Introduction to Translation as
Intercultural Communication
The main concepts clarified
THE CULTURE FILTER
The notion of cultural filter is used by Juliane House and David Katan.
House (SYNAPS: 2006) defines "cultural filter" as a construct designed to capture cultural
differences in habitus – the text is adapted to the target language and culture. Source culture
specific expectation norms, textual conventions and communicative preferences evident in the
source text are “filtered” with a view to make them compatible with target textual norms, in order
to create a new discourse world in the medium of the target language. If the translator wants to use
the cultural filter adequately, the translator must view the source text ‘with the eyes’ of the target
text reader, taking cultural presuppositions in the two language communities into account, and
these presuppositions are linked most frequently to the interpersonal functional component for
which values along the dimensions of Tenor and Mode are particularly important.
"If the ST and TT are to have truly equivalent functions then the translator – in order to meet the
needs of the target culture addressees in their specific, cultural setting, and, in order to achieve an
effect equivalent to the one the source text has had – must take relevant cultural presuppositions in
the two language communities into account, and these presuppositions are linked most frequently
to the interpersonal functional component for which the values along the dimensions of tenor and
mode are particularly important. Whenever, therefore, a text has a well-marked interpersonal
functional component, the employment of the culture filter is both particularly important and
complicated, as one is here dealing with assessments and adjustments of social relations, social
attitudes, author’s personal stance and involvement etc. – phenomena that are notoriously difficult
to diagnose, describe and translate. "
(House in Translation Studies: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline, 2002: 101).
THE CULTURE FILTER
Katan talks about four perception filters, based on neurolinguistic programming (NLP) theory. The Meta Model
introduced in 1975 aimed to explain systematically how the therapists used language to enlarge their clients'
perception of reality and how their clients used language to limit their perception.
Why did Katan use this approach? Because he thinks that multicultural communication also involves change and
requires a wider perception of reality. Those who require the services of translators and interpreters will need
mediators who can assist them, like therapists, in assimilating discourse, written or spoken, from within another
context of culture and situation.
According to the mental map theory, in any communication there is a universal modelling of reality that functions in
the same way as a map. Various filters are used.
•
Filter 1: Physiological: our senses are limited. For example, we cannot see in the dark, and that is probably why
we use dark metaphorically for the unknown, difficult and dangerous. As members of the human race we all select
limited reality.
•
Filter 2: Culture/ social engineering - perception has to be limited in order for us to make sense of the world („the
cocktail party“ phenomenon). Each culture selects to see different aspects in accordance with what it needs.
•
Filter 3: Individual – we also react according to our individual identity (genetical heritage, previous experience).
•
Filter 4: Language – we hear and learn about the world through language. Language itself, as Halliday points out,
construes our reality. So, in communicating our understanding of the world, language as a further filter constrains
and distorts reality.
Address repertoires and address
practices
a) Dear Alice,
Thanks a lot. And thanks for the pleasant
dinner last Monday…
Best wishes
John
b) Alice,
A pleasure.
Matt
Address repertoires and address practices
b. (male server, female customer)
S: Hi!
C: how are you doin’?
S: good, yourself?
C: Alright. I would like a half a pound of the lemon pepper
chicken breast.
(example taken from Félix-Brasdefer 2015:90)
c. C: Hi, can I have a pound of your, ah Cajun turkey, please?
S: how would you like that sliced?
(example taken from Félix-Brasdefer 2015:90)
d. S: Hi, how are you sir?
C: Not bad, can I get a pound of the bone-in ham?
(example taken from Félix-Brasdefer 2015:124)
LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT
A theory of context was first developed by the anthropologist
Bronislaw Malinowski (1923; 1935). As Halliday (1985: 6)
points
out,
Malinowski
(…) understood that a text written by these people into this language
could
not be understood by any foreigners or by people living outside this society
even if translated into their own
languages because each message
brought
more
meanings
than those expressed through the words, meanings that could
only be
understood if accompanied by the situation. Thus, Malinowski introduced the
notion of context of situation, meaning by this the environment of the text.
