On December 2, Yangzhou University Professor Zhou Lingshun delivered a lecture in Z513 of the Main Building entitled “The ‘three’ in translation criticism”. The meeting was presided over by Professor Li Chongyue. Over 80 students and staff of the School of Foreign Languages attended the lecture.
In his report, Zhou noted the many “threes” that characterize translation criticism. The efforts are both innovative and rewarding that have been made to sum up and sublimate these tripartite elements, for they may help reveal the existing problems, predict the future trends, explore the theoretical construction of translation criticism and heighten its application effect in translation practice. Foreign scholars have divided the history of translation into “three” periods: the traditional period, the post-“cultural turn” period and the contemporary period for people-based exploration. In China the exploration into translation criticism has been conducted by scholars of three age groups: those born in 1930s-40s, those born in the 1940s-50s, and those born in 1960s-70s. We have already come to the forefront in the world in the number of researchers, the research scale, and the achievements that have been obtained. The translation criticism comprises “three” things: the criticism of translation, the criticism of non-translation, the criticism of the intermediate state between translation and non-translation. There are currently three scientific methods for translation criticism, that is corpus-based approach, continuum, and stratification. There are “three” things to be done by translation critics in the future, that is constructing the theory, sharpening the tool, and promoting the application (interpreting the history, exploring the reality, etc.). Currently, the conception of translation criticism needs to be renovated, mainly in three major areas: the traditional attention focused merely on the instrumentality of translation criticism; mixing the translation criteria with translation criticism criteria by “applying a fixed set of translation criteria to explore translation criticism”; the appropriate repositioning of the translation criticism in the map for translation studies. Professor Zhou’s lecture is both informative and enlightening. All the participants learned a lot from his lecture. In the Q-A session, Professor patiently answered the questions raised by the enthused conferees.
Zhou Lingshun, a PhD, is a professor of the second level, PhD supervisor and collaborative supervisor for postdoctoral researchers. He is executive director of China Association for the Comparative Studies of English and Chinese, a member of the Translation Theory and Translation Teaching Committee under China Association of Translators, a member of the Academic Committee of Yangzhou University, enjoys the titles of “Outstanding Talents” and “Leading Talents” of Yangzhou University. He is currently director of the Center for Translation Behavioral Studies of Yangzhou University, executive chief editor of “Translation Forum”, and a distinguished professor at several universities and an invited editor of several academic journals. He has accomplished over 10 projects, including a key project supported by the National Social Science Fund and a late-stage project supported by the National Social Science Fund, projects supported by the Humanities and Social Science Fund of the Ministry of Education and Jiangsu Provincial Social Science Fund, etc. He is the originator of "translator behavior criticism". His publications add up to over 100 papers in important academic journals, and more than ten monographs and translations. He won a third prize of the 7th MOE Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Scientific Research of Institutions of Higher Learning, the first prize (twice) of Jiangsu Provincial Award for Excellent Achievements in the Philosophy and Social Sciences, a first prize and a second prize for Jiangsu Provincial Award for Excellent Teaching Achievements, etc. Zhou’s research fields cover linguistics and translation. At present he is mainly devoted to translator behavior criticism and the foreign translation of Chinese dialects. He was once the protagonist of a feature report by China Social Science Today.
(School of Foreign Languages)
Chinese
English