ITI Translation Theory 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Lawrence Venuti's concept of 'foreignization' recommends that the translator:
- Adapt the text so thoroughly that it reads as if originally written in the target language
- Retain textual features that signal the foreign origin of the source text (Correct answer)
- Avoid all culture-specific references to achieve universality
- Follow the grammatical norms of the source language strictly
Correct answer: Retain textual features that signal the foreign origin of the source text
Venuti argues that foreignizing translation resists cultural absorption and makes the act of translation visible, challenging dominant target-culture values.
Question 2: In Polysystem Theory (Even-Zohar), translation literature occupies a 'primary' position in a literary polysystem when:
- The target culture has a well-established, strong literary tradition
- The target literary system is young, weak, or in crisis and needs foreign models (Correct answer)
- The source language has more native speakers than the target language
- The translator is a native speaker of the source language
Correct answer: The target literary system is young, weak, or in crisis and needs foreign models
Even-Zohar observed that translated literature plays an innovating, primary role in peripheral or emerging literary systems that lack canonical models of their own.
Question 3: The 'cultural turn' in Translation Studies, associated with scholars like Bassnett and Lefevere, shifted focus toward:
- Linguistic equivalence at the sentence level
- The role of ideology, power, and cultural context in shaping translations (Correct answer)
- Computer-assisted translation tools and terminology management
- Phonological fidelity in literary translation
Correct answer: The role of ideology, power, and cultural context in shaping translations
The cultural turn repositioned translation as a social and political act embedded in cultural systems, moving beyond purely linguistic analysis.
Question 4: Peter Newmark's 'semantic translation' differs from his 'communicative translation' primarily in that semantic translation:
- Focuses on the target reader's comprehension and natural idiom
- Attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original, even at the cost of naturalness (Correct answer)
- Omits culturally specific items that would confuse the target audience
- Prioritizes the marketing objectives of the target publisher
Correct answer: Attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original, even at the cost of naturalness
Newmark's semantic translation is author-focused and attempts to preserve the original's meaning precisely, whereas communicative translation is reader-focused and prioritizes naturalness.
Question 5: What is 'back-translation' and what is its primary limitation?
- Translating a text into an archaic form of the source language; it is too expensive
- Re-translating a translated text into the original language to check accuracy; it cannot reliably detect all pragmatic and stylistic losses (Correct answer)
- Translating a summary back into the source language; it is only used in legal contexts
- Translating from a pivot language back to the source; it is banned by professional bodies
Correct answer: Re-translating a translated text into the original language to check accuracy; it cannot reliably detect all pragmatic and stylistic losses
Back-translation converts a target-language text back into the source language, but it cannot guarantee that subtle meaning, register, or cultural nuances lost in the first translation will be exposed.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes 'thick translation' as proposed by Kwame Anthony Appiah?
- A translation that adds extensive paratextual commentary (footnotes, glossaries) to make cultural context explicit (Correct answer)
- A very long translation that expands the source text threefold
- A translation that uses a dense, archaic register to signal historical distance
- A translation produced collaboratively by a team of translators
Correct answer: A translation that adds extensive paratextual commentary (footnotes, glossaries) to make cultural context explicit
Appiah's 'thick translation' borrows from Clifford Geertz's 'thick description' and involves surrounding the translated text with annotations that illuminate its cultural embeddedness.
Question 7: In the context of Translation Studies, what is 'realia'?
- Statistical data used to evaluate translation quality
- Culture-specific items, concepts, or institutions that have no direct equivalent in the target culture (Correct answer)
- The set of universal linguistic categories shared by all languages
- Grammatical errors that occur due to source-language interference
Correct answer: Culture-specific items, concepts, or institutions that have no direct equivalent in the target culture
Realia are objects, customs, or phenomena unique to a source culture (e.g., specific foods, offices, or rituals) that pose a challenge because the target language lacks a direct equivalent.
ITI Translation Theory 3
Lawrence Venuti's concept of 'foreignization' recommends that the translator: