Culture-specific Items Research Articles

Translation methods applied to translate Polish types and names of administrative law authority bodies into English – a case study.

The paper aims to discuss Polish terms that name authority bodies under the administrative law and their English equivalents. The Polish terms under analysis appear in the first Division of the Polish Code of Administrative Procedure of 14 June 1960 and the English equivalents of each Polish term researched have been suggested in the Polish Code of Administrative Procedure translation into English. The research problem is to determine the translation methods applied and to verify whether translation methods used in the Polish-English translation of the above terms which have been determined as culture-specific items appear among translation methods applied when translating culture-specific elements suggested by Hejwowski (2007). Furthermore, to verify whether the mentioned translation methods appear among the translation methods discussed by Weston (1993) which are recommended to be applied while translating legal terms. The theoretical part of the paper includes a presentation of the definitions of a legal term, culture-specific item and the classification of translation methods by Hejwowski and Weston. The research stages include the comparison of definitions of source elements and definitions of their equivalents, as long as they appear in monolingual English law dictionaries.

An Analysis of Culture-Specific Items in the Turkish Translation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It by Halide Edip Adıvar and Vahit Turhan

An Analysis of Culture-Specific Items in the Turkish Translation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It by Halide Edip Adıvar and Vahit Turhan

Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) Categories and Translation Procedures of Wang Sinawang Short Movie

Translating culture-specific items is not easy because it requires knowledge and understanding of a particular culture related to the word. Despite many studies that have been conducted related to translation procedures of culture-specific items (CSIs), there is still a lack in the literature, particularly the procedures in the Javanese to English translations of CSIs in films and short movies. This study used CSIs classification and translation procedures based on Newmark’s (1988). The object of this study was Wang Sinawang, a Javanese short movie which was produced by Dinas Perpustakaan dan Arsip Daerah D.I Yogyakarta and was released on its YouTube channel. This research attempts to find the types and the dominant used procedure that was used by the subtitler of Wang Sinawang short movie to translate the culture-specific items. This study employed a qualitative descriptive methodology. The result revealed that the most CSIs that appeared in the short movie was “Material Culture” which includes foods, clothes, houses and towns, and transportation, while the least CSIs appeared was “Social Culture” which includes work and leisure. The Most used procedure was “Recognized Translation” while the least used procedure was “Naturalization” and “Descriptive Equivalent”. The implication of this study is discussed.

Translation as a Means of Intercultural Communication

Translation is considered to be the most economical type of intercultural communication. This idea is announced by Monica Năstase, a Romanian researcher who investigated the difficulty of translating realia words from Romanian into English. Realia are words and expressions for culture-specific items. As realia carry a very local overtone, they often represent a challenge for translators. They are born in popular culture, and are increasingly found in very diverse kinds of texts. In this paper we discuss the translation variants of such realia words as “colac”, “ie”, “mămăligă”, “horă” and “dor” from Romanian into English as they represent translatable lacunas and the interpreter has to be very accurate in transposing them into another language. At the same time we concentrate on the ways of rendering word combinations containing „privacy” lexeme in English, a value which is typical to the English and American cultures, and analyse variants of these realia words translated into Romanian.

Translation of culture-specific items from kazakh into english (in the case of “turkistan” by M. Jumabayev)

Translation of culture-specific items from kazakh into english (in the case of “turkistan” by M. Jumabayev)

Adaptation of Dystopian Texts: Rendering Fictional Realia

The article explores adaptation as a means of rendering fictional realia. Fictional realia (also known as quasi-realia and irrealia) are understood as a special kind of linguistic realia (culture-specific items) that exist within the genre of speculative fiction. These lexical units describe various aspects of fictional worlds: flora, fauna, everyday life, social and political structure, etc. Adaptation in general is defined as a specific form of intercultural and interlingual mediation that relies heavily on capabilities and necessities of a target audience. Unlike regular translation, adaptation does not necessarily strive to preserve formal and, in some cases, semantic features of the original text. Adaption can be used for different purposes: to make a text more comprehensible to a target audience, to influence a reader in a specific way, etc. When it comes to rendering fictional realia, adaptation can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, it can be defined as adaptation of fictional objects, concepts, and phenomena to reality (when fictional realia are replaced by their real counterparts). And secondly, it can be understood as linguacultural adaptation that is conditioned by cultural and linguistic differences between an original and a target audience. The article primarily focuses on the second type of fictional realia adaptation. The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood are used as source material for the study. The article draws connections between fictional realia adaptation and creation of new fictional realia (a means of rendering fictional realia that can be defined as either giving a new name to an existing fictional realia or introduction of a completely new fictional realia).

