JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Translating Guizhou Batik Terminology for Cross-Cultural Communication: A Communicative and Contextual Approach

Existing studies on terminology translation have mainly focused on specific domains such as technical and medical translation, offering insights into standardization, computer-aided translation, and translation strategies. However, few have examined terminology systematically across cognitive, linguistic, and communicative levels, or proposed contextualized strategies for culturally specific terms. Drawing on Cabré’s (2003) Communicative Theory of Terminology, this study explores contextualized translation strategies for technical terms in cross-cultural communication through a case study of Guizhou batik. Fifty-four technical terms were identified and analysed from the bilingual book Batik Art using LingoSail TermBox and manual proofing. Rather than developing a new framework, this study adapts and extends Liu and Wei’s (2021) three contextualized strategies, namely conceptual system positioning (cognitive level), semantic distinction (linguistic level), and cultural compensation (communicative level), to the field of intangible cultural heritage. The findings indicate that applying these strategies in context effectively addresses issues of conceptual consistency, semantic ambiguity, and cultural specificity. This research demonstrates that contextualized translation strategies can enhance the English translation of technical terms in Guizhou batik and contribute to improving cross-cultural communication of culturally loaded terminology in intangible cultural heritage translation.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PSYCHOLOGICAL DISCOURSE: A TRANSLATION STUDIES PERSPECTIVE

The article examines the peculiarities of translating English psychological terminology into Ukrainian and identifies the most effective translation methods used to ensure semantic accuracy and communicative adequacy. The relevance of the study is determined by the growing popularity of psychological literature and the need for a consistent rendering of specialized terminology in Ukrainian. The research aims to analyze the main translation techniques applied to English psychological terms and to determine their frequency and effectiveness. The corpus of the study comprised 128 terms selected from English-language professional psychology texts and their Ukrainian translations. The findings indicate that the most frequently employed techniques are variant equivalent selection (33%), calque translation (25%), and dictionary equivalents (21%). Less common methods include concretization, generalization, contextual substitution, semantic development, descriptive translation, part-of-speech substitution, and transcoding. The study demonstrates that the choice of translation method depends on a term's semantic characteristics, its degree of standardization in the target language, and its use context.

Translation styles in selected eThekwini municipal by-laws : a case study of English and isiZulu language combination

Recent research in translation studies has emphasised the function of the text as the focus of translation analysis. The implication of this for legal translation is that the expected effects of the target text determine the strategies adopted in the translation process. Given that legal terminology presents various levels of challenges to translators, it would be advantageous for legal translation analysis to adopt a more specific approach, and for translator training to incorporate more specialised knowledge. It is within this context that this study sought to investigate the terminological challenges of legal translation and provide a platform to further investigate the implications for legal translation and social justice in general, particularly in a country such as South Africa where the field of legal translation is ‘under-researched’ and ‘has received little, if any, attention in translation theory and at tertiary institutions’ (Cornelius 2011: 123). The study draws from the Descriptive Translation Studies’ (DTS) sub-branches, namely, the process-oriented approach, product-oriented approach and function-oriented approach. This is because of the relations that exist between these approaches in translation. In this regard, Toury (1995) argues that there is no point in conducting a product-oriented study if questions relating to the determining force of its intended function, and to the choices made by the translator governed by the norms of establishing a product, are not considered. In advancing his argument, Toury contends that it is the function of the translation through its linguistic make-up and/or relationships that connect it to the original, which yield and govern the strategies which are adopted during the production of the translation that would result in a translation process as a whole. The study adopted a qualitative case study design approach to gain a deeper understanding of the translation decisions made by translators within a particular context, in light of the translation challenges that they encounter when translating legal texts. The study used a thematic analysis method to analyse translation styles employed by translators in the translation of eThekwini Municipality By-Laws. The translation styles were identified and exemplified in the framework of three broad categories: legal terms - technical terms, polysemous words and word strings/legal synonyms; linguistic terms - modal verbs, archaic adverbs, collocations, ambiguous/vague words, long sentences and passive voice, and culture-specific terms/expressions. Norms were also identified that are at play during the translation act. Data was accessed from the eThekwini Municipality website. It consisted of eight pieces of legislation in English and their translations. The findings of the study reveal that the main challenges encountered by the translators of the selected legal texts were both linguistic and socio-cultural in nature. As a result, the translators adopt various translation styles such as borrowing, adaptation, naturalisation, paraphrasing, and functional equivalents to render the source texts in the target language. These styles produced translations are generally acceptable in the isiZulu language and culture, even though a few of the translations led to meaning shifts in the target language. The norms that were operational during the translation process shaped translators’ decision-making with respect to the translation styles they adopted in the translation. This is consistent with Toury’s (1995) assertion that norms determine the translation strategies that a translator adopts. In other words, they serve as a guide in the translation process regarding strategies used.

JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

The Impact of English on Other Languages and Linguistic Justice

This article explores the implications of English's role as a global lingua franca for other languages, with a particular focus on the transformations these languages undergo due to English influence. Such changes are most evident in the lexical domain, where they are typically examined under the framework of lexical borrowing or Anglicisms. However, they also extend to grammatical, stylistic, and pragmatic levels, affecting formulation structures, argumentation strategies, and behavioural patterns, often without speakers’ conscious awareness. This article aims to highlight that both the growing prevalence of English across diverse domains and the resulting shifts in speakers’ native languages are interconnected manifestations of the same global linguistic development. The observed linguistic changes are the result of an asymmetrical relationship between languages, which raises questions of linguistic justice. The study draws on corpus analyses of the German language, supplemented by data from cross‐linguistic research initiatives, such as the Global Anglicism Database Network project (GLAD, https://www.nhh.no/en/research‐centres/global‐anglicism‐database‐network/ ).

Linguistic And Cultural Issues In Video Report Texts By Eesp Internship Students

The research investigates cultural and linguistic challenges in translating Indonesian video report texts into English and examines the strategies employed to address these challenges. Adopting a qualitative descriptive design, the research draws on paired source texts and their English translations, which were analyzed using content analysis to identify recurrent cultural and linguistic issues as well as the translation strategies applied. The findings indicate that cultural challenges primarily involve the incomplete transfer of cultural references, values, and local practices, resulting in aspects of cultural identity and social meaning not being fully represented in the target texts. Linguistic issues include non-idiomatic sentence structures, inappropriate lexical selection, and grammatical inconsistencies. The analysis further reveals that translators predominantly rely on literal translation, limited cultural adaptation, and generalization strategies, which often overlook contextual and pragmatic nuances in the target language. These findings underscore the necessity of cultural competence, advanced linguistic proficiency, and more context-sensitive translation strategies to ensure accurate and effective communication for international audiences. This study is limited to texts produced by students, so the findings may not apply to professional translators. The study contributes both theoretically by extending the understanding of cultural and linguistic issues in multimedia translation and practically by providing insights for improving translation pedagogy and translator training in educational contexts.