Context

Extracted text from Context.ppt:

Explicit expression is visible by definition

But this expression is really nothing more than a small set of signposts, referring to a much larger body of (presumed) shared cultural experience

The explicit expression is above the water The implicit communication is carried out beneath the water

Implicit information is hidden within the culture and is unconscious Cultures differ in what is made explicit or kept implicit

Communication Frames Source Message Receptor

Source

Text Signs

Receptor

Locks

Source

llave

Receptor

Water/Gas

Repair

The negotiation of frames

Source

Text Signs

Receptor

Frames never overlap completely, but they can overlap adequately

Source

llave para abrir una puerta

Receptor

Llave/Key in English and Spanish: English Wrench Faucet Key (fsico) Piano key Computer key Heramientas de aceso (abstracto) Key of map Key of code Key of musical composition Key important Clave del mapa Clave del cdigo Clave msical Clave - importante Tecla del piano Tecla de la computadora Espaol Llave Llave Llave

Heramienta de mano/dar vuelta Heramienta de mano/tocar

Key y llave: concordancias y faltas de lo mismo.

Semantic Networks

Table-eat

Chair-sit

Table-work Commpasion Friendship

TableMotion Pleat - cloth Plait - cloth / hair Plat - hair

Commpasion Friendship

Love Romantic

Love Romantic

Similarity

Any two things whatever, as disparate as you like on some criteria (such as the camel and the rock badger in Leviticus 11), can be counted the same by selecting shared features. There are an infinite number of good reasons for assigning any two things to the same set (Goodman, 1969). Being similar is an endowment of intellectual activity, which necessarily has to start with sets, categories, classes. But the intellectual activity articulates the rest of the behaviour, and the clues as to what is going on are in that behaviour (Douglas, (1996:149).

Similarity

A

B

A

Which one is different?

What is the category? Alcohol

Tobacco Tobacco

Perfume Firearms

Alcohol

Alcohol

Tobacco

Playing Cards

Resemblance is not a property (Douglas/Lakoff) Grammar Poetry Length Reference Connotation

Resemblance is not a property (Douglas/Lakoff) Grammar Poetry Length Reference Connotation

Examples

Brother/sister vs. older sibling/younger sibling Here it is clear what is missing/added on both sides, yet there is no direct way to translate going in either direction without both excluding something referred to in the source and at the same time adding something not referred to in the source. The best we can do is either add the source information to the translation (=longer text) or simply leave it out.



padre (Spanish) vs. cool (English) While both mean (in some contexts) great, or first class, they are not directly equivalent. It is difficult to describe exactly their differences are, as they have something to do with register and usage. Thus cool sounds more informal, youthful and idiomatic than padre (at least to me). One may choose to fill in these aspects of difference in translation (=longer text): e.g. Fantastic, he exclaimed excitedly

Identity

Name/do not name people Jesus Cremate/do not cremate bodies These can be seen as symbolic actions which are intended to indicate respect. So the symbols seems to be opposite (explicitly), but they have the same reference/purpose/function. Yet in order to serve the intended function for many people, the explicit form must be taken literally, and the actual reference must remain hidden.

Identity, cont.

Hebrew = descendants of Jacob (bene Yisrael)+ nomads (transients, bums) Zion = Jerusalem + city where God lives/meets people (Big Apple, Windy City, etc.) Horeb = Sinai + poetic flavor Cows of Bashan both terms have reference and connotation Abraham to servant: put your hand under my thigh

Communication Frames

Jerusalem

Israelites

Source

Zion / Hebrews

Receptor

Where god lives

Dusty ones

Communication Frames

Aristocratic women

Samaria

Source

Cows / Bashan

Receptor

Big, fat (rich)

Best pasture

Psalms of David / Proverbs of Solomon 1. Written by? 2. Collected by? 3. Dedicated to? What to do if loyalty to text favors #2 / #3, yet the client wants #1?

Identity, cont.

