1. TRANSLATION
5. Genre and translation 1
Lingua Inglese 2 LM

2. Metaphors “poetry is what gets lost in translation” cake-making
journey / ship
painting/work of art
bridge-building
pottery – start with same material
Russian dolls
tailoring a suit
friendship – contct between languages; relationship
rebellion – beyond barriers
conduit
hall of mirrors

3. Genre Genre and the ST/TT (this lesson)
Matching the ST and TT genre (next lesson)

4. Can you translate this?
How to translate a language without knowing it

5. Context as genre
Translators have to understand every aspect of the context of the ST and the TT. The best way to understand these aspects is to analyse context in terms of genre.
This is called genre analysis.

6. Linguistic definition of genre
‘Genres are the text categories readily distinguished by mature speakers of English (e.g. novels, newspaper articles, public speeches).’ (Biber & Finegan, 1991: 213)

7. Categories and their exemplars
A robin is an examplar of the bird category
We identify and classify texts as examplars of genres in the same way as we do birds.

8. Identifying and analysing ST genres
What are we looking for?
1. medium and source of ST
2. discourse community and communicative purpose of ST
3. discourse features of ST

9. 1a. Medium FILM LETTER NEWSPAPER DVD INTERNET MOBILE PHONE EMAIL
TELEVISION
A medium is how the text is transmitted

10. 1b. Source YAHOO CHAT FORUM THE TIMES COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE
LASTMINUTE.COM
GARDENING CATALOGUE
The source is where the text is taken from

11. WHAT’S LEFT? NEWSPAPER READERS/WRITERS PROVERB CHATFORUM USER RECIPE
LABEL
TICKET
ADVERTISEMENT
TALKSHOW AUDIENCE
SONNET
CONVERSATION
POEM

12. Why do translators need to know about the source and the medium?
The more information you can find out about the source, the better you can identify the original discourse community of readers, the original communicative purpose and the original discourse features of the source text.
The more you know about the original medium, the better you will be able to compare it with the target medium (which may not be the same)

13. 2a. DISCOURSE COMMUNITY
WHICH OF THESE REFERS TO DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES?
NEWSPAPER READERS/WRITERS
PROVERB
CHATFORUM USER
RECIPE
LABEL
TICKET
ADVERTISEMENT
TALKSHOW AUDIENCE
SONNET
CONVERSATION
POEM

14. Discourse communities
NEWSPAPER READERS/WRITERS
PROVERB
CHATFORUM USER
RECIPE
LABEL
TICKET
ADVERTISEMENT
TALKSHOW AUDIENCE
SONNET
CONVERSATION
POEM

15. Discourse community
The discourse community are the producers (writers) and consumers (readers) of a text, also referred to as readership or audience
The discourse community of a text is usually its writers and readers. It can be very specific, e.g. the discourse of an academic journal will be academics of a particular discipline.

16. What the translator needs to understand about discourse community
Who is the writer (sex, age, job etc.)
Who is the reader (sex, age, job etc.) .

17. 2b. Communicative purpose
The communicative purpose of a text is the reason why it has been written (providing information about x, to make fun of something, to make social contact etc.)
Writer purpose - why has the text been written
e.g. what is the purpose of an advertisement?
Reader purpose - why is a text being read?
What is the communicative purpose of the lonely
hearts ad ?

18. Lonely hearts
Who are the writers?
Who are the readers?

19. Lonely hearts Communicative purpose
Writer purpose - looking for a partner; persuasion;
self-presentation
Reader purpose – looking for a partner
In this case the communicative purpose of the text is the same for writer and reader but it is important to check this

20. 3. DISCOURSE FEATURES lexis grammar organisation of discourse
Particular patterns of discourse features
constitute the style of a text

21. Lonely Hearts
Lexis - what are the most frequently used words that similar texts have in common?
Grammar - what are the most frequently used grammatical structures that similar texts have in common
Discourse - what kind of discourse organisation do these texts have in common? Look at the layout, structure.

22. Lonely hearts – lexis in common
Adjs and nouns of physical description
Verbs of looking – “would like to meet”
Words describing hobbies and interests

23. Lonely hearts – grammar in common
Elliptical sentences (lack of articles, verbs, function words)
Verbs in present tense
Lots of noun phrases

24. Lonely hearts – discourse organisation in common
Subject/writer description + seeks + object description + (purpose/further description) + (place) +( address)
No images in this case

25. Genre variation - how birds vary
Some birds are more “birdy” than others
Why is a robin “birdier” than a penguin?

26. Genre variation
When you have found the similarities, you then need to see which texts do not show the similarities and think about them. It is very important to notice differences between examples of the same genre:
You will be a better translator if you notice differences in style between similar looking texts

27. Genre variation
How do texts from the same genre differ from each other.
You can identify how robins and penguins are more or less “birdy”. What about text genres?

