translation in a global context

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This book is a study of the major events and publications in the world of

translation in China and the West from its beginning in the legendary

period to 2004, with special reference to works published in Chinese and

English, the two major languages in the world. To widen our horizon,

events relating to translation in other parts of the world have also beenincluded. This is to put translation in a global context so that we know

where we stand and how we should move forward.

The need to study translation from a global perspective cannot be

overemphasized. Globalization, as we all know, is the trend of the day. The

world is now a global village. Yet confined by our geographical

boundaries, we do not have an adequate understanding of our discipline

and profession in a greater context. The following poem by Su Shi (1037–

1101), a Song poet, is perhaps illustrative of the need to look beyond our

regional horizon.

!"#$

From the front of a range, from the side of a peak,

!"#$%

Unlike from near or far, or high or low,

!"#$%

I do not know Lu’s true face,

!"#$%

Only by chance am I on this mountain.

Whether we become translators by fate or by chance, by vocation or by

avocation, we have to know something about the world of translation from

a historical and global perspective so as to be able to see the major

happenings in the field in a clear light. We can then judge the growth of

translation from a professional craft to an academic discipline in a

comparative manner. We can then understand the evolution and formationof various schools of translation theories coming out from different

TRANSLATION IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT



2 Translation in a Global Context

languages, cultures, and modes of practice in different temporal,

geographical, and linguistic contexts. We can then analyze the emergence

of the issues in the field to serve as a basis to decide what needs to be done

in the future. We can then read the literature on translation in a propercontext and know in what ways they reflect the changes in the discipline.

To see the world of translation as fully as we can, we settle on works

and books on translation written in English and Chinese as the basis of our

research as these publications are read and studied by the largest number of

people in the world. Events and publications in other languages have been

based on information provided in these two languages. This book is mainly

about events that took place in 263 years in China and Western countries,

covering also a total of 72 countries or places and 1,000 works publishedbefore 2004.

As a way of introduction, we will discuss firstly the major events in the

world of translation, and secondly, the major publications in the period

covered.

Major Events

Continents

The 72 countries covered in this work belong to different continents, and

reflect the need of showing translation in a continental context. The

following is an analysis of the number of entries on individual countries,

grouped under the five continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Northern

and Southern Americas, and Oceania.

Africa (10 out of 53 countries/places, 23 entries)

Africa (4), Algeria (2), Egypt (3), Morocco (2), Nigeria (1), Senegal

(1), South Africa (7), Tanzania (1), Tunisia (1), Zimbabwe (1)

Asia (16 out of 44 countries/places, 242 entries)

[The Arab Islamic Empire, Hong Kong, and Macau have not been

counted separately.]

The Arab Islamic Empire (3), China (104), Hong Kong (38), India

(12), Iran (1), Iraq (3), Israel (8), Japan (22), Jordan (2), Kazakhstan

(1), Korea (4), Lebanon (4), Macau (1), Malaysia (1), Saudi Arabia(2), Singapore (3), Taiwan (30), Thailand (2), Uzbekistan (1)




Countries

When we take into account the actual number of entries under each country

or region, the picture alters slightly. This has a lot to do with thepublication of books and the organization of conferences in different parts

of the world. Of the 1,780 entries, we can divide them into several groups:

countries with 1 entry, countries with 2 to 5 entries, countries with 6 to 10

entries, and countries with 11 to 15 entries. Countries with 20 entries or

more have been analyzed separately.

Countries with 1 entry

Costa Rica (1), Cyprus (1), Estonia (1), Guatemala (1), Iran (1),

Kazakhstan (1), Latvia (1), Macau (1), Malaysia (1), New Zealand (1),

Nigeria (1), Romania (1), Senegal (1), Tanzania (1), Tunisia (1),

Uruguay (1), Uzbekistan (1), Venezuela (1), Yugoslavia (1),

Zimbabwe (1)

Countries with 2 to 5 entries

Algeria (2), Jordan (2), Morocco (2), Saudi Arabia (2), Thailand (2),

The Arab Islamic Empire (3), Bulgaria (3), Egypt (3), Iraq (3), Norway

(3), Slovenia (3), The West (3), Africa (4), Lebanon (4), Singapore (4),

Argentina (5), Greece (5), Korea (5), Slovakia (5)


