Prefatory letter:
The following
text represents the final result of my research and cognitions acquired
throughout the study course I frequented during the past three years of my life
at the University SSML “Gregorio VII”.
This
investigation is proposed in order to create an important tool to figure-out
the interpreter/translator/linguistic and cultural mediator professions. For
this purpose will be provided humanistic-kind examples from some of the most
influential sources available.
We will
explore the cultural differences caused by geographical distances and analyze
the necessity of a cultural gap equalization. Will also provided an interesting
evolution analysis about the most important translation theories, starting from
the Tower of Babel up to the contemporary era, considering both social and
professional point of views.
I would also
really like to clarify that an important part of my project target was to
comply a final document easy to read and understand for anybody.
Patrizi Fabio
Intro:
Our planet it’s
a place full of an unthinkable quantity of different kinds of communication
methods typical of an equal number of different kinds of species, families, organisms typologies; either if we consider the human
being or the animals, the communication necessities are fully satisfied by a
huge range of possibilities, depending on:
-
The
species or family
-
The
communication skills: that are the direct result of knowledge and
psycho-physical abilities, both human or animals.
-
The
communication possibility: that is the whole environmental and occasional
element which influences the use of a communicative method rather than another.
-
The
communication necessity: that is the level of specialization and peculiarity
which the communication wants to reach.
Is for this
reason that is important to fix the concept of language.
The language is
the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication and
it changes between different cultures. This is the first cause of communicative
faults, usually known as culture gaps.
A culture gap
is the difference between two cultures which hinders mutual understanding or
relations. This is the main cause of misunderstanding, communication slowing,
conceptual distortions.
The necessity
to erase any kind of culture gap it’s a globalization direct consequence as
effect of the utilization of mass transportation means, the border opening, the
increasing of national and international trade exchanges.
This is what
we are going to talk about in the next chapter: differences originated from the
meeting of two different realities giving historical and mythological examples
and sources.
CHAPTER I
1.
The
origin
of the languages
The origin of
the languages is a matter that during the history caused an incessant attention
from the human being and a cultural interest for scientists, academics,
researchers of the most different fields. Historians, psychologists, doctors,
geologists and much more, tried to deal with this matter along the centuries,
creating a great number of different theories, frequently conflicting.
If we assume
that, every single sane human has the same linguistic abilities, and especially
there are no children having any kind of biological tendency to be used in
order to easily learn one language instead than another, it’s really
interesting try to understand when the human linguistic skills began developing.
1.1.
The
Bickerton theory
Derek Bickerton is a linguist and
Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, author of Language and Species and originator of
the “Language Bioprogram Theory” according to which there exist different
similarities between any kind of language, despite the origins.
According to his theories, he
assessed that around 5 or 6 million years ago, the languages began developing.
In his researches he pinpointed 4 “linguistic fossils”:
-
Great
apes thought to the deaf and damb language.
-
Under two, children
-
Pidgin language
-
The language of Genie
The last one of these fossils will be
the object of our next elaboration.
1.1.a. The language of Genie
November
1970, Los Angeles, California; a 13 years old child was found bounded inside a
room. At the moment of her discovery she was only dressed of a diaper, showing
childish attitude. Her parents kept her inside this room during all her
existence, far from any kind of human contact. Her mother, such as weak and
blind woman, told the police they used to be mistreated by her husband, a
violent and obstinate person dead suicide after their discovery.
She was
called Genie and her story caused outcry and interest among neurologist and
psychiatrist who submitted her to different kind of clinical examinations.
Since the
beginning her brain insanity was clear, as if the little child was mentally
retarded or as if she received some kind of head injury in the past. This was
the time when the National Institute of Mental Healt decided to delegate Susan
Curtis – a newly graduated psychologist, committed for her PhD – to rehab the
little patient.
The target
was to understand if Genie would ever be able to fully rescue her mental skills
and learn to speak.
