TRANSLATION STUDIES
Year:2008 | Volume:6 | Issue:21|Papers Count:8

Since the problem of translating proper names has always been existent as a controversial issue, the main aim of the present study is to raise problems and take approaches to the translation of proper names from SL to TL. For this purpose, first some major problems concerning the translation of proper names will be mentioned. Then proper names will be generally categorized based on different semantic groups, followed by a number of examples. At the end, further suggestions for a better translation of proper names will be given. It is hoped that such a study open perspectives to interested readers and translators on this aspect of translation.

Emotions are usually expressed through conceptual metaphors. Many emotional concepts are embodied, i.e. they have a basis in bodily experiences. The notion of embodiment emphasizes the role of the human body in our cognitive experience of the world. The purpose of his study was to show how Persian and English speakers conceptualize the role of the body in emotion and the impact of emotion in the body and how this is manifested in these two languages. Its aim was to identify how emotional concepts are embodied in both languages and as a result to determine the similarities and differences of these two languages in using emotional internal body part metaphors. The internal body parts were chosen for this study because, in comparison to the external body parts, they are more subject to greater cultural diversity in the understanding of how they work and relate to each other. The materials for this study were gathered from different sources and dictionaries related to the translation of literary devices, particularly the translation of metaphors. The Persian metaphors were collected from three dictionaries and the English ones were gathered from twelve dictionaries. Then the metaphors found in both languages were compared and contrasted to determine which emotions the internal body parts convey in both languages and to see to what extent these body parts express the same or different emotions in both languages. The results of this study showed the embodiment of emotional concepts in human experiences and the fact that Persian speakers use more internal body parts in their emotional expressions.

This article, at first, introduces lexical-functional theory as a theory which: (a) has psychological reality; (b) is computationally exact; and (c) makes relationship between different levels of language. Then, it deals with sentences which are ambiguous for translation machine and, consequently, the machine generates two constituent structures for them: i.e. distinguishing "phrasal verb + noun phrase" from "verb + prepositional phrase" and distinguishing "noun phrase + prepositional phrase" from "noun phrase" and "prepositional phrase". To disambiguate these sentences, the solution taken by a human translator, i.e. using semantic information, is modulated for machine through lexical mapping theory.

One of the main reasons for students' dissatisfaction with their exam scores in translation programs is related to the way their translations are evaluated. Although translation courses have been taught for several years in Iranian universities (both Islamic Azad universities and State universities), almost no organized study has been done on the type of tests and the criteria used to assess students' translations. The present study set out to survey the way translation instructors evaluate students' translations. Participants were solicited for their test method preferences and the criteria they used to assess students' translations. To achieve the objectives of the study, a 22-item questionnaire was administered to 36 male and female translation instructors who have taught translation courses in 9 different Iranian universities. Results of the data analysis indicated that there is agreement among translation instructors in assessing students' translations. Almost all of the instructors preferred to use essay-type questions in translation exams. They also indicated that they paid attention to the grammatical points, word equivalence, genre, register, and shifts to assess students' translations. The findings of this study may be useful to the students majoring in translation as well as translation instructors. Students will certainly improve their translations if they are aware of the criteria used to evaluate their translation. Translation instructors who do not have much experience in teaching or testing translation courses can also use the findings of the study to improve their tasks.

The aim of the present paper is to offer a new approach to the study of 'equivalence' in translation. It assumes that different contemporary theories of translation equivalence can be substantially divided into three major groups. In the first there are those translation scholars who adopt an idealistic abstract notion of equivalence and use it in their own definitions, criticism and the teaching of translation. The members of the second group do not believe in the concept of 'equivalence' and avoid using it in their writing. Finally, there are other translation scholars who seem to stand in the middle and borrow the concept of 'equivalence' from the first group and claim to study it from an objective perspective. Having reviewed the theory of equivalence as interpreted by some of the most innovative theorists of the above mentioned groups, the paper applies the principles and concepts of the theory of language as a social semiotics (Holliday, 1978) to the study of the problem of equivalence in translation and draws the conclusion that the term 'equivalence' seems to be a misleading concept and should therefore be replaced by the concept 'translation loss' unless, according to Hatim and Mason (19901, the gap between the discourse of SL (English) and TL (Persian) cultures is bridged.

Translation ability as a communicative and language ability is closely interwoven with writing ability in L2. This relationship makes it to be considered as an effective means of learning, teaching and testing L2. This study aims at finding out the relationship between the ability to translate, foreign language proficiency, and L2 writing ability. It examines the performance of 114 Iranian female and male language learners on a TOEFL Test, a Direct Composition Test (DC), and a Translation Composition Test (TCT). The findings reveal that language proficiency and writing ability are highly correlated with translation ability and the relationship between translation ability and writing ability is high and significant. It also maintains that translation is a valid and reliable method as a means of testing writing ability of EFL students.