constructing pathways to translation - Higher Education Commission

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Figure 3.1 Five Elements of Cross Cultural Differences (Adapted from Riccardi, 2002 :
103)
In English discourse, a ‘translational’ style focusing on the content of a message is
frequently preferred, whereas in Urdu discourse, speakers tend to prefer an
‘interactional’, addressee – focused style. In terms of Gricean conversational maxims, the
hypothesis may be put forward that English speakers tend to interpret the maxims of
‘quantity’ and ‘manner’, rather than Urdu speakers.
By hypothesizing dimensions of cross-cultural difference in discourse orientation, it is
also suggested that the language used is linked to culture and mentality, and that
linguistic differences in the realization of discourse phenomenon reflect deeper
differences in cultural preference patterns and expectation norms at a conceptual,
cognitive and emotive level.
3.4.7 PSYCHO ANALYSIS AND TRANSLATION
In his seminal work, ‘An Outline of Psychoanalysis,’ Freud makes two references to the
analyst as translator. Both the references are concerned with the way in which the analyst
comes to terms with what is unconscious. The first is described as what is inferred, and
the second is its ‘expression’. Moving from one to the other, involves what Freud called
the act of translation.
What needs to be pursued, therefore is, first, the nature of the object of interpretation,
and second, what is at play in the subsequent rewriting or interpretation.
Freud describes the Manifest content, that which is presented to the analyst in the
language of consciousness, and which seems to be of three distinct levels. The first is the
Latent content. The second is the Manifest Content. The third involves the Dynamic of