CC BY
34DOI: https://doi.org/10.46991/TSTP/2022.2.1.058
Strategies of Overcoming Challenges in Travel Guides Translation (a corpus-based study)
Irina Mkhitaryan* Tsoghik Grigoryan**
Yerevan State University National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia
Abstract: The action research is a parallel corpus study that delves into the translation peculiarities of translated English travel guides and a few websites. The corpus is based on Newmark's strategies which endorse the availability of effective analyses. The results of the findings have shown: (a) as a full expression of simplification, one of the translation universals, translated English tourism texts are more concise than their Armenian source texts through the omission of detailed information in listings and culture-specific information in the original ; (b) translated English tourism texts are more formal and detached in tone than that of Armenian original through the frequent adoption of nominalization; (c) translation strategies are of great avail to find out mistranslations and misinterpretations of the tourist texts. The very research instantiated intricacies between the translated English tourism texts and the source text in Armenian by highlighting the thematic and formal features of tourism discourse in translation, which may also become an essential pedagogic platform in translating tourism texts from Armenian into English.
Key words: comparative translation analysis; travel guides; translation peculiarities, translation strategies, corpora study
1. Introduction
International tourism, as one of the biggest and the most hectic industries in the world, greatly influences all aspects of social life, including language and translation. Translation is one of the most significant fields in which mediation is undoubtedly omnipresent and its prominence as a mediation tool between languages and cultures in this day and age should not be neglected. over the years, the way translation is studied and delivered has been notified and animated by the investigation of corpus study. The robustness of the latter concerning translation is asserted by an empirical perspective it embraces. corpus study, encompassing source texts and their translated versions, have
* irina.mkhitaryan@ysu.am
** ts.grigoryan@nuaca.am
_' Received: 16.04.2022
f/S) © © 1 Revised: 14.05.2022
Accepted: 14.05.2022
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- © The Author(s) 2022 cial 4.0 International License.
conventionally supplied the most significant data for research. As regards tourism writing, which is a specific register, it differs from general writing and entails peculiar assets such as promoting and selling tourist products and services. Nonetheless, this hybrid genre hadn't been thoroughly discussed and practiced, especially regarding its translation to examine its unique peculiarities. And even though currently, tourism is one of the largest and most popular industries both in Armenia and many parts of the world, the translation of tourism texts fails to suffice in-depth analyses on comparative grounds.
Albeit there are a considerable number of theories on the translation of tourism texts (Gotti 2006: 34; Dann 2012: 59-64) they are mostly assigned to provide guidance based only on their own experience and speculation, without giving ample empirical evidence to acknowledge their standpoints relating the nature of tourism writing. The majority of the aforementioned literature is not appropriate and reliable for addressing and exploring how such translation of tourism texts can be most effective on a real basis. In this vein, Dann (1996: 2) posits that "the language of tourism transmits timeless, magical, euphoric and tautological messages which contain the circular expectations and experiences of tourists and tourism." However, it is still vague how such translation factually implemented in the tourism industry dwells upon the features embedded in the original tourism text. In this research, we zoom on the translation peculiarities of the tourism discourse and assume as a cornerstone of Newmark's theory (1993: 25).
2. Statement of the Problem
This research thoroughly studies intricacies in tourism text translations. In general, typos can be overlooked if they do not hinder text comprehension or lead the addressee astray. As a result, a faulty translation may be acceptable if it demonstrates the intended meaning. However, it is unacceptable if the incorrect translation significantly affects the meaning. The translator must consider a variety of criteria, including lexical, grammatical, stylistic, and idiomatic considerations. Hence, in the tourism literature, drawbacks and tactics in translating tourism discourse require profound investigations.
