THE HUMAN FACTOR – A PREREQUISITE FOR A GOOD CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN TRANSLATION

1. THE HUMAN FACTOR –A PREREQUISITE FOR A GOOD CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONIN TRANSLATION Rumyana Todorova Shumen University, Bulgaria

2. Inner translation When writing a text of some kind one should be careful as to their way of expression in the target language Mother tongue interference Introducing oneself is a piece of cake though it depends on culture-specific audiences

3. The translator’s job is a piece of cake ?!? Is knowledge of a language a sufficient prerequisite for a good translation?

4. Other types of knowledge(extralinguistic) • Cultural • Political • Ethnic • National • Social • Educational

5. London underground ad We gave you golf you gave us Bingo. We gave you Logie Baird. You gave us Eldorado. We gave you Whyte & Mackay. Please No more favours.

6. We can’t exist without TRANSLATION In 80s Paul Engle summed up the socially active & the politically urgent cause of translation in contemporary world: ‘As this world shrinks together like an aging orange and all peoples in all cultures move closer together (however reluctantly and suspiciously) it may be that the crucial sentence for our remaining years on earth may be very simply: TRANSLATE OR DIE.

7. The lives of every creature on the earth may one day depend on the instant and accurate translation of one word.’ (Engle, P. & H. N. Engle 1985, Forward to Writing from the World II, Iowa City: International Books & Univ. of Iowa Press)

8. Translation • is a rewriting of an original text; • reflects a certain ideology & manipulation; • helps in the evolution of any society; • shapes one culture upon another

9. PARAMETERS IN TRANSLATION background knowledge previous knowledge about the world (semantic knowledge / memory – what is true about the world at large and how it all fits together episodic knowledge / memory – what happened to me)

10. Interrelation between translation, text linguistics and culture The info in the whole text # to the individual parts

11. Idiomatic phrases &expressions ‘cup of tea’ ‘rain cats & dogs’ = ‘pour with rain’ ‘rain heavily’ ‘*rain as if from a pail’(BG) ‘Bardaktan boşalırcasına yağıyor’ (TR) – more or less the same as in BG

12. Culture inseparable part of translation process • To what is translator bound: to SL or to TL culture? • Should TRs stick to SL idiosyncrasies (their idiolect and/or sociolect) or to TL readership?

13. Format of TXT Fairy tales • once upon a time • there lived a king • they lived happily ever after (BrE) • ‘they lived long and happily, and died together on the same day’(Rus) • ‘and they lived long and happily till they died / till the end of their days (BG)

14. Translation is like a game of chess If part of the text is translated wrongly because of lack of lexical knowledge the translation can take the wrong direction, hence the wrong ‘move’ (Levy’s term applied to translation as a decision process; Levy 2000: 148)

15. Explicitness / implicitness of info in translationInner translation • He sent for wood and beams right away, and had a small house or cage built… • He sent to bring wood and beams as he had to build a house(BG, literal translation)

16. Implicitness of culture-specific info • ‘It was Friday night and they’d soon go out and get drunk’ (J. Braine, Room at the Top) • ‘Where are you girls from?’... ‘Seattle, Washington’ • ‘He sipped his soup/coffee’

17. Orality – literacy continuum • Orality in fairy tales • SL (Eng) – TL (mother tongue) – not that easy

18. Concepts stored in our minds • humans are used to thinking in terms of categories, prototypes, stereotypes, codes, frames and schemes

19. PROTOTYPE THEORY • categorization in terms of prototypes conditioned by sociocultural factors and on the basis of perceived similarities between representative and non-representative members (e.g. bird & chicken; kiwi – can’t fly; *the Pope – not married, but still not considered bachelor)

20. GESTALT THEORY • matters having to do with human interaction with and functioning in the world rather than with objective properties of the world; • the whole is more than the sum total of its parts; • analysis of the parts cannot provide understanding of the whole

21. Categories mental representations of objects from the real world in a box-like manner Prototypes system, norm and text interact in a constant dynamic tension. Norms apply in language and at all levels of social life Boundaries often fuzzy

22. Frames global-knowledge patterns helping people form a mental picture of what they read or hear in no logical order; wedding frame – different for different cultures; game – play game – wild animals 22

23. Stereotypes fixed idea that people have about what s.o./s.th. is like • Schemes logical order of presenting events and processes

24. CULTURE categories of human activity • the personal (we as individuals think and function as such); • the collective (we function in a social context); • the expressive (each society expresses itself in a different way through its language)

25. TRANSTATION ENTAILS • decoding of culture-specific info • re-coding of culture-specific info • encoding of culture-specific info

26. Expression of thought connected with • ‘intuitive knowledge about the language, about linguistic appropriateness and correctness’– for native speakers of a language • extralinguistic aspects such as our own culture, society, religion, ethnicity, politics, nation, age, etc. – for non-native speakers (David Crystal & Derek Davy, Investigating English Style, 1993: 5-7)

27. Cultural universals • common to all societies & communities (distinguishing between good & bad - the dragon in Chinese & BG fairy tales) • having tea in different cultures (for breakfast – function; 5 o’clock tea & high tea – traditions, habits & customs (UK); for socialising - TR)

28. TRANSLATION & CULTURE • totality of knowledge; • connection with behaviour, action & events; • dependency on norms of social behaviour or language usage (linguistic structures, lexicological inconsistencies, non-translatable concepts, lack of notions, false friends, etc.)

29. STRUCTURE IN TRANSLATION • fixed phrases or clichés (as is well known, as was stated above) • lack of introductory ‘there’ constructions in languages other than English • lack of structure with adverbs of time as subject (Tonight sees a Spielberg film – not a typical English construction)

30. LEXIS/SEMANTICS IN TRANLSATION • lack of equivalent words (sibling) • different ways of making information salient • different ways of presenting information in academic writing

31. LANGUAGE & CULTURE ACQUISITION • religion (Lamb of God – Christian culture; Eskimo culture – Seal of God) lamb – symbol of innocence • geographical & environmental issues (Eskimo people – 25 words for snow) • simple formalities – use of ‘you’, ways of address

32. Exclamations • Hay Allah!– Oh, God! • Well – ami, e (BG) • Oh! – ah (BG) • Ah – oh (BG)

33. FALSE FRIENDS

34. New usages shop attendant = sales assistant, store clerk, retail assistant; nowadays sales associate – word gaining ground for clothes and jewelry shops, office supplies shops, etc. not shops for food sales assistants can also work online flight attendant – steward, stewardess barista– barman use of politically correct language young people’s talk - Duden

35. Translation • Language • Culture • Human factor Not a piece of cake at all!