Learner translation of metaphor

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-234
Author(s):  
Susan Nacey ◽  
Siri Fürst Skogmo

Abstract This article explores metaphor translation strategies of novice translators: university students translating from L1 Norwegian to L2 English. We first describe the translation strategies they employ in their translated texts, thereby offering evidence of what translators do with metaphor based on multiple translations of the same metaphor-dense source text. We then go beyond this descriptive analysis to discuss why these translators make their particular choices, analyzing the students’ in-class discussion and individual written reflections about their translations. We thus illuminate the challenges that the novice translators consciously perceive (that is, is metaphor a problem?), as well as their motivation for and evaluation of their translation solutions. In this way, we shed light on the concept of the ‘successful’ translation of metaphor.

Author(s):  
Yeheng Yang ◽  
Yi Li

This paper adopts Nida's Functional Equivalence theory and studies the Chinese-English subtitle translation of the documentary China’s Fight against Covid-19, which was filmed and broadcast throughout China amid the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the year 2020, and it received positive responses in the country. The research objective is to find out the translation strategies, methods and skills involved in achieving the “most natural” and the “most closest” English expressions to the Chinese source text. In the study, investigations on the equivalence of Lexical level, Syntactical level, Contextual level and Textual level in the subtitle are conducted respectively, and the aforementioned translation aspects are discussed under the guidance of Nida’s functional equivalence. The key findings are that the translated texts adopt literal and liberal translation to deal with the Culture-loaded words and four-character idioms on a lexical level. While sentence restructuring, conversion of voice, and conjunction and present particle are used on the syntactic level to make source language and translated subtitle more coherent and authentic. On the contextual and textual level, the target text distinguishes the formal and informal languages through the sentence length and the complexity of the structure. This study offers a practical implication for translating Chinese pandemic discourses into English, and it can also shed light on the study of Chinese narratives during the COVID outbreak and the publicity of the Chinese countermeasures.  


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José-Vicente Tomás-Miquel ◽  
Jordi Capó-Vicedo

AbstractScholars have widely recognised the importance of academic relationships between students at the university. While much of the past research has focused on studying their influence on different aspects such as the students’ academic performance or their emotional stability, less is known about their dynamics and the factors that influence the formation and dissolution of linkages between university students in academic networks. In this paper, we try to shed light on this issue by exploring through stochastic actor-oriented models and student-level data the influence that a set of proximity factors may have on formation of these relationships over the entire period in which students are enrolled at the university. Our findings confirm that the establishment of academic relationships is derived, in part, from a wide range of proximity dimensions of a social, personal, geographical, cultural and academic nature. Furthermore, and unlike previous studies, this research also empirically confirms that the specific stage in which the student is at the university determines the influence of these proximity factors on the dynamics of academic relationships. In this regard, beyond cultural and geographic proximities that only influence the first years at the university, students shape their relationships as they progress in their studies from similarities in more strategic aspects such as academic and personal closeness. These results may have significant implications for both academic research and university policies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-492
Author(s):  
ROLA LABABIDI

Writing is an essential skill for language production. However, many English as Foreign language learners (EFL) face many difficulties in writing. This study aims to shed light on the psychological aspect of writing; more specifically writing anxiety. Consequently, the main purpose of this exploratory mixed-method study is to explore and investigate the sources and manifestations of foreign language writing anxiety among Lebanese university students. The participants were Lebanese EFL university students (N=87). Data for this study was gathered from the use of the Second Language Writing anxiety scale(SLWAI), Sources of Writing Anxiety Inventory(SWAI), and semi-structured Focus group interviews (FG). Focus interviews with students were used to triangulate the derived data from the inventories. This study provides numerical data regarding the level of writing anxiety among students. The data from the FG interviews were transcribed and uploaded for thematic coding and further analysis. The results from this study shed light on the sources and manifestation of the writing anxiety among students. It also helps to disseminate several practical recommendations for the alleviation of writing anxiety among students. It is assumed that the findings will address the perceived psychological needs of Lebanese EFL learners and provide grounds for further research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 275-286
Author(s):  
Nor Adila Kedin ◽  
Izni Syamsina Saari ◽  
Hamidah Muhd Irpan ◽  
Ainon Syazana Ab Hamid ◽  
Noor Ibtisam Abdul Karim

