There exists a significant amount of research on translation strategies regarding the subtitling of humour and wordplay. However, the translation of eggcorns, malapropisms, and other types of...Show moreThere exists a significant amount of research on translation strategies regarding the subtitling of humour and wordplay. However, the translation of eggcorns, malapropisms, and other types of linguistic blunders have been largely ignored. This thesis attempts to fill this research gap by investigating the translation strategies used for linguistic blunders, or ‘Rickyisms’, in the Dutch subtitles of the Netflix mockumentary Trailer Park Boys. The strategies omission, literal translation, and retention, which occur in taxonomies of existing research were identified. A high rate of omission (64.4%) indicates a significant loss of Rickyisms and humour for the following reasons: no suitable Dutch equivalent (21.5%), temporal/spatial restrictions (15.4%), and grammatical errors (33.8%). Additionally, an overlap between temporal/spatial restrictions and grammatical errors (13.8%) and some omissions which are unjustified (15.4%) were identified. A new two-phase model for the strategies where the Rickyism is retained has been developed. Phase one pertains to the translation of the phrase as if it were correct and phase two pertains to the translation of the error. This resulted in the categories Literal-Literal (58.3%), Literal-Substitution (13.9%), and Substitution-Substitution (27.8%). This first strategy seems to be the preferred one when the linguistic properties of the source and target language permit it. Substitution in phase two includes numerous different shifts in terms of type of error.Show less
This study uses the study by Valdez & Vandepitte (2020) as a framework to answer the research question: To what extent are the differences in attitude and expectation of translators and...Show moreThis study uses the study by Valdez & Vandepitte (2020) as a framework to answer the research question: To what extent are the differences in attitude and expectation of translators and reviewers on the Dutch translation market similar to the situation on the Portuguese biomedical translation market, as described in Valdez & Vandepitte (2020)? This is done by distributing a questionnaire to a group of translators and reviewers, who are active on the Dutch translation market with the language combination English and Dutch. Their answers reveal that the situation on the Dutch translation market is very similar to the situation on the Portuguese biomedical translation market: Translators and reviewers agree on the important aspects of translations (fluency and grammatical correctness) and on the degree to which reviewers should make changes to translations (only if actual mistakes are found, while ignoring personal preference). However, translators and reviewers on both the Dutch and Portuguese translation markets are somewhat unsatisfied with the work of their colleagues, because they appear to not follow the standards that they agree on. This dissatisfaction could be resolved by better communication between translators and reviewers, which is another point of dissatisfaction for translators and reviewers. The findings of this study support the recommendation made by Valdez & Vandepitte (2020) to focus more on communication during translator training.Show less
This thesis ventures into the particular climate of Mapudungun translators in Chile and scrutinizes the possibility of translation as an instrument of Mapuche activism. It investigates notions of...Show moreThis thesis ventures into the particular climate of Mapudungun translators in Chile and scrutinizes the possibility of translation as an instrument of Mapuche activism. It investigates notions of political agency, habitus, hybridity, and fluency to establish whether these suit the postcolonial condition of Indigenous Latin America. The study’s theoretical framework builds upon translation theories that consider the ties between transformative practices and political or activist engagement. The literature review explores the transformative elements of translation to deduce how activist translation can be defined. It additionally dissects Bourdieu’s conceptualization of habitus and agency to comprehend and analyze transformative translation practices in the postcolonial condition. This debate on postcolonial and translatorial paradigms is complemented by a consideration of the overarching crucial role of translation in Mapuche literature and the significant link between Indigenous identity and language. This thesis expands upon Bhabha’s hybridity and Venuti’s fluency to examine the viability of Rivera Cusicanqui’s ch’ixi as a framework to study Mapudungun translation. The study relies on semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to determine the political means of Mapudungun translations. The results provide insight into the different forms of sociopolitical translation undertaken by Mapudungun translators and what can be considered the task of the Mapudungun translator. Most importantly, this work provides incentive for further research into translation practices in Indigenous Latin America and demonstrates why this cultural region should not remain overlooked.Show less
