Multimodality, Translation, and Visual Literature – Key Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering key theories, categories, challenges, and concepts from the lecture on multimodality, visual literature, gender in translation, poetic translation issues, museum translation functions, and Berman’s deforming tendencies.

Medium over Message

The idea that how information is transmitted shapes its impact more than the content itself.

Trivialization

Reducing serious subjects to humorous or mocking treatments for easy consumption.

Conservatism and Repetitiveness

Mass culture’s focus on familiar, accepted forms rather than experimentation.

Discontinuity Principle

Structuring art as a loose series of events and characters without linear cohesion.

Cultural Reference Abundance

Heavy use of overt or hidden allusions and stereotypes drawn from shared culture.

Domestication (in Translation)

Adapting a source text heavily to the target culture’s references and norms.

Mutual Absorption of Culture and Technology

Artists rely on ready-made digital tools (e.g., memes), altering production and dissemination.

Vulgarization

Increased use of coarse language or violent imagery in popular media.

Visual Literature

Literary works where words and images interact, and materiality is significant.

Multimodality

Use of multiple semiotic modes (text, image, sound, layout, etc.) in one artifact to create meaning.

Semiotic Mode

A channel or resource (e.g., language, color, gesture) through which meaning is made.

Visual Literature vs. Multimodality

Visual literature is one kind of multimodal text; multimodality is the broader theoretical framework.

Category 1 (Non-multimodal)

Works where multimodality is absent or plays only a marginal role.

Category 2 (Intersemiotic Translations)

Texts forming part of a series translated across completely different media (novel→film, etc.).

Intersemiotic Translation

Rendering content from one sign system or medium into another (e.g., poem → painting).

Category 3 (Equal/Dominant Visual Layer)

Works where visuals are as important as—or outrank—the text (e.g., comics).

Category 4 (Visual-Textual Concept)

Works designed so text and image are inseparable without loss of meaning or immersion.

Secondary Inseparability

A later fusion of text and illustration not planned by the original creators (e.g., Shepard’s Winnie-the-Pooh art).

Grammatical Gender System

Language structure where nouns and related words carry gender markers (e.g., Spanish, German).

Gendered Professional Terms

Occupational nouns whose form signals gender (e.g., actor/actress).

Pronoun System

Set of pronouns available in a language, including gendered, gender-neutral, or animate distinctions.

Cultural Gender Roles

Implicit expectations about behavior or status linked to gender within a culture.

Non-Binary / Gender-Inclusive Language

Linguistic forms intended to include people beyond the male/female binary.

Historical & Literary Gender Issues

Period-specific gender language that may need contextualizing in translation.

Religious & Institutional Contexts

Texts where gender wording carries theological, legal, or social weight (e.g., Bible versions).

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

1989 Bible noted for systematic gender-inclusive language for humans.

NIV Inclusive Language Edition (NIVI)

1996 NIV variant adopting inclusive language; controversial and later withdrawn.

Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

2005 successor to NIVI, expanding inclusive language use.

NIV 2011

Current NIV edition retaining many inclusive features introduced in TNIV.

Common English Bible (CEB)

2011 Bible translation using inclusive, contemporary language throughout.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Modern Bible aiming at readability; uses gender-neutral terms where suitable.

The Inclusive Bible

2007 translation employing inclusive language for both humanity and God (e.g., “Father-Mother”).

Subject-to-Object Shift

Polish strategy turning an English subject into a Polish object/complement (e.g., “Fifteen years taught me …”).

Omission of English Subject

Dropping explicit subjects when translating into languages that allow zero subjects (e.g., Polish).

Gender-Neutral Noun for Pronoun

Replacing a personal pronoun with a noun that fits any sex (“his child …”).

Possessive-Plus-Noun Replacement

Substituting a pronoun with a possessive determiner and noun (“mom’s scent …”).

Present-for-Past Shift

Using present tense in the target language where the source uses past to create immediacy.

Wordplay

Humorous effects based on puns, homophones, or multiple meanings; hard to translate faithfully.

Rhyme

Correspondence of ending sounds in verse; often lost or altered in translation.

Rhythm and Meter

Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that shapes a poem’s pacing and tone.

Cultural Reference (in Verse)

Allusion to shared knowledge that may lack meaning for foreign audiences.

Tone and Register

The mood and formality level of a text; must be matched in translation.

Alliteration / Phonetic Play

Repeating sounds for effect; language-specific and difficult to replicate exactly.

Invented or Nonsense Words

Made-up terms whose playful sound must be recreated imaginatively in translation.

Fixed Poetic Form

Verse with strict rules (e.g., limerick); often forces trade-off between form and meaning in translation.

Punchline Brevity

Compact final twist delivering humor; easily diluted by structural changes.

Ambiguity & Layered Meaning

Multiple interpretive levels that risk flattening when translated literally.

Informative Function (Museum Translation)

Provides essential information to visitors who do not understand the source language.

Interactive Function (Museum Translation)

Engages visitors and reduces distance through welcoming, inclusive language.

Political Function (Museum Translation)

Reflects institutional ideology via choices of what and how to translate.

Social-Inclusive Function (Museum Translation)

Ensures accessibility for minority language communities in multilingual settings.

Exhibitive Function (Museum Translation)

Translation itself becomes an object on display, highlighting its creative role.

Rationalisation (Berman)

Restructuring syntax to fit target-language norms, often increasing abstraction.

Clarification (Berman)

Explaining deliberately obscure passages, reducing ambiguity.

Expansion (Berman)

Adding words or phrases that make the target text longer and often less concise.

Ennoblement (Berman)

Elevating or ‘civilizing’ the target text, removing colloquial or folk elements.

Qualitative Impoverishment

Using flat equivalents that strip the source’s phonetic or stylistic richness.

Quantitative Impoverishment

Reducing lexical variety by choosing one target word for several distinct source terms.

Destruction of Rhythm

Failure to preserve the original’s cadence or metrical patterns.

Destruction of Linguistic Patterning

Ignoring systematic choices in tense, complexity, or sentence style made by the author.

Destruction of Vernacular Network

Eliminating local speech patterns or exoticizing them artificially.

Destruction of Idioms

Replacing or omitting set expressions, losing cultural flavor.

Destruction of Underlying Signification

Breaking hidden thematic links that give the text cohesion and depth.

Effacement of Superimposed Languages

Removing or flattening passages where multiple languages interact within the original.

Cohesion

Surface grammatical and lexical ties that visibly organize a text.

Coherence

Underlying, conceptual relationships interpreted by readers to make a text meaningful.