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Ulf Norberg

About me

I am Associate Professor and teach Translation Studies at Stockholm University's Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies (at the Department of Swedish and Multilingualism).

Earlier, I worked at Uppsala University (Sweden), where I defended my PhD thesis in German Linguistics ("Übersetzen mit doppeltem Skopos. Eine empirische Prozess- und Produktstudie") in 2003.

Teaching

I teach general and specialized translation modules as well as translation theory. I am also a supervisor for students at both BA and MA levels.

I was previously affiliated with Uppsala University, where I taught German linguistics and translation theory.

Research

My research interests in Translation and Interpreting Studies:

  • cognitive aspects of translation
  • speech-to-text interpreting, live subtitling and other forms of intralingual translation
  • translation between closely-related languages (e.g. Norwegian-Swedish)
  • translation of children's literature
  • translator teaching methodology

My latest publication is the book "Skrivtolkning. Forskning och praktik" (in Swedish, English translation of the title: "Speech-to-text interpreting. Research and Practice"), written together with Ursula Stachl-Peier, Maria Laurin, Jenny Therén, Victoria Öjefors Quinn and Liisa Tiittula. I am also involved in a project on the development of respeaking as a method for speech-to-text interpreting.

 

Research projects

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Zur Übersetzung von humoristischen Elementen in der Kinderliteratur

    2021. Ulf Norberg. Tysk(a) - saksa - vācu - vokieciu - Þýska 2020, 163-175

    Chapter

    Humorous elements may evoke humorous effects of very different degrees. Elements that do not give any strong effects, may also characterize such literary works, when they appear very frequently. Such elements include style contrasts, repetitions, the use of very exact words and expressions, hyperboles, style parodies, ironic expressions, and other. From the point of view of translation, they pose several different problems, since they have to be discovered, estimated, and often coped with in creative ways. In this study, the German translations of the three books by Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) about the child detective Bill Bergson are studied. These works have an abundance of small humorous elements. The analysis, focussing on style contrasts, hyperboles and style parodies, shows, that the German translators have dealt with them very competently, and also with creativity; however, in a number of such cases very expressive words and expressions have been muted, and the humour weakened. 

    Read more about Zur Übersetzung von humoristischen Elementen in der Kinderliteratur

  • Translating humorous elements in children's books - Astrid Lindgren's Bill Bergson books in English and German

    2018. Ulf Norberg.

    Article

    Research in the translation of humorous elements in children’s books is a complex subject, which cannot be reduced to studies of wordplay and of other highly humorous items. The translation of slightly humorous items can also influence the whole literary work if such elements are used frequently. This article analyses the ways in which such funny instances were dealt with in the English and German translations of the Bill Bergson books (original name: Kalle Blomkvist) by the Swedish author of children’s books Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002). More specifically, it discusses the translation of several funny words and expressions, repetitions and exaggerations.It is shown that the humorous effects in the English translation are sometimes less obvious than in the German translation, even if both translated texts rendered the majority of humorous instances in a very funny way.  

    Read more about Translating humorous elements in children's books - Astrid Lindgren's Bill Bergson books in English and German

  • Skrivtolkning - muntlighet under skriftspråklig flagg

    2018. Ulf Norberg, Ursula Stachl-Peier. Tolking - Språkarbeid og profesjonsutøvelse, 159-179

    Chapter

    Skrivtolkning innebär tolkning från tal till skrift. I kapitlet ifrågasätts uppfattningen om skrivtolken som en snabbskrivande «maskin» som försöker skriva ned allt som sägs. Istället förfäktas tesen att skrivtolkning bör ses som en tolkningsform i sin egen rätt, och att tillämpande av rön från forskning kring andra former av tolkning kan fördjupa synen på skrivtolkning. Utifrån analyser av videoinspelad skrivtolkning i tre olika situationer (på en monologisk föreläsning, på ett seminarium med både monologiska och dialogiska passager och vid ett läkarbesök med snabb turtagning) diskuteras olika tolkningsstrategier och vilka roller skrivtolkar anammar. Det påvisas att varje situation kräver olika strategier och att ordagrant nedskrivande kan motverka klienternas deltagande istället för att främja det. Studien visar även att belysande av skrivtolkning ur ett tolkningsteoretiskt perspektiv kan bidra till att utforma mer tillförlitliga kvalitetskriterier. 

