Mapping the Cultural Interference of Term Variation
Abstract Communication in a specific setting should be carried out efficiently since language miscomprehension can prevent the message from reaching the audience adequately. More specifically, the correct use of particular terms is essential in specific texts to describe concepts. These terms could be expressed differently when used in other languages and this fact could cause interferences in language communication. In this paper, the main objective was to determine if the written form of terms varied and interfered with cross-cultural communication. Furthermore, to determine the causes of term variation across languages in texts written in different languages, it is important to establish clear distinctions between the semantic fields of words. The corpus of this research was composed of twenty texts written in English and the same twenty texts written in Spanish that transmitted the agreements of the United Nations related to specific topics. They were written in the official languages of the United Nations in such a way that there was not an original or target language, they were supposedly written originally in all the languages at the same time. In order to determine if the written form of terms varied in a specific setting, the selected texts were analysed with Wordsmith Tools 5.0. First, the key words of the texts in Spanish and in English were identified, and then the written forms and the use of synonyms in Spanish and in English were compared and contrasted. The results showed that there were variations in the interpretation of terms when expressed in different languages and those may be due to cross-cultural interference.
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SAMRAJ, B. 2004. «Discourse features of the student-produced academic research paper: Variation across disciplinary courses». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3: 5-22.
SAMRAJ, B. & MONK, L. 2008. «The statement of purpose in graduate program applications: Genre structure and disciplinary variation». English for Specific Purposes 27: 193-211.
SCHLEEF, E. 2009. «A cross-cultural investigation of German and American academic style». Journal of Pragmatics 41: 1104-1124.
SCOTT, M. 2009. Wordsmith Tools version 5. Liverpool: Lexical Analysis Software.
STOCKHORST, S. [ed.]. 2010. Cultural Transfer throughTranslation. The Circulation of Enlightened Thought in Europe by Means of Translation. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
VILLE-OMETZ, F.; ROYAUTÉ, J. & ZASADZINSKI, A. 2007. «Enhancing in automatic recognition an extraction of term variants with linguistic features». Terminology 13 (1): 35-59.
YAKHONTOVA, T. 2006. «Cultural and disciplinary variation in academic discourse: The issue of influencing factors». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 5: 153-167.
YLI-JOKIPII, H. & JORGENSEN, P. E. F. 2004. «Academic journalese for the Internet: A study of native English-speaking editors’ changes to texts written by Danish and Finish professionals». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3: 341-359.
CABRÉ, M. T. 2003. «Theories of terminology. Their description, prescription and explanation». Terminology 9 (2): 163-199.
CABRÉ, M. T. 2008. «El principio de la poliedricidad: la articulación de lo discursivo, lo cognitivo y lo lingüístico en terminología». Ibérica 16: 9-36.
CARBONELL i CORTÉS, O. 2009. «In at the Deep End. Objectivity, overinterpretation and ideology patterns in translation». Forum 7 (1): 1-37.
CARRIÓ-PASTOR, M. L. 2002. «Use of phrasal verbs by native and non-native writers of technical articles». Linguistic Insights 2: 233-246.
CARRIÓ-PASTOR, M. L. 2005. Contrastive analysis of scientific-technical discourse: Common writing errors and variations in the use of English as a non-native language. Ann Arbour: UMI. CARRIÓ-PASTOR, M. L. 2008. «English Complex Noun Phrase Interpretation by Spanish Learners». Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada 21: 27-44.
CARRIÓ-PASTOR, M. L. 2013. «A contrastive study of the variation of sentence connectors in academic English». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 12 ( 3): 192-202.
CARRIÓ-PASTOR, M. L. 2014. «Cross-cultural variation in the use of modal verbs in academic English». Sky Journal of Linguistics 27: 153-166.
CARRIÓ-PASTOR, M. L. and Muñiz, R. 2012. «Lexical variations in business e-mails written by nonnative speakers of English». LSP Professional Communication, Knowledge Management and Cognition 3 (1): 4-13.
CARRIÓ-PASTOR, M. L. & CanDel-MoRa, M. A. 2013. «Variation in the translation patterns of English complex noun phrases into Spanish in a specific domain». Languages in Contrast 13 (1): 28-45.
CHARLES, M. 2007. «Argument or evidence? Disciplinary variation in the use of the noun that pattern in stance construction». English for Specific Purposes 26: 203-218.
