APPENDIX 3 Cultural Problems in Translation A Checklist: 1. Lexical and Phrasal Elements 1. 1.

Denotation and Connotation or Types of Meaning (Theories of Meaning) 1. 2. Metaphors 1. 3. Idioms Politeness Formulas and Forms of Address 1. 4. The Gender of Inanimate Nouns 2. Social Relationships affecting Politeness Formulas, Forms of Address and Power and Social Distance Situation, Relevance and the Cooperative Principle Grices Conversational Maxims Speech acts: Greetings, apologizing, thanking vary from one culture to another (e.g. social relationships vary from one culture to another (extended family vs. nucleus family) Forms of address (e.g. using the plural when addressing an elder or superior person as a token of respect) 3. Nonverbal behaviour 4. material culture: Dress code or ornaments used and the symbols behind each of them also pose a problem for a translator. food habits (what o eat and when and what are the connotations) 5. Customs and tradition (be it a marriage or a funeral) are part of a culture. Pragmatic knowledge Taboos Irony Proverbs 6. Beliefs and feelings change from culture to culture (e.g. color terms)

7. Religious elements, myths, legends, and the like are major components of any culture.

8. Political, and administrative Institutions 9. Lastly, geographical and environmental elements are also part of one's culture (e.g. snow

Problems related to cultural differences constitute the second type of problem that a translator faces in the course of translation. These cultural differences include many extralinguistic features, such as religion, social backgrounds, unfamiliar natural phenomena, and others (Mouakket, 1988: 180). We have already discussed the relationship between culture and language in Unit 13 Language, Culture and Translation. We have also discussed some of the cultural problems in Unit 8 Translation, Translatability and Untranslatability) and in Unit 9 Adaptation or Cultural Equivalence in the First Coursebook in Translation. Cultural problems is an umbrella term that includes various problems in the process of translation such as problems arising from mixing between the denotative and connotative meanings of words, forms of address, and the problems associated with idioms and metaphors. The following quotation from Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins( : ) stresses just how serious cultural problems are in translation: It is useful to discuss general cultural differences as such, because they are sometimes bigger obstacles to successful translation than linguistic ones. 2.1 Denotation and Connotation The first problem to be discussed in this respect is the one associated with denotation and connotation. As is well known, there are two main types of meaning: denotation and connotation. Denotation refers to the literal, the referential, objective, cognitive or scientific meaning of a word. In Newmarks (1981: 119) terms Denotation is the direct specific meaning of a word, optionally shown ostensibly (i.e. in photo and diagram or by printing) and described as far as possible in summary observable terms (check). The denotative meaning is normally the dictionary definition or first definition of a word in a dictionary. In Bells (1991: 98) terms it is. the shared property of the speech community which uses the language of which the word or sentence forms a part.

Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the metaphorical, emotive, poetic or associative meaning of a word. Newmark (1981: 119) defines it as (check) that aspect of meaning of a particular word or word-group which is based on the feelings and moral ideas it rouses in the transmitter or receptor, in brief, the meaning conveyed or suggested apart from the thing it explicitly names or describes. As a matter of fact, connotative meanings stem from our experience, education, religion, culture, and traditions. Whereas some words have only denotative meanings (i.e. neutral meanings) in a given language or for (certain) people in a given society, others have both denotative and connotative meanings again depending on the same variables. The problem for translation is that connotations in a specific language and culture may not be understood or may be strange to people of other cultures. To further understand connotations and the problems they cause to the translator I shall distinguish between six types of connotative meaning following Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins ( : ), which are the following: allusive meaning, attitudinal meaning, associative meaning, collocative meaning, reflected meaning, and affective meaning. The first type of connotative meaning is allusive meaning. This latter occurs whenTo fully understand this type, here is an example fromThe problem, however, with this type of connotation is . Another type of connotative meaning is attitudinal meaning. Nida (1969: 91) ascertain that we do not only understand the reference of words, but we also react to them emotionally, sometimes negatively....this is that part of meaning In the following utterances: Who is that girl? / who is that lass? Who is that wench? Girl, lass and wench may be said to refer to a young human female, i.e. the same referent. But whereas girl has a neutral meaning (no associations, no expressed (favorable or unfavorable) attitudes about the referent), lass has a positive poetical meaning and wench has negative and unpleasant associations. Therefore the translator should be aware of .. Sometimes an attitudinal meaning involves the deliberate misinterpretation or manipulation of the meaning of a concept in order to save interests and maintain power as done by interest groups in the mass media or in (pseudo-)intellectual discussions. This can be also referred to as the ideological meaning of words. By way of exemplification, the terms martyr(dom) and suicide bomber refer in fact to the same act, which is causing the death of oneself and enemies. But from the point of view of the committed, this is totally legitimate and the only way to achieve justice in the light of the inequality of powers. From the point of view of the other side, this is outrageous and is in no way justifiable. The facts,