The rehab
lasted 4 years, from the ’71 to the ’75, throughout which the progress was
concrete, especially thanks to the constant commitment of the Doctor Curtis,
which collected around 2500 new vocalizations during this time.
The problems
began once Genie came back living with her mother again. Indeed, even if Doctor
Curtis didn’t completely abandon her, the child showed the decline of her
mental disease.
It’s
apparently possible to recognize that children growth far from human contests,
can’t completely rescue their full mental skills remaining in a childlike
status during their entire life. But a more peculiar analysis of this story
it’s useful in order to understand that, even if Genie is unequivocally
mentally diseased, she has the ability to talk both from a mental than a
physical point of view, such as any other “normal” human.
1.1.b. The results
We
only analyzed the 4th of the Bickerton’s fossils beacuse Genie example can be
compared to the language used by the under two children or even to Great Apes
taught to the deaf and damb language or to people who usually talk Pidgin
languages. Thus we can assess that some kinds of protolanguages are the average
level between modern languages and primitive languages.
After his
research, Bickerton summed-up the linguistic evolution in 3 different levels:
-
Level
1: Creation of pre-languages, contemporaneously
with the Homo Habilis appearance.
-
Level
2: Creation of proto-languages,
contemporaneously with the Homo Erectus appearance. This level represents the
real mile-stone in the evolution of the human communication process.
-
Level
3: Creation and evolution of languages,
contemporaneously with the Homo Sapiens appearance (till today).
1.2.
The Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel is a legendary building which
story is included in the Genesi, a book which is part of The Holy Bible. It
talks about an amazing tower built by the human kind as intention of them to narrow
the distance from God, in order to finally reach the Heaven. The Legend tells
that at the time, the human kind used to talk the same language and is for this
reason that this story is really interesting for us.
There exist different interpretations depending of
the source.
For Cattolics, God acted destroying the Tower in
order to comply the plan he fixed at the origin of the time. He didn’t create
the human kind to remain in group in a single small place, but contrary he
wanted us to reach any part of the planet.
A different interpretation is given by the Hebrew
Bible. In the Jewish tradition, God acted like this in order to punish the
human kind for attempting His superiority and moreover he transformed in
monkeys the human responsibles.
CHAPTER II
2. Story of the translation
According to Torop, the “story of the translation”
can be understood in different ways, such as:
- Story of works translated
- Quality of the translation, referred to the
different historical eras
- Historical path of the translation methods
- Evolution of the translation thoughts
It’s to understand that everything concerning the
“story of the translation” it’s something strongly influenced from a kind of
versatility.
Thus, everything we already said it’s necessary to
make a distinction among different types of translation problems such as:
-
Comunicative
translability;
That is the whole translation problem examined under
a conceptuality point of view.
-
Functional
translability;
That is the whole translation problem examined under
an expressive point of view
To resolve (as it is possible) the functional and
communicative translability problems, it’s also necessary to take into account
3 more elements typical of any kind of translation:
·
Appropriation of an extraneous element;
That is the transposition of any kind of element in
a different culture with the necessity to clean it from any kind of
extraneousness.
·
Recognition of an extraneous element;
That is the necessity to incorporate in the destined
culture some kind of element without losing recognizability aspects.
·
Standardization of an extraneous element;
That is the uniforming of the extraneous element to
other elements globally (if it’s possible) known.
2.1.
The translation evolution
Any work is subjected to temporal and spatial
changement and even contacts with different cultures, this implies the
necessity to fix the difference between two different concepts:
-
The
cultural time;
That is the evolution level reached in a single
history portion from a culture.
-
The
historical time;
That is the normal temporal and historical
consequentiality.
2.1.a.
From Platone passing throughout Socrate until Aristotele.
Platone during his life never exposed his opinion
about the translation but he provided important considerations concerning the
relationship among the “word” and the “object”. Indeed he thought he could find
a kind of “own correctness” in the word as it is.
