A Study on the Chinese-Korean Translation Strategies of The Cultural Elements in Feng Jicai’s [The Three-Inch Golden Lotus]

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 127-152
Author(s):  
Eeilan Cui ◽  
Babel ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-168
Author(s):  
Kenneth Grima

Abstract The process of literary translation includes the source culture-specific elements that constitute an integral part of the source text. This paper aims to identify and analyse various translation strategic processes that could be adopted in translating cultural factors within the parameters of a Maltese bilingual, but not necessarily bicultural, context. Each of the suggested strategic procedures is presented in useful flow-chart formats, varying from source language/source culture to target language/target culture bias approach in order to keep cultural losses to a minimum whilst maximising cultural gains and, therefore, to make the transformation of the source text into the target text successful. Such flow-charts are aimed to provide the literary translator with a rapid means of achieving an adequate and satisfying suggested solution for a quality cross-cultural transposition of the cultural elements encountered within a bilingual context. In certain instances, it is also suggested that some strategies are used concurrently with others. To achieve this aim, an extended practical translation exercise by the author himself is used. This paper also helps to strengthen further both the level of research in narrative translation studies in general, and the research done in Maltese narrative literary translation from a cultural point of view.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-209
Author(s):  
Gabija Leonavičiūtė ◽  
Dovilė Kuzminskaitė

Summary Growing interest in Spanish-speaking countries in Lithuania leads to the increased number of translations of Spanish and Latin American literature. Therefore, it is important to analyse translations from Spanish into Lithuanian and vice versa to improve the quality of translation work. One of the most difficult elements to translate are culture-specific items that reveal cultural uniqueness. The novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez contains many culture-specific items related to Colombia, that could be difficult to translate. This article aims to analyse and compare translation strategies of culture-specific items from Spanish into Lithuanian, which were used in 1972 by Elena Treinienė and in 2017 by Valdas V. Petrauskas, to translate the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. Firstly, this article defines the concepts of cultural elements and culture-specific items. It also discusses the classification of culture-specific items based on the works of Eugene Nida, Peter Newmark, Sergej Vlahov, Sider Florin and Laura Santamaria Guinot. Furthermore, this article describes translation strategies of culture-specific items emphasized by Amparo Hurtado Albir, Eirlys Davies, Georges L. Bastin and Pekka Kujamäki. In this research, culture-specific items are counted and described using Santamaria Guinot’s classification, which allows to claim that there are 69 different culture-specific items in “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and they are reflected by 252 examples in the text. These culture-specific items are related with concepts of ecology, social structures, cultural institutions, social universe and material culture. The most common ones are culture-specific items from the category of ‘material culture’. The results of the research allow distinguishing six translation strategies, used in different frequency: transcription, equivalence of situations, actualisation, usage of exoticism, extension and explication, and omission. Both Lithuanian translators Treinienė and Petrauskas mainly used strategies of transcription and equivalence of situations. The analysis of the translation of culture-specific items was performed using the methods of quantitative, comparative, and descriptive translation analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (22) ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Virginia Mattioli

This article presents a corpus-based study developed to determine the degree of creativity (as opposed to conventionalism) in the translation of cultural elements. Considering creativity as the use of those strategies that manipulate the lexical material of the source language, a literary corpus consisting of 50 novels (25 translations and 25 corresponding originals) was examined through corpus linguistics. Firstly, culture-specific elements were identified; secondly, translation strategies were determined; and finally, they were placed in conventional or creative groups. The results show that transposition of culture-specific elements is strictly related to creativity.


Babel ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-341
Author(s):  
Xu Xiaomin

This paper compares three translators, Chi-chen Wang, the Yangs, and William A Lyell, who translated Lu Xun, the most important and a canonized Chinese writer in the twentieth century, so as to examine how non-linguistic factors affect translation.<p>Beginning from the introduction of the divergence of the translators’ identities, motivations and socio-cultural background, the paper analyzes the reasons of their preferences in selections of originals, different translation strategies and different translation products.<p>To introduce real China to the Americans in the 1920s, Wang translated the best stories of Lu Xun into fluent American English, with the difficult and unimportant cultural terms simplified or omitted. The Yangs worked for a nation-sponsored publishing house on mainland China and their translations of Lu Xun in the 1960s were attached with much political significance, which partly explained the closeness and literalness of their translation. While Lyell, an American scholar translating Lu Xun in the 1990s, is more scholarly in his translation, containing very detailed explanations and notes of cultural elements.<p>This paper is not to judge but to find out how translations are like what they are under certain circumstances and in certain historical periods.


