Die Engelse vertaling van kultuurgebonde uitdrukkings in Afrikaanse kinderverhale : oorbrugging van die semantiese gaping

Abstract

"Landeskunde" creates a problem for the translator, therefore, this aspect is discussed in most text books. The discussions, which mainly deal with general translation from European languages such as French and German into English and vice versa, are integrated in this study to solve the problem of "Landeskunde" that arises when children's books, containing culture-bound words and phrases, are translated from Afrikaans into English. The idea of the "semantic gap" is discussed, in other words, when a term peculiar to the culture of . the source language, is not found in the vocabulary of the target language. It becomes clear in this study that semantic gaps arise in the translation of culturally bound expressions in children's literature, but that these gaps can be bridged by using applicable translation strategies, such as the use of loan-words in context, the use of footnotes and description of the meaning of expressions which are foreign to a specific culture. After a short discussion of theoretical terms such as translation and communication, equivalence, communicative and semantic translation, dialect and idiolect, effective translation and translatability, specific problems, for example translation of cultural terms, are discussed. The different cultural terms are categorised in the categories, personal names, geographical names, fauna and flora and other culturally bound forms such as culture specific things and kinds of foods. The discussion in the study is based on Poppie-Dot at the Groot River. which is translated as Dolly-Dot at the great River.