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Revisiting Textual Competence in Translation from a Text-World Perspective

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Translation Education

Part of the book series: New Frontiers in Translation Studies ((NFTS))

Abstract

Illuminated by Text World Theory, this study, at the interface of text linguistics and cognitive linguistics, discusses a text-world approach to translation studies and advances “textual competence” as an integrated translation competence in conceptualizing texts as worlds and re-presenting the world series in a coherent and justifiable manner in the target text. In Text World Theory, a discourse is taken as a dynamic cognitive process when the content of the discourse, i.e., the text, is comprehended as text worlds. In this connection, translation can be regarded as a cognitive communicative process of reproducing texts as worlds in the target language. The (in)coherence among text worlds as they are re-presented in translation provides a legitimate criterion for the evaluation of textual competence. A comparative analysis of a short English narrative text and its Chinese translations serves as a case study. It is concluded that a world-view on textual competence may lead to a more proactive approach to translator training by encouraging translation learners to become aware of text world construction and presentation during the translation process.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Neubert is found to use the terms “translation competence” and “translational competence” interchangeably in his work.

  2. 2.

    The PACTE is a research group at the University of Barcelona with an aim to investigate the acquisition of translation competence. Its full name is Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation.

  3. 3.

    Retrieved from http://www.docin.com/p-295204720.html.

  4. 4.

    To facilitate discussions about the relevant points in focus, emphases in bold type are added to the cited examples by the author of this chapter.

  5. 5.

    Pinyin and back translation are provided for each cited TT. In order to maximally reflect the sentence structure and the semantic meaning of the TT, some of the back translations may not strictly abide by the grammatical rules of the English language.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a research grant (No. BCD1805) from Bilingual Cognition and Development Lab, Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and a research programme (No. MTIJZW201919) of China National Committee for Postgraduate Translation Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bilingual Cognition and Development Lab, Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

    Lu Tian

  2. School of Interpreting and Translation Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

    Lu Tian

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  1. Lu Tian
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Correspondence to Lu Tian .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Translation Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

    Junfeng Zhao

  2. Center for Studies of Translation, Interpreting and Cognition, University of Macau, Macau, China

    Defeng Li

  3. School of Interpreting and Translation Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

    Lu Tian

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Tian, L. (2020). Revisiting Textual Competence in Translation from a Text-World Perspective. In: Zhao, J., Li, D., Tian, L. (eds) Translation Education. New Frontiers in Translation Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7390-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7390-3_8

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-7389-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-7390-3

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