translation studies. retrospective and prospective views

Translation Studies: Retrospective and Prospective Views ISSN 2065 - 3514
(2008) Year I, Issue 1
Galaţi University Press
Editors: Elena Croitoru and Floriana Popescu (First volume)
Proceedings of the Conference Translation Studies: Retrospective and Prospective Views
9 – 11 October 2008 “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi, ROMANIA
pp. 11 - 16
ANNOTATION AS TRANSTEXTUAL TRANSLATION
Ruxanda Bontilă
“Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi, Romania
1. Introduction: Translation as critical thinking
In an interview, Domenico Pezzini (former professor of English at the
University of Verona and consacrated traslator) declares that “no approach to
the text equals in depth that of the translator, where reading skill and writing
skill meet.” (2008: 49) I certainly agree with the translator’s view as with his
concluding remark, that “in every single study of language the practice of
translation should always be there, both when learning to read and when
learning to write.” (2008: 49)
By the same token, I say that translation can help
students/scholars/people get used to making good judgments in terms of
thinking, of speech, of action, or of creation. As the practice of making good
theoretical, practical, productive judgments — in short, critical thinking —
depends on skilfully performed acts in any professional guise, it follows
that critical thinking or applied thinking is as much process as productive
activity. It involves, as Matthew Lipman explains, “using knowledge to
bring about reasonable change.” (2007: 427)
There are three essential characteristics which can, according to
Lipman, signify the relationship between critical thinking and judgment.
They are (1) reliance on criteria, (2) the capacity of being self-corrective, and
(3) sensitivity to context. Once these characteristics are met, critical thinking
turns a product, which is concerned either with the production of meaning,
as in the case of responsible interpretation, or the preservation of meaning,
as in the case of responsible translation. Any cognitive practice must base
on such time-tested criteria as validity, evidential warrant, and consistency,
which can, whenever necessary, be made available by their practitioners.
Translation is an activity which takes minute by minute decisionmaking
based as much on logic as on reasoning: the former helps to validly
extend our thinking; the latter to justify and defend it. If we want to help
our students improve both logic and reasoning, then we must make them
develop their ability to identify and give good reasons for the opinions they
express. The necessary condition for achieving the goal is that teachers
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