2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucía Molina ◽  
Amparo Hurtado Albir

Abstract The aim of this article is to clarify the notion of translation technique, understood as an instrument of textual analysis that, in combination with other instruments, allows us to study how translation equivalence works in relation to the original text. First, existing definitions and classifications of translation techniques are reviewed and terminological, conceptual and classification confusions are pointed out. Secondly, translation techniques are redefined, distinguishing them from translation method and translation strategies. The definition is dynamic and functional. Finally, we present a classification of translation techniques that has been tested in a study of the translation of cultural elements in Arabic translations of A Hundred Years of Solitude by Garcia Marquez.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-103
Author(s):  
Anna Bielska ◽  

The author focuses on two modes of audiovisual translation – dubbing and voice-over. The aim of this paper is to dispel the myth of absolute cultural non-translatability, and excerpts from films about super heroes are examined to this purpose. An audiovisual translator faces many challenges, and translation strategies for texts characterised by cultural elements are not only helpful but indispensable in facilitating the translation process. One such strategy is adaptation, which proves to be highly effective and contributes to the positive reception of films by their intended viewers. The correct interpretation of the cultural fragments determines the accessibility of the language and can contribute to enhancing the humorous effect in the Polish language version. The analyzed movie excerpts demonstrate that the Polish versions contain creative and sometimes unexpected translational ideas for adapting the source-culture elements to the target culture, resulting in dialogue that is appreciated by Polish viewers. Keywords: untranslatability, source culture, target culture, AVT, adaptation


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (43) ◽  
pp. 30-63
Author(s):  
Abdali H. Shihan Al-Saidi ◽  

Translating culture-specific proverbs (CSPs) is a challenging task since they often occur in a peculiar context. Further, CSPs are intended to imply meanings that extend far beyond the literal meaning of such a kind of proverbs. As far as English and Arabic are concerned, translators often encounter problems in translating CSPs due to cultural differences between the source language(SL) and the target language (TL) as well as what seems to be the lack of equivalence for some CSPs. In view of this, the present study aims at investigating the translation of CSPs in three English-Arabic dictionaries of proverbs, namely Dictionary of Common English Proverbs Translated and Explained (2004), One thousand and One English Proverbs Translated into Arabic (2008) and Dictionary of Wise Sayings and Proverbs (2009). Data of CSPs, in the aforementioned dictionaries, are analyzed as a case study. Specifically, the study attempts to examine whether CSPs are well translated and whether the translation strategies utilized have reflected the ST intended meaning (IM) and the embedded cultural implications as well. Out of the total data on CSPs, only ten examples are selected as representative samples for analysis. For the purpose of carrying out a meaningful analysis of the translation of CSPs, an eclectic model is adapted. It consists of Baker's (2011) cultural substitution strategy (CSS) in combination with Venuti's (2008) domestication strategy (DS) and Nida's (1964/1975) Functional (closest natural) equivalent as well. This proposed eclectic model was considered as the main theoretical framework of the study. Findings of the study revealed that the selected data have often shown low levels of adequacy in terms of expressing the meanings and pragmatic functions of the ST in the TT. Specifically, the selected translators provide inadequate translations of the cultural implications of the ST in the TT. In addition, this study concludes that translators can successfully render the intended meanings and the cultural elements of CSPs had they been not only bilingual but also bicultural since Arabic, particularly the Qur'an, Hadith, and the Arabic literature, is rich with CSPs that cover issues corresponding to those found in English proverbs. It is worth noting that even if the TL equivalent exists, it would not necessarily accomplish complete equivalence since the ways of expressing meaning and the usage of proverbs differ among languages.


Author(s):  
Sarinah Sharif ◽  
Saliza Ismail

This paper discusses the translation of the Malay cultural elements into Japanese by focusing on translation techniques used by the translator in a cartoon The Kampung Boy (Budak Kampung カ ン ポ ン ボ ー イ). The Kampung Boy is a graphic biographic book of the famous cartoonist, Dato 'Mohd Nor Khalid or better known as Dato' Lat, who appealed to the life of his childhood in a village in the Kinta Valley, Perak, in the 1950s and early in the year 1960, as well as the stories of family life in the rural and traditional customs. The book was first published in Malaysia in Malay and English in 1979 and was translated into several languages ​​, including Japanese. This paper is a qualitative study using comparative methods, analyzing cultural details based on translation theories, semantic theory, and sociolinguistic theory. Comparisons are also conducted to identify translation strategies adopted by translators in translating cultural elements in this work. This paper is guided by the translation strategy submitted by translation figures such as Newmark (1988) and Abdullah & Ainon Mohd (2007). Six (6) samples of cultural elements have been selected, i.e., related to birth, head shaving, circumcision, recite the Quran, traditional wedding, and games. The findings show that translators tend to use loan techniques with explanatory notes compared to other six (6) samples from twelve (12) selected samples. The sample translated with this loan strategy is a cultural element in custom culture/ideology. At the same time, five (5) samples use replacement techniques, and one (1) sample using a generalization strategy.


Author(s):  
Olivia Eloise James ◽  
Joyce Tan Yi Sean ◽  
Mansour Amini

This paper analyzed the translations of three English Christmas carols of Silent Night, Away In A Manger, and The First Noel, as the most popular carols that have been translated into many languages, adopted from the hymnal book by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The English versions were compared with their Chinese and Indonesian translations. The analysis was performed by classifying the stanzas individually based on Guerra (2012) fifteen translation strategies. Identification of equivalence as the most common strategy in the Chinese translation could be because of numerous “unnatural” English expressions in Chinese language and culture, whereas for the Indonesian translation, omission was the most common strategy, which helped to retain completeness, or the overall meaning of the stanzas, or completeness. Omission was also used to leave out redundant or insensible information throughout the translated carols in both languages and contributed to successful maintenance the original rhythm and rhyme in the translation of the three carols. Findings of this study could be further validated by analysing more Christmas carols in Chinese and Indonesian Languages, and other languages. Researchers could also look precisely into the cultural elements that could potentially affect this type of translation.


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