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Gideon Toury and translation

norms

Theory of Translation

Karen Bennett

Gideon Toury: ‘The nature and role of norms in

translation’, Descriptive Translation Studies

and Beyond, Amsterdam & Philadelphia:

Benjamins (1978/1995). Reproduced in L.

Venuti (2000). The Translation Studies Reader,

London & New York: Routledge. 198-211.

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Translation as a social activity

Translatorship involves being able to play a

social role (i.e. to fulfil a function allotted by a

community) in an appropriate fashion

↓

Implies acquiring a set of norms

particular to the target community

Constraints operating upon translation

• Linguistic constraints

• Textual traditions

• Cognitive constraints

• Sociocultural constraints

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Sociocultural constraints

_______________________________________

idiosyncrasies norms rules

↓

• general values or ideas shared by a community

• imposed by sanctions

• change over time

Translation as a norm-governed

activity

1. A translation is a text in a certain language: it

therefore occupies a position in that culture (TC)

2. A translation constitutes a representation of

another pre-existing text in some other

language, which belongs to that culture and

occupying a position within it (SC)

↓

These two sets of norms are always different and

often incompatible

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Initial Norm

Basic choice: translator chooses to

• respect norms of SC (adequate translation)

• respect norms of TC (acceptable translation)

↓

both kinds require shifts (governed by norms)

Translational Norms: overview

• Preliminary norms:

- translation policy (texts to be imported by a given culture at particular time;

- directness of translation (what SL?)

• Operational norms: (decisions made during the act of translation itself)

- matricial (existence and distribution of translated material and textual segmentation)

- text linguistic (general, i.e. apply to any translation in that TL; or particular, i.e. apply only certain text types or modes)

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The multiplicity of translational norms

• Norms apply only within specific sectors of a

given society

• Norms are unstable (i.e. change over time)

↓

Translators are not entirely passive but may

have active role to play in changing translational

norms (Agency)

Changing norms

Previous MAINSTREAM New

old-fashioned trendy

conservative progressive

[NB. Not always directly related to age – young people’s

translation decisions are often very ‘epigonic’ ]

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Studying translation norms

2 sources for reconstruction of translational

norms:

i. Textual: the translated texts themselves

ii. Extra-textual: theoretical or critical

formulations (e.g. prescriptive theories; statements by

translators, editors, publishers; critical appraisals; activities

of ‘school’ of translators, etc → NOTE: These are by-

products of the existence of norms and do not actually set

the rules)