Radical translation and Indeterminacy of translation

Gabriele Iannàccaro
University of Milano-Bicocca
Radical translation and
Indeterminacy of translation
Tarski: Convention T
✤
(1) ‘P’ is true if, and only if, P.
✤
(2) ‘Snow is white’ is true if and only if snow is white
✤
(3) ‘Sniegs ir balts’ is true if and only if snow is white
✤
(4) ‘La neve è bianca’ is true if and only if snow is white
Tarski: Convention T
(4) ‘La neve è bianca’
is true at the same condition(s) as
(3) ‘Sniegs ir balts’
Which is
So: is (4) a good translation of (3)?
Or: does (4) mean the same thing as (3)?
And: can we demonstrate that (4) has the same meaning as (3)?
Therefore: are (4) and (3) synonyms?
buy :: purchase
Meaning, Synonymy, Translation
Meaning is what ‘P’ has in common with its translation
The meaning of ‘la neve è bianca’ is what it has in common with
‘sniegs ir balts’ (=
)
I can understand the meaning of a sentence if I can pick up the
synonyms of that sentence - in any given occasion.
Let’s try:
Meaning, Synonymy, Translation
– ‘P’: The cat is on the table
P:
The cat is over the table
The cat lies on the table
The kitty is on the board
Kaķis ir uz galda
Il gatto è sul tavolo…
Non synonyms
{
Synonyms
The cat is under the table
The dog is on the table
The cat is on the chair
Rēzekne is in Latvia
La dolce vita…
Meaning of ‘P’
Translation and Linguistics
Translation?
Passage of meaning from a language to another?
Verification of its appropriateness?
not
Eugene Nida,
Towards a theory of translation
Agnus dei
Lamb of God
Dieva Jērs
Seal of God
Give us this day our daily bread/fish/rice/…pizza!
Translation and Linguistics
Formaggio
Siers
Panīr
Shopping
List
Translation and Linguistics
狗
क"क"र
Txakur
Hund
Cane
Chien
Собака
!!!!! Suns Pes
Perro
Köpek
!ི།
Dog
Hound
Radical Translation
Quine, Willard van Orman (1960) Word and Object, Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press
Ethnolinguist and natives
?
salp!
[book?]
[red?]
Willard
Native
kangaroo
(Dyirbal: ‘what the hell
is he saying?’)
evet [yes]
yok [no]
What is a ‘gavagai’?
gavagai!
‘gavagai’ as a sentence
‘gavagai’ as a stimulus meaning
What is a ‘gavagai’?
‘gavagai’ as a sentence
‘There! a rabbit!’
‘Look at the rabbit!’
‘Here comes a rabbit!’
‘Mh! a rabbit...’
‘gavagai’ as a stimulus meaning
There! a rabbit
The triangle has three sides
What is a ‘gavagai’?
gavagai!
?
caipirinha
What is a ‘brekekek’?
Brekekek!
stimulus meaning
Bald?
Old?
Nice?
With a hat?
stimulus meaning
Bachelor
What is a ‘brekekek’?
Direct stimulus meaning
Interpreted stimulus meaning
Red
Rabbit
E=mc²
Bachelor
No stimulus meaning
Compositionality
Go get the donkey
Go get the horse
But…
Indeterminacy of translation
Indeterminacy
Rabbit
Coniglio
Trusis
Count noun
Rabbits
Conigli
Truši
Water
Acqua
Ūdens
Mass noun
Waters? (kinds of-)
Acque?
Ūdeņi?
Gavagai?
Count noun?
Mass noun?
An example of
‘rabbitness’?
Strange questions
‘Is this (
) the same thing
if ‘yes’
than that (
)?’
‘How many gavagaii (
if ‘absurd’
Mass noun
) are there here?’
Mass noun
Linguistic competence
Strange questions
Gavagai
Rabbit
Coniglio
Trusis
stimulus meaning
…
This
Questo
Šīs
linguistic/logic operator
…
How many
Quanti
Cik
linguistic/logic operator
Linguistic systems
gavagai san
evet!
‘A single, individual gavagai’
‘An example of gavagainess’
Terrific coherence of linguistic systems
Linguistic systems
The linguistic system of the native could be so deeply different from that of the
ethnolinguist and – at the same time – the reconstruction of the ethnolinguist
so consistent that the two interpretations may both correspond to the sensorial
data without overlapping and in a way that it never comes out that one can
pronounce whichever sentence and the other might say ‘no’
Every language categorises and segments world in a different way (B. L. Whorf)
To understand a sentence means to understand a language (L. Wittgenstein)
Words and sentences
‘There! a gavagai!’
‘Look at the gavagai!’
‘Here comes a gavagai!’
‘Mh! a gavagai...’
evet!
yok!
???
…gavagai…
gavagai what?!
Words and sentences
Prà da bušk
Prato
Lawn
Wood ?
Syntax
Lawn!
Trees
Bosco
Wood
‘With (fir)trees’
‘It can be mowed’
Grass
???
prà da bušk
‘lawn [belonging to] wood’
mainly ‘[a kind of] lawn’
Cultural translation continuum
Italian
Latvian
Hungarian
Russian
Spanish
Greek
…
English
Frison
Dutch
German
Swedish
…
Chinese
Japanese
Quechua
Malayan
Yakut
…
‘Gavagai’
Cultural translation
Robert Allen Zimmerman
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Quante strade deve percorrere un uomo
Prima che lo si possa chiamare uomo?
Sì, e quanti mari deve sorvolare una bianca colomba
Prima che possa riposare nella sabbia?
Sì, e quante volte le palle di cannone dovranno volare
Prima che siano per sempre bandite?
La risposta, amico, sta soffiando nel vento
La risposta sta soffiando nel vento
Cik ceļi ir cilvēks staigāt uz leju,
pirms jūs zvanāt viņam cilvēks?
Cik jūra ir balts balodis bura
pirms viņa guļ smiltīs?
Jā, un cik reizes ir krāsainās lidot,
pirms viņi uz visiem laikiem aizliegts?
Atbilde, mans draugs, ir Blowin 'vējā,
atbilde ir Blowin' vējā