Problems relating to the translation of young adult’s literature from English into IsiZulu
Date
2022-03
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Abstract
Are there any challenges relating to the translation of young adult’s literature from
English into isiZulu, and how may these be identified and solved?
This Research Report investigates problems relating to the translation of young adult’s
literature from English into isiZulu. The also present a ranked classification of problems in
translating young adult’s literature from English into isiZulu, as these are identified. The
researcher explored challenges relating to the translation of young adult’s literary works by
translating Sello Mahapeletsa’s When Lions Smile (Mahapeletsa, 2003).
This research will entail categories: supra, main, sub and sub-sub-categories. The supra section
will incorporate challenges involved in understanding the source text, production of the target
text, and the transfer process. The main section will comprise challenges regarding technique,
strategy, micro-language, and macro-language. The sub-section will contain challenges
regarding culture, background knowledge, style and register, spelling, vocabulary, rhetorical
and stylistic devices. The sub-sub-sections cover various categories, e.g., omissions, additions,
spelling slips, fixed expressions, and word order. An experimental ranking of challenges is
based on the following factors: error severity, error count, and observed pitfalls. The
combination of source text understanding in young adult’s literature, target text production,
problems of the transfer process, linguistic problems, and those of an extra-textual nature
furnishes this research, a status of comprehensiveness that makes it different from most
research that exists currently.
Description
A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2022
Keywords
Young adult's literature translation, Translation in languages, Challenges of translation