Ideology and Cultural Bias in the Representation of Culture-Specific Words in English-Urdu Bilingual Dictionaries

Abstract

The current study investigates the ways in which culture-specific words have been represented in English-Urdu bilingual dictionaries and how the dictionary entry represents the cultural meaning. Language and culture are interconnected, and a large number of words have meanings that are embedded in social traditions, religious practices and values. These words may present problems of translation since they do not convey their true cultural context. The present study centers on the selected culture specific words extracted from two commonly used bilingual dictionaries, namely (1) Oxford English Urdu Dictionary (2) Rekhta English Urdu Dictionary. The study is a qualitative type of study. Data collection involves semi-structured interviews with students, teachers and bilingual dictionaries users who work with them on a regular basis for learning and translation. The participants' answers are analyzed using thematic analysis to detect themes on cultural representation, translation problems and the effectiveness of the dictionary. In conclusion, the results show that bilingual dictionaries do not adequately explain the cultural background of the words and mostly offer short or literal translations. This consequently leads to a miss-understanding of the emotional, religious and cultural interpretations of culture-specific expressions by users. The study underlines the significance of culturally sensitive lexicographic practices and suggests that the bilingual dictionary should contain context explanations, cultural notes and usage examples. This research will be helpful for translation studies, lexicography and cultural linguistics as it focuses on the role of bilingual dictionaries as linguistic tools and also as a bridge between cultures.