Translating Culture
A translator has many options at his/her disposal to deal with translating cultural references. Mailhac (1996) describes a range of tools or procedures from which the translator chooses from to form a strategy. The translator then uses this strategy to respond to the nature of the cultural reference in terms of its linguistic expression and correspondents in the target language as well as the nature of the cultural reference in terms of its communicative purpose. Mailhac proposes the use of procedures based on the criteria of different parameters to finally formulate a strategy for the functionality of the message of a particular translation. The strategy itself explains the conditions under which a procedure or parameters are applied and the whole process can be a combination of several tools. On a textual level, procedures include:
- cultural transplantation
- exoticism with minimum presence of the translator
- exoticism with maximum presence of the translator
Minimum presence of the translator is often seen in novels, where the target reader is treated like the source reader with virtually no additional information being added to the main body of the text. On the contrary, maximum presence of the translator is seen primarily in newspaper articles where additional information is systematically provided throughout the main body of the text. For example, The Morning Star would be L’Humanité in French with Cultural Transplantation, le Morning Star if using exoticism with minimum presence of the translator and le Morning Star, journal communiste britannique, using exoticism with maximum presence of the translator.
The parameters used in deciding on a textual procedure are as follows:
- communicative functions of the text
- whether the role of the cultural references is central or peripheral within the text
- pragmatic coherence
- readerships’ knowledge of the source culture
However, in terms of individual cultural references, there are various procedures that can be applied. These include:
- cultural borrowing
- literal translation
- definition
- cultural substitution
- lexical creation
- deliberate omission
- compensation
- translator’s note
- combination of procedures
To choose a procedure on the cultural reference level, the translator must take into account various parameters, such as:
- source and target text functions
- pragmatic coherence
- role of the cultural references in the source and target texts
- the readership’s knowledge of the source culture
- contextual information
- referent type
- formal transparency of the cultural reference
- the frequency of the cultural reference
- cultural coherence
- semiotic value of the referent
- linguistic and cultural relationships
- stylistic equivalence
- elegance
Therefore, on a textual level, with three procedures and four parameters available, it is possible to make strategies. However, on an individual cultural reference level, there are too many parameters and procedures for the translator to be able to formulate a strategy.
References: Mailhac, J. P. (1996) ‘The Formulation of Translation Strategies for Cultural References’, in C. Hoffman (ed) Language, Culture and Communication in Contemporary Europe, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
