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Topic: Untranslatability

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	Untranslatability Encyclopedia Article @ Interpreted.org (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Untranslatability is a property of a text, or of any utterance, in one language, for which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language.
		Terms are neither exclusively translatable nor exclusively untranslatable; rather, the degree of difficulty of translation depends on their nature, as well as the translator's abilities.
		Quite often, a text or utterance that is considered to be "untranslatable" is actually a lacuna, or lexical gap.
	www.interpreted.org /encyclopedia/Untranslatability (3417 words)

	Meta : The Translatability of Texts: A Historical Overview (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Linguistic untranslatability: "failure to find a TL [target language] equivalent is due entirely to differences between the source language and the target language" (Catford, 1965: 98).
		Cultural untranslatability arises "when a situational feature, functionally relevant for the SL [source language] text, is completely absent from the culture of which the TL [target language] is a part" (ibid.: 99).
		He defines the former as: "A situation in which the linguistic elements of the original cannot be replaced adequately in structural, linear, functional or semantic terms in consequence of a lack of denotation or connotation" (Bassnett-McGuire, 1980: 34).
	www.erudit.org /revue/meta/1999/v44/n4/003808ar.html (6517 words)

	TRANSLATABILITY vs
		From the sociosemiotic point of view, "untranslatables" are fundamentally cases of language use wherein the three categories of sociosemiotic meaning carried by a source expression do not coincide with those of a comparable expression in the target language.
		For example, the different concepts of the term for bathroom is untranslatable in an English, Finnish or Japanese context, where both the object and the use made of that object are not at all alike.
		If referential and pragmatic untranslatabilities are relative, intralingual untranslatability is usually "absolute", since languages differ from each other more in their structure (which, as we have come to see, may generate intralingual untranslatables if deliberately manipulated by the language user) than in the communicative functions they may be employed to perform.
	www.freewebs.com /keping/T-P-Translatability.htm (3270 words)

	Untranslatability (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		An extreme example of Paraphrase can be found in the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3830521.stm reports of June 22 2004 of the identification of the most untranslatable word.
		The BBC article states that "Ilunga means a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time." Here, the report proves that this word is not in fact untranslatable, as it provides an English translation by way of the periphrasis.
		The two areas which most nearly approach total untranslatability are poetry and puns; poetry is difficult to translate because of its reliance on the sounds and rhythms of the source language; puns, and other similar semantic wordplay, because of how tightly they are tied to the original language.
	untranslatability.mindbit.com (701 words)

	Translatability and Poetic Translation (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		As early as the flourishing period of Buddhist scriptures, the problem of untranslatability was mentioned and a rather strong expression was used to criticize certain versions as ‘feeding others what one has munched in his own mouth'(嚼饭与人, my translation), not mentioning translation of poetry.
		From the socio-semiotic point of view, “untranslatables” are fundamentally cases of language use wherein the three categories of socio-semiotic meaning carried by a source expression do not coincide with those of a comparable expression in the target language.
		Untranslatability of the divinity is only of pedantic research value, not barring the way of the translators practicing translations, much less the way of the common people fervent to learn about divinity.
	www.translatum.gr /journal/5/translatability-and-poetic-translation.htm (10636 words)

	ooBdoo
		The question of whether particular words are untranslatable is often debated, with lists of "untranslatable" words being produced from time to time.
		Journalists are naturally enthusiastic when linguists document obscure words with local flavor, and are wont to declare them "untranslatable", but in reality these incredibly culture-laden terms are the easiest of all to translate, even more so than universal concepts such as "mother".
		In 1959 in his influential paper "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation", the Russian-born linguist and semiotician Roman Jakobson even went as far as to declare that "poetry by definition [was] untranslatable".
	www.oobdoo.com /wikipedia/?title=Translation (4211 words)

