April 17th translation and relevance

1
April 17th translation and relevance

• Equivalence is largely text-based.
• Translation processes, however, imply cognition.
• Cognitive analysis of the translation process has
  shifted the focus from TEXT to MENTAL PROCESSES.
• One of the main features of cognition is
  INFERENCING.
• Example from Newsweek, 2001
• Serge Cardin, a Canadian MP, had to apologize to
  the House for humming the theme song from The
  Godfather while Public Works Minister Alfonso
  Gagliano, who is of Italian descent, addressed
  Parliament.

2

• Why did the MP have to apologize? Is it for
  humming, which is a breach of parliamentary
  formality?
• What is the relevance of the reference to The
  Godfather? Is it just because this film is a
  classic?
• Why did the author mention Italian descent?
• Which are the relevant parts of this extract?
• What do you infer?
• INFERENCE INVOLVES CONTEXT

3
RELEVANCE THEORY (by sperber and wilson)

• Communication starts with a STIMULUS (verbal or
  non verbal) humming a song
• This stimulus guides the hearer (or reader)
  towards a precise meaning intended by the speaker
  (INFORMATIVE INTENTION).
• Communication and relevance would be compromised
  if the interaction of stimulus (humming a tune),
  contextual assumptions (Godfather Mafia
  corrupt minister Italian descent) and
  interpretation (ethnic offence) were disturbed
  for any reason.
• This is what (often) happens when we do not see
  the point of a joke or the irony of something.

4

• RELEVANCE AND TRANSLATION
• What is the following? What is the source
  language? Try to translate it in our culture.
• Three friends - Aboriginal, Jew and Australian,
  spend each night together drinking beer in an
  outback (entroterra) pub.
• One night as they're leaving, a road-train
  (AusEng autotreno) comes through the town and
  kills all three. The next day, the publican
  (oste) is surprised to see the Australian - who
  assumed dead - walked through the door.
• The Australian tells him, "Well, we were all
  killed, but when we got to the pearly gates (le
  porte del paradiso), St. Peter said we could come
  back to earth if we pay him 20.""Well,
  obviously, you paid up, but what happened to your
  friends?""The jew's trying to haggle him down to
  10, and the aboriginal is trying to convince him
  that the government will pay for it."
• TRANSLATING JOKES IS ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING
  WORKS.

5

• As far as humour is concerned, no matter how well
  the translator knows the target language,
  cultural references and polysemous items may
  involve them in long and complicated
  explanations, after which the recipient rarely
  reacts with a laugh.
• Thus, a common linguistic code is definitely not
  all that is needed in order to appreciate humour.
  
• Language and culture are intertwined and without
  shared knowledge between sender and recipient, a
  common linguistic code will be almost of no help.

6

• Julia Roberts, an Englishman and a Frenchman were
  all sitting in the same train compartment.
  Nothing much happened until the train went into a
  tunnel.
• Through thedarkness could be heard the sound of a
  loud slap and a cry of pain. When the train
  emerged from the tunnel, Julia Roberts and the
  Englishman were sitting perfectly normally, but
  the Frenchman was rubbing his cheek and nursing a
  swollen eye.
• Julia immediately thought The Frenchman must
  have tried to kiss me when we went in the tunnel,
  but kissed the Englishman by mistake and got a
  slap for his pains.
• The Frenchman thought The Englishman must have
  tried to kiss Julia and she slapped me by
  mistake.
• And the Englishman thought That is great. Every
  time we go into a tunnel, I can smack that French
  prat!
• There is the sociocultural implication of the
  ever lasting rivalry between the English and the
  French. To find the joke funny, you need to be
  aware of the never ending English-French mental
  war within an English person. In fact, there is
  another joke that says that Sure sign that
  youre English is that youre still mentally at
  war with Germany, France, Scotland, the American
  colonies, the Danes, the Celts, the Vikings, and
  the Romans.

7

• There was an Irishman, and Englishman and Claudia
  Schiffer sitting together in a carriage in a
  train going through Tasmania. Suddenly the train
  went through a tunnel and as it was an old style
  train, there were no lights in the carriage and
  it went completely dark.
• Then there was this kissing noise and the sound
  of a really loud slap.
• When the train came out of the tunnel, Claudia
  Schiffer and the Irishman were sitting as if
  nothing had happened and the Englishman had his
  hand against his face as he has been slapped
  there.
• The Englishman was thinking The Irish fella
  must have kissed Claudia Schiffer and she missed
  him and slapped me instead.
• Claudia Schiffer was thinking The English fella
  must have tried to kiss me and actually kissed
  the Irishman and got slapped for it.
• And the Irishman was thinking This is great.
  The next time the train goes through a tunnel
  Ill make another kissing noise and slap that
  English bastard again!

8

• Prince Charles was out early the other day
  walking the dog. When a passerby said Morning,
  Charles said No, just walking the dog.

9

• This joke is particularly difficult to translate
  because it plays on two levels the linguistic
  and the cultural one. In translating such a joke,
  one needs, first of all, to understand the core
  of the joke and then try and transfer it to the
  target language.
• Yet, the cultural context has to be explained
  first on the one hand, Prince Charles is part of
  the present British Royal family, more precisely,
  he is the son of Queen Elizabeth and on the
  other hand, it must be said that the joke
  describes the event as taking place somewhere
  immediately after his wife, Lady Dis death.

10

• On a linguistic level, the phonemic resemblance
  between the verb to mourn, in its continuous
  aspect mourning and the noun morning, which
  belongs to the greeting Good morning, but which
  in familiar English may be left as such.
• The linguistic part will be impossible to render
  into Italian because of the obvious lack of
  phonemic coincidence of the two words.

11

• Yet, as far as the cultural aspect is concerned,
  the particular reference can be explained in a
  footnote.
• Nonetheless, the footnote will merely isolate
  what is a part of a broader cultural identity
  (Lady Dis relation to his husband, her life and
  her role played in the British Royal Family, her
  accident, her death etc) and while explaining
  what the small circle may signify they will still
  leave in the dark take for granted the
  general background which gives energy and
  relevance to the small details.

12
next time

• pp.177-180 Gutt
• Plus
• How would you present Unit A9, Text type in
  translation? Together with the text by Reiss pp.
  183-186?
• Usual PPP (Gutt)
• Youll prepare next lesson (unit A9 Reiss)