1 Linguistics and translation theory Mark Shuttleworth Teaching Translation Swansea, 20 January 2006

2 “People who are involved in … translations… should probably keep an eye on what’s happening in the sciences. But they probably shouldn’t take it too seriously because the capacity to carry out practical activities without much conscious awareness of what you’re doing is usually far more advanced than scientific knowledge. … I don’t think modern linguistics can tell you very much of practical utility. I think it’s a good idea to pay attention to what it is doing and to see if it gives you some ideas that might enable a translator … to do better, but that’s really for the person involved in the practical activity to decide.” Noam Chomsky Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures

3 What’s taught in UK translation Masters? a) Translation Theory Methods and Approaches in Translation Studies Language and Translation Translation Theory Translation Theories Theoretical Issues in Translation Translation and Interpreting Studies Translation Theory and Practice I & II Only one of these courses is an option.

4 What’s taught in UK translation Masters? b) Linguistics Corpus Linguistics for Translators Principles & Applications of Machine Translation Cross-Cultural pragmatics English Language Study using Corpora Analysis Written Discourse Analysis Creole Linguistics Sociolinguistics Only one of these courses isn’t an option.

5 What’s taught in UK translation Masters? c) Some figures 10 programmes examined in all 7 had theoretical element (core in 6 cases) 4 had linguistics element (core in 1 case) 4 had both 2 had neither

6 Translation Theory Distinction between theoretical underpinning of translation practice and “Introduction to Translation Studies”-type modules I’m concerned with the former

7 Why teach theory? Who are the students? What are their backgrounds? Are they new to translation? What ground rules do they need to know? Are there any hard-and-fast rules in translation? If not, what framework should you use for making decisions? Can students find their own successful strategies? Who or what are the authorities?

8 Why teach theory? Is the “literal vs. free” debate the only way of looking at translation? Can we provide students with the meta- language they need to discuss translation on a professional level?

9 Issues students’ expectations: “Still don’t know what good translation is” language-specific vs. generic courses: UK universities seem to favour the latter

10 What linguistics to include, and why? formal grammar  understanding MT computational linguistics  understanding MT, TM and other language applications corpus linguistics  empowering students to create their own language resources lexical semantics  understanding dictionaries and terminology

11 What linguistics to include, and why? text linguistics  understanding texts as multi-dimensional entities discourse analysis  understanding issues of text-type and genre pragmatics  understanding speaker meaning and cross- cultural communication

12 Issues what to include? student resistance how much time to devote? what to sacrifice instead?

13 Thank you very much! Mark Shuttleworth