Exploring Coherence among Sri Lankan CFL Learners in Chinese-English Translation : Decoding and Interpreting of Culture-loaded Content

Modern translation has shifted from its traditional approach of merely translating linguistic features towards a more culturally sensitive approach, which further considers the sociolinguistic spaces of the source text in producing the target text. This significant theoretical transformation has demanded the translator to play a more comprehensive role, which involves intercultural and sociolinguistic competencies apart from language competence. Subsequently, maintaining cohesion and coherence within and among texts also demands a heavier effort from the translator with neologisms being created frequently. The present study has been an attempt to identify the core issues pertaining to lexical coherence in translating from Chinese sources in Sri Lankan context using sample texts translated by Sri Lankan CFL (Chinese as a Foreign Language) learners. 20 culture-loaded lexical items were examined for coherence using a plagiarism checker and compared with Google and Baidu translation outputs of the source text. The results manifest that there is significant coherence among the target texts but coherence is a result of excessive use of machine translation, especially Google translate(?=94.67). 5-10 clusters were the most frequent clusters with an average of 21.73 clusters. < 10 word clusters have recorded an average of 19.07 whereas> 5 word clusters have recorded an average of 12.60.The highest number of clusters is recorded in text 5 with 44 clusters of <10 words. The highest number of translated variants of the same cultural term of the selected word list (n=20) is 4 while 70% (n=14) of the selected terms were only translated into either 1 or 2 variants. While machine translation is perceived as a constructive instrument under proper management, vigilant use of footnotes and end notes is perceived as a viable solution for reducing misinterpretation, vagueness and confusion in translating culture-loaded lexical items.

between language and culture is not simple and needs to be perceived from an interactive dialectical process.
Traditional perspective of the role of culture in foreign language education has largely been characterized as either an objective native culture (C1) or target culture (C2) which has overlooked the fact that what we call 'culture' is largely a social construct (Kramsch, 1993, p. 205;Yassin et al., 2020).The concepts of language and culture have undergone significant transformations during recent decades along with increased migration, technological advancements and developments in foreign relations etc. influences. Global communication networks are paradoxical which promote alienation by reduction of face-to-face contact and on the other hand by providing a nexus of connectivity (Kramsch and Thorne, 2002, p. 85).
With the aforementioned limited awareness of 'otherness', translating and interpreting across cultures demands a deeper insight into the sociolinguistic aspects of both source and target languages in order to define unfamiliar concepts of the donor language using native language and vice-versa (Mohammed et al., 2018;Yassin & Razak, 2018). Translation as a means of intercultural communication is also a very popular area of research, however along with the novel perspectives on the concept of culture, the role of translation in intercultural communication also needs to be redefined (House, 2015, p. 37). Whether texts could be translated overlooking the cultural domain and whether or not culture should be translated are issues of controversy. In the early stages of translation theory before the dawn of 19 th Century, the key concerns were the linguistic and semantic aspects of texts but in contemporary translation theory, source and target cultures are considered equally important (Al-Hassan, 2013, p. 97).
Although recent studies dealt with various issues of teaching Chinese in Sri Lanka, the common purpose of most of these studies have been concentrated on classroom teaching, yet Chinese-Sinhala-English translation and the role of culture in intercultural communication with China have been rarely systematically analyzed. Considering the discrepancies between Sri Lankan and Chinese cultures, misinterpretation and neglecting of native Chinese concepts occurs frequently in teaching as well as in general communication. The present study attempts to explore the cohesion among Sri Lankan CFL learners in perception and interpretation of culture-loaded language content utilizing their translation work as primary data. The study draws conclusions by examining how much Machine Translation is involved in producing the target texts.

LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1.Culture in Translation
As clearly stated by Babaee et al. (2014, p. 14), translation in the present-day context extends well beyond word-for-word translation and is approached as a 'cultural product that aims at reproduction of meaning and communication'. They further propose that the diversity of languages and cultures and the significance assigned to communication have resulted in translation becoming an influential factor in exchanging cultural differences. Xu (2021Xu ( , p. 1209) also perceives translation as a tool of cultural communication which enables humans to exchange their thoughts and feelings, disseminate cultural knowledge and promote social civilization. According to Horváthfutó and Hózsa (2016, p. 12), the role of a translator could be observed as intercultural communication since a translator transcodes the culture for the source-language recipient. Translators have to be very careful of the cultural elements which are omnipresent in any language at any level and prior to defining anything in language as 'culture-free' or 'universal', a 'non-cultural explanation' should be tried. (Bernárdez, 2013) The role of translation has taken several significant paradigm shifts which have transformed the objectives of conducting translation, its process and the outlook of the final product. At the beginning of the establishment of translation theory and translation studies, the cultural domain was not regarded imperative. By the end of the 1980s translation studies have taken a shift which is often referred to as "the Cultural Turn", in which translation was no longer considered as simply a linguistic process but as a process that involves intercultural communication and interaction (Ezzoubeyr & Benlakder, 2019, p. 1085. The term 'Cultural Turn' refers to the shift from translation as text to translation as culture and politics, advocated by Zohar and Toury who dismissed the linguistic type theories on translation (Braçaj, 2015, p. 476). Novel studies into culture and translation need to concentrate on the ways that cultures undergo globalization. Owing to modern-day trends in digitalization and migration situations, cultures can no longer be considered as 'endogenously united wholes'. (Kharmandar, 2017, p. 143) Braçaj (2014proposes that the role of translation in making a culture universal and general is of paramount importance and translation acts as a bridge to communicate all kinds of languages, especially those share similar characteristics provided that their linguistic features and cultural customs are all part of the world. The process of translation does not merely limit to direct translation of words, but involves translation of as many layers of meaning as possible for which language competency alone would not suffice. (Choi et al., 2012, p. 656) Translation of words encoding cultural information is challenging since they involve cultural knowledge and a cultural background, and literal translation may not prove effective since culture-loaded words do not have the same semantic range in source and target languages (Negro Alousque, 2009, p. 138). As claimed by Huang et al. (2020, p. 58), cultural terms are linguistic signs by nature and thus demands conformity with linguistic rules in translation. They further claim that linguistic rules may offer insights into translating cultural terms.
Adaptation is the most prominent method used in translating culture which could be viewed mainly from two perspectives, namely domestication and foreignization. However, the effectiveness of employing these two techniques depends on the way they are manipulated by the translator. Shan (2021, p. 39), claims that domestication can convey the original meaning accurately which can also avoid polysemy or ambiguity. However, whether domestication is accurate in every context is a matter of controversy. As stated by Tiwiyanti (2018, p. 242), the main focus of domestication is on easy understanding in which the target audience will not face difficulties in dealing with the cultural disparities between the target and source texts.
As claimed by Ambrosiani (2012, p.86), the term 'foregnization' refers to a circumstance where a source text linguistic expression is considered as 'foreign' which is translated into the target text as a 'domestic' entry. Yang (2010, p. 79) proposes that the formal features of the source text is preserved and the readers are exposed to the source language culture in foreignization, however, an information overload will caused to the reader with the alien cultural images and linguistic features. Indic transliterations produced through early Buddhist sutra translations are in evidence of Yang's proposition. Although a considerable number of Indic loanwords were transliterated into Chinese, majority of these loanwords were not absorbed into modern Chinese except for a handful of words such as 夜叉yèchā : yaksa, 罗汉luóhàn: arhat, 禅那chán nà:dhyana，佛陀fótuó: Buddha，释迦牟尼shì jiā móu ní : Shakyamuni，僧伽sēng jiā :samgha，舍利shèlì: Sri.In foreignization of translation, the target culture and target language become key repositories and the manner in which one renders foreign origin visible is limited to those possibilities accessible in the target system (Koskinen, 2012, p. 15). Domestication, which in general, is referred to as Sinicization in Chinese, was a prominent method used in localizing loanwords in Chinese which is perceptible in Buddhist sutra translation from Indic languages into Chinese. In fact, both Sinicization and foreignization were recurrently used throughout the history of sutra translation in China. Transliterations, free translations, phono-semantic matchings and neologisms are the four major categories of Indic loanwords produced through sutra translation (Zhu, 2014, p. 17-19).As claimed by Wang (2014Wang ( , p. 2424, foreignization and domestication could also be considered as extensions of the discussion on freetranslation and literal translation.

