TEXT 2 from The Economist , January 24th30th 200 , The World this Week Business Title: The Italian J

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TEXT 2 from The Economist , January 24th-30th
200 , The World this Week (Business)Title
The Italian Job

• Fiat forged a strategic alliance with
  Chrysler. The Italian carmaker will take a 35
  stake in the troubled Detroit company in return
  for access to its small-engine and transmission
  technology and international dealership. The deal
  throws a lifeline to Chrysler, which risks having
  to repay an emergency 4 billion loan to the
  federal government and losing the chance of
  further help if it cannot provide evidence of a
  credible turnaround plan.

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The translators strategies

• 1st PHASE global evaluation of the text
• CONTEXT
• 1. Who writes the text?
• 2. What is its function?
• 3. What is the intended audience?
• 4. Where is it published?
• 5. When?
• TEXT
• 6. What is the topic and the conceptual content?
• 7. What is the degree of specialization?
• 8. How is the text structured?
• 9. What graphic or visual elements are used?
• 10. What are the linguistic characteristics at
  the lexical and syntactic levels?
• MODELS/CONVENTIONS IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE
• Are there similar text types, or genres, in the
  target language? Are they similar or different?
• 2nd PHASE from global to in-depth reading TO
  IDENTIFY TRANSLATION PROBLEMS
• 3rd PHASE reformulation in the target language

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Some linguistic features, and difficulties

• Very concise text (3 sentences, the last one
  fairly long and complex). At times, ambiguous.
• Reference to current events in the business world
  (i.e. the alliance between Fiat and Chrysler)
• Cultural references/idiomatic expressions (e.g.
  The Italian Job, to throw a lifeline, the
  federal government)
• Some variety in the use of tenses and verb
  phrases.
• Some long noun phrases
• Specialized lexis and collocations to forge a
  strategic alliance, to take a 35 stake,
  small-engine and transmission technology,
  international dealership, emergency loan, a
  turnaround plan

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What is the best translation equivalent for
the title?

• The Italian job

• Un colpo allitaliana
• The Italian job
• (positive or negative connotation?)

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SENTENCE 1

• Source Text
• Fiat forged a strategic alliance with Chrysler.

• Suggested translation
• La Fiat ha stretto unalleanza strategica con
  la Chrysler

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SENTENCE 2

• Source Text
• The Italian carmaker will take a 35 stake in
  the troubled Detroit company in return for access
  to its small-engine and transmission technology
  and international dealership.

• Suggested translation
• Lazienda automobilistica italiana acquisirà
  il 35 di azioni della azienda di Detroit, oggi
  in difficoltà, offrendo in cambio la tecnologia
  relativa ai motori di piccola cilindrata e alle
  trasmissioni, nonché laccesso alla sua rete di
  distribuzione internazionale.

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SENTENCE 3

• Source Text
• The deal throws a lifeline to Chrysler, which
  risks having to repay an emergency 4 billion
  loan to the federal government and losing the
  chance of further help if it cannot provide
  evidence of a credible turnaround plan.

• Suggested translation
• Laccordo rappresenta unancora di salvezza
  per la Chrysler che rischia di dover rimborsare
  al governo americano un prestito straordinario di
  4 miliardi di dollari e di compromettere la
  possibilità di ricevere ulteriori aiuti in
  assenza di un progetto credibile di rilancio
  (risanamento).

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Some criteria in evaluating mistakes in
translations

• actual mistake /original text misunderstood
• less convincing or idiomatic linguistic and
  syntactic choices
• wrong terminology
• inappropriate register
• omission of an essential part
• unnecessary addition

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Resources to find out about topics and cultural
references.

• Check encyclopaedias, specialized literature,
  search engines and newspapers websites in English
  (e.g. The Britannica, Google. Yahoo, BBC News,
  The Economist)
• Check encyclopaedias, specialized literature
  search engines and newspapers websites in Italian
  (e.g. Enciclopedie Garzanti, Il Corriere della
  Sera, IL Sole 24 Ore, LEspresso)

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• SOME GENERAL QUESTIONS
• ABOUT TRANSLATION (see Scarpas book)

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Is translation still needed, since English has
become the lingua franca of the world?In what
domains?

• 1 literature
• 99 Informative texts, of which
• 35 technical field
• 39 business/commercial field
• 12 legal field
• 9 medical field
• 9 administrative field
• 4 scientific field
• ( Types of translation in Europe, see Scarpa p.
  75)
• Dubbing and subtitling are not considered

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Is translation an art and/or a skill, an academic
discipline and/or a professional activity?

• A very old activity and a fairly new academic
  discipline
• Until the 1980s a prevailingly linguistic
  discipline based on the contrastive analysis of
  the Source Language and the Target Language
  systems
• Since the 1980s development of Translation
  Studies, more focused on the process of
  translation and more interdisciplinary in nature
• A pedagogical approach to specialized translation
  requires
• linguistic, cultural and specialized knowledge
• practice in, and theoretical awareness of, the
  translation process.

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What is the difference between the translation of
literary texts and specialized texts?

