Symposia & Conferences
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10219
Browse
10 results
Search Results
Item A Study on Divergent English Translations for ‘Bhavaṅga’.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Wijayawimala Thero, Suriyawewa; Sugunaseela Thero, YakkaduweThe term bhavaṅga of the Theravāda Buddhist Philosophy is predominant due to many reasons. When studying the discourses of the Buddha, this term cannot be found anywhere in the basket of discourses (suttapitaka). Therefore, it is to be believed that this term is a production of later disciples of the Buddhist Philosophy. It is, to be believed that this term appeared, for the first time, in the Abhidhamma treaties which were composed soon after the Buddha‟s parinibbāna (passing away). Although, its history began with the oldest Abhidhamma compilations, the uppermost development of it is distinguished in the latter period of Theravāda Buddhist philosophy. In other words, it is implied that this term appears to be the basis of the entire Theravāda Buddhist Philosophy. As a result, various kinds of interpretations exist among the scholars who write on the Theravāda Buddhist philosophy, to elucidate the nature and real meaning of the Buddhist Philosophical term bhavaṅga. Hence, it has been difficult to select an exact and more appropriate translation to convey the accurate sense of the term. Therefore, this research focuses in distinguishing the most convenient translation of the term by scrutinizing almost all translations that have been given for the term so far.Item A Comparative Study of the Products of Machine Translations and Human Translations in the Field of Literary Translation.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Udeshika, O.P.D.Translations can be mainly categorized as technical and non-technical translations. Literary translations which belongs to the category of non-technical translations are considered to be challenging than technical translations. With the modern technology, the manual translation has been replaced by machine translation and it is popular due to its easiness, inexpensiveness and it is time saving. The aim of this study is to identify the issues regarding Machine Translation in comparison to manual translation related to literary translations. Data was collected by comparing “Malagiya Aththo” written by Ediriweera Sarachchandra and its Japanese translation “Nakibito|” by Tadashi Noguchi with the translation gained through Google Translate. Selected sentences which include cultural terms have been translated through Google translate and they were compared with the original text. In this comparison, it is clear that the manual translation has performed better than the Machine translation. It is because, in the manual translation, the translator has used precise words in Japanese (L2) for the cultural terms appeared in the original text, without harming its original meaning. Therefore, the reader may not get the feeling that he is reading a translation. In contrast, the machine translator always provides with inaccurate terms, which in fact changed the meaning of those sentences. While human translator has captured a greater referential cohesion of literature, Google translations has performed less in capturing literary cohesion. Translation of literature is a far more creative art than other types of translations. Software can translate many words quickly, but still it cannot express the meaning of a sentence exactly as a human translator can. In Literary translations, Human Translation is more effective than Machine Translation. Therefore, Human translation remains the most reliable, most accurate form of translation.Item Transliteration as a Dimension of Translation.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Srikandavel, G.Translation is an emerging field. Many challenges are encountered during the process of translation. When a translator finds it difficult to do a translation, she/he can seek for alternatives in order to meet the satisfaction of the target readership. These alternate ways are known as different dimensions of translation. Adaptation, transcreation and transliteration are identified as the major dimensions of translation. This paper analyzes the employment of transliteration in scientific and aesthetic fields. Some words and phrases are difficult to translate at times. Sometimes translators encounter certain challenges in finding the proper equivalents or parallels. In such circumstances, the phonemic sound or the pronunciation of the particular word or phrase is carefully observed and that phonemic sound is transcribed into the script form in the target language, which is known as transliteration. Occasionally, in order to increase clarity or to maintain uniformity transliteration is applied during the process of translation. This study aims at verifying specific instances where transliteration ought to be employed and identifying the techniques and strategies utilized in transliteration in scientific and aesthetic fields in order to meet the satisfaction of the target readership. In this study, descriptive methodology and critical analysis are used to identify the instances of transliteration. Thus, the research study attempts at extending the discourse on transliteration which is an essential dimension of translation which is necessary to overcome the barriers especially in word-level and to meet the satisfaction of the target readership especially in Scientific and Aesthetic fields. An awareness of this may enrich the performance of translation.Item Reliability of Google translate in English to Sinhalese Translation.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Gunasinghe, M.P.D.Translations, throughout the past, have been done by the human translators; but today, along with the technology, keeping a step ahead, the human translators are being replaced by machine translators. Systran‟s translation programme, and the Papago app from Naver, Google translate are some of the machine translators which the world community use frequently. Among the machine translators, Google translate has become popular throughout the world due to the convenience in its accessibility and its capability to provide translations in almost all the languages, which exist on Earth. It is unarguable that the machine translators are much faster than the human translators. However, the problem arises, as to how far a machine translator translates accurately, without harming the meaning of the original text. Most of the time, the Google Translate could translate simple sentences, but when it comes to subtle expressions, idioms the Human Translators perform better. Thus, this research in particular, attempts to find out how far one can depend on the translations provided