Semantic and cultural losses in the translation of literary texts

Hanada Al-Masri, Purdue University

Abstract

The present study investigates the nature and causes of semantic and cultural losses occurring in translations of selected literary texts from Arabic to English. Previous research showed that the losses resulted mainly from the lack of equivalence between the source text and the target text. These losses were explained in terms of the lack of functional equivalence and the focus on formal equivalence. The present study proposes, in addition, that losses result from the lack of a balanced equivalence on the semantic and cultural levels. In particular, it stresses the semiotic equivalence approach that significantly accounts for both the semantic and pragmatic factors of the source text. The results of the present study show that linguistic/semantic losses are losses of verbal signs that affect the source text seriously (blocking the understanding of the source message), or moderately/tolerably (affecting its aesthetic values). Cultural losses, on the other hand, are losses of the hidden cultural information that reflect the social norms, religious beliefs, and ideological attitudes of the source text. Whereas semantic losses result from cases of mistranslation, superficial interpretation of the semantic and pragmatic equivalents, and literal translation, cultural losses result from the lack of pragmatic equivalence on the surface level, and/or the deep level of the source text. The results also show that semantic and cultural losses could be marginalized in translation by furnishing the grounds and providing target readers with the background knowledge that facilitates the decoding of source-language situations, and considers the cultural connotations inherent in the source text. Accordingly, it is recommended that before actual translation takes place, the translator should resolve the markedness of the linguistic and cultural elements in the source text by rendering the unfamiliar familiar.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Raskin, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics

COinS