Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Discussion
4.3 Identifying the Translation Problems
Translation problems in the source language are judged and identified through the perspective of the target language. Nonetheless there might be some linguistic areas in which the source language could individually and inherently entail the translational problems regardless to the target language. The important point here is that linking the problems merely to either of the two sides is not reasonable. This study also tries to consider problem-strategy sets, the latter of which is the assessment for the existence and the importance of the former. For instance, if all strategies employed by the students to solve a single problem are statistically identical or in a high level of similarity, the problem will not be considered as a problem by definition. In the other extreme, if a problem matches the exceedingly variable strategies used by the students, this could be a candidate to be considered as a serious translation problem.
The paradigm of educational significance will try to reform and re-define the educational importance of translation problems. This means that if, subsequently, some of those strategies are found to be lowly scored by the raters with higher frequencies they will be higher educationally significant ones, which will be discussed in the concluding parts of this chapter.
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Regarding this consideration, 32 problems out of the mentioned 9 texts were selected to be analysed in this study. The criteria for choosing the problems were discussed in the previous section, including diversity found in the translations of the students, experience regarding the specific points found by the researcher, inclusion of any new non-equivalents which were not found in the Baker-Davies model. By discarding the identical problems from the list, there will be 17 translation problems. Table 4-2 (below) shows translation problems which are found in each of the nine selected texts, and indicate their presence in Baker-Davies model. In this table, the second column shows the number indicating the text (according to numbering in Table 4-1 and the Appendix 2) and the third and fourth columns indicate the problematic words or expressions in the related texts, and the name of problem respectively.
Some of the problems are the same but with dissimilar forms in translation tasks. It relates to the third dimension of the problem-strategy matrix which was discussed in Chapter 3. For example, for the marked collocation in the source text we have three forms or manifestations which happened in three collocated words as Applied Imagination (From Text 1), Brain... light up (from text 2) and arsenal of weapons (from text 4), each of which has its own unique characteristics. In this example, each of the collocated words has its own degree of markedness as well as the average response from the students1. It means, as was said, each problem-strategy sets have their individual importance for that specific context and for that specific word or expression. In this chapter, we will numerically and conceptually study what the origins and specific features of the mentioned problems are.
1 As indicated in Table 3-4, the responses of the students are shown by the average scores given to their employed strategies which are 1.53 as the lowest for Applied Imagination, and the highest as 2.72 for brain... light up.
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Table 4-2: The translation problems found in 9 selected texts and their relevance with Baker-Davies model
in text Name of Translation Problem
Presented in Baker-Davies Model?
P1 1 Applied Imagination Marked collocations in the source text
YES
P2 1 popularised The source language word is semantically complex
P7 2 recruited Situational word or expression in source text
P11 3 any one cause The tension between accuracy and naturalness
1 Conjunctions and propositions are called non-basic here based on Nida’s definitions (1956: 39), who calls verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs ‘basic structural elements’ in all languages while discussing about kernel sentences.
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[Adverbial clause] (Conjunction) in source and target languages
P14 3 Aggravated assault Translation of a terminological concept
NO
P15 4 foil Situational word or expression in
source text
NO
P16 4 arsenal of weapons Marked collocations in the source text
YES
P17 4 station Situational word or expression in source text
NO
P18 4 [Ambulance] service
Difference between the convention, context and frequency of use in the source and target languages: One of the two parts of collocated word in ST has high tendency to be omitted in TL (because of the different transliterated meaning
P20 5 first-leg Translation of a terminological concept
NO
P21 6 emissions The source language word is semantically complex
P23 6 Burning fuel The tension between accuracy YES
[Nida, E and C, Taber (1969), The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E.J. Brill.]
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and naturalness (Difficulties in pronunciation when adjoining two parts of collocated words in translation)
P26 7 pint Translation of a culture-specific
word
P28 8 it Translation of a terminological
concept shows whether the mentioned problems could be found in Baker-Davies problem-strategy model (Tables 3-1 and 3-2) or not. Determining the new problems will be a basis for re-defining the model, i.e. supporting the hypothesis of the study related to the necessity of expanding the model. 17 problems, disregarding the repeated ones, could be found and are matched with the initial model; however some of the problems are the newly added problems (with NO in the last column) which should be specifically discussed.