CONDAMINES, A. 2010. «Application to the management of risks related to language use in the workplace». Terminology 16 (1): 30-50.
DURRANT, P. 2009. «Investigating the viability of a collocation list for students of English for academic purposes». English for Specific Purposes 28: 157-169.
FREIXA, J. 2002. La variació terminològica. Anàlisi de la variació denominativa en textos de diferent grau d’especialització de l’àrea de medi ambient. Barcelona: IULA.
GAS, S. 2006. «Language transfer and universal grammar relations». Language Learning 29 (2): 327-344.
GIAMPAPA, F. 2004. «The politics of identity, representation, and the discourse of self-identification: negotiating the periphery and the center». In A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (Eds.), Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts, (pp. 192-218).Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
HAAN, P. de & VAN ESCH, K. 2005. «The development of writing in English and Spanish as foreign languages». Assessing Writing 10: 100-116.
HINKEL, E. 2009. «The effects of essay topics on modal verb uses in L 1 and L 2 academic writing». Journal of Pragmatics 41: 667-683.
HINDS, J. 1987. «Reader versus writer responsibility: a new typology». In U. Connor and R. Kaplan (Eds.), Writing Across Languages: Analysis of L 2 Text. Reading: Addison-Wesley: 141-152.
HYLAND, K. 2005. «Representing readers in writing: Student and expert practices». Linguistics and Education 16: 363-377.
HYLAND, K. 2008. «‘Small bits of textual material’: A discourse analysis of Swales’ writing». English for Specific Purposes 27: 143-160.
HYLAND, K. 2010. «Constructing proximity: Relating to readers in popular and professional science». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 9: 116-127.
HYLAND, K. 2011. «Projecting an academic identity in some reflective genres». Ibérica 21: 9-30.
KUBOTA, R. and Lin, A. 2009. Race, culture, and identities in second language education. London & New York: Routledge.
MORENO, A. I. and SUÁREZ, L. 2008. «A study of critical attitude across English and Spanish academic book reviews». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 7: 15-26.
OZTURK, I. 2007. «The textual organisation of research article introductions in applied linguistics: Variability within a single discipline». English for Specific Purposes 26: 25-38.
QI, X. & LIU, L. 2007. «Differences between reader/writer responsible languages reflected in EFL learners’ writings». Intercultural Communication Sciences XVI-3: 148-159.
RABADÁN, R.; LABRADOR, B. & RAMÓN, N. 2009. «Corpus based contrastive analysis and translation universals». Babel 55 (4): 303-328.
SALAGER-MEYER, F. 2011. «Scientific discourse and contrastive linguistics: explicitness and the concept of reader/writer responsible languages». European Science Editing, 37-3: 71-72.
SAMRAJ, B. 2004. «Discourse features of the student-produced academic research paper: Variation across disciplinary courses». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3: 5-22.
SAMRAJ, B. & MONK, L. 2008. «The statement of purpose in graduate program applications: Genre structure and disciplinary variation». English for Specific Purposes 27: 193-211.
SCHLEEF, E. 2009. «A cross-cultural investigation of German and American academic style». Journal of Pragmatics 41: 1104-1124.
SCOTT, M. 2009. Wordsmith Tools version 5. Liverpool: Lexical Analysis Software.
STOCKHORST, S. [ed.]. 2010. Cultural Transfer throughTranslation. The Circulation of Enlightened Thought in Europe by Means of Translation. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
VILLE-OMETZ, F.; ROYAUTÉ, J. & ZASADZINSKI, A. 2007. «Enhancing in automatic recognition an extraction of term variants with linguistic features». Terminology 13 (1): 35-59.
YAKHONTOVA, T. 2006. «Cultural and disciplinary variation in academic discourse: The issue of influencing factors». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 5: 153-167.
YLI-JOKIPII, H. & JORGENSEN, P. E. F. 2004. «Academic journalese for the Internet: A study of native English-speaking editors’ changes to texts written by Danish and Finish professionals». Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3: 341-359.
Carrió Pastor, M. L. (2015). Mapping the Cultural Interference of Term Variation. CLINA Revista Interdisciplinaria De Traducción Interpretación Y Comunicación Intercultural, 1(1), 29–45. Retrieved from https://revistas.usal.es/dos/index.php/clina/article/view/12896
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