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The study adopts a theory of Descriptive Translation Studies to undertake a comparative analysis of stylistic devices in Shakespeare’s two plays, Julius Caesar and Macbeth and their Xitsonga translations. It contextualises its research aim and objectives after outlining a sequential account of theory development in the discipline of translation; and arrives at the desired and suitable tools for data collection and analysis.Through textual observation and notes of reading, the current study argues that researchers and scholars in the discipline converge when it comes to a dire need for translation strategies, but diverge in their classification and particular application for convenience in translating and translation. This study maintains that the translation strategies should be grouped into explicitation, normalisation and simplification, where each is assigned specific translation procedures. The study demonstrates that explicitation and normalisation translation strategies are best suited in dealing with translation constraints at a microtextual level. The sampled excerpts from both plays were examined on the preference for the analytical framework based on subjective sameness within a Skopos theory. The current study acknowledges that there is no single way of translating a play from one culture to the other. It also acknowledges that there appears to be no way the translator can refrain from the influence of the source text, as an inherent cultural feature that makes it unique. With no sure way of managing stylistic devices as translation constraints, translation as a problem-solving process requires creativity, a demonstration of mastery of language and style of the author of the source text, as well as a power drive characterised by the aspects of interlingual psychological balance of power and knowledge power. These aspects will help the translator to manage whatever translation brief(s) better, and arrive at a product that is accessible, accurate and acceptable to the target readership. They will also ensure that the translator maintains a balance between the two languages in contact, in order to guard against domination of one language over the other. The current study concludes that the Skopos theory has a larger influence in dealing with anticipating the context of the target readership as a factor that can introduce high risk when assessing the communicability conditions for the translated message. Contrariwise, when dealing with stylistic devices and employ literal translation as a translation procedure to simplification, the translator only aims at simplifying the language and making it accessible for the sake of ‘accessibility’ as it remains a product with communicative inadequacies. The study also concludes by maintaining that translation is not only transcoding, but the activity that calls for the translator’s creativity in order to identify and analyse the constraints encountered and decide on the corresponding translation strategies. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

This thesis aims to elucidate the translation process by devising a way of retrieving evidence of this process from its output. It further aims to assess the claims made by some scholars concerning the possible existence of Translation Universals. In order to isolate the interaction of texts and contexts, a corpus of American short stories was created, with their translations into Persian published after the 1979 Revolution. Three complementary methodologies gave a rounded picture: (1) Corpus-based Descriptive Translation Studies; (2) The pragmatic and rhetorically-based approach of Thinking Translation devised at St Andrews; and ‎(3) The analytical framework mostly established by Halliday in his Systemic Functional Grammar.‎ Approaching the process of translation in the specific order devised in this thesis provided four vantage points to analyse the data in a systematic way from linguistic, discourse, cultural and literary views before reaching what are at once the most personal and most characteristic aspects of a translator's work. The research begins with a literature review of the field and an account of linguistic constraints and of all Translation Universals hypothesised so far, followed by an extensive analysis of data in two consecutive chapters. With reference to the choices made in this corpus, it is discussed in the Conclusions chapter that most of the Translation Universals so far claimed are not in fact universal. It is the role of the translator which has emerged as the determining factor in producing a translated text, and thus as the key to resolving the issues explored in this thesis. It seems there are no constraints beyond the translator's reach, and there are no parameters which do not involve the translator, who introduces his or her own choices, or manipulates certain parameters. Only when they have done so, will the translation, as both process and product, be accomplished.