This concept represents the source of inspiration
for Socrate, which used to consider the relationship between word and object
only with the assistance of another element subsequently studied also from
Aristotele, called “interpreter”. And was Aristotele who definitively performed
the concept of:
WORD à INTERPRETER à OBJECT
Main concept also used from other linguists of the
future.
2.1.b Dante Alighieri, Martin Lutero.
Dante Alighieri probably represents the most appropriate example of
linguistic interchangeability, being the real inventor of the code switching.
To the contrary,
Martin Lutero made a “Popular German” transposition of the Holy Bible, in order
to narrow the distances between the reader and the text and rise the interest
and the attention level.
This is opposed to Dante’s concept, which during his
entire life used to comply works often comprehensible only from a well-educated
public.
2.1.c. Jonathan Swift, Giacomo
Leopardi, Giovanni Pascoli
Jonathan Swift, who wrote “The Gulliver’s Travel”,
in a portion of text within this work, tries to deal with the translation
themes, proposing the abolition of the words in favour of the real object.
This was just a an attempt for a “metaphoric
concretization” of the real translation problem: the relationship between
word/interpreter/object.
Giacomo Leopardi instead, exposed a properly own
pessimistic vision about the problem: considering the extreme subjectivity
(represented from the “interpreter” element) in the relationship above
mentioned, he said it was necessary to be resigned to the impossibility to make
a perfect translation in any case.
Giovanni Pascoli, the 19th of novembre 1903, made a
speech at the University of Pisa,
assessing that translation is a kind of “dressing-up” of a work, in order to
make it functional in any contest or era it is read.
2.1.d. Italo Calvino, Primo Levi,
Eduardo de Filippo
Italo Calvino, who often worked as a writer or translator,
in his “L’italiano, una lingua fra le altre” (1965), dedicated a careful
consideration about the translation theories. Within this text, considering the
extreme multi-faceted of the Italian, he proposed to carry out a new kind of
translation called “reinvented”.
This is a point of beginning for the modern
translation theories, and was also used by many others such as Primo Levi
within his personal translation of “The Trial” (Kafka, 1925) or even from
Eduardo de Filippo in his Napolitan transposition of the “The Tempest” (Sheakespeare,
1612).
CHAPTER III
3.
Language and
communication: differences between human and animals
Understanding the
importance of any kind of communication method, supposes a complete awareness
of the human cerebral skills. For this reason in the next chapter we will
introduce the concept of bilingualism, talking about children learning skills,
compared to animals.
3.1. Definition of Bilingualism
Bilingualism
is the ability to correctly talk 2 mother languages. It’s a kind of language
learning supported especially in children which live their childhood in
bilingual contexts.
There are 2
different kind of bilingualism in children
-
Simultaneous bilingualism;
That is referred to all those children who had a continuing
relation with 2 different languages since their born or before they are 3 years
old.
-
Consecutive
bilingualism;
That is referred to all those children who moved to
a different country during their childhood.
But is also essential to establish another concept:
when can a person be defined as bilingual?
Researchers tried to give an answer. For somebody,
has to be considered bilingual a person who has the cognition of a few words in
another language. For another part of researchers can be considered bilingual
only the person able to talk correctly both languages, such as a mother
language, due to the consideration that even between native speakers there are
different levels of knowledge.
3.2. Development modalities and bilingualism
problems
According to
Taeschner, the first step for the languages learning in children is to learn
words coming from both languages but without having the cognition of their
origins.
In the second
step children try to reproduce equivalent words, in order to learn to organize
two different systems giving them different rules.
Thus, the
child is now able to recognize the word provenance in any circumstance.
The third
step is the appearance of more complex phrases in both languages. At this level
the child usually confuses the words order, often creating phrases without any
apparent sense.
It’s only
throughout the time that the child starts associating the use of a language
instead of another depending on the interlocutor, and this ability in the
future will make him “socially flexible”.
3.3. Animal vocal expressions
Within the Animal Kingdom there are different species
able to emit a great variety of sounds and rumors,, but only a few are able to
emit real words as humans do.