3. Methods
To provide a reasonably objective criterion descriptive-qualitative research and embedded case study have been conducted based on Armenian and English travel guides assuming all the shifts and transpositions present in the tourism texts. A total of 20 individual travel guides were collected from Tourist Information offices in Yerevan, Armenia, 10 of which were exposed to analysis. Two tourism websites (https://egypt.anrivatour.am/, https://onewaytour.com/hy/hotels/) promoting travelling in Egypt and Armenia were also selected to be investigated. The types of brochures differ from fliers to magazine-type brochures. In several travel guides, the translation is included on the same page whilst others possess a separate brochure for various language versions. In collecting the data, the researcher applied three techniques. They are (1) direct observation; (2) comparative analysis carried out on travel guides according to Newmark's strategies which enable to find out various transformations and challenges
of travel guides translations; and (3) interview which aims at exploring the information deeply related to the perception of the translation quality which is presented by total 25 respondents (10 Armenians and 15 foreigners). The selected translation passages are chiefly directed from Armenian into English.
4. Strategies of Translating Travel Guides
From the standpoint of translation, the most adopted strategies for translating tourism discourse vary in diverse language pairs and depend greatly on the target language. Translators apply various methods or strategies to transfer the core of the original text. For translating texts from one culture into another it is vital to choose appropriate translation procedures, namely domestication and foreignization. Domestication aims at making the text acknowledged and thus bringing the foreign culture closer to that of the readers in the target culture, whilst foreignization intends bringing closer the reader to the foreign culture and make him or her feel the linguistic and cultural diversity. It gives rise to a translation practice in which features of the foreign are preserved as much as possible within the translated text. In any translation framework, the initial selection between which procedures to acknowledge, either a domesticating or a foreignizing one, may impact the whole translation process, leading either to a TT that is easily recognizable and thus accessible to the target readership or to a text that continuously prompts target readers of cultural diversity (Zare-Behtash 2009). In this study, Newmark's classification is implemented as the framework to analyze the translation strategies used in travel guides.
The subsequent translation methods for comparison are:
- transcription/ transliteration -graphical rendering of either form or sound of the term;
- calque - literal translation of a term;
- transference - retaining terms in their source form without any adaptation;
- gloss translation - explanatory remarks, often in the form of footnotes
- functional equivalent - any previously existing in TL term denoting the same or similar concept;
- neutralizing - translation using general lexis;
- zero translation - term omission;
- addition - adding a term in TT instead of the general lexical unit from the ST. 4.1. Selected Categories of Specialized Tourist Texts
To assess the degree of specialization of diverse types of tourist texts a total of 60 tourist texts were studied, Armenian texts as the source text and English texts as the target ones. The selected texts comprise three essential types (20 texts in each type): They are as follows:
- description (tourist texts, descriptions of a destination, a sight, type of holiday, involving destination description, e.g. countries, areas, regions; vacation descriptions, e.g. beach vacation, sightseeing holiday; tour description,)
