Culture-specific Items Research Articles

On English Translation of Culture-Specific Items in the Ancient Chinese Official System:A Descriptive and Comparative Study on Hawkes’ and Yangs’ English Translated Cases of Hong Lou Meng

The English translation of the ancient Chinese official system from Hong Lou Meng is a significant difficulty in cross-cultural language interpretation, however, it has not been sufficient to cause the academic attention. Therefore, based on the “culture-specific items” theory proposed by Aixela and combined with the category framework revised by Professor ZHANG Nanfeng in accordance with E-C translation , this paper explores the best way which will realize the accurate complete transmission between the target language readers and the referential meaning of the source language through descriptive and comparative analysis of their specific translation strategies and effective performance in Hawkes’ and Yangs’ English translated versions, to reflect the unique national cultural characteristics of the Ancient Chinese official system culture. Key words: Culture-specific items; Translating strategies; Source language; Target language; Ancient Chinese official system; Hong Lou Meng Resume: La traduction en anglais de l'ancien systeme officiel chinois dans le Reve dans le pavillon rouge est une difficulte importante dans l'interpretation interculturelle. Toutefois, elle n'a pas ete suffisante pour provoquer l'attention des chercheurs. Du coup, sur la base de la theorie des specifiques a la culture proposee par Aixela et combinee avec le cadre categorique revise par professeur Zhang Nanfeng en conformite avec la traduction anglo-chinoise, cette these explore la meilleure facon qui realisera la transmission exacte et complete entre les lecteurs de langue cible et la signification referentielle de la langue de source a travers l'analyse descriptive et comparative des strategies de traduction specifique de Hawkes et Yang et la performance efficace dans les versions traduites en anglais, afin de refleter les caracteristiques culturelles, uniques et nationales de la de l'ancien systeme officiel chinois. Mots-cles: elements specifiques a la culture; strategies de traduction; langue de source; langue cible; ancien systeme officiel chinois; Reve dans le pavillon rouge

Measuring immigration stress of first-generation female Korean immigrants in California: psychometric evaluation of Demand of Immigration Scale

Objectives. Immigration involves challenges and distress, which affect health and well-being of immigrants. Koreans are a recent, fast-growing, but understudied group of immigrants in the USA, and no study has established or evaluated any immigration stress measure among this population. This study explores psychometric properties of Korean-translated Demands of Immigration (DI) Scale among first-generation female Korean immigrants in California. Analyses included evaluation of factor structure, reliability, validity, and descriptive statistics of subscales. Design. A surname-driven sampling strategy was applied to randomly select a representative sample of adult female Korean immigrants in California. Telephone interviews were conducted by trained bilingual interviewers. Study sample included 555 first-generation female Korean immigrants who were interviewed in Korean language. The 22-item DI Scale was used to assess immigration stress in the study sample. Results. Exploratory factor analysis suggested six correlated factors in the DI Scale: language barriers; sense of loss; not feeling at home; perceived discrimination; novelty; and occupation. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the factor structure. Language barriers accounted for the most variance of the DI Scale (29.11%). The DI Scale demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and construct validity. Conclusion. Evidence has been offered that the Korean-translated DI Scale is a reliable and valid measurement tool to examine immigration stress among Korean immigrants. The Korean-translated DI Scale has replicated factor structure obtained in other ethnicities, but addition of cultural-specific items is suggested for Korean immigrants. High levels of language and occupation-related stress warrant attention from researchers, social workers, and policy-makers. Findings from this study will inform future interventions to alleviate stress due to demands of immigration.

Fred or farīd, bacon or bayḍun (‘egg’)? Proper Names and Cultural-specific Items in the Arabic Translation of Harry Potter

This paper investigates the transfer of proper names and references to food in the Arabic translation of the first three Harry Potter volumes. The focus of the study is twofold: (1) What is the relation between the different transfer procedures employed in the translation process and the formal, semantic and cultural properties of the source text material? And (2) what is the effect of the applied procedures on the textual and stylistic features of the target text? The major finding that emerges from the investigation is that the main translation strategy is that of simplification. Occasionally, foreignisation is involved as well, but domestication is virtually absent. The findings broadly concur with converging evidence from the translation of other cultural-specific items in the corpus such as references to school and education, kinship and family ties, and the use of dialect and slang, which additionally demonstrate the role of attenuation and normalisation.

Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard. Plays in Production by James N. Loehlin (review)

712 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO knowledge ofthelanguage,and he certainly used theFrenchtranslation, so theRussianwordsmaybe a smokescreen. Edmondsis themostinclinedto pullhertextintotheworldofEnglish culture, whilePevearandVolokhonsky, as one might expect,makethemostconsistent attempt to mirror thesyntax oftheoriginal, evenat thecostofsomeawkwardness. Chaptertwoprovides a usefuloverview ofthesuccessionoftranslations and theirrelationto one another. The comparisons thatmakeup thebulkofthebook are conductedvery muchat a local level.Chapterthreeconcentrates on culture-specific items in thetext,mostofthemveryfamiliar to thosewho have thought aboutor engagedintranslation betweenRussianand English - a somewhat randomseemingvariety of topicssuch as formsof address,weightsand measures, idioms,word order,the ty/vy distinction and the use of participlesand gerunds. There are somehelpful tabularpresentations, buttheusualprocedureis to givea Russiansentence witha literaltranslation, followed bythe fivedifferent Englishversions.The same rathercumbersomemethodis employed fortheothermainfieldofinterest, thespecific features ofTolstoi's style, together withthestylistic differentiation between characters questions suchas repetition, compoundepithets, pointofview,peasantspeechand the continuous present. The thesisformat is no doubtresponsible fora certainnarrowness. One mighthave wishedfora wider-ranging discussionof the visionof Tolstoi and his novelimpliedby a giventranslation strategy, and ofmoregeneral questionsin translation history suchas thechanging audience,theinputof publishers, and thevarying socialand educational function ofliterary translation .But Birdwood-Hedger offers a carefulanalysisoftextualdetail,which allowsher to characterize the workof her fivechosentranslators and to pinpoint someoftheproblems theyfaced. SchoolofLiteratures, Languages and Cultures University ofEdinburgh Peter France Loehlin, JamesN. Chekhov: TheCherry Orchard. PlaysinProduction. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,2006. xi + 248 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index.£45.00; £17.99. James N. Loehlin,oftheUniversity ofTexas atAustin, haswritten a valuable, thoughtful, conscientious survey ofa century ofproductions ofChekhov'slast play,concentrating particularly (butnotexclusively) on Russiaand theSoviet Union, England and America.In his Introduction the authorcomments sensibly on Vishnevyi sad:'In thecentury sinceitsfirst performance, ithas seen a widerangeofconflicting interpretations: tragicand comic,naturalistic and symbolic, reactionary and radical.It has beenperformed as a lamentforthe dispossessed Russian gentry and as a call to revolution, as a vehiclefor detailedpsychological actingand as an abstract theatre-poem, as a somber family dramaand as a cartoonish vaudeville.