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Crossing the Linguistic Causeway: A Binational Approach for Translating Soundscape Attributes to Bahasa Melayu

Bhan Lam, Julia Chieng, Karn N. Watcharasupat, Kenneth Ooi, Zhen-Ting Ong, Joo Young Hong, Woon-Seng Gan

TL;DR

This study tackles cross-national translation of ISO PAQ attributes from English to Standard Malay (zsm) across Singapore and Malaysia, investigating intercultural validity of soundscape descriptors. It builds a binational translation workflow (Stage 1 of SATP) with semantic, experiential, and adjudicative steps, followed by a quantitative evaluation using a circumplex model to assess main-axis and derived-axis attributes. The analysis reveals cross-national differences primarily for the annoyance attribute (menjengkelkan vs membingitkan) and raises concerns about the circumplex consistency of zsm translations, suggesting calibration needs. The work provides provisional zsm translations for all eight PAQ attributes and demonstrates a data-driven method to harmonize cross-country linguistic and perceptual differences in soundscape assessment. It has practical implications for multi-country soundscape research and the development of culturally valid perceptual descriptors in Malay-speaking contexts.

Abstract

Translation of perceptual descriptors such as the perceived affective quality attributes in the soundscape standard (ISO/TS 12913-2:2018) is an inherently intricate task, especially if the target language is used in multiple countries. Despite geographical proximity and a shared language of Bahasa Melayu (Standard Malay), differences in culture and language education policies between Singapore and Malaysia could invoke peculiarities in the affective appraisal of sounds. To generate provisional translations of the eight perceived affective attributes -- eventful, vibrant, pleasant, calm, uneventful, monotonous, annoying, and chaotic -- into Bahasa Melayu that is applicable in both Singapore and Malaysia, a binational expert-led approach supplemented by a quantitative evaluation framework was adopted. A set of preliminary translation candidates were developed via a four-stage process, firstly by a qualified translator, which was then vetted by linguistics experts, followed by examination via an experiential evaluation, and finally reviewed by the core research team. A total of 66 participants were then recruited cross-nationally to quantitatively evaluate the preliminary translation candidates. Of the eight attributes, cross-national differences were observed only in the translation of annoying. For instance, "menjengkelkan" was found to be significantly less understood in Singapore than in Malaysia, as well as less understandable than "membingitkan" within Singapore. Results of the quantitative evaluation also revealed the imperfect nature of foreign language translations for perceptual descriptors, which suggests a possibility for exploring corrective measures.

Crossing the Linguistic Causeway: A Binational Approach for Translating Soundscape Attributes to Bahasa Melayu

TL;DR

This study tackles cross-national translation of ISO PAQ attributes from English to Standard Malay (zsm) across Singapore and Malaysia, investigating intercultural validity of soundscape descriptors. It builds a binational translation workflow (Stage 1 of SATP) with semantic, experiential, and adjudicative steps, followed by a quantitative evaluation using a circumplex model to assess main-axis and derived-axis attributes. The analysis reveals cross-national differences primarily for the annoyance attribute (menjengkelkan vs membingitkan) and raises concerns about the circumplex consistency of zsm translations, suggesting calibration needs. The work provides provisional zsm translations for all eight PAQ attributes and demonstrates a data-driven method to harmonize cross-country linguistic and perceptual differences in soundscape assessment. It has practical implications for multi-country soundscape research and the development of culturally valid perceptual descriptors in Malay-speaking contexts.

Abstract

Translation of perceptual descriptors such as the perceived affective quality attributes in the soundscape standard (ISO/TS 12913-2:2018) is an inherently intricate task, especially if the target language is used in multiple countries. Despite geographical proximity and a shared language of Bahasa Melayu (Standard Malay), differences in culture and language education policies between Singapore and Malaysia could invoke peculiarities in the affective appraisal of sounds. To generate provisional translations of the eight perceived affective attributes -- eventful, vibrant, pleasant, calm, uneventful, monotonous, annoying, and chaotic -- into Bahasa Melayu that is applicable in both Singapore and Malaysia, a binational expert-led approach supplemented by a quantitative evaluation framework was adopted. A set of preliminary translation candidates were developed via a four-stage process, firstly by a qualified translator, which was then vetted by linguistics experts, followed by examination via an experiential evaluation, and finally reviewed by the core research team. A total of 66 participants were then recruited cross-nationally to quantitatively evaluate the preliminary translation candidates. Of the eight attributes, cross-national differences were observed only in the translation of annoying. For instance, "menjengkelkan" was found to be significantly less understood in Singapore than in Malaysia, as well as less understandable than "membingitkan" within Singapore. Results of the quantitative evaluation also revealed the imperfect nature of foreign language translations for perceptual descriptors, which suggests a possibility for exploring corrective measures.
Paper Structure (23 sections, 5 equations, 3 figures, 4 tables)

This paper contains 23 sections, 5 equations, 3 figures, 4 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Methods
  3. Data collection method
  4. Participants
  5. Quantitative evaluation methodology
  6. Data analysis
  7. Preliminary translations: Stages 1a to 1d
  8. Stage 1a: Semantic translation (initial translations)
  9. Stage 1b: Focus group discussion (exploratory translations)
  10. Stage 1c: Experiential evaluation (preparatory translations)
  11. Stage 1d: Committee review (preliminary translations)
  12. Stage 1e: quantitative evaluation (provisional translations)
  13. Main axes
  14. Derived Axes
  15. Discussion
  16. ...and 8 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Circumplex model of soundscape attributes from ISO/TS 12913-2:2018 iso12913-2 with relational terms introduced in Watcharasupat2022. Reproduced from Watcharasupat2022.
  • Figure 2: Mean scores of the my-only main (a) and derived axes (b), and sg-only main (c) and derived (d) axes of the participants in stage 1e. Criteria scores of appropriateness (appr), understandability (undr), clarity (clar), antonymity (anto), orthogonality (orth), non-connotativeness (ncon), and implicative balance (ibal) were computed for the provisional translations of main axis; and appr, undr, clar, ibal and connotativeness (conn) for the provisional translations of derived axis attributes.
  • Figure 3: Mean scores of all participants in stage 1e across appropriateness (appr), understandability (undr), clarity(clar), antonymity (anto), orthogonality (orth), non-connotativeness (ncon), and implicative balance (ibal) for the provisional translations of main axis (left); and appr, undr, clar, ibal and connotativeness (conn) for the provisional translations of derived axis attributes (right).