- information (tourist texts, general information on facilities, appliances and services used and offered, embracing hotel descriptions, cruise ship descriptions, excursion itinerary, terms and conditions of service, visa and documents information, etc.)
- professional communication (tourist texts, tend to communicate information between tourism professionals, including price lists, application forms, reservation systems, ticketing terms and conditions, booking manuals, etc.)
5. Data Analysis
The selected patterns under consideration will clearly pinpoint the effectiveness of incorporated translation strategies and the challenges encountered. The parallel Armenian and English tourism text corpora were applied through CATMA 3.0 software. Sample 1-Description type of text Source Language:
fcpUmh - Q-mnh^ - Q-hqmpq - fcpUmh
hjnrpmhngnrtf: "mjjghLhhp Uhp mmpm&m2p2mh^ tf^m^ hhpmhn-um^mh mm^mpp: Sm^mpp hh^hh^umm^mh 2pgmh^ ¿mpmmpm^hmnrpjjmhp phnpn2 ^hp^^mhp m^^^ ^mnrnjg t [^hp^^mhp ¿npu ^nqtf^g u]nLhm2mphpn^ hqhp^mfc mqnpmupmh]: "mhqhmà t pmpÀp ^mm^mhqmh^ ^pm, np^ q^m^np Unrrnp^ mnmj nrh^ ^hh murn^^mh^g pmq^mgmfc pmph umhqnrqp: fcnmh^jnrh ¿m^mnhp [hjnru^umjj^h ¿m^mm] hqhp^mfc t mmmUhm2mp^ U pnrnm^mh rn. hp^pm^m^m^mh pmhqm^hhp^ hmpnmrn hmtfmqpnrpjjmtfp: fcp^php mmh^pp t pmqmjmh umj^hhpn^ U^mg^mà mp^n^ mUpmg^mà qmtfhpn^: Sm-¿mp^ m]ghjnLp]nLh^g hhmn U^mu^h ^¿m2hhp qjnrqmg^hhp^g Ut^ mmhp: U]hnrhhmU ^mjghihhp dmjjnm^np Q-hqmpqm^mhp: ^mhm^mh hmtfm^pp ^mnnrg^h^ t U^ghmqmpniU U^ ^mjpnrtf, npp hm^mpp^umnhhm^mh
2p2mhniU hqh^ t np^hu uppmmh^:U]h hm]mh^ tp np^hu «Ujp^mhp»: Uh^ m]L «Q-hqmpqm^mhp» mh^mhnrtfp ^mm¿mnmpmh4nLtf t hpmhn^, np m]hmhq 500 rnmp^ ^mh^nrtf tp unrpp ^hqmpqp" m]h h^pm^mh h^qm^p, npn^ Q-nqqnpm-jnrtf hnntfhmg^ hmpjnrpm^hmp ^nghj_ t ^m^^mh ip^umnu^ ^nqp: Q-hqmpqm-^mhpnrtf ^hmhq^^hhp mhq^ pmhmhmjj^h: ZhmqmpÀ^ ¿mhm^mph^h ^nrhh-hmhp ^mhqmn 3mphhg^ ^mtfmp^ Uns, npmhq^g hpm2m^ shumpmh t pmg^nrU qh^^ Upmpms ]hnp: (One-way-tour brochure) ^fehpm^mg: fcpUmh
Yerevan - Garni - Geghard - Yerevan
Breakfast in the hotel. Tour to Garni, the only pagan temple left in Armenia. It is a blend of Greco-Roman and Armenian styles built by King Trdat I in the first century A.D. and dedicated it to the God of Sun. Then we will keep our way to Geghard. Geghard monastery
[13th century] carved out of the adjacent mountain and initially called Ayrivank [the Monastery of the Cave ] is included in the World Heritage Site. Due to the fact that the famous spear, with which the Roman soldier wounded Jesus, was kept here for 500 years, the monastery was called Geghardavank [the Monastery of the Spear]. Here we will have a meeting with the priest. On the way back to Yerevan we will have a stop near memorial arch made in honor of a prominent Armenian writer Yeghishe Charents can be seen. A magnificent view of Ararat and Armenia opens from the arch. Overnight: Yerevan
In the analysis of the source text translation strategy (elimination of redundant information while preserving emotiveness and expressiveness of the text) is realized by applying several translation techniques. Noteworthy is the fact that considerable attention is given both to syntax, because it is the structure of the sentence that illustrates the translator's professional proficiency in grammatical transformations, the ability to use them appropriately and reasonably, following the norms of the target language and functional equivalents. Furthermore, this is quite acceptable since conveying most of the words descriptive and functional equivalents of their own would most likely unnecessarily increase the amount of text in translation, thus possibly decreasing attraction. On the other hand, the