de Publicaciones. All rights reserved.
Kervan (1825263X)25(2)pp. 267-285
Previous remarks in Translation Studies have involved generalizations based on comparing translations to their source texts (Chesterman 2010). In this article, Baker’s (1993; 1996) translation universals are examined on the animated movie Frozen (2013) and its three Persian dubbed versions. The reflection of the following translation universals on a character’s speech are attested: Simplification, Explicitation, and Normalization. Results show that Simplification and Explicitation are the most frequent strategies that were adopted in the dubbed versions. Furthermore, another strategy, namely Exaggeration, is observed in the data. It is used only for one character in the movie, i.e., an ice salesman called Kristoff. The reason for employing this conscious strategy appears to be the inequality of power distribution among characters that influenced the style of translation in the Persian dubbed versions. © 2021, Universita degli Studi di Torino, Facolta di Lingue e Letterature Straniere. All rights reserved.
Names (00277738)69(4)pp. 21-29
The present paper examines anthroponyms in the Holy Qur'an in three different English translations to shed light on how procedures used by translators can help target-language (TL) readers understand the implied meaning of anthroponyms. In order to conduct the research, the anthroponyms in the Holy Qur'an were isolated and English equivalents were identified. Then Vermes’s (2003) model was applied to the collected data to find answers to the following research questions: (1) What strategies are used most frequently by the translators examined to render the Qur’anic anthroponyms into the target-language (TL)?; (2) How consistent are the translators in using particular strategies when translating the anthroponyms?; (3) Does the type of translator affect their choice of translation strategy?; (4) Does the model suggested by Vermes (2003) cover all of the strategies employed by the three translators?; and (5) Which procedures are source-language-oriented, TL-oriented, or deep-reader oriented? Overall, the findings indicated that the procedures most frequently used by the translators were “substitution” and “transference.” It was found that the native speaker of neither Arabic nor English foreignized 96.80% of the Qur’anic anthroponyms by using “transference,” while the native translators of either the target-language or the source-language domesticated 71.00% of the anthroponyms by using “substitution.” “Substitution” was used when an exact Biblical equivalent for the Qur’anic anthroponym existed. Otherwise, “transference” was used along with notes to transport the meaning and form while remaining faithful to the intended meaning of the sacred text. © 2021, University Library System, University of Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.
Lebende Sprachen (18680267)66(2)pp. 214-230
Stylistic issues have typically been considered as a challenge for literary translators. As far as literary style is concerned, Sa'di (1208-1291) is the most famous Persian poet. The present study aims at investigating the effect of time on the universals appeared in translating Sa'di's style in the Gulistan. The corpus of the study consisted of the Gulistan's two English translations: one by Rehatsek (1888) and its 2010 edition by Rosenbaum, and the other by Newman (2004). Baker's (1996) framework, consisting of simplification, explicitation, normalization, and leveling out, was used as the basis for analyzing the collected data. As far as stylistic issues were concerned, it was realized that Rehatsek's translation and its new edition by Rosenbaum, were not distinctly different. It was also found that the passage of time has had effects on selecting some specific features more than the others. Prosification was the most and leveling out was the least frequently observed features, while normalization and poetrification had never been detected. The findings also revealed greater tendency of recent translators to deviating from the ST author's style and their stronger inclination towards providing easy-to-understand texts for today's TT audience. © 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
Forum (Germany) (21946183)19(1)pp. 1-23
'Self-editing' refers to the practice of translators who edit their own earlier translations. Self-editions have been less investigated than retranslations. No attempt has been made so far to formulate a hypothesis concerning self-edition. Therefore, the present piece of research was conducted to fill the gap. The corpus of the study includes the modern Persian novella The Blind Owl written by Sadeq Hedayat (1903-1951) and translated (and self-edited) by Iraj Bashiri (in 1974, 2013 and 2016). The findings showed that self-edited versions appeared to be more target-oriented than their original translations. Therefore, although they appeared after the original translation, and could somehow be thought of as 'retranslations', they do not seem to confirm the Retranslation-Hypothesis (RH). The main principle of the tentative 'Self-edition Hypothesis' is contrary to that of the Retranslation-Hypothesis. It was also found that a self-edited translation is more 'natural', 'accurate', and 'expanded', but slightly less clear than its original translation. It should, however, be underscored that the reduction in clarity of self-edited versions was not so significant. Future researchers are encouraged to focus their study on 'comparing strategies used by translators with those adopted by editors' and 'taking into account socio-cultural factors involved in the production of new editions'. Prospective researchers can test the hypothesis by concentrating on various language pairs and other text-types. © 2021 John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Kervan (1825263X)25(1)pp. 197-222
Song Translation as a relevant area to Translation Studies has been receiving much attention over the past decade. As Song Translation grows, so does the urge to develop a resourceful model to assist researchers in this domain, to study and understand translated songs and hopefully propose solutions to tackle some issues regarding translating a song that would be performable and singable. The two most common models to analyze the singability of translated songs were proposed by Low (2003; 2008) and Franzon (2008). These two models are compatible; therefore, in the current study, they have been merged and adjusted to analyze the Persian translations of dubbed songs. In doing so, attempts have been made to fabricate a less subjective model by developing a marking system. The recommended model was verified by applying it to twenty-five songs selected from five animated movies, namely Trolls (2016), Sing (2016), Moana (2016), Coco (2017), and Smallfoot (2018). © 2021, Universita degli Studi di Torino, Facolta di Lingue e Letterature Straniere. All rights reserved.
SKASE Journal of Translation and Interpretation (13367811)12(1)pp. 2-14
There are many factors potentially affecting the choice of translation equivalents and strategies. Religion, as a cultural element, can be one of these factors. The researcher aims at investigating whether the religious background of translators play any role in selecting specific strategies or not. For this, the Holy Qur’an and its 4 English renditions by ‘Shia,’ ‘Sunni’ and ‘neither Shia nor Sunni’ Muslim translators were studied and compared based on Aixela’s model. It was found that the factor of ‘translator’s religious background’ does not play a pivotal role in selecting specific translation strategies of rendering ITs. © 2019 Slovak Association for the Study of English. All rights reserved.
