LEARN ME PROJECT WORKSHOP UNIVERSITY OF ABERYSTWYTH 16TH -19TH OF OCTOBER 2013 Eithne O’Connell (SALIS, Dublin City University) [email protected]The Diversity of Linguistic Diversity: Summing up the differences and commonalities across language communities
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Eithne O’Connell (SALIS, Dublin City University) [email protected] The Diversity of Linguistic Diversity: Summing up the differences and commonalities.
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LEARN ME PROJECT WORKSHOP UNIVERSITY OF ABERYSTWYTH 16TH -19TH OF OCTOBER 2013
The Diversity of Linguistic Diversity: Summing up the differences and commonalities across language
communities
TRANSLATION POSITIVES
• Translation is a key enabling mechanism of linguistic diversity- otherwise chaos in multilingual situations or isolation
• Translation is too often underestimated even by linguists/media producers as a purely technical matter: A in L1>B in L2.
• In fact, A in L1 can become B, C, D... in L2, depending on factors such as language pair, context, text type, purpose etc.
TRANSLATION POSITIVES
Translation supports linguistic diversity by
• Increasing visibility of different languages,
their speakers and/or their cultures, creating openness and interest
SOCIOLINGUISTIC PRACTICES (5)
Translation (especially AVT audiovisual translation) relating to children and MLs
TRANSLATION POSITIVES
• Providing employment to linguists• Improving accessibility (e.g. subtitles,
dubbing) • Fostering casual and formal language
learning/linguistic/literacy skills development in both children and adults: standard subtitles for beginners; reverse subtitles for intermediate; intralingual subtitles for advanced. Implications for ML audiences?
TRANSLATION NEGATIVES
• Translation censorship (indiv./state/corporate)
• Third Code: translated texts differ linguistically from original language texts (even if written by the same author). Features include explication, normalisation, simplification etc.
• Exposure to large quantities of translations causes adoption of source language features (e.g. Herbst : USA TV in German).Implications for ML children heavily reliant on dubbing/ST?
LIMITS OF TRANSLATION
• Translation (no matter how good) can never be neutral: question of interpretation, multiple possible readings ( and translations) of the same text
• Translation (only) hints at the riches of linguistic diversity
ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS
• Fluent translation strategies obliterate the differences between languages and cultures even though semantic fields do not overlap
• Translation can work against linguistic diversity as colonisation removing the need to LEARN other languages
THE DIVERSITY OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY
Session 11
DIVERSITY
• Thousand/millions of speakers• High/low status• One territory/ transnational• All domains/limited domains• Oral/written expression• Intergeneration transmission Yes/No• Codified standards/competing varieties• LP, e.g. terminology committees/laissez
faire
COMMONALITIES
• Old terminology does not capture current realities/complexities
• Most languages now minoritized in relation to English
• New low cost communication possibilities offered by digital media making traditional top-down LP harder to implement
• Bottom-up LP easier
COMMONALITIES (CNTD)
• Scope for new cooperative (top/bottom) hybrid LP practices based on experience of fan-subtitling/dubbing and crowdsourcing for translation
• Languages increasingly subordinated to English and used outside territory of origin and/or virtually
• Most languages happy to scramble for second place
DIFFERENCES
• Some languages other than English are consolidating their position in institutions EU/UN etc.
• Some will benefit from increased multilingualism
TERMINOLOGY INAPPROPRIATE?
Territory (exclusive): • World language/Major language/Small
• Terminology and discourse needs to be revised/updated
• Old discourse which links Irish to Catalan, while distinguishing between Catalan and Danish.
• New discourse of EU (not nations states) as a public sphere and language speakers and language use and multilingualism in context may be more productive and unifying
WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED
WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED
1. Policy and Practice: Top-down/Bottom up (International/national/country/region/local)
WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED
2. Terminological Diversity and Consequences: Terminology as institutionalised field
WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED
3. Socio-political approaches/ideological objectives: assimilationist; additive; multicultural; segregated linguistic and cultural independence etc; identities.
WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED
4. Methodological Issues:e.g. Indigeneity and Research; “Languaging” and approaches to linguistic diversity; Permeable and impermeable language frameworks
WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED
5. Sociological Practices: Education/Media and Policy Objectives