After Babel: Language and the Fundamental Challenges of Comparative Aging Research
After Babel: Language and the Fundamental Challenges of Comparative Aging Research
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DOI：
10.1007/s10823-013-9197-2
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发表时间：
2013-09-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Angel, Ronald J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Angel, Ronald J.
在多个国家或一个国家内不同语言群体之间进行的对比调查研究的迅速增长，重新引起了人们对翻译问题的关注。比较法研究者面临的根本问题是语言的复杂性和主观性，以及在不同的语言、文化和社会阶层背景下，概念的完全等值原则上可能是不可能实现的。然而，语言仍然是收集有关主观状态、价值观和信仰的信息的唯一媒介。这种语言和它所指的主观结构受到广泛的文化和社会因素的影响。这一事实对比较老龄化研究具有特别的相关性，因为老年人往往只会说一种母语，与年轻人相比，他们更多地与传统文化联系在一起。本文回顾了与语言和交际的本质有关的基本问题，并探讨了真正科学的翻译过程的可能性。报告概述了目前的最佳做法，并提出了与使用经翻译的调查工具收集的信息的普遍做法有关的问题，这种做法假定信息反映了一个可比较和可量化的潜在结构。
The rapid growth in comparative survey research carried out in multiple countries, or among different language communities within a single nation, has given rise to a renewed concern with problems of translation. The fundamental problem facing the comparative survey researcher relates to the complexity and subjectivity of language, and the fact that complete equivalence of concepts in different linguistic, cultural, and social class contexts may be in principle impossible to achieve. Yet language remains the only medium through which information concerning subjective states, values, and beliefs can be collected. That language and the subjective constructs to which it refers are influenced by a wide range of cultural and social factors. This fact has particular relevance for comparative aging research since older individuals are often monolingual in their native languages and more tied to traditional cultures than younger individuals. This paper consists of a review of basic issues related to the nature of language and communication, and discusses the possibility of a truly scientific translation process. It outlines current best practices, and also raises questions related to the common practice of using information collected with translated survey instruments in ways that assume it reflects a comparable and quantifiable latent construct.