Translation of Culture-Specific Items from English into Lithuanian: the Case of Joanne Harris’s Novels

Abstract

The article, on the basis of two Joanne Harris’s novels and their translations into Lithuanian, aims to analyse translation strategies for culture-specific items. The paper describes the concept of culture, investigates peculiarities of culture-specific concepts and discusses possible ways for translating them. The theoretical research has revealed many ambiguities in the translation theory: 1) there is no single term to define culture-specific items and many different terms are used interchangeably; 2) there is no single classification system for culture-specific items; 3) terminology to define translation strategies for culture-specific items is not unified and their number and specifics vary from one source to another; 4) the choice of the translation strategy in a particular case is a controversial issue. Davis’s classification of translation strategies is used for the practical part of the research and all the instances are analysed under seven headings: preservation, addition, omission, globalization, localization, transformations and creation. The study results have demonstrated that the strategy of localization has been used most often. The major part of proper names is transcribed taking into account phonemic aspect and applying Lithuanian grammar rules. A few exceptions are made to the names of historical/religious personalities or names which have the adapted established Lithuanian form of the name. Addition as a footnote is very often used to explain the words of non-English origin. Translation strategies of creation and transformations were not found in the novels under analysis.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.21.2305