however, are that the same act is given two labels or two names. Strictly speaking martyrdom and its closest Arabic equivalent do not refer to the same concept. Martyrdom, in English is willingly accepting death rather than renouncing ones religion.
in

Arabic is offering ones life in the service of God; it is a form of defying death and

injustice (life in the hereafter). One can list innumerable binary oppositions (martyrdom suicide bombing, terrorism - self defence or struggle for independence, freedom of speech racism or non respect for religious and cultural practices or interference), based on the model good vs. evil. The labels are two sides of the same coin. In this respect, disseminating a term is also disseminating an ideology, an attitude and a case. The third type is associative meaning. This latter refers to that part .A good example of a common noun with associative meaning is the term ayn in Arabic. This term frequently refers to the organ of sight, i.e. an eye. The Arabic term, however, refers also to a way of looking at a person which may cause him harm (disease, failure, fall, etc). Whatever opinion we may have of this meaning as a superstitious belief or as a fact, the point is that an English speaker is unlikely to understand this associative meaning and the translator has to find ways of bringing the association. Similarly words such as pig, dog and donkey have unpleasant negative associations (connotations) in the Arab culture besides their denotative meanings, associations which are not the same in other cultures. A symbolizes wisdom in the European culture but it is associated with bad luck and is considered a bad omen in the Moroccan culture. The four type of connotative meaning is collocative meaning, which is acquired by a word or expression by virtue of its association or rather its collocation with another word. .. ..The problem with this type of meaning arises from introducing unwanted collocative clashes in the TT. To illustrate this, Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins (.) provide the following example: Elle nourrissait un serpent dans son sein, literally rendered as She harboured a snake in her breast. The latter translation introduces strange and unwanted collocative clashes in the TT, which are avoided if the translation is She harboured a viper in her bosom. Reflected meaning is the fifth type of connotative meaning. It is the meaning given to an expression ..An example from Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins ( : ) is the following.. Just as it is necessary to try and preserve a reflected meaning which is present in the SL, it is necessary to avoid the creation of an inappropriate reflected meaning in the TT.

The last type of meaning is the affective one. It refers to ..(Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins, : ). The problem with this type of meaning as was the case with most of then previous types is introducing unwanted affective meanings into the TT. Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins ( : ) classification of meaning into seven types

is similar to that made by Leech (1974, 1981: 9-23), a semanticist, who also recognizes seven types of meaning: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning and thematic meaning. Note however that the two taxonomies overlap but are not the same. This is how they map into an overall picture. Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins Denotative meaning, Allusive meaning evokes a saying or quotation.. Attitudinal meaning some widespread attitude to the referent Associative meaning expectations that are rightly or wrongly associated with the referent Collocative meaning, Collocative meaning, What is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the Reflected meaning, environment of another word Reflected meaning, What is communicated through association with another sense of the Affective meaning, same expression Affective meaning, What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer Connotative meaning Social meaning Thematic meaning Leech Denotative, conceptual meaning,