To explain the problems which are shown in the table those with more than one instance, i.e. 8 problems, will be analysed and discussed in this study according to Table 4-3. This will be in line with emphasising the expandability of the results. The table shows the overall numerical fact about the mentioned problems studied in this research. The important facts related to each
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problem will be discussed distinctly in order to provide a picture for our further investigation of the relation between the problems and strategies.
After surveying these strategies, the results will be analysed in accordance with their matched strategies to achieve the answer for the main question of the study. The higher occurrence of these problems does not mean that they are the more educationally important ones. The issue of educational significance will be discussed in the concluding parts of this chapter. Moreover, and like any other statistical results in this study, the frequency and the importance are solely considered on account of the examined problems within the defined corpora and within the analysed projects. The last two columns of the Table 4-3 indicate the average scores given to the strategies employed by the students for solving that problem and the total average scores for the strategies related to each group of the same problems respectively. Those with the lower average scores are considered as problematic ones for the students but, again, not necessarily the most educationally significant ones. This subject will be studied within the next sections and through the paradigm which is one of the focal points of this study.
Although the problems are based on a study within two languages, they should not be considered as necessarily unique to the English-Persian language pair. However, from this table, we could identify some non-universal problems. Problem 8, i.e. Lack of specific use of punctuation marks in target language, is the only one which relates to some languages like Persian with lack of specific use of punctuation. Likewise, the issue of lack of capitalisation which is an aspect of Persian language in Problem 5 may also be considered as a non-universal one. Studying all the problems one-by-one might not be possible in this thesis; however, the problem-strategy tables for the words or expressions which are in bold fonts in the Table 4-3, are explained in the study.
The selections were made as examples and mainly in terms of their importance or noticeable points which were found in them.
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Table 4-3: Overall numerical fact about the high-frequent translation problems in the study 1 The source language concept is
not lexicalised in the target
2 Situational word or expression in source text
3 The tension between accuracy and naturalness
4 Marked collocations in the source text 6 Translation of a terminological
concept
7 The source language word is semantically complex
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language P8.
[appositive]:_..._
2.69 9 Difference in the role of
non-basic structural elements (Conjunction) in source and target languages
NO P12. (Wonder) if 1.52 n/a
10 Difference in the role of non-basic structural elements
(proposition) in source and target languages
NO P13. Including 2.32 n/a
11 The SL contains purposefully harmonised words whose
14 Difference in the role of adverb in source and target languages
NO P32. Ahead of 1.16 n/a
15 Translation of a culture-specific word
YES P26. pint 1.80 n/a
16 Difference between the convention, context and frequency of use in the source and target languages: One of the two parts of collocated word in ST has high tendency to be omitted in TL (because of the unmatched transliterated meaning of the part)
YES P18. [ambulance]
service
2.00 n/a
17 Misinterpreting the meaning of source language collocation
* The problem-strategy tables for the words or expressions which are in bold fonts are explained in the study. The others could be seen in Appendix 2 along with the unmentioned problem-strategy tables.
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Graph 4-1 shows the total average scores of higher frequent problems occurring more than once in Table 4-2. This graph has been set in an ascending order based on the total average scores. As can be seen, among 8 studied problems the lowest scored problem is Translation of a terminological concept and the highest one is Marked collocation in the source text. For each one of the 8 problems, two sample students’ problem-strategy tables (P-S tables) will be provided in this chapter to clarify the way of consideration and analysis of the problem-strategy sets. Therefore, 16 tables will be analysed in detail along with a description and brief theorisation, which are related to those bold-font problems in table 4-3. Their names and total average scores are also evident in the graph 4-1. In the meantime, the other 16 problems from the table (which themselves linked to their 16 students’ P-S tables) will only be considered in our data analysis section. These cases consist of some repetitive or less frequent problems as are also apparent in table 4-3 (i.e. P25: zip lock, P29: tagged, P15: foil, P17: Station, etc.). The repetitive ones in the table are those problems with occurrence of more than twice and the less frequent ones are those which are happened in one occasion.
For the sake of brevity and repetition, the lengthy students’ P-S tables which are planned to be analysed, are summarized as precise and illustrative tables and are called ‘representative selection of the tables’ here in this chapter. The main students’ P-S tables which are presented in appendices will not be presented in the body of the study.
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Graph 4-1: The total average scores of high frequent problems (Occurring more than once) in the study in ascending order