Translators: Balancing Acceptability and Accuracy - Research Paper

Introduction

A translator who gets, chooses, and conveys information plays a vital role in creating a balance between acceptability and accuracy in the process of trans-editing (Chen et al., 2011). In essence, translators can provide appropriate target news by exerting their own subjectively to communicate effectively. Translator's subjectivity has a direct effect on the trans-editing process and the outcome of the translation. There are needs for the translator to provide original text to the listener in literal translation.

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The western and Chinese traditional translation theorists examined the source of a text as the ultimate standard in evaluating a translated work. Translation often takes place in specific and concrete situations by engaging people from different cultures, where target and source cultures can constrain translation (Chengming et al., 2012). Researchers believe that translation cannot be done without exploring translation studies in a broader cultural studies perspective. Translators play a cultural role in fulfilling functions allotted by different societies. Translators are expected to use social-cultural constraints to displays the preferences and regularities shown by the translator in the trans-editing process. In this context, the constraints are the norms. A norm is defined as a concept of translating general ideas and values shared by society. Therefore, this paper shall address the following sections namely, research questions, objectives and statement of problem, literature reviews capturing the previous scholarly works, significance, and the methodology

Research Questions

• Is the translation process a cultural-governed activity?
• Does it imply that the translator's subjectivity suppressed based on the diversity of cultural activities governing the behaviors of the translator in the whole trans-editing process?
• Is the translation of general ideas shared by society in determining what is wrong and right?

Objectives

• The objectives of this study include
• To determine if cultural activities govern the translation process
• To examine if different cultural activities regulating translator' behaviors suppresses translator subjectivity
• To identify general ideas shared within a society

Statement of the Problem

The choice of a text source by the translator can pose different views and meanings depending on different cultures. In essence, the choice made by a translator on a particular source of the text has to fit with the ideology of the target to be considered in authoritative censorship. If the choice is wrong, the different reception may be realized among the target readership.

Literature Review

According to Yan (2016), the stronger the translator's multi-culture consciousness, cultural self-consciousness, subject consciousness, and global awareness, the higher the probability to manifest the subjectivity of the translator. In this context, a translator can realize ideal translation with a greater degree of selection and holistic adaptation, which has higher survivability in translation ecology (Guobing, 2011). Subjectivity is the vital quality of the subjects capturing every distinctive feature of indefinite activities. Subjectivity connotes three aspects, namely subject begins, and the object applied as a subject, the externalization of the innate subject capacity, and objectified function (Xiao-hui, 2010). Objection function captures all distinctive features of the subject in the objectified relationship between the object and subject.

Human beings create culture using aspects such as ethnic lines, areas, and times. Culture covers the entire society's models on virtues such as values, system, tradition, and cultural beliefs. Such that, a culture should cover the whole of the behavioral models of a given community. Thus, it is from these models, social reality, and historical conditions, a nation can derive its own culture and language (Pei, 2010). People from different languages communicate by following the translation to the latter. Susan Basset argues that operating translating cannot render the body surrounding it obliviously. She asserts that if it happens, translators are forced to treat the text in isolation from the culture at their own peril (Belle, 2012).

Ying-jiao et al. (2012) argue that elements in the subjectivity of a translator fall in two categories, namely social and personal elements. Personal elements capture aspects such as translator' attitudes, bicultural and bilingual competence. Notably, the social elements which entail power, poet, and ideology can be m manipulated by the translator (Pym, 2011). In this context, translation is highly constrained and impacted by the culture covering various aspects such as poetics, ideologies, power structures, and socio-political factors (Tingting et al., 2011). Translators take initiatives in considering and evaluating the influences that can be caused by the source meanings. In that regard, the meaning from the source text is not fixed that needs a translator to intervene and control in the source text.

Wei-qiang et al. (2011) suggest that cultural image is a critical element that should be valued in literary translation. The cultural images are essential in maintaining artistic features and exotic styles of the original content. By doing so, the attention is drawn uniquely to understand the text. Researchers argue that regardless of maintaining the cultural images to create the original meaning, the artistry and foreign styles are often reconstructed, changed, and lost to suit the expectation of the reader (Yunhong et al., 2012). Besides, it also depends on the subjectivity of the translator.

