LINGUIST List 8.95

Thu Jan 23 1997

Books: Translation & Terminology

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <ljubalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. ,

New Books from John Benjamins Publishing

TRANSLATION AND TERMINOLOGY

Knowledge and Skills in Translator Behavior
WOLFRAM WILSS

This book represents an approach which is intended to give readers a
general insight into what translators really do and to explain the
concepts and tools of the trade, bearing in mind that translation
cannot be reduced to simple principles that can easily be separated
from each other and thus be handled in isolation. On the whole, the
book is more process- than product-centered. Translation is seen as an
activity with an intentional and a social dimension establishing links
between a source-language community and a target-language community
and therefore requiring a specific kind of communicative behavior
based on the question "Who translates what, for whom and why?" To the
extent that the underlying principles, assumptions, and conclusions
are convincing to the reader, the practical implications of the book,
last but not least in translation teaching, are obvious.

Benjamins Translation Library, 15 xiv, 260 pp.
US & Canada:Hb: 1 55619 696 2 US$ 85.00
Rest of World: 90 272 1615 0 Hfl.140,--


Translators through History
Jean Delisle & Judith Woodsworth (eds.)

In AD 629, a Chinese monk named Xuan Zang set out for India on a quest
for sacred texts. He returned with a caravan of twenty-two horses
bearing Buddhist treasures and spent the last twenty years of his life
in the "Great Wild Goose Pagoda", in present-day Xi'an, translating
the Sanskrit manuscripts into Chinese with a team of collaborators.

In the twelfth century, scholars came to Spain from all over Europe
seeking knowledge that had been transmitted from the Arab world. Their
names tell the story: Adelard of Bath, Hermann of Dalmatia, Plato of
Tivoli. Among them was Robert of Chester (or Robert of Kent), who was
part of an elaborate team that translated documents on Islam and the
Koran itself.

Dona Marina, also called La Malinche, was a crucial link between
Cortes and native peoples he set out to convert and conquer in
sixteenth-century Mexico. One of the conquistador's "tongues" or
interpreters, she was also the mother of his son. She has been an
ambivalent figure in the history of the new world, her own history
having been rewritten in different ways over the centuries.

James Evans, an Englishman sent to evangelize and educate the natives
of western Canada during the nineteenth century, invented a writing
system in order to translate and transcribe religious texts. Known as
"the man who made birchbark talk", he even succeeded in printing a
number of pamphlets, using crude type fashioned out of lead from the
lining of tea chests and ink made from a mixture of soot and sturgeon
oil. A jackpress used by traders to pack furs served as a press.

These are just some of the stories told in Translators through
History, published under the auspices of the International Federation
of Translators (FIT). Over seventy people have been involved in this
project -- as principal authors, contributors or translators and
proofreaders. The participants come from some twenty countries,
reflecting the make-up and interests of FIT.

Benjamins Translation Library, No. 13 xvi, 346 pp.
US & Canada:Hb: 1-55619-694-6 US$85.00/ Pb: 1-55619-697-0 
 US$32.00
Rest of World:Hb: 90 272 1613 4 Hfl. 150,00/ Pb: 90 272 1616 9 
 Hfl.56,00


The Possibility of Language
A discussion of the nature of language, with implications for human and
 machine translation.
Alan MELBY with Terry WARNER

This book is about the limits of machine translation. It is widely
recognized that machine translation systems do much better on
domain-specific controlled-language texts (domain texts for short)
than on dynamic general-language texts (general texts for short). The
authors explore this general domain distinction and come to some
uncommon conclusions about the nature of language. Domain language is
claimed to be made possible by general language, while general
language is claimed to be made possible by ethics. Domain language is
unharmed by the constraints of objectivism, while general language is
suffocated by those constraints. Along the way to these conclusions,
visits are made to Descartes and Saussure, to Chomsky and Lakoff, to
Wittgenstein and Levinas. From these conclusions, consequences are
drawn for machine translation and translator tools, for linguistic
theory and translation theory.

The title of the book does not question whether language is possible,
it asks, with wonder and awe, why communication through language is
possible."For nearly a half century, linguistics and comparative
literature have disputed the terrain of translation studies. ... For
practicing translators, who have belittled this dispute from a
distance, now is the time to start reading [this book]."
	(Marilyn Gaddis Rose, State University of New York, from the Foreword).

"No readers are going to be neutral or indifferent. [This book's] arguments
 deserve the most careful consideration by all those concerned with the
 fundamental aims and future prospects of both human and machine
 translation".
	(John Hutchins, University of East Anglia, from the Foreword)
 (Benjamins Translation Library, No. 14) xxvi, 276 pp.
US & Canada: Hb: 1-55619-695-4 US$49.00
Rest of world: Hb: 90 272 1614 2 Hfl.90,--


Essays on Terminology
ALAIN REY
Translated and edited by Juan C. Sager
Introduction by Bruno Bess=E9

A carefully selected collection of essays by the most renowned
specialist in terminology in France, now published in English for the
first time. The chapters deal with the origins of terminology,
theoretical issues, social aspects, neologisms and evolution,
lexicology and lexicography, applied issues, description and control,
standardization and terminology in Le Grand Robert. It contains the
revised and translated chapters of Rey's famous La Terminology - noms
et notions and other recent articles in English. This book is
essential reading for terminology theorists and practitioners and will
serve as elementary reading in terminology training (includes a
complete bibliography of Alain Rey's writings).

