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Erzincan Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi (ERZSOSDE) XI-II: 44-59 [2018]
A RELEVANCE-THEORETIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE
TRANSLATION OF CULTURE-SPECIFIC RELIGIOUS ITEMS: AN
ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF LATİFE
TEKİN’S SEVGİLİ ARSIZ ÖLÜM AND İSKENDER PALA’S
KATRE-İ MATEM *
DİNİ KÜLTÜREL ÖĞELERİN ÇEVİRİSİ ÜZERİNE BAĞINTI
KURAMI YAKLAŞIMI: LATİFE TEKİN’İN SEVGİLİ ARSIZ
ÖLÜM VE İSKENDER PALA’NIN KATRE-İ MATEM
ROMANLARININ İNGİLİZCE ÇEVİRİLERİNİN ANALİZİ
Emine KARABULUT
1
, Hilal ERKAZANCI DURMUŞ
2
ABSTRACT: Culture-specific items pose a great challenge for the translator in many cases because
culture encompasses beliefs, traditions, customs, perceptions, religion, a way of life, and a way of thinking
of a society. Since they are different in each culture, translators need to pay attention to their translations to
transmit the message produced by the source-text author. This study aims at analyzing the culture-specific
items in Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm (2013), which is translated by Saliha Paker and Mel Kenne in
2008, and İskender Pala’s Katre-i Matem (2009), which is translated by Ruth Whitehouse in 2014 within
the framework of a relevance-theoretic approach to translation proposed by Ernest August Gutt (1991). The
study focuses on the relevance-theoretic perspective on the translation of culture-specific items since the
contextual effects of the these items and the strategies used by the translators to convey those contextual
effects can be dealt within the framework of relevance theory, which is a context-based theory explaining
the creation of a context through the presence of certain clues (that is, ostensive stimuli) such as culture-
specific items. This study aims at illustrating how the context of a target text may differ from the context of
its source text in direct translation and in indirect translation.
Keywords: culture-specific items, relevance theory, direct translation and indirect translation,
context, contextual effect.
ÖZET: Kültür, bir milletin inançları, gelenekleri, görenekleri, algıları, dini, yaşam şekli ve düşünme
biçimini kapsamaktadır. Bu nedenle, kültürel öğeleri çevirmek, çoğu zaman çevirmenler için zorluk
oluşturmaktadır. Kültürel öğeler, her kültürde farklı olduğundan, çevirmenler bu öğelerdeki yazar tarafından
üretilen mesajı iletmek için bu öğelerin çevirisine özen göstermelidir. Bu çalışma, Ernest August Gutt (1991)
tarafından öne sürülen çeviriye bağıntı kuramı yaklaşımı çerçevesinde Latife Tekin’in 2008 yılında Saliha
Paker ve Mel Kenne tarafından çevrilmiş Sevgili Arsız Ölüm (2013) romanı ve İskender Pala’nın 2014
yılında Ruth Whitehouse tarafından çevrilmiş Katre-i Matem (2009) romanındaki kültürel öğeleri analiz
etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Çalışma, kültürel öğelerin çevirisini bağıntı kuramı perspektifinden incelemektedir,
çünkü kültürel öğelerin bağlamsal etkisi (contextual effect) ve bu öğeleri hedef okuyucuya iletmek için
çevirmenler tarafından kullanılan stratejiler, kültürel öğeler gibi bazı ipuçları (ostensive stimuli) aracılığıyla
bağlam (context) oluşumunu açıklayan bağlama dayalı bağıntı kuramı çerçevesinde ele alınabilir. Bu
çalışma, doğrudan çeviri ve dolaylı çeviri yönteminde, hedef metnin bağlamının kaynak metin bağlamından
nasıl farklılaştığını açıklamayı da amaçlamaktadır.
Anahtar sözcükler: kültürel öğeler, bağıntı kuramı, doğrudan ve dolaylı çeviri yaklaşımları, bağlam,
bağlamsal etki.
* This paper is the summary of a part of the thesis accepted by Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences
1
Lecturer, Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, School of Foreign Languages, ekaraman@erzincan.edu.tr
2
Assist. Prof. Dr. Hacettepe University, Faculty of Letters, hilalerkazanci@hacettepe.edu.tr
A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective On The Translation Of Culture-Specific Religious Items:
An Analysis Of The English Translation Of Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm And İskender Pala’s Katre-İ Matem 45
1. INTRODUCTION
Translation is defined as “above all a complex rewriting process” by Javier Franco Aixelá
(1996, p. 52). In this process, “language and culture are inextricably interwoven” (Ivir, 1987, p.
35). Culture refers to certain peculiar features of a society. It consists of the traditions, customs,
behaviours, values, religion, beliefs, way of understanding and language of a society. Aixelá
(1996) notes that “in a language everything is culturally produced, beginning with the language
itself” (p. 57). Each language has its own characteristics and references that are different from
other languages. Cultural references have no exact, equivalent names or expressions in other
cultures and most people in other cultures have no concepts for them in their language (Zojer,
2011, p. 403-404). Thus, the transference of cultural references in a language pose a great
challenge for the translators and this fact makes them to be treated neatly in the translation act.
The difficulty of these cultural references may be clarified through Relevance Theory put forward
by Sperber and Wilson (1986, 1995) since it is a cognitive pragmatic theory that gives an
opportunity to understand how people from different cultural backgrounds perceive and react to
the same message (Martinez, 1988, p. 171). From this point of view, Gutt’s application of
Relevance Theory (namely direct and indirect translation) to translation (1996) has been used as
the strategy in this study in that it provides a basis for the translation of these cultural references
with the concepts cognition, background information and context (which are to be explained
below).