The rapid growth of higher education institutions in Malaysia is parallel with the growing demand of its population pursuing tertiary education. For such reason, universities and other tertiary education providers are constantly challenged in providing sufficient in-campus accommodation to help students living comfortably. Regardless of their continuous effort in improving their facilities, the issue of shortage of students’ accommodation persists; thus, boosting the demand for rental properties surrounding campus location. This opens the opportunity for homeowners who own rental units within proximity to a campus location to target students as their potential tenants. Therefore, it is worth the effort for homeowners to understand students’ preferences when searching for a rental unit. In line with the stipulated issue, this study aims to investigate university students’ perceived perception of five relevant criteria when searching for a rental house. This study employed a quantitative research design with a total of 150 respondents were successfully gathered via an online questionnaire. These respondents are off-campus students studying at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Melaka campus. The result of the descriptive analysis revealed that many of the respondentsplaced rental agreement as to the utmost important criterion when deciding to rent a property. It was followed by the location of the property, the surrounding security, rental price, and finally utilities and amenities. From this study, it was suggested that the homeowner should emphasize all the mentioned criteria as it was relatively perceived as significant by potential tenants. It is recommended for future researchers to expand this study at other geographic locations in addition to examine other criteria focused on by tenants when searching for a rental house.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadia Belkhir

Abstract Metaphoric proverbs represent interesting cultural instances of conventional metaphors (Belkhir 2014, 2012). The ubiquity of metaphoric proverbs in language and the problems this phenomenon causes in translation is an issue that requires close attention. Translation aims at providing semantic equivalence between two languages. According to Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), equivalence constitutes the adequate method that should be used by translators when dealing with proverbs. However, no translator can provide perfect translation of a source text due to cultural specificities. The present paper offers a modest report of an experimental study conducted with a group of efl students who have been taught translation as a subject in a higher education context (Mouloud Mammeri University). A set of English proverbs has been collected to build up the experiment that was administered to the subjects who were asked to translate them into Arabic, then into their first language, Kabyle. The question raised is whether these students are able to translate the proverbs appropriately. The study aims (1) to investigate translation strategies used by efl learners; and (2) to show how leaners’ L1 (Kabyle) and L2 (Arabic) interfere in the translation of English proverbs. The results showed that the more the students were acquainted with proverbs, the more they used equivalence in their translation. Similarly, the lesser they were acquainted with proverbs, the more they used literal translation or paraphrase. In addition, some translations provided by the participants revealed the presence of language interference.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Grima

This paper focuses on the transposition from English into Maltese of the various proper names encountered in Frank McCourt’s memoir Angela’s Ashes (Chapter 1). To achieve this aim, an extended practical translation exercise by the author himself is used. Eight different categories of proper names were identified in the source-text ranging from common people names to nicknames, titles and forms of address. Four different categories of cross-cultural transposition of proper names were considered, although only two were actually used. Various translation strategies were adopted ranging from non-translation to modification, depending on whether the particular proper name has a ‘conventional’ meaning or a culturally ‘loaded’ meaning. Although cultural losses were unavoidable, cultural gains were also experienced. Wherever possible, the original proper names were preserved to avoid any change in meaning and interference in their functionality as cultural markers. Moreover, a semantic creative translation was preferred, especially with proper names that were culturally and semantically loaded to reduce the amount of processing effort required by the target-reader and to minimize the cultural losses of relevant contextual and cultural implications in the target-text.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-145
Author(s):  
Ely Hayati Nasution ◽  
Roswita Silalahi ◽  
Vivi Adryani Nasution

The translation is a representation of the effect of developing technology on language. Translated website or website localization with the easiness of accessibility is considered as the most efficient space for transferring the information nowadays. It certainly involves the appropriate translation strategies in order to provide reliable information required. This research aims to identify the translation strategy involved under foreignization and domestication reference in the official website localization of Ministry of Health of Republic of Indonesia, to find out the most dominant translation strategy used, and to analyze the reasons to what extent foreignization and domestication applied, by referring the classifications proposed by Venuti (2008). The source of data was taken from five (5) popular news along 2018 which were broken down into 191 data analyzed, consisting of 5 headlines in the form of phrases and sentences, contents totally written in 161 sentences, and 25 sub-contents in the form of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. The research found that the translator used all eight (8) translation strategies under domestication and foreignization reference including literal translation, transliteration, borrowing, transference, transposition, omission, addition, and adaptation, simultaneously or separately. Literal translation becomes the most dominant translation strategy used and it can indicate that the website localization is translated into source text-oriented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 172-177
Author(s):  
Dellia Erdita

