Category Archives: Translation industry

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village At least 1500 interpreters and translators in the Netherlands are on strike as of the 13th of January and refuse to take work from the judiciary, police and immigration service. They are striking against government budget cuts, which they believe come at the expense of …

“Interpreters and translators on strike in the Netherlands: time to think about how to protect the profession”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The conversion of verbs into nouns is called “nominalisation” (the opposite, turning nouns into verbs, is called “verbing” or “denominalisation”). There are two types of nominalisation. The first involves adding a suffix: the verb “to investigate” produces the noun “investigation.” The second type is known as “zero …

“Should we use “translate” as a noun? A case of “nominalisation” of a verb”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village One year ago one Danina Lupsa, who is a translation technologist and translation project manager for cApStAn, wrote an article for our blog in which she deplored the lack of legal protection for the translating profession. “Anyone who speaks more than one language can declare …

“Anyone who speaks more than one language can declare himself or herself a translator: a harsh reality”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village “Far-right leaders often call for one nation united under one language but, at the same time, they have always been good at using translation to spread their politics”. This is the opening line of a recent article in The Boston Review where the author, Yuliya Komska, addresses …

“An article on the use of translation by totalitarian regimes raises the issue of the moral responsibility of translators”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Four out of the six shortlisted books for the 2019 “Warwick Prize for Women in Translation”, and four out of five for the 2019 US “National Book Awards” for translated literature, do not mention the translator on the cover (both lists were announced this month). The debate …

“Why aren’t translators’ names on most book covers?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village “Translation removes language barriers and makes stories borderless”, says Chen Jiatong, author of “The White Fox”, recently translated from Chinese to English, in article for Booktrust.org. There is, however, no mention of the translator on the cover of his book, or in the article, for …

“The ongoing debate about how and where to credit the translator’s work”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village An increasing number of translators are, in the words of the author of this article for World Literature Today, “working through a coded world of censorship and trying to bring an island to light”. That island is Cuba, which, she adds, which has, for so …

“Translation and its role in the Cuban people’s “diaspora””

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village High quality translation is vital in order to avoid a widening of social strata between those who can afford language education and those who can’t, says the author of a recent article for the Irish Times. As not all language combinations are easily available, indirect …

“The risk of cultural meaning being diluted when translating translations”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village “Speed” and “cost” are the two factors lessening the importance of “quality” in the translation client’s decision-making, say fellow linguists at BeatBabel in a recent article for TC World. In the current context of exponential and unprecedented growth in content to be translated – the estimated numbers …

“Is the translation industry suffering from “fast food syndrome”?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village   Charles Perrault is a 17th century French aristocrat whose fairy tales have been translated time and again, so much so that he is widely thought of as “the father of the fairy tale”. But the fairy tale’s mothers lie forgotten, says the author of …

“Translation can be a political act when it is used to silence minority voices”

by Cristina Titone – cApStAn LQC intern Mickey Mouse is the most famous rodent in the world and a true Disney icon. This popular cartoon character made its first public appearance in 1928 in the United States in the animated film “Steamboat Willie”, and has appeared in over 130 films. As of 1930, Mickey also …

“When translation affects the evolution of a language: the example of Mickey Mouse and the so-called ‘Inflektive’”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner Andrea Ferrari, one of the founders of cApStAn Linguistic Quality Control, coined that phrase a decade ago: excellence among friends. At the end of two-day training seminar for verifiers in charge of linguistic quality assurance of multiple language versions of OECD/PIAAC Cycle 2 and OCDE/PISA 2021 instruments, which took …

“Excellence among friends: 85 freelance linguists from 60 countries”