Text and Context in Translation

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Text and Context in Translation

• Juliane House
• University of Hamburg

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• 1. Text and Context
• 2. Context from Different Perspectives
• 2.1. Philosophical and
• Psychological
• 2.2. Anthropological,
• Sociolinguistic, Discourse,
• Conversation Analytical
• 2.3. Linguistic
• 3. Context - Text -Translation

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• 4. Translation as an Act of
• Re-contextualisation
• 4.1. A Theory of Translation as
• Re-Contextualisation
• 4.2. Two Types of Translation
• Overt and Covert Translation
• 4.3. The Cultural Filter in
• Covert Translation
• 5. Global English and Cultural
• Filtering

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1.The Notions Text and Context

• Text (A unit of) connected discourse. Its
  function is communicative, and it is an object of
  analysis and description
• Context A general type of connection or
  relationship circumstances relevant to something
  under consideration the environment surrounding
  a phenomenon (such as e.g. a text!) that
  determines its meaning, similar to setting,
  background, frame, (figure and) ground.

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• Text and context are closely related
  concepts.
• Context is the more complex
• notion and thus in need of further exploration.

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2.1. Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives
of Context

• Contextualism versus Universalism
• Linguistic actions are embedded in the
  environment in which they occur and fulfil
  certain functions versus
• Sentences obey formal rules, principles and
  parameters,
• The local, the particular, the social, the
  situated, the individual, the unique, the
  relative versus
• the generally valid, the typical, the
  supra-individual, the absolute

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• Wittgensteins idea that language is a form of
  action, and that the meanings of linguistic forms
  are their use in specific forms of life
• Austins emphasis on how the contexts of speech
  acts influence the conventions of language use,
  and how speech act performance depends on the
  enveloping context and language users
  intentions.
• Gadamers and Steiners hermeneutic interpretive
  study of texts with its fusion of horizons
  uniting writer and reader in their
  context-dependence.

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• Grices conception of context as part of a theory
  of language use - including conversational
  maxims which guide the conduct of talk and
  express an underlying co-operative principle.
• Sperber and Wilsons notion of relevance as a set
  of internalized contextual factors for
  interpreting utterances

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• Forgas view that utterance meaning and speakers
  shared views of context result from collective
  cognitive activities.
• Clarks idea of language use as a form of
  collaborative action bound up with contexts as
  common ground, i.e., knowledge, beliefs,
  assumptions which language users bring to joint
  activities

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2.2. Context in Anthropology, Sociolinguistics,
Discourse and Conversation Analysis

• Context as culture is central in
  anthropology. It comprises conventionalized
  expectations made to fit a specific, local
  situation
• For sociolinguists, language reflects context and
  language also determines the context in which it
  is used. Contexts are evolving systems undergoing
  constant change and mutual influence with
  language
• Context is also at the core of discourse
  analysis, since all interaction involves context.
  In order to understand, speakers must rely on
  context, and their linguistic choices are
  motivated by contextual factors (topic,
  participants, place, time, etc.)

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• Conversation analysts focus on utterances-in-seque
  nce which both create context and are conditioned
  by it. Utterances are organized linearly in time,
  such that what is said now relies on what was
  said before. Context and talk are in a reflexive
  relationship talk and its interpretation shapes
  context as much as context shapes talk.

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2.3.Context from Linguistic Perspectives

• Hymes Ethnography of Speaking as
  contextual linguistics explicitly designed as
  an anti-Chomsky model
• stark contrast between functional,
  contextual linguistics
• and
• formal, competence linguistics. The
  latter has an
• idealized view of language divorced from
  the context
• in which it is actually used by human
  beings.
• Context in functional linguistics includes
  setting,
• behavior, language itself, knowledge, and is
  subject
• to multiple interpretations of immediate
  environments and wider socio-cultural frameworks

