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Translation and Culture
By Alejandra Patricia Karamanian,
a Certified Sworn English/Spanish/English Translator
specialized in legal, business and international matters
and a French/Spanish Translator
www.baspeech.com.ar
alejandra@baspeech.com.ar
Become a member of TranslationDirectory.com - click here!
The term 'culture' addresses three salient categories of human
activity: the 'personal,' whereby we as individuals think
and function as such; the 'collective,' whereby we function
in a social context; and the 'expressive,' whereby society
expresses itself.
Language is the only social institution without which no
other social institution can function; it therefore underpins
the three pillars upon which culture is built.
Translation, involving the transposition of thoughts expressed
in one language by one social group into the appropriate
expression of another group, entails a process of cultural
de-coding, re-coding and en-coding. As cultures are increasingly
brought into greater contact with one another, multicultural
considerations are brought to bear to an ever-increasing
degree. Now, how do all these changes influence us when
we are trying to comprehend a text before finally translating
it? We are not just dealing with words written in a certain
time, space and sociopolitical situation; most importantly
it is the "cultural" aspect of the text that we
should take into account. The process of transfer, i.e.,
re-coding across cultures, should consequently allocate
corresponding attributes vis-a-vis the target culture to
ensure credibility in the eyes of the target reader.
Multiculturalism, which is a present-day phenomenon, plays
a role here, because it has had an impact on almost all
peoples worldwide as well as on the international relations
emerging from the current new world order. Moreover, as
technology develops and grows at a hectic pace, nations
and their cultures have, as a result, started a merging
process whose end(-point?) is difficult to predict. We are
at the threshold of a new international paradigm. Boundaries
are disappearing and distinctions are being lost. The sharp
outlines that were once distinctive now fade and become
blurred.
As translators we are faced with an alien culture that requires
that its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way.
That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that
is 'culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and of course
idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically
and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called
upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will
depend on our understanding of the culture we are working
with.
Is it our task to focus primarily on the source culture
or the target culture? The answer is not clear-cut. Nevertheless,
the dominant criterion is the communicative function of
the target text.
Let us take business correspondence as an example: here
we follow the commercial correspondence protocol commonly
observed in the target language. So "Estimado"
will become "Dear" in English and "Monsieur"
in French, and a "saludo a Ud. atentamente" will
become "Sincerely yours" in English and "Veuillez
agreer Monsieur, mes sentiments les plus distingues"
in French.
Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that among the variety
of translation approaches, the 'Integrated Approach' seems
to be the most appropriate. This approach follows the global
paradigm in which having a global vision of the text at
hand has a primary importance. Such an approach focuses
from the macro to the micro level in accordance with the
Gestalt-principle, which states that an analysis of parts
cannot provide an understanding of the whole; thus translation
studies are essentially concerned with a web of relationships,
the importance of individual items being decided by their
relevance within the larger context: text, situation and
culture.
In conclusion, it can be pointed out that the transcoding
(de-coding, re-coding and en-coding?the term 'transcoding'
appears here for the first time) process should be focused
not merely on language transfer but alsoand most importantlyon
cultural transposition. As an inevitable consequence (corollary?)
of the previous statement, translators must be both bilingual
and bicultural, if not indeed multicultural.
Is it our task to focus primarily on the source culture
or the target culture? The answer is not clear-cut. Nevertheless,
the dominant criterion is the communicative function of
the target text.
Let us take business correspondence as an example: here
what we do is to follow the language commercial correspondence
protocol commonly observed in the target language. So "Estimado"
will become "Dear" in English and "Monsieur"
in French, and a "saludo a Ud. atentamente" will
become "Sincerely yours" in English and "Veuillez
agreer Monsieur, mes sentiments les plus distingues"
in French.
Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that among the variety
of translation approaches, the ?Integrated Aproach? seems
to be the most appropriate. This approach follows the global
paradigm in which having a global vision of the text at
hand has a primary importance. Such an approach focuses
from the macro to the micro level in accordance with the
Gestalt-principle which lays down that an analysis of parts
cannot provide an understanding of the whole and thus translation
studies are essencially concerned with a web of relationships,
the importance of individual items, being decided by their
relevance in the larger context: text, situation and culture.
In conclusion, it can be pointed out that the transcoding
process should be focused not merely on language transfer
but alsoand most importantlyon cultural transposition.
As an inevitable consequence of the previous statement,
translators must be both bilingual and bicultural if not
multicultural.
This article was originally published at Translation Journal (http://accurapid.com/journal).
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