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Translation as an Evaluative Concept

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Translating Values

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting ((PTTI))

Abstract

Testing the hypothesis that the concept of translation is evaluative rather than merely descriptive, Blumczynski analyses its increasingly popular use in three areas: political discourse, life writing, and biomedical publications. He argues that translation as an evaluative concept is concerned with profound rather than superficial issues: to translate something is to assert its significance and value. At the same time, translation brings to the surface real and authentic things, producing its therapeutic value: it makes us more visible to ourselves, exposes pretences, and thus brings relief. Finally, translation delivers on its own ethical imperative by breaking the spell of proverbial good intentions and bringing things to completion.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/values-in-action/ [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  2. 2.

    Cf. etymology of the Polish verbs wiedzieć (‘to know’) and widzieć (‘to see’), and the Sanskrit word veda (‘knowledge’) from the root: vid- (‘to know’).

  3. 3.

    For a fascinating account of the knowing as seeing metaphor across a number of languages as well as into the past, see Sweetser 1990: 32–34 in Underhill 2009: 107.

  4. 4.

    http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/60484a.htm [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  5. 5.

    http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2009/Pages/Statements_PM_Olmert_European_leaders_18-Jan-2009.aspx [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  6. 6.

    http://beforeitsnews.com/obama/2011/05/presidential-proclamation-national-hurricane-preparedness-week-651836.html [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  7. 7.

    http://chasfreeman.net/814/[assessed on 27 August 2015].

  8. 8.

    http://www.westondemocrats.org/2006_05_01_archive.html [accessed 27 August 2015].

  9. 9.

    http://metanoia-films.org/u-s-dictatorship-propaganda-and-hope/ [accessed 27 August 2015].

  10. 10.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/04/27/obama-anger-translator/26444257/ [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  11. 11.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkAK9QRe4ds [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  12. 12.

    See for example the November 1997 editorial of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 42 (2) which insists that ‘we must translate current psychiatric treatments and concepts to make them relevant to the culture and needs of primary care’ (p. 914).

  13. 13.

    http://www.nature.com/tp/about/index.html [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  14. 14.

    Ibid.

  15. 15.

    According to Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute, http://www.tuftsctsi.org/About-Us/What-is-Translational-Science.aspx [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  16. 16.

    The round table ‘Is prevention the cure?’, New Statesman, 7–13 November 2012, available at http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/files/20121210novartissupp.pdf [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  17. 17.

    http://www.nature.com/tp/about/index.html [accessed on 27 August 2015].

  18. 18.

    All these collocations are drawn from the online British National Corpus [accessed on 27 August 2015].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Modern Languages, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

    Piotr Blumczynski

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  1. Piotr Blumczynski
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Modern Languages, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom

    Piotr Blumczynski

  2. School of Modern Languages, University of Ulster, Coleraine, United Kingdom

    John Gillespie

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Blumczynski, P. (2016). Translation as an Evaluative Concept. In: Blumczynski, P., Gillespie, J. (eds) Translating Values. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54971-6_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54971-6_16

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54970-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54971-6

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