    Read more about Skrivtolkning - muntlighet under skriftspråklig flagg

  • Quality in speech-to-text interpreting

    2017. Ulf Norberg, Ursula Stachl-Peier. Interpreting Studies at the Crossroads of Disciplines, 129-155

    Chapter

    Speech-to-text interpreting, or speech-to-text transcription, is a mode of communication in which spoken language is transcribed by a person using a standard or specially adapted keyboard with the text being instantly displayed on the screen. It is typically used in public service interpreting settings by late-deafened or hearing-impaired adults who have insufficient knowledge of sign language to benefit from sign language interpreting. Since typing is typically slower than speaking, efficient condensation seems crucial to ensure that the message of the spoken text is captured. This article examines the use of condensation by two speech-to-text interpreters transcribing the interaction during a university seminar for a hearing-impaired student. The results indicate that the speech-to-text interpreters effectively omit non-essential information and repetition but are less successful when it comes to condensation that requires more cognitive processing.  They also tend to use the pauses after the lecturer's questions for almost verbatim transcriptions with considerable timelag, a decision or a strategy which significantly limits the client's opportunity for active participation.

    Read more about Quality in speech-to-text interpreting

  • Alf Prøysens teskedsgummesagor i Inga och Ulf Peder Olrogs svenska översättning

    2015. Ulf Norberg. "Et uvanlig godt språkøre" - artikler om Alf Prøysen og språket, 151-166

    Chapter

    Alf Prøysens välkända sagor om Teskedsgumman översattes på 50- och 60-talen till svenska av hans vän, visdiktaren Ulf Peder Olrog, och dennes fru Inga. I den här studien undersöks översättningar av tio av sagorna. Dessa kan betecknas som i huvudsak trogna mot originalet, även om de innehåller ett antal betydande förändringar. Här inkluderas bytet av kulturella referenser till svenska motsvarigheter, användandet av former med en norsk touche, användandet av talspråksformer, samt tillägg. Effekter av dessa förändringar diskuteras; som mest problematiska ses vissa av tilläggen då de kan minska det okonventionella i sagorna.

    Read more about Alf Prøysens teskedsgummesagor i Inga och Ulf Peder Olrogs svenska översättning

  • En katts resa

    2015. Carina Gossas (et al.). Översättning för en ny generation, 61-71

    Conference

    I den här studien jämförs översättningar av två av Sven Nordqvists bilderböcker om gubben Pettson och katten Findus till tre germanska språk (norska, tyska, nederländska) och två latinska språk (franska och spanska). Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka tendenser i översättningspraktiken som varit gällande i fem olika språkområden med olika kulturellt och språkligt avstånd från det svenska originalet. I studien diskuteras utgivningsstatistik, måltexternas yttre utformning och dessutom görs en analys av översättning av namn samt uttryck för ljud och rörelse. Studien visar att de germanskspråkiga översättningarna är mer källtextnära än de romanskspråkiga och att de franska är de som avlägsnar sig längst från källtexten.

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  • Henning Mankells barnbok Katten som älskade regn på engelska och tyska

    2015. Ulf Norberg, Petra Thore. Översättning för en ny generation, 51-60

    Conference

    I föreliggande studie jämförs de engelska och tyska översättningarna av Henning Mankells barnbok Katten som älskade regn (1992). Boken har rönt stora framgångar på tyskt språkområde och kan närmast sägas tillhöra kanon i den tyska skolan, mendan den gått mer obemärkt förbi i den engelsktalande världen. Efter en allmän karakteristik av de två översättningarna specialstuderas översättarnas lösningar kring två särskilda kategorier, nämligen översättningarn av vissa adjektiv med emotiva (men även kognitiva) funktioner samt upprepningars behandling i översättning. När det gäller adjektiv uppvisade de två översättningarna stora skillnader, och ett antal tänkbara anledningar diskuteras. Beträffande upprepningar fanns en stor spännvidd i funktion inom kategorin, vilket gav stora återverkningar på översättningarna.

    Read more about Henning Mankells barnbok Katten som älskade regn på engelska och tyska

  • Speech-to-text interpreting in Finland, Sweden and Austria

    2015. Ulf Norberg, Ursula Stachl-Peier, Liisa Tiittula. Translation & Interpreting 7 (3), 36-49

    Article

    Speech-to-text (STT) interpreting is a type of intralingual interpreting mostly used by late deafened and hearing impaired persons who have a spoken language as their first language. In Finland, Sweden and Austria the speech-to-text transfer is performed in real-time by interpreters using a (specially adapted or standard) keyboard that is connected to a screen. As a result of different legislative frameworks governing services for the disabled, STT interpreting has developed differently in different countries and so far there has been little international cooperation. STT interpreting has also been largely ignored by Translation and Interpreting Studies. This paper examines the situation in Finland and Sweden, where STT interpreting training programmes have been available since the 1980s, and Austria, where the first training programme started in 2010, and investigates the norms, values and expectations that guide STT interpreters’ practice in the three countries. It also looks at the factors necessary for the development of a distinct ‘STT interpreting culture’.

