Translation Of Proper Names Research Articles

Transliteration - as translation methods

This article discusses the need to demonstrate the complexity and “pitfalls” associated with the interlanguage functioning of names. It discusses the basic principles of the translation of proper names, the task is to obtain specific practical knowledge related to the features of certain names.

O translokacji nomina propria w dziele literackim (na przykładzie polskiсh tłumaczeń powieści Doktor Żywago Borisa Pasternaka)

This paper analyzes problems involved in the Polish translation of proper names contained in Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago. Empirical material was collected from two Polish translations published in book form: by Jerzy Stempowski (Paris: Instytut Literacki 1959) and by Ewa Rojewska-Olejarczuk (Warsaw: PIW 1990). The study aimed to analyze translatorial equivalents taking into account the following criteria: consistency with the named object, informativeness of the name, and retaining the cultural ambience. The following research methods were applied: descriptive, com-parative analysis as well as functional and stylistic analysis. The comparative analysis focused on the adequacy of the applied translation methods.

Lost in Machine Translation: Contextual Linguistic Uncertainty

The article considers the issues related to the semantic, grammatical, stylistic and technical difficulties currently present in machine translation and compares its four main approaches: Rule-based (RBMT), Corpora-based (CBMT), Neural (NMT), and Hybrid (HMT). It also examines some "open systems", which allow the correction or augmentation of content by the users themselves ("crowdsourced translation"). The authors of the article, native speakers presenting different countries (Russia, Greece, Malaysia, Japan and Serbia), tested the translation quality of the most representative phrases from the English, Russian, Greek, Malay and Japanese languages by using different machine translation systems: PROMT (RBMT), Yandex. Translate (HMT) and Google Translate (NMT). The test results presented by the authors show low "comprehension level" of semantic, linguistic and pragmatic contexts of translated texts, mistranslations of rare and culture-specific words,unnecessary translation of proper names, as well as a low rate of idiomatic phrase and metaphor recognition. It is argued that the development of machine translation requires incorporation of literal, conceptual, and content-and-contextual forms of meaning processing into text translation expansion of metaphor corpora and contextological dictionaries, and implementation of different types and styles of translation, which take into account gender peculiarities, specific dialects and idiolects of users. The problem of untranslatability ('linguistic relativity') of the concepts, unique to a particular culture, has been reviewed from the perspective of machine translation. It has also been shown, that the translation of booming Internet slang, where national languages merge with English, is almost impossible without human correction.

Problem przekładu imion biblijnych na język chiński w „Biblii Bożonarodzeniowej”

Chińskie osobowe nazwy własne mają specyficzną strukturę. Ponadto język chiński jest językiem sugestywnym, który granice semantyczne poszerza poprzez pisane obrazy w swoich znakach. Stąd też tłumacze tekstów na język chiński, w tym tłumacze Biblii, stoją przed trudnym wyzwaniem. Jest ono szczególnie interesujące w tłumaczeniach imion, które polega na takim doborze znaków, by nie dopuścić do niepożądanych skojarzeń znaczeniowych poprzez np. skupianie się jedynie na podobieństwie fonetycznym, ale tak dobrać znaki, by zawrzeć w nich jak najbardziej harmonijne treści z kontekstem historycznym, społecznym czy osobistym posiadacza danego imienia. Pierwszym katolickim tłumaczem całej Biblii był bł. Gabriele Allegra, tworzący wraz zespołem tzw. „Biblię Betlejemską” lub „Bożonarodzeniową”, a jego zmagania z tłumaczeniem imion zostały zaprezentowane w niniejszym artykule na przykładach kilku imion: Jabes, Benoni, Beniamin, Dariusz, Jezus Chrystus. Wymagało to od całego zespołu tłumaczy niezwykle wnikliwej znajomości kultury i języka chińskiego oraz całej Biblii

The impact of some linguistic features on the quality of neural machine translation