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• A prime example of functional linguistics is
  pragmatics. Here context plays such an important
  role that its very definition is bound up with
  context
• - Pragmatics is the study of linguistic acts
• and the contexts in which they occur
• - Pragmatics is a theory of language
• understanding that takes context into
  account
• Gumperz notion of contextualization cues is
  based on assumptions about context and connects
  linguistic forms with cognitive and social
  phenomena

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• Hallidays systemic-functional theory explicitly
  links text and context and combines broad
  functional explanations of social phenomena with
  detailed description of linguistic forms

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3. Context, Text and Translation

• In most disciplines, Context is thought to refer
  to both external (situational,cultural) and
  internal (cognitive, psychological) factors which
  influence each other in acts of speaking and
  listening
• Context is often regarded as dynamic rather than
  static, as more than a set of pre-fixed variables
  that impact on language.
• Context and language are viewed as mutually
  dependent, such that language shapes context as
  much as context shapes language.
• For translation, such a view of context is
  NOT useful!

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• In translation, a finished, and in this sense
  static stretch of written language as text is
  available to the translator in its entirety from
  the start. Full availability of a written text -
  as opposed to the bit-by-bit unfolding of
  discourse - is thus constitutive of translation.
• Translating involves RE-CONTEXTUALISING and as
  such the creation of a discourse out of a written
  text, i.e., the creation of a living, but
  essentially NOT dynamic, cognitive-social entity
  replete with contextual connections.
• In translation, Context is NOT negotiated or
  emergent, but rather static. This staticness
  arises in the space opened up by the separation
  in time and space of writer and reader, and
  through the translators limited power to define
  what the context is.

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• The realisation of a discourse out of a text
  can only involve imaginary, hidden, mental
  interaction between writer and reader in the
  translators mind. The natural unity of speaker
  and listener in oral interaction is replaced by
  the real-world separateness in space and time of
  writer and reader. But the translator can
  overcome this separateness S/he creates a new
  unity that transcends the texts givenness (with
  its immutable arrangement of linguistic elements)
  by activatingthe texts context in its old and
  new variant - imagined and miraculously united
  in his mind.

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4. Translation as an Act of Re-
Contextualisation

• For translation as an act of re-contextualisation,
  a TEXT is a stretch of a contextually embedded
  ensemble of linguistic forms. And CONTEXT is the
  means of converting inert (static) text into
  discourse in an ex- post facto, cognitive
  meaning making
• 
  
  
• The translators re-creative act is thus
  critically different from the type of observable
  on-line transformative power a speaker in
  talk-in-interaction has over the path of the
  developing discourse.

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4.1. A Functional Theory of Translation
as Re-contextualization

• Houses Theory of Translation as
• Re-contextualisation
• Translation texts are doubly contextually-bound
  to their source text and to the new recipients
  contextual conditions. This double-linkage is the
  basis of the equivalence relation the
  conceptual heart of translation.

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• Equivalence is determined by context, and
• comprises at least the following
• Source and target linguistic features and the
  rules of the two language systems
• The extra-linguistic world and how it is
  perceived by members of L1 and L2 communities
• L1 and L2 conventions and genres guiding the
  translator
• Structural, connotative, and aesthetic features
  of the original
• The translators interpretation of the original
  and his or her creativity
• The translators theory of translation
• Translation traditions holding in the target
  culture

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• Since appropriate use of language in
  communicative performance is what matters most in
  translation, it is functional pragmatic
  equivalence which is crucial. This type of
  equivalence underpins Houses functional
  translation model.

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A Scheme for Producing, Analysing and Comparing
Original and Translation Texts
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• This model explicates the way semantic, pragmatic
  and textual meaning are re-constituted across
  different contexts.
• Translation is conceived as the replacement of an
  L1 text by a semantically and pragmatically
  equivalent L2 text. An adequate translation is
  then a pragmatically and semantically equivalent
  one.
• A first requirement for this equivalence is that
  a translation text have a function equivalent to
  that of its original.

