Cultural differences and translation: A comparative study on the English and French translations of Turkish idioms

Abstract

Translation is used as a means of communication in medicine, technology, literature, philosophy and many other fields, and every translated text is a reflection of a culture. Linguistic mastery is not enough when translating; knowledge of both the source language and the culture of the target language is necessary. Idioms play an important role in translation because they somehow reflect the culture of a different society. The aim of this study is to draw attention to the importance of intercultural differences in the translation of idioms and to make suggestions about the translation of idioms. In the study, the concepts of interculturality and intercultural communication are explained and the similarities and differences encountered in the expression of idioms in different languages are analyzed in terms of cultural differences by revealing the similarities and differences in terms of vocabulary and meaning with examples given from English and French translations of idioms, which have an important place in intercultural communication. Within the scope of the study, English and French translations of idioms related to language, body, food and animals in Turkish were analyzed by content analysis method and the differences and similarities between the languages were tried to be determined. The study was designed with qualitative method. In this context, a word/sentence and meaning/subject-based search was conducted and English and French translations of idioms about concepts and actions related to language, body, food and animals in Turkish were compiled. The compiled idioms were subjected to content analysis.