Cultureme

Last updated

A cultureme is any portion of cultural behavior apprehended in signs of symbolic value that can be broken down into smaller units or amalgamated into larger ones. [1] A cultureme is a "cultural information-bearing unit", [2] the contents of which are recognizable by a group of people. Culturemes are the bridge between linguistic units and culture.

Contents

Their usage can be seen in cultural expressions, phraseologisms, jokes, slogans, literature, religion, folklore, sociology, anthropology, etc. [3] All of which are subcultures in a culture system. Culturemes of this nature have historical relevance that when translated or explained result in a miscommunication and misunderstanding. [4]

The notion of cultureme is being increasingly used in translation studies and other disciplines. It is a recently used concept that is yet to be defined and distinguished from others, such as phraseme, idiom, symbol, cultural word, etc. [3]

Phases of a Cultureme

Fernando Poyatos breaks down the features of a cultureme into four phases. These phases analysis the broadest of culturemes to the most particular aspects of culturemes. [5]

Phase One: Basic Culturemes

Basic culturemes are the broadest of culturemes. They characterize the initial semblance of a culture. Basic culturemes are separated into two cultural "realms," urban and rural, and two domains: exterior and interior. Basic culturemes begin with urban and rural realms because of their dichotomy in cultural identity and displays of social interactions. Within either cultures, there are exteriors (what is observed from the outside) and interiors (what is observed from the inside of buildings or establishments that are not seen from an outdoors perspective). The main divisions of culturemes are: urban-exterior, urban-interior, rural-exterior, and rural-interior. [5]

The significance of basic culturemes is to give a general sense of surroundings. For instance,

"in North America (United States and Canada): the larger size of many automobiles, the summery sound and smell of lawn mowing, the smell of city bus exhausts, the basic separation of the 'downtown' business and residential areas in the small town or village, the sirens of their police cars, the smell of hamburger and French fries of many eating establishments, the unique drugstore smell, the 'Licensed' signs in many second-rate restaurants (indicating a cultural attitude towards drinking" [6]

Phase Two: Primary Culturemes

Primary culturemes exist in the phase when acculturation occurs, in which one's culture is becoming more complex. The basic four culturemes are subcategorized into environmental (cultural settings) and behavioral (behaviors of people and their interactions). These culturemes are a result of recognizing cultural patterns and "experiencing it through mere observation or systemic learning." [7]

Phase Three: Secondary Culturemes

Culturemes are further broken down into settings, in which a specific culture is exemplified. This includes cultures in the school, the park, the bar, etc. These are secondary culturemes. Phase three is the point where the cultures identified in phase two begin to interact; interrelationships are seen among different cultural systems and values. [5]

Phase Four: Tertiary Culturemes

Phase four delves deeper into human senses, analyzing to the fullest extent possible. The completion of phase four allows one to identify the cultureme's cultural system and subculture. Knowing the cultural system and subculture are important as it helps to navigate through other identifiable systems within the culture. [5]

Translation

Translating a cultureme can be challenging, as connotations are sometimes very strong. For instance: the Spanish word alcázar means "the castle", "palace" or "fortress", but, as it is of Arabic origin, it recalls eight centuries of history (Al Andalus), which cannot be easily translated into English, so the translator must adopt a crucial decision: either choose the English word "fortress" and lose all the historical and cultural connotations, or use the loan word alcazar. [8]

A language may have various cultures and various languages may share the same culture. Cultures may differ in conceptualization that may in turn affect how thoughts are conveyed in their languages. The asymmetry of language complicates the matter of providing a linguistically and culturally sound equivalent of a cultureme in another language. The complex relationship of language and culture is significant in giving culturemes their intended value. Dictionaries further complicate cross-cultural gaps of meaning because without the collaborative effort of all cultures, it is impossible to define the significance of words that may be culturemes in the dictionary. Though, slowly, interactive and multimedia dictionaries have become extensive in information that lessen the bridge across languages and cultures. [9]

Culturemes are translated in several ways:

Culture: Norms, Ideas, and Materials

In translating, the inability to convey cultural meaning strips a cultureme of its "cultureme" title and it simply becomes an ambiguous word. Culture is classified into three categories: Norms, Ideas, and Materials. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet slang</span> Slang languages used by different people on the Internet

Internet slang is a non-standard or unofficial form of language used by people on the Internet to communicate to one another. An example of Internet slang is "LOL" meaning "laugh out loud." Since Internet slang is constantly changing, it is difficult to provide a standardized definition. However, it can be understood to be any type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes or to compensate for small character limits. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting, instant messaging, and social networking websites. Acronyms, keyboard symbols, and abbreviations are common types of Internet slang. New dialects of slang, such as leet or Lolspeak, develop as ingroup Internet memes rather than time savers. Many people also use Internet slang in face-to-face, real life communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semantics</span> Study of meaning in language

Semantics is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and computer science.

