This thesis focuses on the explicitation of Latin-Greek terms in medical brochures that are intended for laypeople. It analyzes the presence of LG terms and the explicitation strategies in English...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the explicitation of Latin-Greek terms in medical brochures that are intended for laypeople. It analyzes the presence of LG terms and the explicitation strategies in English medical brochures that were translated from Dutch in comparison to non-translated medical brochures originally written in English. This study uses a comparable corpus methodology and its aim is to determine whether the translated brochures contain more LG term explicitation compared to the non-translated brochures. This is because research in Translation Studies has shown that the level of health literacy differs among laypeople, meaning that the medical brochures should be written in an understandable manner for everyone (Montalt, Zethsen, & Karwacka, 2018). Making a text comprehensible for laypeople can be done by using explicitation, which is adapting a unit of the text more extensively, for instance by omitting or adding terms. In this thesis, the LG terms found are classified into the following six categories that determine the explicitation strategy: definition/explanation, reformulation, exemplification/illustration, analogy, synonym, and hyperonym. This thesis compares the explicitation of LG terms in translated Dutch-English to non-translated English brochures, because it has been shown that English has had a better influx of Latin-based terminology compared to Northern European languages, that is Scandinavian or Germanic languages (Askehave and Zethsen, 2002; Zethsen, 2004). The results of this thesis show that the non-translated medical brochures in English actually contain a higher frequency of LG term explicitation compared to the medical brochures translated from Dutch. Possible reasons for these results could be that LG terms in everyday English are not as well-known and present as expected and there might exist a discrepancy between what can and cannot be considered lay terms when writing and translating medical brochures.Show less
The research relates to the use of conditionals in the warning paragraph of medicinal contraindications in a patient information leaflet (PIL) or Package Leaflet (PL), and whether aspects of the...Show moreThe research relates to the use of conditionals in the warning paragraph of medicinal contraindications in a patient information leaflet (PIL) or Package Leaflet (PL), and whether aspects of the language used can be identified as a source of anxiety for patients with prescription medicines.Show less
This thesis examines body-part and non-body-part idiom translation by student translators from Japanese into English or Dutch. Several researches have been conducted regarding the perceived...Show moreThis thesis examines body-part and non-body-part idiom translation by student translators from Japanese into English or Dutch. Several researches have been conducted regarding the perceived translatability of body-part idioms, but the actual translation of these idioms as well as student translation has not been widely researched. Body parts are a major aspect of figurative language, but body-part idiom translation, the image of body parts in translation, is an area that is under researched. By examining the strategies student translators use as well as their reflections on the translations, this study argues that both body-part and non-body-part idioms are preferably translated using figurative language. In addition, body parts and their image (or other images) can and do play a part in the translation decision, however, no strong preference for body parts to be transferred can be detected in this study. However, this study also argues that other images, might play a role in the translation decision for student translators.Show less
This thesis focuses on idiolect translation when certain features of the idiolect are not present in the target language. The protagonist in Alan Bennett’s “The Uncommon Reader” is based on Queen...Show moreThis thesis focuses on idiolect translation when certain features of the idiolect are not present in the target language. The protagonist in Alan Bennett’s “The Uncommon Reader” is based on Queen Elizabeth II and contains features that are not present in Dutch. In order to investigate how the idiolect of the protagonist has been translated into Dutch, the research question for this thesis is the following: “How is the royal idiolect in ‘The Uncommon Reader’ by Alan Bennett translated into Dutch?” This was researched by determining the features of the idiolect of Queen Elizabeth II; which of these features were used by Bennett; and how they were translated into Dutch. The royal idiolect in “The Uncommon Reader” was analysed and compared to the Dutch translation. In order to determine how the idiolect was translated, the translation strategies used by the translators were determined based on the analysis. The results of the analysis show that the translators stayed close to the source text by maintaining the linguistic variation that is used in the source text. They also used several translation strategies to maintain the sense of the source text, while changing some features of the royal idiolect that were not present in the target language. The translation strategies that the translators used the most are: clause structure change; sentence structure change; changes in schemes and tropes; explication; and paraphrasing.Show less