This paper investigates how different features influence the translation quality of a Russian-English neural machine translation system. All the trained translation models are based on the OpenNMT-py system and share the state-of-the-art Transformer architecture. The majority of the models use the Yandex English-Russian parallel corpus as training data. The BLEU score on the test data of the WMT18 news translation task is used as the main measure of performance. In total, five different features are tested: tokenization, lowercase, the use of BPE (byte-pair encoding), the source of BPE, and the training corpus. The study shows that the use of tokenization and BPE seems to give considerable advantage while lowercase impacts the result insignificantly. As to the BPE vocabulary source, the use of bigger monolingual corpora such as News Crawl as opposed to the training corpus may provide a greater advantage. The thematic correspondence of the training and test data proved to be crucial. Quite high scores of the models so far may be attributed to the fact that both the Yandex parallel corpus and the WMT18 test set consist largely of news texts. At the same time, the models trained on the Open Subtitles parallel corpus show a substantially lower score on the WMT18 test set, and one comparable to the other models on a subset of Open Subtitles corpus not used in training. The expert evaluation of the two highest-scoring models showed that neither excels current Google Translate. The paper also provides an error classification, the most common errors being the wrong translation of proper names and polysemantic words.

Translation of Proper Names in Hong Kong: Media and Official Usage at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

This paper aims to describe some changes to the translation of foreign proper names in Hong Kong at the turn of the twentieth century, that is, the 10-year span a few years after the 1997 handover to China. Due to an array of historical reasons and transliteration differences, there has been great variation in the Chinese translation of proper names across the Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. To determine the possible influence of the change of sovereignty on how proper names are translated and used in this post-colonial, Cantonese-speaking city, where both Chinese and English are official languages, a number of transliterated place and personal names are taken from government documents and media texts for examination. The source language of most of these names is English. Several examples are also cited to show that the Mainland media has also adopted translated proper names customarily used in Hong Kong, indicating language borrowing is taking place. An attempt is made to theoretically explain the underlying causes of this translational change using Lefevere’s “rewriting” perspectives of patronage, ideology and poetics, and general theories on language change.

Proper Names in Ljubljana Tourist Brochures and Their Translations into English

The article deals with the translation of proper names in Ljubljana tourist brochures. Translations of proper names from Slovenian into English were analyzed. For the contrastive analysis, a bilingual corpus of eight brochures published by the public institute Ljubljana Tourism was compiled. In the final part, guidelines for translating proper names in tourist brochures were formed based on the results of the analysis.

Procedures in the Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire into Malay

In fantasy fiction, names play a fundamental role in portraying the characters’ personality traits and identity. Names are also sometimes chosen to create certain effects. The fact that names may carry meaning raises the question of how names are dealt with in translation. This issue is especially pertinent in the case of the Harry Potter novels in which many of the names have associative meanings. In view of this, the aim of this study is to determine the procedures used in the translation of some of the proper names in the novel ‘Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire’ into Malay. The study also aims to discuss the effects resulting from the use of the translation procedures. To carry out the study, the proper names in the novel are first identified based on the definition of proper names by Fernandes (2006). Next, the names are mapped to their Malay counterparts. The procedures for the translation of proper names proposed by Fernandes (2006) are then used to analyse how the names are translated into Malay. Finally, the concept of ‘translation loss’ by Hervey and Higgins (1992) is used to determine the effects resulting from the use of the translation procedures. The analysis reveals that a number of different procedures are used to translate the names into Malay. The procedures used have resulted in the loss of hidden meanings in the names, the loss of the creative aspect of the names and the loss of the casual style of the original.

The formal adaptation of toponyms in Romanian translations from German between 1780 and 1830

Although the translation of foreign proper names into Romanian before its modern stage is insufficiently explored, it is known that the process is characterized (as the whole Romanian writing of the time) by the lack of generally valid norms. The process was influenced by various factors, including: the existence of different alphabets, orthographic and phonetic systems; the influence of the source-text vs. the existence of traditional pronunciation and writing patterns; the translation of a proper name from various languages (French, German, Italian, etc.); the diversity of proper names; the translator’s personality (linguistic knowledge, cultural formation). Starting from the translation strategies adopted by translators, our aim is to analyse the way in which the toponyms from three historical texts translated into Romanian from German in pre-modern stage (1780–1830) were adapted to the formal system of Romanian.

