Article published In:
TargetVol. 32:3 (2020) ► pp.456–481
Adequate contextual explicitation in translation
On the face of it, it appears that the explicitation of contextual knowledge is consistent with
Toury’s (1995) norm of acceptability rather than his norm of adequacy. This is because
this type of explicitation, which seeks to bridge the gap in readers’ contextual knowledge, enhances readability and is directed
towards the target audience. However, in this article I argue that the use of this type of explicitation actually demonstrates an
awareness of the importance of adhering to the source text, and may thus be aligned with adequacy norms. To support the argument,
I show that this type of explicitation seems to be more prevalent than ever before, using as an example a recent translation of a
story by O. Henry into Hebrew, in the context of Hebrew translated literature generally moving towards the norm of adequacy (
Zoran 1990;
Weissbrod 1992;
Ben-Shahar 1994). This highlights the complexity of the relation between increased
explicitness and the notions of adequacy and acceptability.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Descriptive Translation Studies and translation norms
- 3.Explicitation
- 3.1Types of explicitation
- 4.Conceptual-theoretical problem in the explicitation of contextual knowledge
- 5.Analysis of two translations of a short story by O. Henry
- 5.1Changes in Hebrew translated literature
- 5.2Two translations of “The Ransom of Red Chief”
- 5.3Explicitation of contextual knowledge in the translations of “The Ransom of Red Chief”
- 6.Concluding remarks
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
References (61)
References
Batchelor, Kathryn. 2009. Decolonizing Translation: Francophone African Novels in Translation. Manchester: St Jerome.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Becher, Viktor. 2010. “Abandoning the Notion of ‘Translation-inherent’ Explicitation: Against a Dogma of Translation Studies.” Across Languages and Cultures 11 (1): 1–28. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ben-Shahar, Rina. 1989. “Alisa Beerets Haplaot – Kavim leshoniyim-signonyim litargumo shel Aharon Amir [Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Stylistic Features of Aharon Amir’s Translation].” Ma’agle Kri’a 181: 75–88.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. 1986. “Shifts of Cohesion and Coherence in Translation.” In Interlingual and Intercultural Communication: Discourse and Cognition in Translation and Second Language Acquisition Studies, edited by Juliane House and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, 17–35. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boase-Beier, Jean. 2011. A Critical Introduction to Translation Studies. London: Continuum.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brownlie, Siobhan. 1999. “Investigating Norms.” In Translation and the (Re)location of Meaning: Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminars in Translation Studies 1994–1996, edited by Jeroen Vandaele, 7–21. Leuven: CETRA.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ďurinová, Alžběta. 2012. Øverås’s Third Code Revisited: An Investigation of Explicitation in Literary Translation. Master diss. Masaryk University.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fauconnier, Gilles. 1994. Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. New York: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fauconnier, Gilles. 1997. Mappings in Thought and Language. New York: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Genette, Gérard. 1997. Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Translated by Jane E. Lewin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood. 1973. Explorations in the Functions of Language. London: Edward Arnold.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hebrew Language Academy. 2012. Transcription Rules from Hebrew to Latin Letters. Accessed January 1, 2020. [URL]
Henry, O. 1973. “Kofer Nafsho she Hachif Haadom [The Ransom of Red Chief].” Translated by Aharon Amir. In
Mikets Esrim Shana
[After Twenty Years], 154–166. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Henry, O. 1910/1992. “The Ransom of Red Chief.” In The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories, 71–79. Dover Publications. Kindle Edition. Originally in Whirligigs. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Henry, O. 2019. “Hakofer al Hachif Haadom [The ransom on Red Chief].” Translated by Daphna Rosenbluth. In Kikarot Lehem shel Makhshefot [
Witches’ loaves
], 44–64. Ben Shemen: Keter Sfarim.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hirsch, Galia. 2008. Ben ironia lehumor: hatsa’at model pragmati mavhin behitbases al nituah textuali shel yetsirot safrutiot bamakor uvatargum [Between Irony and Humor: A Pragmatic Model Based on Textual Analysis of Literary Works and Their Translations]. PhD diss. Bar-Ilan University.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hirsch, Galia. 2017. “Translation of Humorous Literature: A Hyper-blend of Mental Spaces.” International Studies in Humour 6 (1): 81–95.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hirsch, Galia, and Nur Lessinger. Forthcoming. “Explicitation or Implicitation?” Meta.
Hjort-Pedersen, Mette, and Dorrit Faber. 2010. “Explicitation and Implicitation in Legal Translation – A Process Study of Trainee Translators.” Meta 55 (2): 237–250. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Klaudy, Kinga. 1996. “Back-translation as a Tool for Detecting Explicitation Strategies in Translation.” In Translation Studies in Hungary, edited by Kinga Klaudy, Jose Lambert, and Aniko Sohár, 99–114. Budapest: Scholastica.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Klaudy, Kinga. 2001. “The Asymmetry Hypothesis: Testing the Asymmetric Relationship Between Explicitations and Implicitations.” Paper presented at the Third International Congress of the European Society for Translation Studies: Claims, Changes and Challenges in Translation Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark, 30 August – 1 September.