Effectiveness of Machine Translation in Rendering Yemeni Culture-Specific Items into English: Sana'ani Dialect as a Case-in-Point

Undoubtedly, in any given society cultural elements are manifested in all aspects of life. In this globalized age, efforts have been exerted in translating cultural elements. However, since each culture has its own linguistic peculiarities and social aspects, it has become a complicated issue in the field of MT. Despite the recent technological developments, MT still lacks the ability to produce adequate translation in terms of author-based accuracy and reader-oriented cultural acceptability. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of MT in rendering Yemeni culture-specific items into English by comparing the translation outcomes of three MT programs (Google Translate, Yandex Translate and Bing Translator) to find out which program can produce the closest translation to the source text. Moreover, the study aims to identify translation problems of Yemeni culture-specific items resulting from MT. To achieve these aims, the researchers followed a descriptive qualitative method within a comparative framework. The study sample includes 14 Yemeni culture-specific items in their contexts taken from the book Social Issues in Popular Yemeni Culture by Abdu Al Rahman Mutahar and inserted into the three MT systems. The study concluded that MT lacks the ability to translate Yemeni culture-specific items adequately. The three programs failed to render most of the selected sample adequately. Google and Yandex failed to translate 13 cultural items whereas Bing made 12 errors in translating the same cultural items. The study results also showed that MT faced challenges in translating Yemeni culture-specific items, resulting in lexical, semantic and pragmatic problems.

Finding the way to God through folk songs in Banyumasan, Indonesian, and English versions of Ahmad Tohari’s Bekisar Merah

As a part of cultural heritage and identity, folk songs can also be found in literary works and their translations. As they often contain cultural references and expressions specific to a particular community, these elements can be complex to translate without losing their cultural significance or meaning. Therefore, to answer this problem, this research aims to identify and explain the strategies employed in rendering the Banyumasan folk songs to Indonesian and English in Ahmad Tohari’s Bekisar Merah and its English translation, The Red Bekisar, utilizing Baker’s classification of translation strategies, i.e., cultural substitution, paraphrase using a related word, superordinate, loan word plus explanation, less expressive word, paraphrase using unrelated words, omission, and illustration. This research is conducted through a descriptive qualitative approach, with the folk songs collected through document analysis utilizing content and thematic analysis. In the Indonesian and English versions of the folk songs, the translators render the Banyumasan culture-specific items in the songs into more general words, neutral and less expressive words, cultural substitution, paraphrasing using related words, and omission in the attempt to achieve both communicative and culturally appropriate translation. It is expected that exploring the strategies for translating folk songs will contribute both to academicians and practitioners, as well as literary translators, in ensuring accurate translation, cultural sensitivity, preserving authenticity, and achieving the communication goals of the traditional folk songs to a global audience.

The Translational Treatment of Social Culture and Social Organization items in Orwell’s 1984

The translation of culture-specific items (CSIs) in literary texts is problematic and challenging. They hold a critical position in the process of translation as they are bound to their source culture and language. Translators tend to render these items using specific translation techniques. These techniques influence and in turn are influenced by the two translation strategies: foreignization and domestication. These CSIs could be divided according to Newmark (1988) into five categories. However, the present study aims to reveal, discuss, and compare the techniques used along with the strategies followed in treating two categories namely social culture and social organization in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ from English into two Arabic translations. The Novel is translated by two translators Anwar Achami (2006) and Alharith Nabhan (2014). To achieve trustworthiness, Toury’s (1995) descriptive translation methodology and Creswell’s (2012) mixed methods research is adopted to describe, analyse, and interpret how, when, and why Pederson’s (2005) translation techniques are used and to take out clear data about the Venutian’s (1995) domestication and foreignization. The study follows the explanatory design. First, the quantitative data is collected manually and uploaded into an Excel sheet format for analysis. It is followed by qualitative data collection and analyses. 162 coupled pairs were identified. The results show that the translators use different translation techniques to produce different translations. Besides, there are various factors influencing translators’ choices and orientations.

An Analysis of Translation Procedures of Cultural-specific Items from English into Arabic Applied in “Sunshine in the Rain: A Maid's Courage”

Cultures seem to be brimming with culture-specific items (CSIs). Such objects may be unique to one culture or communicated by several cultures. In literature, there is a wide range of CSIs, but editors may have difficulty translating them. This investigation emphasizes what editors might encounter in the translation procedures of CSIs found in a short story entitled “Sunshine in the Rain: A Maid's Courage”. The differences between the source English language and target Arabic language texts present difficulties in various transcription procedures. It is worth noting that the researcher was able to successfully translate many CSIs into foreign dialects through this book. Thus, the current paper addresses the gap issue that translators face when translating some culturally specific texts or statements from English into Arabic. The book was selected because it tells a cultural story in three languages: Malay, English (the public tongue), and Tagalog (the Filipino language). To better know these methods, the Arab writer community gains knowledge and utilizes Newmark's models to translate analyses based on theory, which hires seven procedures of CSIs to be translated processes inspected and discussed. The outcome proved that literal translation was a majority typically utilized technique (17.6%), followed by modulation (16.3%) and paraphrasing (12.6%), with other procedures such as naturalization, couplets, notes, additions, and glosses being avoided. Certain research conclusions, as well as information provided by translators, translation researchers, and students, may assist a translator knowledgeable in paying more attention to CSIs. By means of translating a variety of things, you can guide them to improve one's elaboration skills and expand their cultural languages.

