est newsletter 07 1996

EE SS TT NEWSLETTER European Society for Translation Studies

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No. 7 Nov. '95 [January 1996]

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Daniel GILE (Lyon/Paris) in cooperation with José LAMBERT (Leuven) All correspondence to: Daniel GILE, 10 rue Pasteur, F-92190 Meudon; ‹[email protected]›

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The EST Newsletter is published twice a year, in November and May, as regularly as possible. It is

basically a vehicle for communication between EST Members and a catalyst for action rather than a

traditional Translation journal. It provides information on EST activities and on research events and

presents queries and suggestions on EST matters and on T&I research issues. If you have a question

or request regarding Translation studies, do not hesitate to send it to the Newsletter for publication,

as one of the other readers may have the information or answer you are looking for. Comments and

suggestions from readers are welcome. ─────────────────────────────────────────

EDITORIAL - The Editors would like to apologize for this considerable delay in the preparation of the Newsletter. Tempting as it is to say this was deliberate, so that we could send it with our timely wishes for a Happy 1996, the sad truth is that in post-EST-Prague euphoria, we did not manage to obtain the necessary reports on time (and as can be seen below, one is still missing). But we do wish all Members a Happy New Year nevertheless. Another sad truth is reflected by the unchanged names of the Editors. No new volunteers have come forward, so we did not refuse to continue the work for a while longer, thus being faithful to the military principle "never volunteer and never refuse". However, we do hope we shall soon be honorably discharged, so that EST can benefit from new ideas and new energy. To this observer, the EST Congress in Prague was a success as regards the general atmosphere and contacts between Members. However, I believe the services offered should go beyond this three-yearly meeting and the directory. In this respect, the most significant and promising step forward may have been the creation of five working groups, a more formalized version of the inte-rest-groups idea launched via the News-

letter three years ago. It remains to be seen whether these groups will be productive, which will depend both on the convenors' dedication and leadership and on the other members' motivation. (D. Gile)

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

EST was founded in 1992 to serve as a network for stimulating research, a forum for the exchange of ideas, a centre for information and know-how, and a platform for the promotion of Translation Studies as an academic discipline. During the first three years we concentrated mainly on the legal, administrative and financial aspects of establishing the Society, of building up a membership (now of over 250 scholars) and making accessible as much information as possible. This resulted among other things in the EST Directory with information on our members and their research specializations. As a democratically organized society EST lives by the active participation of its members, and for the coming three years the Executive Board aims at stimulating as much interaction as possible. An important vehicle for communication is the Newsletter: please approach us with any news, questions, comments and suggestions you may have. If you plan any conferences, symposia or workshops, if you are willing to act as co-supervisor or resource person, please let us know. If you wish to report on any events

EST NEWSLETTER No. 7 (November 1995 [January 1996]) p. 2 ─────────────────────────────────────────

that have taken place, don’t hesitate to con-tact us. Translation Studies is still a rapidly ex-panding discipline, and I should like to wish EST members every success in their contribution towards its further growth!

(M. Snell-Hornby)

EST Activities

An Executive Board meeting was held in Prague

on 27 September 1995 with eight Board members

present (GAMBIER, KUSSMAUL, LAMBERT,

PÖCHHACKER, SALEVSKY, SNELL-HORNBY,

STOLZE, TABAKOWSKA). Apart from reports from

the Secretary (item 1) and the Treasurer (item 2),

the meeting mainly focused on reports (item 3),

the EST Congress (item 4; see report below) and

the General Meeting (item 5; see enclosed

Minutes).

Item 2: STOLZE reported that as of September

1995 there were 235 EST members. The initial

problems with money transfers and payment pro-

cedures appeared to have been more or less

overcome, even by members in Eastern Europe,

although banking fees in some countries

remained very high.

Item (3): LAMBERT and GAMBIER reported on

new activities and events involving EST.

LAMBERT described his hard-won role as the

representative of EST in the "European Trans-

lation Platform" of the European Commission.

The Translation Platform, which is invited to

report to the Commissioners on policy issues of

language, culture and translation, is chaired by

Jan Roukens of DG XIII. Apart from G. King-

scott, the Platform's Secretary, the body includes

representatives of FIT's Regional Centre Europe

(Katschinka, Ørsted) and CIUTI (Huber) as well

as an independent consultant. While the

Platform's original orientation had been purely on

the translation market and industry (language

resources, high-volume translation etc.), there is

now an increasing awareness of the importance of

research on the entire process of translation in

general within a changing society and changing

needs for training.