[.. .] Indeed,theseconflicts are REVIEWS 713 wovenintothestructure oftheplayitself, whichcombines farcical and serious elements, clinicalnaturalism and visionary symbolism, a longing lookto the pastand a hopeful dreamofthefuture' (p. 1). There can be no singlecorrector staticinterpretation of Vishnevyi sad; different directors willinterpret theplayaccording totheir owntemperament and outlookand according tothetimesinwhichtheylive.Loehlinbeginshis study withtwoinformative chapters examining theinnumerable interpretive choiceswithin Chekhov's textandretelling thehistory ofthehighly influential first Moscow ArtTheatreproduction of 1904.In thefollowing six chapters Loehlin'sdeclaredaim (whichhe substantially fulfils) is to 'focuson a few majorproductions thatseem to me to embodya vitalphase in theplay's ongoinglife':'Sometimestheseare withina particularnationaltradition; moreoftentheyare groupsof linkedproductions fromdifferent countries, coinciding at keymoments ofcultural and theatrical history' (p. 6). In thecore ofhisbook theauthorjudiciouslydiscussesnumerousmajor productions of Vishnevyi sad- Russianand Sovietperformances, 1 904-1953; early English-language productions;the play in mid-century (Barrault, Saint-Denis,Strehler); radicalrevisions, 1975-77;Brookand Stein,1981-97 - before presenting a finaloverview. The namesofothertalented directors pass acrossthepages - Meierkhol'd, Fagan,Komissarzhevskii, Guthrie, Le Gallienne, Efros, Serbanand manymore. Perhapsinevitably, sucha survey volumehas a numberofshortcomings. The authorprovidesa gathering ofknownmaterial rather thana discovery ofnew sources.Loehlinadmitsin hisAcknowledgments: 'I have depended heavilyon the previousworkof many scholarsof Chekhovand Russian theatre,includingDavid Allen, Vera Gottlieb,Ronald Hingley,Donald Rayfield, Konstantin Rudnitsky, Tatiana Shakh-Azizova, Anatoly Smeliansky, and Nick Worrall.I am particularly indebtedto the work of Laurence Senelick,especiallyhis magisterial studyThe Chekhov Theatre' (p. x). This dependence on earlier research mayat timesseemexcessive. Thus,insteadof turning totheoriginal Russiantexts, Loehlinrelieson Benedetti and Hingley fortranslations ofvariousletters, and on Allen,Pitcher, Senelickand Worrall forothersourcematerial.There is littleevidencethatLoehlinhimself has searchedforpressreviews ofpastproductions. A second limitation lies in the range of presentations recorded.Quite properly, theauthorchoosesto concentrate on innovatory or landmark performances , andyethisvolumefailstoprovidethe'chronology ofproductions' promised on theback coverforthisseries.Concerning thefirst half-century ofproductions in England,Loehlinconsiders onlythoseof 191 1,1920,1925, 1926,1933,1941and 1961,butdoes notevenmention thethreeversions of TheCherry Orchard whichreachedLondonin 1948,or Gielgud's1954productionat theLyric,Hammersmith. As a result, no assessment is attempted of thewidelyacclaimedRanevskaiasofGladysBoot and EdithEvans (1948)or GwenFfrangcon-Davies (1954),and no evaluation is offered ofthedirectorial achievements ofJohnFernaldand Hugh Hunt(1948)orJohnGielgud. Some Russiannamesand wordsare mangled- Khaputina(pp. viii,85, forKhalyutina, p. 45),V. S. (forV. E.) Meierkhol'd(pp. 5, 247),Federovna 714 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO Andreyevna (for FedorovnaAndreyeva, pp. 43,245),Torporov(for Toporkov, pp. 70, 248), Kholkov(forKhokhlov,pp. 85, 86, 246), Turshkin, Leonard (p. 248), ^Jiizin (pp. 232, 242), Vishnyovovo (pp. 232, 240). There are wrong...

