INTRODUCTION 1
RESEARCH PROBLEM 3
A lack of dictionaries with properly translated lexical items in African languages such as Tshivenḓa is a matter of great concern for the users of the language as communication is of crucial importance in the current age of information technology. Nkomo says that a lack of well-prepared dictionaries “results in users consulting any available but inappropriate dictionaries''. In fact, it cannot be overemphasized that a good dictionary plays an important role in achieving good communication and good communication is in the interest of any country's well-being.
It has come to the attention of various researchers that many bilingual dictionaries in South Africa are of poor quality in terms of translation of lexical items (Mabasa, 2009; Rapotu, 2011). The translation in (1) above, although correct, is not sufficient as it has excluded many other uses. It has only given a literal translation, without taking into account the other communicative aspects in connection with the lemma.
For a person learning Tshivenḓa, the translation in (1) above is highly inadequate because the person would not have an idea of the other meanings expressed by the lemma mbeu. What this entails is that poor translation of lemmas in dictionaries leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding.
LITERATURE REVIEW 4
- Definition of terms 4
- Translation 4
- Lexicography 5
- Bilingual dictionary 5
- Translation strategies 5
- Word-for-word translation 6
- Literal translation 6
- Faithful translation 6
- Adaptive translation 6
- Idiomatic translation 7
- Communicative translation 7
A bilingual dictionary can be defined as a dictionary in which lexical items from the mother tongue are given translation equivalents in a foreign language. It preserves the word order in the source text and does not take into account the grammatical rules of the target language. According to Newmark (1995:46), literal translation is ''the method by which the source language's grammatical constructions are converted to their closest target language equivalents, but the lexical words are translated again simply, out of context''.
A faithful translation attempts to reproduce the exact contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the grammatical structures of the target language. It tries to be completely faithful to the intentions and textual realization of the source language (Newmark, 1995:46). Newmark (1995:47) states that the idiomatic translation method creates the message of the original while distorting the natural meaning by favoring colloquialisms and using idioms where both do not exist in the original.
As far as Yinhua and Newmark (1995:47) are concerned, communicative translation emphasizes delivering the message to speakers of the target language as originally intended. This can be achieved if the translation process focuses on the message, rather than on the words or structure of the source language.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 7
Mbata (2005:26) maintains that idiomatic translation encompasses aspects such as idioms, proverbs and imagery. To date, in Tshivenḓa language, there appear to be no studies that have focused on the role of translation in bilingual dictionaries. It is therefore of crucial importance that the researcher in this study examines the different translation strategies to find the one that is user-friendly in the compilation of bilingual dictionaries.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 8
- Aim of the study 8
- Objectives of the study 8
- Delimitation of the study 8
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 9
- Research design 9
- Data collection 9
- Primary sources 9
- Secondary sources 11
2 Language Practitioners from the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (Limpopo Province and Limpopo Province Legislature). Language practitioners are relevant to this research because they translate, interpret and develop terminologies on a regular basis. These are teachers' advisors on the Tshivenḓa curriculum and their work forces them to use dictionaries.
Teachers are people who deal with students on a daily basis, so they should be aware of the importance of a good dictionary in their daily lessons and are therefore relevant to this study. Court interpreters translate statements from the source language into the target language in spoken form. In order to thoroughly prepare for work, they have to research, including in dictionaries.
All the above respondents are relevant to this study because they deal with lexicographical matters in their daily work and some of them, such as teachers and lecturers, are considered experts in this field.
DATA ANALYSIS 11
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 11
In the examples above, the meaning of the SL sentence and the TL are completely different. It represents an item in the target language that can be used to translate a specific instance of the source language item. In the same vein, Venuti indicates that formal equivalence is closely aligned with the linguistic and cultural values of the target languages.
Bell (1993:6) corroborates the preceding assertion as he states that "The qualitative research method is descriptive in the sense that it is not concerned with statistical analysis." According to Welman, Kruger and Mitchell (2007:69), purposive sampling is "the most important type of non-probability sampling". However, it is important, as Nachmias and Nachmias suggest, that "the size of the sample is properly estimated by deciding the level of precision required and the size of the error that is acceptable".
Sengani defines reliability as ''the extent to which studies can be repeated and still produce the same results''. According to the Encyclopaedia Americana, a noun is "the name of a person, place, or thing, and it can be distinguished from other parts of speech by inflection: the formal modification of the ending of the word". According to Du Plessis and Maḓadzhe, the noun ṅwana belongs to these classes, despite the absence of the prefix mu-." They went on to say that "the prefix mu- seems to have disappeared due to some phonological changes".
Therefore, Du Plessis and Maḓadzhe argue that "the prefix ma- indicates someone who is inclined to do something extraordinary". Poulos (1990:24) states that "the prefix ḽi- is usually associated with class 5, and plurals are formed by simple substitution prefixes ḽi- with the plural prefix ma-. They add that "words occurring in this class are also known as infinitives". With this, Poulos (1990:58) argues that "forms occurring in this class , are called indefinite articles".
Mphepya (2006:24) defines translation equivalence as “the correspondence between a word or phrase in one language and its translation into another language.” The above examples (75) showed that synonym equivalence items can replace each other without affecting the meaning of the context. This is supported by Baker (2011:18) when she says that 'the source language can express a concept that is completely unknown in the target language'.
McMillan English Dictionary defines semantics as “the meaning of words and sentences, the study of words and their meanings.” Poulos says that “meaning is not limited to words alone, but exists below the word level and the level of prefixes, suffixes and roots.” Musehane states that “the intransitive verb admits two arguments, one being external and the other an internal argument.
This chapter focused on the treatment of verb stems in Tshivenḓa-English bilingual dictionaries.
