Cultural-Specific Items (CSIs) are words, expressions, references, objects, practices, institutions, or concepts whose meaning is strongly tied to a particular culture and therefore may not have a straightforward equivalent in another language.
They are among the most challenging elements in literary translation because a translator is not merely transferring linguistic meaning but also negotiating cultural meaning, associations, identity, historical context, and literary effect.
In literary translation, CSIs are particularly important because they often contribute to characterization, setting, atmosphere, symbolism, humor, ideology, social relationships, and world-building.
Example
"Ia mengenakan kebaya dan menyelipkan bunga melati di rambutnya."
A literal translation might be: She wore a kebaya and tucked jasmine flowers into her hair.
The words kebaya and melati/jasmine are not simply lexical items. Kebaya invokes Indonesian/Malay cultural dress, while jasmine may carry associations with femininity, weddings, purity, ceremony, or Indonesian cultural symbolism. The translator therefore has to decide how much of this cultural meaning should be retained, explained, adapted, or left for the reader to infer.
1. What Are Cultural-Specific Items?
There is no single universally accepted definition of CSI. Different scholars use somewhat different terminology:
The central idea is similar: an expression is culturally specific when its interpretation depends substantially on knowledge of a particular cultural environment.
A useful working definition is:
"A cultural-specific item is a textual element whose referential, associative, pragmatic, or symbolic meaning is substantially dependent on the source culture and which may therefore create a cultural translation problem for target-language readers."
This definition is broader than simply saying that CSIs are "untranslatable words."
Examples
| Category | Indonesian CSI | Possible English rendering |
|---|---|---|
| Food | rendang | rendang |
| Clothing | kebaya | kebaya |
| Institution | pesantren | Islamic boarding school / pesantren |
| Religion | selamatan | communal thanksgiving ceremony |
| Social relationship | Mbak | Ms./older sister/leave as Mbak |
| Traditional practice | sungkeman | ceremonial gesture of respect |
| Architecture | pendopo | pavilion / pendopo |
| Currency | seribu perak | a thousand rupiah |
| Historical reference | Orde Baru | New Order |
| Mythology | Nyi Roro Kidul | Nyi Roro Kidul |
| Address term | Pak Lurah | village head |
| Cultural object | keris | kris / keris |
| Idiom | besar kepala | big-headed / conceited |
| Humor | culturally specific joke | culturally adapted equivalent |
Notice that some items have lexical equivalents but still remain culturally problematic. For instance, nasi tumpeng → rice cone is linguistically possible, but "rice cone" does not necessarily communicate the cultural practices, symbolism, ceremonial contexts, and social meanings associated with tumpeng. Thus, CSI translation is fundamentally a problem of cultural representation, not just dictionary equivalence.
2. Why Are CSIs Important in Literary Translation?
In technical translation, a culture-specific term may simply represent an obstacle to accurate reference. In literary translation, however, the CSI can perform several functions simultaneously.
Consider:
"Ia duduk bersila di pendopo sambil menunggu adzan Magrib."
The cultural elements include:
- bersila
- pendopo
- adzan
- Magrib
These elements can establish:
2.1 Setting
They locate the story culturally and geographically.
2.2 Character identity
They may tell readers something about the character's social, religious, ethnic, or regional identity.
2.3 Social relationships
Terms such as Pak, Bu, Mbak, Mas, Kiai, and Gus encode relationships and social hierarchy.
2.4 Historical context
References to Orde Baru, reformasi, PKI, or krismon can activate historical knowledge.
2.5 Ideology
A particular choice of cultural term may reflect how a character understands society.
2.6 Symbolism
Objects such as keris, batik, tumpeng, or melati may carry symbolic associations beyond their literal meanings.
2.7 Literary atmosphere
CSIs contribute to the "texture" of a fictional world.
Consequently, excessive domestication can make a culturally Indonesian novel sound as though it were originally written in Britain or America, while excessive foreignization can make the text difficult or opaque for target readers. This tension is central to CSI translation theory.
3. Theoretical Foundations
Several major theoretical traditions are particularly useful for studying CSIs. The most important ones are listed below. Click on any theory card to open a comprehensive breakdown from the source document.
Nida: Formal and Dynamic Equivalence
Explore formal vs. dynamic equivalence, closest natural equivalent, and application to sungkeman.
Newmark: Cultural Categories
Explore Ecology, Material Culture, Social Culture, Organizations, and Gestures/Habits.
Venuti: Domestication and Foreignization
Explore ideological and ethical choices concerning source culture visibility.
Aixelá: Culture-Specific Items & Substitution
Explore Conservation (repetition, glosses) and Substitution strategies (universalization, deletion).
Why Aixelá Is Particularly Useful
Coding framework for empirical research across novels and translation patterns.