Chile (6), The Czech Republic (8), Hungary (8), Mexico (8), Poland

(8), South Africa (8), Sweden (8), Turkey (9), Austria (10), Denmark

(10), Israel (10), Portugal (10)


Brazil (12), Europe (13), India (14), Switzerland (15)

Countries with 20 entries or more

The United States (379), China (359), The United Kingdom (227),

Hong Kong (91), Canada (70), France (63), Germany (62), The

Netherlands (58), Taiwan (48), Spain (46), Japan (30), Russia (24),Australia (22), Italy (21), Belgium (20), Finland (20)



Translation in a Global Context 5

There are 20 countries with only one entry in the book, which is

27.78% of the total number of countries covered in this work. This shows

that countries inactive in translation exist in every continent. There are five

countries each in Africa, Asia, and Europe, two countries each in North

America and South America, and one country in Oceania, which are

mentioned only once in this book. When we look at countries with two to

five entries, the distribution is more or less the same, with only some minor

changes in order. Excluding the Arab Islamic Empire, which existed in the

distant past, and the West, which is too general for reckoning, there are

seven Asian, five European, four African countries in this group, and one

South American country. Taken together, the 37 countries (with the

exclusion of the Arab Islamic Empire and the West) with one to five entries

are mostly in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

There are 15 countries with 6 to 15 entries, with the exclusion of

“Europe,” which is again too general for reckoning, and the distant Roman

Empire with 15 entries. The 9 European countries of these two groups

take up 53% of the total, while the remaining 47% are distributed to Asia

(2 entries), South America (2 entries), North America (1 entry), and Africa(1 entry).

Costa Rica (1)

Cyprus Algeria (2)

Estonia Jordon

Guatemala Morocco

Iran Saudi Arabia The United States (379)

Kazakhstan Thailand China (359)

Latvia Bulgaria (3) The United Kingdom (227)

Macau Egypt Hong Kong (91)

Malaysia Iraq Chile (6) Canada (70)

New Zealand Norway Hungary (8) France (63)

Nigeria Slovenia Mexico Germany (62)

Romania The Arab Islamic Empire Poland The Netherlands (58)

Senegal The West South Africa Taiwan (48)

Tanzania Africa (4) Sweden Spain (46)

Tunisia Lebanon The Czech Republic Japan (30)Uruguay Singapore Turkey (9) Russia (24)

Uzbekistan Argentina (5) Austria (10) Brazil (12) Australia (22)

Venezuela Greece Denmark Europe (13) Italy (21)

Yugoslavia Korea Israel India (14) Belgium (20)

Zimbabwe Slovakia Portugal Switzerland (15) Finland (20)

1 entry (20) 2–5 entries (19) 6–10 entries (12) 11–15 entries (4) 20 or more entries (16)




Taken together, there are 255 entries for 56 countries or places with

below 16 entries, and there is a great contrast between these countries and

those 16 countries with 20 entries or above, with a total of 1,540 entries.

It is clear from the above table that the three countries with the highest

numbers of entries are the United States (379 entries), followed by China

(359 entries), and the United Kingdom (227 entries). Of these 16 countries

or places with 20 entries or above, Hong Kong deserves a special mention.

It is a tiny place in China administered as a Special Administration Region

with a population of about 6.9 million, yet it is ranked fourth in terms of the

number of entries relating to translation, higher than countries such as

Canada, France, and Germany. This can be attributed to its bilingual

tradition for more than one and a half centuries, and the importance it

attaches to translation, which has made Hong Kong an international city of

considerable influence.Seen in a continental perspective, Europe tops the chart with 9

Names of Countries/Places Number of Entries

The United States 379

China 359

The United Kingdom 227

Hong Kong 91

Canada 70

France 63

Germany 62

The Netherlands 58

Taiwan 48

Spain 46

Japan 30

Russia 24

Australia 22

Italy 21

Belgium 20

Finland 20




countries and 541 entries, which is a clear indication of the continued

influence of translation in the multilingual European community. Asia,

represented mainly by Chinese in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and by

Japanese, comes next with 528 entries, which shows the growingimportance of translation in the region. North America, represented by the

United States and Canada, takes up two positions in the top five countries

or places, has 449 entries. Australia, lastly, is the only country in Oceania

that has 22 entries. Absent from the top 16 are the 53 African countries and

the 12 countries of South America.

