翻译学论文.docx

1、翻译学论文1 IntroductionWith the integration of the global economy, polity and technology, the exchange and communication between countries has became more and more frequently. Meanwhile, as an important way of mutual-exchange and mutual-connection, Translation plays an important role in the internationa

2、l association and springing up vigorously. For many years, applied researchers have became increasing interested in translation and many famous translators proposed their translation theories and ideas on English-Chinese translation, for example, Yan Fu held the coteries of translation are “faithful

3、ness”, “expressiveness” and “elegance”; Another famous translator ZhangJin said that translation should be “true”, “kindness” and “beauty”. However, Translation is considered to be a cross-cultural communication event, which concerns not only the transfer between languages, but also the transfer bet

4、ween cultures, so it remains a difficult task to make great achievement on translation, to translate properly and precisely. Because there are lots of factors that have great influence on translation, especially the cultural factors. Accordingly, Cultural studies have currently been prevailing in th

5、e West. They have also become a fashion in the circle of Chinese culture and academia since 1980s, especially in the field of literary theory, for instinct, Andre Lefevere and Susan Bassnett are representatives of Cult urology, one of the Western translation theories. They discovered, by their study

6、 on the history of translation, that translation studies and cultural studies were studied and developed respectively in two different fields. That is to say, translation is a process of cultural interaction, translation techniques are the result of cultural interaction. Similarity, In the 18 centur

7、y, Alexander Franser Tytler stated there principles of translation, as following: (a) that the translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work. (b) that the style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original.(c) that the translation

8、should have all the ease of original composition.1 They all explained that translation can not separate from culture, because the two difficult languages have a lot of distinctions in the form of culture, which has much influence on translation. Therefore, in the present paper, we report on a prelim

9、inary study of English -Chinese translation from the cultural perspective. 2 Language, Culture and TranslationDifferent countries have different cultures. Different cultures are loaded by different languages. Then, translation, as a dynamic procedure of rendering languages, takes up the task of conv

10、eying cultural connotations embedded in languages. Thats why quite a number of scholars both at home and abroad have paid more and more attention to the cultural elements in translation in recent years. 2.1 Definitions of language, culture and translationWhat is language? However nave the question m

11、ay sound, it is very difficult to answer. In fact, many different definitions have formulated by linguists and the other scholars who are interested in language. The most generally accepted definition is language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. That is means lang

12、uage is uniquely human, used for communication, describe, and understand the world. Each nation has its specific language formed in the process of itself development. As for culture, which is an extremely complex concept and an enormous subject Scholars home or abroad have all racked their brains fo

13、r a proper definition of “culture”, but till now no consensus has been reached upon a generally satisfied definition. American translator Eugene A Nida divided the properties of culture into five classifications, such as, ecological culture, material culture, social culture, religious culture and li

14、nguistic culture. Obviously, that is to say, culture is consisting of material civilization and spiritual civilization.2 Another famous English scholar Alexander Franser Tytler gave a classical definition, culture or civilization , it is the completely totality of knowledge, belief, arts, morals, la

15、ws, social customs and all the abilities ,habits that got by all the social members. As culture is so inclusive, it permeates virtually every aspect of human life and influences predominantly peoples behavior.The last is translation, American theorist and scholar Nida proposed his ideas, “Translatio

16、n consists in the receptor language the closet natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondary in terms of style.”32.2 Culture and translationIt is universally acknowledged that language is bound up with culture in one way or another. Language is a product

17、of social and cultural development and thus no language can be separated from its social and cultural environment. At the same time, more and more scholars and translators both at home and abroad came to realize the important role of culture in translation. In 1990, Andre Lefevere and Susan Bassnett

18、 “were the first to suggest that translation studies take the cultural turn and look toward work of cultural studies scholars.4 In translation field have greatly been inspired and began to change their study perspectives from culture. According to Eugene A Nida, “Translation is the exchange between

19、two different cultures, and it is more important to know the two different kinds of culture than the two different languages for a successful translator.” Similarly, Chinese famous translator GuoJianzhong reveals his opinion of “cultural consciousness “in Comparison of Culture in Translation, “the t

20、ranslator should master the two different kinds of languages, but nobody can really master language if he not know the social culture of languages.” And he believes that what the translator deals with are individual words, but what he facing are two different culture, so every translation should to

21、be “a man of culture” in real meaning. Even though their expressions are different, they make a common understanding among them, that is, the translator should consider of the influence of culture when in the practice of translation. It is a truth universally acknowledged in transtology that transla

22、tion is a category of human behavior starry and human social communication, and translation is restricted by language environment which rooted in cultural customs. So the job of translation must be influenced by the receptors culture and the original culture. To some extent, the language transformat

23、ion is just the surface of translation, while the delivery of cultural information is the essence of translation. In order to probe into the inner relationship and objective principles between culture and translation, the translator has to inspect translation under the cultural context, that is mean

24、s, to study the general and specific character of every culture and to study the surface structure and deep structure of the two languages.From the above, we can see clearly that the relationship between culture and translation. Translation is not just a progress of changing from a language into ano

25、ther language. When doing translation, the translator should be able to clearly reappear the meaning and style conveyed in the original work. All that requires the translator should pay attention to cultural difference and know the methods to deal with them.3 Discrepancies between English and Chines

26、e CultureAs we all know, every nation has its own specific culture due to its development of history. It is not avoidable that there are discrepancies between the western culture and the oriental culture, thus it is necessary to know and acquaint with the differences for a English-Chinese translator

27、. Meanwhile, knowing the differences between the two cultures can make great a contribution to translation work. There are many different aspects between the two cultures, as follow:3.1 Geographical conditionsThe different geographical position between China and British results the different climate

28、 between them. It is known that China is located in Asian Continent. Being of continental climate, the mainland of China has four distinct seasons, while British is well known for its maritime climate and changeable weather. This is based on the fact that in Britain the weather is changeable but the

29、re are only small differences between the seasons. Another clearly distinction made by geographical condition is the wind. In China, there are more mountains in the west and seas in the east, so the east wind can bring people with feelings of warm and cool while the west wind comes from the Siberia

30、and it is very cold; on the contrary, British is located on the west hemisphere, the east wind comes from the north of the European Continent, so it is very cold, however, the westerly wind belt comes from the Atlantic Ocean, and it is always mild and moist.Above all, these differences between the c

31、limate have great impact on their peoples culture and ideas, for instant, the Chinese people like the east wind and it is very easy to find many famous poems and articles about description of the east wind. Nevertheless, the British people would like to praise the west wind, just take the famous sen

32、tence for example,“O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?” in Ode to the West Wind written by Shelly. Therefore, the translator should pay attention to the different geographical conditions between the two nations to improve the quality of translation.3.2 Living customs Every country ha

33、s its own development history, which is different from each other. In the progress of development, different nation generates different customs and even different attitude towards the same thing. Social customs vary greatly from country to country, without exception, which contains many connotatively cultural colors that can influence peoples