Justifying the deverbalization approach in the interpreting and translation classroom.docx

Justifying the deverbalization approach in the interpreting and translation classroom.docx

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Justifyingthedeverbalizationapproachintheinterpretingandtranslationclassroom

Justifyingthedeverbalizationapproachintheinterpretingandtranslationclassroom

PublishedinForum1:

2.47-63（2003）

DanielGILE

UniversitéLumièreLyon2

Résumé

Pourconvaincrelesétudiantsdel’intérêtdeladéverbalisation,ilimportedelessensibiliseraupréalableaufaitqu’entraduisant,ilsaccomplissentunetâchecommunicationnelleauserviced’unclientetd’unauteur.Surcettebasedeloyautéprofessionnelle,ilscomprennentl’intérêtdelacorrectiondecertaineserreursetmaladressestechniques.Eninterprétation,l’existencedecelles-ciapparaîtrapidementauxyeuxdesélèves-interprètesdufaitdeleurspropresdifficultés.Entraduction,l’expérimentationpédagogiqueaideàmontrerquelavariabilitéestunepartieintrinsèquedelaproductiondudiscours,quel’auteurd’untexten’enestpasnécessairementlemaîtreabsolu,etqu’ilpeutsouhaiterlemodifiers’ilenalapossibilité.Cetteexpérimentation,ainsiquelesexplicationsthéoriques,quin’excluentpaslesaspectsspécifiquesparlanguesetparpairesdelangues,ontuneffetsensibilisateur,maisunsuiviconcretdanslapratiqueestindispensable.

Keywords:

Deverbalization,classroomexperimenting,speech-productionvariability,fidelity,language-specificity

I.Introduction

Inarecentbookontranslationresearchanddidactics,Hatim（2001）rightlyputsthe“literalvs.free”issueatthecenterofdebatesontranslationthroughouthistory.Inthetranslatortrainingschoolsenvironment,theliteratureofthepast30yearsseemstoreflectaconsensus,atleastontranslationofinformationaltexts（asopposedtoliterarytexts）,infavorofameaningandintention-orientedtranslationstrategy,asopposedtoastrategybasedonformalequivalence:

itisfeltthattranslationsufferswhenitisconstructedonlinguisticcorrespondences,andservesitspurposebetterwhentheformofthesourcetextisusedtounderstanditandisthenhonorablydischargedwhilethereformulationprocessproceedsonthebasisofanautonomousmentalrepresentationofitsmeaning（informational,emotional,social,intentional,etc.）.AspointedoutbyPöchhacker（1994:

22）,morethan40yearsago,Wirl（1958:

23）talkedaboutthetranslatoroperatingmostlyonthebasisofthecontent（“sense”）ofthesourcetext

strippedofitslinguisticform（“vomWortlautschongelöst,alsoentsprachlicht”）.Twodecadeslater,SeleskovitchandLedererofESIT,Paris,madethis“deverbalization”principlethefoundationoftheir“theoryofsense”（“théoriedusens”）.Intheliterature,thereissomeuncertaintyastothestatusofthisconcept:

isitsupposedtobetotalorpartial（Laplace2002:

197,Setton2003）,descriptiveorprescriptive?

Myfeeling,somewhatdifferentfromKarlaDéjeanLeFéal’s（2002:

146）,isthatthe“theoryofsense”isonlychallengedbyitscriticsasadescriptivetheoryintheusualscientificsenseoftheword,butthatitiswidelysupportedasaprescriptiveparadigm,thatis,adesirableapproachtotranslation.Thispaperdiscussesstrategiesforjustifyingsuchanapproachtostudentsintheclassroom.

II.Translator-rolepostulates

LikemanyotherauthorsandTranslationinstructors（“Translation”withacapitalTwillbeusedtorefertobothtranslationandinterpreting;similarly,“Translators”willrefertotranslatorsandinterpreters,and“Texts”willrefertotextsandspeeches）,IbelievethatprescriptivestatementsaboutTranslationstrategiesaremostconvincingiftheyarebasedonaclearideaaboutthecommunicativeroleofTranslation,thatis,ifitismadecleartostudentsthatintheworldofprofessionalTranslation,mostoften,andnearlyalwayswhentranslatingnon-literarytexts,Translatorsareexpectedtoservenottexts,butpeople,withparticularintentionsandinterests.

Explanationscanbe“theoretical”,forinstanceusingthe“skopostheory”（seeforexampleReissandVermeer1984,Schäffner1998）.Inanacademicenvironment,muchcanbesaidinfavorofsomeabstractthinkingandtheorizing.However,inthecontextofshort,moreprofessionallyorientedprograms,astraightforward,down-to-earthapproachisprobablymoreefficient:

whenstudentsaretoldaboutthereal-lifecircumstancesthatleadtoaTranslationassignment,itbecomesclearertothemthattheyareaskedtoTranslateprimarilyinordertohelpusersoperateamachine,tohelparesearcherpresentandexplainhis/hertheoryorfindingstofellow-researchers,tohelpaCEOpresentanddefendhisbusinessstrategytodirectorsandshareholders,tohelpacompanysellitsproducts,etc.ItalsobecomesclearertothemthattheTranslation

commissionerisgenerallynotthespeakerortheauthorofthetextbutanintermediary,whoseprimaryinterestsmaybetoservetheinterestsofthespeakerorauthorortheirorganization’s,butmayjustasoftenbepurelycommercial.

