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Article published In: Babel
Vol. 66:6 (2020) ► pp.902–927

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Does culture translate?

Evidence from translating proverbs

 | Ibb University
Published online: 4 December 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00201.sho
Abstract
This study strives to answer one major question: Does culture translate?, employing the translation of English proverbs into Arabic by senior students majoring in English. The study involves 30 English proverbs collected from different sources, based on three criteria, namely complete Arabic equivalence, partial Arabic equivalence and zero Arabic equivalence. These 30 proverbs were distributed to 20 randomly selected senior students as participants. The participants translated the 30 proverbs in the form of a translation test in two phases. The results of the study show that teaching the cultural aspects of the proverbs has developed and improved the participants’ translations considerably, thus providing empirical evidence that culture translates.
Résumé
Cette étude s’efforce de répondre à une question majeure : « La culture se traduit-elle ? » Pour ce faire, elle utilise la traduction de proverbes anglais en arabe, effectuée par des étudiants de dernière année, avec une spécialisation en anglais. L’étude concerne 30 proverbes anglais, recueillis auprès de différentes sources sur la base de trois critères, à savoir une équivalence arabe totale, une équivalence arabe partielle et une équivalence arabe nulle. Ces 30 proverbes ont été répartis entre 20 étudiants de dernière année, sélectionnés de manière aléatoire. Les participants ont traduit les 30 proverbes sous la forme d’un test de traduction en deux phases. Les résultats de l’étude montrent que l’enseignement des aspects culturels des proverbes a considérablement développé et amélioré les traductions des participants, fournissant ainsi la preuve empirique que la culture se traduit.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Culture
    • 2.1Culture and proverbs
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Data collection
    • 3.3Instrument
    • 3.4Procedure
    • 3.5Teaching of proverbs’ cultural aspects
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Phase one
      • 4.1.1Complete Arabic equivalence
      • 4.1.2Partial Arabic equivalent
      • 4.1.3Zero Arabic equivalent
    • 4.2Phase two
      • 4.2.1Complete Arabic equivalence
      • 4.2.2Partial Arabic equivalence
      • 4.2.3Zero Arabic equivalence
  • 5.Conclusions and further issues
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
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