Significance of the Study

In this study, the findings shall be used to benefits society. The reason is based on the fact that translation along multiple cultures plays a vital role in linguistics and communication across the globe (Xuefeng et al., 2010). Translator's subjectivity is an essential concept that can be applied to life-changing cultural practices. Thus, every institution is expected to apply the concepts after recommendations is made. This study shall produce better translators. The society shall be guided on different cultural values and beliefs that may impact the translator's subjectivity. In research, this study will help to address critical concepts to uncover the translator's subjectivity in multi-culture from a broader perspective. A new solution shall also be offered.

Research Methodology

In this research, we shall be interested in using quantitative analysis to test the hypothesis of the research questions to be accepted or rejected. For the hypothesis to tested, data shall be gathered from city residents through a questionnaire approach. In this study, the questionnaire shall be handled with much care to examine the validity and reliability of the content needed for this research (Wang, 2014). Content validity shall be achieved through thoughtful evaluation of past measures. In this research, suspicious items shall be assorted and recommendations shall be reviewed.

The questionnaire shall be evaluated with experts who well-versant in English, Chinese, and Spanish language, which shall be essential in determining if the content is representative, correct, understandable, suitable, and relevant. To check reliability, questionnaire consistency will cover the measurement of variables across variables without biasness and errors. A good reliability in a questionnaire set will be more than 0.7 coefficient (Wang, 2014). Poor reliability shall be considered a coefficient level of 0.60. Those variables within the range of 0.7 to 0.6 shall be deemed as fair.

In this research, 30 participants from different cultural backgrounds will be given the questionnaire. The data collected shall be stored in SPSS to be analyzed. Descriptive statistics shall be used in this study to describe the central tendency, variability, and distribution of translators towards the study variables.

References

Belle, M. A. (2012). Locating Early Modern Women's Translations: Critical and Historiographical Issues. Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Reforme, 5-23.

Chen, Y. M. (2011). The translator's subjectivity and its constraints in news transediting: A perspective of reception aesthetics. Meta: Journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators' journal, 56(1), 119-144.

Chengming, L. I. (2012). Subjectivity of the Translator and Emotional Input in Literary Translation [J]. Journal of Shandong University of Science and Technology (Social Sciences), 4.

Guobing, L. (2011). Translation Ecology and Translator's Subjectivity [J]. Foreign Language Education, 3.

Pei, D. (2010). The Subjectivity of the Translator and Socio-Cultural Norms. English Language Teaching, 3(3), 29-34.

Pym, A. (2011). The translator as non-author, and I am sorry about that. The translator as author: Perspectives on literary translation, 31-43.

Steiner, T. (2014). Translated people, translated texts. Routledge.

Tingting, L. Q. L. (2011). An Exploration into the Translator's Subjectivity and Its Influences on the Literary Translation Process from an Ethical Perspective [J]. Foreign Language Education, 4.

Wang, F. (2014). Translators Subjectivity in Parody Translation from the Perspective of Skopostheorie. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Education, Management and Social Science. doi:10.2991/icemss-14.2014.17

Wei-qiang, W. A. N. G. (2011). Cultural Image Change and Translator's Subjective Manipulation in Literary Translation [J]. Journal of Chongqing University of Technology (Social Science), 2.

Xiao-hui, L. (2010). Reflection on Translator's Subjectivity from Philosophy of Language [J]. Foreign Language Research, 1.

Xuefeng, P. A. N. G. (2010). Consistency Between the Rise and Constraint of the Translator's Subjectivity: From the Perspective of Derrida's Deconstruction [J]. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, 3.

Yan, L. (2016). Translators' Subjectivity from Perspective of Translation as Adaptation and Selection: Exemplified by International Publicity Translation. Journal of Shenyang University (Social Science), (4), 20.

Ying-jiao, L. I. U. (2012). A Comparative Study of Translator's Subjectivity of The Story of the Stone [J]. Foreign Language and Literature, 1.

Yunhong, L. I. U. (2012). Choose, Adapt, Affect-The Translator's Subjectivity and Translation Criticism. Foreign Language Learning Theory and Practice, (4), 12.