Exploring Translation Theories presents a comprehensive analysis of the core contemporary paradigms of Western translation theory. The book covers theories of equivalence, purpose, description, uncertainty, localization, and cultural translation. This second edition adds coverage on new translation technologies, volunteer translators, non-lineal logic, mediation, Asian languages, and research on translators’ cognitive processes. Readers are encouraged to explore the various theories and consider their strengths, weaknesses, and implications for translation practice. The book concludes with a survey of the way translation is used as a model in postmodern cultural studies and sociologies, extending its scope beyond traditional Western notions. Features in each chapter include: An introduction outlining the main points, key concepts and illustrative examples. Examples drawn from a range of languages, although knowledge of no language other than English is assumed. Discussion points and suggested classroom activities. A chapter summary. This comprehensive and engaging book is ideal both for self-study and as a textbook for Translation theory courses within Translation Studies, Comparative Literature and Applied Linguistics.

Starting from the critical notion that we should be asking questions of contemporary importance - and that 'importance' itself must be defined - Anthony Pym sets about undoing many of the currently dominant models of translation history, positing, among much else, that the object of this history should be translators as people, that researchers are subjectively involved in their object, that cultural systems are based on social will, that translators work in intercultural spaces, and that a model of cooperation through negotiation may be applied to the way translators (and researchers!) work between cultures. At the same time, the proposed methodology is eminently constructive, showing how many empirical techniques can be developed and applied: clear illustrations are given of corpus selection, working definitions, deceptive statistics, and the construction of networks and regimes, incorporating elaborate examples drawn from medieval and modernist fields, as well as finding space for notes on practical problems like funding research. Finding its focus in historical debates, this book cannot help but create contemporary debate: its arguments seek not only to revitalize the historical study of translation but also to develop the wider concerns of intercultural studies.

For the discourse of localization, translation is often "just a language problem". For translation theorists, localization introduces fancy words but nothing essentially new. Both views are probably right, but only to an extent. This book sets up a dialogue across those differences. Is there anything that translation theory can gain from localization? Can localization theory learn anything from the history and complexity of translation? To address those questions, both terms are placed within a more general frame, that of text transfer. Texts are distributed in time and space; localization and translation respond differently to those movements; their relative virtues are thus brought out on common ground. Anthony Pym here reviews not only key problems in translation theory, but also critical concepts such as cultural resistance, variable transaction costs, segmentation of the labour market, and the dehumanization of technical discourse. The book closes with a plea for the humanizing virtues of translation, over and above the efficiencies of localization.

Why would a Latin Qur'an be addressed to readers who knew no Latin? What happens when translators work on paper rather than parchment? Why would a Jewish rabbi translate a bible for Christians? How can a theorist successfully criticize a version of Aristotle without knowing any Greek? Why were children used to bring down an Amerindian civilization? Why does the statue of Columbus in Barcelona point straight to Israel? Why should a Nicaraguan poet cite a French poem in order to explain a volcano in Nicaragua? This book does more than answer such questions. It uses them to discuss some of the most fundamental and complex issues in contemporary Translation Studies and Cultural Studies. Identifying cultural intermediaries as members of medieval frontier society, it traces the stages by which that society has assisted in the creation of Hispanic cultures. Individual case studies go from the twelfth-century Christian, Islamic and Jewish exchanges right through to the not unrelated complexity of today's translation schools in Spain, mining a history rich in anecdote and paradox. Further aspects trace key concepts such as disputation, the medieval hierarchy of languages, the nationalist mistrust of intermediaries, the effects of decolonization on development ideology, and the difficulties of training students for globalizing markets.

Based on seminars originally given at the College International de Philosophie in Paris, this translation from French has been fully revised by the author and extended to include highly critical commentaries on activist translation theory, non-professional translation, interventionist practices, and the impact of new translation technologies.

This book presents a dynamic history of the ways in which translators are trusted and distrusted. Working from this premise, the authors develop an approach to translation that speaks to historians of literature, language, culture, society, science, translation and interpreting. By examining theories of trust from sociological, philosophical, and historical studies, and with reference to interdisciplinarity, the authors outline a methodology for approaching translation history and intercultural mediation from three discrete, concurrent perspectives on trust and translation: the interpersonal, the institutional and the regime-enacted. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of translation studies, as well as historians working on mediation and cultural transfer.

Many “translation solutions” (often called “procedures,” “techniques,” or “strategies”) have been proposed over the past 50 years or so in French, Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian, Czech, and Slovak. This book analyzes, criticizes and compares them, proposing a new list of solutions that can be used in training translators to work between many languages. The book also traces out an entirely new history of contemporary translation studies, showing for example how the Russian tradition was adapted in China, how the impact of transformational linguistics was resisted, and how scholarship has developed an intercultural metalanguage over and above the concerns of specific national languages. The book reveals the intensely political nature of translation theory, even in its most apparently technical aspects. The lists were used to advance the agendas of not just linguistic nationalisms but also state regimes – this is a history in which Hitler, Stalin, and Mao all played roles, Communist propaganda and imperialist evangelism were both legitimized, Ukrainian advances in translation theory were forcefully silenced in the 1930s, the Cold War both stimulated the application of transformational grammar and blocked news of Russian translation theory, French translation theory was conscripted into the agenda of Japanese exceptionalism, and much else.

Based on thorough and extensive research, this book examines in detail traditional status signals in the translation profession. It provides case studies of eight European and non-European countries, with further chapters on sociological and economic modelling, and goes on to identify a number of policy options and make recommendations on rectifying problem areas.

How to Augment Language Skills outlines ways in which translators and language providers can expand their skillset and how translation technologies can be integrated into language learning and translator training. This book explains the basics of generative AI, machine translation, and translation memory suites, placing them in a historical context and assessing their fundamental impacts on language skills. It covers what to teach in a specific context, how to teach it, how to assess the result, and how to set up lively class discussions on the many problematic aspects. The exploratory empirical approach is designed to reach across several divides: between language education and translation studies, between technology designers and users, between Western and Asian research, and between abstract ideas and hands-on practice. Features include: Fifty-seven technology-related activities for the language and/or translation class. Recent research on the capacities of generative AI. Examples of how to conduct a needs analysis in the Higher Education context. Comparisons of the main teaching methods. Ways to assess the use of technologies. Examples in Chinese, Spanish, Catalan, French, and German. A full glossary explaining the key terms in clear language. Drawing on years of classroom experience, Pym and Hao illustrate how these skills can be taught in a range of classroom and online activities, making this essential reading for teachers and researchers involved in the teaching of languages and the training of translators.