• Completely different activities
• or
• the two ends of a continuum?
• Literary texts more open and unique texts
  translators can be more creative but cannot
  rewrite the text and may have to deal with
  specialized language
• Specialized texts from more closed and
  standardized texts to highly sophisticated and
  linguistically rich ones (see Scarpa, p.132)
  translators should be faithful to the contents
  and the genre conventions but also interpret
  cultural references and localize the text, that
  is adapt it to the target audience

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A useful textual typology

• Literary texts-----------generalist
  texts------------------Specialized texts
• e.g. The Bible e.g. newspapers
  legal texts
• poetry social
  leaflets scientific texts
• films
  ads technology
• History of literature
  socio-cultural sciences specialized
  disciplines
• and culture
• From interpretive freedom and
  creativity to conceptual equivalence
• See Scarpa pp.115-132

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Different specialized text types, or genres

• the HORIZONTAL DIMENSION DIFFERENT FIELDS, OR
  DOMAINS, AND SUB-FIELDS reflecting different
  EPISTEMOLOGIES (e.g. economics, macro-economics,
  new economy, finance, marketing, e-commerce,
  franchising )
• the VERTICAL DIMENSION
• a) specialist to specialist (exposition,
  e.g. abstract or research article)
• b) specialist to specialist-to-be
  (instruction, e.g. academic textbooks and
• instruction manuals)
• c) specialist to layperson (journalism)
• the texts PREVAILING FUNCTION expressive,
  informative, argumentative, and instructive
• different GENRES i.e. socially recognised text
  types (e.g., an editorial, a news story, a
  booking form, a tourist brochure, a business
  letter).

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What are the elements in the process of
translation

• The source text
• The authors intention/context
• The translator
• The target audience/their context
• The purchasers needs
• The target text

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CORRESPONDING TEXTS IN THE SOURCE AND IN THE
TARGET CULTURES

• EQUAL (e.g. the European legislation)
• PARALLEL ( e.g. a contract)
• WITH THE SAME FUNCTION (e.g. university handbook)
  
• may be similar or culturally conditioned
• DERIVED, e.g. summaries or abstract of a longer
  text
• AUTONOMOUS, e.g. an ad that is adapted to a
  different culture
• but
• Texts can either be adapted to the target
  culture and localized ( e.g. advertising and
  computing software) , or follow
  international/standardized models ( e.g. hard
  sciences)
• Translated texts can be affected by the different
  mother tongues and by the translators
  personality, or reflect translation universals,
  e.g. simplification, avoidance of ambiguity and
  repetitions

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What are the best translation strategies in
specialized discourse ?

• Global analysis of the text
• Reading from global to intensive predicion of
  translation difficulties at a both socio-cultural
  and linguistic level (e.g. false friends,
  different word order, cultural and conceptual
  differences)
• 2. Translation several drafts, from literal
  to idiomatic. Use of different types of
  paraphrase. Awareness of options.
• 3. Revision (internal or external) and
  final version

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Some predictable (according to Scarpa)
English-Italian differences which require
adaptation strategies

• English specialized texts tend to be more
  reader-oriented than Italian texts, e.g. more
  informal and redundant
• English scientific and technical texts tend to be
  simpler and more direct than their Italian
  counterparts, e.g. computing style
• English specialized texts favour lexical
  reiteration rather than a variety of lexical and
  grammatical patterns
• English specialized texts use fewer connectors
  than Italian texts

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Types of paraphrase (Scarpa 148-199)

• Transposition, i.e. change in syntactic structure
  Small wonder that non cé da stupirsi
• Modulation, i.e. Semantic change Without
  difficulty facilmente
• Adaptation i.e. pragmatic change
  back-of-an-envelope explanation spiegazione
  semplice
• Explicitation i.e. to clarify a text or a
  cultural reference
• Expansion, reduction, elimination

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Some English-Italian adaptation
micro-strategies

• 5) From left-dislocation in English to
  right-dislocation in Italian , e.g. a
  slow-growing industry un settore industriale in
  lenta crescita
• 6) More verbal forms in English than in Italian
  e.g. Opening a document apertura di un documento
• 7) From simple clauses to coordination and
  subordination
• 8) English passive and impersonal forms in
  English can also be rendered in Italian with si
  passivante e.g. Additional information can be
  obtained Si possono ottenere ulteriori
  informazioni
• 9) Retention of anglicisms in Italian, e.g.
  scanner, non-profit organizations, RAM, turnover
• 10) Calques e.g. randomizzare

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What are the types of competence a translator
needs?

• Linguistic/cultural competence in the source
  language and in the target language
• General cultural competence
• Competence in specialized domains (e.g. a
  specialist who is also a translator or a
  translator who is also a specialist?)

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What are the resources for a specialized
translator?

• (in paper and/or electronic
  format)
• Unabridged, general and specialized dictionaries
  and glossaries (monolingual and bilingual)
• Encyclopaedias and expert literature
• Terminological data banks
• (e.g. The European multilingual IATE
  http//europa.eu/languages/it/documet/100
• Biblioteca del diritto europeo EUR-Lex
• Software for machine-aided human translation e.g.
  translation memory
• Specialized monolingual and bilingual (parallel
  and comparable) corpora