Journal of Modern Languages

The Applicability of House’s (2015) Translation Quality Assessment Model on Fiction: Evidence from Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley

Randa Kullab, Ali Jalalian Daghigh, Kais Amir Kadhim — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) is a central concern for both translation practice and academic research. However, the very limited studies assessing the translation quality (TQ) of literary texts, especially fiction, have not accounted for the distinction between the narrative and the character’s dialogue in the assessment. The present study is an attempt to investigate the applicability of House’s (2015) TQA model in assessing the TQ of fiction and to propose modifications. In doing so, we scrutinized the translation quality of Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz, translated from Arabic into English, utilizing House’s (2015) TQA model to capture the applicability of the model. The findings reveal that House’s (2015) TQA model accommodates the TQA of fiction. The proposed modifications have implications for both translators and trainers.

Comprehending of the 2018-2020 New Chinese Vocabulary among International Students in China

Wu Liangyu, Low Hiang Loon, Goh Ying Soon — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

Learning new Chinese vocabulary beyond the HSK (Global Chinese Proficiency Examination) vocabulary syllabus will improve Chinese communication ability for international students in China. This study addresses the vocabulary learning problems including insufficient systematic understanding of vocabulary features, lack of in-depth learning methods and the lack of contextual application. This study investigates the respondents’ level of comprehending the 2018-2020 New Chinese Vocabulary, and explores their learning problems, as well as proposes suitable vocabulary learning strategies for them. The samples included 30 international students from Yangzhou University, Guangxi Normal University and Bohai University in China. The results from the online questionnaire indicate that the students' comprehension of these new vocabulary has improved in the context-provided assessment. In terms of problems, 90% of the respondents were unable to infer the meaning of new vocabulary based on existing knowledge. Besides, students with better understanding generally use context strategies and coding strategies more than other students. This study puts forward suggestions on the vocabulary learning strategies to help international students learn Chinese vocabulary better.

Transitivity Analysis on ‘The Clay Marble’ Novel by Minfong Ho

Jessica Leng Hui Zhen, Deepa Visvanathan, Lee Ling Khai — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

The need to study language use in literary texts arises due to linguistic complexity, writers’ linguistic choices and subjective understanding of the contextual meaning conveyed by writers. By using Halliday’s (1994) transitivity system, this study analysed ‘The Clay Marble’ novel which highlights the Cambodian Civil War and its implications through the representation of events and characters. By looking at the transitivity processes through the clausal structures and word choices, findings showed that all six processes were employed with material process (69 clauses) used most, followed by relational (42 clauses) and mental (31 clauses) process. Material and relational process is dominantly used to represent themes such as the effects of war, community life among refugees as well as the growth and character development of young refugees during the war. Therefore, transitivity analysis on literary texts helps to uncover writer’s language use and the contextual meaning conveyed through the writer’s linguistic choices.

Assessment in Jakartan Indonesian Food Reviews: A Case of Nih

Rika Mutiara — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

The present study sheds light on epistemic stance of discourse markers nih on the assessment conducted on YouTube food reviews spoken in colloquial Jakartan Indonesian. Nih indicates speakers’ claim of sharing knowledge. The speakers position themselves as the ones who have knowledge and share it with the watchers who are assumed as the ones with no knowledge of the objects. Mostly, nih is used in the first assessment. In the second assessment, the speakers tend to illustrate the unclear aspect of the first assessment by applying nih. The speakers also apply simile when assessing the dishes to associate the items assessed with more common items. Thus, it will be easier for the audience to comprehend every detail of the assessment. Nih tends to collocate with demonstratives nih, ni, and ini. With the collocations, the speakers guide the hearers to notice the objects or the actions before distributing the knowledge.

Validity of “Negation” and “Interrogatives” in Processability Theory for Iranian EFL Learners

Amir Hamzeh Gholami Rouintani, Abbas Bayat, Payman Rajabi — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

Processability Theory (PT), which organizes the knowledge base of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), offers an explanation of acquisition sequences. The aim of this paper is to investigate validation of PT for Iranian EFL learners for the acquisition of “negation” and “interrogative” structures across five proficiency levels and compared it with the morpho-syntactic structures model suggested by Pienemann. From the 160 participants having distinct proficiency, the needed data was gathered. They were wanted to produce example of oral performance in semi-structured interview and picture description tasks. The Kruskal-Wallis test pointed that both “negation” and “interrogative” emerge in agreement with the order of acquisition forcasted by Pienemann. In other words, as the participants’ level of proficiency level grew, so did their correct use of interrogatives and negation. Thus, PT is validated for EFL students, too.

Genre and Translation Style in Chinese Translation of Hollywood Blockbuster Movie Titles in Mainland China and Hong Kong

Wong Xin Yi, Mansour Amini, Maryam Alipour — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800

The title of a movie is the first to attract the audience's attention. Poorly translated movie titles may result in a “low box office”, as translators in different countries have their styles and preferences in translating film titles, which might eventually result in different translations of the same movie title and cause confusion to the audience. This qualitative research used exploratory induction to investigate the influence of genre and translation style on the Chinese translation of Hollywood blockbuster movie titles in Mainland China and Hong Kong. Titles of 300 Chinese movies produced between 2001 and 2020 were purposefully selected from the top 50 Hollywood movies in the adventure, horror, and action genres. Genre was found to be slightly effective in the choice of translation style and strategies. Among the three genres, horror was found to have the greatest influence on the choice of translation strategy. It was concluded that translators from Mainland China were more conservative in title translation compared to translators from Hong Kong, whose attempt was to create innovative translations. The findings may have some theoretical and practical implications for film translators, book translators, advertising translators, translation trainers, and trainees.

Editorial

Professor Dr. Stefanie Shamila Pillai — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0800