Studia Translatorica

The aim of this paper is to present and confirm a given ontological truth which underlies every translation process being an act of communication. In other words, this paper aims at characterizing ontological specifics of translation process in its multi-dimensional diversity. Interpretative analysis of this issue is rooted in anthropocentric translation studies developed by F. Grucza. Moreover, it is based on its main paradigm and included in the tasks of pure translation studies which are to describe and characterize the model of translation relationship. Transcendence (Lat. transcendere) means to go beyond or to surpass the limits. Thus, strictly in reference to translation perceived as communication, it is the process of going beyond ontological limits which is characteristic to every linguistic communication. This process results in establishing a two-dimensional semiotic configuration in which a mental and conceptual construct (recognized by the subject who is communicatively active) remains in semiotic transcendence with the text being a materially existing signal and manifested by tangible signs.

The name “eye-tracking translatorics” is used more and more frequently in scientific deliberations within the field of translation studies as well as in the results of eye-tracking analyses of translation. It is explicitly used by the authors to nominally single out a certain area of scientific interest within translation studies. The present paper gives some remarks on the landscape of the eye-tracking translatorics in Poland at the dawn of the second decade of the 21st century. The paper presents also most important achievements in institutional eye-tracking research in Poland.

In the article, the author shows how the research technology can increase our understanding of what is going on in the translator’s mind. She points out some of the advantages that the eye tracking method has in verifying the previous assumptions related to mental models of translation activity. On the basis of the author’s eye tracking research conducted in the recent years, she demonstrates the most interesting results related to mental processes involved in translation, but also shows the selected methodological pitfalls of eye tracking, and relatedly defines methodological challenges in this range of translation-oriented research for the nearest future.

People from war-torn countries and countries suffering economic hardships are on the move in search of a better life or of a refuge. The host countries are challenged: To ensure equal access to public services, civil and political participation of migrants and refugees means to tear down the language barrier. Only translating and interpreting can offer a realistic, time-sensitive solution to this challenge and give “speechless” communities a voice. It is the objective of the article to investigate the expectations we can have from technology in public service translation compared to the performance of professional communicators; The issue of what a machine can(not) do and to fathom, when a professional translator has to intervene, needs a bottom-up approach and will be discussed against the backdrop of public service translation as domain-specific intercultural communication.

The primary research interest in this text is the so-called transfer phase, transcoding or reprofiling the source text into the target text. In scientific terms, this is frequently referred to as language transfer from language A to language B or codeswitching from language A to language B. In the view of empirical research, projections concerning translation knowledge and skills should be identified and defined as mental and cognitive activity of a translator or an interpreter. Projections involve reference of constructs reconceptualised in the process of reception of the source text to given constituents of the translation task and at the same time to the target language and culture as well as the reference to thematised reality and other systems and categories which are being updated in a given process of translation.

This article outlines the two (only seemingly competing) theoretical approaches operative so far in translation theory to explain text comprehension processes. First, it gives a short description of the hermeneutic approach and the analytic approach. Then, it explains how both approaches can be linked together on the base of the translation-oriented text analysis scheme from Nord. The article ends with an overview of the benefits from this linkage for translation didactics and practice, including CAT-tools and MT.

The necessity to standardize terminology has recently become obvious. Positive aspects of applying standardized terms are emphasized not only by academic communities but also by business since it results in more effective communication and finally in life improvement in many aspects (e.g. free trade, free flow of goods and services). The main purpose of this paper is, however, not to highlight the advantages of terminology standardization per se but to answer the relevant scientific question related to it, namely, whether it is possible to estimate the standardization degree of a single term, and if so, what are the reference points of such an evaluation.

Agatha Christie (1890–1976), less known as lady Mallowan, an outstanding author, mainly of detective novels, published “Murder in Orient Express” in 1933/34. From the very beginning, the book was considered a masterpiece of this genre. The reason for that is not only brilliantly constructed plot with astonishing culminating point, but also the fact that the author of the book referred to an authentic event which evoked great emotions. The event that inspired this novel was kidnapping and murder of the little son of a known and admired American pioneer of intercontinental flights, Charles August Lindbergh, that happened in 1932. The novel was translated into almost all languages. There were also numerous stage adaptations. At least four films were based on this novel which indicates the cultural significance of the work. The subject of the considerations in the present paper is an attempt to search for the answer about the role of the so-called observer in the process of reconstruction, retransmission and assimilation of thematic threads, which can become the reference point not only for the author of the literary work. They may become an element of collective memory and, in this way, the element of culture constituting narration. However, as an object of general knowledge, they are at the same time subjected to common interpretation. The Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, referred to in its basic range in quantum mechanics, indicates the significant role of the subject observing in this process. Heisenberg proved that the presence of an observer is not neutral from the point of view of the quality of the results. Referring to these considerations on the text as a cultural object, let us analyse the ways in which the theme was modified and the significance of these changes. We consider Agatha Christie’s novel and especially its screen adaptations an interesting object of research. The observer, as it turns out, is beside the researcher also the author of the literary text, screenwriter, translator…

Text translation in films, contrary to frequently quoted opinions, did not start with the introduction of sound in films – which occurred in Poland in the 1929/30 cinema season. Prior to that, in the silent cinema period, title cards were a tried and tested way of delivering content to the viewer. And these silent movies’ intertitles were translated. Copies of various foreign films with Polish title cards have even been preserved instead of with the original wording. Imitating title cards for silent films, subtitles began to appear in films with sound and dialogue. These were “inserted subtitles” – between scene edits. The next way of presenting a subtitle was the in-image subtitle, which began modern film subtitling. This article concerns the subtitling of films in Poland in 1931–1939. It endeavours to show the development of Polish film text translation in its initial phase. The article contains previously unpublished pictures of subtitles for films from the discussed period, which come from original archival research.