2.2.Translating Transformations of Chinese Culture
With a history of over 5000 years and a profound diversity in ethnicity, religion, customs and traditions spread over a vast geographical landscape, the culture of China becomes the center of East Asian civilization. According to Mazur-Kajta (2020, p. 457), the concept of harmony in China could only be accurately understood in its Chinese and not necessarily wellsuited in its Western conceptualization. There are many other special cultural characteristics of China which are not tangible to the generic sense such as the Chinese language and its orthography. There exists a perception among Chinese translation scholars that the Western principles of translation are not fit for Chinese translation (Pellatt et al., 2014, p. 3).
Chinese language itself poses challenges for the translator in multiple aspects. It has been a question whether the Chinese concept of the word in its western sense is absolutely parallel to the concept of Chinese character. As claimed by Pellatt et al. (2014, p. 2), the 'visual' nature of Chinese characters are capable of making the meaning directly accessible visually. Their proposition makes sense in several aspects since the logograms in Chinese language are identified visually even by foreign language learners after they gain a considerable level of proficiency. Secondly, the relationship between Chinese characters and their sound is a complex and a controversial one (Wei & Hua, 2019, p. 3).Thus, the difficulty in acquiring Chinese phonetics may compel foreign language learners to develop form-meaning associations in their brains than sound meaning associations.
Figurative speech and rhetoric of Chinese language also pose challenges to the translator like in any other language but in a higher magnitude. As claimed by Wicaksono & Wahyuni (2018, p. 46),a translator may face exceptional challenges by special culture-bound terms in idioms which may both contain literal and figurative meanings. Kovács (2016, p. 61), states that even experienced and acknowledged translators who may possess extensive knowledge of target language and target culture may not match with the innate capabilities of a native speaker in terms of context, typology and timing of using idioms. Ali Al Mubarak (2017, p. 53) claims that in translating idiomatic expressions, the translator is to possess a fair knowledge of both source and target languages as well as cultures attached to them, in addition to the skills of distinguishing and choosing among most identical pairs of idioms.
Although Chinese culture has absorbed features of many foreign cultures, most of these foreign features have undergone Sinicization and have undergone adaptations with a Chinese essence. In this sense, it is important to identify the key milestones of cultural transformations in China. The first ever linguistically important cultural transformation would be the introduction of Buddhism into China in Eastern Han Dynasty which had a significant impact on Chinese language. As claimed by Ch'en (1964, p. 471), even after the decline of Buddhism in China, it continued to exert a multifaceted influence on many aspects of Chinese life including Chinese thought, language art and science.
The most significant influencers behind the transformation of Chinese Buddhist culture are the native Chinese doctrines, namely Taoism and Confucianism. Despite the continuous struggle for existence, overshadowing each other and survival, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism harmoniously coexisted throughout the history of China. In the 4 th Century, Confucians disdained the Buddhists' leaving their family to attain supreme bliss and even demanded Buddhists that they abide by to the hierarchy of 'worldly authority' by paying respect to the political authority such as the emperor or high officials (Meulenbeld, 2019, p. 11). As claimed by Poceski (2014, p. 40), Buddhism shared common social and cultural spaces with other doctrines, largely with Confucianism, Taoism and popular religion in China and these philosophies not only coexisted with each other but they also engaged in a complex web of interactions with each other and exerted influence on each other. It is of paramount importance for a Sri Lankan translator to be aware of these transformations in Chinese Buddhism and Buddhist culture since Buddhist terminology is frequently used in Sri Lankan tourism and culture relations with China.