The few
species able to do this are some kind of birds.
It’s been a
long time since the researchers started studying the birds and their attempts
of imitation of the human language. But even if they tried to give to this kind
of animals some peculiar mental skills, there are new studies which underline
that there aren’t animals able to create a proper own speech without any external
stimulation (by the humans).
An example is
given by parrots. Some species possess peculiar
mental skills useful in order to produce a great variety of sounds and
rumors typical of human being.
Despite of,
it’s necessary to underline that this species is able only to imitate what
heard from humans.
Therefore:
what are the differences between the human and animal brain? Why can the humans
interpret, decrypt and develop words, thoughts and speeches by themselves?
CHAPTER IV
4.1 Methods in Mind, Michael
S. Gazzaniga
Michael S.
Gazzaniga (born December 12, 1939) is a professor of psychology at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, where he heads the new SAGE Center for
the Study of the Mind.
Gazzaniga
called as interpreter the left part
of the human cerebral hemisphere, which works as “interpreter” for the right
part. Exactly this part of brain is the most implied during the interpretation
processes and it’s also the part which is most strictly related with our
research.
During his
experiments, Gazzaniga noticed that showing an image to a patient, the right
side of the brain acts developing the imitation ability but, to the contrary,
asking to the patient the reasons for his behavior, the left brain will start
working giving a rational answer to the question.
This means
that the personal ability to perceive external input would be a own ability of
the left brain hemisphere called interpreter.
This is exactly the reason because - during all our life and especially in
those moments in which it’s necessary for a person to be instantly ready to
realize and give answers- our brain supports us.
Once cleared
all these aspects, during the next chapters we will analyze most accurately the
interpreter profession giving – such as we already did analyzing the different
translation theories– historical-evolutional hints and practical aspects.
CHAPTER V
5. Post-Babel translation and interpretation
Once cleared
the basic necessity for the existence of a profession such as the interpreter,
translator or the linguistic and cultural mediator, it’s possible to notice
some kind of elements of their existence even in past cultures such as the
Egyptians, or the Romanians.
In the
Ancient Roman Empire, considering the unconfined extension of it, even if the
Latin was the official language it was common within the same population to use
different languages coming from the most far countries world-wide. But
nonetheless, if somebody had an official speech in a Romanian public office,
this would have been obliged to speak in Latin. For this reason there were used
professional interpreter paid from the Empire.
It’s now easy
to suppose the exact moment in which the interest for a foreigner language (and
consequently for the profession of the interpreter) substantially growth:
during the discovery and exploration period; when only for business reasons,
was necessary to possess an efficient communication tool such an interpreter.
How much
important can an interpreter be?
In the
diplomatic service field, it’s really interesting to report the incredible
longevity of The Language Service
Division of the United States, which is the direct progeny (even if today
it’s divided in 2 different offices, one for translation and the other for
interpretation) of the Departement of
Foreign Affairs (which actually develops different functions than a simple
interpretation and translation service) founded in 1781 in which were employed
only 2 French interpreters, often used directly on the battlefront.
Do we have to
start thinking to the interpreter as one of the most ancient professions of the
world? That’s hard to establish; for sure it was a really harder profession
than now.
5.1.
Modern interpretation
Actually, the interpreter profession emerged during
the first decades of the past century, in particular in occasion of the Paris
Peace Conference (1919) after the First World War.
It’s fine to clarify that during the first years of
the past century, this profession had to be considered broadly speaking because
it was usually made by army officials, bilingual citizens or persons without
any kind of educational or professional qualification.
At the time, consecutive interpreting and Chuchotage, were the most used methods
for interpretation. This considered the total absence of electronic supports.
5.2.
Consecutive interpretation (CI), practical aspects.
