Language Interpretation and Translation Commons^™

Translating The Book Of Mormon Into Spanish: A Case Study Of The Translation Of Sacred Texts, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The translation of sacred texts is one of the oldest forms of translation, one which has helped develop our understanding of what translation is. Even so, the question arises as to whether there is anything particularly distinctive about translating sacrality. On the one hand, it can be argued that translating sacred texts is just like translating any other historical or cultural texts (Naudé, 2010). On the other hand, it can be argued that the translation of sacred texts deserves its own category because, for some members of the population, these texts play a special role (Long, 2013). This study seeks …

‘The Way We Do Our Translation’: A Case Study Of Translation Policy For Spanish Speakers In The Public Parks Of Sonoma County, California, Gabriel González Núñez, Ángel María Casas Grageab, Christina Guerrero Harmon

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Signs in public spaces can provide essential information. Especially at times of crises, and in places where there are large populations who speak a minoritized language, translation is often employed to create multilingual signage for the benefit of the community. After all, translated signs appear because some authority considers that a certain message is important enough to be visibly communicated to the public, including those who do not speak the State’s preferred language. The decision as to whether to translate or not certain signs may seem arbitrary, but one would hope that it is the result of a guided policy …

"Art, Esthetics, Ideal": An Ethics For Literary Translators In The Age Of Translating Machines, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The advent of effective machine translation has raised several issues for translators, including the question of how a human translator ought to translate in this age of translating machines. In this context of new ethical questions, the present essay argues that an answer may be found in Pedro Figari’s (1912) philosophical essay on esthetics. Following Figari, the current essay argues that literary translation is art, that as such it can produce an esthetic emotion on readers and that the purpose of such art and esthetics is an ideal in the form of the continuous betterment of the human condition.

Language Proficiency In Translation And Interpreting Programs: Insights From Administrators And Instructors, Julio Ciller, Sonia Colina

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This article examines the relationship between language proficiency and translation and interpreting (T&I) education in U.S. programs, focusing on language preparedness and development. This mixed-methods study investigates course prerequisites, proficiency requirements, and perceptions of administrators and instructors regarding students’ expected versus observed proficiency levels. Findings reveal a mismatch between expected and average proficiency when entering a program, with both groups acknowledging that T&I courses contribute to students’ language development but noting that current program practices often fail to align students’ actual proficiency with their needs. At the graduate level, instructors criticize proficiency requirements, and some administrators continue to view translator …

Translating And Retranslating Sarmiento’S Facundo, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This study seeks to contribute to a gap in our understanding of retranslations through a case study, specifically one that focuses on Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s Facundo. This book, widely held to be a Latin American literary classic and cultural touchstone, took shape in the late nineteenth century. It was translated from the Spanish into English by Mary Peabody Mann in 1868 and Kathleen Ross in 2003, providing a rare instance of a retranslated work of Latin American thought. The present study will specifically focus on two aspects of retranslation: production and reception. It will consider production by focusing on the …

Acuña De Figueroa Y La Traducción Como Elemento Conservador [Acuña De Figueroa And Translation As A Conservative Tool], Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Durante el siglo XIX, se alzaron en América varias figuras que sirvieron como estrategas de las emergentes conciencias nacionales, entre ellos varios artistas plásticos, escritores, periodistas y pedagogos que fueron moldeando sus propias naciones. Algunos signifi-caron agentes de cambio que recurrieron a la traducción como una de varias estrategias para innovar. También hubo quienes dedicaron sus esfuerzos traductores con la finali-dad opuesta, en particular, la de buscar continuidad y oponer resistencia a las nuevas corrientes. El presente trabajo se propone exponer el derrotero de uno de estos artí-fices culturales, Francisco Acuña de Figueroa, autor de los himnos del Uruguay y …

Closed Captions En Español. Live Captioning Quality In Spanish-Language Newscasts In The U.S., Nazaret Fresno

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The broadcasting landscape in the United States includes a limited number of Spanish-speaking networks that serve the Hispanic community. As part of the accessibility regulations in place, the Federal Communications Commission issued the first closed captioning quality rules in 2014, which apply in the same manner to English and Spanish pre-recorded and live programming. Over the last few years, comprehensive studies assessing the quality of closed captioned broadcasts have begun to emerge, either led by or in collaboration with Media Accessibility researchers. These kinds of projects have shed some light on the strengths and weaknesses of current live closed captions, …

