THE HUMAN FACTOR –

A PREREQUISITE FOR A
GOOD CROSS-CULTURAL
COMMUNICATION
IN TRANSLATION
Rumyana Todorova
Shumen University, Bulgaria

05/10/2017
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
 The translator’s job is a
piece of cake ?!?
 Is knowledge of a language a
sufficient prerequisite for a good
translation?
 Other types of knowledge
(extralinguistic)
 Cultural
 Political
 Ethnic
 National
 Social
 Educational
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.
 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.
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)
 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
 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)
Interrelation between
translation, text linguistics
and culture
The info in the whole text #
to the individual parts
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
 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?
 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)

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)
Explicitness / implicitness of info in
translation
Inner 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)
 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’
 Orality – literacy
continuum
 Orality in fairy tales
 SL (Eng) – TL (mother tongue) –
not that easy
 Concepts stored in our
minds
 humans are used to thinking in
terms of categories, prototypes,
stereotypes, codes, frames and
schemes
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 )
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
 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

21
 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
 Stereotypes
fixed idea that people have
about what s.o./s.th. is like
 Schemes
logical order of presenting
events and processes
 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)
 TRANSTATION
ENTAILS
 decoding of culture-specific info
 re-coding of culture-specific info
 encoding of culture-specific info
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)
 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)
 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.)
 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)
 LEXIS/SEMANTICS IN
TRANLSATION
 lack of equivalent words (sibling)
 different ways of making information
salient
 different ways of presenting information in
academic writing
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
 Exclamations
 Hay Allah! – Oh, God!
 Well – ami, e (BG)
 Oh! – ah (BG)
 Ah – oh (BG)
FALSE FRIENDS
 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
 Translation
 Language
 Culture
 Human factor

Not a piece of cake at all!