Categories

All events and activities in the field of translation have been grouped into

24 areas or categories listed in “Area Categories,” some of which, the more

important ones, will be discussed in detail either individually or, if they are

related, collectively. Areas that will be covered in the following pages are

translation awards and prizes, Bible translation, centers of translation,

translation conferences, translation societies, and translation journals.

Translation awards and prizes

As in other professions, translators are offered awards and prizes to honor

their contribution to and achievements in specific areas of translation. The

following observations are based on information provided by references

and websites, and allowance must be given to the incompleteness of the

collected data.

Firstly, translation awards and prizes are far from plentiful. As far as

we can gather, the Martinus Translation Prize established by the Prince

Bernhard Fund in the Netherlands was probably the first translation prize

in the field. From then to 2004, a total of 43 awards and prizes have been

made available to translators in 12 countries. In other words, only 6% of

the world’s countries in the last 51 years have awards and prizes for

translators and translation organizations. This fares poorly with other

fields, such as literature, science, and business.

Secondly, the number of prizes, however, is not proportional to the

population of the individual countries. Five countries in Europe, the

Netherlands (1), Germany (1), France (3), Switzerland (4), and the UnitedKingdom (10), have offered a total of 19 prizes in Europe, while two




countries in North America, the United States (15) and Canada (2), have

put up 17 awards and prizes. Together, these two continents make up

83.72% of the total number of translation awards and prizes. There are only

seven prizes for other continents, including one for Africa (South Africa),two for Oceania (Australia), and four for Asia (China (1), Hong Kong (1),

and Japan (2)).

The huge differences between the West and the rest of the world have

a lot to do with the number of translation societies and organizations in

individual countries. A single society might be able to offer a large number

of prizes, as in the case of the United Kingdom. Conversely, a large

number of prizes might have been offered by a number of sources, as in the

case of the United States. In the United Kingdom, 80% of translation prizeshave been offered by the Society of Authors, which has awarded, between

1963 and 2002, a total of eight prizes, including the John Florio Prize for

Italian Translations, the Schlegel-Tieck Prize, the Scott Moncrieff Prize,

the Bernard Shaw Prize, the Teixeira-Gomes Prize, the Vondel Translation

Prize, the Premio Valle Inclán Prize, and the Hellenic Foundation for

Culture Translation Award. In the United States, however, the 15

translation prizes awarded between 1963 and 2000 have been offered by 10

different sources, such as literary societies (PEN American Center),

translation associations (American Translators Association), library

associations (American Library Association), international associations

(International Federation of Translators), linguistic associations (Modern

Language Association of America), universities (University of Denver and

Columbia University), academies (Academy of American Poets), journals

( International Poetry Review), commissions (Japan-United States

Friendship Commission), and foundations (American-Scandinavian

Foundation, the Florence Gould Foundation, and the French-American

Foundation).

Thirdly, the scope of awards and prizes is fairly limited, with literary

translation dominating, with 37 out of 43 awards being earmarked for

literature, accounting for 86%. Some prizes are for specific genres of

literature, such as poetry (International Poetry Review Translation Prize),

drama (Bernard Shaw Prize), and fiction (FIT Aurora Borealis Prize for

Outstanding Translation of Fiction Literature). Some are for specific

languages, such as the Greek-German Award for Literary Translation

offered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, and ColumbiaUniversity’s Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation




of Japanese Literature. Only six awards are non-literary, which include the

Alexander Gode Award for translation service, the Mildred L. Batchelder

Award and the Japan Translation Prize for translation publishers, the Best

Periodical Award for translation journals, the Stephen C. SoongTranslation Studies Award for translation studies, and the Hellenic

Foundation for Culture Translation Award for cultural translation.

Fourthly, prizes have been given to the world’s major languages to the

neglect of minority ones. The major languages for awards have been

European, such as English (e.g. The Times Stephen Spender Prize), French

(e.g. Scott Moncrieff Prize), German (e.g. Greek-German Award for

Literary Translation), Italian (John Florio Prize for Italian Translations),

Portuguese (e.g. Portuguese-French Translation Prize), Spanish (PremioValle Inclán Prize), and Asian, such as Japanese (e.g. Japan Translation

Prize) and Chinese (Han Suyin Translation Prizes).

