Body Part Terms in the Turkish Translations of English Bestsellers and Implications for TEFL
Journal Title: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi - Year 2017, Vol 57, Issue 2
Abstract
Similarities and differences across languages can be observed in the uses of body part terms (BPTs) to express meanings; therefore, BPTs are one of the best tools to compare and contrast languages. This study compared five best-selling English books with their Turkish translations and identified the distribution of BPTs, and the similarities and differences in the non-literal uses of BPTs in both corpora. It particularly focussed on the English expressions containing no BPTs and their Turkish translations containing BPTs. For this purpose, firstly, a three-option multiple-choice translation test (Task A) was given to 100 English Language Teaching (ELT) program junior and senior students to crosscheck the BPT-containing Turkish translations of ten non-BPT-containing English sentences. Secondly, a different group of 100 native Turkish-speaking teachers of English translated the same ten non-BPT-containing English sentences into Turkish (Task B). Task B was given for a further crosscheck to see whether the use of BPTs in the Turkish translations reflects a predilection of the translators or a general tendency of native speakers of Turkish. The results reveal that Turkish translations include more non-literally used BPTs than the original English books do. Task A and Task B results also present variation in the use of BPTS in translations. Turkish speakers' tendency to use more BPTs indicates that BPTs can be a criterion in the selection and design of materials to teach English to Turkishspeaking learners. Conceptual metaphor theory can provide TEFL with the framework for teaching the non-literal uses of BPTs and other linguistic metaphors.
Authors and Affiliations
Cemal ÇAKIR
Keywords
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