This paper deals with visual jokes consisting of aural verbal part and visual (non)verbal part that can be found e.g. in US-American sitcoms such as “Friends”, “The Big Bang Theory”, and “How I Met Your Mother”. The first part of the paper characterises audiovisual works in general, taking into consideration relations between visual and aural channel. Then, the characteristics of voice-over translations are described. The main part of the paper analyses chosen examples of the visual jokes and their official Polish translations. It is of main interest to see whether the analysed fragments have the same function, i.e. humorous function, also in the target version, and if the relations between the visual and the aural channel were respected by the translator.

The paper describes dia- and isosemiotic relations in the process of transmedia adaptation. The translator plays a difficult role in the globalisation process of multimedia projects, therefore it is crucial for the scientific approach to recognise the set of obligatory interpersonal, intercultural, and communicational skills that lead to a successful participation in the production and internationalisation process of audiovisual and multimedia hypertexts. Examples of good practises in that area can be evaluated from text clusters created due to transmedia adaptation, such as the “Witcher” universe created by Andrzej Sapkowski and recreated for the multimedia by the CD Project RED publishing house.

In order to be a part of an explanatory theory of translation, translation competence should be taken as the specific competence a translator needs beyond general types of competence, such as the knowledge of the source language and the target language. In literary translation, the translator is an expert reader of the source text, whereas in scientific translation it is unrealistic and not necessary to expect this. This imposes different requirements on translation competence.

The following article discusses the translation problems of a specific kind of so-called beastionyms, which are a part of the group of hyperphysionyms defined by Friedhelm Debus and have been characterised as the names given to different science-fiction and fantasy creatures. The main concern are the translation possibilities of personified beastionyms which appear in the story written by Andrzej Sapkowski and its German rendition.

“The Crimean Sonnets” written by Adam Mickiewicz, which are the literary fruit of the poet’s journey to the Crimea, express his admiration of the peninsula, which the poet called “the East in miniature”. The fascination with the Orient in the Crimean cycle manifests itself not only in applying oriental motifs, which were taken from Arabic or Persian literature, but also in rich vocabulary referring to elements of Turkish, Arabic, Tatar, and Persian culture. Given the fact that in the translation process of “The Crimean Sonnets” from Polish into German these elements are foreign to both the source and target culture, they can be defined as the third culture elements according to Dorota Urbanek. The purpose of this article is to analyse translation techniques used to convey selected orientalisms in “The Crimean Sonnets” in the rendering by Martin Remané and Dirk Strauch. The analysis of the techniques allows to determine whether the translators retained the local colour of the oriental Crimea by preserving the foreign elements or whether they tried to domesticate their rendering.

This article demonstrates how language and culture determine the use of German „Heimat”, „Heimatland” and „Vaterland” translated into Polish as „ojczyzna”. From the perspective of anthropocentric linguistics, the central research object is primarily the translator who is responsible for the appropriateness of the translation result. The explication reflects the theories within the scope of linguistic worldview, developed by J. Bartmiński and A. Wierzbicka. The cognitive aspects of literary translation will be explained on the example of Mascha Kaléko’s poems, originally written in German.

For obvious reasons, literary translation is only marginally present in the general teaching of translation at university level. The interest of both teachers and students naturally focuses on texts of everyday use. However, the specific nature of poetic works, first of all their multidimensionality, makes them an excellent material to sensitise the future translator to diverse linguistic, intertextual and culture-related phenomena which, in a less pronounced form, also occur in non-literary texts. Thus, this article is intended as a plea for the inclusion of poetry in translation teaching.

Each culture is unique and has its own unique objects or phenomena related to its history, traditions, and cultural identity. These specific objects, otherwise called culture-bound elements, may be strange and unrecognizable to another culture. Translators are often challenged to translate the text of one culture to another and to convey the names of cultural elements, while still preserving their unique meaning, as well as their national and cultural colour. The aim of the article is to analyse the strategies and techniques by means of which the names of Lithuanian culture-bound elements are translated into English in a work devoted to public affairs. To what extent the original is preserved in the foreign-language environment clarifies the (dis)harmony. In short, the name of a culture-bound element is an integral part of such work that otherwise would not accomplish its purpose.

Interjections are an essential part of communication. They have their own phonological inventory and fulfil special communicative functions. They put interactional procedures in process. In the past, they used to be treated only as a secondary category, but they received a special position in the new linguistic approach of functional pragmatics. They have an interesting scientific history of development in Arabic too, starting from the Kufa-School of grammar until the modern theories. This paper discusses the interjections as a grammatical category in German and Arabic.

