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Alaa Ahmed Riad

Assignment On 4
th
December
Due On 11
th
December.

Translation Strategies according to the Different Levels of Culture
1-Technical Culture : Shared Encyclopedic Knowledge
The first cultural frame is at the top of the ice berg and coincides with the humanist concept of culture. The
Focus is on the text, dressed in its best-civilized clothes of a particular culture. This level covers both
Culturemes , allusions .
Cultureme is 'culture-bound ' terms , formalized , socially and juridically embedded phenomena that exist
in a particular form or function . Culturemes cover a wide range of semantic fields from geography and
traditions to institutions and technologies.
Kwiecinski has summarized strategies to translate these culturemes .
A) Exoticising Procedures allow the foreign term into the target language to give a local color and
atmosphere. For example, falafel and burka , halal.
B)Rich Explicatory Procedures slide in an extra term or two which will cue readers to the context, often
through a local analogy, to guide them towards a more equivalent cognition.
For example, Knesset would be translated as Knesset ( the Isaeli Parliament).
C) Recognised Exoticisation Procedures are used with some well-known geographical and personal
names and titles which have accepted translations according to language.
For example, La Gioconda in Italian is the Mona lisa in Engllish.
Tel Aviv in English is , Aristotle in English is
D) Assimilative Procedures transform text from the original into close functionally equivalent target
terms especially in some positions or in the translation of idioms.
For example : Secretary of state would be .
to warm someone's heart in English would be translated as .
Allusions depend more on a context- based communication, they need ' a meta, cultural capacity', one
that is able to comprehend 'the extra linguistic knowledge of the source language culture' and also' take
into account the expectations and background knowledge of potential TT readers'. Translation of allusions
constitute a challenge as not all allusions have such exophoric and exportable referents , but rather carry
with them 'cultural baggage'. In the articles , no strategies are suggested to solve this challenge , however
one might think that the translator might leave out the allusion if does bear considerable significance to the
meaning or translate it literally and then add a footnote to explain it if it is crucial to conveying the
message.
2 ) Formal Culture : Functionalists , Appropriate practices.
Hall's second 'formal' level of culture is part of the anthropological definition , usually described in terms
of what is normal or appropriate . The stress on this level is on noting differences , that is where culture
appears. Intervention at this level focuses on the skopos of translation (Vermeer) and tailoring the
translation according to the reception in the target culture to avoid any cultural bumps or shocks.
Translators should mediate they cannot just transfer the text . For example ,If one just translates the letter
from one language to another overlooking the 'normal way ' to write a business letter in the TT , serious
misunderstandings might arise . Using a direct, personal and accusatory tone in a business letter in English
is a deviation from the normalcy English people expect. So Translators have to take care of the discourse
. The example of deleting complimentary statements from latins and to add appropriate expressions of
greeting and friendship from their North American bosses . As Americans would sound reluctant to do
business with Latinos who appear to be too flattering and insincere. Useful technically oriented
communication preference models are available thanks to the study of contrastive rhetoric. They can help
in mediation between culture specific accepted practices . Clearly, text with a persuasive function must
be manipulated if they are to function persuasively in the target culture.
One might deduce that on such a level, a contrastive analysis to decide how this certain text- type or
domain or generally discourse is normally written in the TT like letters , contracts , patents.
3)Informal Culture :Cognitive Systems and Values
Hall's third level of culture he terms 'informal' or 'out of awareness' because it is not normally accessible to
the conscious brain for meta-cognitive comment as this level is not concerned with models that can be
Alaa Ahmed Riad
Assignment On 4
th
December
Due On 11
th
December.

technically analyzed. At this informal level , there are no formal guides to practice but instead
unquestioned core values ,beliefs or stories about self , and the world . Here culture is a 'shared model,
map or view of the perceivable world ' according to Korzybski. Readers at this level will evaluate the
use of language (behavior) in terms of 'oddness' of style but through attributing features of identity
according to their own value systems . For example , the concept of dusa in Russian is not there in the
Anglo-Saxon culture, so if a translator is rendering a Russian text which heavily refers to this concept , a
faithful translation would sound odd in English. So , a number of strategies have been suggested.
Wierzbicka 's advice is to use other partial synonyms or eliminate some of the references to the core
value. Deletion as suggested by Wierzbicak is opposed by Venuti who says that ' the main issue is
completely the opposite : the loss of foreign and an over domestication pandering to Anglo value system.
House also warns against actively manipulating the cultural filter for written language as the ST has its
own worth. Another aspect which falls within this level is the how people of a certain culture grasp
politeness in social contexts. For example a direct order of a beverage in a culture might sound very rude
in another culture . So translator might couch it as a request to avoid distortion the target text as suggested
by Katan. At this level no word is entirely denotative , some technical words will have a 'cultural baggage'
which would evoke certain connotation for a new readership due to culture bound practice differences ,for
example wine in English and in Arabic . United states is associated with patriotism for Americans ,
while it represents exploitation and wealth for Mexicans.
A certain flower like chrysanthemum might has no connotation in a certain culture , while it bears strong
symbolic meaning in other cultures as it is 'flower of the dead' . so the role of the translator is to consider
how anchored the intended meaning is to its ' specific social context' and hence value systems and also
how clear it is to the target reader that the meaning is framed within a different model of the world. So,
translator might add acoording to the American culture or as they say in America - according to Katan .
To Sum up, deletion or partial synonymy might be used along slight intervention to let the text observe
the conventions of the culture ( the bar example) or explicitly saying that this is according to a certain
culture.( example of the flower) . It is all down to the cultural sensitivity the translator has along with the
intended meaning he wants to deliver.

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