16.1713, Review: Translation: Kittel et al. (2004)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-1713. Mon May 30 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.1713, Review: Translation: Kittel et al. (2004)

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1)
Date: 27-May-2005
From: Thorsten Schröter < thorsten.schroter at kau.se >
Subject: Übersetzung / Translation / Traduction (Vol.1) 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 00:56:24
From: Thorsten Schröter < thorsten.schroter at kau.se >
Subject: Übersetzung / Translation / Traduction (Vol.1) 
 

EDITORS: Kittel, Harald; Frank, Armin Paul; Greiner, Norbert; Hermans, Theo;
Koller, Werner; Lambert, José; Paul, Fritz
TITLE: Übersetzung / Translation / Traduction
SUBTITLE: Ein internationales Handbuch zur Übersetzungsforschung, 
1. Teilband / An International Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, 
Volume 1 / Encyclopédie internationale des sciences de traduction, 
Tome 1
SERIES: Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft / 
Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science / Manuels de linguistique et 
des sciences de communication 26.1
PUBLISHER: Mouton de Gruyter
YEAR: 2004
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-3411.html


Thorsten Schröter, Division for Culture and Communication, Karlstad 
University, Sweden

Upon holding a copy of the first volume of the International 
Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (henceforth IETS) in one's hands, 
it becomes immediately obvious that one is dealing with a huge and 
impressive enterprise. This is also reflected by the fact that, according 
to the preface, the ideas behind the IETS were made public in 1994, 
i.e. ten years before the publication of the actual first volume, which is 
the focus of the present review. This volume comprises over 1000 
pages, with the two remaining volumes apparently planned to be of 
similar size. Of the 44 chapters to be included in the entire IETS, the 
first volume covers 15, which in turn correspond to 106 of the 
approximately 350 articles planned in all. There are as many as LXXIV 
pages before page 1, which is the highest number I have ever 
encountered in a book, including the printed version of the Oxford 
English Dictionary. However, part of the reason for this is that the 
preface and the introduction, as well as parts of the table of contents, 
are provided in all three of the languages of the IETS, i.e. German, 
English, and French.

The IETS does not function like a dictionary or glossary where each 
term and concept related to translation is defined in a few lines and 
can be quickly looked up. The articles in the first volume, printed in two 
columns per page, are between 5 and 62 (!) pages long, with the 
average perhaps being 10 pages. They carry titles such as '1. 
Translation as conditio humana', '15. Philosophy of language and 
translation: Translation as an object of reflection in the philosophy of 
language', and '26. Possibilities and limitations of linguistic approaches 
to translation', but also somewhat narrower ones like '63. Idioms as a 
translation problem', and '100. The translation of verse in drama'. All 
but five of the articles are written by a single expert in the field. 
Depending on the author(s) and topics, the articles differ from each 
other in terms of style and the amount and kind of background 
knowledge that is more or less taken for granted in each. Readers 
from different academic backgrounds may thus find them accessible to 
different degrees. While the overall editorial goal has obviously not 
been to ensure easy reading, the articles are all well-written, 
structured into reasonably short sections and sub-sections, and 
followed by a selected bibliography (on average about one page in 
length).
 
The introduction touches on some general issues concerning the 
book, including the historical and current importance of translation, the 
recent growth of translation studies, the multiple approaches to and 
interests in translation, and the problems of defining translation for all 
times, places, and circumstances. It is stressed explicitly that no 
particular view or approach has been favoured, and that the goal has 
been inclusiveness when it comes to taking up aspects relevant to 
translation and its study. As individual summaries and evaluations of 
the 106 articles are out of the question in this brief review, I will just 
give a list of the English headings of the 15 chapters of volume 1 
(together with the number of articles in each), in order to provide the 
reader with a better idea of the contents:

I. Anthropological foundations, cultural contexts and forms of 
translation (9 articles)
II. The ubiquity of translation in the modern world (2)
III. Translation as an object of reflection and scholarly discourse (12)
IV. Translation from a linguistic and textual perspective: Linguistic 
foundations (7)
V. Concepts, domains, and methods of linguistic translation studies (15)
VI. Problems of language and style in linguistic translation studies (21)
VII. Text types in linguistic translation studies (10)
VIII. Translation analysis, translation comparison and translation 
criticism in linguistic translation studies (4)
IX. Machine and machine-aided translation (2)
X. Interpreting and the study of interpreting (2)
XI. Translation and cultural studies: Foundations and issues (3)
XII. Literary and cultural translation studies: Style (5)
XIII. Literary and cultural translation studies: Textual macro-structures 
and micro-structures (6)
XIV. Literary and cultural translation studies: Verse and prose (3)
XV: Literary and cultural translation studies: Multimedia translation (5)

These headings are an attempt at dealing with the difficult, if not 
actually quite hopeless, task of categorizing the various aspects of 
translation. Obviously, there can be considerable overlap between the 
topics taken up under e.g. linguistic (chapters IV-VIII/IX/X) and literary 
(XI/XII-XV) translation studies, respectively, and the titles of the articles 
will usually provide a better clue as to where one can find specific 
information.

