A Study of Translation of Proper Nouns in Socialist Political Manuscripts from Chinese into Thai: A Case Study from Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung
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Abstract
This article aims to study the strategies employed in the translation of proper nouns in Chinese socialist political texts into Thai, using the Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung and its Thai version, San niphon mao choe tung, as a case study. The corpus consists of five geographical names and six personal names that are significant in the political context of China. Three primary strategies were identified: (1) transliteration, the rendering of the pronunciation of personal or place names to closely resemble the original Chinese; (2) semantic translation, particularly when explaining the physical characteristics of geographical features such as rivers and borders; and (3) definite description, which is used to enhance readers’ understanding of a person’s role within a historical context. The findings indicate that effective translation of proper nouns requires integrated knowledge of phonology, semantics, culture, and political context in order to ensure accuracy, clarity, and alignment with Thai readers’ expectations, especially in historical and ideological texts.
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ข้อความรู้ใดๆ ตลอดจนข้อคิดเห็นใดๆ เป็นของผู้เขียนแต่ละท่านโดยเฉพาะ คณะมนุษยศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยนเรศวร และกองบรรณาธิการวารสารมนุษยศาสตร์ฯ ไม่จำเป็นต้องเห็นพ้องด้วย
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