by the Google Translate when translating from English to Sinhalese. Necessary data has been collected through translating simple sentences, idioms, proverbs, sentences that contain subtle expressions of emotions and few complex sentences that cover both technical translations and literal translations from English to Sinhalese, using the Google Translate. Meanwhile, the same sentences, phrases and the words too have been translated again manually and the both translations were compared. In addition, a questionnaire was given in order to find out the how far the Google Translate users get a proper translation through it. Unlike the human translators, the Google translate mostly provides the direct translations instead of an accurate translation, which sometimes does not provide any sense. By analysing the data collected, it is evident that 75% of the translations obtained via the Google Translate could not give the exact idea embedded in the original text. In addition, majority has found it difficult to get a proper translation via Google Translate when translating from English to Sinhalese. Thus, though a machine translator always perform its task quicker than the Human Translator, there should be a human touch for almost every translation in order to obtain an accurate translation.Item Dearth of Translators Impedes the Implementation of Official Languages Policy.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Subramaniam, A.The dearth of qualified translators and interpreters is a major hurdle to the implementation of the official languages policy, with a pressing need for them in courts, provincial councils and local authorities. The cadre strength of the translator service was around 600 in the past but there are only 131 in the service at present. This study is concerned about the dearth of translators, which impedes the implementation of official languages policies. The data consist of language audit reports on government institutions. According to the language audits conducted by the official languages commission, many government departments and institutions do not have the facilities to either reply to letters received in the second official language (Tamil) or to provide a reliable translations. In several government institutions, translation is a serious problem, especially in places including courts, divisional secretariats, police stations and hospitals. The purpose of this study is to identify the reasons for this dearth of translators. The non-availability of qualified translators should be addressed at school level with the education system being geared to produce persons who are bilingual or trilingual (Sinhala, Tamil and English) while the universities should also organize their language departments to produce graduates who are competent in at least two languages. This research concluded that general education should include training in the second national language; the national language which is not the mother tongue of an individual, meaning either Sinhala or Tamil and that the second language be made a compulsory subject in schools. It is also recommended that facilities be provided to students who wish to study the second national language as a subject at the GCE Ordinary and Advanced level examinations. In the university system, it is vital to design the language courses, which include both national languages. The Official Languages Commission also recommends that a translation centre be set up, modelled on the translation bureau of Canada to provide the service of translation of documents and of interpretation and related matters.Item A Comparative Study between English Version of Facebook and its Sinhalese Translated Version: Suggestions for Improvement.(International Conference on the Humanities (ICH), 2017 Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Keerthiwansha, N. W. B. S.Facebook has become one of the most prominent social media applications in the world. At present, it has opened up the translation application to every user in order to translate Facebook into every major language on earth and the users can contribute to the translation of their particular native language. This is an attempt to be more user-friendly by offering Facebook in the users respective native languages. Consequently, Facebook has been translated into Sinhalese, which is helpful to the users who are not competent in English.Thus, this study intends to compare the English version of Facebook with the Sinhalese translation to measure the quality of translation and to suggest further improvements. The first forty common phrases appear in Facebook were chosen and compared with their Sinhalese translation with specific focus on word-for-word translations and transliteration. Later they were categorized under unidiomatic translations and meaningful translations. In addition, 40 users were chosen from University of Kelaniya to record their language preference when using Facebook. The analysis indicated that 95% of Facebook terms are word-for-word translations, for instance “home” is translated as ksjyk which is the direct equivalent for ‘Home’ in Sinhalese. 5% are transliterations, for instance “Cookies” is translated into Sinhalese as l=lSia. Among the selected samples, 50% are unidiomatic translations, for example “pages feed” has been translated as msgqfmdaIlh and 50% are meaningful translations, for instance “details about you” has been translated into Sinhalese as Tn .ekúia;r. In addition, it was identified that gender difference is not shown in the Sinhalese translated sentences. Meanwhile, user preferences indicated that 77% does not require Sinhalese translated version, 18% had attempted to use it but stopped because the Sinhalese version was unfamiliar, and only 5% are using the Sinhalese translated version. In conclusion, having Facebook in Sinhalese is an opportunity to establish Sri Lankan identity in social media; however, it is vital to increase the usage of the Sinhalese version. Thus, it is essential to revise the Sinhalese version of Facebook to develop a more natural and familiar translated version that will automatically increase the number of users having Facebook in Sinhalese.Item Error Analysis on Japanese - Sinhala Translations(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Rathnayake, D.Language translation is one of the most in-demand job opportunities for foreign language learning students in Sri Lanka. Japanese language among the other foreign languages has been taught from the school level to the undergraduate level for many years. Recently, a fast increase is seen in the number of Japanese tourists and investment companies due to various reasons in the country. In this context, Japanese-Sinhala, Sinhala-Japanese translation is considered one of the in-demand job opportunities which can easily be fulfilled by those Japanese learning students. Nevertheless, at present students of Japanese are not competent enough to engage in successful Japanese-Sinhala translations and there are many errors in their translations. Those errors can be seen mostly as a result of transfer from L1, intra-lingual, or over-generalization of L2 system or intra- lingual error. There are approaches of assessing learners translation ability (using, integrative testing and communicative testing) (Buck, 2001) both for the linguistic forms and comprehension. Many learners can easily find the meaning of the words and phrases from the dictionaries and recognize the linguistic form, but they cannot have a correct comprehension of the text. Therefore It is vitally important to give careful attention to this area, and need to build up skills of students in Japanese-Sinhala translation. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze what errors students make in their translations when they translate passages from Japanese into Sinhala by reviewing their translated sentences. The writing will be evaluated basically and the sentences with errors will be recorded to identify the types and frequency of errors. The main focus will be on the errors of ; use of words and expressions, use of suitable word order, use of suitable grammar, use of preposition, articles, use of tense and voice.Item A Study on the Relationship between Literary Translation and Socio-linguistics: With Special Reference to ‘giraya’ and its Translation /girəjə/(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Bamunusinghe, K.Linguistics is the scientific study of language which includes several other branches which are important for individuals who are interested in language studies. Among these branches applied linguistics is of a great importance since it applies the theories and teachings of linguistics to the practical world. Translation is one of the most important parts of applied linguistics and it is always interrelated with the practical world. On the other hand socio- linguistics is another important branch of linguistics which studies the functioning of a language in a society. Literary translation is simply defined as the translation of literary pieces of work such as fiction and non-fiction which are associated with literature and it is quite a proven fact that the literary translator has not only to tackle the language but also the cultures of both SL and TL. In that sense it is apparent that the literary translator deals not only with the language but also with the society and culture of both the SL and TL. Similarly, socio- linguistics studies the functioning of a language in a society. When paying close attention to literary translation and socio- linguistics it is noticeable that both these phenomena are related with the society and culture. This study will utilize the novel Giraya written by Punyakante Wijenaike and its translation by Cyril C.Perera in extracting the necessary instances and examples in assessing the socio-linguistic phenomena and the other related phenomena which indicate a close relationship with the society. On the other hand the book, A Textbook of Translation by Peter Newmark will be used in identifying the non-sociolinguistic phenomena that correlates with the society. In that sense this will be a theoretical study which is mostly based on the literature of the related fields namely translation and socio-linguistics.Item Imitation as a Method of Translation: A Study Based on Selected Sinhalese Poems Inspired by Wordsworthian Poetry(University of Kelaniya, 2015) de Silva, W.T.C.J.; Galapatha, G.R.Y.Translation is defined as the process of converting words or text from one language into another. In the preface to his translation of ‘Ovid’s Epistles’ (1680), John Dryden, the first major English theorist in translation, points out three ways of translation, namely metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation. According to this tripartite classification, in both metaphrase and paraphrase, a translator is not permitted to make any changes. The freedom of making changes is available only in imitation. It is where the translators get the opportunity to make use of their creativity. One of the paramount features of the poetry of the Second Generation in Colombo Era of Sinhalese Poetry is that being influenced from Romantic poets like Wordsworth, Shelly, Keats..etc. H.M.Kudaligama and Meemana Premathilake were among the poets who were influenced by the work of such Romantic poets. This study is based on selected Sinhalese poems of this era which have been influenced by Wordsworthian poetry. The findings of this study point out that even though they are not pure replicas of their originals, those poems can rather be called ‘imitations’, a type of translation. Therefore, it is justifiable to state that work of literature, specially poems, which have the influence of other pieces of work can be called translations in which only some general hints have been taken from the original. As Dryden pointed out, it is also of high probability that the translator will not be called a translator anymore due to the amount of changes he does to the ground work.Item Causes for the Sinhala Spelling Errors and Mistakes: A Study Based on the Students Reading Translation Methods at University of Kelaniya(University of Kelaniya, 2015) de Silva, W.T.C.J.Spelling means the order of letters followed in writing a word. Every language has its own spelling patterns and it is of paramount importance to follow them in order to use the language accurately. This paper is an attempt to identify the main causes behind the Sinhala spelling errors and mistakes and the study is based on the students reading translation methods at University of Kelaniya. The Translation Methods subject read by the students of University of Kelaniya consists of three languages, namely Sinhala, English and Tamil. Therefore, the students necessarily deal with all these three languages and translating from English to Sinhala is one of their main tasks. The Sinhala translations written by the students have been utilized in this study as the material to gather data. The incorrect spellings in their writings were identified and pointed out in feedback and discussion sessions and they were questioned regarding the reasons behind using them. Based on their answers, causes for the spelling errors and mistakes have been identified. Accordingly, it has been discovered that the impact of the incorrect spellings and mutant words appearing in common usage, public media, dictionaries and the confusion resulted by the different spelling patterns practiced in different traditions and their complexity are among the main causes.