Glossary

Rewording in the same language.

Translation between different languages.

Translation from one mode to another (e.g. verbal to non-verbal).

Translation theory applied to translator training, translation aids and translation criticism.

The translation of film and other screen products.

Translation of dialogue that appears in lines on the screen.

Spoken translation of a film, etc., synchronised with the actor’s lips.

Overall approach to a translation.

Micro-level decision in a translation.

The language of the text to be translated.

The language of the translation.

The text that is to be translated.

The translated text.

Terminology to describe the field of translation.

A translation that operates one word at a time using the most frequent TL correspondent for each ST word.

A translation that operates with units of meaning above the word level (e.g. phrase, idiom).

A translation approach that manipulates the ST; sometimes refers to ‘sense-for-sense translation’. The term is not normally used in modern translation theory.

A translation that uses the closest TL correspondents but complies with TL grammatical structures. (Note that there are other definitions of ‘literal translation’, including ‘word-for-word translation’).

A term from early translation theory that stressed the need for the TT to be ‘loyal’ to the ST.

Overly literal translation.

Broadly, ‘sense-for-sense translation’.

Adaptation.

Faithfulness. One of Yán Fù’s translation ‘difficulties’.

Intelligibility. One of Yán Fù’s translation ‘difficulties’.

Elegance. One of Yán Fù’s translation ‘difficulties’.

consider that although languages may differ in the way they convey meaning and in the surface realisations of that meaning, there is a shared way of thinking and experiencing of that meaning

claims that differences in languages shape different conceptualizations of the world.

The basic structural elements out of which language builds its elaborate surface structures

The relationship between different linguistic structures.

The denotative, ‘dictionary’ meaning.

The associations a word produces.

Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content aiming to have the message in the receptor language matching as closely as possible the different elements in the source language’.

Equivalence is achieved on the basis of equivalent effect. i.e. ,‘the relationship between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message’ (Nida 1964a: 159)

Equivalence of the extralinguistic content of a text

Equivalence related to the associations evoked by a lexical choice, especially between near-synonyms.

Equivalence related to text types, with different kinds of texts behaving in different ways

Equivalence oriented towards the receiver of the text or message

Equivalence related to the form and aesthetics of the text, includes wordplays and the individual stylistic features of the ST.

Refer to a field of research and a phenomenon of communication that combines different modes, such as image, speech, writing or gestures.

Term normally used to refer to macro-level solutions and an overall orientation of the translator. These are in a large part determined by the brief.

Term used to refer to micro-level solutions, i.e. to the local decisions and specific techniques used by the translator at a certain point in a text.

General translation strategy identified by V&D that corresponds to literal translation.

General translation strategy identified by V&D that corresponds to free translation.

Linguistic changes occurring in translation of ST to TT.

“the smallest segment of the utterance whose signs are linked in such a way that they should not be translated individually”. In this respect, it is a combination of a ‘lexicological unit’ and a ‘unit of thought’.

“Any TL category (unit, class, element of structure etc.) which can be said to occupy, as nearly as possible, the ” same” place in the ” economy” of the TL as the given SL category occupies in the SL” (Catford 1965: 27)

“Any TL text or portion of text which is observed on a particular occasion … to be the equivalent of a given SL text or portion of text” (Catford 1965: 27)

Relates to a choice or patterns of choices that stand out as unusual and may come to the reader’s attention.

A corpus is a large, principled collection of naturally occurring examples of texts stored electronically.

Research approach focused on studying internal mental processes such as attention, perception, memory and decision-making.

Collections of texts in the same language.

Collections of similar source texts in two or more languages which can be ‘mined’ for terminology and other equivalences.

Collection of ST–TT pairs aligned sentence-by-sentence or paragraph-by-paragraph.

Research that builds up from corpus data towards patterns and generalizations

Research that takes a pre-existing theory as its starting point and uses the corpus to test the theory.

Cognitive-based theory of communication that proposes human communication is guided by a principle of optimal relevance.

Socio-cognitive approach that emphasizes that knowledge and cognition are not abstract but are instead embedded within specific physical, social, and cultural contexts.

Interdisciplinary cognitive science framework that posits cognition is not solely confined to the brain but is influenced by the body, social context, environmental interactions, and emotions

Keystroke logging is the act of tracking and recording every keystroke entry made on a computer.