Translating cultural references (CRs) in literature is notoriously difficult and depends on context, significance of the CR in the text, and familiarity of the TT reader with the source language...Show moreTranslating cultural references (CRs) in literature is notoriously difficult and depends on context, significance of the CR in the text, and familiarity of the TT reader with the source language and culture. TT readers’ needs can be expected to be different depending on their knowledge of the source language and culture. This means that for one language pair, strategies for the translation of CRs still differ, depending on directionality of the translation. This study provides a quantitative analysis of the first 100 CRs from 5 novels translated from English to Dutch, and 5 novels translated from Dutch to English. The translation pairs were categorized by translation strategy (using Olk, 2001) as well as by type of CR (using Grit, 1997), analysing the degree of domestication or foreignization of the overall translation strategies as well as the strategies per CR type. The analysis shows that, overall, the strategies used for translating from English to Dutch are more foreignizing. The results from this study may be used to aid translator’s choices by providing insight into the effect of their individual choices, as well as future reader reception studies.Show less
After the Black Lives Matter movement started, racism has become strictly taboo in the United States. This increased political correctness has also spread to the Netherlands, whose government has...Show moreAfter the Black Lives Matter movement started, racism has become strictly taboo in the United States. This increased political correctness has also spread to the Netherlands, whose government has only recently apologised for its contribution to slavery. As a result of this increased political correctness, taboo and offensive language has been a frequently studied topic in Translation Studies for the past few decades. While the translation of racial slurs has been studied frequently in subtitling, there has not been as much research into the translation of racist discourse in literary works. Moreover, publications that studied racism in literary translations have mostly focused on the translation of racial slurs or Black Vernacular, rather than analysing racist language in general. In this thesis, a comparative analysis is conducted in the form of a close reading of a selection of phrases that contain racist and racial discourse in To Kill a Mockingbird and its two Dutch translations. The first Dutch translation appeared in 1961 and the retranslation was published in 2010. The aim of this case study is to analyse how the translator of the Dutch retranslation was affected by changing social norms regarding racism in his translation choices. The results show that the 2010 retranslation generally contained fewer offensive terms compared to the first Dutch translation. While it is not always clear what motivated this translation strategy, the analysis shows that in some cases it is definitely the result of changing social norms regarding racism. It can therefore be argued that the 2010 retranslation is more politically correct than the 1961 translation. Furthermore, it can be concluded that while the retranslation hypothesis has been debunked, the 2010 translation does appear to be a more literal rendering of the source text than the 1961 translation.Show less
In this thesis I set out to describe and subsequently compile a terminology of the prosecution of financial crime in the Netherlands in its entirety, from the initial reporting to the final...Show moreIn this thesis I set out to describe and subsequently compile a terminology of the prosecution of financial crime in the Netherlands in its entirety, from the initial reporting to the final sentence. I will discuss the legal system of the Netherlands with the help of various legal scholarly sources and other descriptive sources. By situating the uniquely system-bound language of the prosecution of financial crime in the Netherlands within Dutch legal language, I uncover the challenges of producing an English language terminology for this particular subfield. The subfield, which touches on multiple areas of law and policy and is regulated by multiple institutions, results from governments’ and supranational organizations’ increased attention for crimes with a significant financial component and high societal impact in recent years. By giving an overview of the field of translation studies – and in particular theory of legal translation – such as theories by Deborah Cao and Susan Šarčević I will provide a foundation for overcoming terminological and translation challenges. My proposed methodology suggests an approach to translating Dutch legal terminology which consists of presenting micro-evaluation and macro-evaluation of concepts, assessing both conceptual relations and origins, and illustrating the found relations and definitions in the end product.Show less
This thesis aims to investigate how critical book reviews contribute to translators’ invisibility. Lawrence Venuti (2018) presents examples of reviews of translated books from British and American...Show moreThis thesis aims to investigate how critical book reviews contribute to translators’ invisibility. Lawrence Venuti (2018) presents examples of reviews of translated books from British and American periodicals, that illustrate the invisibility of translators (pp. 2-13). Several studies (Fawcett, 2000; Schulte, 2000; Bush, 2004; Valdez, 2009; Gray, 2017; Wardle 2020) have analysed the critical reviews of literary translations in prominent newspapers to ascertain translators’ visibility and image in their respective language fields. To gain insight into the translators’ image in the Netherlands, an analogous research was undertaken by analysing the critical reviews that were published between 1 January and 31 December 2020 in the Dutch newspaper NRC. This study has found that the majority of reviews that discussed translated books (60%), did not indicate what source language they were translated from. Additionally, in 73% of the reviews the name of the translator or translators was provided in a sidebar, but the translation was not discussed in the review itself. A tentative conclusion is that the trend in Dutch critical reviews is to take a translation for granted and to merely discuss the content and the style of the author, frequently supported by using ‒ paradoxically enough ‒ quotes in Dutch (86%). Translators are relegated to a subservient role and rarely receive acknowledgment for quotes that are used in critical book reviews, nor for their contribution towards the success (or failure) of the author.Show less
