Department of Interpreting and Translation
International Colloquium
26-27-28 April, 2009
Theme : Crossing Borders: Translation, Multi-disciplinarity
The theme proposed to our colleagues has been so designed as to allow a sufficient scope for a wide range of questions generated by the act of translation to be duly represented in the course of the discussion, our premises being that:
- one does not translate languages but texts ;
- today, translation is no longer to be considered as an end-product (the final text), but a dynamic interpretive and communicative process requiring extra-textual aspects (the socio-cultural context of the source text and that of the target text) to be taken stride.
It is precisely as process that translation is addressed in translation theory. Indeed, taking inspiration from research in the applied sciences, that is, resorting to an interdisciplinary approach, translation theory makes us aware of the complexity of the translation activity. The purpose of the latter is to establish equivalences between texts belonging to different languages and cultures. "The equivalence sought is no longer conceived", as emphasized by Henri Mecchonnic, "as one between two languages, by attempting to have linguistic, cultural, and historical differences ignored. On the contrary, it is addressed from one text to another through an effort seeking to bring out the linguistic, cultural, and historical otherness as a specificity, as historicity.
Translation of course posits from the start a need to establish contact, a need to communicate. The value of translation can be gauged by taking into consideration the degree with which it succeeds in meeting such a requirement.
Various theories have been given an impetus by theoretical thinking on translation and have attempted to enlighten the practice of translation. Some of these theories, inspired by hermeneutics, have considered the work of translation solely as a matter of understanding the source text. Other theories have emphasized the view that the translator's choices should be determined by the needs of the addressee. Thus the requirement to be faithful to the original becomes, in this instance, contingent on the public's expectations.
Currently, some researches, no doubt in the wake of the success of pragmatics, have downplayed the role played by linguistics in the translation activity by emphasizing the semantic contents. However, there is no denying that meaning is underpinned by the material, textual foundation: in other words, the words and their combinations in the discursive chain. This is why, in a first stage, it is mandatory to resort to a contrastive approach, i.e. to a logical analysis of the structures of the languages at play. This approach is helpful for identifying the variety of devices that make it possible to find equivalence quickly. Needless to say, one can never ever fully or perfectly master a language, since language is something continuously living, evolving, ----given the fact that its users will constantly transform it into "parole". Change is involved even in the so-called "specific purpose" languages: legal, philosophical, political, scientific, technical languages…. This is why the contrastive approach could be supplemented by the interpretive one, which gives more importance to the contents than to the linguistic form of the message, thus providing clues towards a possible re-expression. But this approach cannot suffice, either. How can the "contents", the "sense", of the message, be defined? How could the message be situated against such concepts as "signification" and "signifying"? In Roland Barthe's words, meaning is not " the unfolding of the text, but its bursting out: with solicitations for contact, communication, with contractual positioning, with exchange, with referential offshoots, with glimmers of knowledge, along with more subtle, more penetrating strokes emanating from 'the other scene', the scene of the symbolic…"Such a wording implies that the search for meaning and for a means of achieving re-expression of this meaning posits that the translator is endowed with a creative capacity, a capacity arising from knowledgeability in various, multiple fields—in linguistics, history, geography, politics…. To which, particularly in the current context of globalization, one should add the requirement for the translator to tap the immense resources linked with information and communication technologies, including the language industry. As it appears, the translator's activity is not the activity of a person confined within an ivory tower, amidst a whole array of dictionaries. On the contrary, this activity is open to the world, and is performed synchronically as well as diachronically.
In fact, the actual problem faced in translation seems to be the difficulty to transfer the non-linguistic facts constituted by the culture of the source text in that of the target text through the linguistic medium. Indeed, as we get reminded that culture is made up of the sum of human knowledge in all its variety as well as of public opinions, it appears as obvious that efficient translation should be both bilingual and bi-cultural if it is to translate most faithfully sense effects and situational, linguistic performance proper to the source language into the discourse of the target language.
This problem can be particularly well perceived when dealing with literary texts. It is indeed through literature that the virtual potentialities of a language can best flourish, as language is both "parole" , swerving from the "norm" and the most beautiful means of communication owing in particular to connotations. Connotation indeed overrides the sphere of denotation to enlighten words with the fire of polysemic richness. Or, as underscored by Michel Benamou, "connotations are either cultural or the product of the imagination, they explode the realm of linguistics by making us penetrate the individual, social, national, racial experience of each addressee. "
The language-society connection is thus a very close connection in the translation activity in general, and in fact connotation is not proper to literature only.
Translation is as old as the world as it has always made a contribution to the growth of languages as well as to the development of ideas and aesthetic forms. Its usefulness lies in its being a cultural memory as evidenced in the bilingual inscriptions on ancient monuments.
On the borderline where two languages part ways translation establishes bridges and works out the bonds needed for cultural values to move around and enrich the world. More than ever, in our modern world in which we have such a rapid flow of knowledge owing to the development of means of transport, the mediating role of Translation proves to be indispensable.
"One man, one idea: two men, two ideas. This is what makes the village live." So will the elders of Mali say. This truth is equally valid for us today as we dream of founding a "global village".
The Conference Themes Include the Following:
I. TRANSLATION
- Source-seekers and tearget seekers facing the problem of faithfulness
- Translability and untranslatability
- What didactic back up for teaching translation ?
II. MULTI-DISCIPLINARITY
- Translation and Interpretation
- Translation and communication (context of enunciation and reception)
- Translation, information technology and language industries.
Languages Used in the Conference
Arabic, French, English, Spanish, German
Summaries to be sent before the end of January 2009, full texts before the end of February 2009 to the following addresses:
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Scientific Committee
- Pr Nora TAZI-TANI
- Pr Bouteina CHERIET
- Dr Layachi AÏSSI
Organizing Committee
- Mrs Adila MAHENNI BENAOUDA :
- Miss Khadidja MERAKCHI
- Mr. Med Réda BOUKHALFA
N.B: Only transport fees are supported by the participants.