With these points in mind, this present study seeks to investigate (i) how the context of a
target text may differ from the context of its source text in direct translation and to reveal (ii) how
the context of a target text may differ from the context of its source text in indirect translation.
2. CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS
Samovar and Porter illustrates culture as (1997):
The deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings,
hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the
universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in
the course of generations through individual and group striving (pp. 12-13).
References specific to a culture are named differently by different scholars. For instance,
Davies (2003) uses the terms “culture-specific items” and “cultural concepts”, Baker (1992) uses
the term “culture specific concepts”, Mailhac uses the term “cultural reference”, and Aixelá
(1966) uses the term “culture-specific items”. According to Leppihalme (1994), “texts occur in a
given situation in a given culture […], and each has a specific function and an audience of its own”
(p. 2-3). Since culture-specific items are related to “different aspects of everyday life such as
education, politics, history, art, institutions, legal systems, units of measurement, place names,
foods and drinks, sports and national pastimes, as experienced in different countries and nations
of the world” (Gambier, 2004, p. 159), they may cause problems in translation. Tobias (2006)
states that culture-specific items may be troublesome owing to the differences in cultural
understanding (p. 27). Aixela (1997) says that “each linguistic or national-linguistic community
has at its disposal a series of habits, value judgments, classification systems, etc. which sometimes
are clearly different and sometimes overlap” (Aixela, 1997, p. 53). The problem arising out of
culture-specific items may challenge the translator in the process of translation. The translator
needs to be conscious about it in the translation process. Larson (1984) states that “translator needs
to understand beliefs, attitudes, values, and the rules of the source language audience in order to
adequately understand the source text and adequately translate it for people who have a different
set of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules” (Larson quoted in Zare-Behtash and Firoozkoohi, 2010,
p.1).
Emine Karabulut-Hilal Erkazancı Durmuş
46
The translator's understanding of the communicative function of the cultural element and
his/her interpreting it in the source culture and its equivalents in the target culture, his good
command in both source and target language and his awareness of the translation traditions in the
target culture are the factors that determine the strategy of the translator (Ivir, 2003, p. 117). To
cope with these problems related to the translation of culture-specific items, different strategies
have been employed by scholars. This study discusses the culture-specific items in the light of
relevance- theoretic approach put forward by Ernest August Gutt (1996) on the grounds that he
explains the translation as an act of communication in the close relationship of stimuli, context,
intended meaning (Gutt, 2004, p. 1) which are the vital essentials in understanding the translation
of the culture-specific items.
3. RELEVANCE THEORY
Human cognition is relevance-oriented (Sperber and Wilson, 1987, p. 700). The main
purpose of relevance theory is to describe the mechanisms in the human psychology and thus how
humans communicate with each other (Sperber and Wilson, 1986, p. 32). They express their their
relevance theory as follows:
A property of inputs to cognitive processes. The processing of an input (e.g. an
utterance) may yield some cognitive effects (e.g. revisions of beliefs). Everything
else being equal, the greater the effects, the greater the relevance of the input. The
processing of the input (and the derivation of these effects) involves some
cognitive effort. Everything else being equal, the greater the effort, the lower the
relevance (Sperber and Wilson, 1997, p. 115, italics added).
Wilson and Sperber (2004) state that “A positive cognitive effect is a worthwhile difference
to the individual’s representation of the world” (p. 608). In the process of attaining the cognitive
effects (contextual effect), the hearer processes some cognitive effort which is in close relationship
with the degree of relevance of the input to make assumptions and inferences about the utterance.
The utterance is relevant to an individual when it brings on positive cognitive effects which are
derived from the assumptions in the context in interpretation process (Wilson and Sperber, 2002,
p. 251).
When it comes to the concept of context, relevance theory highlights the the concept of
context and it is one of the fundamentals of the theory. According to Sperber and Wilson (1986),
the context of an utterance is “the set of premises used in interpreting [it]” (p. 15) and “A context
is the psychological construct, a subset of the hearer’s assumptions about the world” (p. 15). That
is to say, context does not mean the text or the next or previous sentences or utterances, the
situation itself, but refers to a part of the cognitive environment of a person, the assumptions of
the audience about the world (Gutt, 2000a, p. 27).
From the perspective of culture-specific items, it is very crucial for the translator to make
correct estimations about the cognitive environment of the target readers, which is essential for
the target readers to comprehend the message of the culture-specific items implied by the author.
Take the example below to have a better understanding on this issue: "chip shop" (Rankin, 1998,
p. 14) is a culture-specific item which belongs to British culture. It is a traditional food in which
fish and chips are served together. It was translated into Turkish "balık ve cips dükkanı" (back
translation: fish and crisp shop) (Perker, 2006, p. 17). The translator most probably thought about
transmitting this cultural point to the Turkish readers. However, the utterance in Turkish sounds
very unusual. In Turkey, instead of such a dish, there are only fish restaurants. The translator's
choice makes the culture-specific item more foreignized because his/her preference is made
without estimating the cognitive environment of the Turkish readers. This example demonstrates
how it is important to estimate the cognitive environment of the target readers.
