Translating typologically rare structures in language Documentation texts: survey of current practices

Presented by Holly Drayton at the Language Documentation and Archiving Conference, Berlin & Online, 4-6 Sept, 2024.

Within Language Documentation, annotation of data (e.g. glossing and translation) is seen as peripheral to data collection and analysis (Beier 2015). Many documentary texts have been noted to be unsuitable for use beyond the original research project, due to poor-quality translation (Evans & Sasse 2007; Penfield & Tucker 2011; Austin 2017: 35). This paper explores the question of how syntactic structures are translated when there is no equivalent in the target language. Western Austronesian Symmetrical Voice provides an ideal testing ground since analysis of these structures is controversial, particularly for the Undergoer or Patient voice, which has been proposed to be a Passive, Ergative and Symmetrical construction, each giving rise to a different translation. Examples of English translations of two varieties of Malay/Indonesian: Desa and Standard Indonesian are shown below, presenting translations where similar UV constructions are translated as both English active (1a), passive (1b) constructions and active sentences with fronted theme arguments (2a-b). Example 1 UV translations from Desa a. a. Meja Yetn Aku Teipel table DEM 1sg Touch ‘I touch the table.’ (Erlewine & Sommerlot 2023: 9) b. Buku Itu Ku-beli Book DET 1sg-buy ‘The book was bought by me.’ (Erlewine & Sommerlot 2023: 10) Example 2 UV Translations from Standard Indonesian a. Buku Itu Saya baca book DEM 1sg read ‘The book, I read.’ (Arka & Manning 2008: 2) b. Buku Itu Ku-baca Book DET 1sg-read ‘The book, I read.’ (Arka & Manning 2008: 2) This paper draws on concepts from Translation Studies: Pedersen’s taxonomy of strategies for cross-cultural translation (Pedersen 2011) and The Agency of the Translator (Tymoczko 2007; Venuti 2018) to closely examine 30 texts (10 archival deposits, 10 descriptive grammars, 10 journal articles) to determine: (i) The translation strategies used for translating Western Austronesian voice constructions into English; (ii) To what extent these strategies are transparent.