scholarly journals Man vs Machine: A Comparison of Linguistic, Cultural, and Stylistic Levels in Literary Translation

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-77
Author(s):  
Mohammed Juma Zagood ◽  
Alya Al-Nuaimi ◽  
Aysha Al-Blooshi
Keyword(s):  
Machine Translation ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Clear Vision ◽  
Open Window ◽  
Different Levels

This study aims to remark the differences between human translation (HT) and machine translation (MT) on linguistic, cultural, and stylistic levels when translating English literary texts into Arabic. To accomplish the goal of this study, a comparison between the Arabic HT and MT of Saki’s (1914) short story ‘The Open Window’ is conducted. The study focuses on comparing the two translations (HT and MT) on linguistic, cultural, and stylistic levels to identify the differences between HT and MT in translating literary texts. Throughout this comparison, it is found out that both HT and MT have their advantages and disadvantages on different levels. It has also been found out that MT is unable to identify cultural items and consequently mistranslate them. It is, therefore, concluded that MT can work proficiently on certain levels besides the intervention of the human mind. The findings of this study provide translators using MT with a clear vision on the points of strength and weaknesses in translating literary texts. 

scholarly journals English-Turkish Literary Translation Through Human-Machine Interaction

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-203
Author(s):  
Mehmet Şahin ◽  
Sabri Gürses
Keyword(s):  
Machine Translation ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Direction ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Turkish Language ◽  
Machine Interaction ◽  
Language Pair

This article investigates perceptions of technology-mediated translations of literary texts by two groups: translation students and professional literary translators. The participants post-edited an excerpt from a classic Dickens novel into Turkish using a machine translation (MT) system of their choice. The analysis of the post-edited texts, participants’ answers to survey questions, and interviews with professional translators suggest that MT is currently a long way from being an essential part of any literary translation practice for the English–Turkish language pair. Translators’ interactions with MT and negative attitudes toward it may change in a positive direction as MT improves and translation practice evolves.

scholarly journals The Machine Translation of Literature: Implications for Translation Pedagogy

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulfattah Omar ◽  
Yasser A. Gomaa
Keyword(s):  
Machine Translation ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Translation Tools ◽  
Unique Nature ◽  
Online Texts ◽  
Translation Systems

The recent years have witnessed an increasing importance of machine translation systems due to the prolific production on online texts in different disciplines and furthermore, the inability of traditional translation methods in addressing translation needs all over the world. It is even argued that training on translation tools should be integrated into translation pedagogies and ultimately, courses should be provided for students and professionals. In spite of the effectiveness of translation tools and systems in providing solutions in relation to different disciplines and text genres, the usability and reliability of such systems in terms of literary texts, however, is still highly controversial. Many critics and educators still underestimate the usefulness of the machine translation systems in literature, which could be partially attributed to the unique nature of the language of the literary texts. The issue has its pedagogical implications to translation instruction due to the needs to integrate emerging technologies in teaching and learning practices. For proper use of translation technologies in educational contexts, these need to be well evaluated. For this purpose, this study evaluates the usefulness of applying machine translation systems to literature with the purpose of identifying the challenges that may have negative impacts on the reliability of machine translation systems. In order to do this this, two translation systems are selected, namely, Google Translate and Q Translate. By way of illustration, the study is based on a corpus of two English short stories. The study is based on two prose fiction texts. The first is J. K. Rowling’s novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The second is Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Black Cat. Automatic translations generated by the two machine translation systems were compared to human made Arabic translations with the purpose of identifying the problems within these translations. Results indicate that different lexical, structural, and pragmatic errors are encountered by users which negatively impact the reliability of these translations. Educators and translation instructors need to reflect on the challenges of machine translation systems in relation to literature. Software developers need also to address the problems faced by users and students in the translation from and into the Arabic language.

Defining language dependent post-editing guidelines for specific content

Babel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 811-828
Author(s):  
Seung-Hye Mah
Keyword(s):  
Machine Translation ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Stylistic Elements ◽  
To Come ◽  
Translation Systems