As already indicated above, however, finding specific information 
quickly is not always easy in the IETS. It is made even more difficult by 
the fact that the entire encyclopedia is seen as one unit, and that 
subject and name indexes are planned only for the end of the third 
volume (whenever it is bound to appear). That means that people who 
might want to content themselves with the first volume, e.g. because of 
the rather steep price, and/or because its topics are of greater interest 
to them than those of the other two volumes (introductions to fields 
defined in terms of historical period, geographical and/or cultural area, 
or source text), must make do without a clear guide as to where 
exactly they can find their topic of interest mentioned.

Another issue related to the question of accessing information is that 
of the three languages of the IETS. This matter is not taken up in 
either the preface or the introduction, perhaps because it is simply a 
reflection of the policy for the entire series Handbooks of Linguistics 
and Communication Science, of which the IETS is a part. It is, 
however, worth a comment: as I said, both the preface and the 
introduction have been printed three times each, in German, English, 
and French, and also the chapter headings are provided in these 
three languages (and the titles of the articles in two languages each). 
Yet when it comes to the actual articles, i.e. the core texts of the book, 
each is printed in one language only, so that for full access to all the 
information contained in the IETS, the reader needs to be proficient in 
German, English, and French (making the triple versions of the 
preface and the introduction rather redundant). On the other hand, 
although in theory French may have been intended to have an equal 
status, it does not have it in practice, since only 4 of the 106 articles 
are written in that language, while 52 are in German and the remaining 
50 in English. Judging from the preliminary table of contents for 
volumes 2 and 3, the relationships will remain about the same 
throughout the IETS, and I think prospective buyers of the work should 
be aware of these aspects.

Most of the articles remain on a relatively general level and provide 
few concrete examples or discussions thereof. The more abstract, 
theoretical, and/or foundational aspects of translation and translation 
studies also receive more attention in terms of how many articles are 
devoted to them, while certain topics that (also) are of interest to a 
large number of people may be taken up in surprisingly few articles. 
Thus, although they are touched upon occasionally in other contexts 
(once again, a subject index already for volume 1 would have been 
welcome), the large areas of machine translation and interpreting are 
only honoured with two articles each, and multimedia translation with 
just one. To some extent, the IETS still reflects the traditional main 
interest of translation studies, namely literary translation, even though 
linguistic approaches to the study of such translation are well-
represented.

The editing is good, and while small annoyances in the form of spelling 
errors, misplaced parentheses, missing punctuation marks, etc do 
occur, they are rare. It might be pointed out that the author of two 
articles is alternatively identified as Svejcer, Aleksandr (table of 
contents) and A. D. Svejcer (the articles themselves), which might 
cause problems in possible references to these texts. In the first of 
these, moreover, there are two different transcriptions of the same 
Russian name. While the language used in most articles is consistently 
gender-neutral, one finds the occasional counter-example that should 
have been edited out ('The translator's role as a receptor is 
characterized by his bilingual ...').

The minor quibbles I have with the IETS should not obscure the fact 
that this is a fantastic work of learning and that I am impressed by the 
scope and academic weight that it embodies. The list of contributors 
includes many of the most influential figures in translation studies, and 
I could not name a major approach, topic, or sub-division within the 
field that is not represented and discussed at least to some extent. 
Especially the, in my opinion successful, attempt at painting the big 
picture, at placing translation and its study within the larger context of 
linguistics and literature, history and culture, as well as other important 
aspects of human activity, is worth praise, although it should be 
stressed that the more narrowly defined concerns of translation 
studies have not been neglected and are taken up in at least one 
article each.

The IETS invites comparison with two similar publications, namely the 
all-English Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (Baker 
1998) and the all-German Handbuch Translation, 2nd edition (Snell-
Hornby et al. 1999). Both are shorter (single volumes of 600+ and 
400+ pages, respectively) and feature articles that are perhaps 2-3 
pages long on average, though they, too, attempt to cover all the main 
aspects of translation. While Baker (1998) has entries listed in 
alphabetical order, with references to a common bibliography at the 
end, Snell-Hornby et al. (1999) features thematic divisions and sub-
divisions like the IETS, as well as complete bibliographical information 
in the lists for further reading at the end of each article. While half of 
Baker (1998) is dedicated to overviews of translation in linguistically 
and geographically defined areas, Snell-Horby et al. (1999) does not 
contain such information and is instead more openly aimed at 
practitioners, not just or primarily at theoreticians and researchers. All 
things considered, the three publications mentioned fulfil overlapping, 
but not identical needs (and not only because they are written in 
different languages), and can complement each other. Baker (1998), 
and to some extent Snell-Hornby et al. (1999), are perhaps easiest to 
use when one needs basic information on a specific topic, while the 
IETS represents the most thorough introduction to the field of 
translation studies and can well be read from cover to cover (which 
one could also do with the more slender Snell-Hornby et al. (1999)). If 
the price and the languages of publication are not an issue, I would 
certainly recommend the IETS to anyone looking for an authoritative 
and substantial overview of the field of translation studies.

REFERENCES

Baker, Mona (ed). 1998. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation 
Studies. London: Routledge.

Snell-Hornby, Mary, Hans G. König, Paul Kußmaul & Peter A. Schmitt 
(eds). 1999. Handbuch Translation; Zweite, verbesserte Auflage. 
Tübingen: Stauffenburg. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thorsten Schröter has recently published his PhD thesis in English 
linguistics on the dubbing and subtitling of language-play in films. In 
the foreseeable future, he plans to combine further research in these 
fields with teaching and practical translation work.





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