translator translated the word combination libp wiupiu&w2p2uih as Armenia using a culture-neutral word. There exists an omission of a whole paragraph about the Temple of Garni, the sentences referring to the outer description and history of Garni are not translated into English. Moreover, another omission of a sentence, which contains very important information is unavailable too. The sentence "Siulpji lujgbinLpjnihJighbsn iljuujih ^tiiu2bhp qjnujiugfihbpjig ilbl^fi rniuhpr is omitted. It is a very fundamental part in the tour description, to some tourisms it can be very tempting and admiring, to others it can be a reason not to take this tour. So the omission of such an important fact was not relevant. The translator has also applied the methods of gloss translation and transliteration while translating the proper names Q-bijiupijiuijiuiip [the Monastery of the Spear] and Ujpjiiliuhp [the Monastery of the Cave]. There is also an addition in the translation. The translator has added some information about Yeghishe Charents, to clarify the point to whom the arch is dedicated. And another mistake made by the translator is the omission of the word [bnpin the following sentence- "Zbwqiup&Ji Hiiuiqiuphjih ¡¡nLliblnhp Ijwliqwn Qwpbhgji IjwiIiupJi ilnin, npwbqjig hpw2iuiji inbuiupiuh t piuglnul i}biiJi Upwpww [bnp." It is translated into English as "a magnificent view of Ararat and Armenia opens from the arch." In this connection, it should be stated that this translation might give rise to ambiguity for the target language reader. Sample 2-Information
tfrnHrnhniJ - 2p2mJ9 " tgifriklfr Umjp Sm^mp - Slipping - fcphrnh
^rnq im^m^U q^JrnlnpnLJ oqmhmlm^m]mhnLi h rnhqrn^nJunLJ hjnLprn-Ung: ^ip^imh hrnhqurn^g h hm^m¿m2^g hbsn ^u^ubhp rnjuoplrn rnnipp: Li^ ^rnjghjhhp Ummbhmqmpmh, nprnbq lihlrnJ bl ins 18.000 Ahnrnq^p Jrnmjrnhhhp, npnhp hilipln^! bl <dmnmhqnLp]nLh: ^rnhqiprnh
rnjgbLnLpjnLh^g hbsn ^prnjjbhp qb^^ Zprnirnprn^: &mhmlmph^h ^rnhq
^mnhthp ^mu^mq hmtfmilpl tfnm, npmtqlg qtqtgll mtumpmh t pmg^nrtf qt^l Upmpms itnp: UjhnrhtmU InrqUnp^thp qt^l tg^lm&hl ^m3P Sm^mp: fc^tqtglh Imnnrg^ti t ¿nppnpq qmpl u^qplh 301-303 p^m^mhhtplh pplumnhtnrpjnrhp np^tu qtrnm^mh lpnh phqnrhtinrg htmn, Zmjmummh^ hn^mhm^np unrpp Q-plqnp Lnrnm^np^l ^nqtflg: ^mnnrg^ti t hm^m^tu qn-jnrpjnrh nrhtgnq mmámp^ mtqnrtf ^nphpqmh2tin^ htpmhnunrpjnrhlg pplu-mnhtnrpjmh mhgnrtfp: "btplmjlu Imnnrjgl h^ühm^mh tfmup Imnnrgti ^mhmh UmUHnhjmhp 483/4 p^m^mhhtplh ^mpu^m^mh htp^nrdtfmh dmtfmhml ^^um ^hmu^tjnLg htmn: ^mnnrgnrtflg hlhqtpnpq qmpl tplpnpq ^tup
mm^mpp UUthmjh Zmjng ^mpnql^nuhtpl humm^mjph tp: Ujumtq ^hmhql-^thn hnqhnpm^mh^ htm: Ujglg htmn ^tpmqmnhmhp UpUmh, ámhm^mph^ü lmhq ^mnhthp S^mpphngl Smámpl tfnm: fcpt^njmh nqgmjh^ phpplp" hmj-^m^mh mqqmqpm^mh tpqtp U ^mptp: (One-way-tour brouchure) ^fetpm^mg: UpUmü
Arrival - Yerevan city tour - Etchmiadzin Mother Cathedral - Zvartnots Cathedral -Yerevan
Transfer from the airport to the hotel. Breakfast in the hotel. Observing city tour in the capital of Armenia. During the city tour you will get acquainted with the main streets and the main buildings of Yerevan, will visit the depository of the manuscripts, Matenadaran, where 18000 pieces of works are kept. These works are included into UNESCO World Heritage. Tour to Etchmiadzin, during which we will visit the Mother Cathedral, will have a meeting with the priest. Tour to Zvartnots Cathedral, which is a 7th-century cathedral. Now in ruins, it is located at the edge of Etchmiadzin. Cathedral and Churches of Etchmiadzin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Back to Yerevan. In the evening we will have welcome dinner in a traditional Armenian restaurant with national songs and dances. Overnight: Yerevan
