Culture-specific Terms Research Articles

Investigating Iraqi Translation Students ' Mastery of Translating Cultural Terms, Arab Headdress Articles As a Case Study

Culture specific terms are problematic in translation as they are normally laden with a host of cultural associations and contextual components rendering them challenging and difficult to translate. Hence, the current research attempts to identify and address this problem through a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the research sample`s renderings of Arab headdress articles` terms (AHDATs) into English. The research sample consists of 25 4th grade translation students in translation department / Faculty of Arts / Wasit university. Each student is asked to translate sentences containing such terms in order to assess their renderings, diagnose the reasons of failure(if any) in grasping the intended meanings and in conveying the cultural associations involved. The researcher designed a 10-item translation test and students are asked to translate them based on the knowledge and experience they have obtained. Later the translations are collected to be scrutinized and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively so as to identify the frequency of usage and the rate of occurrence of different renderings . This would assist in figuring out the types of problems faced and what remedies and solutions can be suggested for improving their performance. The present study attempts to figure out the erroneous translations and shortcomings in the rendering of Arab Headdress Articles terms (AHATs) into English and the sources and causes of difficulty faced by students in conveying the SL intended meaning along with their culture- specific associations. As such, it can be identified what applicable measures and practical steps should be taken to enhance translation students` ability to overcome the arising challenges and what recommendations can be made. It is concluded at the end that such challenges and shortcomings can be addressed through including sufficient material and theorization illustrating the techniques and strategies proposed by theorists in dealing with culture – specific terms as well as exposing students to texts containing this kind of terms.

Examining the Cultural Connotations in Human and Machine Translations: A Corpus Study of Naguib Mahfouz's Zuqāq al-Midaqq

The translation of culture-specific terms constitutes a major challenge for professional translators as it necessitates a thorough understanding of both the linguistic and cultural elements. With rapid technological advancement over the past few years, machine translation has enhanced translation quality. This study investigates the transability of cultural connotations in the Arabic-English translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s Zuqāq al-Midaqq. A descriptive qualitative research design was adopted to achieve the intended goals of the study. The data comprised human and machine translations from Google Translate and ChatGPT. Through qualitative content analysis, the translations were compared for accuracy in transferring the cultural connotations prevalent in the Arabic source text. The findings revealed that the human translation showed greater naturalness and accuracy in rendering cultural connotations. Machine translation has struggled with rhetorical devices, idioms, and cultural nuances. The results also indicated that the AI-enhanced machine represented by ChatGPT captured the cultural elements more effectively than Google Translate. The study concluded that human expertise remains essential for the high-quality translation of literary works to maintain cultural significance. The findings can inform translator training and guide improvements to AI-enhanced translation for literary texts.

Совершенствование профессиональной подготовки будущих переводчиков посредством изучения культурно-специфических терминов

Culture-specific terms refer to words or phrases that hold unique meanings within a particular cultural context. These expressions represent the essence of a culture’s beliefs and values, often lacking direct equivalents in other languages. The presence of such words and word clusters poses challenges in communication and translation, hindering accurate understanding of ideas across linguistic and cultural boundaries. This discrepancy can lead to frustration, misreadings, and involuntary cultural insensitivity among translators-in-training. To address this problem, it is essential to adopt a multifaceted approach capable of exploring the potential of culture-specific terms from different perspectives, aimed at understanding the usage and importance of culture-specific terms, the problems they pose when translation pedagogy is concerned, and their correct assimilation in a classroom environment. The aim of this study is to bring awareness to culture-specific terms as unique, distinctive entities within a language. Future translators should recognize and respect culture-specific terms as integral components of language, reflective of diverse cultural contexts; they must be shown how to acquire a deep understanding of both the source and target cultures, enabling them to accurately interpret the nuances of culture-specific terms. Having teachers who are also professional translators actively involved in the training process can significantly enhance the learning experience of novice translators. Their first-hand practical experience with culture-specific terms equips them with invaluable insights that they can impart to students. The scientific novelty of this study lies in its potential to establish a robust and universally applicable outline for comprehending the significance of culture-specific terms. Such a framework is particularly vital, given the inherent subjectivity within the discipline of translation, juxtaposed with the imperative in pedagogy for clear and universally comprehensible practices. Employing techniques such as cultural adaptation, explanation, or contextualization can aid in bridging the gap between cultures and facilitating effective communication. Our results indicate that a general theory of pedagogy capable of encompassing every facet of translation studies is an unlikely scenario to this day; however, it is feasible to develop a tailored theory by anchoring it in culture-specific terminology and frameworks. Through this process, educators and experts will be able to attribute the proper relevance to cultural nuances throughout the training of novice translators. Culture profoundly influences language, as evidenced by the presence of terms specific to particular cultures, which reflect unique worldviews and perspectives. Considering these elements early on in the career of new translators will enable them to produce more accurate and relevant translations, lowering the likelihood of mistranslation and promoting intercultural understanding.

