THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF JAPANESE TRANSLATION

In this course we learn that a translation is not simply the transfer of linguistic structures (words, grammar) from language into another, but that language is part of a larger sociocultural, political, geographic and economic ecology. A translator is hence a mediator between different ecologies. We focus exclusively on sociolinguistics aspects of Japanese ecologies (source language) and Italian and English ecologies (target languages). How does one display authority in these languages, what possibilities exist to innovate and transgress, what can be perceived as confrontational, how much context is presumed to not be worth mentioning in an utterances , etc. are all issues that differ from language ecology to another. Hence, translators also need to translate these issues (and be knowledgeable about them). Is this resulting translation something Italian and English, does it remain to be Japanese, or is is something entirely of its own? Translation also raises a number of important theoretical topics on language, text and society. We study translation theoretically, methodologically and practically. About half the time in class is devoted to theory and methodology, and the other half to practicing translation.

Students learn in this course to translate different sociolinguistic conventions and to pay attention to the situated context in which a text is embedded.

Advanced Japanese (equivalent to at least B1), motivation and active participation.

We will address the following topics in the course of this class:
1. Languaging and translating
2. Doing something, being someone through language
3. Lexicology and lexicography
4. Semiotics and fields of indexicality
5. Register and enregisterment
6. Ethnography of SPEAKING
7. Marked and unmarked language
8. Standard language, local and social varieties
9. Gendered speech
10. Politeness
11.Text-types and genres
12. Language change and neologism
13. Multilingualism, code-switching and mixing
14. Conversational maxims

Ahearn, Laura (2012) Living Language. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hasegawa, Yoko (2012) The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation. London: Routledge.
Hu, Gengshen (2020) Eco-Translatology. Singapore: Springer.
Okamoto, Shigeko & Janet Shibamoto-Smith (2016) The Social Life of the Japanese Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, Douglas (2003) Becoming a Translator (second edition). London: Routledge.
Sanada, Shinji et al. (2010) Japanese Sociolinguistics Illustrated (second edition). Tokyo: Akiyama Shoten.
Sato-Rossberg, Nana & Judy Wakabayashi (2012) Translation and Translation Studies in the Japanese Context. London: Bloomsbury.
Wakabayashi, Judy (2021) Japanese-English Translation. London: Routledge.

Translation of one text plus comment on the translation decisions and process.

Lectures, group work and translation exercises.

English

written