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Translation and Culture
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The Transposition of Form
A derivative describes a work that is related to a previously existing
original. We currently have two common types of derivatives: adaptation
and translation. Adaptation uses the original as a rough template
for a new text. Translation is more or less a direct copy of the
original in a different language. Somewhere between these two types
is transposition…
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the full article…
Funny but Costly Localization Mistakes
You want to increase your market share, profits, and presence, so
you decide to expand into a new market. Your team spends an incredible
amount of time and money determining which market to enter. Your
brand is molded to fit into your prospective market while maintaining
its integrity, and the research backs that it is relevant, appropriate,
and remarkable…
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the full article…
Blunders Made by Cross-Cultural Businesses
We often get many emails from visitors to our sites saying how much
they enjoy the article on cross cultural blunders - Results of Poor
Cross Cultural Awareness. We are constantly asked for more. Bowing
to pressure we have therefore complied some more examples of how
cultural ignorance can and does lead to negative (and much of the
time humorous) consequences…
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the full article…
Leadership across Cultures
With the march of globalisation
and internationalisa-tion growing louder and stronger, few successful
businesses can now escape the need to work across cultures. Even
if businesses or organisations are not working abroad or with foreign
entities, it would be a challenge to identify any that have a mono-cultural
workforce. Even in the South West, businesses ranging from manufacturers
to farms to care homes are employing foreign personnel in order
to operate at maximum efficiency…
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the full article…
A Typology of Derivatives: Translation, Transposition, Adaptation
What would The Nose be if Nikolai Gogol were an American writing
in the twenty-first century?
Certainly we would see a different text: The content wouldn’t include
a horse and carriage or cobblestone streets; the form, in all likelihood,
would consist of shorter sentences with fewer clauses; the position
of the narrator would move closer to the protagonist(s)...
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the full article...
From the Colonial to the Anti-Colonial:
Marathi Reception of American Literature
The first phase of American literature
in Marathi translation begins with the entry of American Missionaries
establishing the American Marathi Mission in Bombay in 1813, starting
the first press in Maharashtra, running English and Marathi schools
and producing and publishing Marathi tracts and textbooks through
translation. American literature took some time to emerge, but when
it did at the turn of the century, it appeared in various forms
such as faithful translations, free renderings, adaptations and
abridgements during the second phase from 1901 to 1950...
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the full article…
Into Brazilian Portuguese: Culture and
the Translation of The Glass Menagerie
The present article aims at discussing
the cultural aspects involved in the translation of the play "The
Glass Menagerie," by Tennessee Williams, into Brazilian Portuguese.
Anchored by the definitions of culture (Albó, 2005), interculturality
(Walsh, 2001), and translation (Arrojo, 1992), we intend to demonstrate
how the concepts of "the fourth wall" and "cultural
domains" influence the way translators convey the meanings
from one language to another...
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the full article…
Ideological Interference in Translation:
Strategies of Translating Cultural References
This research investigates the differences
in the strategies of translating cultural references in western
novels before and after 2000 in Taiwan. The findings are used to
explore the close relevance of strategic differences to ideological
impacts as one of the variables that affect the translation result.
A total of 200 cultural references, extracted from two sets of seven
novels published before and after 2000 in Taiwan, are analyzed to
demonstrate the strategic difference...
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the full article…
Cultural Approach to Translation Theory
In 1990 André Lefevere and
Susan Bassnett move theory beyond linguistic studies and ST/TT comparisons
to examine the way culture effects translation. Translation, History
and Culture takes into account the influence of the publishing industry
on ideology, discusses feminist writing, examines translation in
the context of colonization, and sees translation as rewriting...
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the full article…
The Untold Sixties - When hope was born
an Insider's Sixties on an International Scale
When Alex Gross suggested that I
review his book, I told him about my misgivings: I was not in the
US during the 60s, I've never participated in radical political
movements, and know nothing or almost nothing about most things
Alex is an expert in—art, theater, journalism, and Chinese medicine,
among other things. He sent me the book anyway and, to my surprise,
I found it spellbinding to the point that I could barely force myself
to put it down before I had gone through its 700 pages...