Popularization and scientization in terminology translation

Abstract San Ti (Three Body, better known to English readers as The Three-Body Problem) stands out as the most successful Chinese literary work introduced to international audiences through translation. Previous studies have primarily focused on translating culture-specific terms and fictive terms in the work, arguing that the strategy of foreignization alongside occasional footnotes significantly contributes to its tremendous success. Techno-scientific terms, on the other hand, have received relatively little attention because their rendering seemed to be a straightforward matter of back translation. However, our case study reveals that the source-text-oriented translation strategy for culture-specific terms and fictive terms presents only a partial picture of the science fiction (SF) terminology translation in San Ti. It demonstrates that translating techno-scientific terms needs to be considered alongside culture-specific and fictive terms. Moreover, it provides proof that translating techno-scientific terms cannot be simplified to a process of back translation only. The translator sometimes deviated from the principles of equivalence, resulting in three different types of interlingual terminological shifts, which are discussed and analyzed in the current study. Given the heterogeneity of the target readers and the interesting paradox of San Ti as hard SF, these different types of deviation serve two divergent purposes: popularization and scientization. In addition to explaining the success of San Ti in the English-speaking world, the findings of this case study also provide insights into the unfaithful facets, contextual factors and research scope of terminology translation in this specific genre.

Translation of Culture-Specific Terms from Arabic into English Between Loss and Preservation

Undoubtedly, translation is one of the oldest means of communication and a bridge connecting various cultures. In this sense, it stands as an effective tool for intercultural communication. Be it through written literary works or media outlets, translation is unarguably listed as one of the best communication channels. Thus, the present paper tackles the problematic issue that translators encounter while translating some culture-specific words or expressions from Arabic into English. A huge gap between the SL and TL may lead to more difficulties to transfer the message. The difference between Arabic and English in linguistic structures and discrepancies in their cultures sometimes make the process of translation a real challenge. Translation, of course, is not an easy task, but it requires a skilled and knowledgeable translator to make it right. In this paper, the primary concern is to shed light on the issue of culturally-specific terms that may generate obstacles for the translator, as well as to see to what extent these obstacles may affect the translation process. Certain translation strategies and methods that are proposed by some theorists are also addressed as remedy solutions for highly challenging culture-specific words or expressions following the model of Newmark (1988) and Aixela (1996). The paper concluded that possessing a cultural background of the source text can be extremely useful in cases of cultural-complexity translation.

A Critical Analysis of Saudi Legal Terms and their English Translations

The differences between the Arabic and English linguistic systems and legal cultures have long been a fundamental challenge in legal translation. Examining how the dissimilarities between the Saudi and English legal cultures affect the Arabic-English legal translation has received little attention from researchers. Therefore, this critical analysis aims to examine the Arabic-English translation of 12 Saudi legal articles to identify the linguistic and cultural factors involved in the translation process. Since research that addresses the difficulties and challenges of translating the legal discourse is of undeniable significance and studies that examined the Saudi legal discourse and its translation are scarce; therefore, this study attempts to contribute to the literature by analyzing several Saudi Legal Articles and their English translations to define the challenges of translating legal terms from Arabic into English. The study adopted Šarčević’s (2000) functional equivalence framework to study the Saudi Legal Articles and their official English translations. This framework was selected because it is well suited to examine the equivalent level of the legal terms and their translations, which is the main objective of this study. This study attempts to analyze different legal terms that characterize the selected Saudi legal articles and their official English translations. The investigated legal terms include religious, culture-specific, archaic, and doublets. This study revealed that translating Arabic religious and culture-specific terms and doublets is challenging, whereas translating Arabic archaic words is much easier.

EXPLORING SYNTACTIC AND CULTURAL PROBLEMS FACED BY TRANSLATORS IN TRANSLATING THE QURANIC ARABIC HOPE WORD L-AMALU لَمَألْا IN SURAHS AL-HIJR AND AL-KAHF INTO ENGLISH

The translation of the uniqueness of the Holy Quran into English can be addressed and discussed from various linguistic and stylistic lexical, syntactic, and cultural views and standpoints. The Quranic Arabic words/terms are vivid and magnificent with several nuances of meaning; a case which makes it difficult to be rendered accurately. This study made an effort to analyze syntactic and cultural problems faced by translators in translating the Quranic Arabic hope words l-amalu لَمَألْا in Surahs Al-Hijr and Al-Kahf into English. The findings of the study showed that the translators of the Holy Quran into English faced cultural problems because Quranic Arabic culture-specific terms have no counterpart in the English culture. Also, part of the difficulties and quandaries in rendering such terms exists in the fact that these words need an awareness of the Arabic-Islamic culture with all its religious values and mores. The findings of the study also brought to light that the Quranic Arabic hope words l-amalu لَمَألْا are culture-specific par excellent. They denote a type of translation inequivalent because they cannot be adequately rendered by offering their denotative meanings.

Prevođenje postkolonijalne afričke književnosti na evropske jezike - nemački prevod Purpurnog hibiskusa Čimamande Adiči

Literary hybridity necessitated by cultural differences is a distinct feature of Postcolonial Europhone African Literatures. This is evident in Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus (2000). This paper examines the hybridity in the source text (ST) and their translation from English into German. Instances of hybridity in the source text and their translation were identified. This highlights the translation strategies in the process of analyzing the translation choices and their implications, especially in transferring culture-specific elements in the source text into the target text (TT). Some challenges of intercultural translation are discussed in relation to the reflection of the author's style in literary translation. The paper reveals the consciousness of the translator to preserve the culture-specific elements that portray the author's culture and purpose through the adoption of ethnocentric strategies. Nida's equivalence theory was adopted to examine the translation of cultural phrases to determine how they were transferred to German language, and also discuss the implications of some choices made by the translator in propelling intercultural dialogue through translation. The study concludes that the translator's effort to strike a balance between the source and the target text was challenged as a result of inability to provide explanation for some unexplained culture-specific terms of vernacular origin in the source text.

Translating and adapting the lexicographic definitions in the Slavonic–Romanian Lexicon from the Ms no 3473

The late 17th century Slavonic–Romanian Lexicon preserved in the Ms no 3473 from the Romanian Academy Library belongs to a group of six Slavonic–Romanian lexicons translated following Pamvo Berynda’s Slavonic–Ruthenian Lexicon (Kyiv, 1627). These dictionaries most likely originate from a common unpreserved translation, having been studied mainly from the perspective of their filiation. The present study surveys aspects of the lexicographic approach in Ms no 3473, discussing the strategies adopted by the Romanian compiler(s) and their cultural determinant, the criteria applied in establishing the Romanian definitions and the semantic evolution of a few Romanian words. The examined examples reveal that the source was modified by simplification or, less often, amplification. Although the supplementary explanations mainly concern culture-specific terms and neologisms whose definitions often imply challenges, the definition techniques vary. Bilingual lexicons’ type definitions alternate with those of monolingual dictionaries type, which may be due both to the model and to the intervention of the translator and/ or the copyist.

Study on the Translation of Culture-Loaded Expressions in Shengsi pilao

Despite a large number of studies on translation strategies of culture-loaded expressions of Mo Yan’s novels, researchers have mostly investigated the translation of such expressions as a whole. The present study aims to explore the translation strategies applied by Howard Goldblatt in translating different categories of culture-loaded expressions of Mo Yan’s novel Shengsi pilao (Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out). It is necessary to identify the translation strategies of culture-loaded expressions employed by the translator, since they are large in number and are key to understanding the theme of the novel. In light of Peter Newmark’s translation theory, the present study analyzes the translation of two categories of culture-loaded expressions and finds the translator applies different strategies in translating each category of them, namely semantic translation for sociopolitical terms and communicative translation for culture-specific terms.

