The Translation of Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) in Chinese-English Food Menu Corpus: A Study of Strategies and Factors

Abstract

This study investigated how culture-specific items (CSIs) are translated in the Chinese-English food menu corpus. This overarching aim was divided into two specific objectives: identifying which procedures prevail in translating cultural items and determining what factors impinge on the selection of specific procedures. The analysis of the corpus was done descriptively and by utilizing “Sketch Engine.” The theoretical issues addressed in the study included the scope and definition of CSI, the categorization of procedures presented in the data for CSI translation, and the place of food items within the category of CSI. Results of the study indicated that neutralizing strategy is employed more than foreignizing and domesticating strategies, with the latter being last in descending order. The major factors identified were metonymical/metaphorical use of the CSI, brand, polysemous nature of source CSI, degree of cultural markedness, and false relationship of the ST item with the TT item. Correlations between some factors and procedures were moderately strong as their values were above 50 out of the ideal value (100). However, other correlations were weak and therefore requires further investigation.