A Translated Town? Translation In The Linguistic Landscape Along The Us Border With Mexico, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Cities are the hubs of the modern world and, in border towns between states where different languages are used, these hubs are bilingual. Such bilingual towns offer opportunities to examine the extent to which translation, including the decision not to translate, plays a role in shaping the public spaces of cities. This article seeks to do so by reporting on a linguistic landscape study carried out in Brownsville, a city that sits on the Texas border with Mexico. The study will survey two streets in Brownsville with a special concern for both untranslated and translated signs as a way of …

Translating (Or Not) A South American Philosopher: The Paratexts Of The Works Of José Enrique Rodó In English, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This study will consider translation as a tool to transfer ideas from Latin America to North America (and the rest of the English-speaking world). It will do so by exploring some of the paratextual strategies that have been employed in transmitting the ideas of Latin American philosophers to the English-speaking world. Specifically, it will rely on a case study, namely, the translation into English of the works of José Enrique Rodó, an important South American philosopher from the early twentieth century. The paper will outline Rodó’s work as translated into English, focusing not on the quality of the translated texts …

Strengthening Respeakers’ Training In Spain: The Research-Practice Connection, Nazaret Fresno, Pablo Romero-Fresco

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

After countless petitions and complaints from end users, live subtitling quality is slowly attracting the attention of broadcasters, regulators, the subtitling industry and scholars working in Media Accessibility. These stakeholders share an interest in providing better live subtitles, but their quality assessment is a thorny issue. Although quality studies are still scarce, the research undertaken so far has proven valuable in identifying the weaknesses of live subtitles in several countries. This article presents the main findings of the pilot project that preceded the first national quality assessment in Spain, which is currently underway. By focusing on this case study, we …

Translating To Change The Nation: The Case Of José Pedro Varela, A Reformer In Late 19th Century Uruguay, Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The history of translation in Hispanic America can be segmented into specific historical periods that differ from those found in Europe, namely: encounter and conquest, the colonial period; pre-independence and emancipation; independence and republic; and an ongoing period that started in 1920 (Bastin, 2006). A great deal of work has been done regarding the first three of those periods. Later historical periods, while still receiving some scholarly attention, have not been the focus of as much research (cf. e.g., Montoya, 2014). This paper hopes to provide further insights on translation practices during the Independence and Republic Period by focusing on …

Traducir En Pro De La Educación Del Pueblo: La Labor Traductora De La Sociedad De Amigos De La Educación Popular, Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Este trabajo pone en relieve una labor desempeñada por la Sociedad de Amigos de la Educación Popular (SAEP) que, si bien no es desconocida, tampoco ha recibido suficiente atención por parte de historiadores y académicos. Se trata de los esfuerzos traductores desplegados por los integrantes de la SAEP en su celo por introducir en el Estado Oriental del Uruguay nuevas e innovadoras ideas en cuanto a la educación y su función social. El trabajo contextualiza esta labor dentro del papel histórico de la traducción en el continente americano, para luego dar paso la descripción de los esfuerzos traductores llevados a …

No Language Policy Without Translation Policy: A Comparison Of Flanders And Wales, Reine Meylaerts, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

A major challenge for authorities in the modern world is the linguistic integration of minorities. In this context, language policies play a key role as authorities are increasingly faced with the challenge of adjusting their language policies in order to secure the linguistic rights and thus the integration of their multilingual populations. In multilingual democracies, these language policies must include choices about the use or non-use of translation. These choices, when they are systematic, become policies of their own in terms of translation. Thus, translation policies arise in part as a consequence of language policies, and there can be no …

Traducciones Para Y Por Los Españoles Americanos: El Papel De Los Traductores En La Independencia De Hispanoamericana / Translation For And By Spanish Americans: Translators’ Role During Spanish America’S Struggle For Independence, Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

