Translation Automatisms in the Vernacular Texts of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Ileana Sasu (eds). Pages: 528 p. Illustrations:1 col., 1 tables b/w. Language(s):English. Publication Year:2023. Brepols. ISBN: 978-2-503-60033-8. Paperback --- SuMMARY The volume deals with the issue of translation automatisms in early vernacular texts predating 1650. It introduces the novel concept of ‘translation clusters’, first defined in machine translation theory, but equally considering a wider array of situations that involve ‘translation units’, ‘language automatisms’, ‘culturemes’, and ‘formulaic borrowings’ in vernacular texts. Contrary to contemporary languages, where translation units, clusters, and automatisms appear frequently due to the influence of standard language varieties or dialects, the vernacular idioms of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period are often pluricentric. Consequently, automatisms are limited to specific cases where diachronic, diatopic, diastratic, and diaphasic variants align similarly in two otherwise different translations. This is a crucial topic for philology, as it can explain accidents that ecdotic methods tend to mistake for variant readings of a single ‘redactio’. The volume aims to determine the organic interplay between three primary situations in which common coincidences between translations or texts occur. Firstly the volume explores the shared elements resulting from the transfer of textual units between multiple translations or adaptations (quotations, corrections, formulas). Secondly chapters study the shared elements arising from the existence of a common source text (translation clusters, based on translation units); and lastly, the volume questions the fixed, inherent, and unchangeable aspects of the target language (language automatisms, often coinciding with translation units). The chapters of this volume focus on numerous vernacular languages and a multitude of case studies, with a particular emphasis on biblical translation—a cornerstone of contemporary translation studies. The chapter format encourages diverse perspectives to push the boundaries of philology, translation studies, and “vernacular theologies”. TABLE OF CONTENTS Vladimir Agrigoroaei—Ileana Sasu, Translation clusters, translation units, and language automatisms: Describing organic language phenomena found in translation I. LOW-PRESTIGE SOCIOLECTS, ORAL TRANSLATIONS, AND GRAMMATICAL ASPECTS OF THE TRANSLATION PROCESS Claudia Tarnauceanu—Ana Maria Gînsac—Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu, Colloquial calque translations, novice errors, and grammaticalization clusters in a Latin complaint of the Romanian knezes from the Remete estate, c.1360–1380 Vladimir Agrigoroaei, The issue of heresy and oral translation errors in two low-prestige contexts from twelfth-century France Jos Schaeken, The psalter as a school exercise in Medieval Russia: The case of the thirteenth- century boy Onfim Ileana Sasu, Old English knowledge in the interlinear Middle English translation of an homily from the Tiberius Psalter Marco Robecchi, Fluctuant translation strategies in two thirteenth-century administrative documents written in Latin and Old French Kateřina Voleková, Translation choices for the Latin adnominal genitive in the Old Czech psalters Mădălina Ungureanu—Ion-Mihai Felea, Who is hiding the face of God? The translation choices for the Church Slavonic dative absolute in early Romanian psalters Jost Gippert, Tracing translation models: The case of Caucasian Albanian II. LITERAL TRANSLATIONS: FORMAL VS. DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCES Vladimir Agrigoroaei, The beneurez huem, the cunseil de feluns (and the chaere de pestilence) of Ps 1:1 in a series of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Old French texts Hana Kreisingerová, Identical translation choices and the issue of the origin of the Third Old Czech Psalter translation Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Identical language automatisms and translation clusters in the Old French Oxford Psalter and Eadwine Psalter: Analysis of Ps 151 Ágnes Korondi, Psalm quotations in the Old.…