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• If we use a concept such as function of a text,
  we must be sure that there are elements in a text
  which can reveal a texts function.
• Function here is NOT identical with functions of
  language as suggested by philosophers and
  linguists such as Bühler, Jakobson,Popper and
  many others.
• Different language functions always co-exist in
  a text, there is no simple equation of language
  function and textual type.

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• The function of a text is simply the application
  of a text in a particular context, and there is
  a systematic relationship between context and the
  functional organization of language-in-text,
  which can be revealed by breaking down context
  into a manageable set of contextual parameters
  FIELD TENOR- MODE
• The pre-translation analysis results then in a
  text-context profile that reflects the texts
  function. Whether and how this function can be
  maintained, critically depends, however, on the
  type of translation sought.

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4.2.Two Types of Translation Overt and Covert
Translation

• Overt and covert translation are outcomes of
• different types of re-contextualisation
• They resemble Schleiermachers famous distinction
  between verfremdende und einbürgernde
  Übersetzungen (alienating and integrating
  translations) which has had many imitators using
  different, but essentially similar terms.
• What sets the overt-covert distinction apart is
  the fact that it is integrated into a coherent
  theory of translation, within which these terms
  are explicated.

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• In overt translation, recipients are quite
  overtly NOT
• directly addressed, because an overt translation
  is quite overtly a translation, not a second
  original. And it shows while an overt
  translation must needs be embedded in a new
  context, it also, at the same time,
  schizophrenically, signals its origin. The
  translators work is important and visible it is
  to enable L2 members to observe and judge the
  originals impact from outside
• Although an overt translation and its original
  are equivalent at the levels of Language/Text,
  Register, Genre, only second-level functional
  equivalence is possible giving access to the
  originals function. Since this access is to be
  in the L2, a contextual switch is necessary. But
  because there is this three-tier equivalence, the
  originals context is co-activated in the minds
  of the translator and L2 addressees so as to
  enable them to eavesdrop and appreciate the
  originals function in its new guise.

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• A covert translation is a translation which
  enjoys the status of an original text in a new
  context. The translation is covert because it is
  not marked as a translation, but may,
  conceivably, have been created in its own right.
  An original and its covert translation are
  pragmatically of equal concern for L1 and L2
  addressees in their different contexts
• The translator re-creates an equivalent speech
  event and reproduces the originals function with
  the result that a covert translation operates
  solely in the new L2 context, with no attempt
  made to co-activate the context in which the
  original had unfolded.

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• The translators express task is to betray the
  original, to hide behind its transformation.The
  translator acts in a self-effacing manner.
• Since true functional equivalence is the goal,
  the original may be legitimately manipulated at
  the levels of Language/Text and Register. The
  translator takes exclusive account of the new
  context into which the translation is inserted.
  To facilitate this insertion seamlesssly as it
  were, the translator applies a CULTURAL FILTER.

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4.3. The Cultural Filter

• A cultural filter is a means of capturing
  contextual differences in expectation norms
  between recipients in L1 and L2 contexts.The
  application of a cultural filter should however
  ideally not be left to accidental individual
  intuition, but be in line with relevant
  cross-cultural research.
• What do we mean by culture??

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Culture

• Whatever it is one has to know or believe in
  order to operate in a manner acceptable to a
  societys members, and do so in any role that
  they accept for any one of themselves ....
  Culture is not a material phenomenon it does not
  consist of things, people, behavior, or emotions.
  It is rather an organization of these things. It
  is the forms of things that people have in mind,
  their model of perceiving, relating, and
  otherwise interpreting them.
• (Goodenough, 1964 36)

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• As in the case of context, a dynamic,
  negotiable view of culture is NOT useful for
  translation, because in translating a text, one
  must refer to a concrete point in time and space
  and adopt a static, necessarily essentialist
  idea of culture. This should not be disqualified
  as naively ignoring the complexity of culture, as
  in translation we also take account of empirical
  research into cultures as interpretive devices
  for understanding communicative behavior.