The purpose of this article is to present the usefulness of parallel and background texts in the work of a translator of specialist texts. In the theoretical part, the issue of the concept of death and its types will be discussed. A short review of the definitions and characteristics of the parallel and background texts will also be made. The second part is devoted to the use of this type of texts in determining German equivalents of Polish terms related to human death.

The paper aims to focus on translation rules of public authorities names through selected political system acts. Adequacy and transparency in the target language were in the centre of attention. It is multi-designated names that appear to present the major and specific translation problem. The selected classification allowed to determine the optimal method of translation. The conducted analysis involves several translations of political system acts into Polish.

This article attempts to demonstrate the potential of semiotics for translation studies. Even though semiotic paradigms can be observed across certain theories advocated by translation scholars, it seems that a clear and integrated semiotics-based model of translation has not been developed yet. The hypotheses developed in the article may help to answer the question whether it is feasible to draw a relevant model of translation that would include categories for the most significant variables influencing the process of translation. To this end the article offers an analysis of various research models and discusses the potential of a semiotic framework of reference.

The main aim of the paper is to propose a new way of studying literary translation, inspired by Hélène Buzelin’s claim to look at the translation process as a manufacturing activity, always involving several subjects. First, the concept of translator studies – one of the most recent subfields of translation studies – is briefly presented together with its major assumptions. Then, the traditional sender-transmitter-receiver translation scheme is developed to include more agents. The resulting list is to give a brief overview of how complex the situation of literary translator is, whose responsibility for the shape of a literary product requires dealing with several counteracting objectives.

The digital competence is one of the key competences. It is also very important in the education. The author of the article describes digital skills of the German language students who are training to become translators within the context of the EMT competence framework. The most important of the competence is the use of technology. This competence includes the entire knowledge and all of the skills used to implement present and future translation technologies within the translation process.

The Transformers comic books originated in 1984, and have been a vital part of the brand until today. The characters in the story, designed as shapeshifting toys, were given attractively-sounding, mostly descriptive names. When, in 1991, the “Transformers” comic books appeared in Poland, their publishers were aware of the need to explain those names, as well as of the originally-named merchandise already available in the country. This article explores how the approach varies through time and specific sections of the comics, and how this issue was handled in the recent reintroduction of the books.

To find out how online social networking sites allow Chinese translators to develop their own networks, the experiences of ten Chinese translation-related Facebook page owners were studied. Based on a mixed-method design, the study shows that Facebook pages were opened to interact with the general public and readers to obtain feedback. Translation practitioners benefit by keeping a record of work, attracting people to their blogs, and establishing working relationships. However, indecent disclosure of clients’ information may do more harm than good.

The paper presents stages and perspectives of development of translatorics on the basis of research published in the journal “Studia Translatorica”. The author analysed in great detail research areas (types and forms of translation), applied methodologies, and represented paradigms which were of interest to researchers (Polish and foreign) who have been publishing in “Studia Translatorica” for the past 10 years. She was successful in establishing some trends and perspectives of research on translation. The analysis of the literature has led to expressing the demand for empirical research in translatorics as well as for inclusion of new paradigms and categories in research on translation.

More and more content is being created all over the world and it is simply not possible for all this to be translated by human translators. The profession of translators is far from being abolished, but it is subject to serious changes. Completely new tasks await the translators. It is not only machines that have to be “reprogrammed.” The same can be said about the profession of interpreters. Here, we are also dealing with the changing work environment, with price pressure, impact of new technologies, changes in working conditions. In the future, we need not only new skills, but also a completely new approach to our profession. Are we prepared for this and how are we prepared for it? What do we need for this? How can professional associations help?

Unlike the Canon law texts available in the Romanian principalities – Moldavia and Wallachia – falling under the Slavic influence, the first legal acts which are subscribed to the secular law and which appear in 1646 [“Carte Românească de Învățătură” (en. Romanian Book of Learning) or “Pravila lui Vasile Lupu” (en. Vasile Lupu’s Code of Laws)] and in 1652 [“Îndreptarea legii” (en. The Law’s Rectification) or Pravila lui Matei Basarab (en. Matei Basarab’s Code of Laws)] fall under the Greek-Byzantine influence. The present article aims to provide some information regarding the translation mechanisms applied by the Moldavian and Wallachian scholars of the 17th century who aimed at transposing the Byzantine Legal Standard to the everyday life of the two above mentioned Romanian principalities by means of fundamental procedures, such as “analysis (with the underlying meaning determination), transfer, restructuring, and testing” (Nida, 2004: 85) of the source message. The most precious information related to the translation process of those times is provided by the cases of untranslatability generated by the legal and terminological gap between the Receiver and the Transmitter. The identification and classification of these cases, but also the highlighting of the solutions the translator found to solve them, represent important steps in understanding the equivalenting process of two unequal legal systems that took place centuries ago in Eastern Europe, as illustrated by the case of the two Romanian principalities and the Greek-Byzantine one.