    Read more about Speech-to-text interpreting in Finland, Sweden and Austria

  • Fostering self-reflection in translation students: The value of guided commentaries

    2014. Ulf Norberg. Translation and Interpreting Studies 9 (1), 150-164

    Article

    The objective of this paper is to examine students' understanding of the processes involved in translation if they are asked to write self-reflections on the strategies and procedures that they have employed and to submit these with their translations. The material analyzed in this study comprises retrospective, guided commentaries submitted during two terms by a group of undergraduate students studying translation. The results indicate that commentaries can foster heightened self-awareness of several aspects of the process, such as initial reading and revision. It is argued that the design of instructions for commentaries, including their variation and built-in progression, is of great importance for process-oriented translation teaching and deserves further experimental study.

    Read more about Fostering self-reflection in translation students: The value of guided commentaries

  • Skrivtolkning i Svenskfinland och Sverige: En intervjustudie med aktörer inom vuxendövtolkningsområdet

    2014. Ulf Norberg. MikaEL. Electronic Proceedings of the KäTu Symposium on Translation and Interpreting Studies. Vol. 8, 104-118

    Conference

    Speech-to-text interpreting (STTI) is an intralingual form of interpreting, mainly used by late deafened and hearing impaired persons, in which speech is transferred to text in real-time. The text is produced on a computer keyboard and displayed on a screen for the user(s) who normally use spoken language for their contributions. Finnish and Swedish law recognize STTI as a type of interpreting, on a par with spoken and sign language interpreting.

    For this study, which builds on ethnographical principles, nine persons working in the area of STTI from Finland and Sweden were interviewed with the aim of obtaining insights into their attitudes concerning STTI as a professional activity. The results suggest that the public image of STTI as for example depicted on official web sites, differs considerably from practitioners’ personal views, in particular concerning issues such as completeness of renditions and condensation.

    Read more about Skrivtolkning i Svenskfinland och Sverige: En intervjustudie med aktörer inom vuxendövtolkningsområdet

  • Translating non-standard forms of reported discourse in children’s books: Den tredje grottans hemlighet by Swedish author P. O. Enquist in French and German as a case in point

    2014. Carina Gossas, Ulf Norberg. Trans Revista de traductología (18), 85-105

    Article

    The imitation of character voices and the relationship between narrator and characters are known to be fruitful domains for authors’ creativity and expressivity and thus constitute an intriguing translation problem that lacks clear solutions. In this study, we examine the translating of non-standard forms of reported discourse as distinct representations of voices in the French and German translations of the second children’s book by the Swedish author P.O. Enquist Den tredje grottans hemlighet, 2010 ("The Secret of the Third Cave"). We set out to analyze the translations of two stylistic features of this text: the use of hybrid forms of direct and indirect speech and the use of italics to mark a cited discourse.

    Read more about Translating non-standard forms of reported discourse in children’s books: Den tredje grottans hemlighet by Swedish author P. O. Enquist in French and German as a case in point

  • Selbstreflexion im Übersetzungsstudium

    2013. Ulf Norberg. Das Spiel der Sprachen 3, 169-187

    Chapter

    In diesem Artikel wird untersucht, ob Selbstreflexion und Kommentare zu gewählten Übersetzungsstrategien Studierenden helfen können, grösseres Problembewusstsein und Verständnis für den Übersetzungsprozess zu entwickeln. Das in dieser Studie analysierte Material besteht aus Kommentaren von Studierenden im ersten Jahr ihrer Übersetzerausbildung. Die Kommentare beinhalten die Ergebnisse von Textanalysen, Beschreibungen der gewählten Lösungsansätze und -strategien zur Bewältigung von Übersetzungsproblemen sowie der verwendeten Hilfsmittel. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Selbstreflexion und Kommentare gewisse Phasen des Übersetzungsprozesses unterstützen können. Ein wichtiger Aspekt ist die Formulierung der Vorgaben für die Kommentare, damit durch entsprechende Progression die Entwicklung von Übersetzungsfertigkeiten optimal gefördert werden kann.

