OVERCOMING THE MAJOR DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING FIXED PHRASES FROM TURKISH TO ENGLISH AND VICEVERSA
OVERCOMING THE MAJOR DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING FIXED PHRASES FROM TURKISH TO ENGLISH AND VICEVERSA

Summary/Abstract: Our paper dwells on the difficulties of translating fixed phrases, such as idioms, expressions and proverbs from Turkish to English and viceversa, focusing on their cultural understanding by the interpreters as well as linguistic major differences. The translation errors in/from these languages may be humorous or confusing due to their literal/non-literal uses or misinterpretations and distortions of meaning. Starting from the basic idea that words depend on the context, we propose some ways of overcoming those difficulties, based on our translating and teaching practice. First of all, cultural information carried by fixed phrases should prevail in this case, on the condition that the multiple equivalents possible provided by various translators will not create a further confusion due to false synonymy or incomprehensible polysemy. Another major point of our analysis is indeterminacy or untranslatability.

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