Translate English and Chinese Names and Their Cultural Connotation 英语专业毕业论文.doc

translate english and chinese names and their cultural connotation目 录毕业设计任务书1毕业设计成绩评定表2答辩申请书3-6正文6-32答辩委员会表决意见33答辩过程记录表34一、 课题(论文)提纲1.引言2.姓名与文化的关联。3.比较研究中英两个姓名系统。3.1.1这种现象表明了姓名的文化内涵与原始的图腾崇拜有关。3.1.2姓名是一种意识寻根的表现3.1.3姓名的潜在意义3.2中英文姓名制度的差别3.2.1姓氏反映了不同国家的文化3.2.2姓氏反映的文化内涵3.2.3姓名中映射出父权制，儒家崇拜，宗教等社会文化。3.2.4姓名体现出的社会阶级3.2.5姓名的其他表现4姓名姓名姓名的翻译4.1中英姓名翻译的基本规则4.1.1中文名译英文名4.2.2英文名译中文名5.结论 二、内容摘要姓名，作为一种文化载体，蕴涵着极其丰富的文化内涵，英汉姓名因而存在着巨大的文化差异。姓名不仅仅是一种简单的区别于他人的符号，它同时也代表一种社会文化现象，被喻为“文化的镜像”。通过对英汉姓名的历史渊源，宗教信仰，价值观念等的对比研究，揭示出英汉姓名的深层文化内涵及社会文化因素的影响，进而对这种富载文化内涵的姓名的翻译提出翻译原则和翻译翻译方法。英汉文化的共性，如图腾崇拜，寻根意识，特指性，心理暗示等使英汉不同姓名的系统中出现一些类同的现象 。英汉文化内涵的差异，如中国的宗教观念，崇儒思想，等级制度等文化因素都可以从中国人的姓名中反映出来。而英语民族的宗教信仰，个人取向，强调个性也在英语姓名中有所反映。由于英汉姓名的文化差异，在翻译英汉姓名时应遵循“名从主人原则”和“约定俗成原则”，采取音译法和释义法，或者两者相结合，使人名的真实内涵得到体现。二、 参考文献1 吴芳. 姓名的跨文化研究. 广西大学, 2002. p1; 2 邓卫峰. 姓名, 透视文化的窗口汉英姓名对比研究. 河北师范大学,2002, p2;3 孙守玉,岳红丽. 英语姓名文化渊源浅探j. 淄博学院学报, 2001, 9, 第17卷第3期: p51; 4 同3, p51;5 龚爱华. 英汉姓名文化内涵比较及其互译要领j. 南京审计学院学报, 2005, 5, 第2卷第2期: p82; 6 黄碧蓉. 英汉姓名的文化底蕴及其翻译j. 安徽工业大学学报, 2004, 7, 第27卷第4期: p81; 7 同1, p31;8 同1, p6;9 任瑞. 跨文化交际下的中英姓氏比较研究j. 苏州大学, 2004. p9;10 同9, p10;11 李世荣. 英语姓名的文化阐释j. 延安教育学院学报, 2002, 第3期: p34;12 同6, p80;13 饶小飞. 汉英人名姓氏的文化心态来源与命名习俗探微j. 培陵师范学院学报, 2003, 7 第17卷第3期: p58; 14 同2, p11;15 同2, p16;16 同11, p35; 17 汪旭琴. 从文化渊源看汉英姓名习俗j. 安徽电子信息职业技术学院, 2004, 第1期: p75;18 同2, p44;19 同2, p44;20 章辉. 汉语姓名与汉民族文化心理特征j. 毕节师范高等专科学院学报, 2005, 6, 第23卷第2期: p14; 21 任朝迎. 中国人姓名的音译之探讨j. 有色金属设计, 2003, 第30卷第2期:p70; 22 同1, p39;23 同4, p82;24 李庆云. 英语姓名的来源及其翻译j. 大同职业技术学院学报, 2002, 9, 第16卷第3期: p49; 25 朱红梅. 英语人名翻译初探j. 郑州轻工业学院学报，2002，3, 第3卷第1期: p79; 26 同13, p49;27 隋荣谊. 英汉翻译新教程m. 中国电力出版社，2004，5. p237.translate english and chinese names and their cultural connotation abstract as carriers of cultures, chinese and english names are full of cultural connotations, and result in cultural gap between english and chinese. personal names are not only symbols that distinguish one person from others, but also social symbols. it is “a mirror of culture”. through comparative study on a nations history, religion, concepts of moral and value, we can see different cultural connotations between english and chinese names. and then suggest some translation principles and methods. there are some similarities between english and chinese names, such as totemism, consciousness of root-seeking, specializing points. in chinese names, we can find the culture of religious concepts, confucian-worship, hierarchy. and the religion, personal-orientation, individualism can also be found in english names. in the translation of chinese and english names, translators should follow the pronunciation of the owners language and adopt the established popular translated names, use transliteration and paraphrase so as to reflect the real meaning of english and chinese names.key words english names and chinese names; cultural connotation; translation principle; translation method1introductionnames are used by human beings and they are the signs for people to distinguish one person from the others. they have some particular functions that no other signs can perform. they are not only linguistic symbols, but also social symbols, representing relationship in societies and cultures. “each person has his name which distinguishes himself from other members in the community, and each country has its own name system owing to their different historical and cultural background”. 1 p1 in a word, personal names are windows for people to see through different cultures in different societies. for these reasons, the translation of chinese and english names should follow the pronunciation of the owners country and adopt the established popular translated names, use transliteration and paraphrase so as to reflect the real meaning of chinese and english names.2relation between personal name and culturepersonal names are the products of the historical development of human society. they reflect the ancient civilization and splendid cultures from different respects. the choice of name tells something about human society and reflects the social culture. therefore, the development of personal names cannot be isolated from the social culture background. names are the inseparable part of culture and the inevitable outcome of cultural evolution. like other linguistic phenomena they play the role of carrier and propagator of