Research Article

Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees

Number: 43 June 15, 2020
  • Filiz Mergen
  • Nihal Yetkin-karakoç
TR EN

Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees

Abstract

Ambiguity has attracted the attention of researchers from many disciplines. With the aim of providing a perspective from translation, this psycholinguistic study investigated ambiguity in the translation performance of late bilinguals from English (L2) into Turkish (L1). We employed an oral translation task in which the participants (N= 51) translated 30 ambiguous words, (polysemes and homonyms) in contextualized sentences. First, we investigated whether word frequency affects the participants’ translation accuracy. We found no significant difference between high and low frequency words, which is attributable to the proficiency of the participants, and the facilitating role of sentential context. Secondly, we aimed to explore whether the nature of the ambiguous words made any difference to the participants’ translation performance. The results showed that polysemous words were translated with greater accuracy than homonymous words, in line with the data in the literature regarding the differences in the representation and processing of polysemy and homonymy.

Keywords

References

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  3. Basnight-Brown, D., & Altarriba, J. (2007). Differences in semantic and translation priming across languages: The role of language direction and language dominance. Memory & Cognition, 35, 953–965.
  4. Beretta, A., Fiorentino, R. & Poeppel, D. (2005). The effects of homonymy and polysemy on lexical access: an MEG study. Cognitive Brain Research, 24(1), 57-65.
  5. Binder, K.S. (2003). Sentential and discourse topic effects on lexical ambiguity processing: An eye movements examination. Memory and Cognition, 31, 690-702.
  6. Bradley, M.M. & Lang, P. J. (1999). Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW): Instruction Manual and Affective Ratings (Technical Report 1). The Center of Research in Psychophysiology: University of Florida.
  7. Crystal, D. (1980). A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd. Retrieved from https://www.uvm.edu/pdodds/teaching/courses/2009-08UVM 300/docs /others/everything/ bradl ey1999a.pdf
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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Creative Arts and Writing

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Filiz Mergen This is me
Türkiye

Nihal Yetkin-karakoç This is me
Türkiye

Publication Date

June 15, 2020

Submission Date

January 23, 2020

Acceptance Date

April 28, 2020

Published in Issue

Year 2020 Number: 43

APA
Mergen, F., & Yetkin-karakoç, N. (2020). Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 43, 111-122. https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.755800
AMA
1.Mergen F, Yetkin-karakoç N. Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees. SEFAD. 2020;(43):111-122. doi:10.21497/sefad.755800
Chicago
Mergen, Filiz, and Nihal Yetkin-karakoç. 2020. “Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees”. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, nos. 43: 111-22. https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.755800.
EndNote
Mergen F, Yetkin-karakoç N (June 1, 2020) Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 43 111–122.
IEEE
[1]F. Mergen and N. Yetkin-karakoç, “Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees”, SEFAD, no. 43, pp. 111–122, June 2020, doi: 10.21497/sefad.755800.
ISNAD
Mergen, Filiz - Yetkin-karakoç, Nihal. “Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees”. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi. 43 (June 1, 2020): 111-122. https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.755800.
JAMA
1.Mergen F, Yetkin-karakoç N. Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees. SEFAD. 2020;:111–122.
MLA
Mergen, Filiz, and Nihal Yetkin-karakoç. “Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees”. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, no. 43, June 2020, pp. 111-22, doi:10.21497/sefad.755800.
Vancouver
1.Filiz Mergen, Nihal Yetkin-karakoç. Translation of Ambiguous Words by Translation Trainees. SEFAD. 2020 Jun. 1;(43):111-22. doi:10.21497/sefad.755800

Cited By

Addressing polysemy in translation pedagogy

Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-025-00328-x

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