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Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu

Translation of perceptual descriptors such as the perceived affective quality attributes in the soundscape standard (ISO/TS 12913–2:2018) is an inherently intricate task, especially if the target language is used in multiple countries. Despite geographical proximity and a shared language of Bahasa M...

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Main Authors: Lam, Bhan, Chieng, Julia, Watcharasupat, Karn N., Ooi, Kenneth, Zhen, Ting Ong, Joo, Young Hong, Woon, Seng Gan
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2022
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/100842/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003682X22003504
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spelling my.upm.eprints.1008422023-08-15T09:02:00Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/100842/ Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu Lam, Bhan Chieng, Julia Watcharasupat, Karn N. Ooi, Kenneth Zhen, Ting Ong Joo, Young Hong Woon, Seng Gan Translation of perceptual descriptors such as the perceived affective quality attributes in the soundscape standard (ISO/TS 12913–2:2018) is an inherently intricate task, especially if the target language is used in multiple countries. Despite geographical proximity and a shared language of Bahasa Melayu (Standard Malay), differences in culture and language education policies between Singapore and Malaysia could invoke peculiarities in the affective appraisal of sounds. To generate provisional translations of the eight perceived affective attributes — eventful, vibrant, pleasant, calm, uneventful, monotonous, annoying, and chaotic — into Bahasa Melayu that is applicable in both Singapore and Malaysia, a binational expert-led approach supplemented by a quantitative evaluation framework was adopted. A set of preliminary translation candidates were developed via a four-stage process, firstly by a qualified translator, which was then vetted by linguistics experts, followed by examination via an experiential evaluation, and finally reviewed by the core research team. A total of 66 participants were then recruited cross-nationally to quantitatively evaluate the preliminary translation candidates. Of the eight attributes, cross-national differences were observed only in the translation of annoying. For instance, menjengkelkan was found to be significantly less understood in Singapore than in Malaysia, as well as less understandable than membingitkan within Singapore. Results of the quantitative evaluation also revealed the imperfect nature of foreign language translations for perceptual descriptors, which suggests a possibility for exploring corrective measures. Elsevier 2022-10 Article PeerReviewed Lam, Bhan and Chieng, Julia and Watcharasupat, Karn N. and Ooi, Kenneth and Zhen, Ting Ong and Joo, Young Hong and Woon, Seng Gan (2022) Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu. Applied Acoustics, 199. art. no. 108976. pp. 1-14. ISSN 0003-682X; ESSN: 1872-910X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003682X22003504 10.1016/j.apacoust.2022.108976
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
building UPM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Putra Malaysia
content_source UPM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://psasir.upm.edu.my/
description Translation of perceptual descriptors such as the perceived affective quality attributes in the soundscape standard (ISO/TS 12913–2:2018) is an inherently intricate task, especially if the target language is used in multiple countries. Despite geographical proximity and a shared language of Bahasa Melayu (Standard Malay), differences in culture and language education policies between Singapore and Malaysia could invoke peculiarities in the affective appraisal of sounds. To generate provisional translations of the eight perceived affective attributes — eventful, vibrant, pleasant, calm, uneventful, monotonous, annoying, and chaotic — into Bahasa Melayu that is applicable in both Singapore and Malaysia, a binational expert-led approach supplemented by a quantitative evaluation framework was adopted. A set of preliminary translation candidates were developed via a four-stage process, firstly by a qualified translator, which was then vetted by linguistics experts, followed by examination via an experiential evaluation, and finally reviewed by the core research team. A total of 66 participants were then recruited cross-nationally to quantitatively evaluate the preliminary translation candidates. Of the eight attributes, cross-national differences were observed only in the translation of annoying. For instance, menjengkelkan was found to be significantly less understood in Singapore than in Malaysia, as well as less understandable than membingitkan within Singapore. Results of the quantitative evaluation also revealed the imperfect nature of foreign language translations for perceptual descriptors, which suggests a possibility for exploring corrective measures.
format Article
author Lam, Bhan
Chieng, Julia
Watcharasupat, Karn N.
Ooi, Kenneth
Zhen, Ting Ong
Joo, Young Hong
Woon, Seng Gan
spellingShingle Lam, Bhan
Chieng, Julia
Watcharasupat, Karn N.
Ooi, Kenneth
Zhen, Ting Ong
Joo, Young Hong
Woon, Seng Gan
Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu
author_facet Lam, Bhan
Chieng, Julia
Watcharasupat, Karn N.
Ooi, Kenneth
Zhen, Ting Ong
Joo, Young Hong
Woon, Seng Gan
author_sort Lam, Bhan
title Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu
title_short Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu
title_full Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu
title_fullStr Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu
title_full_unstemmed Crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to Bahasa Melayu
title_sort crossing the linguistic causeway: a binational approach for translating soundscape attributes to bahasa melayu
publisher Elsevier
publishDate 2022
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/100842/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003682X22003504
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score 13.211869

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