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• Empirical research into communicative norms in L1
  and L2 cultures can give substance to the
  cultural filter and thus complement tacit
  native-speaker knowledge.
• For example, in the case of the German and
  Anglophone linguistic-cultural communities, the
  cultural filter has been substantiated through
  extensive empirical contrastive-pragmatic
  research. Its results show differences in
  behavioral norms that can explain acts of
  re-contextualization in covert translation.

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• For example Germans often express themselves in
  more direct, explicit and content-oriented ways
  than Anglophone speakers
• Such cross-cultural differences can be displayed
  along dimensions such as
• directness vs.
  indirectness
• explicitness vs.
  implicitness
• focus on vs.
  focus on
• content
  persons

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The Cultural Filter Examples

• Sign at Frankfurt Airport at a building site
• Damit die Zukunft schneller kommt!
• Such that the future comes more quickly!
• vs. English translation
• We apologize for any inconvenience work on our
  building site is causing you!

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• Software manual (original English, Back
  Translation from German)
• WordPerfect is backed by a customer support
  system designed to offer you fast, courteous
  service. If youve exhausted all other Help
  Avenues and need a Friendly Voice to help you
  with your problem, just follow these steps...
• vs.
• WordPerfect has established a Support Centre,
  whose employees offer you competent support with
  problems. If, despite the support available to
  you in WordPerfect, you were not able to solve a
  problem, turn to our support centre.

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Preface, Perl Cookbook (Original English,
backtranslated from German)

• That's what Learning Perl, a kinder and gentler
  introduction to Perl, is designed for.

• It is for this that books like Introduction to
  Perl are meant.

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• Instruction leaflet, oven ware (original German
  backtranslated into English)
• Kerafour has been tested for being ovenproof in
  independent testing institutes. So that you can
  enjoy it for a long time, we give you some
  instructions for use 1. Never put an empty cold
  vessel into the heated oven - empty also
  refers to a vessel which is only rubbed with fat!
• vs.
• Kerafour oven-to-table pieces have been tested
  by independent research institutes and are
  considered ovenproof and micro-wave resistant.
  Here are a few simple rules for using Kerafour
• Never put a cold and empty piece into the heated
  oven.

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• ADVERTISEMENT AIR FRANCE (Translations from
  French into English and German, backtranslated)
• We know how hard it is for business travellers
  to have to concentrate on their work while waging
  the eternal battle of the armrest, so we have
  re-arranged the space between our LEspace Europe
  seats. Where there used to be rows of three
  seats, there are now two seats separated by a
  table. Your seat is now much wider, more
  comfortable and the total space more conducive to
  a little privacy.
• Business travellers want to study their files,
  read newspapers or prepare themselves quietly for
  a meeting. Preferably without getting too close
  to the man sitting next to them. Or the woman.
  This is why we have completely re-arranged our
  LEspace Europe. Bigger, more beautiful and
  comfortable and above all with very welcome space
  for putting things on between the seats. For much
  elbow room for reading, eating and relaxing in
  exactly the right distance. And also for
  stimulating conversations.

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• FILM TITLES (Original ENGLISH-Backtranslation
  from GERMAN)
• Where are the children?----Limitless Suffering of
  a Mother
• Jack the Bear----My Dad-a totally incredible
  father
• The Surrogate ----Murder after Birth
• Whatever happened to Aunt Alice----A widow kills
  softly
• Silent victim .Accusation Abortion
• Backlash..The secret of the five graves
• Shadow of the Past----The corpse in the boot
• etc.

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• Michel Bonds classic book A Bear called
  Paddington in translation
• An example of massive cultural filtering in
  childrens literature.
• Examples here backtranslated from the German
  Paddington unser kleiner Bär

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• (Mr Brown offers Paddington some cakes)
• Im sorry they havent any marmalade ones, but
  these were the best I could get
• There is nothing with marmalade
• (Paddington in a shop)
• Mr Gruber took Paddington into his shop and
  after offering him a seat. .
• Then he pulled the little bear into the shop
  Sit
• down!
• (Small Talk)
• Hallo Mrs Bird said Judy Its nice to see you
  again. Hows the rheumatism? Worse than its
  ever been began Mrs Bird.
• (Zero-Realization in the German Translation)

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The Body Shop Corporate Statement (Original
English, Back Translation from German)

• We consider testing products or ingredients on
  animals morally and scientifically indefensible 

• We are of the opinion that experiments with
  animals in the cosmetics industry are neither
  necessary nor morally defensible

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• We are of the opinion that every man or woman is
  beautiful, everyone in his or her own way

• We know that you're unique, and we'll always
  treat you like an individual.

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PG CEO Speech to students at small US College
(Original English, Back Translation from
German)Simulation of oral impromptu talk

• I will use the time allotted to me to report
  on...
• I will report on another case...

• I thought Id use my time here to talk to you
  about
• Ill give you one more example

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Congruent Presentation of states of affairs and
events

• For the preparation of my presentation today I
  asked Dr. Amos Bradford for a few suggestions...

• When I was first started to put together my
  remarks for today, I asked for some input from
  Dr. Amos Bradford, who provided a broad list of
  subjects he thought youd be interested in
  hearing about

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• After Ive finished, Ill be happy to answer any
  questions you have and, hopefully, to engage in a
  bit of conversation about the issues well raise
  here this afternoon.

• After my presentation I will gladly answer all
  your questions and talk about this afternoons
  topics.

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Second Person Pronouns

• he provided a broad list of subjects he thought
  youd be interested in hearing about
• Youre tempted to put off a discussion

• ..he provided me with a long list of topics,
  which he considered interesting
• One is tempted to delay a conversation...

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Evaluations

• And its important to note that it is not just a
  piece of paper
• And more positively, governments and other
  companies really do want to deal with companies
  they feel...

• It is not simply a piece of paper
• Governments and other firms prefer to cooperate
  with companies which act

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Multisyn Vision 2000 (Original English, Back
Translation from German)

• ...look for intensive new ideas through
  observing, listening and learning from everyone.

• ...obsessively search for new ideas, by
  observing, listening and learning from everyone

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• I want to be part of a company which challenges
  me to
• put high expectations on me and others

• I want to be part of a company where I am
  challenged to..
• have unrelentingly high expectations of myself
  and others

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Goldsmith Corporate Statement (Original English,
Backtranslation from German)

• Our long term success requires a total commitment
  to exceptional standards of performance and
  productivity, to working together effectively

• Our long-term success is only possible, if we set
  ourselves exceptional standards of performance
  and productivity, and if we cooperate efficiently
  and with all preparedness.

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Milton Meissner Letter to Sharesholders
27.12.1971 (Original English, backtranslated from
German)

• As you will note, we have asked that you
  designate a bank (or broker) to which your
  dividend certificates will be sent. Your bank (or
  broker) should indicate its confirmation of your
  signature
• As you will note, we have asked you to name a
  bank (or a broker) to which the dividend
  certificates shall be sent. You have to ask the
  bank (or the broker) to confirm your signature

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CULTURAL FILTERING IN SCIENCE TEXTSHIV
Vaccines Prospects and Challenges
Scientific American, July 1998/ Backtranslated
from German Spektrum der Wissenschaft, October
1998

• Most vaccines activate what is called the humoral
  arm of the immune system.

• Most vaccines activate the so-called humoral arm
  of the immune system
• (after Latin humor,
• liquid.

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Buchbinder, S. Avoiding Infection after HIV
Exposure Scientific American July 1998
Backtranslation from German Spektrum der
Wissenschaft October 1998 Prevention after HIV
Contact

• Treatment may reduce the chance of contracting
  HIV infection after a risky encounter.

