Translation and interpreting as instruments of language planning in South Africa : focus on court interpreting

Mwepu, Dominique Ngoy

Translation and interpreting as instruments of language planning in South Africa : focus on court interpreting

Thesis / Dissertation

2005

Abstract

The year 1994 was a significant moment in the history of South Africa. The release of Nelson Mandela and the ushering in of a new democracy implied important changes in national policies. Apart from English and Afrikaans, ten other languages, including South African Sign Language, have acquired official status. This linguistic dispensation should allow every citizen access to fair justice and a fuller participation in the democratisation process at all levels. It is obvious that linguistic diversity calls for extensive use of translation and interpreting. This study is located in the field of Applied Language Studies. It investigates the intersection between Language Planning and Translation Studies. The thesis argues that Language Planning needs to devote more attention to the place and role of translation and interpreting. One of the key assumptions of language planning seems to be that speakers of a language community form a monolithic block. nus thesis submits that a better approach should acknowledge that in every language community, there are two major groups: ordinary language speakers and language professionals (translators, interpreters and lexicographers) The second group participates more actively and play a prominent role in corpus planning or corpus development and acquisition planning. The scrutiny of court interpreting shows that interpreters suffer low social and professional status. The low status of these professions and low social attainment of these professionals have a negative effect on African language status planning in general. Therefore, more research is needed for a Language Planning theo~cal model that may address satisfactorily issues of Acquisition, Status and Corpus for both the ordinary language speakers and language professionals. Translation Studies set a distinction between translation and interpreting. This distinction takes into account the differences in mode, processes, techniques, skills, and abilities. However, the ethnographic approach of this thesis highlighted that in South Africa and maybe elsewhere, translation and interpreting differ in status. Most of the definitions do not account for this aspect in distinguishing between the two activities. This gap needs to be filled

Keywords

English Language and Literature

Reference:

Collections

PhD / Doctoral

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