The Importance of Culture in Translation - Курсовая работа

Introduction 1. The Importance of Culture in Translation 1.1 Cultural Consideration in Translation 1.2 Language and Culture 1.3 General cultural implications for translation 2. The Translation Process 2.1 Cultural categories 2.2 Cultural references 2.3 Lexical feature Conclusion Introduction Translation is a kind of activity which inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions. (Toury 1978: 200). As this statement implies, translators are permanently faced with the problem of how to treat the cultural aspects implicit in a source text (ST) and of finding the most appropriate technique of successfully conveying these aspects in the target language (TL). These problems may vary in scope depending on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two (or more) languages concerned (see Nida 1964: 130). The cultural implications for translation may take several forms ranging from lexical content and syntax to ideologies and ways of life in a given culture. The translator also has to decide on the importance given to certain cultural aspects and to what extent it is necessary or desirable to translate them into the TL. The aims of the ST will also have implications for translation as well as the intended readership for both the ST and the target text (TT). Considering the cultural implications for a translated text implies recognising all of these problems and taking into account several possibilities before deciding on the solution which appears the most appropriate in each specific case. Before applying these methods to the chosen text, this essay will examine the importance of culture in translation through a literature review. The different general procedures of treating the cultural implications for translation will be examined as well as analysing the ST and the aims of the author. The translation process will also be treated using specific examples found in the ST before discussing the success of aforementioned theoretical methods applied to the TT. Although corresponding to cultural categories examined, the title will be considered separately in order to determine the pertinence of conserving, highlighting, or excluding certain aspects. Due to these considerations, the title will be considered after the other aspects as all other cultural implications need to be examined before reaching relevant conclusions. 1. The Importance of Culture in Translation 1.1 Cultural Consideration in Translation The definition of culture as given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary varies from descriptions of the Arts to plant and bacteria cultivation and includes a wide range of intermediary aspects. More specifically concerned with language and translation, Newmark defines 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 (1988: 94), thus acknowledging that each language group has its own culturally specific features. According to Newmark, Vermeers stance would imply the impossibility to translate whereas for the latter, translating the source language (SL) into a suitable form of TL is part of the translators role in transcultural communication[20; p.66]. The notion of culture is essential to considering the implications for translation and, despite the differences in opinion as to whether language is part of culture or not, the two notions appear to be inseparable. Discussing the problems of correspondence in translation, Nida confers equal importance to both linguistic and cultural differences between the SL and the TL and concludes that differences between cultures may cause more severe complications for the translator than do differences in language structure (Nida, 1964: 130). It is further explained that parallels in culture often provide a common understanding despite significant formal shifts in the translation. The cultural implications for translation are thus of significant importance as well as lexical concerns. Lotmans theory states that no language can exist unless it is steeped in the context of culture; and no culture can exist which does not have at its centre, the structure of natural language (Lotman, 1978: 211-32). Bassnett (1980: 13-14) underlines the importance of this double consideration when translating by stating that language is the heart within the body of culture, the survival of both aspects being interdependent. These differences include variations in how stories are told, the wait time given by teachers to students during questioning sequences, the rhythmic patterns of the verbal interactions, and the patterns of conversational turn-taking. During the 1970s and 1980s, educators and linguists researched and debated the verbal-deficit perspective. This perspective contended that anyone who did not use standard English did not have a valid language and thus was verbally deficient. Although the verbal-deficit perspective has now been proven invalid, it is important to understand the res