汉译英的文化差异造成的不可译性.docx

汉译英的文化差异造成的不可译性.docx

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汉译英的文化差异造成的不可译性

毕业论文

题目：

汉译英中的文化差异造成的不可译性

Title:

CultureGapsandUntranslatabilityinChinesetoEnglish

2009年5月23日

Abstract

Languageistheproductofcultureandalsothecarrieroflanguage,and withtheextensiveofinternationalcommunicationandcultureexchange,translationismuchmoreimportantthanbefore.

Chinahasalonghistory,andtheclimatecultureofChinaisunique.TheEnglishculturealsohavetheirpeculiarbackground.TheculturaldifferencesbetweenEnglishandChinesemaygiverisetomisunderstandingsorevencommunicationblockininterculturalcommunication.EnglishbelongstotheIndo-Europeanlanguagefamily,butChinesebelongstotheSino-Tibetanlanguagefamily.Chineselanguageisoneoftheoldestlanguageintheworld,whileEnglishlanguageisoneofthemostwidelyusedlanguages.Thephonemicsystem,characterstructureandfigureofspeechareallcompletelydifferent,andmostoftheseinonelanguagedonothaveequivalentintheotherlanguage.Itisalsorelatedtoman'sunderstand-mgofthenatureoflanguage,meaningandtranslation.ThedifferentculturesystemsbetweenChineseandEnglishcouldgivesomemisunderstandingsininternationalcommunication.ButthroughthispapersIwanttofindthemaincausesoftheuntranslatabilitybetweenChineseandEnglishandhowtousesometypicalandsimilarwordstoreplacethewords.

【KeyWords】 culture；history;background;cultureloss;untranslatability

摘要

语言是文化的产物和载体，随着国际交流的拓展和文化交流，翻译比以往有着更为重要的作用。

中国是一个历史悠久的国家，因此中国的文化有着自身的独特性。

英国也有着它本身独特的文化背景，在文化交际中,英汉两个国家之间的文化差异不仅可能会造成跨文化交际的失误,甚至会构成翻译的障碍或不可译。

英语属于印欧语系，而中文属于汉藏语系,汉语是世界上最古老的语言之一，英语是世界上使用最广泛的语言之一。

从音位系统，字符结构到比喻都是完全不同的，并且多数在另外一种语言上是没有完全等同的词去替代的。

当然这也与各人对语言本身，意义以及翻译的理解相关。

中英之间不同的文化体系可能会导致国际交流中的一些误解。

在这篇论文中我会通过一些方法去了解造成这些不可译性的主要原因以及尝试寻找几种能够解决不可译性的办法。

关键词：

文化，历史，背景，文化缺失，不可译性

Contexts

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………...1

Ⅰ.Themeaningofculture,languageandtranslation…………………………………...3

A.Themeaningofculture………………………………………………………………….3

B.Cultureelements………………………………………………………………................3

C.Themeaningoflanguage………………………………………………………………..3

D.Thedefinitionoftranslation……………………………………………………………..4

II.Themainreasonsofuntranslatability………………………………………………...5

A.Ethicandcognition……………………………………………………………………..5

B.Integrity,syntheticV.Sindividualityandanalytic……………………………...............6

C.Intuitionandevidence………………………………………………………..................7

D.Figurativethinkingorlogicalthinking…………………………………………………8

Ⅲ.Themeaninglossintranslation……………………………………………………….8

Ⅳ.Culturelossthroughintranslation…………………………………………………..9

Ⅴ.Howtosolvetheproblemofuntranslatability……………………………………….10

A.Annotation………………………………………………………………………………10

B.Paraphrase………………………………………………………………………………10

C.Adaptation………………………………………………………………………………11

D.Borrowing………………………………………………………………………………12

E.Translator’snote………………………………………………………………………..12

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….13

References…………………………………………………………………………………..15

Introduction:

FromOALED（OxfordAdvancedLearner'sEnglish-ChineseDictionary）,cultureisdefinedas（a）refinedunderstandingandappreciationofart,literature,etc.（b）stateofintellectualdevelopmentofasociety.Alltheseexplanationsaremuchdifferentfromwhatwe’retoldinChinese.CultureinEnglishhaveanexactdefinitionanditreferstospiritualculture;butinChineseitismoreabstract,includingspiritualcultureandmaterialculture.

Themodernlinguisticstudyshowsthatlanguageisnotonlyaphysiologicalbutalsoaculturalphenomenon.Translation,ameansofexchangemeaningsfromonelanguagetoanother,isbynatureanimportantwayinthecross-culturalcommunication.Therefore,thepurposeoftranslationistointroduceoneculturetoanotherbythemeansoftranslating.Thetranslatingactivityplaysanimportantroleintheculturaltransmission,concerningbothdifferentlanguagesanddifferentcultures.Whileaccordingtoourtranslatingactivityculturalfactorsalwaysbecomethebarrierintranslationandresultinuntranslatabilities.Makingagoodunderstandingofculturecouldhelpusdoabettertranslation.