Domestication and Foreignization in English Translations of Anna Karenina: The English Language or the Russian Reality? by Maya Irina Birdwood-Hedger (review)

REVIEWS 71I hisnovelTheUnbearable Lightness ofBeing. It is pleasingto see new academic possibilities beingopenedup in a workmarketed primarily at students and thegeneralreader. Department ofGerman, RussianandSlavonic Studies University ofLeeds S. F. Hudspith Birdwood-Hedger,Maya Irina. Domestication andForeignization inEnglishTranslationsofAnna Karenina:The EnglishLanguageor theRussianReality? VDM Verlag Dr. Müller,Saarbrücken, 2008. 293 pp. Notes. Bibliography.£54.00 (paperback). The impactofTolstoion English-language culture overthelastcentury and morehas been incalculable, and thishas been almostentirely through the mediation oftranslation. Comingfrom different angles,eminent scholars such as Donald Davie,JohnLyons,HenryGifford, CatrionaKelly and Rachel May have written essaysand articlesdevotedto the problemsof Tolstoi translation, andtheachievements and- moreusually shortcomings ofthe translators. Dr Birdwood-Hedger seems,however, to be thefirst personto accordbook-length treatment to thisimportant topic. Her book is a doctoralthesis,withthe qualitiesand drawbacksof this genre;it is patientand methodical, dottingi's and crossingt's, but quite limited in scope,concerning itself entirely withone text,albeita prestigious one. She has avoided the fieldof Warand Peacetranslations, which has recently erupted intoconflict withthreerivalversions. Her approachis basicallytocomparefive (oftheten)translations, bothwithone another and with Tolstoi'stext,all thisin thelightoftheVenutiandichotomy offoreignizing and domesticating translation. Not thatall translations can be neatlyclassed in one ofthesecategories. Birdwood-Hedger does notconsiderthepolitical agenda of Venuti' s translation theory, but she rightly pointsto the oversimplification sometimes impliedin theforeignization/domestication couple and suggests what different formsthe foreignizing impulsecan take. The dichotomy nevertheless provides a useful toolforhercomparative purposes. The translations studiedare thoseoftheAmerican NathanDole (1886),of ConstanceGarnett (1901), ofLouise and Aylmer Maude (1918),ofRosemary Edmonds(1954)and ofRichardPevearand LarissaVolokhonsky (2001)curiously , thereis no discussion ofPevearand Volokhonsky's predecessor in thePenguincollection, David Magarshack. For Birdwood-Meyer itis probablyConstanceGarnett , pacetherecent criticism ofhernormalizing approach, whoprovides themostsatisfactory overallaccountofthenovel,buttheaim hereis notso muchto suggest a 'bestbuy'as to bringoutthedifferences of approachamong translators. In fact,it provesdifficult to categorizethem definitively. In somerespects a textmayseemforeignizing, whilein others it domesticates. Somewhatremarkably, it is thefirst translation, thatofDole, that'foreignizes' inthemostliteral sense,simply byleaving words(often quite unnecessarily) in Russian- therehas been some speculation about Dole's 712 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO knowledge ofthelanguage,and he certainly used theFrenchtranslation, so theRussianwordsmaybe a smokescreen. Edmondsis themostinclinedto pullhertextintotheworldofEnglish culture, whilePevearandVolokhonsky, as one might expect,makethemostconsistent attempt to mirror thesyntax oftheoriginal, evenat thecostofsomeawkwardness. Chaptertwoprovides a usefuloverview ofthesuccessionoftranslations and theirrelationto one another. The comparisons thatmakeup thebulkofthebook are conductedvery muchat a local level.Chapterthreeconcentrates on culture-specific items in thetext,mostofthemveryfamiliar to thosewho have thought aboutor engagedintranslation betweenRussianand English - a somewhat randomseemingvariety of topicssuch as formsof address,weightsand measures, idioms,word order,the ty/vy distinction and the use of participlesand gerunds. There are somehelpful tabularpresentations, buttheusualprocedureis to givea Russiansentence witha literaltranslation, followed bythe fivedifferent Englishversions.The same rathercumbersomemethodis employed fortheothermainfieldofinterest, thespecific features ofTolstoi's style, together withthestylistic differentiation between characters questions suchas repetition, compoundepithets, pointofview,peasantspeechand the continuous present. The thesisformat is no doubtresponsible fora certainnarrowness. One mighthave wishedfora wider-ranging discussionof the visionof Tolstoi and his novelimpliedby a giventranslation strategy, and ofmoregeneral questionsin translation history suchas thechanging audience,theinputof publishers, and thevarying socialand educational function ofliterary translation .But Birdwood-Hedger offers a carefulanalysisoftextualdetail,which allowsher to characterize the workof her fivechosentranslators and to pinpoint someoftheproblems theyfaced. SchoolofLiteratures, Languages and Cultures University ofEdinburgh Peter France Loehlin, JamesN. Chekhov: TheCherry Orchard. PlaysinProduction. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,2006. xi + 248 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index.£45.00; £17.99. James N. Loehlin,oftheUniversity ofTexas atAustin, haswritten a valuable, thoughtful, conscientious survey ofa century ofproductions ofChekhov'slast play,concentrating particularly (butnotexclusively) on Russiaand theSoviet Union, England and America.In his Introduction the authorcomments sensibly on Vishnevyi sad:'In thecentury sinceitsfirst performance, ithas seen a widerangeofconflicting interpretations: tragicand comic,naturalistic and symbolic, reactionary and radical.It has beenperformed as a lamentforthe dispossessed Russian gentry and as a call to revolution, as a vehiclefor detailedpsychological actingand as an abstract theatre-poem, as a somber family dramaand as a cartoonish vaudeville.[.. .] Indeed,theseconflicts are ...

