Analysis of Culture-Specific Items and Translation Strategies Applied in Translating Jalal Al-Ahmad’s by the Pen

Shekoufeh Daghoughi,Mahmood Hashemian

doi:10.5539/elt.v9n4p171

Shekoufeh Daghoughi, Mahmood Hashemian

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n4p171

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Abstract

<p>Due to differences across languages, meanings and concepts vary across different languages, too. The most obvious points of difference between languages appear in their literature and their culture-specific items (CSIs), which lead to complexities when transferring meanings and concepts from one language into another. To overcome the complexities arisen from the distinction between languages in the process of translation, translation scholars have proposed different strategies. Newmark’s proposed taxonomy for translating CSIs is the framework for achieving this study. So, after adopting CSIs with Newmark’s (1988) 5 proposed domains of CSIs, we sought to find his proposed translation strategies applied in the English translation of Jalal Al-Ahmad’s <em>By the Pen</em> by Ghanoonparvar (1988) and to evaluate the frequency of each in order to determine which strategy could help the most in translating CSIs. To do so, first, both the source language text and its translation were studied; then, the translation strategies applied were found. Having found the strategies as the sources of the data, they were arranged and analyzed. Results showed that functional equivalent was the most frequently used strategy, and modulation and paraphrase were the least frequently used ones. Findings have pedagogical implications for translation students and literary translators.</p>

Highlights

According to Bassnett (2002), translation deals with a whole set of extralinguistic criteria. Hervey and Higgins (1992) state in the process of translation proper or correct translation, that the translator bridges the cultural gap between monolingual speakers of different languages
The most obvious points of difference between languages appear in their literature and their culture-specific items (CSIs), which lead to complexities when transferring meanings and concepts from one language into another
Cultural gap can best be seen in literary translations; literary works, due to their great number of culture-specific items (CSIs), specific values, aesthetic, and expressive features, are more difficult to translate than other kinds of texts

Summary

Introduction

According to Bassnett (2002), translation deals with a whole set of extralinguistic criteria. Hervey and Higgins (1992) state in the process of translation proper or correct translation, that the translator bridges the cultural gap between monolingual speakers of different languages. Hervey and Higgins (1992) state in the process of translation proper or correct translation, that the translator bridges the cultural gap between monolingual speakers of different languages. One encounters some things that he or she requires to challenge with their difficulty, their complexity, and their inability to fit into the resources he or she uses to make sense out of the world; these the so-called rich points things include lexical items through speech acts up to the notions about the world. Regarding the indispensability of language and culture Kolawole and Salawu (2008) state that literary translation deals with translating literary language texts which are full of ambiguities, homonyms, and arbitrariness; the lexis and style of each literary author is peculiar to him or her and he or she applies his or her own ideal literary techniques such as figures of speech, proverbs, and homonyms through which he or she makes literary forms. According to Venuti (2004), www.ccsenet.org/elt

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