28. How to analyse genre variation
Compare the texts in terms of:
Medium
Source
Discourse community
Readership
Discourse features (grammar , lexis, structure
Are they the same or different?

29. Genre ?

30. The “BILL” genre

31. What are the similarities and differences in terms of medium, source, discourse community, communicative purpose, discourse features?
ROBIN SPARROW

32. Only one variation same medium same source same discourse community
same communicative
purpose
different discourse features (different structure)

33. Where are the similarities and differences?

34. Same discourse structure, different readership, different purpose, different lexis
different medium
different source
different discourse
community
different communicative
purpose
different discourse features
same structure

35. Different genre
BIRD FISH

36. Lonely hearts They are all examplars fo the” lonely heart” genre
Are they all robins (typical in style)?
Which one is a penguin (atypical in style)?

37. Summary - a definition of genre
A genre is a class of communicative events, the members of which (the discourse community) share some set of communicative purposes. In addition to purpose, exemplars of genre exhibit various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style and intended audience

38. What counts as a genre ?
How do you decide what is a genre and what isn’t?
PARODY
Parody is an imitation of a well-defined style. If you want to understand whether x counts as a genre” then you should ask yourself whether x can be parodied or not
Lonely hearts is a genre because you can write a parody of it

39. Genre = with an imitable style
CAN YOU PARODY THESE?
Lonely hearts column
Literature
Film review
Chat
Horoscope
a horoscope, a film review, a lonely hearts column are genres and can be parodied
chat and literature are not genres and cannot be parodied

40. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ? PROVERB RECIPE LABEL TICKET
ADVERTISEMENT
SONNET
CONVERSATION
POEM

41. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ?
PROVERB – Yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose and a
distinctive style
RECIPE
LABEL
TICKET
ADVERTISEMENT
SONNET
CONVERSATION
POEM

42. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ?
PROVERB – Yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose and a
distinctive style
RECIPE yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose, discourse community and a distinctive style
LABEL
TICKET
ADVERTISEMENT
SONNET
CONVERSATION
POEM

43. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ?
PROVERB – Yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose and a
distinctive style
RECIPE yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose, discourse community and a distinctive style
LABEL no; too generic; anything could be written on the label
TICKET
ADVERTISEMENT
SONNET
CONVERSATION
POEM

44. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ?
PROVERB – Yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose and a
distinctive style
RECIPE yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose, discourse community and a distinctive style
LABEL – no; too generic; anything could be written on the label
TICKET no; too generic; anything could be written on the ticket
ADVERTISEMENT
SONNET
CONVERSATION
POEM

45. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ?
PROVERB – Yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose and a
distinctive style
RECIPE yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose, discourse community and a distinctive style
LABEL – no; too generic; anything could be written on the label
TICKET no; too generic; anything could be written on the ticket
ADVERTISEMENT maybe; identifiable purpose and DC but styles often too different for analysis
SONNET –
CONVERSATION –
POEM

46. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ?
PROVERB – Yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose and a
distinctive style
RECIPE yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose, discourse community and a distinctive style
LABEL – no; too generic; anything could be written on the label
TICKET no; too generic; anything could be written on the ticket
ADVERTISEMENT maybe; identifiable purpose and DC but styles often too different for analysis
SONNET – yes; purpose, style and DC all quite strong; but it’s literary
CONVERSATION –
POEM –

47. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ?
PROVERB – Yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose and a
distinctive style
RECIPE yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose, discourse community and a distinctive style
LABEL – no; too generic; anything could be written on the label
TICKET no; too generic; anything could be written on the ticket
ADVERTISEMENT maybe; identifiable purpose and DC but styles often too different for analysis
SONNET – yes; purpose, style and DC all quite strong; but it’s literary
CONVERSATION – no, too general; you can’t define a style
POEM

48. WHAT’S LEFT? ARE THESE GENRES ?
PROVERB – Yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose and a
distinctive style
RECIPE yes; it has an identifiable communicative purpose, discourse community and a distinctive style
LABEL – no; too generic; anything could be written on the label
TICKET no; too generic; anything could be written on the ticket
ADVERTISEMENT maybe; identifiable purpose and DC but styles often too different for analysis
SONNET – yes; purpose, style and DC all quite strong; but it’s literary
CONVERSATION – no, too general; you can’t define a style
POEM – too general; too many different styles

49. Summary – genre analysis and translation
1. GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE ST
Identify the genre of which the ST/TT is an example
Find some similar texts in the ST/TT
Identify the similar characteristics of the ST/TT texts
the writer and the readership (discourse community)
the communicative purpose
the lexical features in common
the grammatical/syntactic features in common
the discourse features in common (structure/layout, staging, combination of text and image)
Identify variation within the ST/TT genre, i.e.what is different in terms of the above
NB There are lots of items to translate which are not genres so genre analysis is not helful for everything.