Strategies for Translating and Interpreting Cultural Words Related to Ecology and Material Culture
Strategies for translating and interpreting cultural words related to ecology and material culture
As you may know, translation and interpretation are a kind of activity which inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions. As this statement implies, translators and interpreters are permanently faced with the problem of how to treat the culture aspects implicit in a source text and of finding the most appropriate technique of successfully conveying these aspects in the target language. These problems may vary in scope depending on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two (or more) languages concerned. It is possible said that cultural words is one of the problems which translators and interpreters often encounter in the translation and interpretation process. The concept of cultural word was defined as culture- specific words and phrases which are often difficult, if not impossible to translate into another target language. In 1988, Newmark defined culture as “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression”, thus acknowledge also introduced “cultural words” which the readership is unlikely to understand and the translation strategies for this kind of concept depend on the particular text- type, requirements of the readership and client and the importance of the cultural word in the text. Peter Newmark also categorized the cultural words as follows: 1. Ecology: flora, fauna, hill, winds, plains 2. Material culture: food, clothes, houses and town, transport 3. Social culture: work and leisure 4. Organizations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts: political and administrative, religious, artistic 5. Gestures and habits In this paper, I will focus on the first two cultural categories with some examples and some strategies for translating and interpreting cultural words involved in the Ecology and Material culture in
As you may know, translation and interpretation are a kind of activity which inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions. As this statement implies, translators and interpreters are permanently faced with the problem of how to treat the culture aspects implicit in a source text and of finding the most appropriate technique of successfully conveying these aspects in the target language. These problems may vary in scope depending on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two (or more) languages concerned. It is possible said that cultural words is one of the problems which translators and interpreters often encounter in the translation and interpretation process. The concept of cultural word was defined as culture- specific words and phrases which are often difficult, if not impossible to translate into another target language. In 1988, Newmark defined culture as “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression”, thus acknowledge also introduced “cultural words” which the readership is unlikely to understand and the translation strategies for this kind of concept depend on the particular text- type, requirements of the readership and client and the importance of the cultural word in the text. Peter Newmark also categorized the cultural words as follows: 1. Ecology: flora, fauna, hill, winds, plains 2. Material culture: food, clothes, houses and town, transport 3. Social culture: work and leisure 4. Organizations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts: political and administrative, religious, artistic 5. Gestures and habits In this paper, I will focus on the first two cultural categories with some examples and some strategies for translating and interpreting cultural words involved in the Ecology and Material culture in
References: 1. Newmark. P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation, pp.94-102. New York: Prentice- Hall International 2. Truong Bach Le. (2009). Reading packet for Cross- cultural Issues in Translation & Interpretation. Hue 3. http://www.hum.aau.dk/~kim/OT09/OT4.pdf 4. http://www.online-learning-guide.com/cultural-translation/