It seems to me, that both taxonomies fail to take into account an ideological meaning I referred to above. This meaning, as I said above, involves the deliberate misinterpretation and manipulation of terms and concepts to achieve specific ends. 2.2. Metaphors The second problem which is associated with culture relates to metaphors. Here are some dictionary definitions of a metaphor. A metaphor is "a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity" (WordWeb Thesaurus) a way of describing something by comparing it to something else that has similar qualities, without using the words 'like' or 'as' (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison" (The American Heritage Dictionary of English). a. the application of a name or descriptive term or phrase to an object or action to which it is imaginatively but not literally applicable. b an instance of this (Concise Oxford Dictionary). A figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, that to which it is literally applicable; an instance of this, a metaphorical expression (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary). From a translation point of view, metaphors might be defined as imaginative thought processes. (Peter Newmark, characteristics: - it is an expression, a word, or phrase which is used as a way of description, - it is a figure of speech, i.e. it involves metaphorical, figurative (not literal) meaning,, (besides the literal meaning with which it is usually associated), - it is an implicit comparison, and suggests description by focussing on similarity. the term metaphor refers to this language use as well as any instance of such use. In this second sense, a metaphor denotes one kind of object or idea but is used in place of another to suggest likeness or analogy between them. - (culture bound : ) From the previous definitions we know that a metaphor has the following

- There are two further characteristics of metaphors that are worth mentioning in this respect. The first remark is that metaphors might be defined as imaginative thoughtprocesses (David S. Mialls article Metaphor as a Thought-Process in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Autumn, 1979), pp. 21-28), which are pervasive not only in literature but also in thought or in every day life in general.
Lakoff and Johnson in their monumental work Metaphors we live by (1980:3) explain: Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. The concepts that govern our thought are not just matters of the intellect. They also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980:3, the emphasis is mine)

The second remark is that metaphors may not only be language but also culture specific (language and / or culture bound). Thus, in translating metaphors, we are not dealing only with language as a means of communication but with a cultural point of view as well. This second remark has far reaching consequences for translation, to which we will come back later. Like a simile, a metaphor is comparison but it is not direct, only implied. The author does not say one thing is like another, he says it is another. A metaphor then is the use of a word or phrase in which an analogous link is established between two elements sharing the same ground without using like or as. The two elements are called tenor or topic, on the one hand, and vehicle, on the other. The sunshine of her smile is a metaphor, in which the topic smile (or brightness of smile) is compared to the vehicle sunshine and the ground shared in this example is radiance. Also in The roses in her cheeks, the topic is cheeks and is compared to the vehicle roses while the ground shared is beauty. The same analysis can be applied to other metaphors, e.g. He is a lion in battle, "drowning in work", "a sea of troubles", the ship ploughs the

sea or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare), etc. (note that a metaphor may be a noun or a verb).

As to the possible problems raised by metaphors in the course of translation, these are prominen for the reasons that metaphors are deeply rooted in a culture and they involve creative or non-literal use of language. But before exemplifying and discussing these problems it is necessary to recognize different types of metaphor. Indeed, different writers have come out with different taxonomies, of which the following are the most important.

Fowler (1926: 348-49) distinguishes between live and dead metaphors. Live metaphors are are offered and accepted with consciousness of their nature as substitutes for their literal equivalence. On the contrary, a metaphor is called dead when the speaker and hearer have ceased to be aware that the word used is metaphorical (Fowler, 1926: 349). This distinction, is one of the earliest discussions of metaphor and serves to remind one of the necessity of recognizing different types of metaphor. Fowler, H. W. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Oxford Dagut considers metaphor as performance. According to him: Since a metaphor in the SL is, by definition, a new piece of performance, a semantic novelty, it can clearly have no existing `equivalence' in the TL: what is unique can have no counterpart. Here the translator's bilingual competence is of help to him only in the negative sense of telling him that any `equivalence' in this case cannot be `found' but will have to be created. The crucial question that arises is thus whether a metaphor can, strictly speaking, be translated as such, or whether it can only be `reproduced' in some way. Peter Newmark distinguishes between four types of metaphors in (1981: 32) and six in (1988: 106-113). In this discussion, however, I shall limit myself to only two types: stock metaphors and original metaphors. A stock metaphor is an established metaphor which in an informal context is an efficient and concise method of covering a physical and/or a neutral situation both referentially and pragmatically (Peter Newmark, 1988: 108). Stock metaphors are the reverse of plain speaking about any controversial subject or whatever is taboo in a particular

