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Translation in Motion: Challenges and Changes across Translation Studies.
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2020)Dear Readers,
On behalf of the entire editorial team, we are pleased to introduce the first issue of the international, double-blind peer-reviewed, open-access online journal Bridge: Trends and Traditions in Translation and Interpreting Studies. The journal is published by the Department of Translation Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia.
Translation and interpreting studies in Nitra has rightly been considered at the forefront of research in the field ever since the days of Anton Popovič and his colleagues – and continues to be so thanks to the efforts of generations of scholars building on their legacy. Nitra’s efforts, however, are not stuck in the past, and its research initiatives try to form a bridge between its heritage and the latest trends in the discipline, and are matched by cutting-edge initiatives in translation and interpreting training. The Department of Translation Studies in Nitra is currently a member of the prestigious European Master’s in Translation Network; Nitra has also hosted many significant international scientific forums on translation and interpreting, and at the national level is one of the most well-established academic partners of translation and interpreting market actors.
We therefore believe the name of the journal, Bridge: Trends and Traditions in Translation and Interpreting Studies, aptly reflects our attempt to bring together the strong tradition of the Nitra School of Translation, which remains inspirational to this day, and the need to take into account the dynamically evolving circumstances in research and society overall. However, our bridge does not merely connect the tried and tested with the innovative, but as the very nature of research in TIS suggests, it also bridges gaps between languages, regions, nations and cultures. Furthermore, Bridge has the ambition to create a connection between various scientific disciplines that can enrich each other through such a platform.
The journal seeks original, previously unpublished papers in translation and interpreting studies that bring together scholarship from diverse regions, traditions and contexts. Bridge encourages authors to challenge the boundaries between theory and practice and old and new approaches in research and training as well as to critically address regional and global social, political and economic issues from the translational point of view. We also welcome book reviews that will introduce quality TIS publications to a wider audience.
Last but not least, Bridge also facilitates links between experienced researchers from around the world, many of whom actively participate in the journal’s activities and the process of reviewing articles as members of the scientific committee, and young up-and-coming researchers who present their innovative approaches, as in the case of the first issue of the journal.
Articles included in this issue capture how TIS keeps evolving, changing and moving not just forwards by expanding the body of research on, for example, literary and audiovisual translation and localization, but perhaps also laterally to previously rarely researched areas such as the localization of video games. We believed the title of the issue should reflect the breadth of the topics included and the momentum they bring to TIS. Thus, we have decided to name the first-ever issue of Bridge Translation in Motion: Challenges and Changes across Translation Studies.
The following pages contain eight articles by scholars on a wide range of topics. To begin with, Szilvia Malaczkov discusses subtitle revisions and their role in translator training using the example of crowdsourced translation on the TED platform. The following two papers maintain the theme of audiovisual translation – first Jana Ukušová examines a student translation of a real subtitling project with particular focus on identifying, categorizing and analysing errors made by students and Ismini Karantzi looks at the main challenges arising from audio description and audio subtitles in translated animation films.
Moving away from specifically audiovisual translation, Marián Kabát’s paper focuses on the competences of software translators and how they differ from the competences of translators who work with other types of text. Mária Koscelníková then explores the issues surrounding the localization of video games into lesser-spoken languages.
The next pair of articles shifts the focus, with each discussing a different aspect of literary translation. Matej Martinkovič examines how the editor of a literary translation works with text at the textual level, whereas Natália Rondziková explores the sociological side of literary translation, more specifically various aspects of their profession, such as working conditions and training.
The issue closes with the topic of interpreting. In her article Lucia Podlucká introduces research on the assessment of interpreting skills of second-year students in a translation and interpreting study programme, which was conducted as a voluntary part of regular seminars.
We hope that through its quality, topicality and variety this first issue will represent a strong and stable bridge that will help enrich current knowledge in the field of TIS and beyond.
Soňa Hodáková & Matej Martinkovič
Publication of this issue was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency VEGA under the project No. 2/0166/19 Preklad ako súčasť dejín kultúrneho priestoru III. (Translation as a Part of the Cultural Space History III.)