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology (QUEST 2.0): the development of the Taiwanese version

Objective: To develop and validate a cross-cultural version of the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology (QUEST 2.0) for users of assistive technology devices in Taiwan. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Procedures: The standard cultural adaptation procedure was used for questionnaire translation and cultural item design. A field test was then conducted for item selection and psychometric properties testing. Subjects: One hundred and five volunteer assistive device users in community. Main outcome measures: A questionnaire comprising 12 items of the QUEST 2.0 and 16 culture-specific items. Results: One culture-specific item, ‘Cost’, was selected based on eight criteria and added to the QUEST 2.0 (12 items) to formulate the Taiwanese version of QUEST 2.0 (T-QUEST). The T-QUEST consisted of 13 items which were classified into two domains: device (8 items) and service (5 items). The internal consistencies of the device, service and total T-QUEST scores were 0.87, 0.84 and 0.90, respectively. The device, services and total T-QUEST scores achieved good test-retest stability (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.90, 0.97, 0.95). Exploratory factor analysis revealed that T-QUEST had a two-factor structure for device and service in the construct of user satisfaction (53.42% of the variance explained). Conclusions: Users of assistive device in different culture may have different concerns regarding satisfaction. T-QUEST is the first published version of QUEST with culture-specific items added to the original translated items of QUEST 2.0. T-QUEST was a valid and reliable tool for measuring user satisfaction among Mandarin-speaking individuals using various kinds of assistive devices.

Alienation techniques in screen translation

This paper presents a critical approach to the translation of cultural items in the Spanish dubbed version of the American sitcom Will & Grace. The paper starts with a presentation of domestication and foreignization (Venuti 1995). The former is discussed in connection with the choices made in the target texts. I, then, introduce the term “alienation” as another strategy used to render culture specificities. In the second section I examine the key comical elements present in the scripts, in which cultural allusions also play a significant role. Section three explores how these culturally anchored lexical items are rendered in the Spanish version, establishing a taxonomy that includes preservation of international items, preservation of culture-specific items, substitution with a different source-culture item, substitution with an international item, substitution with a target-culture item, substitution with corrupted forms of target-culture items and substitution with a superordinate. The use and translation of expletives as elements unique to a language and culture are also covered. The final section discusses the transition from domestication to alienation.

How Students Translate Culture-specific Items: An Analysis of Student Translations & Suggestions for Improvement

The purpose of the present case study is to investigate the role of the translator as cultural mediator when working on culture-specific items (CSIs) and to examine how postgraduate students can become better cultural mediators when such a role is called for. For this, the study draws primarily on Aixela's typology of CSIs (conventional proper nouns, common expressions) and translation strategies (conservation and substitution and their 11 subcategories) in order to review in what areas translator need to assume the role of cultural mediator. After analyzing student translations of CSIs based primarily on Aixela's typology and the designated reviser's comments in order to gain a better understanding of how native-speaking readers react, a preliminary relationship is inferred between CSI types and translation strategies. The present study is presented in an effort to provide students with a more systematic framework for approaching the thorny translation problems CSIs entail.

Translation: treason, serendipity or acquired instinct?

This article reviews Gregory Rabassa’s memoirs called “If this be treason”. It pays tribute to a brilliant translator and literary critic, who is one of the unsung heroes of Spanish and Portuguese Literature. His memoirs, enriched by years of experience and theoretical reflection, provide a profound and wonderfully readable meditation on the art of translation, without ever becoming pedantic. They are divided into three sections: a) the translator, b) the translated and, finally, c) his verdict on the treason involved in the translation process. In this article, Aubert’s (1997) translation modalities are used to analyze Rabassa’s strategies when dealing with culture-specific items.

A Descriptive Study of Translating Children's Fantasy Fiction

Owing to the imperfect knowledge and language ability of child readers, translators often encounter great difficulties and challenges in translating children's literature. It can, therefore, be assumed that when translating children's fantasy literature, which is in a highly local cultural form, translators often encounter translating problems concerning culture-specific items and are easily trapped in the dilemma of whether to ‘foreignise’ or to ‘domesticate’ such items. This study focuses on translation problems and strategies regarding culture-specific items by analysing the first five Harry Potter (HP) books and their corresponding Taiwanese versions. More specifically, the present study aims to shed light on the implications of how the adopted strategies affect target readers’ acceptance, and whether those strategies are innovative or established, by looking at the relation of the HP translations and the polysystem of translated children's fantasy literature in Taiwan. The effectiveness of the translation strategies chosen – which may be used as a yardstick when discussing acceptability in translating culture-specific items in children's fantasy literature – was evaluated by observing 15 target readers’ response through questionnaires.