A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective On The Translation Of Culture-Specific Religious Items:
An Analysis Of The English Translation Of Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm And İskender Pala’s Katre-İ Matem 47
When the cognitive environment of the source audience and target audience is substantially
different from each other, some more information could be supported by some means such as
footnotes, glossaries, book introductions and etc (Weber, 2005, p. 55). House says that in
translation there could be some mismatches because of the differences of cultural environment
between two languages and communities. Thus, target readers could be aided by making some
explanations in translations. (House, 1981, p. 123) Hence, the translator should be well aware of
the these cultural differences to make some modifications in target text when he/she wants to carry
out the functional equivalence (Gutt, 2000a, p. 50). However, in some occasions, source and target
readers may share the same cognitive environment. Sharing the same cognitive environment
means the input is mutually manifest to the author and both readers. Sperber and Wilson (1987)
says that "a fact is manifest to an individual at a given time if, and only if, the individual is capable
at that time of representing it mentally and accepting its representation as true or probably true"
(p. 699).
4. TRANSLATION OF CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS IN THE LIGHT OF
RELEVANCE THEORY
This paper uses Ernest August Gutt’s (1989) application of relevance theory to translation
studies as an umbrella term for the theoretical background. He explains his approaches using the
two ways of reported speech: direct and indirect quotation. As known, in direct quotation, the
person aspires to report exactly the same saying of the other person. However, in indirect
quotation, the person has a tendency to give roughly the saying of the other person by not saying
the overall saying. Gutt resembles translation to interlingual reported speech and thus put forwards
two kinds of translation: (a) direct translation (b) indirect translation. In direct translation, the
purpose is to convey the overall message exactly and in indirect translation to convey just some
parts of the speech which is considered relevant to the target audience (Smith, 2007, p. 73-74).
More clearly, the focal point in direct quotation is to convey the message of what the other
person said exactly the same, it is in indirect quotation to convey only the necessary part of what
the speaker said. Accordingly, when it is scrutinized in scope of translation, direct translation gives
importance on the conveying the exact message and the same clues of the original and indirect
translation focuses only some assumptions of the original text that are most relevant to the target
audience. (Smith, 2002, p. 109-110) As for Gutt (2000b), communicative clues are “a subset of
the textual properties that are significant for the intended meaning” (p. 153).
Dealing with culture-specific items in this study, in direct translation, the translator
transmits all the communicative clues of the culture-specific items by creating the same effect on
the interpretation of the sentence when processed with the same back ground information (Gutt,
1989, p. 253). By this way he/she conveys the message of the source-text author who produces
meaning through culture-specific items, but he/she makes the translation by considering the
context envisaged by the source text author. The necessary context is not provided to the target
readers by the translator. As can be seen, “direct translation corresponds to the idea that translation
should convey the same meaning as the original. It requires the receptors to familiarise themselves
with the context envisaged for the original text” (Gutt, 1990, p. 135).
Translator using indirect translation approach does not try to transmit all the assumptions in
the original text, on the contrary tries to transmit the assumptions that he/she thinks are the relevant
to the target audience (Smith, 2007, p. 74). Thus, indirect translation is “a flexible, context-
sensitive concept of translation … which allows for very different types of target texts to be called
translation” (Fawcett, 1997, p. 138). Hence, the translator does not provide all the communicative
clues to the target readers. Malkmjaer (1992) states that “it does not focus on the way in which
something was said, but rather on what was said, rather like indirect quotations do” (p. 31).
Accordingly, he/she gives the reader solely the relevant part of the utterance which provides a
sociocultural and historical context about the culture-specific item. The translation is made by
Emine Karabulut-Hilal Erkazancı Durmuş
48
taking the context of target readers into account. Thus, the readers do not have to familiarize
themselves with the source-text context, since translator takes the target-text readers’ context into
account (Gutt, 2006, p. 417). He/she provides the necessary context to the target readers to make
the culture-specific item mutually manifest. This approach is used to make the culture-specific
message more comprehensible for the context of the target readers. In a very nutshell, while direct
translations keeps to produce the complete interpretive resemblance, indirect translations tries to
transfer the interpretive resemblance only in relevant aspects. (Smith, 2002, p.109-110)
If target readers are not familiar with the message of culture-specific items, it may be
difficult for the translator to transfer the message underlying culture-specific items produced by
the author. The translator may need to provide the necessary context which is required for the
target reader to comprehend the message. Hence, how translators produce the message produced
by the author through culture-specific items has a vital importance.
From this point of view, culture-specific items extracted from the translations of Sevgili
Arsız Ölüm by Latife Tekin and Katre-i Matem by İskender Pala may be scrutinized in the light of
these two approaches regarding the importance of context in the translation of culture-specific
items.
5. EXAMPLES FROM THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF SEVGİLİ ARSIZ
ÖLÜM
Example 1-Context: Neighing Boy, the djinn attacking the girls, and women in the village
gets tired of the prayers of the villagers to protect themselves. Getting very angry, Neighing Boy
changes its place and settles in the rocks in Akçalı. Thus, the girls and women are afraid of going
there to visit the vineyards and collect rock gum on their own. The villagers curse the rocks.
Source Text
Target Text
O kayalıkları lanetledikleri gibi,
Atiye'nin küçük kızı Dirmit'i de lanetlediler.
Kişner'i köyün başına onun çıkardığını, orada
burada besmelesiz gezinip cinlerin ayağına,
yüzüne işediğini, kaynar suları sağa sola
döküp üstlerini başlarını yaktığını, köyde kuyu
bırakmayıp içini taşla doldurduğunu, sonunda
cinleri kızdırdığını ve cinlerin köylüye eziyet
olsun diye Kişner'i elçi yolladıklarını
söylediler.(p. 61)
They also cursed Atiye's little girl
Dirmit. They concluded that it was she who
had brought the djinn down on the village.