• An immediate treatment after contact reduces
  under certain circumstances the danger that the
  human immuno-deficiency-virus establishes itself
  in the body.There is no guarantee for this,
  moreover new risks arise.

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• Suppose you are a doctor in an emergency room
  and a patient tells you she was raped two hours
  earlier. She is afraid she may have been exposed
  to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS but has heard
  that there is a "morning-after pill" to prevent
  HIV infection.
• Can you in fact do anything to block the virus
  from replicating and establishing infection?

• In the emergency room of a hospital a patient
  reports that she had been raped two hours ago and
  was now worrying that she had been exposed to the
  AIDS-Virus. She said she had heard that there was
  an "After-Pill", which might prevent an
  HIV-infection. Can the doctor in fact do anything
  which might prevent potentially existing viruses
  from replicating and establishing themselves
  permanently in the body?

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• M.F. Perutz, Hemoglobin structure and
  respiratory transport, Scientific American,
  December 1978, Backtranslated from German,
  February 1979 Spektrum der Wissenschaften
• Hemoglobin carries oxygen from the lungs to the
  tissues and helps to transport carbon dioxide
  back to the lungs. It fulfils this dual role by
  clicking back and forth between two alternative
  structures.
• Hemoglobin, the substance responsible for the
  bloods red color, carries oxygen from the lungs
  to the tissues and facilitates the backtransport
  of carbon dioxide to the lungs. The molecule
  fulfils this double function because it changes
  between two structures. Why the grass is green
  and our blood red, are secrets which nobody will
  ever know. In this dim state, poor soul, what
  will you do? (John Donne On the souls
  progress)

58

• David Hounshell, Two Paths to the Telephone,
  Scientific American, June 1981
• As Alexander Graham Bell was developing the
  telephone, Elisha Gray was doing the same. Bell
  got the patent, but the episode is nonetheless an
  instructive example of simultaneous invention.
• Back Translation from German The Race for the
  Telephone Patent, Spektrum der Wissenschaft,
  August 1981.
• Independent of each other Alexander Graham Bell
  and Elisha Gray handed in nearly identical
  construction plans for a telephone in 1976 but
  only Bell received the patent and became rich and
  famous. Gray on the other hand had misjudged the
  importance of his invention and had moreover been
  badly advised.

59
INTERVIEW with German translator of Popular
Science Texts (Scientific American/Spektrum der
Wissenschaft)

• A bit more rational strength, a bit more what
  can we really do and what do we really know? What
  can we really build on? Many popular science
  texts written in English, when you translate
  them, you notice that they are written totally
  imprecise. You consume them in a way for your
  entertainment, and if you realize that then you
  dont find it so bad. But try to get this into
  German! The English language actually permits you
  to express yourself much more imprecisely, then
  everything is like chewing gum with a taste of
  science

60
5. Global English and Cultural Filtering

• Globalisation has created a demand for texts
  simultaneously meant for recipients in many
  different contexts. They are either translated
  covertly or produced simultaneously as
  comparable texts. In the past, translators
  routinely applied a cultural filter. Due to the
  global dominance of English, there is now a
  tendency towards cultural neutralism - which
  is in reality a drift towards (universal)
  Anglo-American norms.

61

• While Anglophone influence is amply documented in
  the area of words and phrases, we know very
  little about what happens at the levels of text
  and context. However, investigating textual
  shifts from local contexts towards pseudo-neutral
  Anglo-contexts is an important research task.
• A first step in this direction is the project
  Covert Translation at Hamburgs Research Center
  on Multilingualism. Here we investigate
  Anglophone influence on translations and
  comparable texts in other languages, using
  quantitative and qualitative diachronic analyses
  on the basis of multilingual corpora, interviews,
  and ethnographic background material.