This thesis studied the translation of the Scots dialect according to a model provided by Pinto (2009) for two types of translations: Annemarie Lodewijk’s Dutch translation of Diana Gabaldon’s...Show moreThis thesis studied the translation of the Scots dialect according to a model provided by Pinto (2009) for two types of translations: Annemarie Lodewijk’s Dutch translation of Diana Gabaldon’s novel Outlander (ST1), De Reiziger (TT1), and the Dutch subtitles (TT2) of the Outlander DVD (Starz, 2014-) (ST2), which is the first season of ST1’s adaptation on television. In addition, it was studied how the differences in the procedures adopted by the translators have affected characterisation and character relationships. A final aspect of this thesis’ research is the inclusion of one of the translators’ views and approach to dialect translation. Based on the results of this study, it was found that the main procedure adopted in both translations is the use of only a standard variety of language, followed by omission, and finally the direct import of dialect vocabulary. As a result of the first two procedures, there is a major loss of meaning and characterisation in the translation. However, this loss is compensated in TT1 mostly through the inclusion of dialect vocabulary and in TT2 through other visual and audible means that result from ST2 and TT2 being perceived simultaneously. Finally, it is the translator of TT1’s view that there is no way of including ST dialect in the translation without making the translation incomprehensible. However, second languages in translations can be retained, and depending on the knowledge of the TT audience, the translator is allowed to retain some lexical instances of dialect in the translation.Show less
This thesis presents a textual analysis, and an annotated translation based on this analysis, of the novel Bint, by the Dutch author Ferdinand Bordewijk (1934). Bint’s style is considered an...Show moreThis thesis presents a textual analysis, and an annotated translation based on this analysis, of the novel Bint, by the Dutch author Ferdinand Bordewijk (1934). Bint’s style is considered an example of the "Nieuwe Zakelijkheid / New Objectivity” style in art. The novel pictures a year in the career of teacher De Bree, and his struggle with discipline at a school in a large city in the Netherlands. In the pre- and post war era the novel had a notorious reputation, because of its harsh ideas on discipline, and its gloomy atmosphere. However, it is still read and admired for its unusual style. This thesis presents an analysis of the main linguistic, stylistic and thematic characteristics of Bint. Research questions were what the translation strategy of choice for Bint was to be, and given the choice for a certain strategy, what effects it would have on the stylistic characteristics of the novel. Subsequently, a translation of the novel into English was presented.Show less
“Iedere Nederlander wordt geacht de wet te kennen” is hoe Douwe Brongers De wet in gewoon Nederlands begint (Brongers, 2013, achterplat). Maar wat betekent deze uitspraak precies? Behoort iedereen...Show more“Iedere Nederlander wordt geacht de wet te kennen” is hoe Douwe Brongers De wet in gewoon Nederlands begint (Brongers, 2013, achterplat). Maar wat betekent deze uitspraak precies? Behoort iedereen elk willekeurig wetsartikel te kennen? In Nederland kennen we bijna 140.000 wetsartikelen, dus wat dat betreft lijkt de uitspraak al niet realistisch. Daarnaast is de wet in een taal geschreven die voor veel mensen moeilijk te begrijpen is. Als alle wetsartikelen in begrijpelijke taal zouden worden herschreven, zou deze uitspraak dan realistischer zijn? In deze scriptie wordt aan de hand van kwalitatief en kwantitatief onderzoek gekeken of wetsartikelen in toegankelijkere taal beter meer begrip opleveren bij de lezer.Show less
There is a serious lack of research in the interdisciplinary field of humour in translation. In order to contribute to this field, this thesis discusses the analysis and translation of a humorous...Show moreThere is a serious lack of research in the interdisciplinary field of humour in translation. In order to contribute to this field, this thesis discusses the analysis and translation of a humorous short story by Douglas Adams. Verbally expressed humour, subdivided in verbal and referential humour, is argued to stem from incongruity and more specifically script opposition (Raskin, 1985; Attardo & Raskin, 1991; Attardo, 1994, 2001). The notion of ‘equivalence’ in the field of humour in translation is discussed and several translational procedures for translating verbally expressed humour are explained. The short story, Young Zaphod Plays It Safe (originally published in 1986), is then subjected to a stylistic analysis based on Leech & Short’s (2007) checklist of stylistic and linguistic categories, which shows that Adams’s style is largely characterised by his use of humour. The translation of the short story is accompanied by annotations commenting on important translational choices that affect the style of the text. Referential humour that is not culturally bound is easily transferred, but verbal humour such as puns and register humour poses a problem to the translator, who needs to choose between stylistic or semantic faithfulness. The thesis concludes with the remarks that humour theory lacks a formal set of guidelines for identifying instances of verbally expressed humour; that research in the field of humour in translation should focus on either verbal humour (puns and register humour) or culturally bound referential humour; and that the field of stylistics might be advantaged by a more in-depth analysis of Adams’s idiomatic style.Show less
