Dear Students and Staff,
We cordially invite you to participate in the Department of Translation PhD Students’ Topic Defence Seminars. No registration is required. ALL are welcome to join the seminars.
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Department of Translation
Understanding Terminological Competence Disparities – an Empirical Study of
Novice and Semi-Professional Translators in Traditional Chinese Medicine
TAN Genggeng
ABSTRACT
In empirical translation studies, the interplay of domain-specific knowledge and translation training in assessing translation competence and terminological competence is intriguing and yet much neglected. Which of these two elements counts more on scientific and technical translation? To investigate the two elements, this thesis has chosen the specific technical domain of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in examining the translation processes of TCM translators at novice and semi-professional levels between Chinese and English languages. The assessment of their terminological competence is significant as it is closely related to the issues of translation competence and technical knowledge. This study seeks to provide empirical, theoretical, and pedagogical insights into student translators with domain-specific knowledge and translation training.
In this thesis, both TCM and translation students are involved given their dual roles as major terminology users and TCM translators. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of translation processes, this study reports that significant differences lie primarily between the terminological competence of TCM students as novices and that of translation students as semi-professionals. Significant similarities in terminological competence are found within TCM students with varying TCM knowledge and within translation students with varying TCM translation training. This study enriches the empirical research data and furthers the understanding of technical translators’ terminological competence. It also sheds light on the rarely discussed interrelationships between domain-specific knowledge and translation training and encourages us to rethink technical translator training.
Multimodal Translation of Chinese Mythical Texts in the Perspective of Post-translation
JIANG Jintong
ABSTRACT
With Jakobson (1959, P233) divided translation into the types of intralingual, interlingual, and intersemiotic, and referring to interlingual translation as “translation proper”, translation studies has long been focusing on the accuracy of linguistic translation. Until the recent decades, scholars represented by Edwin Gentzler urged the academia to think about new directions in the field in the context of globalization. As forms of media change rapidly, the scope of translation keeps expanding. In a new era when verbal and non-verbal semiotic systems interact constantly, it is fair to say that multimodality has become the feature for meaning-making, interpreting and accepting. Here modes are “semiotic resources which allow the simultaneous realisation of discourses and types of interaction” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001, P.20).
This research will take the perspective of post-translation, and hold multimodal discourse analysis and the mechanisms of “veridiction and accessibility” as the guiding tools to study the multimodal translation of Chinese mythical texts from literature to films. The main research material will be the the emerging Chinese mythical cinematic universes. The research will first explore pre-translation conditions, including the evolution of the written mythical texts and the cultural environment the films are born into. Then it will examine the multimodal translation process, which can be further illustrated by the construction of the storyworld with specific case analysis, also how it achieves veridiction and accessibility to the real world through semiotic channels. Finally, the research will discuss the post-translation effects, which involve symbol receivers’ initial acceptance and the follow-up repercussions in the receiving culture. Theories from narratology, intertextuality, mythology, religious studies, and film studies will be applied to aid the analysis.
Exophonic Writing and/as Self-Translation: Chinese Diasporic Authors in 1930s and 1940s Britain
HU Jiaxing
Abstract
This research examines the interplay between exophonic writing and self-translation among Chinese diasporic authors in Britain, specifically S. I. Hsiung, Hsiao Ch’ien, and Chun-Chan Yeh. While existing scholarship has explored facets of exophonic writing and self-translation individually, this research synthesises the two phenomena to uncover their interaction. By employing historical and textual analysis, this study will elucidate the complex dynamics involved as the authors crossed linguistic and cultural boundaries in their writing and translation. Historical analysis will reconstruct the authors’ social trajectories, while textual analysis will investigate the relationship between exophonic writing and self-translation. The study’s significance lies in shedding light on underexamined transcultural literary activities that have shaped cultural or political understanding between China and the West. With its comprehensive analysis and diverse methods, the study will contribute new insights into how exophonic writing and self-translation have been strategically employed in transcultural conditions.
Translation of “NUE” (虐/虐心) in Chinese Online Literature:
An Affective Perspective
TIAN Liyuan
ABSTRACT
The research aims to investigate the translation and perception of “Nue” in Chinese online novels from an affective perspective, examining how it operates during the translation and transmission of novels. The study adopts an affective perspective in translation studies, considering the high-context and low-context cultural differences to reveal how “Nue” triggers and boosts the process of translation and how it is conveyed from a high-context culture (Chinese) to a low-context culture (English) through translation choices made by the translator.
The research aims to answer several questions, including how the affective factors in the texts and during the reading process trigger the translation intentions and behaviors of the non-professional fan translators. It also explores how the translators were affected when translating the novels and whether the affects influenced their translation choices. Additionally, the research investigates how the target readers perceived “Nue” reproduced by the translators in the translations and whether they were affected in the same way as the authors, source text readers, and translators. Finally, the study examines whether the continuous translation provided by fan translators can expand the affecting range of target text readers, leading to gradually formed Chinese cultural common senses.
The research highlights the translators’ role as a “bridge” interconnecting the authors and the readers, the source texts and the target texts (translations), and the affective/emotional factors concerned in the process of transmission and dissemination of the texts. The study focuses on the affects and emotions of the translators before, during, and after the translation process, while considering other affective/emotional factors during the translation process as supplements to describe the translation behaviors.