Translation Theory for Practitioners

Theory seldom enjoys a good press: back in the early nineteenth century, Goethe has Mephistopheles taunting Faust with the assertion that “All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green”.

Nowhere, perhaps, is this prejudice more marked than in the field of translation, where the gulf between practitioners and theorists seems almost unbridgeable. Yet theory underpins every other aspect of the way translators work, from how our dictionaries and glossaries are compiled and our CAT tools are designed right down to the operation of the computers, email systems and smart phones that enable us to work. Why, then, are translators so hostile to the theory of how translation itself works?

This webinar begins with a brief examination of that hostility before outlining an overview of some major theories. It then considers how practitioners may find at least some theoretical constructs helpful both in making sound translation decisions and in rationalising those decisions to clients, project managers or revisers. The webinar does not promise glorious Technicolor but it aims at least to nuance the grey.

Speaker: Janet Fraser FITI FCIL

Webinar first broadcast: June 2011

Duration: 1 hour 11 minutes