文化含义词的翻译.docx

文化含义词的翻译.docx

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文化含义词的翻译

ONTRANSLATIONOFCULTURALLY-LOADEDWORDS

By

DingZhen

June,2010

XiaoganUniversity

Abstract

TranslationisthecommunicationbetweentwodifferentculturesaswellasbetweenEnglishandChineselanguage.Culturally-loadedwordsreflectthehistory,politicalsystem,geographicallocation,religiousbelief,socialcustomsandvaluesystemofcertainculture.Itishardtoachievecompleteequivalenceintermsofculturally-loadedwords,whichthusbecomethemainobstacleininterculturalcommunication.Itissignificanttotranslateculturally-loadedwords.Thepaperaimstoexploretranslatingstrategiesofculture-loadedwordsonthebasisoftheclassificationofsuchwordsbyZhouZhipeiandtheFunctionalEquivalenceraisedbyEugeueA.Nida.Byshiftingthefocusoftranslationtheoryfromthetraditionaldisputeabouttheformversuscontentandliteralversusfreetotheissueofreceptors’response,FunctionalEquivalencemakecontributionstothetheoryandpracticeoftranslating,whichessentiallyappliestoculturally-loadedwordstranslation.Itputsemphasisonthespiritandmeaningoftheoriginalinthereceptorlanguageaswellaspreservationoftheformaspossibleasthetranslatorcan,thusreproducinginthereceptorlanguageintheclosestnaturalequivalenceofthesource-languagemessage.Therenderingisnotmerelyunderstandableandacceptableanditretainstheculturalcharacteristicsasmuchaspossiblebutalsoachievesthesubstantiallythesamereaders’responseintarget-languagetextasoriginalreceptors.Sothetranslationofculturally-loadedwordswillconveytheculturalelementsandvariedexpressionsandinturnenrichthetargetlanguage,realizingthetrueculturecommunication.Withnoexception,functionalequivalencehasitslimitationsanddeficiency.Forthelengthofthepaper,hereitwillbenotdiscussedfurther.

Keywords:

Culturally-loadedwords;Translation;FunctionalEquivalence

文化含义词的翻译

摘要

翻译不仅是语言的转换，更是文化之间的交流。

文化含义词集中反映或表达着某个民族独特的发展历史、社会制度、地理环境、宗教信仰、民情风俗，价值体系等。

这一特殊性使文化含义词很难找到完全对等的表达法，成为信息传递的障碍。

因此，文化含义词的翻译具有重要意义。

本文旨在依据周培志对文化含义词的分类和尤金·奈达提出的功能对等翻译原则，探讨文化含义词的翻译策略。

功能对等（即动态对等）把传统的形式与内容之争，直译与意译之争转化为以读者为中心，对于指导翻译文化含义词具有重要意义。

它着眼与原文的精神和意义，同时尽可能的兼顾其形式，用最贴切而自然的对等语再现原语信息，便于读者接受和理解，还保留了文化含义词的文化特色，达到译文读者对译文的反应与原文读者对原文的反应基本一致。

这不仅将文化含义词的文化因素和丰富的表达法传递给读者，一定程度上还丰富了译语文化，实现真正的文化交流。

当然，功能对等理论也有一定的局限性，在此由于篇幅的关系就不加以讨论。

关键词：

文化含义词；翻译；功能对等

Contents

1.Introduction1

2.Culturally-LoadedWords2

2.1TheDefinitionofCulturally-LoadedWords2

2.2TheClassificationofCulturally-LoadedWords3

2.2.1DuetoDifferentHierarchiesofVocabularies3

2.2.2DuetoDifferentAssociation3

2.2.3DuetoDifferentCulturalNorms4

3.FunctionalEquivalence4

3.1TheOriginofFunctionalEquivalence4

3.2TheNatureofFunctionalEquivalence5

3.3TheContentofFunctionalEquivalence5

4.FunctionalEquivalenceinTranslatingCulturally-LoadedWords6

4.1FeasibilityofAchievingFunctionalEquivalenceinTranslatingCulturally-LoadedWords6

4.2TheTranslationStrategiesinAchievingFunctionalEquivalenceinTranslatingCulturally-LoadedWords8

4.2.1Borrowing8

4.2.2Transliteration8

4.2.3Loantranslation8

4.2.4Substitution8

4.2.5Paraphrasing9

5.Conclusion9

OnTranslationofCulturally-LoadedWords

1.Introduction

WiththeintensificationofcultureexchangebetweenchinaandEnglish-speakingcountries,culturaldifferenceshaveincreasinglyinfluenceontranslating,whichdrawsmoreandmoreattention.Culturally-loadedwordsreflectthehistory,politicalsystem,geographicallocation,religiousbeliefs,socialcustomsandvaluesofcertainnation.Itisamixtureofconceptualmeaningandculturalconnotation,whichdeterminesthattranslation,isthecommunicationbetweentwodifferentculturesaswellasbetweenEnglishandChineselanguage.However,itishardtoachievecompleteequivalenceintermsofculturallyloadedwords,thusbecomingthemainobstacleininterculturalcommunication.Therefore,whethertranslationofculturally-loadedwordsisproperornothasagreateffectonreaders.Inrecentyears,manybooksonculturally-loadedwordsappear,suchasC-EContrastiveStudiesandtheTransformationinTranslationandCultureContextandTranslation.AlsoessaysonChineseTranslationJournalandChineseScience&TechnologyTranslatorsJournalanalyzetherelationshipbetweencultureandtranslationinmacroscopeordiscussthetranslationtechniquesinmicroscope,whichplayapositiveroleintranslatingpracticing.Howevertherearealotofproblemsintranslationofculturally-loadedwords.Asaspecialtypeofvocabularyineverylanguage,culturally-loadedwordsarealwaysmistranslated,over-translatedandunder-translated.Asfortranslatingofculturally-loadedwords,theobjectsarereceptors.Itisimportanttounderstandtherenderingforreaders.Forthisreason,intranslatingculturally-loadedwords,wemustfocusonthespiritandmeaningaswellasattaintheculturalcharacteristicsasmuchaspossible.

