Founded in 2008 and dedicated to publishing articles covering a wide range of topics concerning translation and interpretation.
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Translation as Evidence in a Court of Law
<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">This article is one of the first studies to examine the use of translation as evidence in Lithuanian court proceedings. It outlines the ways translation enters the judicial process, the involvement of translators and expert linguists, and their respective roles in the process of translation and assessment. Drawing on three case studies, the article demonstrates how translation can itself become challenged in court and analyses the approaches courts employ when assessing the language of the original in relation to the translated text. <span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">It draws attention to questionable or flawed practices in determining meaning and raises concerns about the limited linguistic competence of judicial decision makers. It also addresses issues relating to the role and responsibility of the expert linguist.
Copyright (c) 2025 Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Acceptability of Psychosocial Risks Among Court Translators and Interpreters in Lithuania
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Research on psychosocial risk factors in Lithuania has increasingly focused on employees’ workplace experiences; however, the well-being of translators and interpreters—particularly those working in Lithuania’s courts—remains underexplored. Interpreting is widely recognized as a high-stress activity (Roziner and Shlesinger 2010), making this group especially relevant for psychosocial risk assessment. Translators, meanwhile, also experience significant occupational stress (Courtney and Phelan 2019). This study investigates psychosocial risks among court translators and interpreters in Lithuania using a survey-based approach. The questionnaire classified risk factors into five domains: work environment, work demands, work organization, work content, and interpersonal relationships. Responses were measured using a five-point Likert scale and analysed through correlation matrices to identify patterns and associations. On this basis, the results are considered reliable. They provide insights into the prevalence and acceptability of psychosocial risks in translation and interpreting contexts, contribute to occupational health research, and help identify aspects requiring improvement to ensure acceptable working conditions for translators and interpreters in Lithuania’s courts.
Translation of Gastronomic Vocabulary in Māris Putniņš’s Novel “Wild Pirogis: A South Sea Tale”
<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">As a case study, the article examines the Lithuanian translation of the Latvian children’s novel <em lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Mežonīgie pīrāgi: Dienvidjūras pasaka<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> (“<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Wild Pirogis: A South Sea Tale<em lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">”<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">) by Māris Putniņš, a text rich in gastronomic metaphors and anthropomorphic food characters. Translating these culturally embedded elements requires balancing linguistic fidelity with creative adaptation to preserve the text’s humour, cultural context, and accessibility for young readers. The analysis highlights the challenges of rendering culturally specific elements<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">—such as food names, character identities, and intertextual references—within a closely related yet distinct language pair. Translating food involves not only linguistic adaptation but also cultural interpretation, navigating between <em lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">foreignization<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> and <em lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">domestication <span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">strategies. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Drawing on <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">gastropoetics<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;"> and imagology, the study demonstrates how the translation of food shapes national and cultural representations (van Doorslaer 2019). The findings emphasize that food functions not only as a narrative device but also as a means of intercultural exchange, showing how literary translation negotiates between linguistic accuracy and cultural resonance.
Translation of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath in Soviet Lithuania. Whose Wrath in the Title?
<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">This paper is part of a series of articles on the censorship of religious motives in Soviet-era Lithuanian translations. It deals with the 1947 Lithuanian translation of John Steinbeck’s <em lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The Grapes of Wrath<span lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> by Karolis Vairas-Račkauskas, in particular focussing on the translation of the novel’s title. The study makes use of two translation manuscripts, revealing the translator’s choices at different stages of translation. The title of the published translation diverged from the translator’s final choice and replicated the precedent Russian translation. Based on foreign literary criticism, the paper overviews J. Steinbeck’s use of Christian symbols and images in the novel and argues that the modification of the title in translation narrowed the meaning potential of the original, emphasizing the interpretation that suited Soviet ideology. The Soviet-era paratexts by Lithuanian and Russian critics are also discussed, attesting to the effort to shape the reception of the novel for Soviet readers in one particular direction.