In linguistics, a neologism is any relatively recent and isolated term, word, or phrase that nevertheless has achieved popular or institutional recognition, and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered a neologism once it is published in a dictionary.

Cross-cultural communication is a field of study investigating how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to communicate across cultures. Intercultural communication is a related field of study.

Symbolic communication is the exchange of messages that change a priori expectation of events. Examples of this are modern communication technology and the exchange of information amongst animals. By referring to objects and ideas not present at the time of communication, a world of possibility is opened. In humans, this process has been compounded to result in the current state of modernity. A symbol is anything one says or does to describe something, and that something can have an array of many meanings. Once the symbols are learned by a particular group, that symbol stays intact with the object. Symbolic communication includes gestures, body language and facial expressions, as well as vocal moans that can indicate what an individual wants without having to speak. Research argues that about 55% of all communication stems from nonverbal language. Symbolic communication ranges from sign language to braille to tactile communication skills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Body language</span> Type of nonverbal communication

Body language is a type of communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. The term body language is usually applied in regard to people but may also be applied to animals. The study of body language is also known as kinesics. Although body language is an important part of communication, most of it happens without conscious awareness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonverbal communication</span> Interpersonal communication through wordless (mostly visual) cues

Nonverbal communication (NVC) is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (haptics), voice (paralanguage), physical environments/appearance, and use of objects. When communicating, we utilize nonverbal channels as means to convey different messages or signals, whereas others can interpret these message. The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions. For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance questioned. Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

Paralanguage, also known as vocalics, is a component of meta-communication that may modify meaning, give nuanced meaning, or convey emotion, by using techniques such as prosody, pitch, volume, intonation, etc. It is sometimes defined as relating to nonphonemic properties only. Paralanguage may be expressed consciously or unconsciously.

Intercultural communication is a discipline that studies communication across different cultures and social groups, or how culture affects communication. It describes the wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally appear within an organization or social context made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. In this sense, it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act, communicate, and perceive the world around them. Intercultural communication focuses on the recognition and respect of those with cultural differences. The goal is mutual adaptation between two or more distinct cultures which leads to biculturalism/multiculturalism rather than complete assimilation. It promotes the development of cultural sensitivity and allows for empathic understanding across different cultures.

Kinesics is the interpretation of body communication such as facial expressions and gestures, nonverbal behavior related to movement of any part of the body or the body as a whole. The equivalent popular culture term is body language, a term Ray Birdwhistell, considered the founder of this area of study, neither used nor liked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ideophone</span> Words evoking ideas of specific sounds or other sensations

An ideophone is any word in a certain word class evoking ideas in sound imitation (onomatopoeia) to express an action, manner, or property. The class of ideophones is the least common syntactic category cross-linguistically; it occurs mostly in African, Australian, and Amerindian languages, and sporadically elsewhere. It is globally the only known word class exotic to English. Ideophones resemble interjections but are unclassifiable as such owing to their special phonetic or derivational characteristics, and based on their syntactic function within the sentence. They may include sounds that deviate from the language's phonological system, imitating—often in a repetitive manner—sounds of movement, animal noises, bodily sounds, noises made by tools or machines, and the like.

Language change is variation over time in a language's features. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics. Traditional theories of historical linguistics identify three main types of change: systematic change in the pronunciation of phonemes, or sound change; borrowing, in which features of a language or dialect are altered as a result of influence from another language or dialect; and analogical change, in which the shape or grammatical behavior of a word is altered to more closely resemble that of another word.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oculesics</span>

Oculesics, a subcategory of kinesics, is the study of eye movement, behavior, gaze, and eye-related nonverbal communication. The term's specific designation slightly varies apropos the field of study. Communication scholars use the term "oculesics" to refer to the investigation of culturally-fluctuating propensities and appreciations of visual attention, gaze and other implicitly effusive elements of the eyes. Comparatively, medical professionals may ascribe the same appellation to the measurement of a patient's ocular faculty, especially subsequent a cerebral or other injury.