While analyzing the translation of these two texts we came across lots of additions, omissions and different transpositions. Firstly, the proper name S^iupphngis translated into English as Zvartnots Cathedral. The translator has made this addition intentionally to make clear to the target language reader that Zvartnots is a cathedral. It is also worth mentioning that some omissions made in the process of translation- i¡mq mnmi¡nwjmh, Ijmpáminli hmhqjium and so on, are meant not to miss some crucial information. In this connection the translator applied the method of compensation, that is to say, he/she compensated for the loss of meaning in one sentence from the other one. The translator has also omitted some proper names such as ^muljuiq hmiimilp, Zpunqmpmlj and instead supplemented the phrase main streets and buildings, presumably taking into consideration that these words would be unknown and incomprehensible to foreigners. A few sentences related to Etchmiadzin Mother Cathedral's history and Vahan Mamikonyan are also omitted, perhaps the translator found them too meticulously depicted, afterwards extra information about Zvartnots Cathedral was noted to make the image more vivid. Studying the translation it becomes obvious that the method of transposition of sentences is implemented as well. The nominal sentence bpkljnjuiii
nqpnLjhji plppjip hiil^i^il mqqmqpml¡mh bpqbp h lipbp: is translated into a full declarative sentence- "In the evening we will have welcome dinner in a traditional Armenian restaurant with national songs and dances." There is also an addition of the phrase Armenian traditional restaurant to make the atmosphere of the anticipated dinner more evident. Overall, it can be deduced that in contrast to addition and transliteration usage, which are available throughout the translation procedure, the omission is the prevailing strategy in the aforementioned translation, and what regards the equivalence it is preserved on the text level.
Sample 3-Professional communication
Hpitu Air Cairo ml^mph^tpnlp]mh lm2mnhm^mh Uhp^rnjrngnLg^ ¿iiiumi-Unii UUn^lrn-SnLpp mip^htp 2mpnlhm^ ^mqim^tplnli t ¿mhm¿nqm^mh m]ghLnLp]nLhhhp mnlp^umm^mU njnprn^ Jmuhmqhmhhp^ hilip qt^^ irnnu: Ubhp ^iphnpnii bhp, np^buq^ ibp thpmqnp&m^m^htpp Lmlm&mhnp L^hbh fcq^irnnu^ ni^qnipjiUU ni hmhqummlm]ptp^h, m^pmltmth hjnipi-hnghbp^ hhmpmlnpnlp]nlhhtp^h, tpu^nipu^nh &pmqptp^h: Ui ^iphnp t, np-ibuq^ mnlp-Ibht2tpp ^mpnqmhm h qpiqbrn mnm2mp^ ^p^i^g^^
fcq^irnnuniJ hmhqummhmL gih^ignq qpnui2p2^^^U: Ub^ 2rnprnplrn plpig-pnii mnlp-Ibht2tphtph m]gtLtg^h qpbpb 3 mrnuhjrn^ h]nlpmhnghtp, Huhi^-gbg^U rnippbp tpu^nipu^nh fcpiqpbp^ pigihijib^nl fcq^irnnunii hilqurn^ pnmp mnmltLnlp]nlhhtpp:
(https://egypt.anrivatour.am/index.php?m=medianfamOne&pid=16)
As the official representative of Air Cairo in Armenia, Anriva-Tour periodically organizes FAM tours for tour managers to Egypt. We pay attention to ensuring that our partners are well prepared and know all about Egypt - hotels, excursion programs. It is important for a tour manager to be able to offer the right and competent offer for a tourist who wants to rest in Egypt. During the week, tour managers visited about three dozens of hotels, participated in various excursion programs, learning about all the benefits of a holiday in Egypt
Comparing SL translation with the TL it becomes evident that the translator neglected the phrase "mrnp^Ubp 2mpnlUm^" and transferred it into "periodically" whilst the Armenian translation pinpoints years and frequency. In the second sentence, we witness the implementation of omission strategy such as "bq^^rnnu^ ni^qnipjiUU ni ^^umi^^p^^ hiniprnlngUbp^ hUmpmlnpnlp]nlUUbp^U" which are not available in the English version. In the third and fourth sentences, functional equivalents are omnipresent, which are direct indicators of relevant translation.