cultures.culture influences every aspect of human social life and influences peoples behavior. personal names are the outcome of peoples behavior, so the influence of culture can be seen from the changing of personal names. for example, “in ancient china, “龟” （gui, tortoise）was often used as personal name which had good connotation of longevity. however, after ming dynasty, the connotation of the character changed, which indicates a man whose wife is not loyal to him. then few people use “龟” as personal names”.2 p2 in addition, personal names are restricted by culture, for instance, chinese people are greatly influenced by confucianism, so obvious proprieties can be seen in chinese names. “english people believe christian and religious sense can be found in their names”.3 p51 on the other hand, as a kind of social reality, personal names exert its influence and action on societies and cultures. for example, the taboo on using the personal names of emperors was formed under the influence of feudal hierardy culture. once it had been formed it began to restrict every aspect of peoples life. in short, personal names and culture influence restrict each other and act on each other. from personal names, people can see the cultural similarity and difference in different society. 3. comparative study between the two name systemsevery nation has its own history, during which it has shaped its own particular characteristics. as a special social and linguistic phenomenon, names relate to cultures extensively and profoundly. when we learn a foreign language and try to make effective communication, we must understand its culture and need to know about names and naming, just as when we study a language we need to know its vocabulary and its grammar. in this section, we are going to make a comparative study on these aspects between chinese and english name systems.3.1 similarities between the two systems3.1.1 totemism “at beginning, the basic of personal name is totemism. totemism may be animals, plants or unliving things. the group often takes some totem as their ancestor, and then used it as their own names”.4 p51 “in ancient times, the human beings were not only afraid of natural power, but also respect it. therefore, both in chinese and english personal names, we can find lots of names from place, animal, plant, unliving things in nature or natural phenomenon”.5 p82 for example, in chinese names, yan emperor（炎帝, one ancestor of chinese people）lived near jiang water（姜水, a name of a river）, so his tribe used jiang (姜) as their tribe name, huang emperor (黄帝, another ancestor of chinese people) lived near ji water (姬水, a name of a river) and used ji (姬) as the tribes name, and yao (姚) came from the place called yao xu (姚墟) where shun (舜, an ancestor of chinese people) lived. in english, people used the natural phenomenon as family names, such as frost, rain, and snow etc. and some names come from animal names, for example, bird, bull, lion, fox, wolf and so on. some come from plant names, for instance, flower, apple, lily, rose. this phenomenon reflects similar cultural connotation that names are associated with primitive totemism.3.1.2 consciousness of root-seekingin chinese and english names, we can find names taken from their birth-place names, such as liu zongyuan (柳宗元), a famous poet in tang dynasty, was born at he dong, so he has another name liu hedong (柳河东). in china, nowadays, we also have names like wang changcheng (王长城), li changjiang(李长江), etc. these names are closely connected with chinese places. in english people also take places as their personal names. “for example, washington(华盛顿)，brook(溪流), well (泉), wood (林木) and so on”.6 p81 these similarities show, as human being, they all have the consciousness of root-seeking.3.1.3 specializing charactermost names in literary works have special meaning. “they symbolize some connotations that go far beyond their literary meanings. they become some general terms indicating certain meaning, symbolizing certain people, or referring particularly to certain situations or actions”. 7 p31for example, shylock, in shakespeares comedy the merchant of venice indicates some usurers and businessmen who are mean and cruel. it can also be used as verb referring to the action of owing usury. for instance, “his income derived from illicit activities-bookmaking, gambling, shylocking, and questionable union activities”. take the personal name zhu geliang （诸葛亮）as another example. it can be used not only to refer to the specific person who once really existed in history, but also used as a common noun.