Determinants of translation ambiguity

Abstract Ambiguity in translation is highly prevalent, and has consequences for second-language learning and for bilingual lexical processing. To better understand this phenomenon, the current study compared the determinants of translation ambiguity across four sets of translation norms from English to Spanish, Dutch, German and Hebrew. The number of translations an English word received was correlated across these different languages, and was also correlated with the number of senses the word has in English, demonstrating that translation ambiguity is partially determined by within-language semantic ambiguity. For semantically-ambiguous English words, the probability of the different translations in Spanish and Hebrew was predicted by the meaning-dominance structure in English, beyond the influence of other lexical and semantic factors, for bilinguals translating from their L1, and translating from their L2. These findings are consistent with models postulating direct access to meaning from L2 words for moderately-proficient bilinguals.

Download Full-text

THE INFLUENCE OF INDONESIAN PROSODIC FEATURES ON ENGLISH WORD STRESS PRODUCTION

English Review Journal of English Education ◽

10.25134/erjee.v7i2.1647 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 77

Author(s):

Rudha Widagsa ◽

Sri Wiyanah ◽

Primasari Wahyuni

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

Native Language ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

English Word ◽

Prosodic Features ◽

Limited Knowledge ◽

Word Stress

Generally, word stress tends to be ignored and is not considered a serious problem in Indonesian EFL; most teachers only focus on lexical and grammatical aspects of English. In fact, the prosodic features existing in English greatly affect meaning. This research, therefore, is intended to find out how Indonesian Learners of English (ILE) produce the English word stress. The stressed syllables were identified by using the highest pitch in each word. This research involved 20 respondents whose mother tongue is Indonesian. PRAAT software was applied to analyze the recordings, including measuring the pitch of each word. Word stress is indicated by the highest pitch of each word. The lowest pitch indicates weak stress. The result illustrated that ILE produces inappropriate word stress in second language learning. Most of them are not able to distinguish between strong and weak stressed syllables. This is because in their native language, prosodic features, such as word stress, do not prevail. Thus, English word stress production was heavily influenced by Indonesian features of stress. From the 36 words that become the instrument of this research, less than 50% were pronounced correctly, in most cases, and the highest pitch fell on last syllables. The absence of prosodic features in Indonesian language and limited knowledge on English phonetics drive the ILE to pronunciation error.�

Download Full-text