The transformation of modern Chinese society could be analyzed in relation to two focal turning points. The first is the transformation of Chinese society from its imperial rule into socialist movement after the last emperor of China renounced the throne in 1912. Chaurasia (2004, p. 127) claims that the need for rapid radical changes in 'ideas' and 'ideals' was triggered by China's humiliating defeat at the hands of the Japanese and spoliations by imperialist western powers. The dramatic transformation from the imperial rule into socialist governance lead by Mao Zedong or most commonly known as Chairman Mao led to many socio-cultural changes. One of the most significant mandates was the new marriage law adapted from the soviet models in 1920s (Tsang, 2015, p. 4).
It is of paramount importance to be aware of the socio-political changes of China when translating cultural terms in Chinese sources since such changes have had a direct impact on the socio-linguistic features. For example, the Cultural Revolution driven by Maoists in 1966 had a significant impact on the transformation of Chinese culture and language. The Cultural Revolution enforced the extinguishing of the "four olds", namely old customs, culture, habits and ideas. These "four olds" which embodied traditional Confucian principles were denounced as being feudal (Kraus, 2012, p. 44). The second focal watershed was the 'reform and open up' movement of 1978 which had multifaceted impacts on Chinese society. As claimed by Jacka et al. (2013, p. 19), Deng Xiaoping sought to take a shift from the rigid ideologies of Mao rule by taking a more pragmatic approach towards establishment of socialism. This resulted in the broadening of the impact of Indo-European languages on Chinese and a large number of Western loanwords were introduced into Chinese. Although western ideologies remained largely inaccessible to the Chinese people during the period from 1949 up to Cultural Revolution under the strict control of Mao rule, Western feminist ideologies regained access to China after 1980s after the 'reform and open up' movements. The economic reforms and the emergence of liberal thoughts increased the self-awareness of Chinese women (Yu, 2020, p. 310). These ideological shifts have had a significant impact on Chinese language and it is of paramount importance for a translator to be aware of such changes.
As claimed by Kharmandar (2017, p. 143), new approaches into research on culture and translation need to concentrate on how globalizing cultures are undergoing fragmentation and owing to the recent trends in technological advancements and migrant situations, cultures can no longer be treated as endogenous wholes. The modern translator's role extends well beyond the perception of a traditional translator who merely translates between languages with linguistic features becoming the key concern. Contemporary role of translation demands meticulous attention on socio-linguistic features of the Source Language and the Target Language as well as their transformations.

3.1.Instruments and data collection
Translation works of 15 undergraduate students were used as primary data of the present study. All the informants were undergraduate students who had studied Chinese culture for more than 120 direct contact hours. The source text consisted of two passages, one on the production of Chinese silk and another on Chinese tea culture which consisted of 1253 Chinese characters. The sample texts had been translated into either Sinhala or English depending on the preference and L2 competence of informants.

3.2.Data Analysis
Besides the overall comparison of source and target texts, 20 culture-loaded characters and phrases were compared in the source texts and the target texts. A Convergence Model Triangulation method (Fielding, 2012) was utilized as the key data analysis instrument. Key conclusions were drawn after both qualitative and quantitative data were separately analyzed and as the final step, the results were compared with each other. An in-depth study of existing literature on translating culture from a generic point of view and translating Chinese culture specifically was conducted.