Fifthly, awards have been given for written translation, particularly, as

we have mentioned, in the field of literature, and there are no prizes for

interpreting and different areas of practical translation. Perhaps this is due

largely to the traditional view which regards literary translation as the most

demanding form of presentation, while the work of interpreting and

practical works is less academic and thus less valuable. It should be noted

that in China, 96% of its annual translation output is in the area of practical

translation, while only 4% is in the field of literature. Perhaps it is about

time to look more closely at the contributions made by translation teachers,

practical translators, and professional interpreters.

Lasty, it is noted that prizes have been given for book publications, and

contributions in other formats, such as computer translation systems,

speech technologies, or subtitles, are not given the recognition they rightly

deserve. Translation societies and organizations should consider seriously

the awarding of prizes to those who engage themselves in projects and

products that benefit a large number of users. They should also consider the

provision of funds to conduct research into non-literary areas.

Bible translation

It is often said that the classical and the philological periods of translation

have been largely the translation of literary works and the Bible. As

someone once put it, “nothing has ever been translated as frequently, intoas many languages, and over as long a span of time as the Bible.” Bible




translation is certainly one of the most important topics for translation

scholars. The prevalence and importance of Bible translation is certainly

borne out by statistics in this book. If we divide Bible translation broadly

into two periods, with the first period running from the legendary times to1946 when the United Bible Societies was formed, and the second from

1947 to 2004, we can see some salient features of development.

For the first period, which covers 3,068 years between 1122 B.C. and

1946, there are 314 entries, 96 of which (excluding the entry on “Legend”)

are on Bible translation, totalling 30.57%. This shows that almost one third

of the events during the period are related to Bible translation. If we deduct

81 China-related entries to concentrate more on the West, then the total

number of entries is 233, and the percentage of entries on Bible translationis 41.20%, which is considerably higher than entries in other categories.

Regarding Bible translation, European countries have the largest

number of entries. The seven countries of the United Kingdom (54),

Finland (2), France (2), Germany (1), the Netherlands (1), the Roman

Empire (2), and Switzerland (1) have 63 entries, totalling 64.63%. Next

comes the United States in North America with 30 entries, totalling

31.25%. China (2) and India (1) are the only two Asian countries with

entries in Bible translation, taking up 3.13%. The African country Egypt,

with one entry, is last on the list with 1.04%. The two major countries with

entries on Bible translation, the United Kingdom and the United States,

dominate the scene with a total of 87.5%.

For the second period, which covers the 57 years between 1947 and

2004, there are 1,468 entries, with 60 entries on Bible translation,

amounting to 4.09% of the total. These 60 entries are shared by the United

Kingdom with 14 entries and the United States with 46 entries. The

dominance of these two countries has much to do with the languages that

have been chosen for inclusion, i.e. English and Chinese.

Centers of translation

The first translation center, the National Translation Center of the

University of Texas at Austin, was founded in the United States in 1965.

Since then, a total of 11 translation centers have been established

throughout the world. The United States has four translation centers, which

were established between 1965 and 1986. There are two centers at theUniversity of Texas, one of which is no longer in existence. They both have




conducted research on general issues of translation, and the centers at the

State University of New York and Columbia University also work on

translation studies and literary translation. The Center for Machine

Translation at Carnegie Mellon University, however, focuses on issues incomputer and speech translation.

Hong Kong comes second with a center at The Chinese University of

Hong Kong and another center at Hong Kong Baptist University. The

Research Centre for Translation at The Chinese University specializes in

the English translation of Chinese literary works, which are published in

Renditions, the journal of the center. The Centre for Translation at Baptist

University focuses on translation studies and holds translation seminars

regularly to promote the study of translation in Hong Kong. Specialmention must be made of the Institute of Translation Studies at Fu Jen

Catholic University in Taiwan, and the Centre for Translation and

Interpretation in India, both of which concentrate on general as well as

interpreting issues in the field.

For Europe, GETA at University of Grenoble is the second oldest

translation center in the world, specializing in machine translation and

general issues of translation. Also important is the Leuven Research Centre

for Translation, Communication and Cultures, which was established at the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven to study literary and cultural translation.

Translation conferences

Our study of translation conferences will be divided into two parts. Part 1

will look at the conferences held between 1954 and 1992 in a descriptive

manner, while Part 2 will analyze translation conferences beween 1993 and

2003 in a statistical manner. This division will also give a general picture

of the events that took place over a 38-year period, while more details will

be spent on the decade before 2003.

1954–1992

For the period of 1954–1992, a total of 77 conferences on translation were

held. Several observations can be made about these conferences, their

organizers, and their themes.

