other languages. When a cultural word is translated, it is possible that the cultural value will change.
Baker 1992:21 provides another term to mention cultural words. She uses cultural specific concepts instead of cultural words.
The source language words may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target language. The concept in question may be abstract
or concrete, it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or even a type of food. Such concepts are often offered to as culture specific.
According to Simatupang 2000:62 a cultural word is a word that reflects the cultural pattern of its native speaker which is not owned by other languages.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that cultural word is an expression whose meaning is tied strongly to its culture. It is almost impossible to
transfer its cultural meaning into other languages by defending its original meaning. Due to the dissimilarity of culture among countries, this cultural
meaning is hard to be translated.
c. Cultural Categories
Newmark 1988:95-103 categorizes foreign cultural words by adapting Nida s theory into five divisions. The divisions are ecology, material culture,
social culture, social organization, and gestures. 1 Ecology
According to Cambridge Advance Learner ͛s Dictionary, the term ecology
means the relationships between the air, land, water, animals, plants, etc., usually of a particular area, or the scientific study of this. The extremity of
ecological variation form territory to territory is seldom anticipated, and there
is often considerable difficulty in finding same equivalence for terms which designate ecological features Nida, 1975:68.
2 Material Culture Material culture is things made by people that reflect the society s cultural
value. The cultural importance of this material culture is the essential issues in translation.
3 Social culture Social culture is a culture possessed by a particular society which is different
from another. It is not easy to find equivalent term for social culture. 4 Social Organizations
Every country has its own social organization to organize every business related to the country. Political and social lives of a country are reflected in its
institutional terms. 5 Gestures and Habits
Another problem is related to gestures and habits. There is a distinction between description and function which can be made necessary in ambiguous
cases Newmark, 1988:102. Espindola Vasconcellos 2006:49-50 mention twelve categories of
culturally-bound expressions. 1 Toponyms, a place name, a geographical name, a proper name of locality,
region, or some other part of earth s surface or its natural or artificial feature 2 Anthroponym, ordinary and famous people s name and nicknames and names
referring to regional background which acquire identification status.
