3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.translation

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 17
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The translation of children's literature in the South African educational context
    (2010-05-28T11:31:46Z) Kruger, Haidee
    Abstract Research on the translation of children’s literature in South Africa is currently in its nascent stages. This study aims to provide a comprehensive descriptive overview of current practices in the translation of children’s literature in South Africa, particularly against the backdrop of the educational context. It espouses a broadly causal view of translation, but also encompasses a comparative and process model (see Chesterman, 2000). Translation is used to a significant degree in the production of children’s books in South Africa. However, it is not clear exactly to what degree translation is utilised, nor is there any information available about how translation contributes to the production of children’s books in South Africa. This study addresses these questions. Based on survey research among publishers, and the analysis of publishing data, it finds that there are significant differences between the ways in which translation is used in the production of children’s books in the various languages in South Africa. Specifically, translation is used much more extensively in the African languages than in Afrikaans and English, with a correspondingly lower incidence of original production in the African languages. Furthermore, the educational discourse has a profound effect on the uses of translation in the production of children’s books in South Africa. However, the educational discourse has a greater determining effect on the production of books for children in the African languages than in Afrikaans and English. Theoretical discourse surrounding domestication and foreignisation is particularly problematic in the South African context, and findings from a survey among translators indicate that translators from different language groups have different opinions about whether children’s books should be translated using domesticating or foreignising approaches. The above findings broadly deal with the contextual dimension. They are concerned with how social, ideological and material factors and discourses affect the ways in which translation is used in the production of children’s books in South Africa. At this point the matter of translation theory is introduced. It is questioned to what degree contemporary context-oriented translation theory manages to provide a satisfactory explanation of the South African situation. It is argued that polysystem theory and Toury’s (1995) concept of translation norms provides some explanation of the translational dynamics evident in the production of children’s books in the different languages in South Africa. However, some aspects of the South African situation do not neatly “fit” into polysystem theory, and some parts of the theory therefore have to be mediated or reconsidered, particularly utilising postcolonial and more ideologically sensitive perspectives, to satisfactorily account for the South African situation. This reconsideration leads to a conception of the relationship between translation and its context that is less binary and determinist, with a greater emphasis on hybridity and fluidity. This contextual dimension of the study spills over into the textual dimension. All of the above contextual and process-oriented factors finally find their precipitation in actual translations. By means of close analysis of a sample of 42 (21 translations and their source texts) English and Afrikaans children’s books intended for leisure reading and for educational reading, this part of the study investigates the norms evident in the selection of children’s books for translation, as well as the operational norms evident from the translations. The key questions here are why particular texts are selected for translation, and how cultural markers in these texts are handled in translation. The analysis demonstrates that the selection of books for translation (preliminary translation norms) is dependent on contextual as well as textual factors, with ideology and function playing particularly important roles. These roles differ for different types of books, books of different origins, and books in different language pairs. In terms of the operational norms, translators’ opinions about domestication and foreignisation do not necessarily correspond to translation practices. Rather than an exclusive, binary adherence to domesticating and foreignising approaches, analyses of the operational norms evident in translated children’s books demonstrate a hybridised mix of domesticating and foreignising strategies, which vary according to the type of book, the origin of the book, and the language pair involved in the translation process.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Cultural context adaptions of children's literature : A case study of The joining
    (2008-12-05T10:01:25Z) Salama, Sulaiman Abdullah
    This research report is concerned with translation in which culture plays a major role, and examines the issues involved in translating for a specific audience – in this case Arabic-speaking Moslem children in Egypt. Translation is firstly discussed in a broader context, demonstrating that translation needs to be understood either as “rewriting” or “cultural textualisation” (Snell-Hornby, 1997:123). Secondly, the translation of children’s literature is discussed as a type of translation operating through an encounter with both culture and linguistics. Overlaps between language and culture are located and the importance of contextual adaptation is emphasised in relation to solutions proposed for addressing the cultural problems raised in the translation of Peter Slingsby’s The Joining for Egyptian children. In conclusion, suggestions are made concerning translation as adaptation in the form of possible guidelines for future translators of children’s literature into Arabic.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    A need for foreign-language policies at tourist destinations in South Africa : Case study: 'Cradle of humankind' World Heritage Site.
    (2008-10-03T09:09:34Z) Turcato, Aurélien Roman
    This study examines the availability of translated material into foreign languages, more specifically into French, at tourist destinations in South Africa. The Cradle of Humankind is chosen to carry out a case study and to show the lack of material available in languages other than English and the subsequent need for the development of a foreign-language policy. This study attempts to show the way forward by translating Maropeng’s miniguidebook into French based on a prior analysis of the original English text following Nord’s translation-relevant text analysis model. Furthermore, this study is not an end in itself but a step toward a better representation of official South African languages as an integral part of language policies throughout the country, as suggested by the Constitution.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Subtitling practices in South Africa: A case study of the soap opera Generations
    (2008-05-23T11:37:33Z) Msimang, Violet Busisiwe
    This study represents a case study of subtitling practices in the South African television broadcasting media, with reference to the soap opera, Generations. The aim of this research is to carry out a descriptive study to establish the actual practices of subtitling in the South African television broadcasting media, using the soap opera Generations as a case study; how these practices match international, theoretical and methodological practices; and whether they have been affected by changes in legislation calling for the status and use of indigenous languages to be enhanced. Although the research sets out to discuss the actual processes in the subtitling of Generations, it includes an analytical and evaluative component. It examines episodes of Generations for the years, 1999, 2003, 2005 and January 2006, looking at the languages spoken in these episodes, the percentage of subtitling in each episode, and the nature of subtitling in the soap opera. Finally, it assesses what progress has been made towards multilingualism, and subtitling since the two go hand-in-hand because whatever is spoken in the vernacular languages calls for subtitling. It was concluded that the level of multilingualism and, therefore, subtitling, is not yet up to the level envisaged although a lot of progress has been made.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    In the car with Oliver Schmitz's Hijack stories (2000): The journey of a South African film in translation
    (2008-03-12T13:56:04Z) Jacobsohn, Bianca
    ABSTRACT: This research report follows the journey of the South African film Hijack Stories (2000) in translation, looking at the various processes – state, institutional and individual - which led to the film’s existence. The context of the South African film industry (institution) during the country’s (state) apartheid past and democratic present have influenced those involved (the individuals) in the film-making process as well as their subjectivities. It is revealed that Hijack Stories (2000) is a film targeted at foreign audiences and that these audiences ascribe value to South African content. This value is acquired on the basis of the historical and social circumstances of South Africa, which has long sustained the interest of the outside world. Hijack Stories (2000) emerges as a cultural commodity, packaged and marketed according to the imaginings that the world has of South Africa. Translation then takes place at the junction of these processes and their related social, financial, political and historical factors, thereby facilitating the international circulation of Hijack Stories (2000) within the greater context of globalisation.
Copyright Ownership Is Guided By The University's

Intellectual Property policy

Students submitting a Thesis or Dissertation must be aware of current copyright issues. Both for the protection of your original work as well as the protection of another's copyrighted work, you should follow all current copyright law.