Firstly, the number of countries which held conferences in this periodis relatively small with 22 countries—11 in Europe, 8 in Asia, and 3 in




North America. Of these, Hong Kong (12), the United Kingdom (11), and

the United States (10) outnumber the others by a wide margin, with the

remaining 19 countries holding between one and five conferences.

Secondly, conference organizers have been varied. Translationconferences have been organized by translators’ associations, by

translation societies, by translation departments, by translation schools, by

translation centers, by institutes, by universities, and by foundations.

Thirdly, the themes of the conferences are varied. Apart from the

regular conferences of translation associations where various topics are

included, such as the annual conferences of the American Translators

Association, and thematic conferences of translation institutes, such as the

computers and translation series organized by Aslib, the rest of theconferences in the period cover a wide range of areas, including regional

development, terminology, translation teaching, translation quality,

translation association, translation studies, literary translation, culture and

translation, translation as a profession, interpretation, translation theory,

translation practice, interpreting teaching, computer translation, the position

of translators, language acquisition, communication, lexicography, and

linguistics. Incidentally, there is no repetition of themes during the period.

1993–2003

As far as we know, between 1993 and 2002, 120 conferences on translation

studies and related areas were held in different parts of the world. The

number of conferences before 1997 is relatively small, with an average of

6.5 conferences per year. Between 1997 and 2001, 88 conferences were

held, about 17.6 conferences per year. With the exception of 2002, the

increase is 2.7 fold. The new ideas and concepts discussed in these

conferences formed the basis of a new vocabulary for translation studies.

Translation Conferences by Year, 1993–2002

Year No. of Conferences

1993 7

1994 4

1995 7

1996 8




Year No. of Conferences

1997 14

1998 211999 15

2000 20

2001 18

2002 6

During these ten years, a total of 28 countries organized translation

conferences on various themes and topics. The United Kingdom (20),

Spain (14), China (11), the United States (11), Canada (10), and Hong

Kong (8), are the six countries where conferences were most frequently

held. The case of Hong Kong is exceptional. A relatively small territory

with a population of slightly over 6.9 million, Hong Kong has the highest

density of translation programmes in the world—seven out of eight tertiary

institutions offer degrees in translation, and is now ranked sixth in the

organization of translation conferences.

Translation Conferences by Country, 1993–2002

Country No. of Conferences

Canada 10

China 11

Czech Republic 1

Denmark 3

Finland 3Germany 6

Hong Kong 8

India 1

Italy 2

Japan 1

Malaysia 1

Mexico 2

Morocco 1




Country No. of Conferences

Poland 2

Singapore 1Slovakia 3

Slovenia 1

Spain 14

Sweden 1

Switzerland 2

Taiwan 4

Tunisia 1

Turkey 1

United Kingdom 20

United States 11

From 1993 to 2003, 118 conferences were held in 25 areas. The largest

number of conferences was on translation studies (37), followed by 26 on

computer-related translation (automatic translation (1), computational

linguistics (4), computer translation (7), corpus (1), information processing(1), machine translation (8), parsing (1), terminology (1), and translation

technology (2)), and 11 on interpreting. It is obvious from the above

figures that translation technology has become a very important part of

translation.

Translation Conferences by Area, 1993–2003

Conference Topics No. of ConferencesArabic translation 3

Automatic translation 1

Cliche translation 1

Computational linguistics 4

Computer translation 7

Corpus 1

Culture 2

Practical translation 7




Conference Topics No. of Conferences

Information processing 1

Interpreting 11Language processing 1

Language teaching 1

Languages and translation 2

Linguistics 1

Literary translation 7

Machine translation 8

Multimedia translation 4

Parsing 1

Psychology 1

Semantics 1

Subtitles 1

Terminology 1

Translation studies 37

Translation teaching 7

Translation technology 2

Translator training 5

Translation societies

The first translation society was probably formed in 1768 in Russia. The

Association of the Translation of Foreign Works, supported by the Russian

empress Ekaterina Alexeevna, was also the first professional association

for translators in Russia. Between 1768 and 2002, 77 translation societies

of various levels were established.

