Units:

1. Introduction:

• myths about translation that must be dismantled
• a short outline of the history of translatology (translation sciences)
• translation competence and performance
• Spanish & Catalan official terminology on interpreting and translating
• loyalty and fidelity to the source text
• translation typology
• translation, adaptation, version and reworking
• typology of translations based on the stage of completion
• direct, reverse, indirect translations, re-translation
• sworn translation
• literary translation and technical translation
• living from translation: how to create a Society of Limited Corporation (Societat Limitada)

2. computer-assisted translation (CAT) and machine translation (MT): state of the art

3. translational tradition

4. the effect of time on translations: are they valid for ever or do they age with time?

5. translation of proper names in literary translations

6. translation of titles

7. difficulties and problems in translation

• treatment of archaisms, localisms, dialectalisms and exoticisms
• lexical gaps, untranslatable words and coining of neologisms
• defective original texts

8. text analysis applied to translation according to Christiane Nord

9. translation of six texts: 3 texts from Spanish into German and 3 texts from German into Spanish

10. translation relevant aspects (landeskunde) of Catalan life, culture and history

Key Bibliography

At the beginning of the course a bibliographical survey will be given out and discussed in class. It is, however, highly recommended, to have access to the following books:

1. Nord, Christiane, Text Analysis in Translation. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991
2. Hurtado Albir, Amparo, Traducción y traductología - introducción a la traductología. Madrid: Cátedra, 2001.
3. Rodolfo J. Slabý, Rodolfo Grossmann i Carlos Illig, Diccionario de las lenguas española y alemana. Dos volúmenes. Barcelona: Editorial Herder.Tomo I (2002, 12ª ed., 1ª imp): Español-Alemán. Tomo II (2001, 12ª ed. rev. y aum., 1ª imp): Alemán-Español.
4. Slabý / Grossmann / Illig, Diccionario de las lenguas española y alemana en CD-Rom. Barcelona: Editorial Herder, 2004 (ISBN 84-254-2371-6. Preu: 163,79 €)
5. PONS Großwörterbuch für Experten und Universität Spanisch mit Daumenregister. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Sprachen GmbH, 2001 (Nachdruck 2003. ISBN: 3-12-517441-4. Preu: 64,90 €)

Practices

In contrast to "Translation from & into German II", which is an essentially practical course, this course is mainly theoretical. Nevertheless, six translations must be done during the term (cf. point 9 of the programm) that will be discussed and corrected in the class room.

Assessment

Continuous evaluation (2 proofs + 6 translations). In January, at the end of the semester, those students who wish to improve their grade can do so by taking a final exam.
Class attendance is not compulsory. If you cannot attend class, worksheets ara available or you have the option of doing a written assignment.