SIL International Publications

Journal of Translation

Journal of Translation 1(2) (2005)

Editor’s Foreword


by Freddy Boswell


Hello and Goodbye


In the 2005 April issue, I gave a welcome to our readership. Now, in issue number two, I am telling you good-bye! Since we launched the Journal, I have moved into the role of SIL Vice President for Academic Affairs. I have thus handed off my editorial responsibilities to Catherine Rountree and welcomed Ralph Hill, our new International Translation Coordinator, to the position of co-editor with Catherine. While the Journal is broadly under the responsibility of my office, I am no longer...

Many Bible translations, including one in Mbyá Guarani of Brazil which this article takes as a case study, use natural target-language discourse patterns on &lquo;micro-levels” (within a thematic unit and usually within a sentence or two) but source-text patterns on “macro-levels.” Questions arise: Why should such a strategy be used? Why might it work? On macro-levels, how can readers understand what is presented with source-text patterns? And on micro-levels, how can a translation claim to communicate the author’s original intent when its discourse functions—not just its forms—are...

In John 21:15 Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” Who or what are “these”? This brief article deals with the three possible referents and recommends one as correct.

In Greek as well as in many languages, the verb agrees with its subject in number and in person. Such an agreement is reflected morphologically on the verb through suffixation. If the subject is a compound noun phrase, that is, NP + NP, the general tendency for Greek verbs is to agree with the NP closest to them. However, agreement can also be controlled by the logical subject, or the grammatical subject, or both. The present article argues that the failure to clearly identify the controller of agreement in Greek has led to translations that are exegetically and theologically questionable...

This paper considers two theories of communication and the theories of translation shaped by them. First, the Code Model of communication is characterized and reasons are presented for why it is an inadequate and misleading theory of communication. Then Source-Meaning-Receptor theories of translation that were shaped by the Code Model are characterized and their inadequacies surveyed. Second, the Relevance Theory of communication is introduced. Then Gutt’s Relevance Theory-based theory of translation is sketched and its dramatic implications for translation are surveyed. Finally, broader...