The use of context to determine the meaning of words, as demonstrated by the translation of Thai idioms that always requires cultural knowledge and translation strategies

Abstract

           This academic paper discusses the use of context to determine the meaning of words, as demonstrated by the translation of Thai idioms that always requires cultural knowledge and translation strategies. This paper is divided into 3 topics as follows 1) Contextual word definitions and language translation. 2) the necessity of Cultural understanding for translating idioms from English to Thai 3) the method to apply the appropriate translation strategies to translate Thai idioms. In order to collect the information and examples for this academic paper, the author reviewed the literature relating to language principles and linguistics, including the perspectives on the necessity of understanding the culture and origins of idioms in both Thai and foreign languages. The author suggested five strategies that translators can use to translate Thai idioms effectively, including 1) an equivalence strategy that compares idioms to other idioms between the source language and the target language whose meanings are the same; 2) strategies for semantic equivalence with the translation that express the original meaning of the text using new words, and 3) strategies for translating idioms verbatim only when ensuring that the reader in the target language will understand them; 4) text-shortening translation strategy; 5) adding descriptions to idioms to clarify their meaning in interpretation strategy. In addition, the author found that no specific translation strategy works best for translating Thai idioms. Rather, several different translation strategies can be used. The translator must choose the most effective strategy for the translation regardless of whether the source text contains any idioms or unusual wording. When adapting a text to its native linguistic environment, it may be essential to combine several strategies.