There are various ways to classify translation societies. In terms of

scope, we have national, international, continental, and intercontinental

translation societies. The earliest example of a national translation society

was the Japan Society of Translators, which was formed in 1934. From

then on, about 20 national translation societies were established, including

the Association of French Translators (1947), the Finnish Associationof Translators and Interpreters (1955), the Society of Translators and




Interpreters of Canada (1956), the Netherlands Society of Translators

(1956), the American Translators Association (1959), the Swiss

Association of Translators and Interpreters (1966), the Hong Kong

Translation Society (1971), the Association of Brazilian Translators(1974), the Israel Association of Translators and Editors (1979), the Israel

Translators Association (1980), the Austrian Association of Literary and

Scientific Translators (1981), the Translators Association of China (1982),

the Tanzania Organization of Translators (1982), the Hellenic Association

of Translators and Interpreters (1985), the Japan Association of Translators

(1985), the Irish Translators’ Association (1986), the Australian Institute

of Interpreters and Translators (1987), the National Union of Translators in

Brazil (1988), the Cyprus Association of Translators and Interpreters(1988), the Professional Union of Interpreters and Translators (in

Romania) (1990), the Estonian Association of Interpreters and Translators

(1992), and the Taiwan Association of Interpretation and Translation

(1994).

International translation societies have been formed over the years

to serve translators globally, such as the International Federation of

Translators and the International Association of Conference Interpreters,

which were established in France in 1953 at the First World Congress,

and the Localisation Industry Standards Association (LISA) founded

in Switzerland in 1990. Continental translation societies include the

European Association of Specialized Translators (1990) and the European

Society for Translation Studies (1992). The Inter-American Association of

Translators (1976) and the Panhellenic Association of Translators (1985)

are examples of intercontinental translation societies.

We also note that a large number of translation societies are affiliates

of national translation societies, which aim to serve local interests. In the

United States, we have the Southern California Translators and Interpreters

Association (1976), the Austin Area Translators and Interpreters

Association (1985), the Chicago Area Translators and Interpreters

Association (1987), the Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society

(1988). In Canada, we have the Association of Translators and Interpreters

of Ontario (1920), the Association of Translators and Interpreters of

Alberta (1979), the Society of Translators and Interpreters of British

Columbia (1981), the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova

Scotia (1990). In Chile, we have the Professional Translators Associationof Santiago (1991).




There are also specialized translation societies, either in terms of areas

or professions. These include societies for Bible translation, such as the

British and Foreign Bible Society (1804), the American Bible Society

(1816); for literary translation, such as the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators (1948), the Association of Bulgarian Literary

Translators (1963), the Association of Literary Translators of France

(1973), and the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada (1975). For

scientific translation, there are the Indian Scientific Translators

Association (1962) and the Austrian Association of Literary and Scientific

Translators (1981). For conference translation, there is the International

Association of Conference Translators (1962); while for conference

interpreting, there are groups such as the Association of ConferenceInterpreters (1969) and the Professional Association of Conference

Interpreters (1971). For general interpreting, there are groups such as the

American Society of Interpreters (1965); while for professionalism, there

is the Association of Professional Translators (1974). For legal translation,

there is the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators

(1978); while for translation studies, there are the European Society

for Translation Studies (1992), the German Association for Translation

Studies (1998), and the American Translation Studies Association

(2002).

Translation journals

It is hard to determine the beginning of translation journals in a global

context, but we can certainly say that the first journal to introduce foreign

literature into China was Yi Wen!(Translation Text ), which was

published in 1934. If this particular year is taken as the starting point, then

three different periods can be seen in the publication of translation journals

up to 2004. The first period runs from 1934 to 1956, the second, from 1965

to 1985, and the third, from 1986 to 2004.

The first period covers the 22 years between 1934 and 1956, involving

China, the United States, Australia, France, and Canada. Apart from Yi

Wen, five journals were pubished in five different countries, and four of

them are of special significance. With the exception of Babel, which was

published in Australia by the Australian Federation of Modern Languages

Teachers’ Association, the four other journals that came out during theperiod have since become leading journals in the field. The Bible




Translator , a journal of the United Bible Societies in the United States, was

first published in 1950. This refereed journal now has 56 volumes, and

appears in two series, Technical Papers in January and July, and Practical

Papers in April and October. The first journal of machine translation, Mechanical Translation was also published in the United States in the

following year. It ceased publication in 1965, and reappeared later with the

new name of Machine Translation, which is now in its nineteenth volume.

