Vertaalbesluite onder toestande van onsekerheid

[摘要] English: In view of globalisation, the development of technology and media, and contemporarydemands made of cross-cultural knowledge transfer and communication, translation is,today more than ever before, an important activity. On a basic level translation involvesthe transfer of a message from one language to another; however, the process is neithersimple nor straightforward. Translation is a specific example of human interaction, anactivity characterised by series of decisions influenced by a variety of factors. Thepurpose of this study was to investigate how translators make decisions when they areconfronted by uncertainty in a complex environment. The origins of complexity thatcauses uncertainty were investigated by means of a literature study. Data, in the form ofautoethnographic narratives relating to examples of translation, text editing andinterpreting briefs, were analysed with reference to the literature and two theoreticalparadigms, namely, functionalism (skopos) and complexity thinking. Five characteristicsof complex adaptive systems as proposed by the philosophy of complexity thinking wereapplied to the data, namely, the idea that complex adaptive systems, a) compriseheterogenous elements; b) are dynamic; c) do not behave in a linear fashion; d) are opensystems; and e) are adaptive and characterised by emergence. The first conclusionarising from this analysis is that the contribution that functionalism can make to eliminatinguncertainty is limited. Information about the purpose of a translation can reduce some ofthe translator's uncertainty, but could also cause other uncertainty. All the characteristicsof complex adaptive systems, jointly and separately, can cause the translator toexperience uncertainty. Because the source of the uncertainty is multidimensional, anddue to the dynamic, emerging nature of the systems, translators have to adapt theirstrategies continuously as the environment changes. Another conclusion is that the roleof translators is much more comprehensive, and the environment within which translatorswork, is much more complicated than people realise. If translators want to manageuncertainty in complex situations, they must be able to live with dynamic interaction,relative uncertainty, flexibility, paradox and alternating chaos and stability �?thecharacteristics of complex adaptive systems.

[发布机构] University of the Free State