Paraphrasing Erving Goffman (On the moral career of the individual-Asylums): The self is not so much revealed in all the diverse interactions it has with others as it is constituted by these interactions. To the extent that these interactions are represented by symbolic means, the symbols can be understood as constitutive of personal and group identity.

Cultural Clusters Isolate Alienation Hierarchist Cooperation within structure

Individualist Individual competition

Enclavist Cooperation in dissent

Increasing limits on personal freedom // Increasing solidarity

Diagonal of Power

Hierarchist Cooperation within structure

Individualist Individual competition

Diagonal of Dissent

Isolate Alienation

Enclavist Cooperation in dissent

Ecology Isolates-Fatalists: Nature is Capricious Hierarchists-Balancers: Nature is Robust within Limits

Individualists-Entrepreneurs: Nature is Robust

Enclavists-Protectors: Nature is Fragile

Organizations Isolate Donkeys Used by others Unorganized labor Hierarchist Wolves Pack hunters Organized labor / management

Individualist Hawks Lone operators Entrepreneurs

Enclavist Vultures Solidarity/individuality Sales reps, semi-skilled craftsmen

Increasing limits on personal freedom // Increasing solidarity

Christianity Isolate Some forms of asceticism Hierarchist Roman Catholicism

Individualist Protestantism

Enclavist New Testament Era Christianity

Increasing limits on personal freedom // Increasing solidarity

Righteousness Isolate Existential good faith (true to self) Hierarchist Mutual obligations

Individualist Personal virtue / rights

Enclavist Universal love

Increasing limits on personal freedom // Increasing solidarity



In Gen 38 the Hebrew Bible relates the story of Judah and Tamar, his daughter-in-law. At the end of the story (which includes Tamar tricking Judah into having sexual relations with her), as Tamar is being brought out to be stoned and in that moment reveals that Judah is the father of the child she is bearing, Judah declares: she is more righteous than I am. This sentence is nonsense to most modern readers from individualist cultures. For them, righteousness is personal piety and virtue. Seducing your father-in-law by trickery does not only does not qualify one as righteous, but quite the opposite. Yet for a culture of hierarchy, the whole point of the story is that Tamar was simply doing all she could to fulfill the mutual obligations which existed in the relationship between herself and her father-in-law. He owed her a husband, and she owed him an offspring to continue his linage. That she felt forced to do this by subterfuge and incest is secondary to the real point of righteousness in such a culture. The NT at times assumes the hierarchist perspective of the Hebrew Bible with regard to righteousness, but at other times (cf. Romans) seems to take an enclavist position whereby righteousness is more of a state of being in a right relationship based on trust (faith).

Key concepts

A network of ideas of loyalty, obligation, and physical salvation of the community within the hierarchist culture of mutual obligation represented by the Hebrew Bible were first transformed in the enclavist culture of the NT into concepts of trust, love, and spiritual community salvation. And these both have finally been largely distilled out within modern individualist cultures as conviction, virtue and personal salvation.

Bible Translation Process Isolate Marginalized persons Hierarchist OT and most receptor language cultures and some national cultures

Individualist Most translation consultants and some national cultures

Enclavist NT and some receptor language cultures

Increasing limits on personal freedom // Increasing solidarity

Cultural mediation

The translator is forever caught between the conceptual worlds of original text and intended audience. As Katans cultural mediator, the translator has a responsibility to both thought-worlds. If these worlds belong to the same cultural cluster, the job is not so difficult. But even between the Hebrew Bible and the NT the thoughtworlds differ, so there inevitably will be points at which there is no obvious contact between the understandings the translator is trying to mediate. In such cases difficult choices must be made. Helps of various kinds can make the task easier. But in the end, the purposes of the translator and of the translation will determine what kinds of similarity will characterize a given translation.

Translation filters Input is the biblical text Filter Strong church tradition No biblical background Money no object Limited funds Long literary history First published work >> >> >> >> >> >> Output Formal Equivalence Dynamic Equivalence Full Study Bible Two-column text only Literary version Oral-oriented text

History of translation First Bible translation

Exegetical limits Freedom to innovate