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Thefateof“TheFamiliesofMedellín” 211
Table 2. The distribution of the translations of the headline
without instructions (N = 45) % with instructions (N = 37) %
metaphor retained (N = 31) 69 metaphor retained (N = 35) 95
metaphor lost (N = 14) 31 metaphor lost (N = 2) 5
An overwhelming majority (95%) of the students translating with instructions
have kept family in the headline. Those translating without instructions
have been more liberal in their choices: 31% of the headlines in this group do
not retain family. As far as the repetition universal is concerned, the headline as
a special case is of course slightly problematic. However, in terms of the effects
of stylistic “sensitivity training” this example is rather encouraging.
The second example deals with the anaphoric sentences at the beginning
of the first paragraph (see excerpt 2 above); the students’ solutions are shown
in Table 3.
Table 3. Translations of the anaphoric sentences in the first paragraph
ST: without instructions with instructions (N = 37)
One by one, – One by one, – (N = 45)
Anaphora retained 27 = 60% 27 = 73%
Anaphora changed 18 = 40% 10 = 27%
The figures in Table 3 seem to point to a tendency to translate faithfully
both with and without instructions, as the majority of students in both
conditions have retained the anaphora. However, the instructions seem to have
strengthened the tendency, which might indicate that the instructions have had
the desired effect.
The third example of students’ translation solutions deals with lexical
repetition in the last sentence of the paragraph which is shown in example (5)
(printed in bold).
(5) The children today are not learning about beauty with Mistral. They don’t
need Joyce to teach them about girls; at 15 they know more than we ever
dreamed. But they don’t dream anymore. They buy, they kill, they die.
Table 4a shows the students’ solutions to translating this sentence; Table 4b
shows the percentages of translations in which the pronoun “they” has been
repeated or changed.
Table 4b seems to offer support to both the repetition universal as well as
the effect of remedial action. The majority (62%) of the students translating