Another significant journal that came out during the period is Babel, a

quarterly of the Federation Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT). The first

issue of the journal was published in September 1955, and it has since

continued to carry articles on general issues of translation. Now in its

fiftieth year, Babel is a journal of very high standing. In Canada, we havethe first translation journal published by a translation school. The Journal

des Traducteurs ( Journal of Translation) was published in Montreal by the

School of Translation, University of Montreal in 1956. It was later

renamed Meta.

The second period, 1965 to 1985, saw the publication of 13 different

translation journals. It should be noted that, firstly, in this 20-year period,

1.42 journals per year were produced, and at least one journal was

published every two or three years, with the publication of three journals in

1973 as the most productive year. Secondly, there was a significant

increase in the publication of translation journals. Journals were published

in nine countries places, including, in alphabetical order, Belgium (2),

Brazil (1), Canada (1), China (2), France (1), Hong Kong (1), Japan (1),

Spain (1), and the United States (5). Thirdly, more varieties of translation

journals were published. There were journals devoted to the study of the

theory and practice of translation, such as Translation (1973), Quaderns de

Traducció I Interpretació (1982), Abrates (1976), Fan Yi Tong Xun

(Translators Notes) (1980), and Yu Yan Yu Fan Yi !"#$( Language and Translation). There were also translation journals for

specialized areas, including machine translation, such as Traduction

Automatique ( Machine Translation) (1965), Computers and the

Humanities (1966); literary translation, such as Modern Poetry in

Translation (1965), Delos (1968), and Renditions; translation studies, such

as Equivalences (1970); and interpreting, such as The Japan Interpreter .

The last period is from 1986 to 2004, a total of 18 years. This is the

most productive period with 32 journals published, an average of 1.77 journals per year. From 1986 to 1999, at least one journal per year was




published. Particularly productive were the years between 1986 and 1989,

and 1995 and 1998, in which 11 and 13 journals were published

respectively. Apart from increases in the number and varieties of

translation journals, the appearance of e-journals is significant, whichmeans more academic articles can be published in electronic format. E-

journals, or online journals, will be a major venue through which the most

recent scholarship can be distributed globally. These journals include

Translation Journal (1997), inTRAlinea (1998), and Translation Today

(2004).

Major Publications

There are exactly 1,000 entries for book publications on or about

translation, written in either English or Chinese. An anlysis of the ways the

books have been produced reveals that 64.5% (645 entries) of these

publications are authored, 33% (330 entries) are edited, 2.4% (24 entries)

are compiled, and only 0.1% (1 entry) is translated. These figures show that

the large number of authored books is possibly related to a growing interest

in translation as a profession and an academic discipline, and the relatively

smaller number of edited and compiled volumes is a result of conferences

on translation and the provision of references for translators. An

examination of other aspects of publication will also be informative and

useful.

Periodization

If we take Essays on the Principles of Translation written by Alexander

Fraser Tytler in 1791 as the first book on translation, then the 213 years that

followed can be divided into five periods, based on the average number of

works published per year. The first period is from 1791 to 1956, the

second, from 1957 to 1971, the third, from 1972 to 1983, the fourth, from

1984 to 1994, and the fifth, from 1995 to 2004.

The first period had an annual production of about one book per year,

with the exception of 1920, 1953, and 1955 in which two books on

translation were published each year. Of the 28 books published in this

166-year period, four were written in Chinese, all of which were on general

issues relating to English-Chinese translation. For works written inEnglish, they were mostly on Bible translation, translation of classical




literature, and there was one work on machine translation. Apart from the

years between 1952 and 1956, books on translation were published in

separate years, including 1791, 1829, 1861, 1862, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1920,

1922, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1936, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, and 1949.The second period is from 1957 to 1971, with an average annual

publication of 5.2 books per year. A total of 78 books were published

within this 15-year period. The year 1969 with ten books on translation was

the most productive year, while in 1963, only one conference proceedings

was published.

The third period is from 1972 to 1983, a total of 12 years in which 148

books on translation were published, an average of 12.33 books per year.

This is an increase of 2.37-fold of the second period. The year 1981, with23 books published, was the year with the largest number of book

publications. This was partly due to the publications of six works on the

success of the TAUM machine translation system in Canada, accounting

for 26% of the total number of books published.

The fourth period is from 1984 to 1994, with an average of 25.9 book

publications per year. The range is between 22 books in 1984 and 1985 and

29 books in 1993. Of the 285 books published, 63 were in Chinese, a total

of 22.11%. On average, 5.72 books on translation were written in Chinese

per year.