Wie übersetzt NMT Eigennamen und Zahlen?

AbstractSince September 2016, when Google implemented the neural machine translation (NMT) technique in Google Translate (GNMT), the overall quality of machine translation (MT) has improved significantly, narrowing the gap between MT and human translation (HT). One detail aspect of MT quality is how the system can cope with the translation of proper names and numbers, so-called Named Entities (NEs). This paper outlines the principles underlying the GNMT translation of NEs and analyzes form changes including errors that are encountered during NMT-based translation and the causes of those form changes. First, on the basis of Wu et al. (2016), a simple model for GNMT-based NE translation is created, and within this model NE translations in 60 target texts are analyzed and compared to those of a professional translator. According to this model, GNMT-derived NE-form changes can roughly be attributed to four causes: segmentation, memory, features of training corpora, and functionality in the attention system.

Переклад ергонімів роману Дж. К. Ролінг «Гаррі Поттер і філософський камінь» українською та російською мовами: порівняльний аспект.

Translation of proper names has always been an issue of interest for linguists. As there are no certain rules for translation of proper names, different translators provide various versions of translation of the same word. A number of scholars devoted their works to study of proper names: R. S. Hyliarevskyi (1985), D. Y. Ermolovych (1981), (2005), A. A. Zhyvohliadov (1996), K. B. Zaitseva (1983), O. Yu. Karpenko (2006). However, translation of ergonyms has been never considered in comparison with their compliance in Ukrainian and Russian. Such comparison can help single out the correct and most efficient way of transferring of ergonyms.The novelty of this approach lies in comparison of methods of translations of ergonyms in two different languages, in determining the most efficient way of translation of this type of onyms. The purpose of the research is to compare two variants of translation of ergonyms – in Russian and in Ukrainian, to define the pattern of usage of a certain translational method and to determine the ultimate way of their translation, using comparative analysis.The comparison of methods of translation, that are used during the translation of ergonyms in Ukrainian and Russian, showed the tendency of prevailing usage of certain methods of translation. While translating from English into Russian the most frequently calques are used. Whereas for translation into Ukrainian the translator used mostly transcription. It was stated that both variants of translation were precise and correct. The conclusion was made that the most efficient way to translate ergonyms is transcription and calques. This method may be used for analysing and comparison of other lexical groups of a language or the same lexical unit of other languages. Such studies provide more substantial basis for the creation of translational standard.

De fantastische jeugdliteratuur in vertaling: De vertaling van De brief voor de koning van Tonke Dragt in het Pools

In recent years the popularity of children’s and youth literature has increased, especially the fantastic literature. Also the number of translations of this kind of books is still growing. The fantasy worlds described in this genre also have their own ‘realia,’ which can be translated in different ways. That fantastic ‘culture-specific’ elements can also be linked to a real culture or cultural-historical period, even if the connotations are not always immediately visible. The translators use different translation strategies such as copy, replacement, translation (literally or not) or different modifications. These strategies were also used in the Polish translation of The letter for the king (Tonke Dragt) which has appeared in 2017. This is one of the most famous Dutch children’s books. In 2004 it was awarded with a special prize: Griffel der Griffels—for the very best book from 1955 onwards. The analysis in the article focused on the translation of proper names and some selected common names and other realia of that quasi-medieval fantasy world.

