Predicting transferability from semantic space: a linguistic study of polysemous words in the English translation of Urdu fiction

Abstract

Translation helps spreading knowledge. The idea is that in translation, the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent transferred in target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature. Translation is the transmittal of written text from one language into another. Although the terms translation and interpretation are often used interchangeably, by strict definition, translation refers to the written language, and interpretation to the spoken word. Translation is the action of interpretation of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text, that communicates the same message in another language. Translation Studies examines the art and craft of translation, i.e., what is translated, how it is translated, how it is received in the receptor language, and especially what is said so often to be lost in translation Translation Studies approaches literature from a new and dynamic perspective that changes the way we view literature, cultures, and each other. Translation destroys language walls and illuminates the gestures, assertions, and utterances of other nations. Translation heightens our sensitivity to the sensibilities of foreign cultures and customs. Translators always risk inappropriate spill-over of source-language idioms, homonymous words, polysemous words and usage into the target-language translation. On the other hand, spill-overs have imported useful source-language calques and loanwords that have enriched the target languages. Indeed, translators have helped substantially to shape the languages into which they have translated. The present work is an attempt to investigate the nature of polysemous words in the Urdu Fiction. It also aims at evaluating how these polysemous words of Urdu Fiction were treated when they were translated into the English Fiction.