Transcription/ transliteration Calque Transference Gloss translation Functional equivalent Neutralizing Zero translation Addition
1st type, descriptions 10,2% 8% 2,5% 12.9% 33,9% 5.5% 14% 13,9%
2nd type, information 15,4% 5% 1,3% 9,7% 10,8% 2,5% 41.3% 15%
3rd type,
professional 8,9% 6.2% 8% 5,7% 26.8% 5,2% 25% 14.2%
communication
Table 1: The results of the data analyses are depicted in the table above.
6. Data Analysis of Corpus-based Study
The data analysis of our action research has shown that in the first type of tourist text the prevailing strategy is functional equivalence whilst calque and transference hold the lowest rate. The translation of the second type of text illustrated a high percentage of zero translation in the target text, whereas the third type of text highlights the prevalence of zero translation_and functional equivalent approaches. As a matter of fact, gloss translation occurred less frequently in the information and professional communication types of texts, perhaps, due to their verbosity. Typically though, gloss translation is more frequently utilized in the description type of target texts in which the texts offer necessary tourist information, thus requiring more explanatory details. Furthermore, transliteration and gloss translation are usually implemented while translating proper names, geographical names, nicknames, and so on. The translator applies the methods of addition and descriptive translation in the translation of culture-specific words and phrases i.e realia. The comparative analysis has also indicated that the original text is always larger than the translated one, due to the language features of the Armenian language (in comparison with English Armenian has longer words) and some omissions.
7. Quality Assessment of Tourist Term Translation
The issue of quality evaluation is rather vague since there are no universally acknowledged criteria to assess the quality of translation. As a matter of fact, the type of the text, genre, source text and target language conventions are to be taken into account firstly for the target reader is considered to be the driving force for the translation decision-making process and a performer as the decision-coordinating factor. In regard to this point, Cabré points out that "conciseness, accuracy and adequacy are the most relevant criteria" (2010: 361) to evaluate specialized discourse. Neglecting the delicate nature of translation appropriateness on the text level we tend to assess the mistakes on a word level. For this purpose, we applied to combined approaches brought up by Newmark and Kelly (1993: 23; 1997: 45) who justifiably divide mistakes into the following categories.
- Mistranslations (grave mistakes, leading to the breakdown in communication)
- Misinterpretations (relatively easy mistakes, triggering the lessening of communicative effect)
- Non-translations (context-dependent/ can be either grave or easy)
Mistranslations of tourism terms can impede substantial breakdown in
communication. According to our research, it is detected that conceptual problems or lack of linguistic competence can become triggers of these mistakes.
What regards misinterpretations they decrease the communicative effect of the source term because of either conceptual deficiency or shortage of knowledge whilst the third category can generate both the communication breakdown and lessen the communicative effect.
Source text Target text
Mistranslation, grave ^mm^mUqmU! Mountain
hmpj nipm^tm Soldier
jm^mbmUnp j^hth Offer
Misinterpretation, easy Smp^Utp 2mpnihm^ periodically
CUmp^p Traditional Armenian restaurant
Nontranslation, grave tpu^mpu^m magnificent places
Utp^nidmU! Attack
Nontranslation, easy ^mj^mb ip^umnu Jesus
pmgmhm]mt^ Learn
Stqm^mh pmhmhm Priest
Table 2 introduces several cases of translation mistakes encountered in tourist texts. The target text column shows the English term.
According to the table, we can assume that few translation mistakes are spotted in the analyzed tourist text. The illustrated patterns of mistranslations are considered grave because of conceptual non-equivalence. The word "^mmlmhqmU" can hardly be replaced by mountain or likewise, soldier always stands for q^U^np, not hmpjntpm^hm. Nevertheless, non-translation of ^mj^mb £p^umnu, mhqm^mb pmhmhm are regarded as easy since they lessen the communicative effect mistake. In contrast to non-translation of the terms, magnificent places and attack are deemed as grave mistakes, since the target text fails to explain the meaning of excursion which cannot necessarily be related to magnificent places or attack, which is quite different from Uhp^nLdntd-invasion.
