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10 - Politics and Translation

from Part Two - Key Topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2025

Julianne House
Affiliation:
Universität Hamburg/Hun-Ren Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics /Hellenic American University
Dániel Z. Kádár
Affiliation:
Dalian University of Foreign Languages/Hun-Ren Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics/University of Maribor
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Summary

In Chapter 10, we revisit the problem that certain politically relevant, culturally embedded notions are very difficult to translate. A key issue that such a difficulty of translating causes is the following. Often, when we talk about a politically relevant issue in two linguacultures by using English as an academic lingua franca, we may be comparing apples with pears. Such a comparison leads to the previously mentioned problem of ethnocentrism, and so it is important to consider how to resolve it by merging politics and translation studies. As a case study, we examine the problematics of translating the sociopolitically relevant Chinese expression wenming (‘civilised’) into English. Following the translation framework of House, we argue that untranslatability can be overcome by House’s notion of ‘cultural filtering’.

Type
Chapter
Information
Language and Politics
A Cross-Cultural Pragmatics Perspective
, pp. 175 - 197
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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  • Politics and Translation
  • Julianne House, Universität Hamburg/Hun-Ren Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics /Hellenic American University, Dániel Z. Kádár, Dalian University of Foreign Languages/Hun-Ren Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics/University of Maribor
  • Book: Language and Politics
  • Online publication: 20 February 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009092180.010
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  • Politics and Translation
  • Julianne House, Universität Hamburg/Hun-Ren Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics /Hellenic American University, Dániel Z. Kádár, Dalian University of Foreign Languages/Hun-Ren Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics/University of Maribor
  • Book: Language and Politics
  • Online publication: 20 February 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009092180.010
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Politics and Translation
  • Julianne House, Universität Hamburg/Hun-Ren Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics /Hellenic American University, Dániel Z. Kádár, Dalian University of Foreign Languages/Hun-Ren Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics/University of Maribor
  • Book: Language and Politics
  • Online publication: 20 February 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009092180.010
Available formats
×