Cultural translation is the practice of translation while respecting and showing cultural differences. This kind of translation solves some issues linked to culture, such as dialects, food or architecture.

Technical translation is a type of specialized translation involving the translation of documents produced by technical writers, or more specifically, texts which relate to technological subject areas or texts which deal with the practical application of scientific and technological information. While the presence of specialized terminology is a feature of technical texts, specialized terminology alone is not sufficient for classifying a text as "technical" since numerous disciplines and subjects which are not "technical" possess what can be regarded as specialized terminology. Technical translation covers the translation of many kinds of specialized texts and requires a high level of subject knowledge and mastery of the relevant terminology and writing conventions.

Life writing is an expansive genre that primarily deals with the purposeful recording of personal memories, experiences, opinions, and emotions for different ends. While what actually constitutes life writing has been up for debate throughout history, it has often been defined through the lens of the history of the autobiography genre as well as the concept of the self as it arises in writing. Framed by these two concepts, life writing as a genre has emerged to include many other subgenres including, but not limited to, the biography, memoir, diary, letter, testimony, and personal essay.

Body-to-body communication is a way of communicating with others through the use of nonverbal communication, without using speech or verbalization. It can include body language, facial expressions, and other bodily gestures in order to communicate with others without the need of verbal communication. Body-to-body communication accounts for postures, body language, physical touch, nonverbal language, and other bodily gestures.

iConji Pictographic writing system

iConji is a free pictographic communication system based on an open, visual vocabulary of characters with built-in translations for most major languages.

Culture consists of both material culture and non-material culture. Thoughts or ideas that make up a culture are called the non-material culture. In contrast to material culture, non-material culture does not include any physical objects or artifacts. Examples of non-material culture include any ideals, ideas, beliefs, values, norms that may help shape society.

Humour in translation can be caused by translation errors, because of irregularities and discrepancies between certain items that translators attempt to translate. This could be due to the ignorance of the translator, as well as the untranslatability of the text as a result of linguistic or cultural differences. In addition, translation errors can be caused by the language incompetence of the translator in the target language, resulting in unintended ambiguity in the message conveyed. Translation errors can distort the intended meaning of the author or speaker, to the point of absurdity and ludicrousness, giving a humorous and comedic effect.

References

  1. ↑ "Cultureme". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 Nicolae, Adina Oana (2015). Multicultural dialogue: translating culturemes. Vol. 3. pp. 215–222. ISBN   978-606-8624-21-1.{{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  3. 1 2 Luque Nadal, L. (2009): "Los culturemas: ¿unidades lingüísticas, ideológicas o culturales?" en Language Design 11, págs. 93-120 (in Spanish)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Park, Kyung-Eun; Shin, Keun-Hye; Kim, Ki-Sun (2015-12-01). "Research on limitations of indirect literary translation and aspects of cultural vocabulary translation". Neohelicon. 42 (2): 603–621. doi:10.1007/s11059-015-0298-5. ISSN   0324-4652. S2CID   142370870.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Rapoport, Amos (1976). The Mutual interaction of people and their built environment : a cross-cultural perspective. International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (9th : 1973 : Chicago). The Hague: Mouton. pp. 265–274. ISBN   9789027979094. OCLC   654436579.
  6. ↑ Fernando., Poyatos (2002). Nonverbal communication across disciplines. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins Pub. Co. p. 11. ISBN   978-1556197536. OCLC   48375754.
  7. ↑ Fernando., Poyatos (2002). Nonverbal communication across disciplines. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins Pub. Co. p. 12. ISBN   978-1556197536. OCLC   48375754.
  8. ↑ Translation of culturemes for tourism (in Spanish)
  9. ↑ Jaskot, Maciej Paweł; Ganoshenko, Iurii (2015-12-31). "Culturemes and Non-Equivalent Lexis in Dictionaries". Cognitive Studies (15): 115–124. doi: 10.11649/cs.2015.009 . ISSN   2392-2397.
  10. ↑ Park, Kyung-Eun; Shin, Keun-Hye; Kim, Ki-Sun (2015-12-01). "Research on limitations of indirect literary translation and aspects of cultural vocabulary translation". Neohelicon. 42 (2): 614. doi:10.1007/s11059-015-0298-5. ISSN   0324-4652. S2CID   142370870.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.