“诸葛亮” in the saying “三个臭皮匠，顶个诸葛亮”（working together, three ordinary men can be as wise as zhuge liang who was a very wise man in the three states period ）is not specific a person, it refers to same wise men like him. in chinese literature, we may find names with specially implied meaning chose by writers who tend to take advantage of homophone, which acts as a pun. for example, characters in the story of stone that written by chao xueqin. jia yucun (贾雨村)，jiahua(贾化)，zhen shiyin(甄士隐)，which pronounce the same as jia yu cun (假语存-lies exist), jia hua (假话-tell lies)，zhen shi yin (真事隐-truth is hidden).both in chinese and english, there are also names in great authors writings which are taken as current vocabulary.hamlet is the hero in shakespeares tragedy “hamlet”. his uncle murders his father so he wants to take revenges on him. but he hesitates so much in his avenging plan that in the end he has to pretend being mad. “hamlet” in present english is not only one of the characters in shakespeares tragedy, but also considered as a synonym to a person who is hesitating in doing something or to a hesitating action. if people think someone is very hesitating in doing something, they may say“you are hamlet”. rip van winkle is one of the heroes in the works of the american writer washington irving. he is a hen-packed man. once being scolded by his wife, he runs into the catskill, a mountain near his village. he feels relaxed there and drinks too much before falling asleep. when he wakes up, it is too many years later that everything in the village has been greatly changed. rip van winkle is now referring to some people who are old-fashioned, or whose minds and thoughts are dropped far behind from the present society. people may express someones idea that is out of date, by saying “this is the opinion of same rip van winkle”.3.2 differences between the two name systemsit is said that every coin has its two sides. we talked about their similarities above, and now, we are going to talk about the differences between chinese and english name systems and their culture connotation 3.2.1origin of family names family names reflect different national cultures and ancient civilization from various points of view. being a kind of social phenomenon and complicated psychological process, family names reveal social reality. so the development of family names cannot be separated from the social and cultural background on which they rely. the form and use of family names are developing progressively with the evolution of history and changing of society.(i) origin of chinese family names “the number of family names in chinese is much smaller than that of english name. so far, we have all together less than ten thousand family names, in which 6363 family names are from the han nationality. but in the west, there are 156 thousand family names, among which thirty-five thousand are frequently seen in daily life”.8 p6 “it is thought that chinese family names came about in matriarchal clan society. at that time, every clan got the distinctive clan name based on their totem or dwelling places. the clan names are the earliest family names which in chinese are called 姓(xing)”.9 p9 after population of a clan multiplied, the clan divided into several branches and moved to different places to live. then each branch would get their own branch name to distinguish this branch from the others. the name of each branch is called氏(shi). the difference between them is that, the former one is used to tell apart different families in ranks of family in the society. so “xing” is not changeable, but “shi” can be changed. in ancient china, there would be thousand of people shared the same family names, they came from the same clans and lived in the same villages, some of them may move to other places, but they couldnt change their family names.according to historical records, in xia, shang and zhou dynasties, “xing” and “shi” began to have class color besides their original function. “shi”, especially, was best owned by their ruler. as a result, “shi” became the mark of the aristocracy. only the aristocrats had “shi”, and the ordinary people had no “shi”. all the aristocrats were men at that time. therefore, only men had “shi”. “the distinction between “xing” and “shi” disappeared in qin and han dynasty. they became one that is called “xingshi” in chinese and refers to family names”.10 p10 this phenomenon indicates that the original function and distinction of “xing” and “shi” were of no significance after the centralized feudal social system was established.