What concerns misinterpretation of the term mmp^Uhp 2mpnthm^ as periodically and phmp^p as traditional Armenian dinner give rise to the misleading information in the target text. The reader would get implicit information that the restaurant provides only traditional Armenian food whereas the source text term implicates mostly the inclusion of dinner. Therefore, the mean ratio of translation mistakes is as follows:
Mean ratio of translation mistakes
[]%
■ []% []% []% ■■■
Ratio
■ Mistranslations ■ Misinterpretations
■ Non-translations (grave) ■ Non-translations (easy)
The aforementioned data analysis did not show the correlation between the patterns of proper translation and mistakes. This topic is reserved for further research.
8. Results and Discussions
To understand how productive the translation of tourism texts is and to what extent the equivalence is preserved, we have conducted qualitative research through interviews based on Kelly's (1997:30) translation mistakes theory. The focus groups involved in this action research comprised 10 Armenians and 15 foreigners from different countries. In this section, we attempt to explore to what extent the participants get the picture of the selected texts from the brochure of "One Way Tour," and what translation challenges might trigger comprehension of both Armenian and English tourist texts which had been delivered beforehand. The selected material for the focus groups is attached below.
40 20 0
9. Patterns
ONE WAY TOUR company invites you to enjoy Armenian beautiful nature and get acquainted with its flora and fauna via non difficult and pleasant hikings. During this group tours in Armenia you will get acquianted with the Armenian nature and historical monuments, will enjoy the beauty of the largest fresh water lake in Armenia, will walk in the forests of "Armenian Switzerland." And that's not all. During the tours we will visit "Tonacuyc" National Theatre, where we will get acquainted with Armenian food and ceremonies. If you are interested in ancient culture, national cuisine, nature and hiking, then this tour package is for you
Garni - Geghard - Yerevan
After breakfast in the hotel we will drive to Geghard Monastery. On the way we will have a stop near Charents' Arch. One part of Geghard Monastery is carved in the clif. It is included into the list of UNESCO Heritage. We will take part in the baking of, lavash in Armenian tonir. Our next stop will be Garni pagan temple. We will start our
walking from the temple to the Symphony of the Stones, which is located in Azat gorge. Back to Yerevan.
Yeghegnadzor - Tsakhats Kar - Smbataberd - Yeghegnadzor
After breakfast in the hotel we will take our way to Tsakhats Kar Monastery. The monastery was constructed in the 10th century. Tsakhats Kar was a medieval educational center, where painting was taught. Then we will keep our way to Smbataberd fortres which has high and wide walls built with huge stones and mixture from clay. The fortress is protected with deep gorges of Artabuni and Yeghegis. Dinner and overnight in Yeghegnadzor.
Sevan -Dilijan - Jukhtak - Matosavank - Alaverdi
After breakfast we will take our way to Dilijan. Dilijan is a small spa city which is also known as Armenian Switserland. After the city tour we will keep the way to Monastery Jukhtak. It is mentioned as Petros' Monastary and Gisheravank Monastary in the stone scripts. It consists of two separate churches [here comes the meaning of the monastery- "jukht vank" - "two churches"]. Then we will walk to Matosavank. The church was consructed in 1205. Then we will take our way to Alaverdi. The dinner and the overnight in Alaverdi.
Name, Surname Country Age Gender Perception of the text[%]
Alana Hoornsman The Netherlands 22 Female 75
Alexander Avila Mexico 23 Male 80
Alsu Mukhametova Turkmenistan 25 Female 95
Antea Goolsby Croatia 22 Female 80
Beshoy Khairy Egypt 21 Male 70
Birte Barkow Germany 27 Female 90
Christin Gogche Austria 25 Male 75
Sebastian Markos Spain 24 Male 85
Natalia Peshkova Russia 23 Female 75
Ekaterina Khlebnikova Russia 27 Female 90
Dan Sintri Poland 23 Male 80
Chris Dee Germany 29 Male 85
Svetlanna Sergeyevna Russia 26 Female 80
Mariusz Kus Poland 20 Male 73
Iris Weng Taiwan 22 Female 70
Average — 24 — 82
Table 3 introduces the perception of focus group of foreigners.