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  • Literary translators' comments on their translations in prefaces and afterwords

    2012. Ulf Norberg. Translation peripheries, 101-116

    Chapter

    Prefaces and afterwords constitute an arena which provides the opportunity for literary translators to comment on their translations. Such comments are the focus of this contribution, in which they are studied from three different perspectives. Firstly, an overview is given of the occurrence of these comments in contemporary translated Swedish literature. Secondly, a number of comments are studied in detail from the prespectives of role theroy and Bourdieu's cultural sociology. Thirdly, three interviews with publishers are presented. These interviews shed light on the conditions for the writing of such comments from the perspective of the most obvious power-holders in the field. It is shown that the boundaries for these comments on the translation by literary translators in contemporary Sweden are narrow in several respects.

    Read more about Literary translators' comments on their translations in prefaces and afterwords

  • Skidskyttars rörelser ur kognitiv synvinkel: svenska och tyska TV-kommentatorer i jämförelse

    2012. Ulf Norberg. Språk i rörelse, VAKKI Publications 1, 230-240

    Conference

    Television commentaries on the winter sport of biathlon (comprising both skiing and shooting) show typical traits for sports language in general, but also have their own characteristics, drawn from the two activities that are combined in this sport. In this empirical study, Swedish and German television comments on biathlon are studied with the main attention being given to how motion events are depicted. Differences concerning the focusing on endpoints are observed and discussed, as these relate to, for example, a so-called process-out-of-product perspective, dynamic verbs and silence. The results are discussed in relation to newer theories on the organization of information at the discourse level (von Stutterheim, Carroll & Klein 2009) which indicate that even closely related Germanic languages differ from each other in this respect.

    Read more about Skidskyttars rörelser ur kognitiv synvinkel: svenska och tyska TV-kommentatorer i jämförelse

  • Voices and imitation in the translation of children's books

    2012. Carina Gossas, Ulf Norberg. Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young People, 185-200

    Conference

    The world-famous Swedish author P. O. Enquist made his début as a writer of children´s books in 2003 with the adventurous story De tre grottornas berg (English title Three Cave Mountain, or: Grandfather and the Wolves). This book makes considerable use of oral imitation markers for adult and child characters both in dialogues and narration. The children´s voices are characterized by several ways of imitating children´s forms of expression and logic. The study compares the translation of different types of speech imitation (direct, indirect, free indirect) in the French and German translations. It concludes that the French version suppresses the child voices and thereby the polyphonic structure in favour of the more neutral narrator´s voice, while the German version to a very large extent maintains all the voices.

    Read more about Voices and imitation in the translation of children's books

  • "Einstürzende Neubauten" (betyder ungefär Kollapsande nybyggen)" - om exakthet och gardering vid icke-professionell översättning av enstaka ord och uttryck

    2011. Ulf Norberg. Kieli ja etiikka = Språk och etik = Sprache und Ethik = Language and ethics, 271-278

    Conference

    Non-professional translations (here in the sense of translations done by a person who has not received training as a translator and does not work as one) can be assumed to differ notably from professional translations in several ways. One is the use of hegding markers before translated words or expressions to indicate that the proposed solution is not a completely accurate rendering. This paper compares the use of the marker "betyder ungefär" (Swedish for "roughly translated"; literally: "means roughly") in non-professional translations, illustrated by examples from Swedish Wikipedia-sites and the website of the Swedish quality newspaper Dagens Nyheter, and professional translations of EU texts. In a concluding discussion the use of hedging markers is related to different models of translation ethics.

    Read more about "Einstürzende Neubauten" (betyder ungefär Kollapsande nybyggen)" - om exakthet och gardering vid icke-professionell översättning av enstaka ord och uttryck

  • On cognitive processes during wordplay translation

    2011. Ulf Norberg. Methods and strategies of process research, 219-229

    Chapter

    The aim of this paper is to identify and describe cognitive processes occurring during the translation of a complex wordplay. Humorous texts have received little attention in empirical translation process research. This exploratory study seeks to develop a research methodology that is suited for the empirical study of wordplay. The experiment comprised the translation of a short adversarial wordplay by three groups of translation students. Their discussions were recorded and analyzed. The results indicate that students possess a high level of awareness of the importance of linguistic structures in creating the desired humorous effect, even though they cannot always translate this theoretical knowledge into practice. Another finding was that collaboration helps students overcome mental blockages and supports creative solutions.

    Read more about On cognitive processes during wordplay translation

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