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CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN
TRANSLATION/INTERPRETATION
Elmira Denisovna Muratova,
Candidate of philological sciences, Professor,
Uzbekistan State World Languages University
The dynamics of the scientific and cultural contacts between independent
Uzbekistan and foreign countries arouse high demands on the quality of translation
and require the study of the methods of translation used in the transmission of the
content of various texts. The role of any language in translation is the same as that
which it always plays in the life of society; it acts as the most important means of
human communication, reflects any changes in the political and economic life of the
society and forms one of the incredible parts of human behavior. Translation is the
interaction of not only two languages, but also two peoples, two different cultures,
lifestyles and traditions. Under the translation studies, psychological, literary,
ethnographic and other aspects of translation are thoroughly considered. Thus, it is
clear that translation or translation activities are still very relevant today. And this is
natural, integration in all areas of human activity is so great that it is sometimes
difficult to determine in which language this or that word first appeared, since, given
a high-speed of information processes, interpretation occurs rather quickly.
Translation, both commercial and literary, is an activity that is growing
phenomenally in
today’s globalized world. The study of translation/interpretation, as
a science has also developed enormously in the past years. It interfaces with a great
number of other disciplines from linguistics and modern languages to Cultural
Studies. Translation is a phenomenon that has a huge effect on everyday life. This
can range from the translation of a key international treaty to the following multilingual
poster that welcomes customers to a small cafeteria nearby.
A lot of researches rightly mentioned that the role of masters of a translation
art is difficult to overestimate; in the history of culture and interethnic relations they
have an honorable and responsible place. We know that practically all forms of
translation, especially of works of art, are creative processes and, before translating
one has to go deep into the world of poets or prose writers in order to understand the
origin, meaning and artistic power of their work. Thus, translators should try to
preserve the sound and the strength of the original in another language. It is well-
known that to understand the language of other peoples means to understand their
national character, the emotional world of other cultures. Given the above, we are
sure, that the specifics of
translators’ profession require systematic independent
work, continuous and persistent progress in their knowledge and skills.
If we focus on other types of translation, for example, scientific and technical
literature, then a different set of challenges come up, since this type of translation
requires comprehensive reflection not only for the development of its theoretical,
methodological and organizational problems, but also for the successful development
and improvement of the translation practice. Translation of scientific and technical
literature is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that plays a key role in the
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process of communication using different languages in the field of science and
technology. It has a significant impact on the level of technological achievements of
modern world community, given that technological changes can create new
opportunities in all areas of activity. Cooperation at the national and international
levels is being enhanced; the use of information and communication technologies is
becoming the norm in order to improve the global exchange of information, as well
as research, experience, technical and production achievements in line with
international cooperation. In connection with this, scientific and technical translation
becomes more and more crucial in the system of scientific and technical information.
One of the characteristic features of the scientific and technical literature is the
complexity, the saturation of special terminology and the great importance of the
transmitted information for this or that sphere of scientific or technical activity.
Subordinate to the general norms of modern literary language, the style of scientific
and technical texts has some features that should be observed in translation,
particularly, the brevity of the presentation of the material and the clarity of the
wording to optimize the process of communication and information transfer. In
addition to terminology, technical texts are characterized by a wide use of special
technical phraseology, abbreviations (knowledge of which is necessary not only for
their correct decoding, but also for their skillful use in the translation). Moreover, the
grammatical structure of sentences in them has a number of features that distinguish
it from the structure of sentences in the language of fiction.
Sociopolitical, economic and legal literature, in this sense, is certainly complex,
since it gradually changes from century to century, from one state system to another.
Naturally, the language also changes
– its lexical and stylistic aspects. Political and
economic events are accompanied by the appearance of new concepts, new terms
which are constantly being added to the language. Given the above, the approach to
the interpretation/translation of well-known established words and phrases in
sociopolitical, economic and legal texts is also changing and are difficult for translation,
since they are replete with special terms, especially in legal documents. So, the study
of new terminology is extremely important. The expansion of new vocabulary thanks to
appearance of new terms with the need for new definitions of concepts in the field of
sciences is growing. Knowing the lack of English-Uzbek/Uzbek-English dictionaries,
covering various fields of science and technology, we hope that a new generation of
translators who specialize in direct translation from English into Uzbek and vice versa,
without an intermediary language still have to contribute to the elaboration of such
technical dictionaries. They will, certainly, help to improve the quality of technical
translation, which should act as exhaustive information and transfer of the semantic
contents of the original, being correspondent to it. The pragmatic aspect of translation is
very significant, being the main result of an adequate translation. Therefore, it should be
remembered that a simplified approach to translation without taking into account the
cultural peculiarities of a foreign language text, ignoring the specifics of traditional
phrases in a foreign language can lead to all kinds of inaccuracies and even obvious
mistakes in translation. It is important to know the origin, and a morphological structure
of a new term, especially a neologism, to correctly translate it.
In any case, the problem how to translate terms remains. Having no dictionary
equivalents, several solutions can be used in translation. The first one is
paraphrasing, when the concepts of the original are unfamiliar to native speakers of
the translation language. Selection of functional equivalents is another method of
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translation. The difficulty is in the fact that some systems (in particular, legal ones) of
the two languages do not coincide. Word-for-word translation can be the third
method, but in this case a translator should have a good command of the vocabulary,
grammar, and stylistics of the two languages. It is obvious that everything can be
translated, but much depends on
translators’ skills. Naturally, professionals in their
field will get as close to the source language as possible in meaning, form and
content. Moreover, we are sure they will observe the norms of their native language
as well.
At the same time, nowadays a lot of specialists working in various political,
economic, scientific, social and other structures are eager to master a foreign language
for free communication with their foreign colleagues, not using the assistance of
professional translators/interpreters. And not only this
– they try to improve their
language skills to be able to have an independent acquaintance with various materials
in a foreign language. The set of knowledge that future specialists should assimilate is
largely determined by communicative nature of the professional activities of many
specialists. And in many cases foreign specialists are happy to directly communicate
with their business partners, forgiving their language mistakes because from
professional point of view they understand each other without translation. Of course,
this can occur only at non-official cases, while official cross-cultural communication
should proceed with an assistance of a professional interpreter/translator.
REFERENCES:
1. Pronina R.F. A Handbook on the translation of English scientific and
technical literature.
– Moscow: Visshaya Shkola, 1965.
2. Garbovskiy N.K. Theory of translation. Moscow: MSU, Publishing house, 2004.
3. Solodub U.P., Albreht F.B., Kuznetsov A.U. Theory and Practice of
Translation of Giction.
– Moscow: “Academy”, 2005.