(ii) origin of english family names“the history of english family names is much shorter than the chinese ones. it came about in the middle ages”.11 p34 they are in large number. social cultural factors play an important role in the development of english family names. they reflect a complete picture of english feudal society. so they are the living fossils for studying english history and culture.english family names are the historical product of english society. they experienced nearly three centuries from nonexistence to full development. there was a time when no one had a hereditary family name. “when the ancestors of english people invaded britain in the 5th century, they formed a tribal society. english people didnt get family names until 1066 when normans conquered britain. the normans certainly didnt have a fully developed family names system”.12 p80 it was not yet their conscious policy to identify a family by one name. but there were not enough names for distinction. in a certain period more and more names were duplicated. this phenomenon brought great trouble to people in communication. so when people were talking about a person who was absent, they often employed additional phrases for further identification. for example, when they referred to john who lived under the hill, they would add descriptive phrase as “from the hill”. then john became “john from the hill” to indicate which john they were talking about. although the additional phrases can play the role for further identification, they are too complicated. therefore, some unimportant words are often omitted. then “john from the hill” is changed into “john hill”. with the development of feudal society, there was an urgent need for people to solve the problem of personal identification. for this reason, people created a new way for expression that they began to add their fathers or manors name behind their given name. in fact, the additional phrases which are called “bynames” are the embryos of english family names. they played an important transitional part in the development of english family names. gradually, these bynames were turned into hereditary family names.from the beginning of the 15th century nearly all english people inherited family names at birth and the word “surname” was used with the meaning we give it today. it had been borrowed from french “surnom”, deriving from latin super, and was used at first to mean “an extra name” or “a nickname”. modern french translates “surname” as nom de femile, so in english surname is also called family name.3.2.2 forms of names and cultural connotation(i) forms of namesin both chinese and english, the personal names can be divided into surnames and given names. a persons family name is inherent. he/she got his/her family name before he/she was born. therefore family names are not selectable. the case is different in given names. given names are not inherent but selectable; one can choose his given names. but the way in which these names are used varies in the two languages. a fundamental difference is the order in which these names occur. in chinese, the family name comes first and the given name is placed after it. and there are two kinds of family name, one is single surname, the other is double surname. for example, 王国强(wang guoqiang), 司马相如(sima xiangru). here 王(wang) and 司马(sima) are family names, 国强(guoqiang) and 相如(xiangru) are given names.however, in english, the family name is at the end, and the given name is in the front. “the given name could be divided into christian name (first name) and middle name (second name)”. 13 p58in western counties, most people have middle names, the number of which can be one, two, three or even more than tens, such as “an american writer robert peter tristram coffin and a british writer oscar fingal oflahertie wills wilde”.14 p11 here robert and oscar are given names, peter tristram and fingal oflahertie wills are middle name, coffin and wilde are family names. middle names are only used in very