GAMBIER reported on the Strasbourg Forum on

"Audiovisual Communication and Language

Transfer" (22-24 June 1995). Apart from the high

profile of the presentations by researchers and

specialists in plenary sessions and workshops, the

Strasbourg Forum also resulted in a Resolution,

adopted unanimously by the participants, which

stresses the need for increased research and

training efforts in the field of audio-visual

language transfer. One example of such efforts

was the launching of an Association for the Study

of Media Translation, to take place next year at

the European Institute for the Media in Düssel-

dorf.

Other items: The official EST representative at

the FIT World Congress in Melbourne in Feb.

1996) will be EST Vice-President GAMBIER.

EST member Jürgen F. SCHOPP of Tampere,

Finland, provided the Executive Board with a

collection of designs for an EST logo. (The

version favored unanimously by all members of

the Board is reproduced below.)

Following the General Meeting on 30 September

1995, the new Executive Board met briefly and

decided that the main editor of the EST Congress

Proceedings, to be published by Benjamins,

should be SNELL-HORNBY, with Zuzana JETTMA-

ROVÁ as co-editor; Board Members will serve as

consulting editors and will review the contribu-

tions, sharing the job according to their respective

scholarly fields.

(F. Pöchhacker)

EST Congress - Prague 1995

After months of intense preparation, our Society's

first International Congress was held at the

Charles University in Prague, under the auspices

of the Rector, from 28-30 September 1995. The

setting was particularly appropriate: the Charles

University, founded in 1348 as the oldest

university in Central Europe, has a distinguished


tradition of pioneering scholarship and inter-

national cooperation. In the Middle Ages it was a

meeting-place for scholars from all over Europe:

in the 1990s it has become a forum for scholars

from all over the world. For our Congress we had

just under 200 participants from 35 countries (26

in Europe, 9 from overseas) extending from

Canada and Brazil to the Philippines. For such an

audience the basic theme of the Congress seemed

equally apt: `Translation/Interpreting as

Intercultural Communication'. The academic

programme was presented within a framework of

themes, workshops and round table discussions,

and there were two plenary lectures. Some of the

themes were extremely topical: Translation and

Advertising, Screen Translation, Media Inter-

preting, Translation and Colonialism, Multimedia

and Mass Communication. The round table

discussions EST Forum (`What's new in

Translation Studies?') and EST Focus

(`Methodology, Policy, Training') turned out to

be particularly stimulating, and the idea will

certainly be continued in future EST conferences.

On the negative side were a number of

last-minute cancellations, hence changes to the

programme, and there were even speakers who,

although registered as paid-up participants, sim-

ply didn't turn up. This was beyond the control of

the organizers, but we would still like to

apologize for the inconvenience to those

attending the sessions concerned.

Special thanks are due to Zuzana Jettmarová

and her team for their untiring and dedicated work

in organizing the Congress, and to the Vice

Rector for International Affairs, Prof. Jaroslav

Vacek for a memorable reception in the historic

rooms of the Carolinum, one of the oldest

university buildings in the world. Our Congress

was the last international event to be held there

before it was closed for renovation: the power

failure on the afternoon of the 28th must been

seen against this background, and we must also

thank those who did the emergency repair work

and hence made it possible for us to continue

there the next day.

A selection of the papers and workshop pre-

sentations will be published in the Benjamins

Translation Library as the Congress Proceedings.

The Editors are Mary Snell-Hornby, Zuzana

Jettmarova and Klaus Kaindl.

And we now look forward to the 2nd EST

Congress - to be held in September 1998 at the

Facultad de Traductores e Intérpretes in Granada.

(M. Snell-Hornby)

EST Working Groups

WORKING GROUP ON THE USE OF CORPORA IN

TRANSLATION STUDIES Convenor: Gloria CORPAS PASTOR, University of

Malaga, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras,

Departamento de Filologia Griega, Estudios

Arabes y Traducción e Interpretación, E-29071

Malaga, Spain; tel. +34 5 213 16 79 or +34 5 213

18 41, fax: +34 5 213 18 23.