Eye-tracking refers to the act of recording the movements of the eyes, pauses and pupil dilation.

Research methods in which the translator is asked to verbalize their thought processes while translating or immediately afterwards (retrospective protocol), often with no prompting on content.

Research method in which the researcher is immersed in the day-to-day activities of the participants.

Type of text categorized according to the predominant language function: informative, expressive or operative.

Variety of text that conforms to a text type: e.g., the genre ‘encyclopaedia’ is an informative text type.

The adaptation of a ST to the target locale.

Views translation as purpose-driven intercultural transfer involving a number of actors.

The instructions given to the translator about the translation requirements.

A theory that centres on the purpose of translation.

Fulfilling the requirements of the skopos.

The coherence rule and the fidelity rule.

The TT gives the reader access to the ST but is clearly a translation.

The TT operates as if it were a text originally written in the TL.

A socio-semiotic theory of language developed by Michael Halliday. Used by Hatim and Mason, and others.

Analysis of the contextual variables of a communicative situation: Field, tenor, mode.

What the text is about and how this experience is represented.

The relationship between participants in the communication.

The form of communication (e.g. written, spoken).

The strand of meaning that is associated with field.

The strand of meaning that is associated with tenor.

The strand of meaning that is associated with mode.

The vocabulary and structures that produce meaning.

The resources available to a language at any given point in a text.

The evaluation of the quality of a TT.

A TT that operates as an original ST.

A TT that does not hide its status as a translation.

Modification of culture-specific terms by the translator in order to make the text more accessible to the TT audience.

Word order and information structure.

Significant or predominant linguistic features.

How a text holds together linguistically through: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, lexis.

Language in use.

A development of SFL’s interpersonal theory of language, focusing on evaluative choices.

How a story is built from multiple sources and experiences that confirm or challenge existing power structures. Used by Baker, Harding, Boéri, Sadler and others to investigate the ethical positioning of a text/translator.

The socially constructed interpretation of reality.

a system of functions of the literary order which are in continual interrelationship with other orders

a system of various systems which intersect with each other and partly overlap.

Position occupied by the system when it participates actively in shaping the centre of the polysystem

Position occupied by the system when it represents a peripheral system within the polysystem with no major influence over the central system.

Agreed forms of behaviour, partly prescriptive in nature, but weaker than rules.

Strong constraints supported by legislation and carrying legal penalties if broken.

Informal forms of behaviour acquired by trial and error.

Refers to general choices made by translators

Refers to translation policy and directness of translation

Refer to the presentation and linguistic matter of the TT

Govern the selection of TT linguistic material

In translation, textual relations obtaining in the original are often modified in favour of more habitual options offered by a target repertoire

Interference from ST to TT is inevitable

common tendencies identified in translated texts

Established by the expectations of readers of a translation concerning what a translation should be like

critics, reviewers, academics, translators

individuals, groups, institutions

An interdisciplinary theory of translation, conceived in the 2010s

Examines how gender shapes societal structures, norms, and practices

Examines gender identity and expression, particularly in regard to people who are not cisgender

analyses same-sex desire, non-normative sexualities, and critiques the treatment of dominant sexualities in texts

Demont’s term for a translation that rewrites a text from a certain hegemonic standpoint

Demont’s term for a specific, unidimensional strategy

Demont’s term for a translation that aims to make evident and recreate the queerness of the source text

like postcolonial translation, but stemming from a different intellectual and geographical background (Latin America)

In the words of Bandia, it ‘seeks to redress the inequities and power differentials resulting from the condition of colonisation and/or enslavement that are manifest in encounters between subaltern and dominant language cultures’.

in-betweenness refers to the hybrid space where cultures intersect, challenge, and negotiate identities

a hybrid, liminal space where cultures intersect and interact, challenging fixed identities and creating new meanings

Examines how translation reflects and shapes power dynamics between cultures, particularly in contexts marked by colonial histories

The minimization or erasure of the translator from the text or paratext, producing an illusion of transparency, according to Venuti

The explicit presence of the translator in the text or paratext, foregrounding their role

A translation stategy that produces translations in a transparent, fluent, ‘invisible’ style in order to minimize the foreignness of the TT (Venut)

