Transcript Document

Ideology and Translation
Definitions
• The set of factual and evaluative beliefs –
that is, the knowledge and the opinions –
of a group (van Dijk in Calzada Perez
2003, 5)
• The (tacit) assumptions, beliefs and value
systems which are shared collectively by
social groups (Simpson in Hatim & Mason
1997, 144)
Ideology in Texts
Linguistic choices made by the writer or
translator of a text may:
1) Create a particular perspective on the
events portrayed
2) Reflect the writer’s opinions and attitudes
3) Influence the readers’ opinions
Ideology and Translation
• The ideology of translating: preference for
particular translation strategies
• The translation of ideology: has there been
a shift due to intervention by the
translator?
• Manipulation of texts to fit reigning target
culture ideologies (Lefevere)
Methods for Studying
Ideology in Texts
1) Critical Discourse Analysis
2) Corpus Linguistics
3) Social Narrative Theory
Critical Discourse Analysis
• Language is about choice. Purpose of
CDA to analyse obvious or hidden
relations of dominance as manifested in
language. Politically committed.
• Method (Fairclough):
Description
Interpretation
Explanation
Example of CDA
• Potential obfuscation of agency and
causality:
‘A black township has been burnt down.’
‘Many peasants are dead.’
Corpus Linguistics
•
•
Ideology of usage/texts coded implicitly
Interpreted from cumulative effect of
many choices
• Methods:
A. General corpus
Key lexical items
Corpus linguistics (2)
B. Specialized corpus
1) Keywords
2) Collocates of keywords
3) Semantic roles & grammatical patterning
of keywords