Negotiating Cultural Otherness: Translating the Names of Lithuanian Mythological Household and Water Beings
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">This article examines the translation of the names of Lithuanian mythological household and water beings into English. It explores how these beings function within mythological tales, what cultural meanings they embody, and the specific challenges their names pose for translators. The study addresses issues related to the choice between domestication and foreignization strategies, with a focus on maintaining the cultural specificity of the source text while ensuring its comprehensibility for English-speaking readers. Employing a comparative cultural approach, the article analyses selected mythological names and proposes possible translation solutions. The discussion is supported by illustrative examples drawn from the English translation of Norbertas Vėlius’ collection of Lithuanian mythological tales.
Unusually Marked: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Foregrounding in Virginia Woolf’s “The Mark On The Wall” and its Albanian Translation
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">This paper investigates how foregrounding is realized in Virginia Woolf’s <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The Mark on the Wall<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> and its Albanian version <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Njolla në Mur<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> (translated by Elvana Zaimi). Adopting a comparative stylistic approach, the study examines deviations at the graphological/phonological, lexicogrammatical, and semantic levels, identifying how these stylistic effects are preserved, transformed, or neutralized in translation. Close reading, supported by selective corpus insights, reveals a clear hierarchy of translatability: graphological and phonological foregrounding is the most vulnerable to change, lexicogrammatical markedness is largely maintained, and semantic foregrounding, especially metaphors and figurative patterns, shows the highest degree of preservation. The findings reveal that Woolf’s modernist style is partially reshaped in Albanian, with the translator prioritizing semantic fidelity and syntactic rhythm over sound-based or punctuation-driven effects. By analyzing a less studied language pair, the study contributes to a broader understanding of how modernist stylistic innovation travels across linguistic and cultural contexts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Eriola Qafzezi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Impact of Technology on Advertising Language: A Case Study of Translation into Latvian
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Adverts are part of linguistic landscape both reflecting and influencing the processes in language. This article examines instances of code-switching in Latvian translated advertising. Code-switching in advertising appears to be topic-related: the largest number of cases seems to occur in the field of technologies due to its rapid development; however, other fields—particularly those of somewhat lesser economic significance, such as cosmetics—demonstrate it as well. English influence in advertising leads to hybridisation, orthographic changes, semantic changes, and awkward syntactic constructions, partly perpetuated by machine translation and other AI tools. Although AI technologies have improved over the period of the study, as demonstrated by several examples, human-led expertise is still required in the transcreation of advertising.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gunta Ločmele https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Category of Diminutives in Lithuanian: From Small to Ironic. Diminutives in Balys Sruoga’s “Forest of the Gods” and its Translation into English
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">The paper proposes a new approach to the productive polysemous category of diminutive derivatives in Lithuanian. Drawing on the works of cognitive linguistics, the multiple senses of the diminutive are interpreted with reference to the family-resemblance principle. Small size is treated as the prototypical sense, which gives rise to other senses, such as a short period of time, affection, depreciation, etc. Many senses are motivated by metaphor, metonymy, and other mechanisms. The ironic sense is different in that, in each case, it emerges in context through juxtaposition of propositional and intentional frames. Irony is seen as an extension of any of the above senses. The realisation of the ironic sense is analysed in the first ten sections of the novel “Forest of the Gods” by the Lithuanian writer Balys Sruoga and its translation into English, a language known for its limited inventory of derivational diminutives. In the majority of cases, the English translation seems to favour non-diminutive words.
Copyright (c) 2025 Inesa Šeškauskienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Diachronically Changing False Friends in Latvian (Interpreters’ Outlook)
<strong style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">False friends<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;"> are pairs of words in two or more languages that resemble each other in form (spelling, pronunciation, or both) but differ in meaning, often leading to misunderstandings or mistranslations. Unfortunately, like any other linguistic units, they are subject to change. The growing influence of English can be observed in many languages of the world, including Latvian. This has lead to the semantic broadening of some words previously considered strict and well-known false friends. The aim of this paper is to determine the actual use of five diachronically changing false friends in Latvian. A contrastive dictionary analysis is employed, along with excerpts from the press and a corpus. A survey of Latvian interpreters was also conducted to explore their experiences. The results provide evidence that some false friends are now predominantly used in Latvian with their English meaning, thus having partially become “true friends”, and highlight the need to assess the current usage of other false friends.
Copyright (c) 2025 Evelīna Ķiršakmene https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0