...Language Shapes Our Minds Language is so essential to our existence, so deeply part of what every human has and does, and it’s impossible to picture life without it. As social creatures, we use language as a tool, but this tool is embedded in us. This tool doesn't just help us shape the world around us and create bonds and express things, but this tool also shapes our mind. They can alter the way we see the world and the way we think and the way we live our lives. I’ve always been a firm believer of this and many different persons including lawyers, linguists, and psychologist speculated it, but not until recently were studies actually done to prove these statements. This was mostly done because it was presumed “untestable”, but luckily, Stanford and MIT found ways to reopen the question. “We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world.” (Boroditsky, Lera. "HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK.) Language is a unique thing that humans have had the ability to create and develop and it is not only a key example to express how humans work, but it allows us to express ourselves in so many ways. To understand how language works, we must first understand what language is. Language is defined as ‘a body of words and the systems for their use...
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...Victoria Plata Spring 2012 Equivalence in Translation Formal correspondence, or dynamic equivalence, that is the question. Whenever translation is discussed, the concept of equivalence is most likely to come forth. However, more than one definition has been given for this central concept. Two of the most relevant theories about equivalence would be Eugene Nida’s and J. C. Catford’s. I will comment on those and on the possibility of finding a point of balance between the two seemingly antagonistic alternatives for translation. First of all, a rudimentary notion of translation begins with a text in a source language (SL) which aims to be transferred into a target language (TL). Such text might be seen as the carrier of a message conformed by two kinds of factors: linguistic factors, pertaining to the concrete form and the abstract meaning of a text; and cultural factors, which are not evident at the level of form or meaning, but pertain to the mental background of the speakers and writers of the SL. Both factors considered, different approaches are possible. One the one hand, the translating process could be either source oriented or target oriented. On the other hand, the focus might be either linguistic or functional. According to Nida (1964), translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly I terms of style. He proposed two different types of...
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...meet someone you love, do you kiss their clothes? Search out who's inside. Union with God is sweeter than body comforts. We have hands and feet different from these. Sometimes in dream we see them. That is not mirage. It's seeing what is real. You do have a spirit body; don't dread leaving the physical one. Sometimes someone feels this truth so strongly that he or she can live in mountain solitude totally refreshed. The worried, heroic doings of men and women seem weary and futile to dervishes enjoying the light breeze of spirit. Translation Questions: 1. The translation does not evoke any old vocabulary. Both translations are in modern English. I feel the translation is more modern so it can be more easily understood to modern readers. Rumi’s poems were originally written in Arabic, which is a very old language and still alive today. 2. The original was written in verse just as both the translations are also written in verse. 3. When...
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...Lost in Translation Ever been to a place where you don’t understand the language of the people around you? A place where you’re native language and their native language doesn’t meet. There are a lot of reasons why not knowing how to speak the language of the place you are staying can be exhausting. One of the reasons is for practicality. When you can’t speak the language, you’ll feel really useless because basically, you can’t communicate what you want. I experienced that firsthand while I was in Japan. I was in a shop in Japan and was looking through their items. I saw a coat and I really like it so I checked the price. It cost a lot but I think it was on sale, so I approach a saleslady. But apparently, the lady cannot speak English and I’m not that fluent in Japanese. So I ended up looking for my cousin just to ask him what the saleslady said. Did I mention my cousin was a 12 year-old? He grew up in Japan so he practically speaks the language half of his life. I often have a hard time speaking to him too. So, basically, language barrier can affect our lives in so many ways. Consequently, different language also means different currency. And because of globalization, the companies expand their business in different parts of the world. As a result, a company will have a subsidiary with a different functional currency. This subsidiary will have to be translated to the functional currency of its parent for the purpose of consolidation. The article discussed about the...