Statistical data was analyzed using SPSS Statistics 21.  The total word count of Google Translate and Baidu Translate differs from each other just by 8 words with the former having a total of 899 words and the latter comprising of 891 words. From table 2 it could be inferred that most informants are most likely to have resorted to Google Translate with an average of 54.1matchesthan Baidu Translate which has an average of 43.5 matches. There are five cases of mismatches between Google Translate and Baidu Translate outputs of the selected lexical items (n=20). Out of the total of 15 translations, there are 7 perfect matches with Google and the total match rate is 94.67%. The minimum match rate is 80% and 73.3% of the sample texts record a match rate above 90%. There are no perfect matches with Baidu Translate output and the minimum and maximum are recorded as 90% and 66.67% respectively. Figure 1 demonstrates the number of > 5, 5-10 and < 10 word cluster matches in each text with Google Translate. 5-10 clusters were the most frequent clusters with an average of 21.73 clusters and < 10 word clusters have recorded an average of 19.07 and > 5 word clusters have recorded an average of 12.60. The largest word cluster matches are found in TT4 which has one 26 word cluster, one 25 word cluster and two 15 word clusters. TT5 accounts for the largest number of clusters with 44clusters of < 10 words. As claimed by Lau et al. (2004, p. 129)cultural factors may affect the feasibility and quality of machine translation and one of the key drawbacks of machine translation is that 'context' is not considered in translation. In TT1 the following phrase not only consists of grammatical errors but also the cultural connotations are not accurately communicated by it.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1.Results of the Data Analysis
'……the silk is also enriched and which are mainly divided into three categories; they are silk fabric, silk and brocade.' In this sentence, the words 'silk fabric, silk and brocade' are used to refer to the words 绢juàn、绮qǐ、 and 锦jǐn respectively. Although the first two are translated as silk fabric and silk, they do not convey the accurate meaning of the characters they represent. The character 绢juàn is used to refer to silk thin and tough fabric woven from raw silk. The word绮qǐ is used to specifically refer to silk fabrics with flowers etc. patterns. Two informants have translated the character绮 with its pinyin transcription Qi and others have used translations such as 'open work silk' and 'figured woven silk'.
Similarly, the word海量 has been misinterpreted by 83.3% (n=25) of the informants. The literal meaning of the word could be inferred as either 'magnanimity' or 'massive' but the contextual meaning is the 'capacity' to take a lot of alcohol. The word 二道茶èr dào chá which literally translates into 'second infusion tea' refers to the second round of tea served from the same tea leaves as the first round which is called头道水tóu dào shuǐ. Most Chinese people believe that头道水'first infusion tea' to be so immature that they quickly pour it off without drinking it (Miller, 1984, p. 69).
The term 八宝茶Eight Diagram Tea has also been translated as Eight Treasures Tea. However, it is a question whether the meaning of such words are fully understood by the translator since such comprehensive understanding would demand familiarity with Chinese tea culture through firsthand experience in China. The term 花茶 has also been translated into two forms as flower tea and scented tea, of which the former is not found at least as a suggestion in either Google Translate or Baidu Translate. But the terms flower tea and flowering tea are quite often used in various types of articles, books and in TCFL material.

Exploring Coherence among Sri Lankan CFL Learners in Chinese-English Translation: Decoding and Interpreting of Culture-loaded Content
From Table 3 it could be inferred that the highest number of variants in translation of the selected word list (n=20) is 4, which has also occurred only in one case. The most common number of variants is 1 and most words of this category are either proper names or words with widely accepted translations such as black tea, green tea, Ming and Qing dynasties and Spring and Autumn Period.

DISCUSSION
As claimed by Huang et al. (2020, p. 66) translating culture-loaded terms is a complex form of sign transformation taking into account its conceptual, linguistic, and cultural peculiarities, and shown in the process of intralingual, interlingual, and intersemiotic sign interpretation.The level of complexity in translating from Chinese sources is made more complex by the specific linguistic features of Chinese language such as its orthography. Results of the present study offer several significant insights and implications into the context of translating from Chinese sources in teaching Chinese as a foreign language in Sri Lanka.
