Techniques and Gaps in Translation of Cultural Terms: A Case of the Novel “Phoolko Atanka”

Abstract

The present study is entitled ‘The Techniques and Gaps in Translation of Cultural Terms: A case of the novel “Phoolko Atanka’ is an attempt to find out the techniques adopted in translation of the cultural terms and observe the gaps in the process of translation. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the techniques of translation of cultural words and to find out the gaps. For this purpose, the researcher collected two hundred cultural terms as sample of data for the study from Nepali version of the novel Phoolko Atanka and the corresponding words from the English version of the same book. She selected only one hundred and fifty cultural terms out of a two hundred from selected list. She categorized them into five different categories. Ten different techniques such as literal substitution, addition, deletion, claque, back translation borrowing, definition, blending were found to have been employed in translating the cultural terms of the novel. Among them literal translation was most frequent which covers 33.3% and blending was the least one which covers 1.3%. Similarly six types of gaps were found in this study. This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one introduces general background, review of related literature, objectives of the study and significances of the study. The second chapter deals with methodology adopted for the study. It encompasses source of data, process of data collection and limitations of the study Chapter three presents an analysis and interpretation of the data. In this chapter data have been analyzed and interpreted through statistical ad descriptive approach. Chapter four presents the findings from the analysis of data. On the basis of the findings some recommendations and pedagogical implications have been given.