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...TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT Translation quality assessment has become one of the key issues in translation studies. This comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of translation evaluation makes explicit the grounds of judging the worth of a translation and emphasizes that translation is, at its core, a linguistic operation. Written by the author of the world’s best known model of translation quality assessment, Juliane House, this book provides an overview of relevant contemporary interdisciplinary research on translation, intercultural communication and globalization, and corpus and psycho- and neuro-linguistic studies. House acknowledges the importance of the socio-cultural and situational contexts in which texts are embedded, and which need to be analysed when they are transferred through space and time in acts of translation, at the same time highlighting the linguistic nature of translation. The text includes a newly revised and presented model of translation quality assessment which, like its predecessors, relies on detailed textual and culturally informed contextual analysis and comparison. The test cases also show that there are two steps in translation evaluation: firstly, analysis, description and explanation; secondly, judgements of value, socio-cultural relevance and appropriateness. The second is futile without the first: to judge is easy, to understand less so. Translation Quality Assessment is an invaluable resource for students and researchers...
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...Parallel Corpus Hammouda Salhi University of Carthage, Tunisia hammouda_s@hotmail.com Abstract: This article investigates a topic at the interface between translation studies, lexical semantics and corpus linguistics. Its general aim is to show how translation studies could profit from the work done in both lexical semantics and corpus linguistics in an attempt to help ‘endear’ linguists to translators (Malmkjær, 1998). The specific objective is to capture the semantic and pragmatic behavior of the noun ‘destruction’ from its different translations into Arabic. The data are taken from an English-Arabic parallel corpus collected from UN texts and their translations (hereafter EAPCOUNT). While it seems that ‘destruction’ is monosemous, it turns out, after exploring its occurrences, to be highly polysemous and shows a case of complementary polysemy, where a number of alternations can be captured. These findings are broadly in line with the results reached in recent developments in lexical semantics, and more particularly the Generative Lexicon (GL) theory developed by James Pustejovsky. Some concrete suggestions are made at the end on how to enhance the relation between linguists and translators and their mutual cooperation. Key words: Lexical semantics, corpus linguistics, translation studies, complementary polysemy, coercion, parallel corpora, lexical ambiguities Résumé: Le présent article aborde un sujet à la croisée des études de traduction...
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...Fall 2013 11/1/2013 Unit 3 Assignment: “How Do You Say It?” Final Draft Language and Translation Language is the basic tool people use to communicate with each other, including verbal language and non-verbal language. Language is used to announce, to persuade, to queries, to express emotions, to transmit complicated ideas or even to hurt people. Generally speaking, using the language correctly allows people to communicate better, compared with animals. However, we live in a big world, which has more than 6 billion people now. With the existence of many different languages, the issues of translation are generated. After reading Alberto Rios essay – Translating Translation: Finding the Beginning, I know Rios understands languages and translation in complex and stratified ways, from cultures and manners. He writes “Language is more than what we say – it’s also how we say it, and whether or not we even understand what we are saying. ” in his short essay (508). It can be understood easily why Rios pays so much attention to languages and translation. He grew up on the southwestern borderlands, having a Mexican father and an English mother. (504) The place he grew up is a place where cultures of the United States and Mexico meet and collide. Based on his own experience of dealing with different cultures and different languages, he points out how to say is more significant than what we say. The elements making his essay to be persuasive and...
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...Lucy Parkhurst Dr. Thombre 11/5/13 Intercultural Movie Review When thinking of intercultural communication, the movie that comes to mind is Sophia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation”. Bob Harris, played by Bill Murray, is an American actor who visits Tokyo, Japan to film an ad for whiskey. Bob, away from his wife and his familiar western environment, experiences isolation, loneliness, and sleeplessness upon entering Tokyo. He is constantly frustrated, due largely in part to his understanding of what others, such as a film director, restaurant waiters, and prostitutes are trying to convey to him in Japanese. In the midst of all this, he meets Charlotte, an American woman who like him, is lonely because her husband is more interested in his photography work than her. Due to their shared loneliness and feelings of isolation and culture shock, Bob and Charlotte become friends, and begin a relationship through respect, trust, and self-disclosure. Bob and Charlotte become a mirror to each other, as both try to sort out their identities and how proceed from their own relational crossroads. While the audience may wonder throughout the movie if Bob and Charlotte’s relationship will ever become romantic, it is plain to see that they learn lots about themselves and each other as a result of being outsiders in this new and unfamiliar culture. The most evident intercultural concepts I noticed in the film is culture shock, language, and identity. The first concept, culture shock, is explained...
