Abstract
This paper analyzes the translation of five child protection assessments and decisions from Finnish into English. Translators of such text have to make difficult decisions in relation to the linguistic resources of the end users, namely the child’s parents or custodians, because it is impossible for the translator to assess their linguistic resources. Therefore, it is difficult to strike a balance between an accurate translation and a pragmatically felicitous translation. Besides, these texts are typically translated by community interpreters who have no formal training in translation. A total of 18 examples of translation problems related to terminology, nominalization, passive constructions, and speech representation were analyzed by mobilizing different linguistic theories related to each category. The results show that the target texts present several accommodation strategies aimed at rendering the translations more accessible. Thus, terms are explained or glossed, and terms, grammatical constructions, and complex forms of reported speech are simplified. More awareness-raising among different stakeholders is needed in order to produce translations that really empower migrant communities.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of English as a Lingua Franca |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Pages (from-to) | 287–307 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| ISSN | 2191-9216 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2020 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Fields of Science
- 6121 Languages
- Translation studies
- Käännöstiede
- social work
- sosiaalityö
- public service translation
- asiatekstien kääntäminen
- English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)
- community translation
- public service translation
- ELF
- Finnish
- social work