Special Issue Editor

Dr. Eriko Sato
E-Mail Website

Guest Editor

Department of Asian & Asian American Studies, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5343, USA
Interests: translation studies; multilingualism (translanguaging); language learning; Japanese linguistics; online language teaching

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Intercultural communication and multilingualism have been gaining significant research attention in applied linguistics in the past few decades especially in contexts such as language learning, education, and language policies (e.g., Garcia & Li, 2014; May, 2014; Piller, 2017). However, the study of translation, both texts and oral, is still limited in applied linguistics although translation is essential in multilingual contexts and for intercultural communication. Languages are shaped and reshaped through being used for communication, and translation practices have been significantly contributing to the development of languages. The goal of this Special Issue of Languages is to promote the study of language use found in translation practices from the perspectives of intercultural communication and multilingualism and to add new insights to the nature of languages and language use as a part of applied linguistics. Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

Translation as intercultural communication
Translation and multilingualism
Translation and translanguaging
Translation and power imbalance
Multilingual subtitling
Language contact and translation
Translator’s ideologies and language use
Multimodality in translation for intercultural communication
The role of translated literature in intercultural communication
The role of translation in education
Translation and language development

We welcome original research articles that provide a substantial amount of new information as well as review articles that provide concise and precise updates on the latest progress made in the area of research described above (8000-10000 words).

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editor ([email protected]) and to /Languages/ editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Tentative completion schedule:

Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 June 2022
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 15 July 2022
Full Manuscript Deadline: 30 October 2022

References:

García, O. & Li, W. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Palgrave Macmillan.

May, S. (Ed.). (2014). The Multilingual Turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL and Bilingual Education. Routledge.

Piller, I. (2017). Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press.

Dr. Eriko Sato
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

translation
interpreting
subtitling
fansubbing
literary translation
intercultural communication
multilingualism
translanguaging
sociolinguistics
applied linguistics
language use
language contact
language teaching
language learning
multimodality
identity
power imbalance

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Open AccessArticle

Taboo Language in Non-Professional Subtitling on Bilibili.com: A Corpus-Based Study

Xijinyan Chen

Languages 2022, 7(2), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020138 - 30 May 2022

Viewed by 500

Abstract

This qualitative and quantitative study examines how taboo language is rendered in non-professional subtitling (NPS), how viewers react to the renderings, and how the interactions between danmu and general comments’ contributors affect the translation activities and language changes. The study draws on a parallel corpus consisting of taboo language and its translations from 18 of the most-viewed and commented upon subtitled videos on the popular video-sharing platform, Bilibili.com. Danmu comments and general comments related to the renderings of taboo language are also collected and studied. When analyzing translation activities in an NPS setting, the study adopts and modifies some mainstream subtitling strategies and techniques proposed by. The study finds that various creative approaches are adopted, such as lexical recreation and substitution by euphemism. While the strength of the taboo language is reduced in more than half of the instances, in an unexpected 17.2% of cases the effects are enlarged. The study concludes that a virtuous, collaborative mechanism for potential translation problems and language learning is formed by providing positive, neutral, and critical feedback in the comments. In addition to linguistic knowledge and cultural background, viewers also share knowledge beyond the scope of translation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intercultural Communication and Multilingualism in Translation Contexts)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Open AccessArticle

Synergic Concepts, Lexical Idiosyncrasies, and Lexical Complexities in Bilingual Students’ Translated Texts as Efforts to Resolve Conceptual Inequivalences

Hanh Dinh

Languages 2022, 7(2), 94; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020094 - 11 Apr 2022

Viewed by 814

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to draw on the conceptual blending hypothesis from the socio-cognitive approach to investigate the conceptually equivalent translation written in L2—English—of bilingual students via two tasks of translating and defining individual words and translating texts from L1 to L2. Next, the study demonstrates how translation abilities that vary amongst groups can affect students’ lexical density, lexical diversity, lexical sophistication, and lexical idiosyncrasies in translated text. The translating process in bilinguals could be interpreted via the lens of the conceptual blending hypothesis and dueling contexts framework to demonstrate that bi/multilingual students do not differ from monolingual ones pertaining to cognitive or linguistic abilities. Rather, the distinctive difference between bilingual and monolingual language users is bilingual speakers’ abilities of the third competence of formulating a synergism across word concepts and utilizing a bidirectional translation between two languages. When a word in L2 is acquired, there is a conceptual blending between the new conceptual information, encoded after each time the L2 word is used in an L2 socio-cultural context and the existing socio-cultural conceptual information in L1. The new concept created after the blending is called a synergic concept. If the synergic is not well developed, the language user selects incorrect or inappropriate words in a context, resulting in lexical idiosyncrasies. Data gathered from 30 English–Chinese bilingual university students in a transnational program in sociology were collected and compared against 15 monolingual American students. The preliminary findings are as follows: (1) regardless of the location of where the English (L2) socio-cultural meaning conceptualization mainly takes place (in China or the U.S.A.), English–Chinese bilingual language users demonstrated a significant difference in connotative meaning knowledge of noun word concepts and idiomatic concepts, compared with English native speakers; (2) the synergic concepts were detected in all experimental concepts and demonstrated the conceptual blending to a varying degree that affects their translating process and its outcomes: the domineering L1 socio-cultural concept, the well-blended L1 and L2 socio-cultural concept that results in a “third culture”, and the assimilating L2 socio-cultural concept; (3) the synergistic blending of two socio-cultural loads embedded in lexical concepts detected in the bilingual students in the U.S.A. was more robust than those in China, resulting in significantly fewer sophisticated words and lexical idiosyncrasies in their English translated essays. The study sheds new light on understanding the dynamism in bilingualism via translation tasks to indicate bilingual learners’ lexical development. Implications for using translation tasks and analysis of word concepts across languages to support bi/multilingual students in language and academic learning are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intercultural Communication and Multilingualism in Translation Contexts)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Special Issue "Intercultural Communication and Multilingualism in Translation Contexts"

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (2 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI