Inappropriate Translation Research Articles

A review of research on computer‐aided translation technologies and their applications to assist learning and instruction

AbstractBackgroundOur study analysed 46 articles on computer‐aided translation (CAT) and its educational uses. We explored two main areas: CAT technologies in learning and teaching, and the research methodologies of these studies.ObjectivesOur review covered the types of CAT technologies used, their applications in different learning settings, theoretical backgrounds and their pros and cons. We also looked at the research designs, participant demographics and data collection methods used in these studies.MethodsWe conducted an extensive search across academic databases using relevant keywords and employed open coding to analyse and categorize the content of identified articles, focusing on aspects related to CAT technologies in educational contexts.Results and ConclusionsOur findings showed the use of 22 distinct CAT technologies, with Google Translate being the most common. The studies mostly used empirical research methods and questionnaires. University students were the primary participants. CAT technologies were applied in various contexts, including language learning, translation teaching, cross‐cultural learning and foreign language lectures. We identified five key theoretical foundations for CAT use. Benefits included bridging language barriers, vocabulary enhancement, and grammar improvement as well as providing reference and feedback for writing and translation. Challenges included inaccuracies and inappropriate translations. However, most studies showed a positive impact of CAT on learning outcomes. Based on our analysis, we offer recommendations for educators and researchers in the field. This review provides a thorough understanding of CAT's applications and effects in education, guiding future advancements in this area.

Comparative Study of Google Translate and Yandex of English Latin-Originated Legal Phraseology into Arabic: A corpus-based approach

The use of machine translation has become ubiquitous across various translation practices, especially with the advent of neural machine translation and the integration of deep learning and artificial intelligence in translation program development. While the accuracy and quality of machine translation outcomes have significantly improved, challenges persist particularly in legal translation from English to Arabic. The unique nature of legal discourse and structural differences between English and Arabic make accurately translating legal language features a daunting task. This study aims to evaluate the quality of neural machine translation in rendering legal Latin phraseology into Arabic by comparing two websites: Google Translate and Yandex. A corpus-based approach was adopted where 270 Latin-origin legal terms and phrases were collected, scrutinised, and translated using both platforms. The evaluation focuses on four criteria: inappropriate translations, no translations provided, borrowing (phonetic transliteration into Arabic), and equivalence—the culturally and functionally suitable translation. Key findings indicate that despite significant advancements in machine translation technology, accuracy remains a critical issue, with approximately half of the terms not translated correctly. While Google Translate is widely used, Yandex demonstrated higher accuracy in this context. Furthermore, the majority of phrases selected for this study were not accurately translated by either website. The solution to this problem lies in enhancing the training process. Arabic users and translators should contribute more translations to enrich Arabic corpora online. Additionally, it's been observed that there is a lack of English-Arabic dictionaries or databases dedicated to Legal Language Processing (LLP). Therefore, initiating a research project addressing this issue could be of utmost importance. Regarding specialized language, improving the quality of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) raises questions about its reliability for both learners and professional translators. Accordingly, the study recommends further research on assessing machine translation quality, improving neural machine translation terminology accuracy, and enhancing machine learning models with more Arabic content and corpora.

ANHA DOTHRAK CHEK ASSHEKH: THE RENDERING OPERATION OF THE INVENTED LANGUAGE DOTHRAKI INTO BAHASA INDONESIA IN GAME OF THRONES SEASON 6

This research is conducted to observe the rendering operation of L3 translation applied of Game of Thrones series Season 6, specifically focusing on two objectives: identifying the types of rendering operations used and explaining why these operations are chosen. The research adopts a descriptive qualitative approach. Corrius and Zabalbeascoa's theory on L3 translation rendering operations serves as the framework for addressing the research questions. Data analysis employs Spradley’s componential analysis method, and the researcher verified the findings with an expert. The study identified 175 instances of Dothraki language in Game of Thrones Season 6, leading to the discovery of three distinct types of L3 translation rendering operations. There are 6 Delete L3ST (3,5%) in which the L3 in ST is omitted in TT, 16 Substitute L3ST → L2 (9,1%), which is divided into 2 conditions. There are condensation and inappropriate translation. The last is 153 Substitute L3ST (87,4%) which is divided into two conditions, defining the plot and emphasizing the characters, identity and story. The data shows that the most dominant rendering operation of L3 translation applied by the subtitler is Substitute L3ST because it is considered to be the most suitable operation that can be used as a solution in translating invented language. It is also because the subtitler accurately translated the third language into the target language, as evidenced by the consistency with the dictionary, dialogues, and scene narratives. The second finding of this research shows that there are 2 kinds of nature and degree of L3 presence. In this research, the researcher found 22 data (12,6%) of Lost which is divided into 6 causes, i.e: lack of duration, no full translation, accidental error, incorrect translation, unnecessary scene and unclear words. Also 153 data (87,4%) of Kept which is divided into 4 conditions; to define Khaleesi, define Dothraki, define Game of Thrones and define the context of the story. This means that the subtitler still wants to retain the meaning and the style of the third language.

International Variables: Translation Problems for the Localization of Web Apps

In localization, international variables refer to source cultural elements that require a certain degree of adaptation in a target culture, such as date, time and number formats, currencies, colours, images, humour elements, etc. Although localization involves the adaptation of a digital product to a specific market, certain aspects of localization projects (i.e., source file formats, translation tools or project specifications) could become an obstacle to achieving that ultimate goal of localization, even giving rise to errors or culturally inappropriate translations. This qualitative, interpretative study analyses a corpus compiled from the online help pages of web applications to identify and describe potential translation problems caused by international variables.

Translation techniques used and its shift in Stranger Things movie

The use of inappropriate translation techniques can cause distortion and a shift in meaning from the source language to the target language. In addition, the limited space for writing words in subtitles is a challenge for a translator. This study reviewed the use of translation techniques for expressions of fear that were realized in the form of sentences and the shifts that occured as a result of using these techniques. The data were the subtitles of the film Stranger Things season 1. To analyze the data, the researcher used a qualitative content analysis model (Santosa, 2021). In this study, the researcher used the theory of translation techniques (Molina & Albir, 2002). All data were expressions of fear in both English (SL) and Indonesian (TL). In addition, in analyzing the data, the researcher was assisted by two translation experts in analyzing the use of techniques and shifts that occurred in the translation data. In this study, the most widely used technique was established equivalent. With this technique, the translation results sounded natural in the target language. However, the use of reduction and discursive creation techniques distorted the meaning. Specifically, discursive creation distorted meaning in the target language; meanwhile reduction techniques caused a reduction of information. Furthermore, this study found that there was a shift in the function of commanding speech into asking speech due to the use of inappropriate translation techniques.

Lexico-thematic groups of non-equivalent vocabulary in Russian translations (against the background of Chinese prototypes)

This article is centered on the study and description of the ways of identification and designation of the surrounding reality phenomena in two cultures - Russian and Chinese. Special attention is paid to the significance of the national-cultural specificity of the word. The article considers both general issues of ethno-cultural phenomena nomination and its specific cases, namely, the functioning of non-equivalent vocabulary and ways of its translation from Chinese into Russian. It also gives a brief overview of the distribution dynamics in modern Chinese prose and the problems of studying Yu Hua’s work in Russia. The aim of the article is to reveal the importance of translations of modern Chinese fiction as sources of studying non-equivalent vocabulary and translation strategies when working on characteristic word-markers of Chinese culture used in the novel “To Live” by the outstanding modern Chinese writer Yu Hua. The study is based on the translation of the novel in question, made by the Russian scholar R. G. Shapiro. The article determines thematic groups of non-equivalent vocabulary in the novel “To Live” (word-designations of new Chinese life, ethnographisms, historicisms, background and connotative words) and the main translation methods of their transfer (borrowing, description, hyperonyms, etc.). Special attention is paid to approximate or inappropriate translations in the text, due to the translator’s ignorance of the semantics of non-equivalent words, which ultimately leads to an imperfect understanding of Chinese culture.

Cultural Discrepancies Encountered by Interpreters in International Conferences

The present research focuses on the cultural challenges encountered by translators during interpretative translation at international conferences from English to Arabic. The main issue addressed in this study is the cultural differences faced by translators during the interpretative translation process between the English and Arabic languages in international conferences. The aim of this study include identifying the cultural differences experienced by translators in interpretative translation at international conferences, exploring strategies that can be utilized for interpretative translation, specifically in the context of international conferences, and proposing potential solutions to help translators bridge the cultural gap during the translation process in international conferences. The current study hypothesized that interpreters may encounter difficulties in capturing cultural differences during the translation of international conferences from English to Arabic. It is also posited that misunderstanding the cultural aspects of both languages can result in inappropriate translations. To accomplish this study, a theoretical background is presented, providing an overview of the topic. Additionally, the data analysis is discussed and examined based on the adopted model. The findings of this study reveal that some participants were unable to fully grasp the context and cultural differences in the source text. Consequently, they mistranslated cultural content from English to Arabic due to insufficient knowledge of the cultures involved and time constraints during the interpretation process from English to Arabic.

Translating Culture in the Jordanian T.V. Comedy Series “al jar gabl al dar” (My American Neighbor) Into English

The present study aims at investigating the strategies of translating cultural expressions from Arabic into English. The study also attempts to identify the types of cultural expressions and the strategies employed by the translators when rendering them into English. The data is collected from the Jordanian TV comedy series الجار قبل الدار “al jar gabl al dar” (My American Neighbor) season 4, which was streamed on Roya T.V. channel in 2017; several challenging cases, within their context, were selected and being elaborated. The study relied on Gottlieb’s subtitling model of analysis to handle the strategies employed. The English subtitled translations of these cases were compared to the original texts and were analyzed to check accuracy, acceptability, and comprehensibility. The hypothesis is that the cultural expressions do perplex the translators who exert lots of effort to employ strategies that may convey them into the target language. However, the inevitable result is inaccurately rendering some of these statements, which may be attributed to a lack of understanding of both cultures on the part of the translators and inappropriate translation strategies selection. The study reveals that cultural expressions identified in this TV comedy include idioms (41%), dialect sayings (27%), religious expressions (15%), dialect (11%), and standard proverbs (6%), respectively. The study concludes that paraphrase (60.61%), imitation (22.73%), deletion (12.12%), expansion 3.03%), and transfer (1.51%) have been the most recurrent subtitling strategies employed when dealing with the Arabic cultural expressions.

A Critical Evaluation of Google Translation: The Case of English-Sorani Kurdish Translation

Google Translate is one of the most frequently and actively used machine translation services worldwide. Sorani Kurdish, otherwise known as Central Kurdish, was officially added to Google Translate in May 2022. At the onset of the launch of Sorani Kurdish translation services, it is crucial to evaluate the quality of the translation and pave way for improvements, if necessary. Taking into consideration both linguistic and cultural aspects, this paper aims to critically investigate the accuracy of English-Sorani Kurdish translations produced by Google Translate. For this purposes, the paper has adopted a textual analysis approach based on the notion of equivalence to critically analyze samples of translations generated by Google Translate. The results suggest that Google Translate is largely accurate at morphological and syntactic levels but improvements are needed to improve minor deficiencies detected in rendering ‘future perfect tense’, ‘third conditional sentences’ and passive tenses, especially in the case of ‘present progressive’ and ‘past progressive’ tenses. With regard to the semantic level, Google Translate has proved accurate in processing polysemous words, but it has assumed a total failure in translating idioms and proverbs. At the cultural level, in over third-fourths of instances Google Translate renders English cultural terms into Sorani Kurdish accurately, whereas in nearly one-fourth of instances it offers inappropriate translation. As far as English into Sorani Kurdish translation is concerned, Google Translate can be deemed effective as a supportive translation tool but it is far from being perfect, and continuous improvements will be needed to respond to the deficiencies unearthed in this study.

Translating English Conditional Sentences without 'if' into Arabic

Translation of conditional sentences without ' if ' is regarded a thorny area, since it requires the translator's realization of the syntactic system that determines the well-formed sentence structures. The meaning through grammar is a basic significance in this study, which sheds light on the words ordering links (i.e., syntax) in a certain context. Thus, English conditionals without 'if' form, tense and meaning are difficult areas in the translation process into Arabic. On the syntactic level, the structural disparity between English and Arabic constitutes a stumbling block, in that English conditionals are without subordinator ' if ' and determined by the verb tense. Unlike Arabic, only the particles determine the conditional type and its meaning. So, this mismatch between the two languages involved is one of the main factors that brings out inappropriate translation. This study aims to analyze conditional sentences without ' if ' syntactically and semantically to show the translation method of their types and to specify some problems that may arise in translating such constructions. To achieve the above-mentioned aims, the study hypothesizes that unless the syntactic and semantic features of those sentences are fully realized, a proper translation cannot be attained. The study shows that the structures of conditionals without ' if ' are not well understood and their meaning are not expressed appropriately into Arabic.

The Lion King: The Intricate Process of Subtitling a Children’s Movie

The following study aims at pointing out the main differences in subtitling between the two versions of the movie The Lion King released by Walt Disney Pictures. In this paper, both the 1994 cartoon and the 2019 movie will be analyzed in terms of translation, in order to see which rendition is the most accurate in delivering the message of the original. As far as the subtitles are concerned, a series of lines from the translated versions will be compared to their original English equivalent, in order to see if any mistranslation or inappropriate translations are encountered.

Comparing Translation Peculiarities of Legal Texts in The Russian and Persian Languages

Translation of legal texts requires special attention and great accuracy. In legal texts words have legal connotations and legal consequences, which enable either to protect the interests of legal entities and individuals, or, on the contrary, violate their rights. Inappropriate translations of legal texts cause misunderstanding and vagueness, which is unacceptable in this type of texts. The compendium of legal texts in Iran is based on general legal law and jurisprudential principles. The lack of bilingual legal RussianPersian and Persian-Russian dictionaries enhances the translation problems in this field. This fact suggests that due attention has not been paid to such an important issue in the field of linguistics. The current criterion used in the translation of legal documents is the objective interpretation of the text. The identification of the problem can help solve it. The subject of this article was the legal content focused on legal family and financial texts. The purpose of our research is to reveal the difficulties translators of legal texts in these languages face, to study the best examples of translation accumulated by far and to help translators of legal texts by integrating translators’ experiences and publishing comparative works that reveal cultural and semantic connotations in two languages.

Which Target Temperature for Post-Anoxic Brain Injury? A Systematic Review from "Real Life" Studies.

There is a persistent debate on the optimal target temperature to use during cooling procedures in cardiac arrest survivors. A large randomized clinical trial (RCT) including more than 900 patients showed that targeted temperature management (TTM) at 33 °C had similar mortality and unfavorable neurological outcome (UO) rates as TTM at 36 °C in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients with any initial rhythm. Since then, several observational studies have been published on the effects of changes in target temperature (i.e., from 33 to 36 °C) on patients’ outcome. We performed a systematic literature search from 1 January 2014 to 4 December 2020 and identified ten retrospective studies (very low levels of certainty; high risk of bias), including 5509 patients, that evaluated TTM at 33 °C vs. TTM at 36 °C on the occurrence of UO (n = eight studies) and mortality (n = ten studies). TTM at 33 °C was associated with a lower risk of UO when studies assessing neurological outcome with the Cerebral Performance Categories were analyzed (OR 0.80 [95% CIs 0.72–0.98]; p = 0.03). No differences in mortality were observed within the two TTM strategies. These results suggest that an inappropriate translation of TTM protocols from large well-conducted randomized trials into clinical management may result in unexpected effects on patients’ outcome. As for all newly commercialized drugs, epidemiological studies and surveillance programs with an adequate follow-up on large databases are necessary to understand how RCTs are implemented into medical practice.

I PARTICIPATE, THEREFORE I AM: A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ EFFORTS OF HELPING GOOGLE TRANSLATE TO REFINE ITS TRANSLATION RESULTS

This study invited a group of Taiwanese English-as-a-foreign- language (EFL) tertiary-level students to help Google Translate (GT) Community to refine its translation output. The participants engaged in 5 types of translation refinement tasks by responding to the input provided by GT Community (the first four tasks) or entering translation suggestions when encountering inappropriate translation generated by GT (the fifth task). The results indicated that the participants were able to generate highly accurate output for the first four tasks. With regard to the fifth task, many students entered proverbs, idioms, cultural expressions or slang for GT to translate and deemed GT’s inability to translate beyond literal meaning as something to be improved upon. There were also nearly 25% of over-correction due to students’ excessive scrutiny.All in all, students generally enjoyed the experience of helping GT to improve its translation quality. As students took the role of active contributors of knowledge, they developed competence and gained experience of participating in the digital world. Their participation also helped them to refine their language knowledge and developed their research abilities. The current study ends with a few possible directions for future research. Keywords: Google Translate (GT), Google Translate Community, translation refinement tasks, online participation

The Translation of the Verbal Noun in the Glorious Quran into English

This study investigates, the rhetorical function of verbal nouns (interjection) in the Glorious Quran. It aims at finding the most appropriate rendition of the interjection. It is hypothesized that semantic translation should be adopted in capturing the rhetorical function of interjection. Newmark's models (semantic and communication translation) is adopted. The study has revealed that inappropriate translation distort the intended meaning of the interjection.

Aha! Taking on the myth that simulation‐derived surprise enhances learning

This paper aims to discuss the recurring education-related issue of the high-fidelity simulation myth. In the current instantiation, educators erroneously believe that trainees benefit from authentic uncertainty and surprise in simulation-based training. We explore the origins of this myth within the experiential learning and social constructivism theories and propose an evidence-based solution of transparent and guided instruction in simulation. Constructivist theories highlight meaning making as the benefit of inquiry and discovery learning strategies. Inappropriate translation of this epistemology into an element of curriculum design creates unfortunate unintended consequences. We propose that the translation of constructivist theories of learning within simulation-based education has resulted in a pervasive myth, which decrees that scenarios must introduce realistic tension or surprises to encourage exploration and insightful problem solving. We argue that this myth is masquerading as experiential learning. In this narrative review, we interpret our experiences and observations of simulation-based education through our expertise in education science and curriculum design. We offer anecdotal evidence along with a review of selected literature to establish the presence of this previously undetected myth.

On Translation of Cultural Images in Chang Hen Ge from the Perspective of Reception Theory

Abstract Based on concepts of horizon of expectation and indeterminacy in reception theory, this paper reports a comparative analysis of Chang Hen Ge, a narrative poem written by Chinese poet Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty, and its English translations by William John Bainbrigge Fletcher, Herbert Allen Giles, Xu Yuanchong as well as Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang. Results are as follows: 1) Xu’s translation is the best in that he adds annotations and combines literal and free translations so as to explicate cultural connotations and underlying implications of images while meeting and broadening target readers’ horizon of expectation. In addition, he tries to replicate figurative characteristics and transform rhetorical techniques of original cultural images to retain the source text’s indeterminacy and aesthetic value and to provide target readers with intense aesthetic experience. 2) There are inappropriate and inaccurate translations of cultural images in all the four English translations, and they are caused by differences in ethnic history, religious belief, mode of thinking, features of English and Chinese as well as the subjectivity of translators.

The translation applied in intersemiotic study

The present research was a corpus-based descriptive qualitative content analysis of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, based on Peirce’s intersemiotic model. The drama was translated interlingually from English to Farsi and intersemiotically by Servati for stage performance. Regarding the first research question (Which signs (iconical, indexical, or symbolic) are more applicable to semiotic analysis of Macbeth performance?), the results of the analysis show that the intersemiotic translation of drama was not successful in transferring some iconic signs from page to stage. Iconic signs are more susceptible to inappropriate intersemiotic translation than indexical signs and symbolic signs. Considering Servati’s adaptation, it can be judged that other aspects, namely, secondness and thirdness, are more manageable when translating drama into a stage performance. This finding, in this case study, contradicts the findings of some previous studies regarding the point that intersemiotic translation is a deeply iconic dependent process. The contradictory results may be related to cultural differences and different cultural signs of the two involved languages.

The Quality of Direct Procedures in Students’ Indonesian Translation of English Folklore Drama Scripts

According to Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), direct translation refers to the transposition of source language message element by element into target language based on either structural parallelism or metalinguistic parallelism. However, both parallelisms are not realized by the student translators so that sometimes they apply inappropriate direct translation. Therefore, this study is aimed to assess the quality of students’ direct translation procedures according to Larson (1994) in Indonesian rendering of English folklore drama script. This study employed descriptive qualitative method with the involvement of respondents for quality assessment. The result reveals that 445 direct procedures consisting of 45 borrowing translations, 18 calque translations, and 382 literal translations produce 249 accurate, 64 sufficiently accurate, and 132 less accurate translations. Dealing with clarity, 314 are considered as clear, 71 sufficiently clear, and 60 less clear translations. In addition, the analysis of naturalness results 285 natural, 51 sufficiently natural, 58 less natural, and 51 unnatural translations. The problems derived from students’ direct procedures are the use of unacceptable loan word and word by word translation which can create misinterpretation. Therefore, the students should increase their awareness of the structural and metalinguistic parallelisms between source and target language.

A STUDY ON EQUIVALENCE IN THE INDONESIAN-ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF ISMAIL’S SELECTED POEMS

This study aimed to find out the translation procedures used by translator and the equivalence applied in the translation result of the poem. This study applied translation procedure theory from Vinay and Dalbernet (1995) and equivalence theory from Nida and Taber (1974). The data was taken from Ismails poems and the translated version by McGlynn. Each line of the poem was analyzed in order to find the category of translation procedures used and equivalence which focused on the meaning in the translation result. Some suggestions were also given when this study found some inappropriate translations. This study used qualitative method and primary research. The analysis result showed that the translator used some translation procedures while translating. There were single procedures used, such as literal translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. There were also multiple procedures used, such as modulation and reduction, transposition and modulation, transposition and expansion, literal translation and reduction, and literal translation and expansion. The most translation procedure used was literal translation. There were also formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence in the translation result. The most equivalence used was dynamic equivalence.Keywords: poem, translation procedure, equivalence