Résumés
Abstract
This paper explores the nature of interlingual translation practice in the museum, focusing in particular on the ways in which visual elements shape or constrain the translation of verbal texts. The museum represents a particularly complex semiotic environment in which various systems of signification (verbal, visual, spatial) interact to produce meaning in a way that is said to be “combinatorial and relational.” Such interactions take place both at intra-semiotic levels (e.g. between objects, between objects and photographs, or between texts) and inter-semiotic levels (between these various verbal and visual elements). Interlingual translation must negotiate such multiple polarities if an effective target text is to be produced.
The paper focuses on the Museum of Tea Ware in Hong Kong, to examine how various semiotic constraints affect the production of English target texts from their Chinese source texts. One such constraint is that of spatial aesthetics, the way in which text is positioned in relation to visually salient pictures or objects in a given ensemble. A second constraint is the generic nature of the text as defined by its position in the museum text-hierarchy. Thirdly, the paper argues at greater length that the nature of modification found in the target text is directly proportional to whether the relation between given verbal and visual elements is either paradigmatic or syntagmatic.
Keywords/Mots-Clés:
- semiotics,
- Chinese,
- museums,
- syntagm,
- paradigm
Résumé
Cette étude considère la pratique de la traduction interlinguale dans le musée et porte particulièrement sur la façon dont les éléments visuels contraignent la traduction de textes verbaux ou déterminent la forme de cette traduction. Le musée représente un environnement sémiotique particulièrement complexe dans lequel il y a une interaction entre de nombreux systèmes de signification (systèmes verbaux, visuels, spatiaux) dans le but de produire un sens holistique qu’on a désigné « combinatoriel et relationel ». De telles interactions se produisent sur le plan intrasémiotique (par exemple entre objets, entre objets et photos ou entre textes), ainsi que sur le plan intersémiotique (c’est à dire entre ces divers éléments verbaux et visuels). La traduction interlinguale devrait tenir compte de ces polarités multiples pour arriver à produire un texte cible efficace.
Cette étude porte spécifiquement sur le Museum of Tea Ware à Hong Kong pour considérer comment diverses contraintes sémiotiques influent sur la production de textes cibles en anglais en partant de textes sources chinois. Une contrainte de la sorte est celle de l’esthétique spatiale, la façon de placer le texte en relation aux images ou aux objets saillants dans un ensemble donné. Une deuxième contrainte est la nature générique du texte définie par sa position dans la hiérarchie des textes de musée. En troisième lieu, et en plus grand détail, l’étude soutient la thèse que la nature de la modification trouvée dans le texte cible est en proportion directe de la relation entre les éléments verbaux et visuels, selon que cette relation soit paradigmatique ou syntagmatique.
Parties annexes
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10.7202/002918ar