英语专业本科论文范文.docx

英语专业本科论文范文.docx

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英语专业本科论文范文

LexicalGapandMethodstoCopewithLexicalGapinTranslation

外国语学院****级指导教师***

[Abstract]Differentkindsoflanguagesallhavewordswithcorrespondingmeaning,whichisthebasisforcross-culturalcommunications.However,translatorssometimesfindthattherearenocorrespondingwordsortermsexistinginthetargetlanguageintheprocessoftranslation,whichresultsfromtheculturaldifferencebetweenthetwolanguages.Lexicalgapisacommonphenomenonintranslationandisalsothemostdifficultpartofit.CrystalDavidhadgivenadefinitiontolexicalgap,“Lexicalgapisthetermlinguistsusetodescribeasituationinwhichnosinglewordexistsinalanguagetodenoteaparticularconcept”（1995:

116）.Thispapersimplydiscussesthereasonsofthisphenomenonfromthefollowingaspects:

first,geography;second,modesofproduction;third,religion;fourth,historyandsocialculture;andthelast,scienceandtechnology.Thentheauthorproposesdifferentmethodsthroughexemplificationtocopewithproblemscausedbylexicalgapintranslations,suchasliteraltranslation,freetranslation,annotation,transliteration,etc.Andsomepreliminaryevaluationsforthetranslationstrategiesaregiveninthispaper.Onlywhenthetranslatoristhemasterofthetwoculturesandconductssuitabletranslationstrategies,canproblemscausedbylexicalgapbewellsolvedandtheaimofcross-culturalcommunicationsbetweenChinaandthewestbeachieved.

[KeyWords]lexicalgap;translation;culturalword

1.Introduction

Languageisthecarrierofcultureandculturedistinctivenessclingsveryclosetowords.Livingonthesameearth,differentkindsoflanguagesallhavewordswithcorrespondingmeaning.Forexample,thereare“water”and“fire”inEnglish,andthereareequivalentwords“水”and“火”inChinese.However,differentenvironments,waysofthinking,historiesandtraditionsallcontributetoculturedifferencesinlanguage,whichleadstonocorrespondingwordsinthetargetlanguage.Therefore,translatorswillsometimesfeelitdifficulttofindsuitablecorrespondingwordsfortranslation.Thenlexicalgapwasproposedbyscholarstodescribethephenomenon.Uptonow,differentscholarshavegivenvariousdefinitionsforlexicalgap.

“Lexicalgapisthetermlinguistsusetodescribeasituationinwhichnosinglewordexistsinalanguagetodenoteaparticularconcept.”（CrystalDavid,1995:

116）

“Therearenocorrespondingorsimilartermstodescribesomeuniqueconceptsinalanguageforthediscrepancyofculturebackground,customs,religion,ideologybetweenthetwolanguages.”（DuShuping,2006:

62）

ZhouZhipei（1987:

321）alsousesculturalwordtodefinelexicalgap:

Theword（phrase）thatcarriesthemeaningofaculturaltraitthatparticulartoacertainsocio-culturalcommunity,thatis,whosereferentisauniquethingorconception,andthereforethathasnocorrespondingequivalentinothercommunity,whenitisusedincross-culturalcommunication,iscalledwordofculturaluniqueorcultureword.

Uptonow,therehasnotbeenaconsensusofdefinitionoflexicalgap.Fromtheabovethreedefinitions,wecanseethatthethreescholarsemphasizeondifferentaspects.

Inmypaper,lexicalgapisdefinedasbelow:

Therearenotermsexistinginthetargetlanguagetodefineaparticularconceptoratermofrichculturalconnotationsinthesourcelanguage.

Lexicalgapexistsespeciallywhenthosewordsortermsareofrichculturalconnotation.The5000years’historyofcivilizationcontributestosomanyuniqueculturalphenomenaofChina.SoinChinesevocabulary,wecanfind“天干地支”,“阴阳”,“道”,“气功”,“把脉”,“中医术语”,whichallhaverichconnotationsandinEnglishtherearenowordsortermswithcorrespondingmeaningforthem.Similarly,duetodifferentgeographicreasons,modesofproduction,region,etc,Englishalsohavemanywordswhichwecan’tfindequivalentwordsinChinese,suchasDINK（doubleincome,nokids）,hippie,etc.Translatorsnotonlydealwithtwolanguages,butalsoculturesofthetwolanguages,whichisthemostdifficultpartintranslation.Inthefollowing,Iwillpresentthereasonsoflexicalgapandsummarizesomeeffectivemethodstocopewithlexicalgapintranslation.

2.Reasonsoflexicalgap

Languageisthecarrierofculture.Evenasimplewordcanhavearichflavorofculture.Culturaldifferenceisverycommonamonglanguages,whichresultsinlexicalgapamongthelanguages.Thefollowingarethemainreasonsoflexicalgap.

2.1Geography

ChinaislocatedintheeastofAsiaandthewestcoastofPacificwhilemostEnglish-speakingcountries,suchasEngland,America,Canada,Australia,SouthAfrica,etc,haveafargeographicdistancefromChina.Thegeographicdistancewillbringaboutdifferentclimate,ecology,life-style,andthentherearedifferentexpressionstodescribethediscrepancyofgeographicfactors.Forexample,theancientChinesepeopleused“二十四节气”,“三伏三九”todescribedifferentclimateinayear.WhiletheoceantransportationwasverydevelopedintheancientBritain,therearealotofwordsortermswiththeword“fish”,“water”and“ship”,suchas“akettleoffish”（乱七八糟）,“misstheboat”（坐失良机）,“drawwatertoone’smill”（惟利是图）andsoon.

