6 CHAPTER II REVIEW of RELATED LITERATURE in This Chapter, The
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In this chapter, the researcher addresses translation, definition of realia, types of realia and the strategies for translating realia. 2.1 Translation Translation has been needed since long time ago. It has contributed a lot in translating many literary works from one language to another. Therefore, it is true that the development of culture around the world impacts to the existence of translation. There are various definitions of translation presented by the scholars. Brislin (in Akbari, 2013) believes that translation is an activity of transferring thoughts or ideas from one language into another. Azabdaftary (in Akbari, 2013) then states that a translator should be the agent of transferring messages among languages as well as the cultural value beyond the language. Therefore, a translator is expected to be able to link the writer with the reader (Akbari, 2013). The functions of translation can be classified into four categories reviewing the history of translation and translation studies. First, in the early time that translation began, it was a tool of simple communication. Second, translation was used to deliver religious belief. Third, through translating, some advanced or useful ideas could be introduced to promote the political events of the society. The forth function which was popular in modern society, was to introduce new knowledge with few political purposes (Yan & Huang, 2014). Translation is not a simple activity which only to find the same meanings in the target language, but searching for the exact equivalent word between source 6 7 language (SL) and target language (TL). Therefore, understanding another culture is crucial to avoid miscommunication since one language does not have similar meaning of another. In this case, people need to think differently when they speak different languages. In short, translation can be completed by understanding the culture of SL and TL (Rezaei and Kuhi, 2014). 2.2 Definition of Realia Every cultural community has their own habits, symbols, and ceremonies which often constitute to the characteristics of their nation. Each word or expression that describes those cultural communities might refer to a concept which is different in each language. One of the challenging issues in translation which is quite interesting is translating CSIs or, some scholars define them as realia. There are several terms proposed by some experts. According to Aixelá (in Rezaei & Kuhi, 2014), culture-specific items or CSIs are textually items whose function and connotation in the source text cause translation problem to the target text as the effect of the nonexistence of the referred item or of the different item in the cultural system of the target text. Terestyenyi (2011) claims that it is unclear which words or expressions should be considered culture-specific items since realia, culture- specific items, or culturally bound items are frequently mentioned in some translation literature. Numerous of scholars have conducted several studies involving the use of realia, particularly research in tourism book for some reasons. Rezaei & Kuhi (2014) state that tourist guidebooks usually include details about geographic location of a country and provide some information about its tourism objects, accommodations and sometimes the costumes and culture of its people. The translation of realia in tourism texts constitutes the most serious problem for 8 the translators because they should understand the source and the target language well and get familiar with both cultures. They are required to be able to find various possible equivalences including all variety of translation strategies which can be used to solve the problems in translating realia between languages. There is no single term to define this cultural-bound word. According to Mujzer and Varga (in Zopus, 2016), realia relate to the unique expressions of particular language. Klaudy (in Zopus, 2016) defines realia as manifestation of typical culture of source language such as meals, beverages, outfits, currencies, measurements, agencies, and offices. Furthermore, L. Barkhudarov (in Djachy and Pareshishvili, 2014) states realia as the terms that represent the certain object of a nation. Narváez and Zambrana(2014) have also noted the changes of this term from time to time. Realia is first named “cultural foreign words” in 1945. The term “cultureme” then formerly presented in 1988 and becomes popular in translation studies in 2009. The term keeps changing by the time. Realia, presuppositions, cultural terms, and cultural references are suggested by several scholars during the 19th century. Scholars continue broadening the variety of the term, such as “culture- specific concepts”, “cultural bumps”, “culturally marked segments”, “culture bound references” and “culture-specific items” until the 20th century. In 1996, Aixela notes that culture-specific items, which are now known as CSI, are linguistic items that caused translation problems due to the differences in cultural understanding including proper nouns, objects, customs, institutions, expressions, and concepts contained in the source text but they do not exist in the culture of the target language or are differently understood. 9 2.3 Types of Realia Besides the ambiguous term of realia, the terms also encounter numerous of different typologies even though they are classified based on the same criteria. Newmark (in Nurlaily, 2014) classifies realia into five groups which are described as follows: a. Ecology Ecology realia constitute the relation between living things and their surroundings including flora, fauna, wind, plain, and hill. Honeysuckle (garden plants), selva (tropical rain forest) and savanna (grassland) are several examples of ecology realia. b. Material culture (artifacts) This typology refers to things created by human in particular culture including food, house, transportation, clothing, and town. For instance, Italia has its own dessert called Zabaglione, Indonesia owns its typical food namely Tempe, and Rickshaw belongs to public transportation of India. c. Social culture - work and leisure It means some activities conducted by people in different culture, for examples, Condotttere (military leader) and Raga (traditional melodic type in Hindu music). d. Organizations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts Each culture has their own organizations, customs, activities, procedures, and concepts. For instance, UNICEF is an agency of the United Nations that administers programs to aid education and child and maternal health in 10 developing countries and the White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. e. Gestures and habits For example, Cock a snook means gesture of derision or defiance and Spitting means act of expectorating. However, other scholars like Vlakhov, Florin, and Gill (in Petrulione, 2012) suggest four categories of realia: a) geographic, b) ethnographic, c) political, and d) religious. Aloyzas Gudavičius (in Petrulione, 2012)states three classifications of realia: 1) objects which indicate material culture (everyday life and work realia, specific agricultural work and geographic realia, endemic clothes and footwear, national cuisine and musical instruments), 2) intangible culture such as national dances and songs, folk feasts, national folk customs and habits and mythological notions, and 3) historical realia which refer to domestic objects, social and political realia, and religious words. These three classifications are different, but not contradictory and any of them can be used according to the preference of linguists depending on the character of the text they are working on. Nedergaard and Larsen (in Smets, 2012) suggest four categories of realia: Geographical including geography, meteorology, and biology; Historical including buildings, people, and events; Social including economy, social organization, politics, social conditions, and customs; Cultural including religion, education, media, and culture. Florin (in Smets, 2012) adopts Geographical, Historical, Social- Territorial and Ethnographic. Moreover, Ramière proposes three categories of realia namely Geographical, Historical, and Socio-cultural (in Smets, 2012). 11 In addition, regarding to Grit’s classification of realia in his article entitled De vertaling van realia (translation of realia) (Nurlaily, 2012), he declares six typologies of realia. Nurlaily then summarizes them as follows: a. Historical realia relate to buildings, people or events in the past, such as Candi Borobudur (Borobudur Temple), KH. Ahmad Dahlan (the former of Muhammadiyah), and Sumpah Pemuda (The Youth Pledge). b. Geographical realia refer to places or other surrounding elements. For instance, Den Haag, Nusa Tenggara Timur, and Nusa Tenggara Barat (provinces in Indonesia). c. Private-institutional realia constitute the individual institution or non- governmental agency, for example, PT Telkom Indonesia, Unilever Tbk. d. Public-institutional realia relate to governmental institution, public school, college, library, and others, for instance, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang (University of Muhammadiyah Malang). e. Unit realia refer to measurement including height, weight, length, temperature, and time. f. Socio-cultural realia comprise the element of society, such as foods, drinks, clothes, dance, and other cultural words. For example, Tari Piring (Piring Dance), Tempe (typical food of Indonesia). This research involves Grit’s typologies