Translation into a non-mother tonsue or inverse translation, especially of literary texts, has always been frowned upon within Translation Studies in Western cultures and regarded by literary scholars and linguists as an activity of dubious worth, doomed to fail. The study, which was awarded by EST in 2001, sets out to challenge the established view and to critically question some ofthe axiomatic assumptions of Western theorists. Its challenge is supported by extensive empirical research involving reader response to translations of s pecific literary texts. The conclusion reached is that the quality ofthe translation, its fluency and acceptability in the target language environment depend primarily on the as yet undetermined individual abilities of'the particular translator, his/her translation strategy and knowledge of the source and target cultures, and not on his/her .mother tongue or the direction in which s/he is tranlating....

Translation into a non-mother tongue or inverse translation, especially of literary texts, has always been frowned upon within Translation Studies in Western cultures with a dominant language, and regarded as an action doomed to failure by both literary scholars and linguists. But despite this traditional "prohibition", literary translation from "minor" into "major" languages has always been carried out by local translators, often working in a pair with a stylistic advisor for the target language. Since this particular translation practice has been more or less ignored by Western translation theory, an attempt is made here to approach it theoretically in order to identify the characteristics and distinguishing features of translations into a non-mother tongue, and to determine the advantages or disadvantages of translators who are native speakers of the target language compared to non-native translators.The study will thus try to find answers to the following questions: Can the native language of the translator be considered as a criterion for assessing the acceptability or even the quality of the translation？ Are translations out of one's mother tongue indeed inferior in quality compared to those carried out by native speakers of the TL？ On the other hand, do all translators who are native speakers of a major or central linguistic community reveal in their translations from minor languages a limited knowledge of the SL culture and language？Can we identify typical features of the translation that are the result of the translator's or translators' mother tongue？

Acknowledgements  vii

Introduction: A questioning approach to Translation Studies   IX

Open definitions of the terms "native speaker" and "mother tongue"  1

The concept of"mother tongue" 2

Defining the term "native speaker" 6

Translation into a non-mother tongue in translation theory:

Challenging the traditional  25

Mystification of the native speaker - the translator as owner of the TL 25

The idealisation of the translator- a perfect bilingual translator 28

A hidden traditionalconviction 30

Translation into a non-mother tongue and team translation as a part of translation practice 34

Method and corpus for analysis  39

Granting the status of a native speaker to immigrants 42

Presentation of the translators analysed in the corpus 45

Ivan Cankar and his style 49

Analysis of the texts: Presentation of the selected originals  55

The Ward of Our Lady of Mercy 55

A Cup of Coffee 57

Children and Old People 61

Analysis of the texts: Presentation of the selected translations  65

The Ward of Our Lady of Mercy by Henry Leeming 65

A Cup of Coffee by Louis Adamic 77

A Cup of Coffee by Agata Zmajic and M. Peters-Roberts 83

A Cup of Coffee by Joze Paternost 87

A Cup of Coffee by Elza Jereb and Alasdair MacKinnon 89

Children and Old People by Anthony J. Klanear 91

Children and Old People by A. I. Klanear and George R. Noyes 94

Conclusion of the analysis: The visibility of nativeness and

non-nativeness in translations   97

Louis Adamic 97

Agata Zmajid and M. Peters-Roberts 98

Joze Paternost 99

Elza Iereb andAlasdair MacKinnon 100

Henry Leeming 100

Anthony J. Klan5ar 101

Anthony I. Klanear and George R. Noyes 103

Native speakership in the analysed translations 104

Native speaker intuitions: The questionnaire   107

Conclusion   119

APPENDIX I

Questionnaire  125

APPENDIX II

Responses in the questionnaire  133

Notes  147

Bibliography  149

Index  161