Thesis (M.A. (African languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / The aim of this study was to investigate the problems encountered by translators when translating medical terms from English into Tshivenda. It has been revealed in this study that the major problem that the translators are confronted with is lack of terminology in the specialized field such as Health. This problem is caused by the fact that different languages entail a variety of culture. The study revealed that most translators and lexicographers resort to transliteration and borrowing when confronted with zero-equivalence. They regard transliteration and borrowing as the quickest possible strategies. The study discovered that transliteration should not be opted as an alternative strategy to deal with zero-equivalence as users will be led to a state of confusion. The study revealed that communicative translation is regarded as the most fruitful method of translation as it conveys the exact message of the original in a best possible manner. Both the source and the target users get the same message. KEY CONCEPTS Translation, Culture, Source Language (SL), Target Language (TL), Translation equivalence and Zero-equivalence.

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / This study entails the translation of scientific terms from English into Northern Sotho. The reason one conducted this study is because translators experience difficulties in finding the correct equivalent terms, especially in Northern Sotho. Consequently, borrowing and transliteration of terms becomes their last resort. However, that does not help users of dictionaries to achieve their communicative goal. The study highlights that, the borrowing of terms leads to language shift and death as users no longer consider other equivalents. In addition, the study indicates that the constant usage of the borrowed terms causes the terms to lose meaning and function. The way in which people translate idiomatic expressions is a huge problem as well. Mostly, people end up using literal translation and subsequently, the whole meaning of a text is lost or misunderstood.

This Master's thesis is focused on zero equivalence in legal texts. The theoretical part deals with technical text and legal language in general. Legal Spanish is characterized and compared to the legal Czech. Translation of the legal language is described along with some obstacles that may be associated with it. At the end of the theoretical part, there are several findings summarized, and the methodology for the practical part is delineated. In the practical part the reader is acquainted with the concept of equivalence and functional equivalence. Equivalence is divided into absolute, partial, and zero equivalence. The following chapters are concerned with the translation of the terminology with zero equivalence, specifically translation methods, strategies and stages. Furthermore, several legal terms are selected and evaluated on the basis of their equivalence. The terms are searched in order to discover their occurrences and counterparts in dictionaries, legal text databases and parallel corpus. Moreover, their possible translation is proposed and applied translation strategies named. The aim of the thesis is to define legal terminology with zero equivalence and provide the classification of the translational strategies that are frequently applied in translation of this kind of lexicon.