Translation
and text transfer
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Page numbers refer
to original edition, 1992
Cover
Introduction
13
1.
Translation depends on transfer 17
Transfer and translation
work on distance 17
Transfer is a precondition
for translation 18
Exactly what is transferred?
20
Translation can be
intralingual or interlingual 25
Translation can be
approached from transfer 27
Transfer can be approached
through translation 29
How these approaches
are used in this essay 32
2.
Equivalence defines translation 37
Equivalence could be
all things to all theorists 37
Equivalence is directional
and subjectless 38
Equivalence is asymmetrical
40
Value is an economic
term 42
Equivalence is an economic
term 44
Equivalence is not
a natural relation between systems 46
Equivalence has become
unfashionable 47
3.
"I am translating" is false 51
The translator is anonymous
51
The utterance "I am
translating" is necessarily false 53
Can interpreters say
they are frightened? 54
Second persons can
be anonymous 56
Third persons allow
translators to talk 58
Does anyone speak Redford's
language? 60
Third persons can conflict
62
Ideal equivalence can
be challenged 63
4.
Quantity speaks 67
Quantities replace
the translator 67
Quantity is of practical
and theoretical importance 69
Equivalence is absolute,
relative, contradictory or not at all 70
A. Transliteration
(absolute equivalence) 73
The proper name is
sometimes improper 73
B. Double presentation
(strong relative equivalence) 76
Relative equivalence
presents asymmetry 76
Relative equivalence
tends to paraphrase ("La Movida" moves) 79
Why translational paraphrase
tends to stop at sentence level 81
C. Single presentation
(weak relative equivalence) 83
Single presentation
hides at least one quantity 83
Simple signs indicate
expansion and addition, abbreviation and deletion 84
Notes are expansion
by another name 85
Abbreviation and deletion
can be difficult to justify 88
Authoritative subjectivity
allows addition and deletion 89
Expansion and addition
can run into political trouble 93
D. Multiple presentation
(contradictory equivalence) 95
Some translations become
originals 95
Some translations last
as monuments 98
5.
Texts belong 101
Transfer and translation
work against belonging 101
There are no solo performances
103
Distance can break
performance 105
Transferability has
second-person thresholds 106
Textual worlds increase
transferability 108
Transfer may call for
explication 109
Absolute explicitness
is rarely transferred 110
Belonging may be a
tone of voice 111
Belonging may work
on implicit knowledge 112
Belonging may work
on forgotten knowledge 113
The tongue carries
forgotten belonging 115
Embeddedness is complex
belonging 118
Cultural embeddedness
conditions translational difficulty 121
Texts belong 125
6.
Texts move 127
Movement is change
127
Texts do not fall from
the sky 128
Textual movements are
not natural needs 128
Parallel texts are
not really translations 130
Why "La Movida" moved
132
Texts are like sails
raised to the wind 136
Networks are complex,
quantitative and contradictory 138
Regimes are ways of
representing and acting within networks 140
Translation histories
are deceptively diachronic 145
Translation plays an
active historical role 147
Translation history
could be based on regimes 149
7.
Translation rules are ethical decisions 151
Ethics is a professional
concern 151
Translators are rarely
above suspicion 152
Inspiration may have
come to isolated cells on Pharos 154
Nec translatores
debent esse soli 156
Isolated inspiration
is also regulated 157
There can be no ethics
of linguistic neutrality 159
To translate is to
attempt improvement 162
Translators' first
loyalty should not fall one side or the other 163
Professional detachment
is attachment to a profession 166
Translation has purposes
of its own 168
Regimes and the training
of translators 173
8.
Translators theorise175
Theorisation is part
of translational competence 175
Theorisation is the
basis of translation criticism 176
Translation errors
are not necessarily mistakes 178
Critical theorisation
is a negation of transfer and translation 179
Theory first expresses
doubt 181
Explicit theorisation
responds to conflict in practice 184
Linguistics is of limited
use 184
Generality should begin
from translation 186
Translation theory
should be pertinent to translation 188
Translation theory
should not lecture translators 189
Translation theory
should address the social sciences 191
Notes 195
Bibliography
214
Index 225
© Anthony
Pym 2014
URV. Av. Catalunya, 35
45002 Tarragona, Spain
Fax: + 34 977 299 488
