汉译英的文化差异造成的不可译性.docx

1、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 : Culture Gaps and Untranslatability in Chinese to English 2009年5月23日AbstractLanguage is the product of culture and also the carrier of language, and with the extensive of international communication and culture exchange, translation is much more im

2、portant than before.China has a long history, and the climate culture of China is unique. The English culture also have their peculiar background. The cultural differences between English and Chinese may give rise to misunderstandings or even communication block in intercultural communication. Engli

3、sh belongs to the Indo-European language family, but Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese language is one of the oldest language in the world, while English language is one of the most widely used languages. The phonemic system, character structure and figure of speech are al

4、l completely different, and most of these in one language do not have equivalent in the other language. It is also related to mans understand-mg of the nature of language, meaning and translation. The different culture systems between Chinese and English could give some misunderstandings in internat

5、ional communication. But through this papers I want to find the main causes of the untranslatability between Chinese and English and how to use some typical and similar words to replace the words.【Key Words】culture；history; background; culture loss; 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

6、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

7、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.Themeaning of culture, language and translation.3 A. The meaning of culture.3 B. Culture elements.3 C. The meaning of language.3 D. The definition of translation.4II.The main reasons of untranslatability.5A. Ethic and cognition.5B. Integrity,

8、synthetic V.S individuality and analytic.6C. Intuition and evidence.7D. Figurative thinking or logical thinking8.The meaning loss in translation.8.Culture loss through in translation.9.How to solve the problem of untranslatability.10A. Annotation10B. Paraphrase10C. Adaptation11D. Borrowing12E. Trans

9、lators note.12Conclusion.13References.15 Introduction:From OALED（Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary）, culture is defined as (a) refined understanding and appreciation of art, literature, etc.(b)state of intellectual development of a society. All these explanations are much different

10、 from what were told in Chinese. Culture in English have an exact definition and it refers to spiritual culture; but in Chinese it is more abstract, including spiritual culture and material culture. The modern linguistic study shows that language is not only a physiological but also a cultural pheno

11、menon. Translation, a means of exchange meanings from one language to another, is by nature an important way in the cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the purpose of translation is to introduce one culture to another by the means of translating. The translating activity plays an important role

12、 in the cultural transmission, concerning both different languages and different cultures. While according to our translating activity cultural factors always become the barrier in translation and result in untranslatabilities.Making a good understanding of culture could help us do a better translat

13、ion.When we refer to untranslatability, we dont mean that something is absolutely untranslatable. In fact, we mean that during the process of translation, we cant find a one-to-one correspondence to fulfill its function both in form and meaning in the target language. Unfortunately, the study on tra

14、nslatability and untranslatability, especially those in the context of culture studies did not receive desirable attention until the latter part of the 20th century. J. C. Catford, a well-known linguist and translator raised the issue of untranslatability in 1965. He argued that linguistic untransla

15、tability was due to the difference in the source language (SL) and the target language (TL), whereas cultural untranslatability is due to the absence in the TL of relevant situational features. Eugene A. Nida, a well-known American linguist, translator, and theorist of translation, presents a rich s

16、ource of information in his works about the problems of loss in translation, in particular about difficulties encountered by the translators when facing the problem that culture specific expressions do not exist in the TL, and concludes that perfect translation is impossible. William Reyburn rightly

17、 points out, “ In fact, difficulties arising out of the difference of culture constitute the most serious problems for translators and have produced the most far-reaching misunderstandings among readers.” (Reyburn, 1981: 2) In China today, culture studies have become a fashion. Wangbin in his articl

18、e named On translatability: Theoretical Reflections and a Case study differentiates two approaches to translation studies, the empirical and transcendental, and argues the latter as the way to theorize translation. In the article, he focuses on the theoretical analysis on the untranslatability throu

19、gh the study of a poem of Tang Dynasty, “Jing Ye Si” (静夜思) written by the great poet Li Bai. Another scholar in China, Wang Yahou who favors the idea that the introduction of Chinese poetry to foreign countries through translation is an indispensable part of inter-cultural exchanges insists that poe

20、ms are untranslatable theoretically: the original flavor cannot be conveyed in another language. What we can do is try to find out a similar expression or word to transmit the information, and most of the time we use indirectly translation. Now we will discuss cultural untranslatability in the follo

21、wing aspects.The meaning of culture, language and translation.A. The meaning of culture.Culture means the total way of life of a people. According to the anthropologist, Sir Edward Tylor, culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, laws, morals, customs, and any other capab

22、ilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (Sir Edward Tylor, 1979: 13-14). Language is the product of culture, People refined culture understanding and appreciation of art, literature and etc.In different states what will the intellectual development of a society be. Material culture

23、 and spiritual culture are the two major parts of the culture.B. Culture elements.Culture factors surface from the confrontation of cultural deposits in the process of translating from one language to another, making it impossible to recapture the relationship of the source text to the source cultur

24、e(SC)(Guo Jian-zhong,2000,P.189).In a sense, translation brings into focus the cultural clashes that are inevitable and even insurmountable in message transfer. A culturally divergent language pair will often challenge translators with a high degree of untranslatability.However, cultures in which la

25、nguages are embedded are not absolutely incompatible.“A source language cultural element becomes a translation factor only when it is so cultural-specific that it cannot be represented fully in the target culture(TC) in obedience to the TC norms”(Guo Jian-zhong,2000,p.190).That is to say, in transla

26、tion cultural deposits in source language messages are identified as either compatible to the target culture. Cultural elements amendable to TC norms form the basis of message tranfer,and messages with many compatible cultural deposits can easily find their way to TC.But culture elements specific to

27、 the SC will not.Thus they will undergo a process of modification and alteration in order to conform to TC/Target Language(TL) norms and yet retain their characters as source language(SL)messages. There are cultural elements translators must handle and manipulate. Cultural elements are mainly manife

28、sted in five categories: no equivalents, culture-loaded words, idioms and allusions, words of respect and humility, nonverbal language. C. The meaning of languageLanguage is the carrier and container of cultural information. We use language to communicate and exchange our opinions and feelings, not

29、only facts. So, language reflects culture reality. Language is the product and carrier of the culture, and with the extensive of international communication and culture exchange, the task of translation become more and more important.D. The definition of translation.Translation is a kind of intercul

30、tural communication, which builds a bridge between the source language and the target language. Different nations have their unique cultures. So through translation we could find some untranslatable words or phrases, even some sentenses.That is what we called untranslatability. The cultural differences between English and Chinese may give rise to misunderstandings or even communication block in intercultural communication. This paper aims at discussing the cultural untranslatability caused by the particularity of language and cultural differences. Ill analyse four main causes of untranslata