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the full article…
Translation – tool in the process of
cultural globalisation
People have always been living in
a world governed by changes, either self-imposed, as the direct
or indirect result of evolution and progress or externally imposed,
by different social, historical, cultural factors. Each of the cases
implied people understanding the need of circulation, communication
of ideas, information, knowledge from one culture to the other and
back, i.e. synchronisation to the „atmosphere” of the epoch, from
all points of view that actually make a difference...
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the full article…
On the Translation of the Taboos
Translating the cultural terms can
be a difficult task. Facing cultural differences in translation,
Nida (1964, p. 130) believes in equal importance to both linguistic
and cultural differences between the SL and the TL and concludes
that "differences between cultures may cause more severe complications
for the translator than do differences in language structure". Taboos
are the cultural terms, translation of which is definitely difficult
and controversial to some translators. This difficulty may be because
of the differences between different cultures, religions, and beliefs.
There are different ways to translate a taboo from one language
into another one. This paper suggests some ways to translate the
taboos...
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the full article…
Cultural Untranslatability
This paper proposes a possible concept
of 'cultural untranslatability' in translation, focusing on what
it is, how important it is, and when it occurs. The paper first
explores cultural concepts for understanding of culture. The second
part examines Hofstede's cultural dimensions and establishes an
experimental definition of cultural difference. Drawing on actual
translations between English and Japanese, the third part discusses
the importance of the concept. Finally, it considers under what
circumstances such untranslatable items are de facto culturally
untranslatable, borrowing the concept of translation norms...
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the full article…
The Cultural Transfer in Anime Translation
Nowadays the term anime, meaning cartoon in Japanese, has become
of common usage in the international context. Originally it was
coined from the English term animation, and then adapted to Japanese
phonetics. Since the U.S. début of "Astro Boy" in 1963, the anime
industry has continued to expand all over the world. It is no longer
a sub-culture for a small group of fans…
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the full article…
Cultural and Linguistic Equivalence in Translation
This study is to find those factors which determine the equivalence
in translation. The ideas of the prominent and distinguished scholars
will be defined and elaborated. On the basis of those ideas, the
final conclusion will be made …
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the full article…
Translating Culture-Bound Elements in Subtitling
One of the most challenging tasks for all translators is how to
render culture-bound elements in subtitles into a foreign language.
Indeed, not much attention has been paid to this problem by translation
theories. According to Newmark: "Translation is a craft consisting
in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in
one language by the same message and/or statement in another language"
(Newmark, 1981:7). However, with culturally-bound words this is
often impossible. Indeed, the meaning which lies behind this kind
of expressions is always strongly linked to the specific cultural
context where the text originates or with the cultural context it
aims to re-create…
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the full article…
The Contact between Cultures and
the Role of Translation and the Mass Media
This paper aims to discuss
several questions related to the relationship between culture and
the role of audiovisual translation and the mass media. In our time
most cultures do not constitute closed entities. They are rather
entities that, to a greater or lesser extent, are interrelated partly
thanks to the mass media. The fact that different cultures get in
touch with each other by means of, for example, the audiovisual
media allows a cultural contagion…
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the full article…
Linguists and Culture Experts at a Crossroad: Limitations in Formulating
an Experimental Translation Theory
Theories of translation linked to linguistics
and cultures have been proposed to take care of an adequate mediation
in translating. These theories attempt differently to remove cultural
and linguistic barriers between languages and communicate appropriately
the intended message of the source text. In view of the differences
and similarities between the linguistically and culturally oriented
approaches, we shall attempt to study the limitations of these theories
to help translation and the emergence of alternative theories…
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the full article…
The
tradition of Translating the Rubaiyat of Khayyam - An Approach to
Culture Specific Terms
As the linguists and the translators argue, there are some words-
calling culture specific terms which are rooted in the culture of
any nation and country. Since there are often so many culture specific
terms in poems, translating these terms and transferring them from
one language to another one having two different cultures is a difficult
process. Transferring of culture specific terms from one culture
to another and understanding them by the target audience in the
target culture is dependent on having familiarity with the source
culture and traditions…