Transfer obcych realiów na przykładzie tekstu popularnonaukowego. Definicje i podstawowe problemy

In Poland, the term cultural specific item does not have a coherent and extensive definition. Most researchers agree about its close relation with what we perceive as the culture of a given country. Thus, culturally marked units become cultural specific items and in this particular context we should rather refer to their transfer (i.e. transfer and/or translation) than translation. A popular science text poses a genuine challenge for the translator, as it might occur that the cultural specific items constituting source text implicit knowledge (of the target audience as assumed a priori by the author) may distort the comprehension of the text which is by definition aimed at non-experts.

A Goblin or a Dirty Nose?

This paper discusses the treatment of culture-specific items in translations of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter books. It identifies a range of procedures adopted by various translators and considers their effectiveness or otherwise in dealing with particular problems. It is suggested that there is not necessarily a clear correlation between the use of a particular procedure and the degree of domestication or foreignization obtained in the target text. It is also argued that instead of dealing with each culture-specific item separately, on its own merits, it may sometimes be helpful to adopt a macro perspective which looks at sets of culture-specific items in terms of their joint contribution to the development of the whole text. More reasoned and systematic decisions as to how to treat individual items may be made once they are seen as part of a network of references which work together to achieve a global impact.

Can subjective quality of life be measured in a population of patients with lung cancer?

valid in Korea. However, Korean patients felt that relationships with friends and neighbors were different from those with family, indicating that the social/family well-being domain needed cultural adaptation. One item about coping with illness was cross-culturally specific and did not load significantly on the emotional well-being domain. Cronbach a reliability coefficients for the 4 domains ranged from 0.83 to 0.88. CONCLUSION: This finding indicated that there were crossculturally common and culture-specific QOL items. Validation of the scale is recommended for Korean patients with various types of cancer.

Measures of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology in Asia.

This article reviews measures of child and adolescent psychopathology used in Asian cultures. Sixteen imported measures from the West are identified and their psychometric equivalence across cultures is reviewed; 2 new measures are briefly introduced. Although initial evidence is generally promising, more studies are needed to support their use in Asia. One recently developed Singapore measure cannot be considered genuinely indigenous. Culture-specific items proposed for imported measures could be grouped into existing diagnostic constructs. There is, as yet, no strong theoretical support for culture-bound diagnostic constructs in Asian cultures.

A new approach to multicultural item generation in the development of two obesity-specific measures: The obesity and weight loss quality of life (OWLQOL) questionnaire and the weight-related symptom measure (WRSM)

Background: Being overweight or obese has substantial effects on individuals' perceptions of their health and quality of life (QoL). Generic measures often miss important QoL information, and existing obesity-specific instruments have shortcomings with respect to cross-cultural input, application to differing levels of severity, conceptual clarity, and patient burden. Objective: This study aimed to develop culturally sensitive measures of QoL and symptoms in overweight or obese persons, both those trying to lose weight and those not trying to lose weight. Methods: Currently accepted criteria and guidelines for questionnaire development were streamlined and augmented to include cross-cultural input from 5 European countries and the United States. The preliminary pool of items was created based on qualitative interviews conducted in the United States, followed by an early check of item translatability and preharmonization across all languages. Ten additional qualitative in-country interviews were then conducted to produce further culture-specific items. This was followed by 2 forward and 1 backward translation, plus cognitive debriefing interviews in each country. Finally, an expanded international harmonization meeting was held to ensure inclusion of appropriate new items and their acceptability across all 6 cultures. Results: The procedures described resulted in development of the 41-item Obesity and Weight Loss Quality of Life questionnaire and the 20-item Weight-Related Symptom Measure. These questionnaires are subject to further psychometric validation. Conclusions: Augmentation of the initial item-generation and international harmonization steps of questionnaire development through integration of cross-cultural input allowed greater validity of cross-cultural content while meeting time, budget, and resource constraints.

Translation Strategies in a Rapidly Transforming Culture

This article examines cultural asymmetry, a feature engendered by rapid cultural transformation and posited to be a crucial contextual factor in translating into and from weaker or dominated cultures. It argues that the asymmetry affects translators’ choices – often implicitly – in terms of domestication and foreignization and presents an analysis of an extensive corpus of English-Polish translations in two genres: voiceover and news articles. The findings demonstrate a marked dominance of highly foreignizing procedures in the translation of culture-specific items, a trend which in the majority of cases cannot be attributed to formal or genre-related restrictions, audience design, or lack of competence on the part of translators. In addition, the article provides an overview of the effects of the Polish cultural transition on translation practices and suggests ways in which a cotext-and context-sensitive analysis of individual translations can be accommodated within a quantitative study.