ThedefaultparametersIdefineintheclassroomafterdiscussionofothercasespositaTranslationdoneattherequestofaTranslationcommissioner（the“Client”）withthepurposeofconveyingtotarget-languagereadersorlistenerstheauthor’sorspeaker’smessage,bothintermsoftheinformationthats/heintendsthemtoreceiveandintermsoftheeffect（s）thats/heistryingtoachieve.Thus,theTranslator’sprofessionalloyaltyisduebothtotheClient,byvirtueoftheprofessionalrelationshiptheyenterinto,andtotheauthororspeaker,whomtheTranslatorrepresents,mostofteninatransparentway,atleastinwritten,non-literarytranslation:

readersmayhavetheknowledgethattheyarereadingatranslation,butnottheconstantawarenessofthefact,andfeelthattheyarereadingtheauthor’stext,notthetranslator’s.Inthemostfrequentcase,theClient'saimsarenotincompatiblewiththeauthor/speaker’s,whichmeansthattheTranslatorisfreetodevotehis/hereffortstoservetheauthor’s/speaker’sinterests（differentsituations,wheretheTranslatorservesnottheauthor,butathirdparty,alsooccur-seeGile1995）.

Onceprofessionalloyaltyisseenasservingtheauthorofamessage,whosetextorspeechistheverbalobjectdesignedtoservehis/herintentiontoproducecertaineffectsonreaders/listeners,andunderthedefaultassumptionthattheauthor'sinterestsdonotclashwiththeClient’s,itbecomeseasytoidentifycertaincaseswheretheTranslatorcanjustifiablydepartfromthesourceText.Inparticular,whenitcontainsamistakewhichcanreasonablybeassumedtoresultfromatechnicalproblem（suchasatypo）orfromtheauthor’sinsufficientmasteryofthesource-textlanguage,itiseasytodefendtheideathattheTranslatordoeshis/herworkbestifs/hecorrectsitinthetargetText.Similarly,ifaTextisambiguousandthereisnoreasontobelievethisisduetotheauthor’sintentiontobevague,studentscanbepersuadedthattheywillservesuchanauthor’sintentionsandinterestsbestbyremovingtheambiguity.

Overthepasttenyearsorso,IhavebeencollectingauthenticTextswitherrorsandambiguouspassagesforclassroomdemonstrations.SuchTextscanbefoundinthecourseofone’sTranslationwork（forinterpreting,speechesmayberecorded,bothintheconferenceroom-withtherelevantpersons’permission,orfromradioandTVbroadcasts）.Instructorsnotcurrentlyengagedinprofessionaltranslationcanlookforsuitableexamplesinscientificpapers,whichareoftenwrittenbynonnativespeakers,andinparticularinabstracts.

Inthetranslationclassroom,inordertosavetime,thewholetextispresentedtostudents,buttheyareaskedtotranslateonlyshortpassageswhichareparticularlyproblematic,soastoraisetheirawarenessofsuchproblemsin“official”printedmaterial,whichmanyofthemtendtoconsidererror-free（“Ithasbeenpublished,soitmustbegood”）.

Oneparticularstrikingexamplewasfoundontheinternetrecently,inthebiographyofapersonality:

（accessedonOctober14,2000）,wherethefollowingtwosentenceswerefound:

“HeisqualityofknowledgeisaMujjahidMurakkihJuristicScholarsabletooutweighbetweenthefourIslamicSchoolsofthought:

Hanafi,Maliki,Shaffi’ieandHanbali.”

........

“HeisthefounderofHizbut-TahrirUkbranchandthefounderofAl-Muhajirounworld-wild.”

ItwasobviousforthestudentsthatiftheywereaskedtotranslatethisWeb-pageintoFrenchforthepurposeofservingtheinterestsofitsauthors,theyhadtomakesenseoutofitandcorrectit.

III.Justifyingadeverbalizationapproachininterpretingclasses

OnceTranslationisunderstoodasacommunicationserviceassetoutinSectionIIabove,justifyingdeverbalizationintheinterpretingclassroomisrelativelyeasy,becausestudentsrealizewithinaveryshorttimehowcomplexanddifficultspeechproductioncanbeandhowofteninfelicitiesandevenerrorsoccurinspontaneousspeech.Notonlydotheyobservetheminotherspeakers,buttheypainfullyexperiencethemintheirownspeechproduction.ThedeteriorationoflinguisticoutputqualityinstudentsspeakingtheirnativelanguageduringexercisesinconsecutiveinterpretingwasoneofthephenomenaIfoundmoststrikingwhenIwasafirstyearinterpretingstudent

myself;itlaterbecamethefocusofanempiricalstudyinwhichIuseditasanindicatoroftherelativedifficultyofconsecutiveandsimultaneousinterpreting（Gile1987）.

Onceinterpretingstudentsareawareofthesedifficulties,theycanextrapolateonthebasisoftheirownexperienceandunderstandinaveryconcrete,personalway,reinforcedwithmanyfieldobservations,howstress,ortheinfluenceofaforeignlanguageintheimmedia