	Translation Studies
		Accept the untranslatability of the SL phrase in the TL on the linguistic level.
		Linguistic untranslatability is due to differences in the SL and the TL, whereas cultural untranslatability is due to the absence in the TL culture of a relevant situational feature for the SL text.
		A situation in which the linguistic elements of the original cannot be replaced adequately in structural, linear, functional or semantic terms in consequence of lack of denotation or connotation.
	html.rincondelvago.com /translation-studies.html (3890 words)

	untranslatable: on untranslatability Archives
		Perhaps the word, by itself, is as untranslatable as 'ice' in 'to break the ice'.
		And that's the real untranslatability of words in other languages, words imbedded into their languages over time.
		What you can¹t carry from one language into another is the thrill of using it in a context that comes from the word's belonging to its linguistic roots, habits, and family.
	logolalia.com /untranslatable/archives/cat_on_untranslatability.html (1147 words)

	inIVA: resource - 'Perfidious Fidelity' The Untranslatability of the Other (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Between the constructions we are left with the remainder of the untranslatable.
		But to focus on untranslatability is not only to acknowledge from the start the impossibilities and limits of translation.
		We grapple with the leftovers, the remainder of the untranslatable.
	www.iniva.org /archive/resource/1537 (2807 words)

	The Horrors
		Although practitioners of translation claim that they have come to fully understand the terrible "miseries" of translation only after reading what theorists had to say on the subject, sometimes a single passage in a book can sow various fears in the heart of the translator.
		The greatest among the fears is that of untranslatability.
		It happens when the target language has no corresponding words, tenses, phonetic or grammatical entities that occur in the source language, or when the target language and its culture lack a relevant situational feature for the source language text (allusions, symbols, puns).
	www.wsp.krakow.pl /nkja/literature/translation3/horrors.htm (277 words)

	LOGOS MULTILINGUAL PORTAL
		As in the case of poetry, the first point to be made on wordplay concerns the taboo about its supposed untranslatability.
		Many authors have spoken of untranslatability, while translations with translated wordplay continued to be published, even if this self-evident contradiction made no bells ring for any of them.
		The advocates of untranslatability hold that it is founded on the fact that a pun has a metatextual charge that is complementary to the textual one.
	www.logos.it /pls/dictionary/linguistic_resources.cap_4_12?lang=en (1207 words)

	Translatability vs. untranslatability: a sociosemiotic perspective
		The problem of translatability or untranslatability is closely related to man's understand-mg of the nature of language, meaning and translation.
		From the sociosemiotic point of view, 'untransíatables' are fundamentally cases of language use wherein the three catego-ries of socioserniotic meaning carried by a source expression do not coincide with those of a comparable expression in the target language.
		Three types of untranslatability, referential, pragmatic, and intralingual may be the carrier of the message, language-specific norms considered untranslatable by sorne linguists should be excluded from the realm of untranslatables.
	wotan.liu.edu /dois/data/Articles/juloibfdny:1999:v:45:i:4:p:289-300.html (197 words)

	Untranslatability
		Untranslatability, the translator's greatest nightmare and the translation scholar's chief interest, is usually seen as existing in two forms.
		Translators deal with untranslatability by employing a number of procedures.
		This session will present examples of specific translation problems resulting from cultural difference and/or differences between lexical/structural systems in the source and the target languages.
	www.ap.krakow.pl /nkja/literature/translation2/lt_05.htm (313 words)

	Tavola rotonda (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		For example, "subsidiarity" (taking EU decisions and action at the lowest feasible regional, national or central level) is probably preferable to "devolution", which means the same, because in the UK, "devolution" is conventionally used to refer to relations with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
		Slogans and catchy titles are often genuinely untranslatable, because they are based on culture-specific connotations that don’t exist in another culture, plays on words, or puns that don’t work in another language.
		Apart from being incomprehensible to many readers, it would increase the strangeness of EU texts if words were left untranslated, and there would be accusations of cultural imperialism if those untranslated words were in English.
	www.uemilano.it /tavola_rotonda/untranslatability.html (3387 words)

	durf.org: Untranslatability
		It talked about the words chosen as "the most untranslatable" by a group of 1,000 linguists.
		A recent post to the H-Japan mailing list asked about "words that are untranslatable from English to Japanese or from Japanese to English." One example given in the opening post in that thread was the English "bathroom."
		As I suspected, most of the "untranslatable" examples the question to the list brought up were those dependent on cultural and societal constructs that differ between Japan and the English-speaking world.
	www.durf.org /log/archives/000048.html (757 words)

	dcrc - Newsletter
		He further claims that violation of the no-overlap principle, etc. leads to incommensurability or untranslatability, "localized to one or another area in which two lexical taxonomies differ".
		Kuhn stresses that breakdowns in communication, termed "crises" (Structure), are in fact crucial symptoms of growth of knowledge and the emergence of new disciplines.
		Where there is stark untranslatability or incommensurability, there is a new lexical taxonomy in place.
	www.dcrcdu.org /news6.htm (2112 words)

