ABSTRACT
The concluding remarks summarise key issues raised in the main chapters of this book. In particular, several contributors have emphasised how traditional metaphors associated with translation can appear inadequate when multimodal ensembles are translated. The notion of translation as meaning transfer becomes suspect, and metaphors alluding to trans-position, re-constitution, or re-creation are sometimes deemed more apt. This indicates how researchers in both translation and multimodality studies are attempting to elaborate a stable shared lexicon of analytical terms. Such an undertaking is increasingly important in today’s hyper-connected world, as we find ourselves unprecedentedly immersed in processes of multimodal meaning-making. As language becomes less exclusively central to human communication, and therefore to translation, long-standing assumptions are destabilised – and this may have significant implications for the training of professional translators. Further, future research will need to determine how social semiotic theories of multimodality cope with the ever-increasing phenomenon of non-social (i.e., machine-produced) translations. These are just a few of the many fascinating practical and theoretical issues concerning the way in which multimodal ensembles can and should be translated, and the final chapter of this book concludes with an invitation for others to join in the interdisciplinary dialogue about such matters.