Culture-Specific Items in Bilingual Dictionaries of English

Culture-Specific Items in Bilingual Dictionaries of English1 Morton Benson .Linguists and lexicographers have recognized that, except for some scientific and technical vocabularies, many lexical items in any language are culture-specific or culture-bound, and that, consequently , one must be cautious about assuming the absolute equivalency of any two items in different languages (Bugarski 159; Hohulin 43; Tomaszczyk 43; Zgusta 296). Ifculture-specific items occupy a significant part of the lexicon of any language, one must view with some degree of skepticism any assertion that "reversing" the source side of a bilingual dictionary is sufficient to obtain an adequate source wordlist of a companion volume. This paper deals with culture-specific lexical differences classified as "referential gaps" or "lexical gaps" and not with linguistic or grammatical differences. Thus, for example, no attempt is made to describe the problems posed for the lexicographer by the use of definite and indefinite articles in English and the absence of such articles in many languages. Referential gaps come into being when a referent (a "thing" or a "concept/notion") existing in the source culture does not exist in the target culture (Benson 1986, 53). For example, the referents denoted by advance man, dial-a-joke, exit poll, jiffy bag, meals-on-wheeh, etc., may not exist in many cultures. Lexicographers have shown that there are numerous instances ofpartial equivalents (Benson 1986, 56; Tomaszczyk 289; Zgusta 312). If we attempt to translate items taken from American culture such as assütant professor, double dipping, health maintenance organization, nurse practitioner, it will become clear that in many other languages partial, not exact, equivalents exist for such expressions . A discussion of the difficulties that lexicographers may encounter when dealing with referential gaps will be given below. 44Morton Benson Soviet lexicologists have suggested that referential items often coincide only partially because of differing details in the relevant realia ; the total realia connected with the referent make up the "background " (Verescagin, Kostomarov, Morkovkin 1974). For example, the concept ofaddress (written on an envelope) has, ofcourse, the Russian equivalent 'adres'. The English and the Russian words are regularly used quite properly to translate each other. However, differences between their meanings emerge ifwe examine the details ofthe realia. To solve this problem, Soviet lexicographers are planning a series of "linguo-areal" dictionaries that would provide background information , i.e., encyclopedic information about the terminology used in a given activity (Benson 1988, 225). Several linguists have proposed classifications of the various types of referential gaps. Schnorr (56-60) has suggested general areas in which gaps arise. Verescagin, Kostomarov (1971, 62-64) have described the major fields in which Soviet terms may usually encounter referential gaps in other languages. Here is a suggested outline, with examples, of areas in which English culture-specific terms often seem to occur: 1 . politics, economics, law: advance man, electoral college, executive privilege , Federal Reserve System,front bencher, Inland Revenue, supply-side economics, sunshine law. Mueller (1989, 167) points out, for example, "that a term such as executive privilege is apparently meaningless outside its American context." 2.historical events, folklore, holidays: Boxing Day, Civil War, GroundHog Day, Magna Carta, Revolutionary War, Round Table, Thanksgiving Day. 3.geographical terms: Buckeye State, the City, Lower Fortyeight, MasonDixon line, Midlands, Sunbelt, Thames. 4.health care: childbearing center, family medicine, group practice, health vuitor, HMO, National Health Service. 5.education: A leveh, credit, dütributional requirements, dean's lût, don, tutorial, work-study student. 6.food: applepie, bubbleandsqueak, hoagie,ploughman's lunch, TVdinner. 7.flora, fauna: American elk, cactus, muskrat, poison oak, raccoon, sequoia. 8.miscellaneous: Amtrak, Big Ten, condo conversion, cooling-off-period, dial-a-prayer, dinner theatre, doggy bag, factory outlet, fast-foodrestaurant . Some terms denoting referential gaps have entered a large number of languages and have become internationalisms: baseball, Culture-Specific Items in Bilingual Dictionaries of English45 cowboy, Wall Street, Watergate, wigwam, etc. In these instances, the English form is borrowed and adapted to the phonetic system of the borrowing language. Thus, in SerboCroatian we have bezbol, kauboj, Vol strit, Votergejt, vigvam. In other examples of international referential gaps the form is translated. For example, the House ofLords becomes in SerboCroatian 'Gornji dorn', the White House becomes...