The study adopts a theory of Descriptive Translation Studies to undertake a comparative analysis of stylistic devices in Shakespeare’s two plays, Julius Caesar and Macbeth and their Xitsonga translations. It contextualises its research aim and objectives after outlining a sequential account of theory development in the discipline of translation; and arrives at the desired and suitable tools for data collection and analysis.Through textual observation and notes of reading, the current study argues that researchers and scholars in the discipline converge when it comes to a dire need for translation strategies, but diverge in their classification and particular application for convenience in translating and translation. This study maintains that the translation strategies should be grouped into explicitation, normalisation and simplification, where each is assigned specific translation procedures. The study demonstrates that explicitation and normalisation translation strategies are best suited in dealing with translation constraints at a microtextual level. The sampled excerpts from both plays were examined on the preference for the analytical framework based on subjective sameness within a Skopos theory. The current study acknowledges that there is no single way of translating a play from one culture to the other. It also acknowledges that there appears to be no way the translator can refrain from the influence of the source text, as an inherent cultural feature that makes it unique. With no sure way of managing stylistic devices as translation constraints, translation as a problem-solving process requires creativity, a demonstration of mastery of language and style of the author of the source text, as well as a power drive characterised by the aspects of interlingual psychological balance of power and knowledge power. These aspects will help the translator to manage whatever translation brief(s) better, and arrive at a product that is accessible, accurate and acceptable to the target readership. They will also ensure that the translator maintains a balance between the two languages in contact, in order to guard against domination of one language over the other. The current study concludes that the Skopos theory has a larger influence in dealing with anticipating the context of the target readership as a factor that can introduce high risk when assessing the communicability conditions for the translated message. Contrariwise, when dealing with stylistic devices and employ literal translation as a translation procedure to simplification, the translator only aims at simplifying the language and making it accessible for the sake of ‘accessibility’ as it remains a product with communicative inadequacies. The study also concludes by maintaining that translation is not only transcoding, but the activity that calls for the translator’s creativity in order to identify and analyse the constraints encountered and decide on the corresponding translation strategies. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South African author Linda Rode‘s book In die Nimmer-Immer Bos (2009a) and Elsa Silke‘s English translation thereof In the Never-Ever Wood (2009b) have won a number of prizes in South Africa, which is evidence both of the quality of the anthology and its translation, as well as of the continued significance of the folktale genre in today‘s fast-paced, modern society. People continue to make sense of the world through telling stories and, although the stories told today might be marked by life in the 21st century, our ancestors‘ stories are still appreciated by many. Although Rode‘s tales are not unlike other folktales, her collection differs in that it is a mosaic of cultures and their folklore spanning the globe, a book that appeals to the whole family, and to young readers and listeners in particular. Through a practical translation into German of selected tales from Silke‘s English version of Rode‘s book, the present thesis investigates ways and means of translating folktales for children. A functional approach was suggested, taking into account the European audience as well as the original intention of the author. As such, the author‘s style was naturalised and an attempt was made to replicate it in the target language, whereas culture-specific items relevant to the setting of the individual tales were retained. Hans J. Vermeer‘s skopos theory, as enhanced by Christiane Nord, as well as Lawrence Venuti‘s concepts of foreignisation and domestication were discussed, amongst other relevant theories. Many of the challenges discussed in the annotations to the practical translation typically occur in the translation of literature for children, and the study thus hopes to make a contribution to research on the translation of literature for children. Interviews conducted for the purpose of the present study furthermore proved the positive impact of good cooperation between the people involved in a translation project on the final translation product. The resulting translation, meant to impart knowledge and pleasure to the audience, furthermore serves as a translation sample that is intended to entice German publishers to commission a translation of Rode‘s anthology for the German book market. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Suid-Afrikaanse skrywer Linda Rode se boek In die Nimmer-Immer Bos (2009a), sowel as die Engelse vertaling daarvan deur Elsa Silke, getiteld In the Never-Ever Wood (2009b), is in Suid-Afrika met verskeie pryse bekroon. Hierdie erkenning is ‘n bevestiging van die gehalte van die antologie en van die vertaling, sowel as van die voortgesette belangrikheid van volksoorleweringe as genre in die gejaagde, moderne samelewing van vandag. Mense maak steeds sin van die wêreld deur stories te vertel, en hoewel die stories wat vandag vertel word meestal handel oor die lewe in die 21ste eeu, word die stories van ons voorouers steeds deur baie mense waardeer. Hoewel Rode se verhale nie besonder anders as ander volksverhale is nie, verskil haar versameling in dié opsig dat dit ‘n mosaïek van kulture en volksoorleweringe van regoor die wêreld is. Die boek is dus een waarby die hele gesin, maar veral jong lesers en luisteraars, aanklank kan vind. Hierdie tesis ondersoek, deur ‘n praktiese vertaling van enkele verhale uit die Engelse weergawe van Rode se boek in Duits, strategieë vir die vertaling van volksverhale vir kinders. ‘n Funksionalistiese benadering is gevolg, wat die Europese gehoor sowel as die oorspronklike bedoeling van die skrywer in ag neem. In die lig hiervan is die styl van die skrywer genaturaliseer en, waar moontlik, na die doeltaal oorgedra, terwyl kultuurspesifieke items behou is wat relevant is vir die agtergrond waarteen die individuele verhale afspeel. Hans J. Vermeer se skoposteorie, soos aangepas deur Christiane Nord, sowel as Lawrence Venuti se konsepte vervreemding en domestikering is bespreek, saam met ander relevante teorieë. Baie van die uitdagings wat in die annotasies by die praktiese vertaling bespreek word, kom dikwels in die vertaling van kinderliteratuur voor. Hierdie studie hoop dus om ‘n bydrae tot navorsing oor die vertaling van verhale vir kinders te lewer. Onderhoude wat vir die doel van die studie gevoer is, het verder bewys gelewer van die positiewe impak wat goeie samewerking tussen die rolspelers in ‘n vertaalprojek op die finale vertaalproduk kan hê. Die uiteindelike vertaling, wat bedoel is om kennis oor te dra en genot aan die gehoor te verskaf, dien verder as ‘n vertaalvoorbeeld wat Duitse uitgewers hopelik sal aanmoedig om Rode se antologie vir die Duitse boekemark te laat vertaal.

Thesis (MPhil)-- Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates subtitling in 7de Laan, comparing episodes from 2007 to episodes from 2010 with a focus on figurative language. It is a quantitative, descriptive study and aims to determine the overall adequacy or acceptability of the subtitles, the translation strategies used, how figurative language and language varieties are translated and compares findings from 2007 to those of 2010 to establish whether there has been a change in approach over this period. The source text, 7de Laan, is discussed in Chapter 1, which also outlines how the study will proceed, the research problem and the research questions. Chapters 2 and 3 are the literature review of the relevant theories. Chapter 2 covers Descriptive Translation Studies and the translation of figurative language. The challenges particular to subtitling, specifically the constraints of the medium, are discussed in Chapter 3. The following two chapters are the analysis and each begins with the methodology used for that analysis. Chapter 4 is a macrolevel analysis of the corpus and determines the acceptability/adequacy of the subtitles, their governing translation norms and analyses the translation strategies used. More specific questions are answered in Chapter 5, which analyses the translation of figurative language, the representation of language varieties in the subtitles and the influence catering for a hearing-impaired audience has on translation decisions. The findings indicate that the subtitles of 7de Laan are mostly acceptable and that acceptability increases in 2010. The translation strategies used and their frequency of usage are similar over the years. However, there are slight changes: in 2010 there is less literal translation, more omission and fewer figurative-specific translation strategies are used. The findings further show that there is less figurative language in the subtitles in 2010. Additionally, there is a tendency of levelling out figurative language in both years which increases in 2010. The analysis of language varieties indicates that for sociolects, age markers influence the subtitles more than race markers do. Idiolects are rendered but how much of an idiolect is rendered depends on its markers. The analysis also finds that subtitling for hearing-impaired audiences is a significant factor in the translation process over and above the spatiotemporal constraint of subtitling. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die onderskrifte van 7de Laan. Dit vergelyk episodes van 2007 met episodes van 2010 en fokus op figuurlike taalgebruik. Die ondersoek is kwantitatief en beskrywend en wil die algehele geskiktheid (adequacy) of aanvaarbaarheid (acceptability) van die onderskrifte vasstel, asook die vertaalstrategieë wat gebruik is en die wyse waarop figuurlike taal en taalvariëteite vertaal word. Die bevindinge van 2007 word vergelyk met dié van 2010 om vas te stel of die vertaalbenadering in die tydperk verander het. Die bronteks, 7de Laan, word in hoofstuk 1 bespreek, wat ‘n oorsig gee oor hoe die studie verloop, die navorsingsprobleem en die navorsingsvrae. Hoofstuk 2 en 3 is die literatuurstudie van die relevante teorieë. Hoofstuk 2 dek beskrywende vertaalstudies (Descriptive Translation Studies) en die vertaling van figuurlike taal. Die probleem eie aan onderskrifte, veral die beperkings in die vertaalproses, word in hoofstuk 3 bespreek. Die volgende twee hoofstukke bestaan uit die ontleding en elke hoofstuk begin met die metodologie wat gebruik is vir daardie ontleding. Hoofstuk 4 is ‘n makrovlakontleding van die korpus en bepaal die geskiktheid/ aanvaarbaarheid van die onderskrifte, oorheersende norme en ontleed die vertaalstrategieë wat gebruik is. Meer spesifieke vrae word in hoofstuk 5 beantwoord, wat betref die vertaling van figuurlike taal, die oordra van taalvariëteite in die onderskrifte en die invloed van die inagneming van gehoorgestremde kykers op vertaalbesluite. Die bevindinge dui aan dat die onderskrifte van 7de Laan meestal aanvaarbaar is en dat aanvaarbaarheid in 2010 toegeneem het. Die vertaalstrategieë en die frekwensie van die gebruik daarvan het oor die jare nie veel verander nie. Daar is egter klein veranderings: in 2010 is daar minder letterlike vertalings, meer weglatings en minder vertaalstrategieë wat spesifiek op figuurlike taalgebruik gemik is. Die bevindings dui ook aan dat daar minder figuurlike taal in die 2010-onderskrifte is. Die ontleding van taalvariëteite toon dat, ten opsigte van sosiolekte, ouderdommerkers ‘n groter invloed op onderskrifte het as rasmerkers. Idiolekte word wel verteenwoordig, maar die mate daarvan word deur die idiolek se merkers bepaal. Die ontleding dui ook aan dat onderskrifte wat gerig is op gehoorgestremde kykers, ‘n groot faktor in die vertaalproses is, benewens die tydruimtelike beperking van onderskrifte as sodanig.

This study of atomic-bomb literature on Hiroshima will be through a critical lens, largely through postcolonial theory and reader-response criticism. It will be a discussion on the social and political implications behind the popularization of certain works. The discussed texts will not necessarily be written by the Japanese or by survivors of the atomic bomb: in the first case, I will be examining authorial intent and its relation to the intended reader responses from the implied American audience to study perpetuations of propaganda after the war. This paper will also be examining the interlingual translatability of psychological and physical trauma surrounding the atomic bomb and will be exploring the capacities of language to express an emotional and often sensitive topic.

Le présent mémoire porte sur le passage du féminisme dans deux traductions françaises du roman The Handmaid’s Tale de Margaret Atwood, soit celles de Sylviane Rué et Michèle Albaret-Maatsch. Afin d’amorcer une réflexion sur le sujet, je tente, dans le premier chapitre, d’établir une définition même du féminisme, laquelle est suivie d’une brève histoire des trois vagues du féminisme ainsi que d’une mise en contexte de la traduction féministe et des approches adoptées dans le cadre de celle-ci. Le deuxième chapitre aborde la méthodologie employée pour la rédaction de ce travail, notamment certains aspects techniques (qui y sont liés et les angles d’analyse qui ont guidé ma réflexion. Ensuite, l’analyse se scinde en deux parties, soit les troisième et quatrième chapitres. Dans le troisième chapitre, je me penche sur l’œuvre originale (résumé, contexte d’écriture, éléments féministes du roman) et son auteure. La vision du féminisme d’Atwood y est entre autres abordée; c’est cette vision qui sera fondamentale pour mon analyse. Le quatrième chapitre, quant à lui, porte sur l’analyse des traductions de Rué et d’Albaret-Maatsch sous l’angle de la traduction féministe. Par cette analyse, il est démontré que, même si ces dernières ne sont en aucun cas considérées comme des traductrices féministes, certains choix dans leur travail peuvent tout à fait être interprétés sous cet angle. De plus, nous verrons que les deux traductrices ont adopté des approches complètement différentes, ce qui a une incidence sur la façon dont les éléments féministes de l’œuvre originale sont rendus. / This master’s thesis is about the way feminism is passed in two French translations of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the ones from Sylviane Rué and Michèle Albaret-Maatsch. To start a reflection on the subject, I try in the first chapter to establish a definition of what feminism truly is, which is followed by a brief history of its three waves and a contextualization of feminist translation and the approaches used in it. The second chapter is about the methodology used to write this work, including some technical aspects related to it and the angles of analysis that guided my reflection. Then, the analysis is divided in two parts, which represent the third and fourth chapters. In the third chapter, I examine the original work (summary, writing background, feminist elements in the novel) and its author. Among other things, Atwood’s vision of feminism will be explored; this vision will be essential to my analysis. The fourth chapter is about the analysis of Rué and Albaret-Maatsch’s translations under the perspective of feminist translation. This analysis will show that, even if they are by no means considered as feminist translators, some choices in their work can indeed be analyzed under this angle. Furthermore, we will see that those two translators have two completely different approaches, which have an impact on the way feminist elements of the original novel are portrayed.

