Since all texts are anchored in their culture, it follows that culture-bound items in the source text can present problems for translators, especially if there are notable differences between source and target cultures. The problems are often described as extralinguistic, that is, referring to the surrounding physical and sociocultural reality ‘outside’ language, as opposed to intralinguistic translation problems, which arise from differences between source and target language systems and language usage (Nedergaard-Larsen 1993: 238, note 1). Because of their referential link with reality, words and phrases that are “intimately bound up with the universe of reference of the original culture” (Lefevere 1993: 122) are often referred to as realia (Latin for ‘real things’), following usage in Eastern European Translation Studies (e.g. Vlakhov & Florin 1970).

References

Florin, Sider

1993 “Realia in translation.” In Translation as Social Action. Russian and Bulgarian Perspectives, Palma Zlateva (ed.), 122–128. London: Routledge.

Kujamäki, Pekka

1998 Deutsche Stimmen der Sieben Brüder: Ideologie, Poetik und Funktionen literarischer Übersetzung. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.  TSB

Lefevere, André

1993 Untitled introduction to Florin (1993). In Translation as Social Action. Russian and Bulgarian Perspectives, Palma Zlateva (ed.), 122–123. London: Routledge.

Leppihalme, Ritva

2001 “Translation strategies for realia.” In Mission, Vision, Strategies, Values: A Celebration of Translator Training and Translation Studies in Kouvola, Pirjo Kukkonen & Ritva Hartama-Heinonen (eds), 139–146. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.

Loponen, Mika

2009 “Translating irrealia: Creating a semiotic framework for the translation of fictional cultures.” Chinese Semiotic Studies 2: 165–175.

Nedergaard-Larsen, Birgit

1993 “Culture-bound problems in subtitling.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 2: 207–241.

Nida, Eugene

1964 [1945]. “Linguistics and ethnology in translation-problems.” Word 1: 194–208. Republished in Language in Culture and Society: A Reader in Linguistics and Anthropology, Dell Hymes (ed.), 90–100. New York, N.Y.: Harper Row.

Pedersen, Jan

2007 “Cultural interchangeability: The effects of substituting cultural references in subtitling.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 15(1): 30–48.

[Accessed 5 June 2011]  BoP

Vinay, J.-P. & Darbelnet, J

1975 [1958]. Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais: méthode de traduction. Nouvel édition revue et corrigée. Paris: Didier.  TSB

Vlakhov, Sergei & Florin, Sider

1970 “Neperevodimoe v perevode: realii.” Masterstvo perevoda 6 (1969): 432–456. Moskva: Sovetskij pisatel’.

Further reading

Bödeker, Birgit & Freese, Katrin

1987 “Die Übersetzung von Realienbezeichnungen bei literarischen Texten: Eine Prototypologie.” TextconText 2 (3): 137–165.

Denton, John

1994 “Translation criticism, translation teaching and intercultural transfer.” Koiné: Problems and Trends in the Teaching of Interpreting and Translation IV: 49–65.  TSB

Straight, H. Stephen

1981 “Knowledge, purpose and intuition: Three dimensions in the evaluation of translation.” In Translation Spectrum: Essays in Theory and Practice, Marilyn Gaddis Rose (ed.), 40–51. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Witte, Heidrun

2000 Die Kulturkompetenz des Translators. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.  TSB

Zimmer, Rudolf

1981 Probleme der Übersetzung formbetonter Sprache: Ein Beitrag zur Übersetzungskritik. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.