This thesis provides an analysis of the translation of racial taboo language in Southern Gothic novels in the form of a descriptive case study. For this study, two well-known examples of Southern...Show moreThis thesis provides an analysis of the translation of racial taboo language in Southern Gothic novels in the form of a descriptive case study. For this study, two well-known examples of Southern Gothic fiction were selected: Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1941) and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). A crucial characteristic of Southern Gothic as a genre that differs from general American Gothic is the fact that it specifically explores the unpleasant realities of life in the American South, including racial injustices and prejudices. As a result, a prominent element in novels of this genre is that they include topics that could be considered problematic and even taboo in their writing, such as racial stereotyping and slurs targeting minority groups. The translation of such language is particularly problematic for translators, as the acceptance of taboo language and the way taboo words are used not only differs per cultural context but also changes over time. The analysis used an approach based on Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) as it will focus on the effect the use of taboo language in the target text (TT) might have within the target culture (TC). The analysis considered whether certain ethical considerations might have influenced the translation procurers the translators have employed and also how the source culture (SC) differs from the TC. This study found that the approach of translations from the 1960s and the 2010s was not significantly different for most instances of taboo language, while the ideology within both the SC and TC and the degree of acceptability for certain words has changed.Show less
This research is a literature and jurisprudence study into the effect of the differences in legal interpretation between the EU legal system and the US legal system regarding competition law on the...Show moreThis research is a literature and jurisprudence study into the effect of the differences in legal interpretation between the EU legal system and the US legal system regarding competition law on the translation of competition law terminology into Dutch. Both EU and US competition law addresses broadly the same categories of anticompetitive behaviour - agreements, monopolisation, mergers - but the wording and interpretation of the legislative provisions varies. EU competition law is originally based upon US antitrust law, and therefore shares a lot of the same terminology. The US antitrust law has undergone some fundamental changes in its interpretation, which has in turn driven EU and US terminology further apart. Nowadays, there are vast differences in economic interpretation, political interpretation and legal interpretation. These differences in interpretation have influence on the translation of competition law terminology from US English and EU English, respectively, into Dutch. In the jurisprudence it is shown that the ECJ interprets textually and teleologically, where the US Supreme Court uses conservative purposivism. This leads to differences in the meaning of the same term. Generally, the US Supreme Court find an additional proof of inefficiency necessary in order to establish a competition violation. Both EU competition law and Dutch competition law do not need this additional proof. Therefore, the semantic meaning of competition law terminology is narrower in the US than in the EU. For translation into Dutch it must be assessed on a case-to-case basis whether it is necessary to add ‘inefficiënte’ before a US term so that the target text reader has the same understanding of the legal term as the source text reader.Show less
The translation of children’s literature is a relatively new and upcoming field within translation studies. Within this genre, readers can find everything ranging from prose to poetry, and...Show moreThe translation of children’s literature is a relatively new and upcoming field within translation studies. Within this genre, readers can find everything ranging from prose to poetry, and sometimes even the two combined. Children’s books often make use of verse, short poetic songs embedded within prose to add more colour to the oral performances of these books, which are often read aloud by adults to children. However, creating a text that is well-suited for reading aloud is quite difficult and not always translated successfully. This thesis is a case study that aims to assess the effect a translation can have on the oral performance of children’s verse in A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner by conducting interviews with adults participants performing an immediate and repeated reading of the first three verses of the books. The results showed that a translation can assuredly have a negative effect on the oral performance of a text and that there is a specific need for a consistent rhyme scheme and rhythm in children’s verseShow less
In this study four Dutch privacy statements and their English translations are analyzed in order to get an impression of what privacy law terminology is in use, whether there are issues to be...Show moreIn this study four Dutch privacy statements and their English translations are analyzed in order to get an impression of what privacy law terminology is in use, whether there are issues to be addressed and how these might be solved. The privacy statements investigated are those of Leiden University, Erasmus MC hospital, EliteSingles (a dating website), and Bink Kinderopvang (a child daycare center). The necessary background for this analysis consists of two parts: a chapter in which several theories of equivalence are detailed in order to help structure the analysis and to help identify the choices translators have made in the translations of the privacy statements. There is also a chapter in which the relevant legislation is laid out, the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union, its Dutch translation the Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming and the Uitvoeringswet Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming. The latter is the Dutch law that implements the EU-regulation. In the mentioned analysis, the privacy specific terminology of every statement was arranged in a table in which the English and the Dutch counterparts are compared with each other and, where possible, with the terminology of the mentioned legislation. The analysis showed that if you consistently follow the GDPR/AVG and UAVG, translating privacy law terminology does not pose many problems. It was also found that smaller organizations had translations with more inconsistencies and inaccurate terminology. Finally, a suggested terminology list is given in order to help translators find the right terminology and to promote consistency in translating privacy law related texts.Show less
