Techniques of Translating Proverbs: A Cultural Perspective

Abstract

The thesis entitled Techniques of translating proverbs: A cultural perspective is an attempt of the researcher to find out the techniques employed in translating the proverbs from cultural perspective. The main aim of the study is to find out the effective techniques that are used while translating the proverbs of the Limbu, the Newari and the Bantawa (Rai) languages into the English language along with their frequency of occurrences. It further aims at analyzing the role of culture in translation. It is natural and, thus, is common to exist the gaps in translation. The cultural gaps can be minimized by using appropriate translation techniques. The techniques having the highest frequency of occurrences are more effective and successful in rendering the message of the source language text in comparison to the techniques having the lowest frequency. Sense translation is one of the best techniques of translating any proverbial expressions. To meet the objectives of the research, seventy five respondents from three different languages, who were accessible to the researcher were assigned the proverbs of the selected languages to translate into the English language. The collected data were analyzed using the observational check list. The process underwent through the translation of the proverbs, their target language equivalence and the techniques used in translating them along with a brief anecdotal evaluation. I have divided this thesis into the four chapters. The first chapter deals with the general background, literature review, objectives and the significance of the study. The second chapter contains the methodology which is sub-chaptered as the sources of data, sampling procedure, tools for data collection, process of data collection and the limitations of the study. The third chapter includes the analysis and interpretation of the data obtained from the field. The last, fourth chapter has the findings and recommendations of the study in which some pedagogical implications have been recommended to better the findings of this study as well as to strengthen such further studies.