Benjamins Translation Library, 9 xii, 229 pp.
US & Canada:Hb: 1 55619 688 1 US$69.00 / Pb: 1 55619 689 X 
 $24.95
Rest of World:Hb 90 272 1607 X Hfl.120,-- / Pb: 90 272 1608 8 
 Hfl.50,--


Comparative Stylistics of French and English.
A methodology for translation.=20
Jean-Paul VINAY, and Jean DARBELNET
Translated and edited by Juan C. Sager and M.-J. Hamel=20

Over the last 37 years the Stylistique comparee du francais et de
l'anglais has become a standard text in the French-speaking world for
the study of comparative stylistics and the training of
translators. This updated, first English edition makes Vinay &
Darbelnet's classic methodology of translation available to a wider
readership. The translation-oriented contrastive grammatical and
stylistic analyses of the two languages is extensively exemplified by
expressions, phrases and whole texts. Combining description with
methodological guidelines for translation, it serves both as a course
book and - through its detailed index and glossary - as a reference
manual for specific translation problems.

Benjamins Translation Library, No. 11 xx, 359 pp.
US & Canada:Hb: 1 55619 691 1 US$85.00 / Pb: 1-55619-692-X 
 US$35.00
Rest of World:Hb: 90 272 1610 X Hfl. 150,00 / Pb 90 272 1611 8 
 Hfl.65,00


Translation and the Law.
Marshall MORRIS, (ed.)

This long needed reference on the innumerable and increasing ways
thatthe law intersects with translation and interpretation features
essaysby scholars and professions from the United States, Australia,
HongKong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, and Sweden. The essays range
fromsophisticated treatments of historical and hence philosophical
variations in concept and practice to detailed practical advice on
self-education. Essays show a particular concern for the challenges of
courtroom discourse when the parties not only use different languages
but operate from different cultural and legal traditions.

Contributions by: Marshall Morris; John E. Joseph; Michael Cooke; Cornelia
 A. Brown; Keneva Kunz; Timothy Dunnigan and Bruce. T. Downing; Mary
 Bucholtz; Kate Storey; Vicki L. Beyer and Keld Conradsen; Sylvia A. Smith;
 Holly Mikkelson; Janis Palma; Matt Hammond; Gerhard Obenaus; Ruth Morris;
 Marilyn Stone; Helge Niska.
American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series, No. 8 viii,
 334 pp.
US & Canada:Hb: 1-55619-627-X US$75.00
Rest of World:Hb: 90 272 3183 4 Hfl.130,00


The Practice of Court Interpreting
ALICIA BETSY EDWARDS

The Practice of Court Interpreting describes how the interpreter works
in the court room and other legal settings. The book discusses what is
involved in court interpreting: case preparation, ethics and
procedure, the creation and avoidance of error, translation and legal
documents, tape transcription and translation, testifying as an expert
witness, and continuing education outside the classroom.The purpose of
the book is to provide the interpreter with a map of the terrain and
to give suggestions for methods that will help insure an accurate
result. The author is herself a practicing court interpreter, she
says: "The structure of the book follows the structure of the work as
we do it." The book is intended as a basic course book, as background
reading for practicing court interpreters and for court officials who
deal with interpreters.

Benjamins Translation Library, 6 xiii, 190 pp.
US & Canada:Hb: 1 55619 683 0 US$65.00 / Pb: 1 55619 684 9 
 US$24.95
Rest of World: Hb: 90 272 1602 9 Hfl.110,-- / Pb: 90 272 1603 7 
 Hfl.50,--


Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond GIDEON TOURY (Tel Aviv
University) 

Superseding the author's well-known first book on Translation Theory
In Search of a Theory of Translation (1980), this book makes a case
for descriptive TS as a scholarly activity and as a branch of the
discipline, having immediate consequences for issues of both a
theoretical and applied nature. Methodological discussions are
complemented by an assortment of case studies of various scopes and
levels, with emphasis on the need to contextualize whatever one sets
out to focus on.

Part One deals with the position of descriptive studies within TS and
justifies the author's choice to devote this book to both theory and
practice at once. Part Two gives a rationale for descriptive studies
in translation and serves as a framework for Part Three, which
presents an assortment of case studies, tackling each issue within
higher level contexts: texts and modes of behavior in texts and then
in cultural constellations. Part Four asks the question: What is
knowledge accumulated through descriptive studies performed within one
and the same framework likely to yield? This is an excellent book for
higher-level translation courses.

Benjamins Translation Library, 4 viii, 299 pp.+ index
US & Canada:Hb: 1 55619 495 1 US$84.00 / Pb 1 55619 687 3 US$27.95
Rest of World:Hb: 90 272 2145 6 Hfl.145,-- / Pb 90 272 1606 1 
 Hfl.55,--