CHAPTER 9: TRANSLATION AND CULTURE DEFINITIONS Culture: The way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar

to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression (i.e.) distinction between cultural from universal and personal language. Universal: Almost virtually ubiquitous artifacts; usually there is no translation problem. Cultural: Translation problem unless there is a cultural overlap between SL and TL. Personal: Use of personal, instead of social, language (IDIOLECT) with normally translation problem.

IMPORTANT FACTS When a speech community focuses its attention on a particular topic (CULTURAL FOCUS) it spawns a plethora of words to designate its special language or terminology. Where there is cultural focus, there is a translation problem due to the cultural gap or distance between SL and TL. Language is not regarded as a component or feature of culture, otherwise translation would be impossible. However, language does contain of kinds of cultural deposits in: The grammar (gender of inanimate nouns) Forms of address (formal or informal) The lexis (e.g. the sun sets) not taken account of in universals either in consciousness or translation.

The more specific a language becomes for natural phenomena (e.g. flora and fauna) the more it becomes embedded in cultural features, creating translation problems. QUITE WORRYING: translation of general words is usually harder than of specific ones.

Cultural words are easily detected because they are associated with a particular language and cannot be literally translated, but many cultural customs are described in ordinary language, where literary translation distort the meaning and a translation may include and appropriate descriptive-functional equivalent. Cultural objects may be referred to by a relatively culture-free generic term of classifier, plus the various additions in different cultures, and you have to account for the additions which may appear in the course of the SL text.

CULTURAL CATEGORIES 1. Ecology 2. Material culture Food Clothes Houses and towns Transport 3. Social culture work and leisure 4. Organizations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts 5. Gestures and habits Ultimate considerations: Recognition of the cultural achievements referred to in the SL text Respect for all foreign countries and cultures. Translation procedures (2): Transference: PROS: In literally texts offers local color and atmosphere; In specialist texts enables the readership to identify the referent (a name or a concept) in other texts without difficulty. CONS: Blocks comprehension, it emphasizes the culture and excludes the message; does not communicate. Componential analysis: PROS: Excludes the culture and highlights the message. It Is based on a component common to the SL and TL, adding the extra contextual distinguishing components. CONS: Not economical and has no pragmatic impact of the original. The Translator of a cultural word has to bear in mind both the motivation and the cultural specialist (in relation with the texts topic) and the linguistic level of the readership. ECOLOGY Geographical features can be distinguished from other cultural terms in that they are usually value-free, politically and commercially.

Their diffusion depends on the importance of their country of origin as well as their degree of specificity. The same criteria apply to other ecological features, unless they are important commercially and may be subject to naturalization. Certain ecological features where they are irregular or unknown may not be understood denotatively or figuratively, in translation. Images and media, however, can be a clarifying source.

MATERIAL CULTURE FOOD For many, it is the most sensitive and important expression of national culture; food terms are subject to the widest variety of translation procedures. Many settings contain foreign food terms. The unnecessary use of French words is prevalent for prestige reasons.

MATERIAL CULTURE CLOTHES Traditionally, upper-class mens clothes are English and womens French, but national costumes when distinctive and not translated. Clothes as cultural terms may be sufficiently explained for TL general readers if the generic noun or classifier is added. If the particular is not interested, the generic word can simply replace it. It has to be borne in mind that the function of the generic clothes terms is approximately constant, indicating the part of the body that is covered, but thedescription varies depending on climate and material use.

MATERIAL CULTURE - HOUSES AND TOWN Many language communities have a typical house which for general purposes remains without translation. French shows cultural focus on towns, which have no corresponding translation into English.

MATERIAL CULTURE TRANSPORT Is dominated by American and the car, a female pet in English, a bus, a motor, a crate, a sacred symbol in many countries of sacred private property. American English has 26 words for the car.

The system has spawned new features with their neologisms. There are many voguewords produces not only by innovations but by the salesmans talk, and many anglicisms. In fiction, the names of various carriages are often used to provide local colour and to connote prestige; in text books of transport, an accurate description has to be appended to the transferred word. The names of planes and cars are often near-internationalisms for educated readerships.