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...The Translation Shifts [Name of Student] [Name of University] Translation shift refers to the changes that occur during the process of translating from one language to another. These shifts occur at all level whether the lower level of language or the higher thematic level of text. According to Catford (1978:73) he says translation shift is the change from the formal correspondence to the target text. He has divided translation shifts into two categories and that is rank and category translations shift. Rank translation shift is where there is a change from grammar to lexis whereas category is the change from formal correspondence. The existence of a translation shift in any kind of translational activity has become an unavoidable phenomenon as translation is a process. It never stops with the evolution of time and the knowledge of mankind. Translation has never and will never reach completion or perfection. It is where our practice makes perfect. Translation shifts normally occurs when the source language is different from the target language and these are normally due to differences in word order, types of tense used grammar used parts of speech applied etc. In the case of translating English to Arabic there occurs a translational shift because English belongs to the Indo-European family and Arabic is a Semitic language. The disparity makes the shift to come out. It is always important for one to understand that translation shift helps to reduce literal translation of...
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...LEXICAL PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION The study of the language is arguably the most hotly contested property in the academic realm. It becomes a tangle begetting multiple language discrepancies. That is why linguistics compares languages and explores their histories, in order to find and to account for its development and origins to give the answers to this or that language point. Due to the semantic features of language the meanings of words, their ability to combine with other words, their usage, the “place” they hold in the lexical system of a language do not concur for the most part. All the same “ideas” expressed by words coincide in most cases, though the means of expression differ. The principal types of lexical correspondences between two languages are as follows: 1) Complete correspondences; 2) Partial correspondences; 3) The absence of correspondences Let’s deal with them more exactly. 1) Complete lexical correspondences. Complete correspondence of lexical units of two languages can rarely be found. As a rule they belong to the following lexical groups: - proper names and geographical denominations: - the months and days of the week, numerals. - scientific and technical terms (with the exception of terminological polysemy). 2) Partial lexical correspondences. While translating the lexical units partial correspondences mostly occur. That happens when a word in the language of the original conforms to several...
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...Florentine Codex Translation The Florentine Codex has four version available to read. The original Nahuatl version, Spanish, English from spanish translation, and the new English from Nahuatl translation. Among these four versions, they both discuss the same story line without much variation. But it's the small differences in the Old vs New English that create interesting difference that change certain details and emotions. The new direct Nahuatl translation is of course the more true and preferred version for accurate information. But between these two versions you can see the errors that are constantly being made and the pieces of information that are essentially lost in translation. This can as well compel other historians to revise translations of other important historical documents seeing what type of mistakes and miscommunications can be possible. One of the small details that was found different was about the status of the nobility versus Montezuma, specifically the event where they all meet the new coming Spaniards. In the older English version, is just mentions the nobility alongside Montezuma. This can be misinterpreted as the nobility and Montezuma are of equal ranking with no one being on top of each other on the hierarchy scale. Thanks to the new English version, there is a clarification made that when they all meet the Spaniards, it's Montezuma and Montezuma's rulers and nobles. This adds a new possessive detail in which Montezuma essentially controls these...