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the full article…
Cultural Translation
Culture and intercultural competence and
awareness that rise out of experience of culture, are far more complex
phenomena than it may seem to the translator. The more a translator
is aware of complexities of differences between cultures, the better
a translator s/he will be. It is probably right to say that there
has never been a time when the community of translators was unaware
of cultural differences…
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the full article…
April is Multicultural Communications
Month
Multicultural communications
may seem difficult at first - differences in languages, backgrounds,
customs and the like all seem a challenge. By learning more about
our different cultures, it becomes easier to interact. We are dedicating
the April issue of E-Buzz to this cause…
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the full article…
Connotation
and Cross-cultural Semantics
Connotation is one of the most pervasive categories of literary
and non-literary discourse, and is, therefore, strongly enmeshed
with culture. In this paper, connotation will be tackled from as
board a perspective as possible so as to include literature, art
and linguistics - in other words, culture at large…
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the full article…
Translating Law Texts is Translating
Culture
A good translator of legal texts must not only master legal jargon,
he or she will also be required to know the history of continental
Europe and of England. The common law and civil law legal systems
are the two main systems of the western world. No literal interpretation
of these terms would be comprehensive, as it is impossible to embrace
all of the associated meanings, concepts and cultural heritage in
a mere two words…
Culture
et espéranto
Le terme «culture» exprime une notion complexe, recouvrant
des éléments qui appartiennent au domaine des connaissances,
à celui de la sensibilité, esthétique ou affective,
et à celui de la mentalité. Il peut s'appliquer à
une personne ou à une vaste collectivité. On dit d'un
être humain qu'il est cultivé lorsqu'il a atteint un
niveau suffisamment élevé dans les trois domaines.
Si ce n'est pas le cas, on parlera d'érudit, d'expert, d'esthète,
d'esprit ouvert, mais non de personne cultivée…
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the full article…
The
Implication of Culture on Translation Theory and Practice
Related to translation, culture manifests in two ways. First, the
concept or reference of the vocabulary items is somehow specific
for the given culture. Second, the concept or reference is actually
general but expressed in a way specific to the source language culture.
In practice, however, it is suggested that a translator should take
into account the purpose of the translation in translating the culturally-bound
words or expressions. The translation procedures discussed should
also be considered…
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the full article…
Results
of Poor Cross Cultural Awareness
Having a poor understanding of the influence of cross cultural differences
in areas such as management, PR, advertising and negotiations can
eventually lead to blunders that can have damaging consequences
…
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the full article…
Internet
and Cultural Concepts from a Translation Perspective
In the past 14 years Romania has witnessed a constant technological
boom that has had an impact on a variety of domains, such as industry,
economy, education, mass media, politics and other important systems.
A case in point is the personal computer, which has become an irreplaceable
tool involved in almost all activity areas, among which educational
and mass media systems are continuously benefiting. Consequently,
new concepts, such as the well-known multimedia technology, user-friendly
systems, Internet, Web technologies, cyberspace communities and
virtual reality, have been introduced to Romanian culture…
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the full article…
Linguistic
and Cultural Issues in Literary Translation
The article is a discussion of a case study of translating a short
story from Arabic into English. The discussion revolves around the
translation process and its reconstruction focusing on some of the
linguistic and cultural issues encountered in the original and how
they were resolved in the translation …
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the full article…
Cultural Elements in Translation
- The Indian Perspective
One language cannot
express the meanings of another; instead, there is a distinction
between the meanings built in and the meanings that must be captured
and expressed. In this sense, different languages predispose their
speaker to think differently, i.e., direct their attention to different
aspects of the environment…
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Translation and Culture
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…
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Technical Transference or Cultural
Adaptation: Songs in Translation
Werner Winter has
defined the work of a translator as the work of an artist who is
asked to create an exact replica of a marble statue but who cannot
secure any marble. The challenges and frustrations are indeed great,
and these might be doubled in size when the translator has to work
with song lyrics for these represent a crossover between oral and
written genre. As Hervey tells us, the translator will have to start
with a recorded ST in an oral medium, then transfers it to the use
of written transcript, and ultimately composes a TT which has to
be a script suitable for oral performance…
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