LEARN ME PROJECT WORKSHOP UNIVERSITY OF ABERYSTWYTH 16TH -19TH OF OCTOBER 2013

Eithne O’Connell (SALIS, Dublin City University)eithne.oconnell@dcu.ie

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

language/local language• Minority

language/indigenous/autochthonous• Regional language/variety/dialectMediacentric spaces (inclusive):

Josu/Edorta Geolinguistic/transnational/public sphere; spericules/global private spaces/transcultural

CONCLUSION• 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 REVISITED1. Policy and Practice: Top-down/Bottom up (International/national/country/region/local)

WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED2. Terminological Diversity and

Consequences: Terminology as institutionalised field

WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED3. Socio-political

approaches/ideological objectives: assimilationist; additive; multicultural; segregated linguistic and cultural independence etc; identities.

WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED4. Methodological Issues:e.g. Indigeneity and Research; “Languaging” and approaches to linguistic diversity; Permeable and impermeable language frameworks

WORKSHOP THEMES REVISITED5. Sociological Practices: Education/Media and Policy Objectives