As is well known, political independence in the Americas was gained through a long, violent process in which colonies broke away from their colonial centers. Different revolutionaries, patriots, and liberators acted within their immediate colonial context; nonetheless, a shared trove of ideas existed in all of the Americas which helped, above all, to justify their actions. These ideas (largely emanating from Europe’s Enlightenment and in the Americas originally practiced in England’s former North American colonies) spread throughout the region, in part, thanks to the efforts of several translators. These were men who traveled to different places for different reasons. In …

Law And Translation At The U.S.-Mexico Border: Translation Policy In A Diglossic Setting, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Language regimes adopted by states can favour one group over all the others in a way that undermines minority groups. In essence, when multilingual societies are administered through a one-language regime, inequalities arise. This growing understanding has led States to come up with varying solutions, which in turn create a wide array of language policies. One aspect that all these policies have in common is that they involve choices about translation. Hoping to contribute to our understanding of such translation policies, this chapter describes translation policies as found in the judiciary and local government in Brownsville, Texas, USA. This can …

Approaching Engagement In Audio Description, Nazaret Fresno

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Humans’ attraction to fiction is believed to respond to a search for pleasure, entertainment or enjoyment. Readers and film viewers engage with books and movies to participate in an experience that will provide some kind of gratification. However, the mechanisms that lead to engagement with written and audiovisual narratives are highly complex and not yet fully understood.

This paper constitutes a theoretical approach to engagement in audio description. Drawing on literature from Psychology and Media Studies, it will be argued that engagement is facilitated by comprehension and immersion. An insight on these intricate mental processes will be provided by dwelling …

On Translation Policy, Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The term translation policy has become problematic for the field of Translation Studies because it has meant so many things to so many authors that it threatens to lose some of its efficacy (see Meylaerts 2011a, 163–166). In light of this, the concept of translation policy should be developed so that it will be broad enough to account for diverse phenomena in different places with multiple agents, while retaining specific parameters that make the concept methodologically useful. This article will consider insights from Translation Studies and from other fields, especially from the field of Language Policy, in order to …

Translating For Minorities In Wales: A Look At Translation Policies, Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

In many parts of the world, state languages come in contact with a number of regional languages and with many immigrant languages. In such complex, multilingual societies, language policies play an important role. And such language policies must, of necessity, include translation policies, either to integrate or exclude speakers of regional and/or immigrant languages. In the studies that have been made by political philosophers about language policy or by translation scholars about translation itself, translation policy remains somewhat of a blind spot. This paper attempts to address this under-researched area. Specifically, this paper will address translation policy in Wales. In …

Audio Describing Characters : What Features Do Audiences Remember?, Nazaret Fresno, Judit Castellà Mate, Anna Matamala, Olga Soler Vilageliu

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The audio description of characters in films encompasses from brief descriptions to long and detailed ones. Guidelines and standards suggest how to approach the audio description of characters, and some practitioners, such as Bernd Benecke, have even developed models for character audio description. However, it remains to be determined how the audience receives audio descriptions and how various strategies (inclusion of more or less features, inclusion of these features in one or more silent gaps) affect the end user reception. This paper will present part of the results of a reception study aimed at exploring whether the amount of information …

Less Is More. Effects Of The Amount Of Information And Its Presentation In The Recall And Reception Of Audio Described Characters, Nazaret Fresno, Judit Castellà Mate, Olga Soler Vilageliu

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Audio description is a discipline within Translation Studies aimed at making audio visual products and events accessible to blind and visually impaired audiences. Works of art, TV programs, films and stage arts are audio described in order to guarantee that anyone, regardless of his/her visual capacity, can enjoy them. In the case of films, it consists of a verbal description of visual details such as settings and characters (what they look like, what they do and how they do it) provided to the audience in those parts of the movie where no relevant sounds or dialogues are heard.

The nature …

"When A Translator Joins The Revolution: A Paratextual Analysis Of Manuel García De Sena’S La Independencia", Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

During the complex period of Latin American independence, new states began to emerge and new ideas were implemented. Some of these ideas were made available in part due to the efforts of translators in the United States. Among them was Manuel García de Sena, a Venezuelan translator who published translations of North American texts. His translations enjoyed a prompt distribution. One of them became a vehicle that facilitated legal transplants from the United States to the new republics. While much has been lost to history regarding the details of the printing of this translation, its paratextual apparatus provides insights that …