Editorial

In this first issue of 2022, Journal of Modern Languages (JML) is pleased to share six interesting articles which are of relevance to the field of languages and linguistics. The first article of Volume 32, Department Store Surveys as a Methodology in the Study of Linguistic Variation by Shangxin Zheng and Xiaomei Wang, evaluates the use of Department Store Surveys (DSS) as an effective sociolinguistic tool to study linguistic variation in a multilingual society. Then, the next article by Vivian Chiew and Cecilia Cheong talks about the socio-cognitive and professional practice perspectives on chairperson statements. The findings of their study do not only illuminate the importance of professional discourse but also highlight pedagogical implications for English for Professional Communication (EPC) programmes. In this issue, we have also included an article that concern minority languages, a major area of interest for many researchers. In the article Maimani Language and Lawati Language: Two Sides of the Same Coin?, Said Humaid Al Jahdhami shares with us the resemblance between two minority languages which are Maimani Language and Lawati language. The other two articles focus on translation. In the article Evaluating the Curriculum for M.A. English Translation in Iran: Is the Curriculum Effective for Students?, Aynaz Samir evaluates the effectiveness of the English translation programme in Iran by investigating 341 university students’ perspectives. Insights for curriculum reform in the area of English translation are provided. The following article The Art of Paper Cutting: Strategies and Challenges in Chinese to English Subtitle Translation of Cultural Items by William Chai, Hui Yi Ong, Mansour Amini and Latha Ravindran highlights the technical, cultural and linguistic challenges faced in translating culture-specific items. Some of the proposed strategies in dealing with the translation of culture-specific terms are omission, equivalence, adaptation and direct transfer. Last but not least, Abbas Pazireh, Nilofar Hessamodini and Zohre Jaferi reported the findings of their quantitative study in the article Iranian EFL Learners’ Perceptions towards Demotivation in Learning English. In their study, 300 Iranian high school students’ perceptions of demotivation in learning English were gathered and factors such as teachers, textbooks, classroom conditions were identified. We hope that these articles published by JML are insightful to you and that you would share them with your friends and colleagues. For your easy reference, a list of featured articles published in the last five years is attached in the Appendix.

THE TRANSLATION OF ARABIC LEGAL DOCUMENTS: A CASE STUDY OF PALESTINE DIVORCE DOCUMENTS

This study is about the translatability of Arabic religious legal terms in Palestinian divorce documents. It is a qualitative descriptive study which aims at exploring the translator’s choices and decisions in dealing with divorce terminologies to determine the determinant norms that can affect or enhance divorce terminologies in Arabic-English translation. In doing so, Vinay and Darbelnet’s translation procedures are followed to assess the translations. The study has looked into the translations of divorce terminologies in Palestinian divorce documents. Translated texts of Palestinian divorce documents have been selected from Palestinian sworn translators and certified translation offices to be representative of this text type. A set of specified divorce terms have been analysed. As a result, it is discovered that the translators rely highly on the direct strategy to translate general terms such as ‘nafaqa, dukhul, ibra’ while the oblique technique is used to translate culture-specific terms such as: khalwa, raji, baen baynona sughra and kubra’. The research reveals also that the translations decisions depend not only on translation norms, but also on language norms related to culture- specific terms.

Familiarizing Typical Nepali Terms in English

Within the territory of Nepal and its vicinities like India, Myanmar and Bhutan, the Nepali language is used as a means of wider communication. Apart from this, it has become a fertile field of research for linguists, language-based researchers and language teachers. With this assumption, this article aimed to investigate the typical (that are culture-specific) terms of the Nepali language. To achieve this objective, the study employed a case study design that took Nepali culture-specific terms as a case and used document analysis for the interpretation of the information in the selected language based on the framework of words and phrases. For maintaining readability and intelligibility to the global readership, the typical Nepali terms have been glossed in English. The main finding is that the Nepali language is rich in its cultural terms that comprise words and phrases. This study can contribute to the linguists, translators and pedagogues for the frame of reference for further exploration of the rich field of study, reaching to the wider readership.