Pedersen: Extralinguistic Cultural References
Explore ECRs, Retention, Specification, Direct Translation, and Omission.
Newmark vs. Aixelá vs. Pedersen
Synthesizing multiple frameworks for robust mixed-method research designs.
House: Overt and Covert Translation
Visibly connected source culture vs. naturalized target culture functioning.
Skopos Theory and Functionalism
Understanding translation decisions in relation to purpose (Skopos).
Nord's Functionalism
Examining translation brief, audience, function, loyalty, and literary context.
Toury's Descriptive Translation Studies
Shifting from prescriptive rules to descriptive analysis of actual translation norms.
Baker: Equivalence at Different Levels
Word, above-word, grammatical, textual, and pragmatic equivalence.
Berman: The "Foreign" in Translation
Ethical perspective against ethnocentric erasure of foreignness.
Lefevere: Translation as Rewriting
Influence of ideology, poetics, patronage, and publishing systems.
Polysystem Theory
Translated literature as part of a larger, historically evolving literary system.
20. A Taxonomy of Cultural-Specific Items for Literary Research
For practical literary analysis, a comprehensive taxonomy includes 16 distinct categories:
21 to 35. Strategies, Explanations, Models, and Research Frameworks
21. CSI Translation Strategies
A practical strategy continuum can be represented as: Retention → Explanation → Generalization → Substitution → Adaptation → Omission
Each successive strategy potentially reduces cultural specificity. The appropriate strategy depends on narrative function, readership, translation purpose, genre, publishing conventions, surrounding context, degree of cultural familiarity, and importance of the CSI to characterization or plot.
22. Intratextual vs. Extratextual Explanation
Intratextual explanation: The explanation becomes part of the narrative (e.g., He entered the pesantren, an Islamic boarding school.) — Advantage: does not interrupt reading. Disadvantage: adds information not explicitly present in the original.
Extratextual explanation: The explanation appears in footnotes, endnotes, glossary, or translator's notes — Advantage: preserves the literary text. Disadvantage: interrupts the reader's immersion.
23. Negotiation of Cultural Distance
Source culture ←———————→ Target culture. A translator constantly decides whether an item remains closer to the source or target culture (kebaya → traditional blouse).
24. Denotative vs. Connotative Meaning
Denotative meaning is what an object literally is (keris = dagger). Connotative meaning is what it signifies culturally (masculinity, ancestry, status, Javanese identity). Both must be analyzed in literary CSI translation.
25. CSIs and Characterization
Terms like Mas or Monggo communicate respect, familiarity, age relationships, and interpersonal positioning, acting as characterization devices.
26. CSIs and World-Building
A fictional world is constructed through place names, food, clothing, architecture, and rituals. Removing them results in cultural flattening and loss of ontological texture.
27. CSIs and Ideology
Translation choices have ideological consequences (ulama → cleric vs. Islamic scholar; pesantren → school vs. Islamic boarding school). Lexical choices frame cultural concepts differently.
28 & 29. Integrated Analytical Model & Example
Recommended multi-level model: Level 1 (Identification) → Level 2 (Cultural Classification) → Level 3 (Translation Strategy) → Level 4 (Cultural Orientation) → Level 5 (Functional Effect) → Level 6 (Translation Purpose) → Level 7 (Norms/System).
Example: "Setelah Magrib, mereka berkumpul di pendopo untuk mengikuti selamatan." Retaining Magrib, pendopo, and selamatan preserves setting, religious identity, cultural atmosphere, and social practice as conservation under Aixelá.
30 & 31. Research Framework & "Untranslatability"
Combining Aixelá (strategies), Newmark (domains), Venuti (orientation), Nord/Skopos (function/purpose), and Toury (norms) creates a robust analytical matrix.
CSIs are rarely inherently "untranslatable," but different dimensions of meaning cannot always be transferred simultaneously. The fundamental question is: "Which dimensions of cultural meaning should be retained, transformed, explained, or sacrificed?"
32, 33, 34 & 35. Key Variables, Research Questions, Core Literature & Insight
Key Variables: Source-side (CSI type, frequency), Translation-side (strategy, lexical choice), Contextual (genre, audience), Literary-function (characterization, setting).
Promising Research Questions: Descriptive, Comparative, Functional, Ideological, Diachronic, Translator-centered, and Mixed Framework studies.
Core Literature: Nida (1964), Newmark (1988), Aixelá (1996), Venuti (1995), Baker (1992), Toury (1995), Nord (1997), House, Pedersen, Lefevere (1992), Berman, Even-Zohar.
Central Insight: Translation is not simply choosing between "literal" and "free." CSIs operate simultaneously across lexical, cultural, pragmatic, social, ideological, and literary levels.