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...A. Major Works in the Field of Translation June 03, 2015 Contents A. Major Works in the Field of Translation 2 I. Introduction 2 II. Translation Works in Europe and Asia 3 III. Conclusion 6 Works Cited 7 A. Major works in the field of translation I. Introduction Translation studies covers the science of written translation as well as that of oral translation, commonly referred to as interpreting. In this paper, I shall focus on well-know historical written translations. Specifically, how they came into being, what instigated the process by which they made their, relatively speaking, universal debut and to conclude, a word or two about how these translations were received. In the rational, temperate climate that permeates the society of today it is often difficult to imagine the trials and tribulations that early translators had to face. Some translators were simply too educated and ultimately, their life work led them to their downfall at the hands of those who would not accept change. These forces conspired to undermine the efforts of those who were driven simply by curiosity. As Jeremy Munday points out: Any translation diverging from the accepted interpretation was likely to be deemed heretical and to be censored or banned. An even worse fate lay in store for some translators. The most famous examples are those of the English theologian-translator William Tyndale, and the French humanist Etienne Dolet, both burnt at the stake. (23) ...
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...Professional Study Program “Technical Translation” Text Types and Decision Making in Translation TERM PAPER Riga 2011 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Theoretical Part 4 Practical Part 10 Conclusion 41 Bibliography 42 Appendixes I Glossary of Terms II Source Text Introduction The author of the present term paper is a student of Riga Technical University, Institute of Languages, Georgijs Mitikovs. The term paper titled “Text Types and Decision Making in Translation” consists of two parts: the theoretical part and practical part. In the theoretical part the author of this term paper reviews different types of texts and specific characteristics of each of them as well as a set of methods of translation with examples taken from the translation of a text provided in the second, practical part of this term paper. The practical part consists of translation of a text from the book “The Ascend of Money, A Financial History of the World” (New York, 2008) written by Niall Ferguson. The title of the chosen chapter this book is “Blowing Bubbles”. The author of the term paper has also included all the figures and tables from the source text in the target text. The aim of the author in this term paper is to define different types of text types and to find out the factors which impact the process of decision making in translation. In the practical part of given term paper the aim was to apply the most appropriate translation strategies, methods, approaches...
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...Descriptive Translation Studies as in its application in translation practice and translation analysis. Since early 20th century, translation studies gradually broke away from the marginal status within other related disciplines and established itself as an empirical science. From then on, schools of thought have kept coming out and each claims its legitimacy for existence. Among these schools is Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS). DTS approaches translation from an empirical perspective. Translation is viewed to be a social activity having significant importance in the receiving culture and for the target community. Therefore, translation is dealt with beyond the linguistic realization and language comparison, and is incorporated in social and cultural context. My attention was first directed to DTS by its peculiar characteristic of observation, description and explanation. The subject is whatever happens in translation practice, from the determination of prospective function of translation to the process of translator’s choice of strategies, brainstorming and the revision, to the final product making appearance in the target community. The method of DTS is basically descriptive. The prescriptive tendency and the problem-solution pattern is abandoned. Translation phenomena are noted down. With accumulated data, some underlying truths about translation will come out which will prove to be instructive not only for theoretical probe but also for applied translation practice...
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...Syed Abuzar Naqvi ENGL 511 04 Jan. 2015 The Role of Equivalence in Translation Theory and Practice. Abstract This paper highlights the development of translation studies, and equivalence as a form translation theory. It reveals the fact that translation theory and translation practice both are inseparable from each other. It tries to discover an approach which shall guide translators to produce relatively good translations. Though exploration and explication of this theory is multidimensional hence debatable but it is beneficial nonetheless to present the same plurality of views. Although equivalence may be considered the vital issue in translation but its interpretation, significance, and applicability remains debatable within the field of translation theory. It further explains how translation keeps oscillating between the equivalence and lack of equivalence. However,this paper continues to study, criticize, and even judge the translation according to the criteria of equivalence. Finally, the role of equivalence and translation theory is exemplified in the translation fromUrdu into English of short story and poems by various authors. The main aim of this paper is to introduce reader tothe concept of translation studies, and theory of equivalence.The English term translation was first introduced in around 1340. It was derived either from Old French translation or more directly from the Latin ‘translatio’ that means transporting,which itself coming from the participle...
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