Proper Names: Translation Analysis on the Example of “Prince Caspian”

The aim of this paper is to present translation strategies applied in the process of literary translation of proper names. The analysis is carried out on the example of the translation of the novel Prince Caspian by Clive Staples Lewis: into Polish by Andrzej Polkowski and into German by Lena Lademann-Wildhagen. The paper analyses how proper names referring to living creatures, geographical or topographical names were translated. The techniques applied by the two translators were significantly different, from transference, substitution, translation of part of the names, through referring associations with the character’s behaviour or the features of the object, to free translation, limited only by the author’s imagination. All the names were analysed in terms of semantics, morphology, for some the graphemes and phonemes were studied. First, the translation techniques used dealing with proper names were identified. Based on this, the results of the analysis of the selected names from the novel and its translations were presented together with conclusions on their influence on the world depicted in the novels and the impact the differences in translations can have on the reader.

The Translation of Proper Names in Folklore

The Translation of Proper Names in Folklore

Prevajanje lastnih imen v publicističnih besedilih: prevodi poimenovanj francoskih političnih institucij v slovenščino

Pričujoči članek se ukvarja s prevajanjem lastnih imen iz francoščine v slovenščino; natančneje, s prevodi publicističnih poimenovanj francoskih političnih institucij v slovenščino. Najprej predstavimo lastna imena v slovenščini in francoščini ter relevantne razlike pri njihovem zapisovanju v obeh jezikih; nato pa omenimo še nekatere prevajalske strategije. Sledi korpusna analiza v dveh delih. Najprej smo analizirali publicistični podkorpus vzporednega korpusa FraSloK in nato še slovenski korpus Gigafida, kjer smo analizirali članke dveh slovenskih časopisov Delo in Dnevnik. Pri analizi smo se osredotočili na strategije, ki so jih pri prevajanju uporabili prevajalci. Poimenovanja v obeh slovenskih časopisih se med seboj razlikujejo in so odvisna od pričakovanega ciljnega občinstva. Pri poimenovanjih v prevedenih člankih smo pričakovali pogosto uporabo transference, vendar so ta pogosto prevedena v slovenščino ali pa opremljena z razlago, ki je v pomoč bralcem. Rezultati analize potrjujejo, da prav ciljno občinstvo in kontekst odločata o izbiri prevajalske strategije ter kažejo na prevajalčevo težnjo po dodatni razlagi pojmov.

As traduções dos nomes próprios nas histórias em quadrinhos: um estudo de caso das tiras de Mafalda, de Quino

Os nomes próprios têm como principal função identificar um referente. A tradução desses nomes envolve certas convenções literárias próprias de cada língua e existem muitos procedimentos possíveis dos quais os tradutores podem se valer para realizá-la. Dependerá do valor não ficcional – nomes que não acrescentam um significado por si só, embora possam conter um valor conativo ou fazer associações determinadas (González; González 1991) – e ficcional – quando o valor informativo do nome é tido como intencional, sendo considerado inclusive como descritivo (Nord 2003). A partir dessa discussão, o presente artigo descreve quais as práticas recorrentes na tradução dos nomes próprios em histórias em quadrinhos e identifica qual o referente priorizado nas três traduções brasileiras das tiras de Mafalda, de Quino.

The Translation of Proper Names from English to Lithuanian in ⿿Steve Jobs⿿ by W. Isaacson

Abstract The translation of proper names is one of the most challenging activities faced by translators. All languages have particular personal names, some of which are deeply rooted in the culture of the speakers of the specific language; consequently, they can pose unique difficulties in the comprehension of culture-specific texts. It is interesting to note that some personal names have various allusions indicating sex, age, geographical belonging, history, specific meaning, playfulness of language and cultural connotations when omitting this implied information results in unacceptable translation. The goal of the research is to draw attention to the strategic choices for the translation of proper names in S. Jobs⿿ biography by Isaacson (2011) and its translation into Lithuanian by AmbrazeviĿius (2012). S. Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination; by connecting creativity with technology he started the era known as Computer age or Digital Age. Findings and results: the paper first gives a short overview of the concept of proper names and of the techniques that are applied when translating them. Second, the translation strategies and principles provided by the translation theorists Davies (2003) and Venuti (1995) used for the research are explained. In addition, the principles of adaptation of proper names provided by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language are presented. Subsequently, the discussion proceeds to the quantitative analysis of the translated proper names with the emphasis on providing and explaining numerous examples. The emphasis is drawn to the strategies of localization, preservation, transformation and creation.

