A prototype based approach to the translation of Malay and English idioms

Charteris-Black, Jonathan

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to establish a principled basis for the translation of English and Malay idioms and to consider some of the ways that a corpus can be used to assist in this task. Initially a number of problems with corpus based research of a non-Indo European language are considered. It is proposed that in both languages there is a prototypical phraseological category of conceptually based phrases that yield culturally specific, institutionalised meanings with particular pragmatic values. To facilitate the translator’s task a model is proposed for the comparison and translation of idioms based on an analogy with human relationships. The model is based on the relationship between surface form and conceptual basis in each language. Each of the five categories in the model is illustrated with reference to English and Malay. There is then a consideration of different translation problems and their solutions for each category.

Citation

Charteris-Black, J. (2003). A prototype based approach to the translation of Malay and English idioms. In S. Granger,, J. Lerot, & S. Petch-Tyson (Eds.), Corpus Based Approaches to Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies, 123-240. Editions Rodopi B.V

• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2003
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 123-240
• Series Title: Approaches to Translation Studies
• Book Title: Corpus Based Approaches to Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies
• ISBN: 9789042010468
• Keywords: Malay, translation, English, idioms