Advantages And Disadvantages Of Translation

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Translation is a transfer of meaning from one set of language signs to another. However, in practice, it is a complex process of negotiating two different worlds. The differences in geographical location, culture, language, rites and rituals, value system, thought process and religious practices of different groups of people in different places make them distinct from one another, with their unique characteristics. Nevertheless the basic emotional and intrinsic similarities force people living in a particular place to enjoy literature of other language communities. The speakers of a particular language community are under the power of the language they speak, hence their perception is the product of that particular language. Their thinking and knowledge systems are not permitted to go beyond the limits of that language. As a result, everything existing in a particular language community cannot be translated. Accessing to equivalent words or concepts can therefore become a difficult area for a translator. The elements, exclusive to a particular culture and language come out to be non-existent in a different language, for which a translator has to take recourse in creating ‘new semantic fields’ or ‘super-ordinate’. Baker comments that, semantic fields are the division ‘imposed by a given linguistic community on the continuum of experiences’ and ‘superordinate’ refers to translation by a more general word (Baker, 1992, p.18). Many a times, the translator has to eliminate some

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