Whenwerefertountranslatability,wedon’tmeanthatsomethingisabsolutelyuntranslatable.Infact,wemeanthatduringtheprocessoftranslation,wecan’tfindaone-to-onecorrespondencetofulfillitsfunctionbothinformandmeaninginthetargetlanguage.Unfortunately,thestudyontranslatabilityanduntranslatability,especiallythoseinthecontextofculturestudiesdidnotreceivedesirableattentionuntilthelatterpartofthe20thcentury.J.C.Catford,awell-knownlinguistandtranslatorraisedtheissueofuntranslatabilityin1965.Hearguedthatlinguisticuntranslatabilitywasduetothedifferenceinthesourcelanguage（SL）andthetargetlanguage（TL）,whereasculturaluntranslatabilityisduetotheabsenceintheTLofrelevantsituationalfeatures.EugeneA.Nida,awell-knownAmericanlinguist,translator,andtheoristoftranslation,presentsarichsourceofinformationinhisworksabouttheproblemsoflossintranslation,inparticularaboutdifficultiesencounteredbythetranslatorswhenfacingtheproblemthatculturespecificexpressionsdonotexistintheTL,andconcludesthatperfecttranslationisimpossible.WilliamReyburnrightlypointsout,“Infact,difficultiesarisingoutofthedifferenceofcultureconstitutethemostseriousproblemsfortranslatorsandhaveproducedthemostfar-reachingmisunderstandingsamongreaders.”（Reyburn,1981:

2）InChinatoday,culturestudieshavebecomeafashion.WangbininhisarticlenamedOntranslatability:

TheoreticalReflectionsandaCasestudydifferentiatestwoapproachestotranslationstudies,theempiricalandtranscendental,andarguesthelatterasthewaytotheorizetranslation.Inthearticle,hefocusesonthetheoreticalanalysisontheuntranslatabilitythroughthestudyofapoemofTangDynasty,“JingYeSi”（静夜思）writtenbythegreatpoetLiBai.AnotherscholarinChina,WangYahouwhofavorstheideathattheintroductionofChinesepoetrytoforeigncountriesthroughtranslationisanindispensablepartofinter-culturalexchangesinsiststhatpoemsareuntranslatabletheoretically:

theoriginalflavorcannotbeconveyedinanotherlanguage.Whatwecandoistrytofindoutasimilarexpressionorwordtotransmittheinformation,andmostofthetimeweuseindirectlytranslation.Nowwewilldiscussculturaluntranslatabilityinthefollowingaspects.

Ⅰ.Themeaningofculture,languageandtranslation.

A.Themeaningofculture.

Culturemeansthetotalwayoflifeofapeople.Accordingtotheanthropologist,SirEdwardTylor,cultureis"thatcomplexwholewhichincludesknowledge,belief,arts,laws,morals,customs,andanyothercapabilitiesandhabitsacquiredbymanasamemberofsociety"（SirEdwardTylor,1979:

13-14）.Languageistheproductofculture,Peoplerefinedcultureunderstandingandappreciationofart,literatureandetc.Indifferentstateswhatwilltheintellectualdevelopmentofasocietybe.Materialcultureandspiritualculturearethetwomajorpartsoftheculture.

B.Cultureelements.

Culturefactorssurfacefromtheconfrontationofculturaldepositsintheprocessoftranslatingfromonelanguagetoanother,makingitimpossibletorecapturetherelationshipofthesourcetexttothesourceculture（SC）（GuoJian-zhong,2000,P.189）.Inasense,translationbringsintofocustheculturalclashesthatareinevitableandeveninsurmountableinmessagetransfer.Aculturallydivergentlanguagepairwilloftenchallengetranslatorswithahighdegreeofuntranslatability.

However,culturesinwhichlanguagesareembeddedarenotabsolutelyincompatible.“Asourcelanguageculturalelementbecomesatranslationfactoronlywhenitissocultural-specificthatitcannotberepresentedfullyinthetargetculture（TC）inobediencetotheTCnorms”（GuoJian-zhong,2000,p.190）.Thatistosay,intranslationculturaldepositsinsourcelanguagemessagesareidentifiedaseithercompatibletothetargetculture.CulturalelementsamendabletoTCnormsformthebasisofmessagetranfer,andmessageswithmanycompatibleculturaldepositscaneasilyfindtheirwaytoTC.ButcultureelementsspecifictotheSCwillnot.ThustheywillundergoaprocessofmodificationandalterationinordertoconformtoTC/TargetLanguage（TL）normsandyetretaintheircharactersassourcelanguage（SL）messages.Thereareculturalelementstranslatorsmusthandleandmanipulate.Culturalelementsaremainlymanifestedinfivecategories:

noequivalents,culture-loadedwords,idiomsandallusions,wordsofrespectandhumility,nonverballanguage.

C.Themeaningoflanguage

Languageisthecarrierandcontainerofculturalinformation.Weuselanguagetocommunicateandexchangeouropinionsandfeelings,notonlyfacts.So,languagereflectsculturereality.Languageistheproductandcarrieroftheculture,andwiththeextensiveofinternationalcommunicationandcultureexchange,thetaskoftranslationbecomemoreandmoreimportant.

D.Thedefinitionoftranslation.

Translationisakindofinterculturalcommunication,whichbuildsabridgebetweenthesourcelanguageandthetargetlanguage.Differentnationshavetheiruniquecultures.Sothroughtranslationwecouldfindsomeuntranslatablewordsorphrases,evensomesentenses.Thatiswhatwecalleduntranslatability.TheculturaldifferencesbetweenEnglishandChinesemaygiverisetomisunderstandingsorevencommunicationblockininterculturalcommunication.Thispaperaimsatdiscussingtheculturaluntranslatabilitycausedbytheparticularityoflanguageandculturaldifferences.I’llanalysefourmaincausesofuntranslata