A translation strategy that ‘entails choosing a foreign text and developing a translation method along lines which are excluded by dominant cultural values in the target language’ (Venuti)

A foreignizing translation strategy that amplifies minority or marginalized voices and perspectives (Venuti)

“The negative analytic is primarily concerned with ethnocentric, annexationist translations and hypertextual translations (pastiche, imitation, adaptation, free writing), where the play of deforming forces is freely exercised.” (Berman)

Four types: witness-bearer, voice-giver, vernacular mediator, the revolutionary

Studying the social nature of translation and the study of translators (‘translator studies’)

The broad social, identitary and cognitive make-up or ‘disposition’ of the individual, which is heavily influenced by family and education

A structured social arena with its own rules, power relations, and valued resources, in which agents compete to accumulate and convert different forms of capital (Bourdieu)

A sociological approach conceived by Bruno Latour involving human and non-human actors interacting in a network

A bottom-up method of analysing history; it concentrates on the fine detail of the life of an ordinary individual (or event) that throws light on the bigger societal picture of that time

Refers to verbal and visual material in the peritexts (material inside the volume) or epitexts (material outside the volume)

The investigation of what it means to “understand” a piece of oral or written speech, and the attempt to diagnose this process in terms of a general model of meaning

A four phase model: initiative trust, aggresion, incorporation, compensation

An experimental translation strategy, proposed by Philip Lewis, that involves risk-taking and intentionally tampering with standard language usage to match the expressive and rhetorical force of the original

The tension and ambiguity arising from the differences between the source and target languages and cultures

A concept by Steiner where the translator feels a deep, kindred connection to a text, recognizing themselves in it, which transcends resistant difference

A philosophical movement, led by Jacques Derrida, that dismantles key linguistic premises by questioning the stability of meaning and the fixed relationship between signifier and signified

A Brazilian postcolonial movement where the colonizer’s language is metaphorically devoured and absorbed to create a new, energized, and decolonized form of literature and language

A higher, magical language that is released through the harmonization of the source and target texts, achieved via a word-for-word, literal translation (cf. Benjamin).

Ricœur’s term for an ethical translation process respecting both the source and target cultures and languges

when the target culture ingests and becomes enriched by the foreign text (Steiner)

Translation and adaptation of a given product to meet the expectations of the target locale.

A translation-related activity that combines processes of linguistic translation, cultural adaptation and (re-)creation or creative re-interpretation of certain parts of a text.

An approach to translation developed by Tianzhen Xie that combines comparative literature with translation studies.

An approach to translation developed by Zhonglian Huang and focused on translations that are partial, abridged, ‘unfaithful’, interlingual or intralingual adaptations, or rewritings.

Communities of readers, viewers or users of translation organized around shared interests and expectations.

Subtitling performed and distributed by fans online.

Software tools that assist human translators work faster and more consistently by leveraging former translations via the use of translation memories and terminology databases.

Software tools that perform translation automatically without human intervention.

A segment of text that a translator treats as a single unit for the purpose of finding an equivalent in the target text.

A method of machine translation that relies on comprehensive sets of linguistic rules and dictionaries to translate text from a source language to a target language.

A method of machine translation that uses statistical models to translate text based on large amounts of existing human translations.

A method of machine translation that uses artificial deep learning neural networks to translate text between languages by learning from large amounts of real-world text data.

Advanced AI programs trained on large datasets of text and code, enabling them to understand, generate, and manipulate human language.

The process of reviewing and correcting machine-translated text by a human translator

Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks, followed by the minimization, monitoring, and control of the impact or probability of those risks occurring

The process of systematically assessing a translated text to ensure its accuracy, readability, and acceptability for a target audience.

Expression used to refer to the output generated by LLMs that reads and sounds as if produced by a human being.

A response generated by AI that contains false or misleading information presented as fact.

An approach developed by Hu Gengshen that builds on the notion of unity between man and nature and establishes a comparison between natural ecosystems and translational ecosystems.

The practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the internet

A process where two or more individuals or entities work together to create a translated product.

A translation practice that gives control to speakers and translators of minority languages of what, when and how texts might be translated into and out of their languages

The linking together of various methods of inquiry in order to advance knowledge.

Conceptualizes translation as a semiotic process of change. All translation is considered to be ‘intersemiotic’ communication between sign systems, operating under certain constraints.