Language Recoding and Transcoding

Nicolau Dols* and Jordi M. Antolí Martínez**

It’s all about code-mapping.

Comparing source and target texts is the longest running way of looking at translation, and translation studies share this comparative look with broader domains of philology applied to texts written in the same language … or not, in the sense on the one side that languages continuously evolve, and, therefore, nothing is written twice in the same code, and, on the other side, that not only written texts are worth analysing. Modern linguistic theory has put forward a way of relating different levels of representation: from underlying lexical representation to phonetic form all through deep structure and surface structure, and then adding as many representations as phonetic rules apply in Transformational Grammar, until the simpler coupling of input and output by means of generating and evaluating functions in Optimality Theory, the idea of linking remains.

Trying to say things in different languages, by using different stages of the same language, or different channels or styles are just instances of what language (and communication) is by itself: a never ending recoding (in terms of evolution) and transcoding (due to the functioning of grammar itself or, more broadly, communication: code, channel, mode, role are shifted to gain efficiency).

An important approach to this dynamic view on communication combining linguistics, philology and translation studies was the application of Optimality Theory methods to translation analysis (see the chapter by R. Mansell in this volume for an account), and several chapters in this volume approach their research objects by using an OT-based machinery, whereas this is not a volume specifically on OT applications.

How new senses are added to already existing signs can be analysed from a diachronic perspective and therefore as instances of recoding, or synchronically as an effect of enriched interpretation as a transcoding effect. A sequence of facts can be produced as a series of historical phenomena, or as a literary artefact, and then, after the aesthetic code has been shifted, the text shapes up according to a new set of rules. Subtitling audiovisual productions implies transcoding to a different channel, from oral to written, along with other adjustments required. Brushing up a text to be broadcast in a news program is another way of transcoding, where the main element brought into play is style or register according to the communicative purpose. In all those cases, two instances of a message are combined. This volume deals with the way of comparing those instances: call it translation analysis, textual criticism, historical or comparative linguistics, phonology or by using any other well-established traditional term. The point is that all those ways to look at such purportedly different phenomena have something in common: and code-mapping is probably the word.

The volume begins with an article by Richard Mansell entitled ‘Transcoding as a theoretical framework for translation: advantages and challenges’. Mansell analyses the possibilities and challenges involved in the application of the theoretical framework of Optimality Theory and the concept of transcoding to traductology. According to the author, the cognitive research involved in Optimality Theory offers a better and more detailed comprehension of a translator’s decision process.

Pere Garau Borràs, in a chapter entitled ‘On subtitling: tension between orality and writing’, applies Optimality Theory to subtitling. His premise is that the act of subtitling is a type of transcoding in which the writer of subtitles must overcome the tension that exists between the oral and written codes, and for this purpose, he must resort to some rules, preferences and tools. Within this context, he uses Optimality Theory to study the principles underlining subtitling and their hierarchical order. To do so, he compares Catalan subtitle examples in TV programs from IB3 (Balearic Islands) and TV3 (Catalonia).

Nicolau Dols, in a chapter entitled ‘A robust model of comprehension. Surmounting interspecies barriers’, explores the usefulness of Optimality Theory for the study of oral comprehension. Intent on analysing how listeners associate sounds with meanings, the author includes peripheral contexts such as the processing of sounds in foreign languages and non-codified sounds. The model suggested by the author shows the need to combine the analysis of phonetics (and phonology) and semantics to adequately explain oral comprehension.

Jaume Guiscafrè, in ‘“The cockerel, the little lamb, the little Pig and the dragon”: from folktale to children’s story’, studies the process of transcoding in the adaptation of a narrative text to the public. In particular, he analyses how education students adapt the traditional folktale ‘The cockerel, the little lamb, the little Pig and the dragon’ (compiled by Antoni M. Alcover) for a children’s audience. Comparing the different versions and the original, Guiscafrè identifies the modifications that take place and reflects on the general principles guiding the adaptation.

Maribel Ripoll-Perelló, in the chapter ‘Transcoding Ramon Llull: an Optimality approach to modern Lullian adaptations’, analyses transcoding within the context of contemporary editions of old texts. The author focuses on Ramon Llull’s medieval Llibre de les bèsties. She compares the original text with different translations into contemporary Catalan and studies the criteria and processes used by different editors when transcoding the original medieval text.

Gabriel Ensenyat, in ‘From fact to fable: Catalan “literaturisation” of historical events’, utilises Optimality Theory to study the relationship between historical reality and literature. He takes as a point of departure five historical facts and studies their use in medieval Catalan literature: the Fall of Constantinople, the Sicilian Vespers, the death of John I of Aragon, monastic female life and chivalric deeds.

Similarly, Vicent Martines in ‘Recoding literary genres and translating: Girart de Roussillon, a chrysalis work in between genres history and literaturising’, also delves into the recoding of historical facts in literature. He focuses on the use and adaptation made by Girart de Roussillon (twelfth century) of the Third Crusade and the Bogomil heresy.

The chapter ‘Where do the ideas come from? Empeltar “to inoculate”’, by Josep Martines, focuses on the study of the origin of the lexicon and, ultimately, of linguistic creativity according to the postulates of Cognitive Linguistics and taking into consideration cultural history. The chapter deals with the medical concept of inoculation: its origin in the Far East and its diffusion to Western Europe and, specifically, to the Catalan-speaking lands. Starting with the study of the names it has received in Catalan (related to agriculture: empeltar ‘to graft’ and empelt ‘grafting’) and in other languages that have acted as transmitters, it analyses the process of conceptualising a cultural novelty.

Joan de Déu Martines Llinares in his ‘Phytonyms and the mechanisms of onomasiological lexical creation’ studies a corpus of phytonyms in contemporary Catalan and the mechanisms through which they have been created. To do so, he applies Cognitive Linguistics and linguistic variation while also taking into account language contact and underlying cultural components.

Caterina Martínez-Martínez, in ‘Grammaticalisation and discourse: on, an adverbial Relative construction used as a discursive marker in Old Catalan’, analyses the grammaticalisation process through the concept of transcoding. In particular, she studies the grammaticalisation of Old Catalan on by which this relative adverb eventually developed a meaning as a discursive marker of cause-consequence. This study is based on data from linguistic corpora interpreted through Grammaticalisation Theory and the concept of Invited Inference from Semantic Change Theory.

The chapter entitled ‘Knowledge and use of Spanish and French paroemias by Catalan-speaking students of the Undergraduate Degree in French–Spanish Translation’ by Lucía Navarro-Brotons deals with plurilingualism and didactics of language learning. The author studies extent to which a speaker’s phraseological repertoire in his native language influences his phraseological knowledge in other languages. The author surveyed Translation and Interpretation students from the University of Alicante who spoke Catalan, French and Spanish.

‘The presence of cultural references in phraseological units’ by Pedro Mogorrón Huerta deals with the analysis of cultural referents of phraseological units. It takes as a point of departure that phraseology reflects the history, religion, myths, customs, social relations, etc., of a speaker’s community. His study is based on the analysis of Peninsular and Latin American Spanish phraseological units from a database compiled by the Frasytram research group. They are catalogued according to a typology that is based on their cultural referents. The article compares the results on both sides of the Atlantic.