VERTIMO POETIKA, ETIKA IR POLITIKA: GEORGE’O R. R. MARTINO ROMANO A GAME OF THRONES VERTIMO Į LIETUVIŲ IR PRANCŪZŲ KALBĄ ANALIZĖ

The article embarks upon the discrepancy in time between the establishment of the first translation schools in Europe and in Lithuania, where the first translation school dates back as late as the last decades of the twentieth century, after regaining Independence. The historical overview accounts, in a sense, for at times lesser importance of the quality of translation than anticipated. The article aims at a study of Lithuanian and French translations of A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin; the novel opens a series of books under the title A Song of Ice and Fire. The analysis is based on Henri Meschonnic’s concepts of poetics of translation, ethics and policies. It also adopts Anthony Pym’s principles of translation ethics. George R.R. Martin’s phenomenon is briefly discussed in the article, his role in the contemporary world of science fiction genre, specifically in the niche of epic fantasy novels is presented. Having discussed concepts of poetics of translation, translation and translator’s ethics, as well as policies of translation, the author procedes with selected samples of French and Lithuanian translations and presents them in problem-based units, such as translation of proper names of the literary characters, metaphorical expressions and literal translation. Having analysed the corpus of samples in Lithuanian and French the author arrives at the conclusion that the translator into French has preserved the poetics of the original and has demonstrated adherence to the principles of translator’s ethics, while the translator into Lithuanian has failed in her attempt to reveal the poetics of the text, and the big number of word-for-word translation passages indicates some lack of fidelity to the original text and its translation, as well as translator’s ethics in general. Thus it may be assumed, from a broader perspective, that the recently established school of translation in Lithuania lacks some tradition of quality as applied to translation text and that may cause such unfortunate results as the study has revealed.

Proper Names in Translational Contexts

Rendering of proper names in translational contexts may be a simple and automatic procedure that only involves minor sound adjustments. However, translators take, and sometimes have to adopt, all kinds of strategies with proper names, especially in fictional texts, where names almost always carry auctorial meanings that implicitly support the theme of the story. Names, in fact, bear a variety of connotative meanings and also serve as cultural identifiers of texts. Accordingly, rendering of names in translational contexts often has to deal with many issues such as their phonological, orthographical, morpho-semantic, and pragmatic idiosyncrasies, their accessibility to the target language readers, and their socio-political implications. Following the framework of descriptive translation studies, this paper first examines some English translations of Japanese literary texts from primary and secondary sources, and then provides a qualitative analysis of English translations of a novel by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru (Night of the Milky Way Railway), focusing on proper names. The latter novel is filled with fictional and non-fictional names whose cultural identities are deliberately made unclear or paradoxical to support the theme of the novel. The analysis provided in this paper empirically shows that translation of proper names plays a pivotal role for sustaining the cultural orientation of the text and the theme of the story.

Fordítsam vagy ne?

The paper attempts to list the dilemmas proper names present to literary translators based on the author’s own and others’ literary translations. There is no consistent rule governing whether or not to translate proper names in Hungarian. Generally names embedded in the text are dealt with according to the client’s requirements, the context and the literary translator’s resources. This is the case even if a name does not simply serve as an identifier, to separate an entity unambiguously, but has significant meaning, refers to something important or contributes to the overall ambience. There are arguments for and against the translation of proper names; using the originals is time-saving, cost-efficient and makes reference to the original easier, while translation provides the reader with extra information, to say nothing of the ’magical vibes’ of the name, the evoked feeling of unfamiliarity or familiarity, the atmosphere produced by it. As every case differs, a translator must take all significant factors into consideration and make a decision that will greatly influence the reception of a literary work. Although it may seem logical to expect consistency within a work, series or oeuvre, the paper attempts to show why consistency in dealing with proper names is something a literary translator aspires to, but never fully achieves.