Abstract The rapid development of neural machine translation systems and the emergence of the e-book have broadened the scope of text types that can be translated by machines. At the early stage of the machine’s infiltration into the translation field, target texts were mainly technical texts such as patents, instruction manuals, etc. Literary texts have been considered as the last bastion of human translation because the machine translation (MT) has produced word-for-word translation, unsuitable for literary texts with distinct stylistic elements. However, it turns out that the field of literary translation was not immune to the rise of MT. Style is one of the critical elements in literary texts, but it has been dismissed in the existing MT post-editing guidelines. Therefore, this research attempts to provide methodological ideas about how to come up with a machine translation post-editing guideline (MTPE) for style improvement especially for language pairs with divergent syntax and semantics like English and Korean. First, the linguistic and cultural differences in writing styles are sorted out based on previous research. Second, the different ways in which human translators address writing style are investigated. Third, the strategies that human translators employ in their translations are applied to machine translation post-editing to demonstrate how the strategies can be incorporated into English-Korean MTPE to improve style. This preliminary research would lay the groundwork for refining post-editing style guidelines and for accumulating manually post-edited data for style improvement, which would be conducive to building and customizing automatic post-editing systems.

TRANSLATION AS MENTAL INTERPRETATION ACTIVITY IN LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (28) ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
Svitlana Gruschko
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Cross Language

In the article the phenomenon of translation is regarded as mental interpretation activity not only in linguistics, but also in literary criticism. The literary work and its translation are most vivid guides to mental and cultural life of people, an example of intercultural communication. An adequate perception of non-native culture depends on communicators’ general fund of knowledge. The essential part of such fund of knowledge is native language, and translation, being a mediator, is a means of cross-language and cross-cultural communication. Mastering another language through literature, a person is mastering new world and its culture. The process of literary texts’ translation requires language creativity of the translator, who becomes so-called “co-author” of the work. Translation activity is a result of the interpreter’s creativity and a sort of language activity: language units are being selected according to language units of the original text. This kind of approach actualizes linguistic researching of real translation facts: balance between language and speech units of the translated work (i.e. translationinterpretation, author’s made-up words, or revised language peculiarities of the characters). The process of literary translation by itself should be considered within the dimension of a dialogue between cultures. Such a dialogue takes place in the frame of different national stereotypes of thinking and communicational behavior, which influences mutual understanding between the communicators with the help of literary work being a mediator. So, modern linguistics actualizes the research of language activities during the process of literary work’s creating. This problem has to be studied furthermore, it can be considered as one of the central ones to be under consideration while dealing with cultural dimension of the translation process, including the process of solving the problems of cross-cultural communication.

Peculiarities of improving interbudgetary relations in conditions of authorities’ decentralization

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-54
Author(s):  
Zenoviy Siryk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Social Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Major Objective ◽  
Formal Approach ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Local Areas ◽  
And Control ◽  
Different Levels

Ukraine is a unitary state, yet historically various regions, oblasts, districts, and local areas have different levels of economic development. To secure sustainable economic and social development and provide social services guaranteed by the state for each citizen according to the Constitution, the mechanism of redistribution between revenues and expenditures of oblasts, regions, and territories through the budgets of a higher level is used. The paper aims to research the peculiarities of improving interbudgetary relations in conditions of authorities’ decentralization. The paper defines the nature of interbudgetary relations. The basic and reverse subsidies to Ukraine and Lvivska oblast are analyzed. The advantages and disadvantages the communities face at changing approaches to balancing local budgets are determined. Regulative documents that cover the interbudgetary relations in Ukraine are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the problem of local finances reforming, including the development of interbudgetary relations. The scheme of the economic interbudgetary relations system in Ukraine is developed. The ways to improve the system of interbudgetary relations in Ukraine are suggested. The negative and positive aspects, advantages, and disadvantages of the system of interbudgetary relations in Ukraine require the following improvements. 1. It is necessary to avoid the complete budget alignment in the process of budgets balancing by interbudgetary transfers as the major objective. 2. The interbudgetary transfers should be distributed based on a formal approach. 3. The changes have to be introduced to the calculation of medical and educational subsidies in terms of financial standard of budget provision to avoid the money deficit for coverage of necessary expenditures. 4. There is a need to improve interbudgetary relations at the levels of districts, villages, towns, and cities of district subordination. 5. Improvement of the mechanism of targeted benefits provision, their real evaluation, and control for the use of funds.

