Cultural Differences And Semiotic Variations In English And Persian: A Study Of Translation Problems
Loading...
Date
2007-06
Authors
Sharififar, Masoud
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the cultural differences between English and
Persian which may be problematic in translating from English into Persian. The
study aims also to investigate the way cultural elements are dealt with in the
selected corpora and to check whether the procedures proposed by Newmark,
Vinay and Darbelnet and Mollanazar are sufficient and adequate for the
translation of cultural elements from English into Persian.
Two dramas, A Streetcar named Desire by T. Williams and The Pilgrim’s
Progress by J. Bunyan and one novel, The Great Gatsby by S.Fitzgerald and
their corresponding translated Persian versions are analyzed. This study is also
narrowed down to only non-verbal, religious and social cultural elements. This
investigation uses Newmark’s theory of translation (1998).
The findings obtained from the textual analyses of the related data show that the
transfer of social cultural elements is the least problematic and of non-verbal
elements including acoustic and linguistic signs as well as religious elements are
the most problematic for the translators.
The findings also indicate that there is no evidence to show a consistent effort on
the part of translators to use any particular translation approach in the process of
achieving adequate translations. The textual analyses of the translated works
demonstrate that the translators of the dramas have mostly adopted a communicative translation approach, while the translator of the novel had a semantic approach.
The findings show that procedures suggested by Newmark, Vinay and Darbelnet
and Mollanazar have accounted well for the transfer of social elements. For nonverbal
and religious elements, it is observed that Newmark’s range of procedures
is comprehensive and works well nearly for all cultural elements included in the
selected corpora Vinay and Darbelnet’s and Mollanazar’s procedures, however,
lack some which may be considered as their shortcomings.
In brief, regardless of some inevitable differences between English and Persian
cultures, the themes of the works have adequately been transferred into the
target language, and the strategies used by the translators , except for a few
cases, accounted well for the transfer of cultural elements.
Description
Keywords
Translation of cultural