	A n u k r i t i . N e t - Post Graduate Diploma in Translation Studies
		Linguistic untranslatability occurs in the absence of lexical, syntactical substitutes.
		whereas cultural untranslatability is due to the absence in TL culture of the relevant situational features for the SL text.
		The difference between literary and non-literary texts and the problem of translating them has also been discussed in Translation Studies.
	www.anukriti.net /pgdts/course411/ch2g.html (397 words)

	MultilingualWebmaster >> where the web is headed
		Play on words or puns epitomize what separates two languages and are a tricky mastermind for translators whose options often solely depend on the notion of intertextuality.
		This consists in attempting to make up for untranslatability through rewriting, and having to rely on other parts of the entire text as reference material to copy.
		Alexandra Girard (alexandragirard@hotmail.com) is a freelance translator (DipTrans IoL) and is actively preparing her Masters Degree workbook on: "Translatability & Untranslatability of Puns in Raymond Queneau's Le Vol d'Icare" between French and English.
	www.multilingualwebmaster.com /library/puns_translation.html (941 words)

	Translatability (Translator resources)
		As far as the latter is concerned, the specialized terminology of the legal language (= legalese) has developed over time and is used by practitioners amongst themselves.
		Because of the differences in legal systems and their historical development, each system often contains words and concepts that do not have an equivalent in the target language and are thus "untranslatable" (or at least very difficult to translate).
		Victor, in my case the research indeed is related to one dictionary where it was stated that some terms are left in English due to them being untranslatable - regards tourism terminology - so Im currently doing a research on this matter.
	www.proz.com /topic/52578 (827 words)

	Selected Poems by Cyprian Kamil Norwid: SR, JANUARY 2005
		That is a significant difference which a translation ought to make clear, without regard for the artificial demands of rhyme.
		In this same line Czerniawski’s choice of “male, female” for Norwid’s peculiar, and perhaps untranslatable, dwu-płciowe is understandable.
		English speakers might benefit from a footnote alerting them to Norwid’s unusual diction as well as providing relevant background information about censorship and political oppression which Poles were subjected to by their German and Russian occupiers in the nineteenth century-and prophetically in the twentieth.
	www.ruf.rice.edu /~sarmatia/105/251christ.html (960 words)

	Krik? Krak! or The Untranslatability of Cultural Traditions (Literature / Poetry)
		It might however have something to do with famine, or hard times, because it mentions the "raja" which is yet another "untranslatable" term meaning the common folk (or something akin to the groundlings in Shakespeare's Globe Theatre) and somebody bringing eggs and dropping one and all the children rushing to pick it up.
		One other challenge i see; again, one that was brought up here, is handling the untranslatable and the nature of Glossing.
		My concern (working with languages that are generally endangered) is that the original "untranslatable word" eventually, and even "quickly" actually becomes so tightly associated with the gloss it loses the meaning of the original word.
	www.proz.com /post/83049 (2553 words)

	LCCPP
		I think there are plenty of examples to show that failures of translation are quite common; this is a direct consequence of the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic mismatches that exist pretty much between any two extant natural languages.
		Now, in these sorts of cases, translators are usually in a position to provide an adequate gloss that conveys the content of the untranslatable material.<17> But such glosses will often involve metalinguistic descriptions of the relevant languages, or very lengthy socio-cultural explanations, or even ungrammatical sentences.
		This is important, because it undercuts one popular anti-relativist strategy, which proceeds by arguing that, any time a relativist tries to convince us that a bit of discourse is untranslatable, she must defeat her claim by unwittingly providing a translation.
	www.unc.edu /~ujanel/LCCPP.htm (13291 words)

	Linguistic Difference and Cultural Translatability: A Primer (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Although these writers dwell in the unbearable lightness (because unburdened by the past) of their adopted tongues, the irreducible untranslatability of their first idiom marks for them the space of exile.
		By the same token, the translatability of all verbal creations holds the promise of being fulfilled, even if these proved to be untranslatable for human beings (51).
		Nevertheless, writers like Djebar and Khatibi, an Algerian novelist and critic who publishes widely in French, see the voluntary or involuntary departure from the hospitable space of their first language as the necessary cost of an education through remembering, the price of reclaiming lost geography and history through writing.
	www.mla.org /adfl/bulletin/v33n2/332059.htm (3442 words)

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