FunctionalEquivalenceputsemphasisonreaders’response,whichprovidesuswithanadvisabletranslationtheoryfortranslationofculturally-loadedwords.Thepaperwillbrieflydiscussthetranslationofculturally-loadedwordsusingtheFunctionalEquivalenceastheguidingprinciple.InNida’sview,translatingconsistsinreproducinginthereceptorlanguageintheclosestnaturalequivalentofthesource-languagemessage.Thepaperaimstoanalyzetheclassificationofculturally-loadedwordsfromthepointofconstitutionandmeaning,takessomeexamplestodiscussthetheory’sfeasibleapplicationandexploressometranslationstrategiesandmethodsinordertorealizethesubstantiallyequivalentresponseandtruecommunication.

2.Culturally-LoadedWords

2.1TheDefinitionofCulturally-LoadedWords

Fromtheculturalpointofview,themeaningofwordsincludeslinguisticmeaningandculturalmeaning,whichrespectively,referredto"designativemeaning"and"culturalconnotation"bysomescholars.Theculturalconnotationofwordsincross-culturalcommunicationalwaysreflectsitsownculturalfeaturesincomparisonwithothernations’culture.TheculturalconnotationofwordmeaningwithoutcorrespondenceresultingapbetweentheEnglishandChinese;thustherehasbeenalargenumberofculturalgappedwords,includingculturewordsandculturallyloadedwords.Hereitisnecessarytodistinguishthetwoconcepts.Theformer,alsonamelyemptywords,iscalledwordofculturaluniquewhichcarriesthemeaningofaculturaltraitparticulartoacertainsocio-culturalcommunity,thatis,whosereferentisauniquethingorconception,andthereforethathasnocorrespondingequivalentinothercommunities,whenitisusedincross-culturalcommunication.Forexample:

jiaozi,huntun,kowtow,fengshui,yingyang,taiji,kungfu,suimai,hutong,etc.areuniqueinChineseculture.Butthereareicecreamandhotdog,HouseofLordsandHouseofCommons,GodandchurchinEnglish.Theaboveexamplesshowsomethingsorconceptsarenotsharedwithotherculturalcommunities.Howeverthereferentorconceptofaculturallyloadedwordissharedinbothcommunities,inwhichthemeaningisoverlapped.Inotherwords,thereissomedegreeofequivalentinmeaninginsteadofcompletelycoinciding.Forexample,“龙”inChinesesymbolizesauspiciousness,buttheword“dragon”inEnglishrepresentevilness.Anothercaseinpointis“西风”.Chinesepeopleassociate“西风”withadesolate,bleak,melancholyandchillyscene,blowinginthelateautumnorseverelycoldwinter.YetinEnglish“westwind”hasapositiveassociationsuchaswarmness,rebirthandhope.TherearesomelinestopraisethewestwindinShelly’sOdetotheWestWind.JohnMasfieldalsohassimilarlines“it’sawarmwind,thewestwind,fullofbirds’cries”.Asamirror,culturally-loadedwordsintensivelyreflectanation’scustomsandhabits,attributesandemotion,historicalallusions,thewayofthinking,values,andreligiousbeliefsofcertainnation.Sotheybothcontainconceptualmeaningsandculturalconnotations.Tosomedegree,thismayposesomedifficultiesfortranslator.Accordingtocharacteristicsofconstitutionandmeaningofculturally-loadedwords,theycanbeclassifiedintothreecategories.

2.2TheClassificationofCulturally-LoadedWords

2.2.1DuetoDifferentHierarchiesofVocabularies

Thehierarchiesofvocabulary,thatis,thewaysinwhichtermsrepresentingclassesofentities,activities,andcharacteristicsarebuiltupintotaxonomies,reflectinlargemeasurethemannerinwhichpeopleunderstandandclassifytheworldinwhichthelive.Thepastandthepresentlinguistic-culturalinterferencecausesbifurcationandspecializationofterms.Peopleunderstandandclassifythewordindifferentwaybecauseofdifferenttypeofsocio-culturesinwhichtheylive.Thisvocabularyincludesdifferenttermsofkinship,color,weightsandmeasures,andsomecommonnouns.InEnglish,familymembersarefather,mother,grandfather,grandmother,son,daughter,grandson,granddaughter,brother,sister,aunt,uncle,andcousin.Therearethreedistinctivefeatures:

sex（masculineandfemine）,generation,degreeoflineality（directorlateral）.Inchina,apartfromabovefeatures,thereisdistinctionbetweentheinnerandtheouteri.e.relativesonthematernalsidearetheouterandrelativesonthepaternalsidearetheinner.Thusfather’sfatherandmother’sfatherarecalledasgrandfatherwhileinchinatheformeriscalledas“祖父”,thelatteras“外祖父”.Forexample,“cousin”inEnglishisequalto“堂兄”“堂弟”“堂姐”“堂妹”“表兄”“表弟”“表姐”“表妹”inChinese.Theword“uncle”canbetranslatedintoChinese“伯父”“叔父”“舅父”“姑父”“姨父”.whentranslatingsuchChinese“嫂子”“弟媳”“公公”“婆婆”“岳父”