62

• Covert Translation Corpus
• I Primary Translation Corpus Translations of
  English Texts into German,
• French, Spanish (later Chinese, Persian,
  Arabic)
• Two Genres
• Popular Science Texts
• Economic Texts
• -Business-/Product Information
• -Letters to Shareholders
• -Visions and Missions
• II Comparable Corpus English, German, French,
  Spanish (later Chinese,
• Persian, Arabic)
• Authentic original texts in the same genres
• III Validation Corpus

63

• The analyses show that German communicative
  preferences unlike French and Spanish ones!
  have indeed changed over the past 25 years
• (Two time frames 1978-1982 and 1999-2002 550
  texts, 800 000 words)
• Particularly vulnerable are the functional
  categories pronouns, conjunctions, pronominal
  adverbials, mental verbs and modal particles.
  They trigger changes in text norms
• There is a general tendency towards
  colloquialisation in German texts - where
  formerly a more scientific, serious norm was
  the rule in popular science and economic texts,
  and a cultural filter enabled German readers to
  be informed in a more detached manner rather than
  the entertaining person-oriented Anglo-manner..
  All this, it seems, is now changing.

64
Non-Filter Examples

• Michael Rose Can Human Ageing be Postponed?
  Scientific American, December 1999,
  Backtranslated from German March 2000 Can Human
  Ageing be Held up? Spektrum der Wissenschaft
• Anti-ageing therapies of the future will
  undoubtedly have to counter many destructive
  biochemical processes at once.
• Effective therapies must however take up the
  fight against many destructive biochemical
  processes simultaneously.

65

• Ian Tattersall Once we were not alone,
  Scientific American, January 2000, Backtranslated
  from German, Spektrum der Wissenschaft, March
  2000
• As far as can be told, these two hominids
  behaved in similar ways despite anatomical
  differences. And as long as they did so, they
  somehow contrived to share the Levantine
  environment.
• As far as we can judge this, both hominids
  behaved in a similar way despite all their
  anatomical differences. And as long as both
  stayed that way, they also succeeded in sharing
  the environment in the Near East.

66

• Hans Moravecs, Rise of the Robots, Scientific
  American, December 1999, Backtranslation from
  German Spektrum der Wissenschaften Robots will
  overtake usJanuary 2000
• Nevertheless, I am convinced that ... By 2040,
  I believe, we will finally achieve the original
  goal of robotics and a thematic mainstay of
  science fiction Why do I believe that rapid
  progress and stunning accomplishments are in the
  offing?
• Despite previous failures I am convinced that....
  By 2040 we will, so I think, have finally reached
  the great goal which has also been often praised
  in science fiction...How do I come to be so
  optimistic and believe

67

• Jill Tarter and Christopher Chyba Is Life
  elsewhere in the universe? Scientific American
  December 1999
• At a minimum we will have thoroughly explored
  the most likely candidates, something we cannot
  claim today. We will have discovered whether life
  dwells on Jupiters moon Europa or on Mars. And
  we will have undertaken the systematic
  exobiological exploration of planetary systems
• Is there extra-terrestral life? Spektrum der
  Wissenschaft March 2000, backtranslated
• We will at least have thoroughly examined the
  most likely candidates, something we cannot yet
  claim today. Until then we will for example find
  out whether we will find traces of life on the
  Jupiter moon Europa or on Mars. And we will have
  begun to systematically and biologically
  investigate extrasolar planets

68

• While there is then some evidence that cultural
  filtering is replaced by All-Anglo Norms,
• we cannot be sure that the dissolution of
• the natural ties between texts and their local
  contexts is traceable to hegemonic English via
  translation processes
• It might for instance be the case that the
  observed changes reflect a current general
  (media-induced? youth-culture conditioned?)
  tendency for texts to become more colloquial,
  more oral, more ,personal!

69

• The changes in the link between text and context
  can presently not be definitively explained. Much
  more empirical research is needed - with
  different genres, different language pairs and
  larger diachronic corpora - before plausible
  hypotheses can be formulated that might explain
  how global English changes the link between texts
  and their local contexts.