The Linguist

The Linguist 57,1 – February/March 2018

The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology

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thelinguist.uberflip.com FEBRUARY/MARCH The Linguist 13 FEATURES there in 3 minutes. Do you want to request it?' The MC version replaces Lyft with 滴滴出行 (Didi chuxing), the dominant provider of car-sharing services in mainland China. The geographical setting of the communication has also been changed to Beijing, with the direction map and message on the screen accordingly transposed. If we were operating at the level of language alone, we would call this dynamic equivalence; but here we are dealing with a real-world entity, so it is less about linguistic equivalence than it is about constructing an equivalent semiotic response to the local circumstance. The HK and TW versions are quite different; they illustrate using Siri to schedule the day's activities, rather than to order car services, presumably because there were no equivalent companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This is analogical to the notion of a lexical/semantic gap; the gap is not linguistic in nature but the arising issue is similar. The solution adopted here is to circumvent the locale- specific item (Lyft) by substituting a more generic operation (scheduling of activities). This is a form of translational compensation, albeit not at a textual level but at the level of the entire visual-discursive frame. Here, an impressive degree of care is taken to effect another level of localisation in the HK and TW versions: the same activity – 'drink coffee with Shu Ling' – takes place at different places: Coco Expresso and Amay Teahouse, which are actual cafés in Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively. How do we fit localisation into the frame of translation studies or, conversely, translating into the bigger picture of localisation as a mode of communication? In each of the examples from Apple Inc, we are working with different local versions of advertisements. These various versions function autonomously in their respective markets, which means they are instrumental translations, according to Christine Nord, 1 focused on the effect rather than the formal constitution of the source text. In the case of localisation, texts are designed and translated to maximise marketing effect in different linguistic and cultural territories. To achieve this purpose, the form (both discursive and visual) of the translated-localised texts may need to be adapted, transmuted and metamorphosed into one that the target-language market can fully assimilate. Tong King Lee's book, Applied Translation Studies (Palgrave), will be published in 2018. Notes 1 Nord, C (2014) Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist approaches explained, Abingdon: Routledge MOBILE CAMPAIGNS Customers try out iPhones in a mall in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, China (above); and (left) the flagship Apple store in Hong Kong A literal translation will be interpreted as 'This is old-fashioned' – not something iPhone 7 wants to invoke IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

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