Dirmit had wandered around without saying a
besmele as she pissed on the djinns' feet and
faces. She had scalded them by pouring
boiling water all over the place. And she had
filled up the wells in the village by flinging
stones into them. Her actions incurred the
djinns's wrath and caused them finally bring in
Neighing Boy as their representative to plague
the village. (p. 69)
Gutt's Approach
Direct Translation
In this example, “besmele” is a culture-specific item having a religious meaning. The
English correspondence of it is “basmala”. It is the Arabic word which is the short form of bi-
smillah ir-rahmanir- Rahim. It purports “in the name of God most compassionate, most merciful”.
It is recited at the beginning of every kind of chapter in Quran and action in Islam such as formal
speech, using the toilet, eating food, slaughtering an animal and etc (Campo, 2009, p. 94).
The Neighing Boy is a djinn influencing human for evil. Djinn in Islam mythology is
defined as "in Arab and Muslim traditional stories, a magical spirit who may appear in the form
of a human or an animal and can take control of a person" (Cambridge Dictionary). As can be
seen, besmele is linked with the djinns in Islam. People protect themselves from the bad events
A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective On The Translation Of Culture-Specific Religious Items:
An Analysis Of The English Translation Of Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm And İskender Pala’s Katre-İ Matem 49
caused by the devil and djinns by reciting besmele. The Turkish readers may reach the message
by the author directly as they have knowledge and back ground information about the link between
the djinns and besmele in Islam.
Nevertheless, from the relevance theoretic perspective, since the target readers do not have
such back ground information as illustrated above in their current cognitive environment, this may
make them have difficuly in getting adequate contextual effects when compared to the Turkish
readers. The target readers feel the foreignness of the culture-specific item. Hence, it may be hard
for the target readers to figure out that the djinns live in dirty places such as toilets and bathrooms,
and the places where there is no verse of Koran and people do not say prayers. Then, it can be
stated that they need to put their own effort to comprehend and interpret it with the source readers'
context since the communicative clue, “besmele” is preserved bare fact. This may arise from the
desire of the tranlators to focus on the exact message by the author. However, by this way, the
context required for target readers to draw the assumptions and message has not been provided by
the translators. This results in target readers‟ inability to use their current context to recover the
message, which prevents the target readers from reaching the link. Then, it is clear that direct
translation approach has been put into use by the translators.
Example 2-Context: Neighing Boy is a djinn which only appears to women. One day, he
sees Aygül and strips off his trousers and stops facing her.
Source Text
Target Text
Aygül'ün bağıra çağıra dar sokaktan
gerisin geri pınara doğru kaçması, pınarın
başına çıkıp Kişner'in önüne durduğunu kül
gibi bir benizle gelip geçene anlatmasıyla ,
köyün içinde bir korkudur aldı yürüdü.
Gelinler, kızlar, pınara, tarlaya, bağa gidemez
oldular. Köyün erkeği erkek odalarından çıkıp,
duvar başlarında topluca "Allahüle"
okumaya başladılar. (p. 60)
Screaming, Aygül rushed back to the
stream, and with an ashen face, told every
passer-by that Neighing Boy had affronted
her. Panic reigned in the village. Women and
girls had no longer go to the stream, the fields
or the vineyards. Men emerged from tehir
lounges to stand by the walls for collective
prayer and to recite the Allahüla. (p. 69)
Gutt's Approach
Direct Translation
In this example, the utterance “recite the Allahüla” is a religious culture-specific item
which is the beginning of a prayer in Islam, and the name of the prayer is "Ayetel Kürsi" in
Turkish. Here, the Neighing Boy is a djinn, and it doesn't stop men but only women. The villagers
make a collective prayer and recite the "Allahüla" so as to detract it from themselves because it is
recited for the protection from the evils, djinns and magicians and find peace in hearts in Islam.
However, this culture-specific item is presumed not to be known at the least and even not to be
heard by the target-text readers. Hence, it doesn't allow the target audience to enjoy the message
by the author because the culture-specific item has been foreignized in translation. The translation
of it can be dealt under the umbrella of direct translation approach since the target readers need
the original context to make any assumptions or inferences. In short, it can be stated that this
utterance is not appropriate for the cognitive environment of the target readers, makes the
accession to the message difficult, and the translators have not created the the necessary context
for the target readers.
Example 3-Context: Seyit receives an electric shock when working. After this shock, he
can not feel his teeth in his mouth. Atiye collects his teeth and shows them to Halit.
Emine Karabulut-Hilal Erkazancı Durmuş
50
“Namaza durmak” refers to performing prayers. This is an Islamic religious act carried
out five times in a day. The origin of the word is "rahmet" (mercify) in Turkish (Diyanet İslam
Ansiklopedisi).
Halit uses this utterance owing to the depression he has. He wants God to show affection to
him before performing his prayer. Hence, Turkish readers are very familiar with this religious term
as it is always repeated in their rituals. However, the target readers may have difficulty in
comprehending the Arabic word because they have no idea of its meaning in their cognitive
environment, and the background information of the culture-specific item is unfamiliar to the
context of the target readers, which shows it is not mutually manifest to both sides of the readers.
Here in the example, target readers are expected to read the text in their own language but in the
source context. However, reading the text in the source context makes the accession to the message
of the culture-specific item impossible due to the unshared cognition of both sides of the readers.