Corrigendum to “[The Image of China as a Destination for Tourist: Translation Strategies of Culture-Specific Items in the Chinese-English Food Menus

Corrigendum to “[The Image of China as a Destination for Tourist: Translation Strategies of Culture-Specific Items in the Chinese-English Food Menus

Translation and its fictions: pseudotranslation and partial cultural translation in focus

ABSTRACT This article asks whether and what differences exist between the notions of pseudotranslation and partial cultural translation. Although they are both ultimately untranslated texts, their respective definitions acknowledge the possibility that each category may be taken as a translation. To answer its research question, the article examines the distinctive features of pseudotranslation and partial cultural translation across three primary sources that showcase traits common to both categories. First, the analysis sets these two notions against the backdrop of a fictional subtext which informs translation theory, demonstrating how pseudotranslation and partial cultural translation feed into this subtext. It then goes on to investigate the function of paratexts and culture-specific items in the three primary sources. Finally, the article identifies the different intentions underpinning pseudotranslation and partial cultural translation: while the former explicitly aims to be perceived as a translation, the latter is not written to be consumed as a translated text.

Intercultural translation, or How to translate realia? A.P. Chekhov “The Death of a Government Clerk”: A translation-analysis

Translating realia is one of the most challenging tasks of a translator, these elements have connotative meaning in the source language and culture, that is missing in target language and culture as well. This article is devoted to analize Hungarian and English translation of realia in the well known novel of A.P. Chekhov The Death of a Government Clerk. More focus is given to translators’ intercultural competence and background knowledge, they have to transfer source text with all its culture-bound elements and with the use of unique strategies, minimize as far as possible the loss of the cultural effects, and bring as more as possible culture-specific items to target language.

The Translation of Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) in Yellow River Cultural Corpus: A Case Study of History of the Yellow River

By constructing a bilingual parallel corpus from scratch and taking History of the Yellow River as an illustrative bilingual text, this study delves into the translation techniques applied to Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) within the framework of the Yellow River Basin civilization. The findings reveal a diverse range of approaches employed by translators, including literal translation, free translation, intracultural adaptation, omission, retention and annotation, especially in handling CSIs related to ecology, material culture, social life, religion, and language within the context of Yellow River culture. These techniques effectively preserve the intrinsic traits of the source language, thereby facilitating the propagation of Yellow River culture. The utilization of corpus-based research methodologies to analyze the English translation of CSIs in the Yellow River culture not only aligns with the essential imperatives of promoting Chinese culture on the global stage but also addresses the intricate nuances demanded by international communication.

An Analysis of Subtitle Translation of Mulan: Skopos Theory-Inspired Perspective

English films, TV series, and audiovisual materials are widespread in the Middle East, and they require subtitle translation to convey the intended meaning and engage the viewer. Subtitle translation can be very challenging, and this is especially the case with cultural-specific items. This study will analyze the Arabic subtitle translation of the film Mulan 2020. The study aims to contribute to the literature evaluating subtitle translation in the Arab world. Therefore, the analysis will identify translation violations in light of the Skopos theory at different linguistic levels. To address the issues underpinning the violations in the subtitle translation, the strategies used in translation will also be analyzed. Moreover, using a questionnaire, the study will investigate the audience’s perception of the quality of the subtitle translation. The analysis of the data employed a mixed-method design. The findings show that the rules of Skopos theory were sometimes dismissed at the word and phrase levels in the subtitle translation. At the discourse level, the skopos rule was violated. The findings also reveal that the most used strategy was providing a literal translation. As for the audience perception, the findings reveal that the audience rated the Arabic subtitle translation of Mulan 2020 as fairly good. Overall, the findings suggest that the Skopos theory can be used as a tool to evaluate subtitle translation and help improve the overall translation quality while meeting the audience’s expectations.

Domestication Strategy in the English Target Novel the Red Bekisar

This research article is about the translation of culture-specific items or cultural words from Indonesian into English. It focuses on the Domestication strategy and the procedures of oblique translation applied in the translation. The data source is an Indonesian novel entitled Bekisar Merah, which is translated into English, the Red Bekisar. The novel involves the Javanese cultural background, where Islam religion becomes one of the influential settings. This research was conducted with a qualitative-descriptive approach by adapting the concept of oblique translation from Vinay and Darbelnet, the domestication strategy by Venuti, and the culture-specific items by Newmark. The objectives are to reveal the type of cultural words that are domesticated and to locate the procedures of oblique translation applied in translating the cultural words. The results show that the cultural words which are translated with the domestication strategy are of two kinds: material culture and organizations, customs, and ideas; from 61 data on domestication strategy, all four procedures are identified: transposition, modulation, adaptation, and equivalence; and the most frequent procedure found is modulation.