As validated by the data analysis, it is clear that there is significant consistency and coherence among the target texts produced by the 15 informants. However, results from the duplicate verification test demonstrate the extent of the use of Machine Translation (MT) by the informants. The analysis of the sample texts clearly manifest that the informants have excessively utilized machine translation in producing the target texts. It is clear that the use of machine translation has been proved less effective especially in the context of translating culture-loaded content. As claimed by Sekhri (2019, p. 258), translation is an act of taking the source text with all its linguistic, cultural and aesthetic attributes as well as the sensitivity that it encompasses. This demands adaptation from a variety of aspects and machine translation (MT) can never replace human translation mainly because creativity will be lost in the target text.  Table 3 Analysis of the selected culture-loaded words (n=20)

International Journal of Language and Literary Studies
However, machine translation better not be considered completely ineffective in translating culture-loaded content for several reasons. From a broader perspective, the replacement of large paper-bound dictionaries by machine translation tools not only have made translation more convenient, they also have reduced the lengthy time that paper-bound dictionaries demand for browsing meanings and synonyms for terminology. Further, as clearly stated by Henisz-Dostert et al. (2011, p. 196), redundancy of lengthy publication processes and the ease of constant updating are two of the most significant advantages of machine translation in contrast to traditional paper-bound dictionaries which obviously cannot keep up with the rapid developments and changes in scientific fields. Secondly, and most importantly, although English is the most widely used second language in Sri Lanka, despite the strenuous efforts by the government to enhance English language skills of Sri Lankan learners, most students in Sri Lanka are still struggling with English which has a direct impact on translation skills of students in other foreign languages too. Thus, Machine Translation has become an indispensable method in modern-day translation.
Although most translations of foreign words may convey the general meaning of them, there is no guarantee that they may convey the complete meaning of culture-loaded words or they may or may not be understood by the target reader. Thus, there are many situations in which a mere translation would not be sufficient which is where the use of footnotes may prove useful. None of the informants have used footnotes, endnotes or annotations in their translations for terms that are difficult to be translated into a single word in the target language. Regardless of whether footnotes in a translation perform an explanatory, expository or performative function, they also help translators, by effectively making them more visible. Nevertheless, the use of footnotes in translation has to be carefully managed by the translator in a way that footnotes do not disrupt the natural flow of the text and does not distract the reader from the important key elements. As claimed by Landers (2001, p. 93), a target text that includes footnotes in the absence of the same in the source text is a 'warped reflection'. Lander further proposes that footnotes destroy the mimetic effect of the text.
As claimed by Alsariera & Yunus (2021, p. 122), for a better understanding of textual organization, the learners must inculcate in themselves the ability to understand the different roles of lexical cohesion mechanics and they further conclude that for efficient production of more coherent and effective writing, appropriate and accurate employment of the various cohesive ties is fundamental. Maintaining lexical cohesion and coherence in a translated text, especially in texts with an abundance of culture-loaded terms, is a challenging task. However, excessive and extensive use of translation tools could do more harm than good to both the translator and the target text since it limits the translators lexical processing skills as well as creativity. Thus, cohesion and coherence should be achieved in a translated text through effective management, manipulation and selection of lexical items by a translator's cognitive space than totally depending on an external non-human entity.

CONCLUSIONS
Decoding and interpreting culture-loaded content is a challenging task for a translator irrespective of what languages the translator works with, or what language competency the translator possesses. Apart from transmitting the surface level meanings of the source text, a translator is expected to be able to decode, interpret and finally translate the implied meanings behind lexical items which are infused with specific socio-cultural information. In addition, a translator also has to ensure lexical cohesion and coherence in translation in order to ensure a smooth flow of information within and among texts. The present study was aimed at exploring coherence among Sri Lankan CFL learners in translating from Chinese sources into their second language English. The results of the empirical data analysis clearly manifest that there is clear coherence among the 15 texts produced by the informants. The statistical analysis