Linguo-cultural problems of translation

Material culture
"Food is for many the most sensitive and important expression of national culture; food terms are subject to the widest variety of translation procedures" (Newmark, 1988:97). The terms coming under this category are further complicated due to the "foreign" elements present. One such case is the reference to the brightly coloured pâtisseries tunisiennes (l.17). Translating according to the French idea of pâtisseries would imply using the English "cakes" or "pastries" yet in the context of Tunisian culture this hardly seems appropriate bearing in mind the difference in form of the TL reference. This illustrates the theory developed by Mounin (1963) who underlines the importance of the signification of a lexical item claiming that only if this notion is considered will the translated item fulfil its function correctly. In this case the translation as "sweets" seems to correspond to the idea of the original signification, even if it is a more abstract translation of the French original, and is therefore more appropriate concerning its function in the TT than a translation of formal equivalence.
Another example of material culture includes an eponym, namely bouteilles de Sidi Brahim (l.42). In France this low-quality, Algerian wine is widely known and is the traditional drink with North African dishes, therefore widely sold in supermarkets as well as this type of small shop. This example can be seen as corresponding to the new ideal reader as described by Coulthard, having different cultural knowledge (Coulthard, 1992:12) as an English-speaking reader would not necessarily know the name of this wine and even less its associations. By using strictly formal equivalence, all meaning would be lost. It would however be possible to neutralise the original term Sidi Brahim by translating as "wine" or else to introduce a form of componential analysis, translating as "cheap, Algerian wine." Sidi Brahim being the area where the wine is produced, it seems appropriate to keep the original term in the TT but it is necessary to add a qualifier, here "wine." In this way, although the cultural implications are not so strong as for an "initiated" French reader, the information is passed on and elucidated by a qualifier. The cultural implications automatically understood by the ST reader, namely the notion of cheap, low-quality wine, are not however conveyed, the emphasis in this context being on the exotic nature of the product as conveyed by Sidi Brahim and not on the low cost.
Newmark points out that gestures and habits are "often described in 'non-cultural' language" (Newmark, 1988:103). In this extract many gestures and habits are implied yet not specifically described thus making an entirely communicative translation difficult. Once again, these are cultural references which imply a certain knowledge of the way of life of the North African community in France and of the attitudes towards it.
North African men, often working in groups, are often caricatured by the French as being crafty. As well as this, the popular French expression "un travail d'Arabe" used to describe work that has been poorly done further explains popular attitudes. Due to linguistic and cultural factors, lower class Algerian and Moroccan men appear overtly servile in French society. All of these factors are inherently present in the text, yet their full cultural significance is difficult to portray without such background knowledge.
The possible lack of cultural knowledge of the TT reader implies translating in a way so as to clearly convey notions which may otherwise go unnoticed. The proposed translation of "obligeance" as "obsequiousness" may overemphasise the strength of the original ST term yet the mockingly overservile attitude aimed at being conveyed by the author is respected. When explaining certain principles of dynamic equivalence, Nida states that "the emotional tone must accurately reflect the point of view of the author" (Nida, 1964:139). Newmark's definition of compensation, being "when loss of meaning...in one part of a sentence is compensated in another part" (Newmark, 1988:90) may seem relevant here. By translating in this way, although culturally implicit translation loss is inevitable here, a form of dynamic equivalence through compensation is adopted in order to counterbalance such loss and seems an appropriate way of conveying cultural implications present in the ST.
The expression d'après le café also needs further explanation. In French society, this would immediately be understood as the time after the small expresso coffee drunk at the end of a meal. As Sapir claims, "no two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality" (Sapir, 1956:69), and even a lexical item seen as having an apparently simple translation (here, café =coffee) may have a considerably different signification. The emphasis given by Nida on a TT having to produce the same response as the original (Nida, 1964) encourages the addition of "mealtime" as does the aforementioned theory developed by Mounin. In this way, the lexical function is transferred as far as possible in the TT as are the ST cultural connotations.

Recommended literature

1. 
   Cohen, J. M. (1986), "Translation", Encyclopedia Americana, 27, pp. 12–15
   
2. 
   Hutchins, W. John; Somers, Harold L. (1992). An Introduction to Machine Translation. London:
   
3. 
   Academic Press. ISBN0-12-362830-X.
   
4. 
   Lewis-Kraus, Gideon, "Tower of Babble", New York Times Magazine, 7 June 2015, pp. 48–52.