Strategies for Translating Culture-Specific Items from Chinese into English

The purpose of this study is to investigate the translation strategies adopted by the translator in translating the Chinese novel Big Breast and Wide Hips into English, as well as the factors influencing the translator’s choice of translation strategies, by using the descriptive research method and culture-specific items (hereafter referred to as CSI). Eight translation strategies are examined in the data analysis: 1) substitution; 2) transliteration; 3) free translation; 4) literal translation; 5) omission; 6) literal translation plus amplified translation; 7) literal translation plus explanation; 8) free translation plus substitution. The findings of the study show that the type of CSI influences the choice of translation strategy. Furthermore, the results suggest that translation strategies should not be developed on the basis of subjective assumptions or hasty generalisations about the expectation of the audience. Rather, they should be based on the specific situation of the culture-specific items.

The Image of China as a Destination for Tourist: Translation Strategies of Culture-Specific Items in the Chinese-English Food Menus

This study investigated how culture-specific items in Chinese-English food menus were translated. The Chinese menu corpus was examined using a descriptive case study method for qualitative analysis and a corpus-based method for relevant data extraction and quantitative analysis. The study aimed to identify the categories of culture-specific items (CSIs) in the corpus and also examine whether, and if so, how CSI categories condition the choice of translation procedures and its influence exerted at the macro macro-level on the image of China, projected as a tourist destination. The results indicated that CSIs categories existent in the corpus include the linguistics, historical, and social categories. These categories were also a conditioning factor modulating the selection and use of a particular translation procedure. The linguistic CSI category influenced the employment of description procedures; retention was largely used for the social category, whereas retention and description procedures were utilized for the historical category. Employing Lawrence Venuti’s domestication and foreignization strategies and the neutralization strategy of some scholars (e.g. Josep Marco) as a conceptual framework, the results also revealed a strong preference for the use of neutralization strategy in translating CSIs where the strangeness of the source text is demystified, their connotative meanings explicitly rendered, thereby projecting China as a friendly, welcoming, and accommodating destination for tourists. The quantitative methodology employed to analyze the translation of CSIs in the menu text is a crucial contribution that counterbalances the predominant qualitative methods employed in the field.

Translation Techniques of Culture Specific Items and Translation Ideology in Sarimin Webtoon

This research is an applied linguistic research in the translation field. The source chosen is an online comic or webtoon titled Sarimin by Nagaterbang. This research chooses Sarimin as the research subject because its theme heavily relies on Indonesian mysticism, making emphasis on several culturally specific items in the form of words, phrases, and sentences that are very hard to translate into English. There are three things studied in this research: (1) cultural terms in Sarimin, (2) translation techniques for the cultural terms, and (3) the translation ideology used in translating the cultural terms. The unit data are words, phrases, and sentences. The data are taken from the first season. The theoretical framework used in this analysis is the translation techniques from Molina and Albir (2002), Newmark's specific cultural terms (1988), and strategies of translation by Venuti (2001). From this study, it is found that the categories of cultural terms that appear most often are social culture with 39% with organizations, customs, and ideas items follows, not too far, with 35%. The study also found that the translator relied on adaptation which takes 41% of the items, and prioritizes domestication over foreignization. The analysis of the translation techniques reveals that many cultural elements cannot be translated as is and the chosen method may vary based on the context of the story. The findings highlight the need for translation guidelines to balance these two ideologies to preserve cultural richness while making the translation relatable to the target audience.

THE TRANSLATION OF CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS IN NGERI-NGERI SEDAP MOVIE

Translating culture-specific items (CSI) is difficult because the cultural items of the source language do not necessarily have the exact equivalent in the target language. This study aimed to describe the types of CSI in Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap movie based on Newmark’s (1988) categorization, Molina and Albir’s (2002) translation technique, and the translation norms. It employed descriptive qualitative research, and the data were collected using note-taking technique. The study results found 60 cultural items based on Newmark’s parameter types. The most frequently employed CSI type is socio-culture, with 29 data instances. Additionally, the category of the organization was observed in 20 instances, material culture was found in 8 instances, gesture and habit were present in 2 instances, and ecology was represented in 1 instance of data. 10 out of 18 translation techniques were used, but the most widely used translation technique was the literal translation, with 16 instances. Meanwhile, three dominant techniques were literal, adaptation, and generalization, which became the translation norms of CSI. The literal translation technique shows the closeness of SL (Source Language) and TL (Target Language) so that several concepts already have equivalents following the meaning of the SL.