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”