E-mail: <[email protected]>

The Working Group on the uses of corpora in

Translation Studies intends to keep all interested

EST Members in contact by disseminating

relevant literature, projects and available corpora.

Several groups can be set up according to

different sub-fields (e.g. corpus-based translation,

corpora in MT and CAT systems, corpora in

interpreting, etc.). Volunteer members in each

country are needed in order to gather information

on local corpus development.

WORKING GROUP ON BIBLIOGRAPHY Convenors: José LAMBERT, KU Leuven &

Heidemarie SALEVSKY, Humboldt University,

Berlin, Germany.

No report is available at this time.

WORKING GROUP ON CURRICULUM DEVELOP-

MENT

Convenor: Natalya BUSHMANOVA, Faculty of

Philology and Culture, Pedagogic University of

Yaroslavl, Respublikanskaya Street, 108 c, 150

000 Yaroslavl, Russia; tel. +7 0852 22 39 29, fax

+7 0852 32 98 37 or +7 0852 32 86 44; E-mail:

<[email protected]>

The changing scene in Central and Eastern

European countries has led to an increasing

demand for professional Translation and Inter-

pretation in all fields, from the mass media to

commerce and tourism, and this means new

curricula for translator training. In Russia we are

now in the process of reassessing our curricula

and are planning a modular system to suit the new

needs. We would like to invite EST members

with expertise in this field to come forward with

any information they may think relevant on

standards, criteria and methods of teaching and

assessment.

In return, the Russian colleagues could offer


the following: apart from information on Russian

university curricula in Translation Studies, we

could provide expertise on Russian translation

theory as derived from literary translation

practice in the 1960s-1980s; we could also share

our long and abundant experience in translating

from a multitude of national languages into

Russian as the one-time target language, and we

could make available archive materials which

were suppressed from the 1930s to 1980s and are

still largely unexplored.

The Inaugural Russian seminar on "Curri-

culum Development in Translation Studies" will

be held on 6 March 1996 at the Russian State

Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow. The

EST Project on Curriculum Development in

Translation Studies, the survey of existing

Russian university programmes on the theory and

practice of translation, the launching of the

Russian Centre for Translation Studies and the

journal on the subject are the key points of the

one-day seminar. They will be discussed by

leading Russian specialists in Translation Studies

from Moscow, St Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod,

Saratov, Smolensk and Yaroslavl.

Those who are interested are very welcome to

contact the Steering Committee: Yekaterina

Genieva, General Director of the Library for Fo-

reign Literature, Nikolaiamskaya str. 1, 109 189

Russia; tel. +7-095 915 36 21, fax +7-095 915 35

37; eMail: [email protected],

or Vladimir Skorodenko, Secretary for Research,

Russian State Library for Foreign Literature, tel.

+7-095 915 00 19 or +7-095 915 36 21.

RESEARCH TRAINING COMMITTEE The Committee is coordinated by Daniel Gile, 10,

rue Pasteur, 92190 Meudon, France,

answerphone/fax +33 1 45 34 83 84, E-mail:

<[email protected]>

During the Prague Congress, Andrew

Chesterman (Finland), Birgitta

Englund-Dimitrova (Sweden), Yves Gambier

(Finland), Madis Saluveer (Estonia) and Christina

Schäffner (UK) expressed interest in the

Committee. Following e-mail exchanges, it was

decided that two Working Groups would be set

up:

- A Working Group on Thesis Supervision,

which will take up issues arising on both sides of

the thesis supervision work. Convenor: Christina

Schäffner, Aston University, Department of

Modern Languages, Aston Triangle, GB-B4 7ET

Birmingham, UK, fax +44 121 359 6153,

<[email protected]>

- A Working Group on Research Methodolo-

gy. Convenor: Birgitta Englund Dimitrova, In-

stitute for Interpretation and Translation Studies,

Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm,

Sweden, tel. +46 8 16 14 83, fax +46 8 16 13 96,

<[email protected]>

The Committee is open to new Members,

ideas and other contributions.

WORKING GROUP ON COMPREHENSION PRO-

CESSES IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING Convenor: Paul KUSSMAUL, FASK, University of

Mainz, An der Hochschule 2, D-76711

Germersheim, Germany, fax +49-7274 508 429,

<[email protected]>

There was quite a good response at the EST

Congress in Prague to the proposal of having a

working group on "comprehension processes in

translation and interpretation". It seems to be a

topic which is very central to teaching translation

and interpretation.