Klaudy, Kinga. 2003. Languages in Translation: Lectures on the Theory, Teaching and Practice of Translation. Budapest: Scholastica.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Klaudy, Kinga. 2009. “The Asymmetry Hypothesis: Testing the Asymmetric Relationship Between Explicitations and Implicitations.” In Translators and Their Readers: In Homage to Eugene A. Nida, edited by Rodica Dimitriu and Miriam Shlesinger, 283–303. Brussels: Les Editions du Hazard.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Klaudy, Kinga, and Krisztina Károly. 2005. “Implicitation in Translation: Empirical Evidence for Operational Asymmetry in Translation.” Across Languages and Cultures 6 (1): 13–28. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kruger, Haidee. 2019. “That Again: A Multivariate Analysis of the Factors Conditioning Syntactic Explicitness in Translated English.” Across Languages and Cultures 20 (1): 1–33. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Landers, Clifford E. 2001. Literary Translation: A Practical Guide. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leppihalme, Ritva. 1997. Culture Bumps: An Empirical Approach to the Translation of Allusions. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lessinger, Enora. 2019. The Translation of Silence in K. Ishiguro’s Novels: Testing the Explicitation Hypothesis on Unreliable Narratives. PhD diss. Sorbonne Nouvelle University.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Malkiel, Yakov. 1968. Essays on Linguistic Themes. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Muchnik, Malka. 2006. “Al hanhara bitargumim lasefer ‘Haminhara’ leErnesto Sábato [On explicitation in translations of Ernesto Sábato’s ‘The Tunnel’].” In Ivrit Safa Haya [Hebrew – A Living Language, volume IV], edited by Gideon Toury and Rin Ben-Shahar, 243–258. Tel-Aviv: The Porter Institute.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nida, Eugene A., and Charles R. Taber. 1969. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: Brill.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Paloposki, Outi. 2010. “The Translator’s Footprints.” In Translators’ Agency, edited by Tuija Kinnunen and Kaisa Koskinen, 86–108. Tampere: Tampere University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pym, Anthony. 2005. “Explaining Explicitation.” In New Trends in Translation Studies: In Honor of Kinga Klaudy, edited by Krisztina Károly and Ágota Fόris, 29–43. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rebhun, Uzi, and Chaim I. Waxman. 2000. “The ‘Americanization’ of Israel: A Demographic, Cultural and Political Evaluation.” Israel Studies 5 (1): 65–91.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Saldanha, Gabriela. 2008. “Explicitation Revisited: Bringing the Reader into the Picture.” trans-kom 1 (1): 20–35.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Séguinot, Candace. 1988. “Pragmatics and the Explicitation Hypothesis.” TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 1 (2): 106–113. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Séguinot, Candace. 1989. “The Translation Process: An Experimental Study.” In The Translation Process, edited by Candace Séguinot, 21–42. Toronto: H.G. Publications.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shuttleworth, Mark, and Moira Cowie. 2014. Dictionary of Translation Studies. New York: Routledge. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Toledano Buendía, Carmen. 2013. “Listening to the Voice of the Translator: A Description of Translator’s Notes as Paratextual Elements.” Translation & Interpreting 5 (2): 149–162.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Toury, Gideon. 1980. In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Van Beveren, Amélie, Gert de Sutter, and Timothy Colleman. 2018. “Questioning Explicitation in Translation Studies: A Multifactorial Corpus Investigation of the om-Alternation in Translated and Original Dutch.” Paper presented at the 5th Using Corpora in Contrastive and Translation Studies (UCCTS) conference, Louvain, Belgium, 12–14 September.
Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Jean Darbelnet. 1958/1995. Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais: Méthode de traduction. London: Didier.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Von Flotow, Luise. 1991. “Feminist Translation: Contexts, Practices and Theories.” TTR: Traduction, Terminlogie, Rédaction 4 (2): 69–84. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Weissbrod, Rachel. 1992. “Explicitation in Translations of Prose-Fiction from English to Hebrew as a Function of Norms.” Multilingua 11 (2): 153–171. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Weissbrod, Rachel. 1996. “‘Curiouser and curiouser’: Hebrew Translations of Wordplay in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
.” The Translator 11 (1): 219–234. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Weissbrod, Rachel. 1998. “Yahasim ben-textualyim kibeayat targum vehahitmodedut ita bitargumei proza meanglit leivrit [Inter-textual relations as a translation problem faced by translators of prose-fiction from English into Hebrew].” Dappim Limehkar Bisafrut [Research in Literature] 111: 297–312.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zoran, Gabriel. 1990. Past and Present in Hebrew Literary Translation: A Lecture and Exhibition Catalogue. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Library.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Shen, Lin
2023.
Culture and Explicitness of Persuasion: Linguistic Evidence From a 51-Year Corpus-Based Cross-Cultural Comparison of the United Nations General Debate Speeches Across 55 Countries (1970-2020).
Cross-Cultural Research 57:2-3
► pp. 166 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.