5 Multimedia oriented ePublishing

 

Presentation Podcast: create a Podcast and explain us the process

 

Presentation YouTube: submit a movie and explain us the process

 

Presentation Google Earth: submit a description and/or picture and explain us the process

 

 


Translation

 

Psycholinguistic Translation, the Ideal Translation?

 

Psycholinguistics is concerned about “the study of mental processes involved in language production, language comprehension and language acquisition, as well as the relation between language, thought, and culture.

 

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, http://www.mpi.nl/ accessed 25 Oct 2007.

 

In translation we are converting meaning (thought) from the language of one culture into the language of another culture.

 


 

Schneider’s Logic for a Cultural Meaning Representation

 

Axiom: Culture defines meaning and language

 

Problem:    Culture determines meaning and language

 

Meaning1 <= Culture1 => Language1

 

Meaning2 <= Culture2 => Language2

 

Solution:    Find the language that reflects the same meaning in the other culture.

 

Equate meaning: Meaning1 = Meaning2

Culture1and Culture2 are known

Language1is known

Language2 for which we have to solve the equation

 

Method:     If we can quantify meaning, we can create meaning-equivalent language translations

 

            Language1 => Meaning1 = Meaning2 => Language2

 

 

Sources

 

The Problem of language equivalent translations of behavior prescriptions in international corporations:

 

·     Schneider, Andreas. 2002. "Computer Simulation of Behavior Prescriptions in Multi-cultural Corporations." Organization Studies 23: 105-131.

 

Basic understanding of cultural categories of meaning and its qualitative and quantitative operationalization:

 

·     Schneider, Andreas and Alden E. Roberts. 2005. “Classification and the Relations of Meaning.” Quality & Quantity 38,5:547-557.

 

The mathematical operationalization of a theoretical model of interaction. Important here: switching between the mathematical/empirical and the qualitative/linguistic description of evolving event structures:

 

·     Schneider, Andreas and David R. Heise. 1995. Simulating Symbolic Interaction. Journal of Mathematical Sociology 20: 271-287.

 

 

The idea for a cultural meaning –processor that allows for culture-equivalent translations.

 

·     Shuuichrou Ike, Herman W. Smith and Andreas Schneider. 2007. “An Analytic Frame of Affective Meanings Using Affect Control Theory.“ Journal of Natural Language Processing 14 (3):99-115 (in Japanese)

 


 

Relationship between Culture, Meaning and Language

 

Every cultural concept has a cognitive and affective component.

Cognitions are represented in language.

The affective meaning can be measured quantitatively in each culture.

 

 

Measurement of Affective Meaning

 

Three Scales with two to three qualifiers

 

Evaluation:        good, nice  -  bad, awful

Potency:       big, powerful  -  little, powerless

Activity: fast, young, noisy  -  slow, old, quiet

 

 

Cultural meaning - equivalent Language Translation

 

“Since there are culture-specific systematic differences in the affective representation of symbolic meaning

 

our affective reaction to identical language concepts will differ cross-culturally.

 

The translation of natural language into affective responses can eliminate those cross-cultural misunderstandings.”

 

Shuuichrou, Smith, and Schneider 2007

   

Language1 => Meaning1 = Meaning2 => Language2


 

Existing Models of Translations

 

Dynamic Equivalence versus Formal Equivalence

 

Dynamic equivalence or functional equivalence,

·     conveys the essential thought or meaning,

·     sometimes at the expense of literality.

 

 

Formal equivalence 

·     Sought via literal translation

·     Word for word or "verbum pro verbo"

 

 

 

Transparency versus Fidelity

 

Transparency

·     True to the target culture. 

·     Figurative or idiomatic translation.

 

Fidelity

·     The extent to which the translation accurately reflects the literal source text.

·     Defines a “faithful translation.”

 

 

Instructions for your your Project Task 2: Translation


Back to the homepage of Dr. Andreas Schneider http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider/

Disclaimer: The documents linked to other sources on the WWW, others than http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider2/ and its subdirectories, do not necessarily express the views of Texas Tech University, Université Paris X, or Dr. Schneider. @Copyright 2007 Dr. Andreas Schneider