The present study deals with the work and practice of three Scandinavian translators, namely Kjell Olaf Jensen (Norwegian), Marianne Öjerskog (Swedish) and Agnete Dorph Stjernfelt (Danish). The main question of the thesis is what strategies the translators use when translating culture-specific elements from French and English. Theoretically the thesis positions itself within the framework of Descriptive Translation Studies and draws upon system theories as well as Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of culture. The method consists of a source text – target text analysis, using a somewhat modified version of Pedersen’s (2007) method identifying seven translation strategies, namely (1) retention, (2) specification, (3) direct translation, (4) generalization, (5) substitution, (6) omission and (7) official equivalent. In this thesis the three former and the official equivalent are categorized as “adequate”, whereas generalization, substitution and omission are categorized as “acceptable” using Toury’s (2012) terminology. Six different types of culture-specific elements are investigated, namely (1) titles, address and professional titles, (2) currencies, (3) weights and measures, (4) literature and music, (5) education, and (6) names. In addition to this analysis, interviews with the three translators were carried out. Results show that there are both similarities and dissimilarities in the translators’ choices of translation strategies. It also turns out that the strategies used to a great extent depend on the culture-specific element in question and hardly ever on the source language. Results also suggest that the higher the translators’ amount of accumulated total capital, the more likely it is that they adopt a heterodoxic translation strategy. Jensen and Stjernfelt are more often positioned at one of the two extremes of the adequacy–acceptability axis than is the case for Öjerskog. Moreover, results from the interviews and the text analyses show that there are a number of norms that govern the translators’ practices. The translatorial practice is to manoeuver in a field governed by norms in order to produce the best possible target texts – target texts that are true to the original and conform to domestic literary standards.

My dissertation analyzes the role of Ovid’s Heroides in Alfonso X’s General Estoria, a massive historical compilation in six volumes that the “Learned King” commissioned in 1272. The way in which eleven of these fictional epistles were incorporated by the Alfonsine translators sheds light on how ancient texts were perceived by medieval scholars. According to the study, King Alfonso relies on Ovid as an accurate historical source and uses the epistles of the heroines as historical documents while preserving their literary dimension. The thesis is divided into six sections. Chapter one introduces the topic of translation in relation to history and literature and argues for the use of a culturesemiotic perspective in the study of medieval translations. Chapter two looks into the General Estoria in order to frame the generic register/s to which the Heroides and Ovid belonged in Alfonso’s historic discourse. Some of these issues include literature and its historical value, and how the ancient past (in this case the times of characters in the Heroides) was used in order to investigate and interpret the concerns of the present, and form decisions about the future. Chapter three speculates on the bearing that the habitus or socio-cultural conditioning of a potential translator like Archbishop Jiménez de Rada could have had in the Alfonsine approach to translation. Chapter four analyzes the uses of and references to Ovid as a writer and his works throughout Europe in order to recreate the position both him and his works held in the socio-cultural milieu of thirteenth-century literature, history, epistolography, and rhetoric. Chapter five focuses on how the Latin text was initially adapted and segmented according to translation patterns and norms. This observational analysis of the Heroides in the GE approaches the text from the perspective of the discipline of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS). My research does not seek to propose or refute any theories but, rather, to make a contribution to DTS in the form of an observational analysis.