探究新加坡特有华语词汇的翻译策略 —— 以新加坡华语资料库为例 = EXPLORING THE TRANSLATION STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING LOCAL TERMS IN SINGAPORE: A CASE STUDY ON THE SINGAPOREAN MANDARIN DATABASE

Abstract

The Singaporean Mandarin Database (SMD) was launched in 2019 where 1000 “cultural or historical” Mandarin terms that were considered to have “sentimental value unique to Singapore” are selected and recorded. The terms are sub-divided into nine categories, namely education, social, food/plants, speech, communities/organisations, transport, legal/politics, places and culture. The Chinese source texts of the terms are provided along with their English translations to suit the reading preferences of English-accustomed users. However, the effectiveness of translation strategies employed by SMD in promoting Chinese culture remains underexplored. Thus, this thesis aims to evaluate the types of translation strategies that translators use when translating Mandarin terms. The study also analyses how the translators’ decision making might be affected based on the strategy typologies proposed by Loh Dian-yang (陆殿扬, 1958) and Vinay and Darbelnet (1958), respectively. This study collected a total of 442 Singapore-specific Mandarin terms extracted from the database for close examination. By qualitatively and quantitatively investigating translation strategies applied to the terms, this study shows that the terms appear to be translated differently across different categories. While adaptation is most commonly used to translate everyday words, politics-related terms tend to be translated literally. The use of dialects also portrays a diversified image of the local Mandarin landscape, thereby contributing to the need for refinery of typologies.