EXPLORING MONA BAKER’S EQUIVALENCE THEORY IN TRANSLATING KINYARWANDA GENDERED PROVERBS RELATED TO WOMEN INTO ENGLISH AND FRENCH A Thesis Submitted to the University of Rwanda in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Arts (M.A) Degree in Translation and Interpreting Studies Option: Translation By Pascal BASIGAYABO Student Registration Number: 218014321 College of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisor: Dr. Pierre Canisius RUTERANA June, 2020 i DECLARATION I, Pascal BASIGAYABO, do hereby declare that this dissertation entitled Exploring Mona Baker’s Equivalence Theory in Translating Kinyarwanda Gendered Proverbs Related to Women into English and French submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation and Interpreting at University of Rwanda, College of Arts and Social Sciences, is my original work and has not previously been submitted and reported elsewhere. I also do declare that a complete list of references indicating all sources of information quoted or cited is provided. BASIGAYABO Pascal Signature Date: June 15, 2020 ii DEDICATION To the Almighty God, To my beloved wife, To my daughters, my sons-in-law and my grand-children, To my sons, I dedicate this work. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, praise is due to the Almighty God for giving me strength and ability to complete this study. I convey my sincere thanks to my beloved family and relatives for having supported me morally and financially. My deep recognition is extended to my beloved wife for her service as stress alleviator. I appreciate her moral, economic and social support throughout my studies. I am thankful to my supervisor, Dr. Pierre Canisius RUTERANA, for the patient guidance, encouragement and advice provided throughout my time as his student. I have been very lucky to have a supervisor who cared so much about my work and who responded to my questions and my queries kindly. I owe him all respect because without his orientation, this thesis couldn‟t be completed. I extend my appreciation to the administration of the College of Arts and Social Sciences, to the Coordination of Master‟s Program of Translation and Interpreting, as well as the teaching staff for their commitment in transforming us into professional translators. I am also grateful to Mr. Wallace Mlaga for his tangible assistance in research. The books sent to me helped me in getting English equivalents to Kinyarwanda proverbs. May God bless him and his family? My deep recognition is sent to Mr. Théogène Twagirimana, for having accepted to proofread and edit this dissertation. His experience helped producing a consistent work in both form and content. Special thanks are sent to Mr. Isaïe Nyirinkwaya and Mr. Sylvestre Ngarambe for their assistance in data gathering. Last but not least, I am thankful to everyone who helped me in this thesis. iv ABSTRACT Over the past years, some anthropologists, linguists and undergraduate students have attempted to translate Rwandan proverbs into foreign languages (mainly English and French), from both sociolinguistic and anthropological perspectives. However, the translation quality of some of these works is, at varying degrees, below the standards, mainly due to the use of inadequate translation strategies. This study is an attempt to translate Kinyarwanda gendered proverbs by applying the equivalence theory through Baker‟s (1992) translation strategies, namely, using a proverb of similar meaning and similar form, using a proverb of similar meaning and dissimilar form, paraphrasing and omission. This qualitative study relied on a corpus of 80 Kinyarwanda gendered proverbs related to woman, randomly selected from three main collections of Kinyarwanda proverbs (Bigirumwami, 2004; Crépeau and Bizimana, 1979; Sibo, 2012, and some other open sources) and thematically categorized. The identified main themes are namely: women portrayed as evil, untrustworthy, jealous, deceitful and willful; women portrayed as physically and intellectually weak and dependent; women portrayed as sexual objects; women‟s beauty portrayed as vain and a snare for men; women portrayed as talkative and troublesome; and women portrayed as households‟ good managers, children bearers and educators. Then, English and French equivalent proverbs from identified collections of proverbs (Schipper, 2010; Kershen, 2012; Rasul, 2015; Maloux, 2009) were provided to the selected Kinyarwanda proverbs. In case of non-equivalence, the researcher has resorted to translation by paraphrasing. The findings have shown that the most frequently used strategy in translating a proverb, both from Kinyarwanda to English and French, was to translate with a proverb of similar meaning and dissimilar form. On the other hand, it was found that translating Kinyarwanda proverbs into English or French by using other strategies v such as using a proverbs of similar meaning and similar form or paraphrasing was less frequent, simply because of distant cultural and linguistic universals between Kinyarwanda, a Bantu language, and English and French, Indo-European languages. Furthermore, it was also shown that Baker‟s strategies are to some extent subjective and cause cultural loss. This is quite understandable because every culture has its own mores and norms that have no equivalent anywhere else. In spite of these challenges, works of this kind need to be pursued and encouraged since they contribute to the dialogue of cultures and facilitate better integration into today‟s world of globalization. In short, the current study has only dealt with the translation of Kinyarwanda gendered proverbs related to women. Further research can carry on where the present study has left off and focuses, among other things, on proverbs about men and children, marriage and so on. The field is still fresh and wide open. Key words: Proverb, gendered proverb, equivalence, Baker‟s translation strategies. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................... i DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... vi LIST OF SYMBOLS, ABBREVIATIONS/ ACRONYMS ...................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1 1.1 Background to the study ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Significance of the study ....................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Problem statement ................................................................................................................. 8 1.4. Research objectives ............................................................................................................ 10 1.4.1. Main objectives ............................................................................................................... 10 1.4.2. Specific objectives .......................................................................................................... 10 1.5. Scope and limitations of the study ..................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................... 11 2.1. Review of theoretical literature .......................................................................................... 11 2.1.1. Common linguistic and textual features of proverbs ...................................................... 11 2.1.2. Equivalence and equivalence effect in translation theories ............................................ 12 vii 2.1.2.1. Different scholars‟ views on the equivalence theory in translation. ............................ 13 2.1.2.1.1. Linguistic approach ................................................................................................... 13 2.1.2.1.2. Formal and dynamic equivalence ............................................................................. 14 2.1.2.1.3. Semantic and communicative translation ................................................................. 15 2.1.2.1.4. Linguistic and communicative approach to translation ............................................ 17 2.2. Review of empirical studies ............................................................................................... 18 2.3. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................. 24 3.1. Research design ................................................................................................................. 24 3.2. Research approach ............................................................................................................