NATURE Notoriously the species of flora and fauna are local and cultural, and are not translated unless they appear in the SL and TL environment. For technical texts, the Latin botanical and zoological classifications can be used as an international language.

SOCIAL CULTURE- WORK AND LEISURE Distinction between denotative and connotative problems of translation. Certain words have a translation problem, since the words can be transferred, have approximate one-to-one translation or can be functionally defined; which contrasts with the connotative difficulties of words. Archaisms can be used ironically, humorously, therefore put in inverted commas. The obvious cultural words that denote leisure activities in Europe are the national games with their lexical sets. To these must be added the largely English non-team games, large number of card-games, the gambling games and their lexical sets are being French in casinos.

SOCIAL ORGANIZACION POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE The political and social life of a country is reflected in its institutional terms. Where the title of a head of state or the name of a parliament are transparent, that is, made up of international or easily translated morphemes, they are through-translated. Where the name of a parliament is not readily translatable, it has a recognized official translation for administrative documents, but is often transferred for an educated readership and glossed for a general readership. A government inner circle is usually designed as a cabinet or a council of ministers and may be informally be referred to by the same name of the capital city. Some ministries and other political institutions and parties may also be referred to their familiar alternative terms (the name of the building or streets where they are housed).

Names of ministries are usually literally translated, provided they are appropriately descriptive. When a public body has a transparent name, the translation depends on the setting: in official documents, and in serious publications such as textbooks, the title is transferred by a cultural equivalent. Where a public body or organization has an opaque name, the translator has to first establish whether there is a recognized translation, and secondly whether it will be understood by the readership and is appropriate in the setting. In a formal informative text, the name should be transferred, and a functional, culturefree equivalents given; such an equivalent may have extend over a word-group. In some cases, a cultural equivalent may be adequate; but in all doubtful cases, the functional equivalent is preferable. The description should only be added if the readership requires it; a literal translation or neologism must be avoided. If the informative text is informal or colloquial, it may not be necessary to transfer the organizations name. The cultural or functional equivalent must be sufficient. The intertranslatabilty of single words with Graeco-Latin morphemes extends through political parties to political concepts. Concepts such as liberalism and radicalism each have a hazy common core of meaning; they are strongly affected by the political tradition of their countries. Here the translator may have to explain wide conceptual differences. Also, you have to bear in mind that the readership may be more or less acquainted with the SL (i.e. the more that is transferred and the less that is translated, then the closer the sophisticated reader can get to the sense if the original). IMPORTANT: words used in a special or delicate sense in a serious text should have afterwards the SL word in brackets signalizing the inability of being translated. Historical terms: In case of historical institutional terms, the first principle is not to translate them, whether the translation makes sense (is transparent) or not (is opaque), unless they have the generally accepted translations. In academic texts and educated writing, they are usually transferred with, where appropriate, functional or descriptive term with as much descriptive detail as is required. In popular texts, the transferred word can be replaced by the functional or descriptive term.

 International terms: International terms usually have recognized translations which are in fact throughtranslations, and are now generally known by their acronyms. In other cases, the English acronym prevails and becomes a quasi-internationalism, not always resisted in French. Religious terms: In religious language, the proselytizing activities of Christianity, particularly the Catholic Church and the Baptists, are reflected in manifold translation. The language of the other world religions tends to be transferred when it becomes of TL interest, the commonest words being naturalized. American Bible scholars and linguists have been particularly exercised by the cultural connotation due to the translation of similes of fruit and husbandry into languages where they are inappropriate.

Artistic terms: The translation of these terms referring to movements, processes and organizations generally depends on the putative knowledge of the readership. For educated readers, opaque names are transferred; transparent names are translated. Names of buildings, museums, theatres, opera houses, are likely to be transferred as well as translated since they form part of street plans and addresses. Many terms in art and music remain Italian, but French in ballet.

GESTURES AND HABITS Distinction between description and function, which can be made where necessary in ambiguous cases; all of which occur in some cultures and not in others.

SUMMARY The translation of cultural words and institutional terms, more than any other translation problems, the most appropriate solution depends not so much on the collocations or the linguistic or situational context as on the readership types and no the setting.