Thus, they may have difficulty in understanding the message with this direct translation
approach.
Example 4-Context: After a travel, Huvat returns Alacüvek with a blue bus. The villagers
get suprised and scared because they see such a thing for the first time.
Source Text
Target Text
Bu şaşkınlık anında dua okuyup sağa
sola üfürenlerin, korkudan donunda
kaçıranların yanı sıra, otobüsün sağını solunu
elleme cesareti gösterenler de çıktı.(p. 7)
But in that moment of pure amazement,
while some blew prayers to the right and left
or panicked and almost wet their pnats, a few
risked touching the bus gingerly. (p. 19)
Gutt's Approach
Direct Translation
In the example above, the culture-specific item, “dua okuyup saga sola üflemek” refers to
an Islamic concept. This is a sunna of the Prophet Mohammed. Accordingly, when Mohammed
recites some prayers in Islam, he blows them to his right and left, front and back. He also
sometimes he blows them to his hands and then takes her hands to his face. These prayers are
special because they are recited when people get horrified, want to protect themselves from evils
and bad events or are caught by a disease.
After reciting the prayers, he blows the prayer to all his body in order to be protected by
God. The Turkish readers may easily grasp the message by the author and recover the adequate
Source Text
Target Text
Halit annesinin dökülen dişlerini getirip
önüne koyduğu geceden sonra bir sıkıntıya
düştü. Çalışsa olmadı, çalışmasa olmadı. Kimi
gün, "Bir ağrı saplandı ki başıma!" diye
erkenden yatağa girip yorganların altına
saklandı, kimi gün Zekiye'yle bir kavgaya
tutuştu. Arkasından bir ağıt tutturdu. Derken,
bir akşam o da, "Varahmatullah" deyip
babası gibi namaza durdu. (p. 158)
Halit began to feel deeply troubled after
Atiye placed Seyit's broken teeth before him.
He was caught on the horns of a dilemma: to
work or not to work. 'I have got such a splitting
headache', he complained on some days, and
went to bed early, hiding himself unders the
quilts. At other times, he picked a fight with
Zekiye, then lost himself in weeping. Then,
one evening he stood in prayer like his
father, intoning 'Varahmatullah'. (p. 160)
Gutt's Approach
Direct Translation
A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective On The Translation Of Culture-Specific Religious Items:
An Analysis Of The English Translation Of Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm And İskender Pala’s Katre-İ Matem 51
contextual effects related to the culture-specific item. They are required to have a successful
communication; and thus, the translators are expected to lead the target readers to a correct
understanding of the utterance by supplying the context envisaged by the author. Accordingly,
when the culture-specific item is not adapted to the cognitive environment of the target readers, it
gets more difficult to comprehend for the target readers. The reason of this is that they do not share
the same knowledge about it. It is not mutually manifest to them. The only way for the target
readers not to miss the intended interpretation of the culture-specific item by the author is to look
from the heads of the source readers. With the use of linguistic translation strategy and direct
translation for such a culture loaded item, it seems that the translators have not adapted the
culture-specific item to the cognitive environment of the target readers and made it inapprioriate
and incomprehensible for the cognitive environment of the target readers.
Example 5-Context: While Atiye starts to work as a fortuneteller at home, Huvat is very
keen on green holy books. He gets very angry when he sees Atiye with coffee cups in her hand.
Even she blows prayers for her client's wish.
Source Text
Target Text
Gündüz gözüne rüyaya yatmaya
başladı. Rüyalardan kimi zaman yüzünde bir
gülümsemeyle, kimi zaman bir çığlıkla
uyandı. Derken, yeminle yakında ereceğini,
kırk yedilere karışacağını söylemeye
başladı. (p. 101)
Going to sleep during the day to obtain
dreams, she awoke sometimes with a smile and
at other with a scream. Then, she began to
claim that she would soon attain spiritual
perfection and go on to join the Holy Seven -
and- Forty. (p. 106)
Gutt's Approach
Direct Translation
In the example, Atiye starts to tell fortunes of people and goes to sleep to see dreams about
the wishes and future of them; that is to say, she finds some cures for the problems of the people
like a saint. Hence, she claims to "join the Holy Seven -and- Forty" which is very foreign and does
not conform to the target culture at all.
The author only uses the culture-specific item, “kırk yedilere karışmak” (join Seven and
Forty). However, Paker and Kenne add “holy” in translation and translate it as “join the Holy
Seven -and- Forty” using direct translation with a small addition.
The numbers used by the author refer to Alawism and need to be made explicit by the
translators because the target readers do not have the background information related to the
numbers. Number 40 refers to forty heavenly hosts, saints that were created by God and have been
on earth since then. Except this, in Alawism a person promotes to the perfect human being after
passing through forty steps (Ersan, 2016, Milliyet Blog).
As clearly known, the full understanding of a culture-specific item depends on the extend
the target reader is acquaintanced with the source culture (Pralas, 2012, p. 14). The Turkish readers
can comprehend the culture-specific item easily since they are acquainted in their context with
Alawism which is a common belief in Turkey; and know what this number actually refer to.
Nevertheless, this utterance is not relevant to target readers because the context necessary for the
target readers to recover the message of it has been not supplied to target readers. It is not mutually
manifest. With their own current cognitive environment, it is hard for them to understand it. Then,
communication may not be successful due to the irrelevant stimulus. Thus, it is difficult for target
readers to draw inferences and reach the message by the author completely with direct translation
approach.