Science Fiction and Administrative Truths: The Short Story and Novella as Administrative Cases

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Nolan J. Argyle ◽  
Lee M. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Organizational Complexity ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Hands On

Pre-service and in-service MPA students share a common desire for hands-on, real world instruction related to their professional career goals, leading to a pedagogic discounting of fiction as an appropriate tool for analyzing and "solving" problems. However, several factors weigh heavily in favor of using science fiction short stories and novellas in the MPA classroom setting. These include the need for interesting case scenarios exploring various administrative issues; leveling the playing field between the two types of students by de-emphasizing the use of "contemporary" cases; access to literature that explores the future shock of increasing organizational complexity; and the desirability of Rorschach type materials that facilitate discussion of. values and administrative truths. The discussion proceeds by tracing the development of the case study technique, its advantages and disadvantages in the classroom, addressing the utility of "fiction" as an educational resource, and showing how the science fiction literature has matured to the point where it can be applied in all of the major sub-fields of public administration. Several outstanding examples are detailed, and a thorough bibliography is provided.

scholarly journals Recursive Machine Translation

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Evans
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Machine Translation ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Literary Value ◽  
Translation Tools ◽  
Methodological Reflection

Machine translation tools such as Google Translate are at best seen as useful approximators, rather than offering any literary potential. In this experiment and short methodological reflection, I use Google Translate to recursively translate Austrian poet Georg Trakl’s celebrated WWI poem, ‘Grodek’, between German and English, until the two versions stabilise. I am attentive to places in which the poem and its renderings are simplified and/or literary value may be lost, but also places in which new or unexpected renderings emerge. This is a preliminary foray, but I propose that the method of recursive machine translation offers a new way to explore the translation of literary texts—a timely proposal, given the increasing applications of computer programmes and machine learning both within the humanities and throughout wider literary culture.

scholarly journals RIAK-RIAK POSMODERN DALAM CERPEN ABRACADABRA KARYA DANARTO

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Dudy Syafruddin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Historiographic Metafiction ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S

Literature is a product of culture keeping abreast of human mind. Literary works is a means for the authors to express the social phenomenon in his life. The discourses about postmodernism in the second half of twentieth century, as a part of the story of human mind, was a profound interest for the Authors. In Indonesia, the postmodern discourse has come up in the 1960s. This paper involves the elements of Postmodernism in the short story “Abacadabra” written by Danarto. The dominant elements in this short story are parody, fragmentary, and historiographic metafiction.

scholarly journals Strategies to Overcome Translation Losses in the Novel “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck to Achieve Adequacy in Translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
Konul Khalilova ◽  
Irina Orujova
Keyword(s):  
John Steinbeck ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Grapes Of Wrath ◽  
Thought Patterns ◽  
Translation Techniques ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Given ◽  
Different Levels

The current article involves the issues of losses, gains, or survivals contributing to literature in the process of translation. It represents a thorough study based on the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck from English and, respectively, its translation into Azerbaijani by Ulfet Kurchayli. It investigates the problematic areas or challenges emerging from the source-text discrepancies. Furthermore, this article also concentrates on the issue of cultural non-equivalence or the losses occurring in translating English literary texts into Azerbaijani. The paper identifies the translation techniques adopted by the translator of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Adopting certain techniques rather than others has led to many losses on different levels. The translator’s important role as a cultural insider is also emphasized. The wide gap, distance, or the differences between the cultures, languages, and thought patterns of the English and Azerbaijani language speakers are the main factors resulting in various losses in the process of translation. Coping with these extra-linguistic constraints is harder than the linguistic ones as the translator has no choice in the given situations, deleting these elements from the TT or replacing them with elements that do not fit the context. This article aims at determining translation losses and gains, defining ways that the translator employs for compensating losses, through the analysis of John Steinbeck’s style in The Grapes of Wrath. The article concludes that there are some situations where the translation of a certain text from the SL into the TL embraces alteration in the whole informational content of the text, in the form of expressions or words.

scholarly journals Heterographics as a Literary Device

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-216
Author(s):  
Helena Bodin
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Spatial Features ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Arabic Script ◽  
French And English ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Cultural Affinity

Abstract Heterographics (“other lettering”) refers to the use of two scripts in one text or a translation of a text from one script to another. How might the occasional use of heterographics in literary texts highlight issues of cultural diversity? Drawing on intermedial theory and studies of literary multilingualism, literary translation, and pluriliteracies, this article examines various functions of heterographics in selected contemporary literary texts. Examples of embedded Greek, Chinese, Cyrillic, and Arabic script are analysed in works published in Swedish, French, and English between 2004 and 2015, selected because they thematise cultural diversity and linguistic boundaries. The conclusion is that heterographic devices emphasise the heteromediality of literary texts, thereby heightening readers’ awareness of the visual-spatial features of literary texts, as well as of the materiality of scripts. Heterographics influence readers’ experiences of cultural affinity or alterity, that is, of inclusion or exclusion, depending on their access to practices of pluriliteracies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document