Contextual Frames of Reference in the Translation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm to Kiswahili

Authors

  • Jill Laventor Itieba Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology
  • Benard Mudogo Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology
  • David Barasa Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46991/TSTP/2023.3.2.029

Keywords:

contextual frames, Kiswahili, translation shifts, cognitive environment, culture

Abstract

This paper seeks to establish the cognitive contextual frames of references (CFRs) in the translation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm from English to Kiswahili. The source text “Animal Farm” and the target text "Shamba la Wanyama" were used to gather the study's data. The paper offers insights on how CFRs can be employed in literary translation to domesticate the target text so that it is relevant to the target language audience. Specific word and phrase meanings were deduced from sentences of both the source text and the target text. The analyzed data revealed that the translator used organizational category shifts, textual category shifts, communicational category shifts, and socio-cultural category shifts. The most common CFRs in the Kiswahili translation of Animal Farm were found to be communicational category shifts. The target text is made relevant to the audience through such manipulations.

Author Biographies

Jill Laventor Itieba, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology

PhD student at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kenya; holder of B.Ed. and MA degrees in Linguistics. Her research interests include translation and interpretation.

Benard Mudogo, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology

PhD, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Communication Skills at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kenya. His research interests include translation and interpretation, cognitive linguistics, mediated communication, language contact, semantics and language revitalization.

David Barasa, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology

PhD, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Communication Skills at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kenya. His research lie in the fields of linguistics and communication studies with special reference to phonology, morphology, language documentation, language policy analysis, language contact and variation, and multilingualism.

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Published

2023-12-25

How to Cite

Itieba, J. L., Mudogo, B., & Barasa, D. (2023). Contextual Frames of Reference in the Translation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm to Kiswahili. Translation Studies: Theory and Practice, 3(2 (6), 29–39. https://doi.org/10.46991/TSTP/2023.3.2.029

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (6) (2023)

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2023 Jill Laventor Itieba, Benard Mudogo, David Barasa

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