ЕТНОКУЛЬТУРНА СПЕЦИФІКА ІСТОРИЧНОЇ ТЕРМІНОЛОГІЇ: ЗІСТАВНИЙ ТА ПЕРЕКЛАДОЗНАВЧИЙ АСПЕКТИ (на матеріалі історичних термінів античності та давньоруського періоду)

The article looks into the comparative and translational aspects of historical terms as a group of special professional words used by historians in both English and Ukrainian academic texts to describe one particular period in Ukrainian history, that of antiquity and Old Rus. Different groups of historical terminology were identified in original Ukrainian and English texts on this period, such as proper names, names to denote items of material culture, social and military status, rank at the royal court, social and religious processes and phenomena. Particular attention was given to those names that denote culture- and period-specific concepts of the described time-period in Ukrainian history. English translations of Ukrainian historical terminology were studied based on non-numerous existing translations from Ukrainian, which were then compared to the approaches used by native English-speaking academics. For those concepts where no equivalents could be found, the authors have offered their own translations. Conclusions were made about the prevailing methods of rendering different classes of historical terms into English, including culture-specific terms which were found in each terminological group. Such culture-specific Ukrainian terminology is rendered into English redominantly via combined renomination, which combines phonological and/or orthographic adaptation and description or via description only. Other methods have been discussed, such as translation by equivalent, loan translation and analogous translation, which were applied to both non-culture specific and culture-specific terminology. Identifying a lexical unit as belonging to one of those groups helps with determining its translation method. Conclusions have been drawn about the general nature of historical terminology, which from the translation point of view can be divided into two big groups: terms denoting universal historical notions and culture-specific historical terms.

Bridging the Gap between Cultures: The Translation of Cockney and Slang in G. B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion”

Abstract This article analyses the main drama translation strategies pertaining to the rendering of dialect and slang from English into Romanian with practical emphasis on “Pygmalion” (1914; 1941) by George Bernard Shaw. Moreover, it aims to review translation techniques and strategies which facilitate the translation of slang and dialect, more precisely Cockney, from English into Romanian. Amongst the strategies discussed here are: the application of a cultural filter and of local adaptation, the use of dialect compilation, pseudo-dialect translation, parallel dialect translation, dialect localization, and standardisation. The second half of this article scrutinises a selection of lines extracted from G. B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” comparing and contrasting the existing Romanian translations and suggesting new solutions to rendering culture-specific terms into Romanian.

Exploring Morphosyntax-related Semantic and Pragmatic Dimension Losses in Three English Translations of the Meanings of Sūrah AlKahf: A Comparative Pragmalinguistic Analytical Study

The current research paper explores some morphosyntax-related semantic and pragmatic dimension losses in three English translations of the meanings of Sūrah AlKahf of Mohammed A.S Abdel- Hakeem, Mohammed M. Pickthall, and Mohammed Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai . Also, the study aims at probing the reasons that lead to these semantic and pragmatic losses, either partial or complete. The two researchers utilized the qualitative descriptive paradigm, which is proper and apt to this study because the Holy Quran rendition is multiplex and cannot be deeply examined adopting another alternative research paradigm. Markedly, the qualitative descriptive paradigm is apt to analyze the data extracted from the three translations of Mohammed A.S Abdel- Hakeem, Mohammed M. Pickthall, and Mohammed Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilai Abdel of Surah AlKahf .The study indicated losses in renditions, tense, verbs, losses of consistency and morphosyntax grouping, and culture-specific terms. The study also revealed that the morphosyntax-related semantic and pragmatic dimension losses might lead to meaning losses, fixed expressions, idioms, or culture-specific terms. This study recommends that the translators of the Holy Quran in general and the translators of Surah AlKahf, notably, employ suitable translation strategies to decrease the morphosyntax-related semantic and pragmatic dimension losses in the translation of the Holy Quran.

