女翻译会自动纠错 - with two case studies for an interpretation/translation commentary

女翻译会自动纠错 来源: 明报：http://news.mingpao.com/20140308/caa8.htm 时间: March 8， 2014 2014年3月7日在商务部记者会上，女翻译（图）负责翻译记者所提的问题。有记者问及“粤港自贸区”（应为粤、港、澳），她直接翻译成“Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao”。一名以英文提问的澳洲记者提问时说“Premier Li Keqiang said in his speech”，翻译则补充译为“李克强总理在政府工作报告中提到”。

How come that 'free-trade zone' in the ST becomes 'Macao' in the TT?

-- Two case studies as part of a translation/intepretation commentary

Youxuan Wang
SLAS, UoP
March 8, 2014

给个小标题 Give a subheading	Interpreting/translating names and descriptive designations in a predominantly informative audio text with textual defects - two case studies
先联系理论，陈述前提 If you have a point, prove it. If you have an idea, explain it. State your premises, and refer to the theories that you have learnt in the lectures and seminars.	An informative TT is equivalent to an informative ST only if the referential meanings of the ST names are captured and the senses of the ST descriptive designations are conveyed (Wang 2013). If an ST name or a descriptive designation is found to have been misused or incomplete in a predominantly informative text printed or audio, the translator or interpreter should not retain the ST name or descriptive designation as if it were intact. Instead, he should provide a TT name or descriptive designation which actually denotes the object or express the idea attributed to the ST writer/speaker. This is in order to capture the informative text's actual 'referential meaning' (Munday 2004: 300).
案例之一 Case study #1	In the audio ST as reported in newspaper article above, the foreign journalist at the press conference was literally mentioning Chinese names and descriptive designations equivalent to the terms 'Guangdong Province (粤)','Hong Kong' (港) and 'free trade zone' (自贸区).  The interpreter at the press conference changed 'free-trade zone' into 'Macao', as it was evident to her that the latter was intended by the journalist. 'Free-trade zone' was not adopted as the interpretation of '自贸区', since it was not equivalent to the name 'Macao'. Evidently, the interpretation is content-focused.
案例之二 Case study #2	“[His] speech” is a descriptive designation of Premier Li's report at the general meeting. As this term is rather too general, the interpreter found it appropriate to spell out the complete descriptive designation for the journalist: 'Premier Li's report on the work of the central government of China'. Evidently, once again, the interpretation is content-focused
小结 Recap	If changes have been made in the TT, they should be made so as to denote the ST referent or convey the ST sense more actually.
参考资料 References:	Bibliography: 明报。‘女翻译会自动纠错’. March 8, 2014. < http://news.mingpao.com/20140308/caa8.htm>. Munday, J. (2001/2012). Introducing translation studies: theories and applications. London and New York: Routledge. Wang, Youxuan. (2013, October). 'Name and description.' UG Translation: Theory and Practice. Lecture. Unpublished lecture. University of Portsmouth, UK.