culture. They cluster around death, sex, excretion, war and unemployment; they are the hardiest means of disguising the truth or physical facts. Therefore, stock metaphors are more culture bound (Peter Newmark, : ). The problem caused by with this type of metaphor as . This is why, according in translation is that the translator is tempted to reproduce a TL metaphor which is totally unnatural. For example, it would be absurd to translate to Peter Newmark ( : ) the reproduction of stock metaphors should be confined to one

word metaphors as they rarely cause such a problem,. An example is "a sea of troubles", which can be translated as . Because original metaphors are particularly frequent in literary texts, they are especially relevant to students of the arts. An original metaphor, as Peter Newmark (1988: 112) says, is one that is created or quoted by the SL writer() in authoritative and expressive texts. It contains an important writers message, his personality, and comment on life even though it may have a more or less cultural element. He adds there is no question the more original and surprising it is (and therefore the more remote from the national culture), the easier it will be to translate, since in its essence it will be remote from common semantic as well as culture associations. As is clear from they do not raise insurmountable problems for the translator. Still an original metaphor frequently involve a word play or pun on a polysemous word in the SL. In the absence of a corresponding TL word, the translator has to choose between reproducing both senses or choosing one and losing the word play. For example, in a glaring error, glaring means shining intensely and outrageously bad, a possible translation into Arabic is . Very frequently, it is safer to attempt a literal translation. To put one's cards on the table, is safely translated into Arabic as .

these two quotations, the cultural element is less important in this type of metaphor, and consequently

2. 3 Idioms Idioms constitute another source of cultural problems for translators. Here are six selected dictionary definitions of an idiom. a group of words established by usage and having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (Concise Oxford Dictionary) a group of words with a meaning of its own that is different from the meanings of each separate word put together (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) A speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements (The American Heritage Dictionary). a form of expression, grammatical construction, phrase, etc. peculiar to a person or language; a phrase, etc. which is understood by speakers of a particular language despite its

meanings not being predictable from that of the separate words (The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary). a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent words (Collins) "an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up" (WordWeb Thesaurus). From a translators point of view, an idiom as may be defined a group of words whose meaning

cannot be predicted from the meanings of their constituent words. In Mona Bakers words (1992: 36) meanings which cannot be deduced from their individual constituents. Duff, interestingly, ( culture specificity of idioms is what justifies their inclusion within the cultural problems of translation. As we can see from the previous definitions, an idiom has the following characteristics: - consists of more than one word, and is usually an expression or phrasal verb, - the meaning of the idiom is not deducible from the meanings of the individual words, - idioms raise more problems for non-native speakers. Therefore, An idiom is an expression (phrase or clause) whose meaning cannot be derived from the sum of the meanings of its parts. In other words, the meaning of an idiom cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up. Something the previous definitions do not talk about is the relationship between idioms and metaphors, which are discussed in the previous section. An idiom may involve a metaphor as in its raining cats and dogs or see the light, but may also involve phrasal verbs as in look into (investigate scientifically) and other fixed expressions as in nice and cold (= nice because cold), As to the problems triggered by idioms, I shall focus on two such problems. The first one is that some idioms have a double meaning: a literal and a figurative one. Mona Baker ( : ) provides the following example: to take someone for a ride may be interpreted either as offering someone a ride or deceiving him. The point is that the translator may miss the figurative meaning of an idiom and consequently miss the real message. The second problem is that some idioms may have seemingly identical ones in the TL, but the similarity may be only on the level of form whereas their respective meanings may be different. ( : ) provides the following example. To pull someones leg, which means in : )