TRANSLATION PROCEDURES OF CULTURE-SPECIFIC TERMS IN INDONESIAN POEMS IN ON FOREIGN SHORES

This paper aimed firstly to explore culture-specific terms identified in the anthology of poems On Foreign Shores: American Images in Indonesian Poetry and secondly to analyze translation procedures employed to translate the culture-specific terms from Indonesian into English. Data were taken from the anthology entitled On Foreign Shores and analysed using Newmark’s (1988) and Vinay and Darbelnet’s (1958) translation procedures. Results showed 23 culture-specific terms were discovered in 15 poems in the Indonesian language. Of the 23 culture-specific terms, such as daun ketapang, gayam, and kopiah, seven belong to the ecology category, three to the material culture category, nine to the social culture category, one to the organizations, ideas and customs category, and three to the gestures and habits category. Results also showed five of 15 translation procedures were employed to translate the 23 culture-specific terms found in On Foreign Shores. The five procedures were functional equivalence or equivalence, cultural equivalence or adaptation, descriptive equivalence, transference, and reduction.

Semantic Change of Hijab, Halal and Islamist from Arabic to English

This paper explores the interrelationship between culture, language and communication. English language has established a position for itself as a widely spoken language in the world in many aspects of people’s lives regardless of race, creed or religion . Many Islamic specific terms have been borrowed into English as a result of continuous contact between Muslims and English-speaking communities. This study analyzes the semantic change of three commonly used Islamic terms by English speakers in daily life: hijab, halal, Islamist, and their definitions in English dictionaries. It aims to investigate their definitions and explore their associated meanings both in dictionaries and language in use. The definitions of the terms were compared in two reliable English dictionaries, Collins English Dictionary (CED) and Oxford Learner’s Dictionary (OLD). A well-known Arabic dictionary, Al Mu‘jam Alwasit Dictionary (AAD), was used for reference of the original Arabic meaning. The Intelligent Web corpus (iWeb) was used to provide information on the use of the examined terms in daily language, and the words they collocate with. The study adopts a semantic change framework for data analysis. Findings of the research suggest that all three terms have undergone semantic changes, and their new meanings in English do not include the extra levels of social and religious meanings as in the original Arabic language. In particular, the term Islamist has developed negative connotations. Language in use has a strong influence on connotations associated to culture-specific terms. Keywords: Islamic terms; Semantic change; Meaning connotations; Cross-culture loanwords

Translating across Languages and Cultures: A Study of Culture-Specific Terms in Bhattarai’s Muglan

The article aims to explore and categorize culture-specific terms (CSTs) in Bhattarai’s novel Muglan, investigate and analyze the strategies applied in the translated version, assess the strategies for plausibility and evaluate gaps in translation. The data for the study were collected from Nepali and English versions of the novel. The basic technique for collecting data was the observation, which was done by using a checklist. The selection of the 220 cultural terms from the novel was done by applying a purposive sampling procedure. They were investigated in terms of five categories and seven strategies. The major finding of the research was that the terms, categorized into five types, employed seven strategies. The most frequent strategy was the translation by cultural substitution, followed by loan word (plus explanation), neutral word and general word. The subsequent strategies were translation by paraphrase (related words), paraphrase (unrelated words) and omission. Moreover, not specific but different reasons were found in the selection and use of the strategies. Finally, the study found that cultural references necessitate the use of appropriate strategies for transferring them across languages.

TED 자막 번역 전략 설문 조사

This study aims to validate the existing research on TED translation strategies which have mainly been conducted using a content analysis method. Two surveys were conducted, one in 2014, and the other in 2019. The survey results show that TED translators also consider audiovisual information when subtitling, and consciously omit repeated information, discourse markers, and pronouns while intentionally keeping transitional words. They also answered that they prefer domestication strategies for sayings, and literal translation for currencies and measurement units. Compared to the 2014 survey, TED translators in 2019 were more actively following experts’ practice of subtitling that are found on TV or in movies: they attempt to follow professional subtitling rules on domestication, punctuation, and subtitle lengths. The respondents described that their translation strategies are mainly centered around the audience’s easy understanding of the messages and information provided by TED talks. The results of the surveys are found to support the presumptions offered in the existing studies: omissions/additions of certain information in accordance with video, differentiated translation strategies for culture-specific terms, omissions of repeated information, discourse markers, and pronouns, and retainment of transitional words were all intentionally done.