First it’s necessary to establish in which
circumstances the CI it’s preferable to be used. Even if the official origin of
this method has to be referred to the Paris Peace Conference of the past
century, actually it’s possible to assess that in case of great meetings, the
utilization of the CI has to be considered inopportune. This because there’s
the necessity to erase (for how it’s possible) any kind of dead times, which
usually increase in presence of a great number of participant from different
countries.
To the contrary it’s necessary to consider that even
if the CI can be considered an “overcome” method of interpretation – above all
for technological-evolutional motivations – it represents the most direct and
expressive method to be used to become a real part within the same
speech/discussion/debate.
It’s now easy to figure out the importance of
mnemonic skills during this practice. But it’s also necessary to consider that
the interpreter has to be able to impose –with decision, but also with respect-
his own presence in order to completely expose what stored without any sense
lose.
It’s also important to take into account that, even
if within some limits, the CI has the possibility to ask for short
clarification to the interlocutor, in order to avoid any kind of
incomprehension or misunderstanding.
The use of a symbol-based storage method will be
really helpful for the CI interpreter.
The profile is completed by a reliability posturing
which can be given by the stress management ability and by the personal
knowledge about the topic treated by the interlocutor; but also from choosing
the most practical and adapt pen or block notes.
5.3.
The Chuchotage method
This method can be considered as the simultaneous
interpreter progenitor.
It’s a interpretation method based on a real-time transposition
of the source speech by whispering the translation directly near the ear of the
interlocutor. It’s usually used at the end of the conferences once the speakers
tend to exchange their own impressions one-on-one.
This method it’s really exhausting for the
interpreter because he has no chance to “insulate” his own voice from the
speaker voice being obliged to make his brain work on different sides.
5.4.
Simultaneous interpretation (SI), general aspects.
Even if the CI can be considered as an oral
translation which is accountable to more influent temporal bounds –and maybe,
more thoughtful- the SI has the faculty to be more immediate (or nearly), but
this also implies a stronger possibility to create misunderstanding or
expressive contradictions.
In conclusion It’s possible to assess that the SI
can be split in 4 different parts:
- Reception
of a message in the source language
- Decryption
of the message meaning
- Meaning
reprocessing to the destination language
- Reproduction
in the destination language
All this executed in a time fraction.
The SI is a process really influenced by the
precedent factor, that considering the high specialization level of the topic
treated, especially in occasion of technical conferences. This means that the
personal knowledge will play an essential rule.
Nonetheless it’s fine to take into account that
there are tricks and strategies to simplify any concerning duty.
Finally, the SI has to possess problem solving
skills in order to be used in a time fraction.
5.5.
The linguistic and cultural mediator (LCM)
This profession it’s a kind of interpreter which appeared
in Italy during the first half of the 90’s obtaining the official recognition
with the law 40/98, which is the first Italian law about any kind of aspect
concerning the immigration.
This profession has the target to simplify the
integration process of foreigner citizens within our society. This process
follows 2 exact different phases:
- A
correct access and utilization of services and resources by the immigrants.
- The
recognition of our country of all the cultural differences of the immigrant
(education, religion, language, etc.).
It’s beginning from these 2 points that we can
assess the utilization of a LCM has to be well-articulated among 3 different
levels:
- An
orientative-informative level
- A
comunicative level
- A
psycho-social level
Thus, the LCM is that kind of interpreter which
works in direct contact with his interlocutors, usually in non-conventional
places of work such as initial reception centers for immigrants.
It develops functions such as information,
interpretation, orientation, or even prevention and managing of internal
conflicts.
A nice LCM has to possess the ability to modify his
aspect depending the place in which he has to perform his profession, and
especially depending his interlocutor.
Under a practical point of view the LCM has to
perform using the third person, adjusting his linguistic code depending both
parts necessity, avoiding to control the communicative direction, interposing
his own emotions or sensations in favor
of an interlocutor than another. He has to keep a kind of neutrality in the
speech even considered the frequent help requests that can occur in some
peculiar situations . It’s also necessary to be able to work on an implicit
message content, which implies the necessity to deeply know both cultures.
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