The last period, 1995 to 2004, witnessed a huge increase in the

publication of books on translation. A total of 461 books were published

within this 10-year period, an average of 46.1 books per year, a 1.78-fold

increase over the fourth period. 195 books were written in Chinese,

accounting for 42.30%, and this to a great extent shows the growing

importance of translation studies in China. It is expected that the number of

books on translation will continue to grow in the years to come.

Countries

There are 30 countries places which have published works on translation.

As the statistics are based on publications in either English or Chinese, the

English-speaking and Chinese-speaking areas have the largest volumes of

publications. For English publications, the United Kingdom and the United

States together have 415 entries, accounting for 41.75%; together with

other European countries, such as the Netherlands (122 entries) andGermany (41), and other English-speaking countries, such as Canada




(32 entries) and Australia (4), the total number of book publications is 614

entries. For Chinese publications, China has 242 entries, and Hong Kong,

with 51 entries, Taiwan, with 43 entries, and even Macau, with one entry,

have to be taken into account. Together, there are 337 entries for Chinese

publications, which is 54.89% of English publications.

The following is a list of book publications by different countries or

places in alphabetical order.

Australia 4 Jordan 1

Austria 1 Korea 1

Belgium 3 Luxembourg 1

Canada 32 Macau 1China 242 Netherlands 122

Denmark 4 Nigeria 1

Finland 5 Poland 2

France 3 Russia 1

Germany 41 Singapore 2

Hong Kong 51 South Africa 1

India 1 Sweden 3

Iraq 1 Switzerland 3Israel 3 Taiwan 43

Italy 2 United Kingdom 208

Japan 4 United States 207

Publishers

It goes without saying that publishing houses play a very important role

in the dissemination of knowledge in any field. We have put down a listof the major publishers in the United Kingdom, the United States, the

Netherlands, Germany, Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, for their

publications account for 90% of the total number of books on translation.

It should be noted that publishers in the English-speaking countries

produced mostly English books, but their counterparts in the Chinese-

speaking countries produced books both in Chinese and in English.

CanadaUniversity of Ottawa Press (9)




Germany

Gunter Narr (8)

Peter Lang (6)

Springer-Verlag (3) Netherlands

Foris Publication (4)

John Benjamins Publishing Company (77)

Mouton (4)

Rodopi (14)

Van Gorcum (4)

The United Kingdom

Aslib (7)Cambridge University Press (13)

Multilingual Matters (20)

Oxford University Press (4)

Pergamon Press (9)

Peter Lang (1)

Routledge (28)

St Jerome Publishing (27)

The United States

Kluwer Academic Publishers (3)

Learned Information Inc. (5)

MIT Press (4)

Oxford University Press (3)

State University of New York Press (8)

Yale University Press (5)

China

China Translation and Publishing Corp. (33)

Commercial Press, The (10)

East China U. of Science and Tech. Press (5)

Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (9)

Hubei Education Press (16)

Hunan Education Press (7)

Institute of Comp. Ling., Peking Univ. (3)

Peking University Press (6)

Shandong Education Press (4)

Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press (18)Shanghai Jiaotong University Press (6)




is machine translation with 169 entries, and it should also be noted that 85

of these entries are placed between 1990 and 2004, which is a strong

indication of the recent emergence of computer translation as a very

important area of research and publication among translation scholars.Works of a general nature rank third, including books on various aspects of

translation. Books on literary translation, with 89 entries, appeal to many

students of translation as a considerable number of translation teachers

received their training in the field of literature. Next on the popularity list

is interpreting, an area which is always popular with translation and

interpreting students. The fact that it is only fifth on the list is perhaps

related to the lack of interest in interpreting studies as most people would

consider it as a practical subject based on drills and exercises.The entries in references and textbooks also deserve our attention as

there were few coming under this classification in the past. In recent years,

however, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, and handbooks of different sizes

and scopes have been published to meet the pedagogical and general needs

of different groups of users. Textbooks are also abundant for different

language pairs. Routledge, for example, has published a series “Thinking

Translation,” offering textbooks for students studying French, German,

Spanish, and Italian. Translation textbooks in Chinese have also been

published, specializing in a number of domains, such as science and

technology, business, and tourism.

It is hoped that this introduction has provided the necessary

background information for readers to know the world of translation in the

past, the present, and possibly the future.

translation in a global context

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