Name, Surname Country Age Gender Perception of the text[%]
Hovhannisyan Gor Armenia 36 Male 95
Meliqyan Tatev Armenia 29 Female 100
Vardumyan Lilit Armenia 38 Female 97
Gevorgyan Tuxik Armenia 60 Female 100
Hovhannisyan Gegham Armenia 34 Male 99
Petrosyan Gohar Armenia 61 Female 98
Ayvazyan Mariam Armenia 19 Female 100
Mayilyan Edmon Armenia 21 Male 99
Bulghadaryan Artyom Armenia 20 Male 100
Kochinyan Gayane Armenia 40 Female 97
Average — 36 — 98
Table 4 presents the perception of focus group of Armenians.
As the results of Table 3 have shown the average perception of the text among target language readers is 82%, and the perception of the same text among SL readers is 98% [Table2]. It is quite obvious that in the process of translation of this tourism text 16% of information is not preserved and certainly, some misinterpretations are available too. While commenting on the text most of them mentioned that some words especially proper nouns such as Tsakhats Kar, Yeghegis, Yeghegnadzor and so on, were rather impossible for them to read and they did not understand whether it was a city, village, church, monastery or another place. They have also separated several words and expressions that were incomprehensible and sounded strange and could not be depicted in any way. Among these words and expressions are Armenian Switzerland, Tonacuyc, Charent's Arch, Symphony of the Stones, Armenian Vatikan, and so on. Furthermore, almost all of them mentioned particularly two words- lavash (lavash is Armenian national bread, soft, thin unleavened flatbread, which is baked in a special tonir) and Armenian tonir (tonir is an underground "oven" made of clay which is used for making different dishes and baking bread), which sounded weird for them. These aforementioned words are culture-specific words, in other words, realia, and are very complicated to translate into other languages. Frequently while translating realia translators apply two different methods- transliteration and gloss translation, but in this case, the translator applied only the method of transliteration without any reasoning, and therefore, it impeded some misunderstandings among TL readers. They have also pointed out some obvious spelling mistakes (MonastAry, clif, fortres), which provide evidence of amateur work, lack of knowledge or attention. It is certainly true that these errors do not violate the understanding of the text, but they negatively affect the consumer's expectations. Anyway taking into account that 84% of information was preserved, we can deduce that the translator, clearly understanding the task and having a well-formed operational competence, was able to create a text that will function accordingly to attract new customers.
10. Conclusion
The current study has led us to deduce that Newmark's strategies were the most effective means to analyze translation challenges of both SL and TL due to which the translators omit, change, and reformulate certain parts of the ST to fit the target context. Consequently, the translators incorporate various strategies in an attempt to decrease the gap between the SC and the TC to escape message distortion. Based on the research of the analysis of the travel guides and their translations we can infer that:
• the differences between the Armenian and English versions of guides are obvious, the terminology implemented in Armenian travel guides is distinctive and culture-bound,
• most of the errors found in the translation are connected with the translation of culture-specific words, which are just transliterated without any descriptive or gloss translation.
• the most frequently applied methods and strategies in translating tourism texts are omission, addition, transliteration, gloss translation, and descriptive translation.
• results of a parallel corpus-based analysis have shown that both omission and addition are broadly used strategies in all the travel guides under consideration.
To wrap things up, it should be stated that translation of tourism texts is of great difficulty because of its specialized vocabulary and various cultural references, thus the translator of travel guides should have profound and skilled translating competencies and be aware of all possible translating strategies and techniques.
11. Limitations of the Research
This study was confined to a relatively small sample of brochures and it only focused on brochures and a few websites translated from Armenian into English. On the other hand, the size of the corpus is still relatively small. This may make for the illustration of the findings, for we have reason to ask: Will quantitative information accumulated to a certain level affect the qualitative outcome? Therefore, it is believed that future studies with expanded corpus size and enhanced material sources can initiate results that are more groundbreaking and of better validity.
12. Recommendations
This action research can be informative for Tourism organizations and website proprietors in order to focus more profoundly on the content of their translations to make sure that the translated texts are perceivable and persuasive enough for their audiences from various parts of the world with diverse cultures and backgrounds.
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