Idioms are frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form and () often carry specifies that Idioms are cultural products carrying SL cultural colouring. This emphasis on the

English to kid, to tell somebody false information for fun is said to be identical on the surface level with an Arabic idiom, namely yishab rijlu (to pull his leg), which is found in some dialects of Arabic. The point is that the latter idiom means something different, in particular it means is to trick somebody into talking about something he would rather have kept secret ( , : ). Alternatively, idioms in different languages, which have . different forms may have the same meaning. For example, All in all cultural problems fall into three categories (Yowell Y. Azia and M. S. Lataiwish (1999-2000: 11): geographical, religious and social. As an example of geographical differences between the Source and the Target Cultures we have already discussed the possible problems that Shakespeares sonnet in which he says Shall I compare thee to a Summers day might raise to the student of translation in Unit 8. The example above is also representative of the problems of the translation of metaphors. We have also touched upon the role played by religion in shaping culture and attitudes in our distinction between denotative and connotative meanings. As to social aspects of culture it is enough to point out the differences of customs, beliefs and habits in the two cultures, of which marriages, funerals and festivals are manifestations. In the Arab culture, for instance, people usually live in a large family with their parents, which by itself may be an unusual notion to a westerner. Similarly, an owl is a sign of wisdom in the European culture but it is a bad omen in the Arab culture. Other aspects of culture may relate to articles of dress, food, taste and dwelling. Thus the translator is not only required to master the two languages but also to be fully aware of the differences between the two cultures behind the languages and make the appropriate choices or provide explanations for the benefit of the TL reader. Some metaphors, idioms and proverbs can be unique to individual cultures, nations or groups. For example one culture may have a metaphor of life as a journey, whilst another may see it as opportunity; similarly, some cultures may view death as the end of a persons life whereas others may view it as the starting point of another life.

Cultural Problems / Barriers in Translation: Further Reading Books - Lado, R., 1957. Linguistics across Cultures, pp. 110-122 (How to Compare two Cultures) - Mounin, 1963. 1963, Les Problmes Thoriques de la Traduction. Ch. 4, 5, 12 (language and culture) - Catford, J. C., 1965. A Linguistic Theory of Translation. Ch. 14

- Steiner, George, 1975. After Babel: Aspects of Language and Culture. London: Oxford University Press (Ch 6. typologies of Culture) - Bassnett-McGuire, Susan 1980. Translation Studies. pp. 13-14 (language and culture), pp. 30-31 (loss and gain) - Duff, 1981, The Third Language. Ch. 1.6 (cultural differences and translation) - Newmark, 1981. Approaches to Translation Ch. 2 , pp. 20-24 (cultural equivalence), Ch. 3 and 5 (communicative and semantic translation) - Hatim, Basil and Ian Mason, 1990. Discourse and the Translator. Longman, Ch. 2, esp. pp. 32-33 (socio-cultural context), p. 169 (semiotic, communicative and pragmatic dimension of context) - Altwaijri, Abdulaziz Othman, 1998. The Arab Culture and Other Cultures, pp. 7-9 (Introduction about culture) - Yowell, Y. Aziz and Muftah S. Lataiwish, 1999/ 2000. Principles of Translation. Dar Annahda Alarabiya, n.p., pp. 106-109 (language , culture and translation), pp. 109-111 (relativity and culture), pp. 111-122 (cultural problems of EnglishArabic translation: geographical culture, religious culture, social culture, material love, linguistic culture) Encyclopedias Articles Thomas, Jenny, . Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure. Linguistics?, Vol. 1, No 2, pp. 91-112 (politeness, taboos, ) Web pages (Cultural Implications for translation: http://accurapid.com/) (Cultural Elements in Translation: the Indian Perspective: http://www.translationdirectory.com/ See also Linguistic and Cultural Problems in Translation file See also TranslationanIntroductionandBibliography file