This research aims to find out the similes found in the novel “Game of Thrones” and its Indonesian translation “Perebutan Tahta”, and to investigate what translation strategies are used in translating the similes from the source text to the target text. The method applied in this research is descriptive qualitative which is used to describe the phenomena occuring in the translation of similes from English into Indonesian. The data were collected from the first three chapters of the novel Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin and its Indonesian version entitled Perebutan Tahta. The similes are identified by using the theories of similes proposed by Israel (2014), Harding (2017), Knowles and Moon (2006), and Kridalaksana (2013). In analyzing the data, the translation strategies proposed by Chesterman (2016) are used. The result shows that there are 32 data found, 28 of them are similes translated into similes, while 4 of them are similes translated into non-similes. The translation strategy used to translate similes into similes is trope change type A, while the translation strategy used to translate similes into non-similes are trope change type C. The findings show that the translation of similes into similes are dominant in the first three chapter of the novel with the percentage 87,5% from out of 32 data found, while the translation from similes to non-similes is only 12,5%. The findings also show that there is secondary strategy found while analyzing the data, namely compression. Nevertheless, regardless of the fact that the similes in the source text are translated into similes and non-similes in the target text, the main translation strategy used is still trope change, although the types are different. For the reason that the trope change strategy is specifically stated by Chesterman to translate figurative expressions, which includes simile. Furthermore, the secondary strategy, compression, occurred because due to the structure of Indonesian language, the translation in the target text tends to be shorter than the original source text in English.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-48
Author(s):  
Monicha Destaria ◽  
Yulan Puspita Rini

Transferring meaning embedded by English idiom is not an easy way to do. The meaning contained by English Idiom cannot be comprehended by merely knowing the meaning from each word arranging the idiom. Dealing with English idiom in translation is quite hard because the translator has to transfer the meaning of English idiom into Bahasa Indonesia rightly. On the other hand, it is quite difficult to find the equivalence term in Bahasa Indonesia reflecting the same meaning as it is reflected in the source text. To manage this problem, the translation strategies need to be applied. This research focuses on analyzing the translation strategies used by the translator in transferring the meaning of English idioms into Bahasa Indonesia in the subtitle of  Pitch Perfect 3 Movie. The research method is descriptive qualitative method.. Baker’s translation strategies is used as guideline in classifying the translation strategies used. After finding the type of translation strategies employed, further identifying whether the meaning of English idiom is transferred rightly in Bahasa Indonesia. According to the finding, translation by using idiom in similar meaning and disimilar form was not used by the translator to translate the idioms. The frequency of  translation by using idiom in similar meaning but disimilar form strategy is 4 idioms. 46 idioms were translated by using paraphrased strategy. It is only 1 idiom was translated by using omission strategy. that the meaning of 36 idioms are transferred accurately. The meaning of four idioms were transferred Less-accurately. The meaning of 11 idioms were classified as inaccurate translation


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Agus Wibowo

This research is an annotated translation. The object of the research is an English novel entitled Any Minute. The problems of the research are: 1) What are the difficulties the translator/researcher encountered during the process of translating the novel Any Minute? and 2) What are the solutions for those problems/difficulties? The objectives of this research are: a) to attain factual information concerning the problems/difficulties faced by the researcher and b) to solve the problems/difficulties in the course of translating the source text. In this annotated translation research, the translator/researcher uses the introspective and retrospective methods. The result and analysis reveal that there are 2 words, 8 phrases, 2 clauses, 8 sentences, and 5 idioms from the 25 data of the aspects of languages analyzed that were difficult for the translator/researcher. Those difficulties were at the same time became the problems of the translator/researcher. The solutions of the problems were attained by the annotation or analysis done relevant to the translation strategies and translation theories.


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