Untranslatability:
Untranslatability is the property of a text or any utterance, in SL, for which no equivalent text or utterance in found in TL. A text or utterance that is considered to be untranslatable in actually a lexical gap.
Types of Untranslatability:
Catford distinguishes two types which he terms linguistic and cultural which are described as follows:
1. Linguistic Untranslatability
2. Cultural Untranslatability
Linguistic Untranslatability:
When there is no lexical or syntactical substitute in the TL for an SL item. Linguistically untranslatable sentences are such as involves structures not found in English. By restructuring and adjusting the position to conform to English norms a translator would unhesitatingly render two sentences.
Professor Liu Biqing wrote in his Modem Translation Theories that “The structure of language commonly shows the characteristics of the language, these characteristics only can be found in relative language, the similar transfer is difficult to find in non-relative language, for it need to change the code completely.” View from the etymology, English belongs to the Indo-European language, while Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language, so there exits the linguistic untranslatability, which includes the following aspects: phonology, character, figure of speech, and so on.
A. Untranslatability in Phonology:
Any language has its own special phonemic system, which cannot be replaced by other language. There are large differences
These are: (1) When a judge view a case as unworthy when the persons involved are not proficient in English language.
4. People assume it is primitive. 5. Hearing people assume that ASL is spoken English expressed on hands according to certain conversations. 2.
Reading Amy Tan 's "Mother Tongue", I came across the idea of language being "fractured and broken". In the essay, she provided examples of how her mother 's limited English caused her to be given poor service by staff at department stores, banks, and restaurants; she stated how they would consider her mother’s lack of depth in her thinking was caused by the "broken" or "limited" use of the English language. Conversely, she thinks that her mother 's English is "vivid, full of observation and imagery". We have given that language many names: non-native tongue, broken English…but I think Chinglish is what gives it the most character. Indeed, Chinglish is what creates meaning for the speaker and highlights the emotional aspects of the native tongue, despite it being the literal translation of a Chinese phrase (which makes it grammatically incorrect with funny pronunciation and deemed as a form of "broken English").
Language Barrier: barrier to communication resulting from speaking different languages Self-Introduction My nationality is United States, America and my ethnicity is Hmong. I am the second youngest child in my family. My parents
In Jack Rosenthal’s article, "So Here 's What 's Happening to Language" he discusses how through spoken language ,written language becomes more informal. Through this informalization many words that were considered vulgar, dirty, or offensive become denatured. Rosenthal then goes on to use the word “ Screw” as an example(Walters, p.128). Three more words that have become denatured are ‘Bastard’, ‘Damn’ and ‘Nigger’.
In the English language, a speaker would have to consider the past, present, and future, putting more thought into time. The Chinese language does not divide time the way that the English language does. While speaking the Chinese language, as the speaker is forced to think more about family. 3.
Thesis: The United States should allow immigrants to live in the US without the fear of getting deported. Topic sentence 1: immigrants make the United States less globally isolated. Evidence a) Gives Americans more chances to meet individuals from different nations right here at home. (Example: an immigrant who came from Nigeria, china, Mexico, they all have different background, cultures, and languages, etc. The ability to show comprehension and appreciation for different social foundations is a basic ability in today's globalized world.
Language is used everyday in lives. We use it to communicate with each other to show how we feel or think. Comfort can drift away from us if we do not have the ability to communicate with others. Barriers can present themselves when trying to communicate inhibiting language. In the short story Out of All Them Bright Stars by Nancy Kress, she puts an alien in a normal dinner and everyone is uncomfortable with his presence there except his waitress.
The essay "Mother's Tongue" is written by Amy tan and published in 1990. In her essay she talks about languages and how they all vary especially how the English language varied in her life. She talks about all the "Englishes" she knew and used growing up. She has become a successful author and had attended events were she was invited to talk about her book. In one of those events she took her mother and during her speech she realized the way she was talking to the group of people was different from the way she would talk to her mom.
Imagine a country with no record of its history. No pictures, video recordings, textbooks nor documentation of what has happened in the past. A country where there are no traditions being passed on from generation to generation. The only people who can remember their countries past are those still alive to tell the stories of the past. This is what is happening today with the extinction of languages, Author K. David Harrison wrote “When Languages Die”.
A translator may subject him-/herself either to the original text, with the norms it has realized, or to the norms active in the target culture, or in that section of it which would host the end product. Translation is a complicated task, during which the meaning of the source-language text should be conveyed to the target-language readers. In other words, translation can be defined as encoding the meaning and form in the target language by means of the decoded meaning and form of the source language. Different theorists state various definitions for translation.
In her article, Bilingual Lives, Bilingual Experience, Anna Wierzbicka is trying to demonstrate that the “vocabulary of emotions is undoubtedly different from language to language”. Each language has its own distinct and specific words that are meant to express particular things that maybe could not be translated or could not have the same meaning in another language. By that the speaker could not interpretate the word as he would do in his native language, due to his perspective. She argues that by being bilingual you are expressing yourself in two different ways, shifting from one language to another. As the writter suggests, “emotions are central to human life and bilingualism provides a new perspective on emotions”.
Languages are complex because they are made up of many components. Some components include the culture, meaning, and interpretation. The way people understand language has to do mostly with their culture and their understanding of what is being said. Also, depending upon where someone is raised, the pronunciation of certain words can be different and therefore it influences the understanding. My goal in this paper is to demonstrate that language and culture are intertwined.
The film Lost in Translation follows two Americans visiting Tokyo during important transitional periods in their lives. Charlotte is a recent college graduate trying to figure out her career while also moving on from the honeymoon phase of her new marriage. Bob Harris is an actor essentially going through a mid-life crisis as he sorts through life post-movie stardom and struggles to maintain a relationship with his overbearing wife. The two find each other in a hotel bar as a result of their inability to sleep and form a connection based on their mutual isolation in both their relationships and the city of Tokyo. The film touches on the importance of communication as well as what it is like to be a foreigner alone in a vastly different culture.
Phonemic Awareness and Phonics As a ESL student, I learned a lot information to teach young students to read, pronounce letters and words. “English is an alphabetic language, and children learn crack this code as they learn about phonemes (sound), graphemes (letters), and graph phonemic (letter-sound) relationship (Tompkins, p.103). My first language`s letters sounds never changed, but in English it changes when different letters come together for example “sh”, “ch” and words are cat and cent. When you read these word, sound is changing first letter of words even same letter.