Cultural Differences In Translation Calques

CHAPTER TWO

TRANSLATION SHIFTS

2.1. Introduction

Translation is a complicated process which involves two different languages. Each language has its own linguistic, stylistic, and cultural system which makes it difficult, or impossible, to convey to the target text (TT) the exact features of the source text (ST). Translation shifts, accordingly, is a phenomenon that cannot be avoided. Eugene Nida (1964: 156) illustrates this point stating that:

Since no two languages are identical, either in the meanings given to corresponding symbols or in the ways in which such symbols are arranged in phrases and sentences, it stands to reason that there can be no absolute correspondence between languages. Hence there can be no fully exact translations.

Nida

Two kinds of calque are recognized; lexical calque which introduces new mode of expression while taking the syntactic structure of the TL into consideration, and structural calque which introduces a new construction in the TL (Vinay and Darbelnet, 1958: 85). An example of lexical calque is the borrowed word "موبايل" which is pluralized according to the syntactic structure of Arabic, and the use of the forced passive voice "من قبل" in Arabic is an example of structural calque (Almanna, 2014: 76).

Kayyal (2008: 43) gives two reasons for the occurrence of calque translation:

A. Where there are culture- specific items where original semantic meaning is difficult to convey in the target language.

B. The tendency to translate each word separately, without considereing its function in the overall context, is expressed in the translation of idiomatic combinations split into their constituent, with each

2.3.3. Literal translation Literal, or word-for-word, translation is defined by Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/1995: 86) as “the direct transfer of a SL text into a grammatically and idiomatically appropriate TL text in which the translators’ task is limited to observing the adherence to the linguistic servitudes of the TL”. Literal translation is commonly used when the SL and TL are from the same family, e.g. English and French, or share the same culture (Vinay and Darbelnet, 1958: 86). An example of the literal translation is the Arabic proverb "القشّة التي قصمت ظهر البعير" which is translated literally into English, “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. Vinay and Darbelnet claim that if the translator sees the direct/ literal translation, which includes the three procedures discussed above, i.e. borrowing, calque, and literal translation, unacceptable, s/he can resort to the oblique translation. According to these scholars, the term refers to the message which is translated literally that:

1. gives another meaning, or

2. has no meaning, or

3. is structurally impossible,