Emine Karabulut-Hilal Erkazancı Durmuş
52
Example 6-Context: Huvat always wanders around with his green holy books and
evaluates everything within the perspective of religion. One day, Mahmut tattoed his arms and let
his har be long as a requirement of bingo business. He also sells cheaper cigarettes to the people
and earns a lot of money in time. He wants to share money with his father, but Huvat does not
want to take the money Mahmut earns.
Source Text
Target Text
Huvat ilkin Mahmut'un kazancına el
değdirmeyeceğine yemin billah etti. Ama
Atiye kocasının aklına girdi. Huvat'ı tombala
parasının haram olmadığına inandırdı. (p.
127)
Mahmut offered money to his father who
at first vowed not to touch it. Atiye managed to
worm her way into Huvat's thoughts, however
and convinced him that there was nothing illicit
about bingo. (p. 131)
Gutt's Approach
Direct Translation
“Illicit” means "not legal or not approved of by society" (Cambridge Dictionaries).
However, except this social context of the utterance, it also has a connotation in Islam. Here, it is
referred the illegal or not approved of by the Islamic rules. In this context, it is possible to accept
it as a culture-specific item specific to Islam.
The translators have given the exact correspondence of the culture-specific item. However,
it seems that it has lost its Islamic connotation. As can be seen, there is minumum change wihout
considering the connotative or contextual meaning (Khadem and Dastjerd, 2012, p. 180).
Huvat thinks that bingo business is "haram"; that is to say, sinful to do, and he accepts
Mahmut's money by making prayers and blowing the sin onto Atiye's back who supports his son's
business. While reading the source text, Turkish readers can recover the connotation related to
Islam here. However, the target readers can not find it out correctly as aimed to be interpreted by
the author since it is not mutually manifest to both the author and the target-text readers. This
demonstrates that the translators have also employed the direct translation approach.
6. EXAMPLES FROM THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF KATRE-İ MATEM
Example 1-Context: In the twinning ceremony for the new arrivals at the Gedikpaşa
Hamam stokehouse. The Foreman strips the two arrivals naked and dresses them in the Layhar
robe. Their clothes are taken to the flea market and sold. Afterwards, Stokehouse Baba recites a
prayer.
Source Text
Target Text
Külhancı Baba ocağa karşı dönüp
duayı okuduğunda Fatiha'dan gayrı sure
bilmeyen gençlerin hepsi birden
"Amin!..." dediler. (p. 4)
Stokehouse Baba then turned towards the
furnace and recited a prayer, to which the youths,
who only knew the Fatiha, the first verse of the
Koran, responded "Amen". (p. 16)
Gutt's Approach
Indirect translation
In the example above, the utterance "Fatiha" is translated as "the Fatiha, the first verse of
the Koran" by the translators using indirect translation approach. The Fatiha is a religious item
which is very specific to Turkish culture and used as the communicative clue in this example. It is
the most important surah in Koran because the belief of the uniqueness of God is mentioned in it.
In Islam, it is recited for the names of the dead people. In relevance theory, the context of the target
A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective On The Translation Of Culture-Specific Religious Items:
An Analysis Of The English Translation Of Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm And İskender Pala’s Katre-İ Matem 53
audience plays a crucial role in the process of interpretation and understanding. However, it is
probable that this culture-specific item is not mutually manifest to source and target readers.
When the translation is scrutinized, it is presumed that the translator has been sensitive
enough in terms of the context of the target readers. Accordingly, here in the example, the utterance
"Fatiha" is utilized by the translators in the target text, but "the first verse of the Koran" is added
by adapting the culture-specific item to the cognitive environment of the target readers. By this
way, it has been brought in compliance with the cognition of the target readers. In fact, They may
guess from the utterance "Amen" that it is a prayer, but to make it more explicit for their context,
the translator has supplemented the text with the information necessary for the context of the target
readers. If the translators had translated it directly as "Fatiha", it wouldn't have been relevant to
them, and the contextual effects that they are expected to recover from the the culture-specific
item wouldn’t have been adequate. All in all, due to the arrangement done for the context of the
target readers via direct translation approach, they may easily reach the message of the culture-
specific item
Example 2-Context: In the postscript in the novel, a man comes across Majnun and asks
about Leyla. Majnun gets fainted and says her name is sufficient as an answer. Then the man
recites a poem.
Source Text
Target Text
Mecnun ki "La ilahe illa!" der idi
Teklif- i visal eyleseler la der idi
Şol mertebe meftun idi Leyla!sına kim
Mevla diyecek mahalde Leyla der idi. (p. 172)
'There is one God' Majnun would say
Given a chance to see her, 'No' he'd say
Her passion for Leyla was such that
Instead of Mevla,'Leyla' he'd say (p. 185)
Gutt's Approach
Indirect translation
In the source text, there is a footnote below this poem: "Mecnun “La ilahe illa” (...dan
başka ilah yoktur) diyordu. Leyla ile kavuşma teklif ettiklerinde ise "la (hayır)!" diyordu. Leyla'ya
o derece tutkun idi ki, bazen şaşırıp "Mevla" diyeceği yerde "Leyla" deyiveriyordu" (Katre-i
Matem, p. 172).
The author does not use the complete form of the utterance "La ilahe illallah". The complete
form is included in the paranthesis of the footnote as "...dan başka ilah yoktur" in the source text.
