Translation and Interpretation in Transition: Serving the Digital World

This chapter establishes the basic function of language facilitation traditionally known as translation and interpretation (Translation) and overviews how the Internet is driving the need to communicate globally, in turn making a significant impact on Translation. The Internet is fast becoming a prevalent communications channel across a wide range of economic sectors as well as among individuals. For Internet users, the implication is how to communicate and process information in multilingual and multicultural contexts. For the providers of Translation, the new communications environments are creating a new demand while also enabling new ways of meeting that demand. This chapter introduces the approach based on Translation-mediated Communication (TMC) and highlights the issues for Translation arising from the shift from primarily print-based and physical transportation-based communications environments to the digital world.

Translation-mediated Communication (TMC)

Globalization has been an ongoing process for some time, blurring the national boundary of each country with the increasing volume of international movements of people and goods via physical transportation or electronic means, and often by both. One implication of globalization has been increased interactions among peoplewhodo not understand one another's language. Cross-border business negotiations or the sale of products in overseas markets have so far required professional language assistance for face-to-face meetings or marketing materials in different languages. Translation (with a capital T), which in this book we use to refer to both translation and interpretation, is primarily called for when language becomes a barrier rather than a means to communication. However, globalization driven by the Internet-based infrastructure is now producing a new set of requirements for Translation. This is because the Internet is changing both the nature of communication that becomes subject to Translation, and the mechanism by which the given communication is transmitted, processed and stored.

In particular, a range of new modes of communication called Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) is affecting Translation. In CMC, the computer is a mechanism for exchange of messages. The capacity of the computer, the available software and the bandwidth of transmission, all have an influence on exactly how messages will be exchanged. In other words, the computer may serve as a channel for exchanging messages, and will also shape the communications behavior of the peoplewhouse it. Now we add to CMC the possibility of providing both synchronous and asynchronous Translation to the exchange of messages via CMC. We consider the World Wide Web (Web) as accommodating various forms of CMC, including the display of conventional text. See, for example, the results of a search on Google. They may include Acrobat™ PDF files, most of which are conventional text plus graphics, but can also accommodate multimedia files. A special interest, however, is a possibility and the need for Translation to handle any kind of digital content, including real-time audio, video, and computer conferencing (i.e. chat), multimedia, and asynchronous email. Providing multilingual support for CMC thus opens a new kind of language support based on a new literacy that involves digital media.

This is the background behind our use of the term 'Translation-mediated Communication' (TMC) in association with CMC. Any communication facilitated by Translation can be called TMC, but our principal interest is to examine the impact of the Internet as it results in new dimensions of language support traditionally based on print media and physical transportation. We use TMC as the framework for our exploration and this in turn means that we take the approach of treating Translation as communication. There are a number of scholars who developed translation models based on Shannon's (Shannon & Weaver, 1949) Mathematical Model of Communication, including Nida & Taber (1969), Bell (1991) and Gile (1995). The simplicity of the Shannon model allows us to illustrate the role of Translation as an embedded function between the sender and the receiver with the Translator acting both as the receiver of the message in the source language and the sender of the message in the target language as described by Nida and Taber (Figure 1.1).

This model highlights the purpose of Translation as 'an act of communication which attempts to relay, across cultural and linguistic boundaries, another act of communication ...' (Hatim & Mason, 1997:1). Given that Shannon's model was originally intended for synchronous telephone communication, this model is equally applicable to interpretation, in which the sender and the receiver may be engaged in constant turn taking. The main difference in modus operandi between translation and interpretation resides in the fact that interpretation caters to synchronous communication where all communicating parties (including the interpreter) are normally present in one physical location and communicate in real-time. By comparison, translation facilitates asynchronous communication via writing with a certain time lag. The translation service therefore tends to be location-independent in relation to the sender and the receiver, whereas interpretation normally requires the interpreter's presence in the given communicative situation. As this model demonstrates, the Translation function is pivotal to the given inter-lingual communication and is inter-dependent on the sender and the receiver as well as the message. However, in reality, the most common notion among Translation clients is that Translation is a stand-alone element that can be added on, and is fundamentally separate from the overall inter-lingual communication process. Given that Shannon's Communication model tends to focus on the transmission function of telecommunications, we will combine our analysis of TMC with Gile (1995), who also uses a communication-based approach but is more focused on the Sender, the Receiver and the Message. Following his convention, we will also capitalize these key terms wherever we are referring specifically to these parties in the context of TMC.

Let us first define our use of terminology. In TMC we define the...