TRANSLATION STUDIES
Year:2006 | Volume:4 | Issue:14|Papers Count:10

This paper examines the basic principles of translating humor. Firstly, it reviews briefly the historical and linguistic background of humor, and then it presents the definition and the etymology of the given word. Secondly, it studies humor and the difficulties of translating it in the light of the general principles of translation. In doing so, the paper divides humor into two categories, culture-bound humor and language-bound humor. It then focuses on the latter as well as wordplays and examines their difficulties while being translated to another language. Finally, the paper tries to present some strategies for translating humor in general and wordplays in particular. They read as: translating the source text wordplay with wordplay in the target text; translating it in a way that loses some aspect of the wordplay; replacing it with some other device aimed at creating similar effect; or omitting it (Delabastita 1996b: 134). In a word, what seems to be so important in translating humor as well as wordplay is preserving the comic effects in the target text.    

The present study is carried out to determine the relationship between translation ability and such variables as language proficiency and reading ability, identify the reliability and validity of translation tests as reading comprehension measures in relation to other testing methods (in this case multiple-choice), and explore the effects of reading test type and proficiency level on the performance of the participants. To answer the research questions of this study, 114/ranian EFL students studying different English majors were selected and tested. Concerning the first and the second research questions, correlational analyses were conducted to determine the degree of relationship between the participants' translation ability and their language proficiency, on the one hand, and the relationship between translation ability and reading ability, on the other hand. The results indicated that language proficiency and reading ability enjoyed the same level of correlation with translation ability, respectively (0.72, 0.71). On the subject of the third research question (reliability of translation reading test), the most common method of estimating inter-rater reliability between raters, the correlation coefficient was used. It was calculated to be (0.79) which can be considered significant. Regarding the research question number four which focused on the question of validity of translation tests, correlation with criterion measure of passage comprehension (multiple-choice) was calculated. The results indicated that there is a significant correlation between the two tests of reading comprehension ability, translation reading test and multiple-choice reading test, (r = 0.62, P < 0.0001).  

Despite the importance of euphemisms in both translation and TEFL, most translators and those involved in the task of teaching translation seem to concur that there has been little research on this issue. However, two important points should not be overlooked in this regard: 1. Fluency in both verbal skills and $-T translation can not be achieved without a reasonable command of euphemisms. 2. For language learners and translator trainees euphemisms most often Represent a part of language largely untaught and a great number may be semantically opaque; hence, making students encounter with a lot of various problems. In this study euphemisms are categorized into four groups, based on the importance and area of implication, and then the importance of euphemisms in the process of translation will be discussed through providing various examples. Afterwards a translator's need to master both denotative and connotative meanings of terms will be discussed.    

The present paper is the result of an attempt to recount some of the problems of a few important definitions of translation proposed in the 20th century and to propound a comprehensive account of this thoughtful and creative action. The proposed definition, similar to the present practices of TEF/SL, is communicatively oriented and accordingly it is not limited to linguistic competency. Distinctive characteristics of this approach are: 1. discourse oriented, and 2. process based. The main body of the paper is devoted to an account of the details of this model of definition with its major subdivisions of: 1. comprehension, 2. re-stating, and 3. quality control. To clarify the discussion, examples are provided from students' translations.    

Apparently it is an unattainable goal to delimit translation. Pertinent to the seemingly unlimited power of translation is the intricate choices it makes available on different levels both linguistic and extra linguistic. Universal grammar admittedly attests ample evidence in support of the view that it is possible not only to come up with demarcating translation but also to put boarder on it. This article aims at doing the feat of explicating the role of UG in translation, inculcating its relation with some terms common in translation studies and introducing translation as a process in Chomsky an framework.    

With the advent of the third millennium, communication has become the heart of human concern. In addition, the technological revolution has caused the necessity of convergent exchange of information regarding cultural and linguistic divergences. Therefore, no one can deny the significant role of a lingua franca or the translation as a bridge. Now with the huge amount of information exchange, no more do the traditional tools work. That's why Machine Translation (MT) or International Networks of Translation should step into the scene. Although this necessity is undeniable, still there are some oppositions and criticisms. For sure human race cannot admit the substitution of their-own-made machines. It is true the human factor in machine translation is essential but is it fair to ignore the overall contribution of machine translations. Nevertheless, still we have the problem of "untranslatability" in some areas such as the translation of literary texts; machine translations have proved their out-performances in spelling and terminological consistency and their speed to facilitate the translation process. The inability of machine translation to refer to the real world knowledge is unavoidable. But is it possible to have robots exactly as human being? Wouldn't that be a creation? Hopefully we should expect improvements; but are human beings fair enough to judge the present amazing capabilities in machine translation?    

The interference (or borrowing) of some foreign morphological elements and structures in languages are natural. Persian is one of the languages which have been affected in this respect. Some viewed this phenomenon negatively and as a factor which, 'destroys' the lexical, morphological and even syntactic structure of the language. In this study it has been argued that the effect of other languages on the morphological structure of Persian is remarkable but not unnatural. This study also investigates the morphological structures copied from other languages. Among these important structures are specific types of acronyms, abbreviations and some suffixes and suffix-like elements in Persian.    

This paper starts with Relevance Theory as a major development recognizing that linguistically decoded information usually tends to be very incomplete and that pragmatic inference plays a critical role in the derivation of the proposition explicitly communicated. This not only holds in the case of subsentential utterances, but it is also the case for the vast majority of fully sentential cases (Carston, 1997; Sperber, 1986). Accordingly, what is communicated is usually a set of fully propositional thoughts or assumptions, which are either true or false against an external state of affairs in the world. Next, the paper examines the translation process as proposed by Bell (1991: 213), maintaining that the writer's intention is mediated by the context in which the text was produced, by the writer's assumptions and decisions as for 'what constitutes a relevant and recognizable frame of reference in which to anchor the communication' (Traugottand Pratt 1980: 273) and the conception of the 'ideal reader' who shares the same frame of reference and at whom the text is aimed. The narrowed scope of the present study concentrates on explicitation strategy in translation, which is viewed as a kind of shift between source and target texts, examining its conditions of use (Williams and Chesterman, 2003: 6). The English translation by Edward Rehatsek of the Gulistan of Sa'di (Tashibi, 1988) serves the purpose of the study. Thus, numerous examples are analyzed. This way, the investigation not only unravels the regularities of the translator's behaviour, but also clarifies the general principles that seem to determine how certain things get translated under certain conditions.