As a first step to exchanging ideas and

information an address list of all the colleagues

interested in the topic was distributed to the

members of the working group so that they would

be able to contact each other. In order to find out

what kind of research each of them is doing they

were asked to send a brief description of their

research activities. A report about this will be

published in one of the next issues of the EST

Newsletter.

The Working Group has the following

members (for addresses, see EST Directory):

Juliane HOUSE (Hamburg), Birgitta ENGLUND

DIMITROVA (Stockholm), Christina GULLIN

(Lund), Riitta JÄÄSKELÄINEN (Savonlinna), Ker-

stin JONASSON (Uppsala), Sylvia KALINA

(Heidelberg), Don KIRALY (Germersheim),

Sigrid KUPSCH-LOSEREIT (Germersheim), Alicja

PISARSKA (Poznan), Hanna RISKU (Vienna),

Candace SÉGUINOT (Toronto), Miriam

SHLESINGER (Ramat Aviv), Sonja

TIRKKONEN-CONDIT (Savonlinna).

Whoever is interested is welcome to join!

EST Directory 1995

The updated list of members (EST Directory),

complete with a subject and a country index as

well as a list of e-mail addresses, is enclosed in

this mailing. - Please keep the EST Secretariat


informed and up to date on any changes of

address, phone number etc. by faxing or e-mai-

ling [email protected].

Events

WE HAVE RECEIVED REQUESTS TO ANNOUNCE THE

FOLLOWING MEETINGS:

The XIVth World Congress of the Fédération

Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT) will be held in

Melbourne, Australia, in February 1996. February

9-11: Statutory Congress. February 12-16: Open

Congress.

Further information from: XIVth FIT World

Congress Management, Fauth Royale Assoc., P.O.

Box 895, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia. Fax:

+61-2-954 4964.

An International Translation Studies Confe-

rence on the theme "Unity in Diversity?" will be

held at Dublin City University, Ireland, 9-11 May,

1996.

Further information from: Michael Cronin,

School of Applied Languages, Dublin City Uni-

versity, Dublin 9, Ireland. Fax: +353-1-836 08 30;

E-mail: <[email protected]>

The Second International "Transferre necesse

est..." Conference on Current Trends in Studies

of Translation and Interpreting will be organized

in Budapest, September 5-7, 1996, by the Faculty of

Humanities, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)

Budapest in association with the Translation

Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

(Dr. Kinga Klaudy, Dr. Andrea Papp). Deadline for

submission of abstracts: 10 January 1996!

All correspondence to: Katalin KATONA,

Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Office for

International Cooperation, Nádor u. 7, H-1051

Budapest, Hungary. Fax: +36-1 117 2840.

The Czech Union of Translators and Interpreters

(JTP) will organize the IIIrd Meeting of Inter-

preters and Translators from Central and

Eastern European Countries in April 1997.

Further information from: JTP - Jednota

tlumo_ník_ a p_ekladatel_, Senová_né nám. 23,

CZ-112 82 Praha 1, Czech Republic, fax: +42-2

2414 2317.

Publications

A Czech and Slovak Bibliography on Trans-

lation Studies has been compiled by Ivana _e_ková

and Milan Hrdli_ka of the Institute of Translation

Studies, Charles University, Prague, and published

by JTP. Copies of this up-to-date 120-page

publication can be ordered from JTP (address see

previous paragraph).

Membership fee for 1996

The membership fee for 1996,

DM 30,- for full (i.e. ordinary) members, and

DM 145,- for supporting members (sponsors),

is payable within the first three months of the

year, i.e. by 31 March 1996 at the latest.

Payment by Euro-cheque to the order of

EST c/o Ms R. Stolze

EST Treasurer

Prinz-Christians-Weg 11

D-64287 Darmstadt

Germany

(Please send cheques to the TREASURER, NOT

to the EST Secretariat!!)

or by Bank transfer to

Sparkasse Darmstadt (bank code: 508 501 50)

account no. 500-2990 (EST)

Please make sure that bank charges "on your side"

are covered!

-> On any payment, please indicate your name

and the membership year!

In Austria only (!): Bank transfer to

P.S.K. (Österr. Postsparkasse)

(bank code: 60 000) No. 79.058.588 (EST)

est newsletter 07 1996

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