Malinowski studied the inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands and
their language and gave the example of literal translation and
translation (Hermans calls it a „thick translation“) which takes
into account the „context of situation“.
LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT
•
•
•
•
•
Client: Un panino con prosciutto.
Assistant: Cotto?
Client: Si.
Assistant: Misto?
Client: Mi scusi.
(Katan’s example of an authentic conversation in a Trieste delicatessen)
The three components of Halliday’s
context of situation
In order to show the systematic relationship existing between
language and the social environment Halliday provides his own
taxonomy of the context of situation, adapted below (1985:12):
• Field: subject matter and the nature of the activity, i.e., what is happening,
to who, when and where. What the participants know, why they are doing
what they are doing.
• Tenor: social (power and status) relationships existing between
participants. How they regard each other, and how familiar they are with
each other.
• Mode: how the language is being used, organised, whether it is written or
spoken, written to be spoken, spoken to be written (the channel) . Also
refers to how the text is produced: spontaneous, prepared, performative
or reflective to the the rhetorical mode, i.e. what is being achieved by the
text in terms of such categories as persuasive, expository, didactic, and the
like.
CONTEXT OF SITUATION
Your order will be processed within 3/4 days
after your request is submitted.
Field:
Tenor:
Mode:
The Holmsdale Hotel
CONTEXT OF CULTURE
Source: Manca, YEAR: 17
Sorry - for the benefit of our regular guests this hotel
is a Child Free Zone - we will only accept young
adults of 14 years and over.
Book Online
The Holmsdale is a select, quiet hotel privately
owned and run and offering
guests quality accommodation in relaxing, informal
surroundings with en-suite rooms and lifts to all
floors.
Every effort is made to make our guests' stay as
pleasurable as possible, with friendly personal
service at all times and attention to every detail.
Twin, double and single rooms are available but no
family rooms so the hotel cannot cater for children.
CONTEXT OF CULTURE
Croatian
English
THE ICEBERG MODEL OF CULTURE
The iceberg model was popularized in Hall's "triad of culture": there are some
aspects visible, above the water, but there is a larger portion hidden beneath the
surface.
The external, or conscious, part of culture is what we can see and is the tip of the
iceberg and includes behaviors and some beliefs. The internal, or subconscious, part
of culture is below the surface of a society and includes some beliefs and the values
and thought patterns that underlie behavior. There are major differences between
the conscious and unconscious culture.
Internal vs. External
Implicitly Learned vs. Explicitly Learned
Unconscious vs. Conscious
Difficult to Change vs. Easily Changed
Subjective Knowledge vs. Objective Knowledge
THE ICEBERG MODEL OF CULTURE
TECHNICAL CULTURE: SHARED
ENCYCLOPAEDIC KNOWLEDGE
-culturemes, culture-bound terms, culture
words, realia, culture-specific items
-Strategies to compensate for the lack of
cultureme equivalence
-Kwieciński’s model: -Exoticising procedures
-Rich explicatory procedures
-Recognised exoticisation
-Assimilative procedures
FORMAL CULTURE: FUNCTIONALIST,
APPROPRIATE PRACTICES
At this level of culture, we deal with what is appropriate in a particular
situation in a particular culture and this level floats under the visible part of
the iceberg.
Texts require mediating rather than "conduit translation ".
Attn: [name and department]
I made samples for you in 1994 for the summer and we had received orders
for about 20,000 blouses to be shipped in 1995 but due to a plague in our
country these orders were cancelled by you. The contact was made by (full
name and full address).
INFORMAL CULTURE: COGNITIVE SYSTEMS
AND VALUE
At this level of culture no word has purely denotative function
• Bassnet (2002: 37) – “Scotch in the British context may
conceivably be defined as the equivalent of Martini in the
Italian context, and vice versa, in so far as they are presented
through advertising as serving equivalent social functions.”
• Katan the title of a text introducing a collection of 17,000
poems on a CD-ROM, which reads as follows:
“Who said you can’t make money with poetry?”
The context of situation