Type of lesson: Lecture 11 Topic: Translation and culture

CULTURAL CATEGORIES
However, in this chapter 1 shall be discussing the translation of 'foreign* cultural words in the narrow sense. Adapting Nida, 1 shall categorise them and offer some typical examples:
(1) Ecology
Flora, fauna, winds, plains, hills: 'honeysuckle', 'downs', 'sirocco', *rundra\
'pampas', tabuleiros (low plateau), 'plateau', selva (tropical rain forest), 'savanna', 'paddy field*
(2) Material culture (artefacts)
(a) Food: 'zabaglione', 'sake', Kaiserschmarren
(b) Clothes: 'anorak', kanga (Africa), sarong (South Seas), dhoti (India)
(c) Houses and towns: kampong, bourg, bourgade7 'chalet', 'low-rise', 'tower'
(d) Transport: 'bike*, 'rickshaw', 'Moulton', cabriolett 'tilbury', caliche
(3) Social culture - work and leisure
ajaki amah, condotttere, biwa, sithar, raga, 'reggae', 'rock'
(4) Organisations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts
(a) Political and administrative
(b) Religious: dharma, karma? 'temple'
(c) Artistic
(5) Gestures and habits
'Cock a snook','spitting'
96 PRINCIPLES
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
A few general considerations govern the translation of all cultural words. First, your ultimate consideration should be recognition of the cultural achievements referred to in the SL text, and respect for all foreign countries and their cultures. Two translation procedures which are at opposite ends of the scale are normally available; transference, which, usually in literary texts, offers local colour and atmosphere, and in specialist texts enables the readership (some of whom may be more or less familiar with the SL) to identify the referent - particularly a name or a concept - in other texts (or conversations) without difficulty. However, transference, though it is brief and concise, blocks comprehension, it emphasises the culture and excludes the message, does not communicate; some would say it is not a translation procedure at all. At the other end, there is componential analysis, the most accurate translation procedure, which excludes the culture and highlights the message. Componential analysis is based on a component common to the SL and the TL, say in the case of dacha, 'house*, dom^ to which you add the extra contextual distinguishing components ('for the wealthy', 'summer residence'; cf. rnaison secondaire). Inevitably, a componential analysis is not as economical and has not the pragmatic impact of the original. Lastly, the translator of a cultural word, which is always less context-bound than ordinary language, has to bear in
mind both the motivation and the cultural specialist (in relation to the text's topic) and linguistic level of the readership.
ECOLOGY
Geographical features can be normally distinguished from other cultural terms in that they are usually value-free, politically and commercially. Nevertheless, their diffusion depends on the importance of their country of origin as well as their degree of specificity. Thus 'plateau' is not perceived as a cultural word, and has long been adopted in Russian, German and English, but translated in Spanish and usually Italian (mesa, altipiano). Many countries have 'local' words for plains -'prairies', 'steppes', 'tundras', 'pampas1, 'savannahs', 'llanos', campos, paramos, 'bush1, Veld1 - all with strong elements of local color. Their familiarity is a function of the importance and geographical or political proximity of their countries. All these words would normally be transferred, with the addition of a brief culture-free third term where necessary in the text. This applies too to the 'technical1 tabuleiros (Brazilian low plateau) if one assumes that the SL writer would not mention them if he does not attach importance to them. That same criteria apply to other ecological features, unless they are important commercially — consider 'pomelo1, 'avocado', 'guava1, 'kumquat', 'mango', 'passion fruit', 'tamarind - when they become more or less a lexical item in the 'importing' TL (but note 'passion fruit1, passifiore, Passionsfrucht) - and may be subject to naturalisation: mangue, tamarin, avocat (Sp. aguacate) particularly ^ as here, in French. Nida has pointed out that certain ecological features -the seasons, rain, hills of various sizes (cultural words: "down1, Lmoor\ hop, 'dune') - where they are irregular or unknown may not be understood denotatively or figuratively, in translation. However, here, television will soon be a worldwide clarifying force.