Equivalence in Translation Translation
language comprises concepts which can be found across most cultures. The examples of universal language are
walk
,
live
,
die
,
mirror
,
hat
, and so on, all of which are expressed in most languages across the world. Meanwhile, cultural
words can be found within the realm of cultural language. Cultural language consists of concepts that are culture specific, such as
monsoon
,
capoeira
,
steppe
, and so on. These words expresses such concepts that typically difficult to
translate. It is stated that most “cultural” words are easy to detect, since they are
associated with a particular language and cannot be literally translated where literal translation would distort the meaning Newmark, 1988: 95.
From Newmark’s explanation, it is clear that “cultural” word is a word in a particular language that brings cultural value which does not exist or differ from
other language. When a cultural word is translated, it is possible that the cultural value will change.
Newmark 1988: 95 classifies cultural words into five categories. They are:
1 Ecology: flora, fauna, winds, plains;
2 Material culture: food, clothes, houses and towns, transport;
3 Social culture: work and leisure;
4 Organizations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts: political and
administrative, religious, artistic; 5
Gestures and habits. Florin in Knaappila, 2009: 14 states that realia is words and
combinations of words denoting objects and concepts characteristics of one nation
and alien to another. Florin categorizes realia thematically, according to the material or logical groups they belong to; geographically, according to the
locations in which they are used; and temporally, according to the historical period they belong to. However, Florin considers that realia can be problem that
quite difficult to overcome because realia requires the reader to have background knowledge on the objects to which they relate. Florin also considers that realia are
untranslatable because other languages lack exact equivalent for them. According to Leppihalme in Kylä-Harakka, 2008: 16, realia can also
cause “culture bumps,” which is problems in communication between representatives of different cultural backgrounds. Culture bumps may prevent the
target to understand the meaning of the source text, because it is unclear and strange for the target audience. In the end, the target audience may fail to
understand the text. Nedergaard-Larsen in Kylä-
Harakka, 2008: 15 defines “culture-bound element” as the term that is often used to refer to “the non-linguistic sphere, to
different phenomena or events that exist in the source language culture.” Larsen categ
orizes “culture-bound element” into four main categories of geography, history, society, and culture, as well as a number of subcategories as presented in
Table 1. From the explanation above, it can be concluded that culture-specific
terms are words, phrases or expression used by members of a certain culture to express their concepts about something closely related to their culture. Culture-
specific terms are not easy to be translated because of the culture of the source and