Article

A Corpus-Based Multimodal Approach to the Translation of Restaurant Menus

Details

Citation

Li S (2019) A Corpus-Based Multimodal Approach to the Translation of Restaurant Menus. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 27 (1), pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2018.1483408

Abstract
Translated restaurant menus facilitate tourism and consumerism, but menu translation remains a peripheral area of professional translation and Translation Studies. This has economic consequences, because translations that exclude a dish's ingredients, cooking methods, or cultural associations may deter consumers. This article analyses translated menus featuring Chinese dishes in order to establish the extent to which intersemiotic, image-based approaches are used to complement written translations; the level of consistency with which ingredients and cooking methods are translated; the frequency of culturally-specific dish names that are challenging to translate. Corpus-based methodology is used to compare 3000 Chinese dish names and their translations from China, Taiwan, and abroad. The data reveals very limited intersemiotic translation in existing menus, inconsistent translations of ingredients and cooking methods, and a high percentage of dishes with culturally-specific names. However, these are often omitted in translation, or lack supplementary information concerning their ingredients. It is proposed that a multimodal translation approach incorporating Jakobson’s tripartite theory can enhance menu translation. Menus featuring Pinyin as an intralingual translation can engage learners of Chinese who use this method; interlingual explicitation clarifies a dish's ingredients, cooking methods, and cultural specificity; and intersemiotic, image-based translation conveys culinary artistry more clearly.

Keywords
food label translation; multimodal analysis; restaurant menus; corpus-based; advertising texts; intersemiotic translation

Journal
Perspectives: Studies in Translatology: Volume 27, Issue 1

StatusPublished
FundersAcademy of Medical Sciences
Publication date01/01/2019
Publication date online26/06/2018
Date accepted by journal29/05/2018
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/27465
ISSN0907-676X
eISSN1747-6623

People (1)

People

Dr Saihong Li

Dr Saihong Li

Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies, French