2.2Modesofproduction

Inancienttimes,Chinawasalandlockedagriculturalcountry.Asthemaintoolforplough,cattlehavealwayswontheloveoftheChinesepeople.ItisveryeasytofindalotofChinesephraseswiththeword“牛”（cattle）.Herearesomeexample:

“牛劲”,“牛角尖”,“孺子牛”,“牛角挂书”,“牛顶烹鸡”,“牛衣对泣”,etc,forwhichitissohardtofindequivalentwordsinEnglish.WhileEnglish-speakingcountriesmainlyusehorsesasploughtools,sowecanalsofindalotofEnglishsayingswiththeword“horse”,suchas“horsedoctor”（蹩脚医生）,horselaugh（纵声大笑）,horsesense（基本常识）,changehorses（换班）,backthewronghorse（下错赌注）,putthecartbeforethehorse（本末倒置）,workforadeadhorse（徒劳无益）,etc（FuXiaoling,ShangYuanyuan,ShangChunlian,2004:

230-231）.

2.3Religion

ChinesepeoplearemainlyBuddhists,whilemostpeoplefromEnglish-speakingcountrieshavefaithinChrist.WeallknowthatalotofEnglishtermsoriginatefromtheBible,suchas“Judas”（犹大，喻为叛徒）,“ministeringangel”（护理天使）（FuXiaoling,ShangYuanyuan,ShangChunlian,2004:

231）.InDavidHawks’versionof“ThestoryofStone”（《红楼梦》）,“阿弥陀佛”wastranslatedinto“Godblessmysoul!

”,and“谋事在人，成事在天”wastranslatedinto“Manproposes,Goddisposes”.AnotherversionfromYangXianyiandGladysYang’sversionof“ADreamofRedMansions”（《红楼梦》）,“阿弥陀佛”wastranslatedinto“Amitabha”while“谋事在人，成事在天”,wastranslatedinto“Manproposes,Heavendisposes”（JinHuikang,2003:

86-87）.ComparingwiththetwoversionsfromHawksandYang’s,thelatterwillbemoreappreciatedforthetransferoftheoriginalflavoroftheChinesecultureandHawks’maycausemisunderstandingbyEnglish-speakingreadersthatChinesepeopleatthattimewerealsomainlyChristians,tosaynothingofBuddhists.

2.4Historyandsocialculture

Chinahasalonghistorywithimportantevents,sotherearealotofuniquetermsinhistorytoreflectdifferentevents.Forexample,“三八式干部”wastranslatedinto“cadresofthe1938”（cadresthatwenttoYan’anandotherresistancebasesduringtheAnti-JapaneseWararound1938toparticipateinrevolutionarywork）and“三八红旗手”wastranslatedinto“March8redflags（anhonorifictitleforwomenwhohavemadeextraordinaryachievementsandoutstandingcontributionsonthevariousfrontsofsocialistconstruction（ChenHongwei,2000:

47-48）.DuetothefeudalhierarchyinChinesehistory,thereare“皇后”,“皇贵妃”,“妃”,“嫔”,“贵人”.WhileinEnglish-speakingcountries,thereare“公爵（duke）”,“侯爵（marquis）”,“伯爵（earl）”,“子爵（viscount）”and“男爵（baron）”.Forthesocialculture,InEnglish,theword“uncle”canconclude“伯父”,“叔父”,“舅父”,“姑父”,“姨父”and“cousin”canconclude“堂哥”,“堂弟”,“堂姐”,“表哥”,“表弟”,“表姐”,“表妹”（SiXianzhu,ZengJianping,2006:

140）.

2.5Scienceandtechnology

Scienceandtechnologyaredevelopingveryfastnowadays.ThelevelanddevelopingspeedofthetwoisdifferentbetweenChinaandEnglish-speakingcountries.Newtermsofthescienceandtechnologyarecomingintobeingconstantly,suchas,hacker,AIDS,Internet,clone,“神州五号”,“嫦娥一号”andsoon.

3.Solutionsandevaluationofthesolutions

3.1Literaltranslation

Literaltranslationisagoodwaytoretaintheculturalconnotationofthesourcelanguageandcanaboundthevocabularyofthetargetlanguage.Byconductingliteraltranslation,somanywordswithChineseflavorhavebecomepartoftheStandardEnglish.

InChina,literaltranslationforlexicalgapwasnottotallyacceptedinthepast.ThemainreasonisrelatedtoChinesepeople’straditionalcharacters-theyholdthevalueofcollectivism.Theyoftenthinkforothers,sotheywouldrathertranslatefortheeasierunderstandingoftheforeigners,whichoftenresultsinthelossofthecultureconnotations.Inotherwords,thetranslatorwouldratherbringtheauthortothereader,whichmeanstheyputthereaderateaseallthetimeandalwaysneglecttheauthor’soriginalflavorofthework.

AnotherreasonmaybethatChineseisrichinvocabularyandtherearealotofidiomsinChinese.Soitiseasyfortranslatorstoadoptsometermswhichhavesimilarmeaningstotheoriginalterms.Maybesometranslatorsaretraditionalandtheywouldtaketheformermethodsoftranslationandavoidriskingnewideasoftranslation.

Inmyopinion,literaltranslationshouldbeadvocatediftheaimofthetranslationistoconveytheculture.Thoughnewcreatedculturewordsareunfamiliaratpresent,theymaygraduallybecomefamiliarasmoreandmoreinterculturalcommunicationstakeplace,oraspeopl