However, the translator has preferred not to leave a footnote for the utterance "La ilahe illa!" in
the translation or not to retain it in the target-text. Instead, it seems that the translator has translated
it by using indirect translation approach by giving the exact meaning of the culture-specific
item in the target text. So as to adapt it to the context of the target readers, it is estimated that the
translator has translated the complete meaning of the utterance; that is to say, as indirect translation
approach suggests, she has only provided the relevant information to the target-text readers. By
this way, the context required to understand the message of the culture-specific item has been
recreated by the translator in the target-text. Otherwise, target readers would get insufficient
contextual effects while interpreting and understanding the message of the culture-specific item.
Example 3-Context: In the interrogation due to the death of Nakşıgül, the Prison Custodian
asks some questions to Falco. Falco states that he spent all his money in three years. Upon this
statement, the Prision Custodian asks another question below.
Source Text
Target Text
Emine Karabulut-Hilal Erkazancı Durmuş
54
Peki ya Nakşıgüle mihir diye
verdiğin inciler? (p. 29)
So what about the pearls you
gave to Nakşıgül as a wedding gift? (p.
41)
Gutt's Approach
Indirect translation
In this example, "mihir" refers to "bride price" or "bride wealth" in dictionary which refers
to "a sum of money or quantity of goods given to a bride’s family by that of the groom in some
tribal societies" (Oxford Dictionaries).
However, in Islam, "mahr" has a different meaning. In Islamic law, it is “the gift which the
bridegroom must make to the bride when the marriage contract is made and which becomes her
property” (Oxford Dictionaries). According to the law, it is given to the wife, not to the parents.
However, the translator’s choice, "wedding gift" also does not correspond to the exact
definition of "mahr" in Islam. Its Islamic aspect; that is to say, its Islamic meaning is neutralized
by this usage. From the relevance theoretic perspective, it is significant for the translator to
interpret the culture-specific items correctly by taking the context of the target readers into account
so that the target readers may have a smooth reading. The translator is presumed to have used this
strategy to make the target-text readers have a smooth reading by using indirect translation. In
that way, the translator seems to have adapted the culture-specific item to the cognitive
environment of the target readers.
Example 4-Context: Falco gives the pearls as a wedding gift to Nakşıgül. Falco finds these
pearls in a sack hidden by his mother on the ceiling.
Source Text
Target Text
İçinde otuz yuvarlak inci ile bir küçük
not vardı: "Şahinim! Babandan sana miras
bırakılmış helal malındır. Allah yüzünü ak
eylesin!" (p. 29)
Inside I found thirty pearls and a short
note which said, ' Falco, my son, this is your
rightful inheritance from your father. God
bless you!' (p. 41)
Gutt's Approach
Indirect translation
"Rightful" means "having a legitimate right to property, position, or status" (Oxford
Dictionaries). However, "Halal" is an Arabic term and has a religious connotation in Islam. In this
example, it is utilized in Islamic concept. In Islamic context, it means "religiously acceptable
according to Muslim law" (Oxford Dictionaries). Then, it is a culture-specific item for the target
readers. Muslims live their lives according to this concept. It is not only related to food but to all
aspects of life. Hereinabove, it refers to the inheritance by the father of Falco; that is to say, his
father had the pearls with great effort on his own.
Interpreting and understanding the Islamic context of this culture-specific item is too hard
for cognitive environment of the target readers. Thus, it seems rational that the translator has
neutralized this detail of the concept and preferred to use a more general utterance like rightful by
using indirect translation approach. By doing so, the translator has facilitated the responsibility
of the target readers and got rid of them from getting inadequate contextual effects considering the
Islamic context of the utterance. Thus, they may read the culture-specific item in their own context
easily.
A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective On The Translation Of Culture-Specific Religious Items:
An Analysis Of The English Translation Of Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm And İskender Pala’s Katre-İ Matem 55
Example 5-Context: Falco and Yeye are arrested due to an order given by the Grand Vizier
to clear the beggars of the city streets and are put aboard a newly-rigged galleon that sails to the
Marmara Sea without having no idea about their future.
Source Text
Target Text
Meğer, İbrahim Paşa her üç ayda,
dilenciler için böyle bir gemi çıkartır, birkaç
sopadan sonra bir daha dönmemek üzere
Mudanya veya Tekirdağı'nda sahile döktürür,
onlar da gelebildikleri en yakın yoldan tekrar
şehre gelirlermiş. Bilhassa kutsal üç aylarda
şehrin dilencilerinde büyük artış olur, kanun
adamları bu sahte dilencileri cezalandırmak
ister, ancak şeyhülislam efendi bu yolda fetva
vermediği için şehirden sürüp çıkarma yolu
tarcih edilirdi. (p. 123)
They didn't know that, every three
months, Grand Vizier İbrahim Pasha arranged
for all the beggars to be rounded up, put on a
ship and, after a few beatings and pledges not
to return, , dropped off at Mudanya or
Tekirdağı, after which the beggars would take
the quickest route they knew back into the
city. Their numbers always increased during
the three holy months leading up to the end
of Ramadan. (p. 136)
Gutt's Approach
Indirect translation
In Islam, there are three holy months called in Turkish "Recep, Şaban and Ramadan". These
three months are probably foreign to the cognitive environment of the target readers. The one they
are most acquainted with is Ramadan. Ramadan is the third holy month. In the months before
Ramadan, Muslim people get some preparations for the most blessed month, Ramadan; and in all
three months, they have holy nights at which they spend their all time praying and practising
religious acts. In Ramadan, they fast and have a fest after 30 days.
