Exploring Translation Theories presents a comprehensive analysis of the key traditional and contemporary paradigms of translation theory. The book builds on Western theories of translation, starting with a survey of the classical twentieth-century linguistic approaches before moving on to more recent models such as cultural translation. Each central paradigm and its associated theories are addressed in turn, including equivalence, purpose, description, uncertainty, localisation and cultural translation. Readers are encouraged to explore the various theories and consider their strengths and implications for translation today and in the future. The book closes with a survey of the way translation is used as a model in postmodern cultural studies and sociologies, extending the scope beyond traditional Western notions. Each chapter includes a wealth of material for readers, including key concepts, an introduction outlining the main points, illustrative examples with translations, a chapter summary, and discussion points and exercises. Exploring Translation Theories uses numerous examples from a range of languages, although knowledge of no language other than English is assumed. With a wealth of tasks and activities, it will be ideal both for classroom and self-study use. This comprehensive and highly engaging book is designed for students studying Translation Theory in Translation Studies and Applied Linguistics programmes. A companion website for this book can be found at http://www.tinet.org/~apym/publications/ETT/index.html, with tasks, activities, video summaries and interviews.

Product Description: Starting from the critical notion that we should be asking questions of contemporary importance - and that 'importance' itself must be defined - Anthony Pym sets about undoing many of the currently dominant models of translation history, positing, among much else, that the object of this history should be translators as people, that researchers are subjectively involved in their object, that cultural systems are based on social will, that translators work in intercultural spaces, and that a model of cooperation through negotiation may be applied to the way translators (and researchers!) work between cultures...read more

Product Description: For the discourse of localization, translation is often "just a language problem". For translation theorists, localization introduces fancy words but nothing essentially new. Both views are probably right, but only to an extent. This book sets up a dialogue across those differences...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Why would a Latin Qur'an be addressed to readers who knew no Latin? What happens when translators work on paper rather than parchment? Why would a Jewish rabbi translate a bible for Christians? How can a theorist successfully criticize a version of Aristotle without knowing any Greek? Why were children used to bring down an Amerindian civilization? Why does the statue of Columbus in Barcelona point straight to Israel? Why should a Nicaraguan poet cite a French poem in order to explain a volcano in Nicaragua? This book does more than answer such questions. It uses them to discuss some of the most fundamental and complex issues in contemporary Translation Studies and Cultural Studies. Identifying cultural intermediaries as members of medieval frontier society, it traces the stages by which that society has assisted in the creation of Hispanic cultures. Individual case studies go from the twelfth-century Christian, Islamic and Jewish exchanges right through to the not unrelated complexity of today's translation schools in Spain, mining a history rich in anecdote and paradox. Further aspects trace key concepts such as disputation, the medieval hierarchy of languages, the nationalist mistrust of intermediaries, the effects of decolonization on development ideology, and the difficulties of training students for globalizing markets.

Product Description: If civilizations are to cooperate as well as clash, our mediators must solve problems using serious thought about relations between Self and Other.   Translation Studies has thus returned to questions of ethics. But this is no return to any prescriptive linguistics of equivalence...read more

Product Description: Translation Studies has recently been searching for connections with Cultural Studies and Sociology. This volume brings together a range of ways in which the disciplines can be related, particularly with respect to research methodologies...read more

This survey of functionalist approaches in English explains the complexities of two theories - theory of actions (handlungstheorie) and the related theory of a translation's goal or purpose (skopostheorie) - and their terms, using simple language with examples.

Product Description: Translation obviously works on texts that move from one culture to another. But how should translation studies incorporate this basic principle of transfer? Refusing simple answers, this book sees the relation between translation and transfer as a complex phenomenon that must be described on both the semiotic and material levels...read more