Call for Papers

International Conference

HOW CAN AI TRANSLATE?

University of Naples Federico II

April 22-23, 2024

Description

The translator’s role, historically contentious and shrouded in controversy, continues to invite criticism from the very origins of translation. In the context of an increasingly globalised world, a critical examination regarding the elusive and unidentifiable role and identity of translators has long been underway (Cavaliere, 2021). Ethical dilemmas persist, centring on the translator’s (in)visibility(Venuti, 2018). Shouldthe translator adopt a domesticating approach, seamlessly assimilating into the target language, making the translated work indistinguishable? Or, on the contrary, should the translator inject foreign flavours, challenging the norms of the target language? Centuries of debates echo, and the ‘deforming tendencies’within translation fabric remain unresolved (Berman, 2021).

Positionality(Munday et al., 2022) raises its own set of questions: the notion of translators as neutral communicators is challenged, with some deeming the infusion of ideologies as potentially manipulative, while others, like Tymoczko (2003), assert that translators are active participants in communication. To what extent is it ethical for translators to interject personal convictions and ideologies into the target text?

Against the backdrop of ongoing cultural exchanges, linguistic diversity, and global phenomena such as trade, migration, and human rights standards, the demand for translators has surged. However, this upswing is accompanied by challenges, including the imperative to minimise translation costs and a widespread lack of awareness regarding the significance of the translation profession (Lambert & Walker, 2022). Complicating matters further is the engagement of untrained individuals from disparate fields, suchas marketing, finance, business, and education, in translation responsibilities.

In addition, the digital age presents challenges in translation with Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) and Machine Translation (MT), sparking debates on their impact (Hartley, 2009; Dunne & Dunne, 2011; Jiménez-Crespo, 2013). Tools such as Translation Memory (TM) enhance efficiency, and the ascent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), exemplified by ChatGPT, raises questions, fostering discussions on the ‘human-like’quality of machine-translated texts and distinctions between Human Translation (HT) and MT.

The development of CAT, MT, and TM tools relies on corpus-based methods, providingempirical linguistic evidence as well assupplyingquantitative data and rigour that intuition alone cannot attain. In view of this, corpus-assisted strategies, first advocated by Sinclair (1987), constitute a relatively new instrument in the world of translation, thus signifyinga “new paradigm in translation studies” (Laviosa, 1998). The alignment of source and target text in parallel/comparablecorpora enables to contrastan original text againstits translated counterpart, offeringvaluable insights into the varied ways in which distinct linguistic communities articulate and interpret the same underlying discursive phenomenon.

In light of the issues hitherto raised, the conference aims to investigatehow contemporary translation can navigate the intricate intersection of ethical considerations, digital advancements and the evolving demands of a globalised world to redefine the boundaries anditsimpact on cross-linguistic communication.

This call for papers extends an invitation for contributions spanning a wide array of themes, including, but not limited to:

Submission of abstracts

Authors wishing to submit their contribution are invited to send an abstract of their proposed paper of no more than 3 50 words (excluding references) in MS Word format by 1 st March 2024 to

aitransconf24@gmail.com Flavia Cavaliere fcavalie@unina.it )), Luisa Marino

luisa.marino@unina.it and Fabio Cangero fabio.cangero@unina.it

Important dates

Deadline for abstracts: March 1 , 2024

Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2024

Conference dates: April 22-23, 2024

Submission Guidelines

Proposals must exhibit a clear and organi s ed structure, featuring theoretical and methodolog ical contributions that emphasi s e the innovative elements of the proposed research. Analyses should distinctly outline the objectives , materials, theoretical and methodological approach ( and anticipated outcomes. The APA citation style should be employed for references. Electronicsubmissions are to be sent adopting the template provided via email to aitransconf24@gmail.com, fcavalie@unina.it  luisa.marino@unina.it and fabio.cangero@unina.it , accompanied by a cover letter detailing the author s name, affiliation, contact information and contribution title.

Scientific Committee

Lucia Abbamonte (University of Naples Parthenope)

Raffaella Antinucci (University of Naples Parthenope)

Giuseppe Balirano (University of Naples L’Orientale)

Flavia Cavaliere (University of Naples Federico II)

Delia Chiaro (University of Bologna)

Jorge Diaz Cintas (University College London UK)

David Katan (University of Lecce)

Silvia Osman (University of Bucharest)

Irene Ranzato (Sapienza University of Rome)

Maria Grazia Sindoni (University of Messina)

Tania Zulli (“G. D’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara)

Organising Committee

Fabio Cangero (University of Naples Federico II)

Paolo Donadio (University of Naples Federico II)

Federico Gaspari (University of Naples Federico II)

Walter Giordano (University of Naples Federico II)

Luisa Marino (University of Naples Federico II)

Cristina Pennarola (University of Naples Federico II)

Sole Alba Zollo (University of Naples Federico II)

References

Berman, A., 2021, Translation and the Trials of the Foreign, translated by Venuti, L., in Venuti, L. (ed.) The Translation Studies Reader, 4th edition, Routledge: London and New York, pp. 247-60.

Cavaliere, F., 2021, “L’Identità del Traduttore: Una, Nessuna, Centomila”, in Traduttologia: Rivista di Interpretazione e Traduzione, vol. 12, n. 23–24, pp. 45–75.

Dunne, K., Dunne. E., 2011, Translation and Localization Project Management: The Art of the Possible , Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John.

Hartley, A., 2009, Technology and Translation, in Munday, J. (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 106 27.

Jiménez Crespo, M., 2013, Translation and Web Localization, London and New York:

Lambert, J., Walker, C. 2022, “Because Were Worth It: Disentangling Freelance Translation, Status, and Rate Setting in the United Kingdom”, in Translation Spaces, vol. 11, n. 2, pp. 277 302.

Laviosa, S., 1998, “The Corpus Based Approach: A New Paradigm in Translation Studies”, in Meta, vol. 13, n. 4, pp. 474- 9.

Munday, J., Pinto, S. R., Blakesley, J., 2022, Introducing Translation Studies: Theories And Applications, London and New York: Sinclair, J., 1987, Looking Up: An Account of the COBUILD Project in Lexical Computing, London: Collins.

Tymoczko, M., 2003, Ideology and the Position of the Translator: In What Sense is a Translator “in between”?, in Pérez, M. C., (ed.) Apropos of Ideology: Translation Studies on Ideologies in Translation Studies, pp. 181 201.

Venuti, L., 2018, The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation, London and New York: Routledge.

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