It can be stated that Ramadan fest has been presumed by the translator to be more relevant
to the cognitive environment of the target readers. In the source text, readers have only the
utterance "the three holy months". It is very clear to them and they do not have any difficulty in
comprehending and interpreting it because they share the same cognitive environment with the
author. As guessing that wouldn't be same for the target readers, it is presumed that the translator
has needed to give extra information to make the utterance optimally relevant to them and more
familiar to the context of the target readers so that they may understand the culture-specific item.
Besides, target readers may interpret the communicative clue “the three holy months leading up
to the end of Ramadan” by using their own context, which demonstrates the existence of indirect
translation approach. By this approach, the translator has transmitted necessary relevant
assumptions to the target readers.
7. DISCUSSION
In this study, a total of 257 examples extracted from the English translations of Sevgili Arsız
Ölüm and Katre-i Matem which are peculiar to Islam have been analyzed. However, the most
prominent examples from the two translations have been included in the study to show how these
religious culture-specific items are translated in the light of direct and indirect translation
approaches put forward by Gutt.
Table 1. The Result Of The Analysis Of The Translation Of Culture-Specific Items In
Sevgili Arsız Ölüm And Katre-i Matem
Total Number of Examples
Sevgili Arsız Ölüm
Katre-i Matem
Emine Karabulut-Hilal Erkazancı Durmuş
56
Direct Translation
141
27
Indirect Translation
19
70
The Total of All Examples
160
97
As can be seen in Table 1, out of 160 culture-specific items in Sevgili Arsız Ölüm, 141
culture-specific items have been translated through the direct translation approach. 19 culture-
specific items have been translated through the indirect translation. When it comes to Katre-i
Matem, out of 97 examples, 70 of them have been translated through the indirect translation and
27 of them have been translated through the direct translation. The Table 1 explicitly shows that
in Sevgili Arsız Ölüm the examples translated through the direct translation have outnumbered the
examples translated through the indirect translation and in Katre-i Matem the examples translated
through the indirect translation have outnumbered the examples translated through the direct
translation.
It is also possible to show these results with percentage to visualize it more clearly.
Figure 1. The Analysis of Direct and Indirect Translation Approaches in Sevgili Arsız
Ölüm and Katre-i Matem
The Figure 1 demonstrates that it has been observed that Paker and Kenne in Sevgili Arsız
Ölüm have generally pursued the direct translation approach; and in Katre-i Matem, Whitehouse
has pursued the indirect translation approach.
8. CONCLUSION
The main focus of the study is to investigate how the context of a target text may differ from
the context of its source text in direct translation and to reveal how the context of a target text may
differ from the context of its source text in indirect translation. With this focus in mind, the study
has been discussed through these examples.
It has been revealed that in the translation of Sevgili Arsız Ölüm, the translators have not
adapted the target-text context to the cognitive environment of the target-text reader by using the
direct translation. That is to say, the culture-specific items are not mutually manifest to both the
author and the target-text readers. They do not share the same assumptions about the culture-
specific items, which makes them challenging to understand for the target-text reader. However,
the translator in Katre-i Matem seems to have paid too much attention to (1) the mutual
A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective On The Translation Of Culture-Specific Religious Items:
An Analysis Of The English Translation Of Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm And İskender Pala’s Katre-İ Matem 57
manifestness of the culture-specific item to both author and the target-text readers, (2) the
familiarity of the culture-specific items to the cognitive environment of the target readers; and (3)
the context required for the target readers to create adequate contextual effects, which are very
crucial for the comprehension of the message.
Upon the detailed explanations of the examples selected from the translations of the two
books, it is possible to give an answer to the first question asked at the beginning of this study: (i)
how the context of a target text may differ from the context of its source text in direct translation.
It is necessary to state that the context of the translation of Sevgili Arsız Ölüm differs substantially
from the context of its English translation. Paker and Kenne’s translation through direct translation
is not easily comprehensible for the target readers for the reasons listed below:
(i) they have translated the context of the source text without considering the cognitive
environment of the target readers
(ii) their translation is not mutually manifest to both source text author and target text
readers
(iii) they have not adapted the culture-specific items so as to fit into the context of the target
readers
(iv) they have not provided the necessary context to the target readers to recover adequate
contextual effects, which requires them to make acquianted with the source text context.
When it comes to the question (ii) how the context of a target text may differ from the
context of its source text in indirect translation, it has been observed that the context of the
translation of Katre-i Matem is not different from the context of its source text in indirect
translation at all. The context of target text which, is full of culture-specific items to Islam, seems
more or less familiar to the target text readers. Whitehouse’s translation through indirect
translation is more understandable for the target readers for the reasons listed below:
(i) She has taken the context of the source text by taking the cognitive environment of the
target readers into account by transferring only the relevant information to the target readers
(ii) She has domesticated the context of the source text by making some arrangements in
translation
(iii) she has created the context envisaged by the author in translation by making the target
readers use their own context instead of the original context
As a result of this deep analysis, it can be stated that in the translation of Katre-i Matem, the
context of the translation does not differ much from the context of the context of its source text
because it has been domesticated by the translator which is closer, more accessible and
understandable to the target readers due to the importance attached by the translator to the context
whereas the translation of Sevgili Arsız Ölüm differs considerably from its source-text because it
seems more foreignized to the target readers owing to the fact that the translators have not adapted
the culture-specific items to the context of the target-text readers.
Emine Karabulut-Hilal Erkazancı Durmuş
58
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