CONTENTS

Translation Studies: Prescription, Description, and Ethics / Chu Chi Yu 5

Studies of Translation Ethics at Home and Abroad: A Survey / Luo Xianfeng 13

Interpretive Plurality and Its Implication for Translation Ethics / Zhang Daozhen 18

Translation as a Subversive and Reshaping Force: Rethinking the Birth of the New Poetry in China / Tang Fuhua 2 3

An Empirical Study on Campus Internet-based Peer Review and Interactive Translation Training / Duan Zili 44

Interpreting Corpus: Some Theoretical and Practical Issues / Zhang Wei 54

From Fidelity to Validity: A Relevance Theoretical Perspective on the Evaluation of Translation / Si Xianzhu & Liu Liqiong 60

Effecting a Communication between Philosophical Ideas and Scientific Concepts: A Basic Consideration in Translating TCM / Lin Wei 64

Discourse Linearity versus Syntactic Linearity: Tactics in Simultaneous Interpretation / Li Chunyi 69

English Abstracts of Major Papers in This Issue

Translation Studies: Prescription, Description, and Ethics

by Chu Chi Yu (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China) p. 5

Abstract: The importance of ethical issues in translation has caught the attention of translation scholars in recent years, and there is a growing awareness that translation ethics cannot be simply reduced to or equated with the traditional concept of faithfulness or fidelity. This paper tries to clarify some confused concepts about prescription (as opposed to description) and ethics in this field. It also undertakes to examine the ethical models proposed by Andrew Chesterman in relation to the ethical issues raised by Antoine Berman and Lawrence Venuti. The one point we try to make is that ethical values of equality and respect warrant more attention from translation scholars in the current post-modern context.

Key words: prescription; description; translation ethics; ethics of difference; power relations

Studies of Translation Ethics at Home and Abroad: A Survey

by Luo Xianfeng (Hunan Normal University, Changsha; Hubei Institute for Nationalities, Enshi, China) p. 13

Abstract: Translating is essentially an ethical activity, translation ethics should therefore be an important part of translation studies. This paper offers a comprehensive survey of the studies of translation ethics at home and abroad, in an attempt to facilitate discussions on ethical issues among Chinese translators and translation scholars.

Key words: translation; translation ethics; survey

Interpretive Plurality and Its Implication for Translation Ethics

by Zhang Daozhen (Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China) p. 18

Abstract: The notion of loyalty/fidelity has been dominating the thinking about translation in China and in the western world alike. Yet its central status is threatened when we take into serious consideration its paradoxical relationship with pseudo-translation. Once questions such as “Is pseudo-translation a species of translation?” or “Is pseudo-translation compatible with the ethics of translation?” are raised, we are led to rethink the status of the author and of the original text. And as soon as the certainty we used to feel about “author” and “original text” is gone, the notion of “originality” becomes rootless and that of “fidelity” loses its conceptual anchor. This article aims to explore ethical issues in translation triggered by a pluralization of meaning. It maintains that born in difference, translation would also survive the radicalization of difference in our time.

Key words: meaning; interpretation; literary translation; difference; ethics

Translation as a Subversive and Reshaping Force: Rethinking the Birth of the New Poetry in China

by Tang Fuhua (Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou; Huzhou College, Huizhou, China) p. 23

Abstract: The success of the May 4th Literary Revolution owes much to the transformation of China’s poetic genre, which was realized primarily by means of translation. In the sense that such a transformation is a product of an interaction between language and social environment, translation functioned as a social act during this entire period, helping boost the development of the genre of New Poetry and a restructuring of the Chinese language and aesthetic values. This paper calls attention to the subversive and reshaping force which translated poetry possesses, stressing the need to see translation as a means of self-interpretation, acculturation and self-surpassing.

Key words: translation; new poetry; subversion and reshaping

An Empirical Study on Campus Internet-based Peer Review and Interactive Translation Training

by Duan Zili (Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, China) p. 44

Abstract: Interactive translation teaching is becoming increasingly popular. However, there are few empirical studies about it. The ways on how to achieve sufficient and effective interaction remain unsatisfactory. A one-semester experiment of asynchronous interactive translation training has been conducted with a model of peer review on the campus internet site. Its analysis shows that this model can guarantee four rounds of peer interaction at least. With a large number and high quality, the interaction between student translators is sufficient, efficient and effective. And therefore, this model is proved to be a practical and effective approach to interactive translation training.

Key words: campus internet-based peer review; interactive translation training; effectiveness; asynchronous interaction

Interpreting Corpus: Some Theoretical and Practical Issues

by Zhang Wei (Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China) p. 54

Abstract: At present, the studies of corpus-linguistics is gaining momentum and extending its influences to more and more fields. Following a detailed analysis of the significance of interpreting corpus for the studies and the pedagogy of interpretation, and for undertaking all language-based projects as well, this article goes on to 1) review both the favorable and the unfavorable conditions for the construction of interpreting corpora; 2) identify the guiding principles to be upheld and the precautions to be taken in this endeavor; and 3) stress the need for there to be a proper coordination between interpreting corpus and other methodologies in order to make a qualitative difference in the studies of interpreting.

Key words: corpus; interpreting; interpreting studies

From Fidelity to Validity: A Relevance Theoretical Perspective on the Evaluation of Translation

by Si Xianzhu & Liu Liqiong (Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, China) p. 60

Abstract: Avoiding the deficiency of the traditional coded model and benefiting from the latest development in pragmatics, relevance theory proposes an ostensive-inference model to explain human communication through speech. This innovative model has led to the formulation of a new approach to explaining and evaluating translation activities whereby validity instead of fidelity is taken as the central criterion for evaluating translation. While ideally, translation should show a unity of high validity and high fidelity, when we cannot have both simultaneously, the translator should first aim for validity, pursuing fidelity only when the demand for achieving validity is met.

Key words: validity; fidelity; ostensive-inferential model

Effecting a Communication between Philosophical Ideas and Scientific Concepts: A Basic Consideration in Translating TCM

by Lin Wei（Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao, China） p. 64

Abstract: As traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） is increasingly popular in the West, the translation of its literature and especially the need to convey its unique conceptual system to the western readers have also emerged as a prominent issue that gives rise to considerable difficulties for translators. Unlike the western medicine（WM）, where medical terms are essentially scientific concepts, the medical terms in TCM are mainly philosophical ideas. Taking the difference as its point of departure, this paper discusses the intricacy of TCM transition in reference to the two different sets of medical symbols in TCM and WM, their communication, and the three kinds of strategies in carrying out a proper rendition of TCM in terms understandable in WM.

Key words: TCM; translation; philosophical ideas; scientific concepts; shared knowledge; various equivalence

Discourse Linearity versus Syntactic Linearity: Tactics in Simultaneous Interpretation

by Li Chunyi (China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing, China) p. 69

Abstract: Many problems which students encounter when practicing simultaneous interpretation are caused by sentence structures that do not facilitate syntactic linearity in interpreting. In searching for a way to deal with such structures, the paper distinguishes between syntactic linearity and discourse linearity. Drawing from the theme-rheme theory and the interpretive theory, it concludes that “de-verbalization” at the syntactic level is needed for effective information delivery.

Key words: syntactic linearity; theme-rheme theory; interpretive theory; tactics；simultaneous interpretation