The_Cultural_Transmission_Issue_of_Chinese_Idioms_Translation 英语本科毕业论文.doc

contents. the introduction .11.1languageandculture .11.2 therelationbetweentranslationandculture.1. literature review 32.1 nidas concept of functional equivalence.32.2 nidas view on translation and culture.32.3 susan bassnetts view on culture translation.42.4 other views on culture-related translation.4.differencesbetweenchineseandwesternculturesreflectedinthelanguages7 3.1historicalculturaldifference.73.2 differentgeographicalandregionalenvironments.73.3 differentmodesofthinking.8 . several methods of chinese idiom translation.94.1 metaphrase.94.1.1 literal translation .94.1.2 replacement.104.2 paraphrase.134.2.1 negation.134.2.2 substitution. substitute abstract concept for concrete images. substitute concrete images for abstract concept.154.2.3 additional remarks & note. additional remarks. note184.2.4 omission.19.conclusion.21bibliography.23acknowledgements.25appendix (translation).261 introduction1.1languageandculture languageisthecarrierofcultureandpartoftheculture.becauselanguagescanreflectanationsculture,languagesymbolsprovidesarichexpressionmeansforanation.languagehasbeenkeepingsynchronousdevelopmentwithculturethroughoutthewholeprocessofhumanculturescomingintobeingandtheirsubsequentdevelopment.“somescientistsconsideritthekeystoneofculture.withoutlanguage,theymaintain,culturewouldbeimpossible.”(dengyanchangandliurunqing,1989:3.) languages,ineverynation,canembodyandreflectpeoplesdifferentmodesofthinking,values,socialawareness,religiousbeliefs,habitsandcustoms.“languageistheprimarymeansbywhichaculturetransmitsitsbeliefs,values,andnorms.itgivespeopleameansofinteractingwithothermembersofthecultureandameansofthinking.”(daiweidong,1989:158)itisexplicitthatcultureandlanguageareinseparablefromeachother,andinfact,cultureincludeslanguageasasubsystem,asawidersystem.itcanbesummarizedthatlanguagecariesculture,mirrorsculture,spreadscultureandhelpsdevelopculture. ontheotherside,languageisdeeplyinfluencedandshapedbyculture,steamingfromculture.language,asasymbolsystem,expressestracesofaparticularsocietyandreflectsuniqueculturalheritage.johnlyons,anenglishlinguist,pointedthat,“languageisapartofculture.differencesonthelanguageusagewillexposethefeaturesofthesocialcultureintermsofthesubstances,customsandotheractivities.”(lyons,1977:30).therefore,itcanbesaidthattheprocessoflearningatargetlanguageisaprocessoflearningaboutthetargetculture.1.2therelationbetweentranslationandculturetranslationmakesitpossibletocommunicatebetweendifferentcultures.however,translationhasitslimitationstoanextent.manyofthefunctionsandconnotationsoflanguagecannotbe“translated”atallliterally,buthavetoresorttoanalysisandexplanationtomakeoutthehiddenimplicationsthattheycontain.inotherwords,itisnecessarytosetupakindofaccordingculturalcontextbasedonasufficientandthoroughunderstandingofcultureofthetargetlanguage.translationdoesnotmerelydealwiththeexchangeofliteralmeaning,butalsotransferringtheculturalcommunicationofthelanguagefamiliesanddifferentinformation.soitisnotmerelyanactoftransferencebetweenlanguages,butitisamatterofspiritcommunicationcloselyrelatedtoeveryaspectofthesubjectiveworld.tosomeextent,thetranslationactsaretheresponse,communication,perception,understandingandinteractingbetweenthehumanbeingandthephysicalworld.undoubtedly,therelationofcultureandtranslationischaracterizedbytheirindivisibility.inthelasttwentyyears,ithasbeenuniversallyacknowledgedthatliterarytranslationisnotmerelytransformationoflanguagesignals,buttransformationofculture,sincetranslationhasacloseinteractiverelationshipwithculture.translationhasbeenreplacedby“interculturalcommunication”(christiancenord,1991),“interculturalcooperation”(holzmanttari,1984:17),“acculturation”(andrelefevere,1992),or“tranculturation”(r.d.shaw,1988).therefore,thetranslatorsshouldtrytoreducethedifficultiescausedbyculturaldifferenceandtodevelopculturalexchangesbetweendifferentnationalities.thetranslatorneedstohaveathoroughunderstandingoftheoperationtargetthelanguage.withoutbeingfullyawareofthenatureoflanguage,itisimpossibletodiscussculturefromtheviewpointoftranslation.nowadays,ininternationalcommunicationandinformationexchange,translationasacross-cultureeventbecomesmoreandmoreimportantindealingwiththeproblemofculturaltransmission.sotranslatorsnecessarilyputmoreemphasistoculturaldifferencesincross-culturaltransferintranslation.2 literature review 2.1 nidas concept of functional equivalenceaccording to nida, translation should be done in the spirit of “functional equivalence”. then what is functional equivalence? it has two versions. the minimal, realistic definition is “ the readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciated it.” (nida, 2001:87 ), while its maximal, ideal definition is “the readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did”(ibid)in fact, the maximal definition is just ideal, and the minimal level is realistic.2.2 nidas view on translation and culture language is part of a culture, so translating from one language into another cannot be done satisfactorily without adequate knowledge of the two cultures involved. in the research of translation, nida has become aware of the great importance of cultural factors in translating. he believes that the cultural factors in translating are more significant than the purely linguistic differences; the most serious mistakes in translating are usually not born of verbal inadequacy, but of wrong cultural assumptions. for example, sl idioms are often found to be lively in the sl culture, but hardly understandable, if translated literally, because tl readers cultural background, which differs by varying degrees from that of sl readers, often becomes a misleading factor. therefore, “for truly successful translating, biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism, since words only have meanings in terms of the cultures in which they function.”(nida,2001:82) the translators or interpreters cannot understand the sl text enough to provide its exact meaning without careful consideration of its cultural background. thats why most programs for the training of interpreters and translators require that students spend at least half a year in the countries where the acquired languages are spoken. “only by being in the countries in which a foreign language is spoken can one acquire the necessary sensitivity to the many special meanings of words and phrases.” 2.3 susan bassnetts view on cultural translation as a distinguished scholar in translation theory, susan bassnett also accents cultural functional equivalence. she maintains that when two cultures have some overlaps and there is no difficulty in understanding the directly transferred cultural images, literal translation is preferable, for it helps cultural construction in another culture. if it is not the case, some other skills are to be employed so as to aptly transfer the function of the original version into the target language from the perspective of readers response, so that functional equivalence can be procured. besides, she thinks that translation should be done with culture as its unit. translation is not a simple process of decoding and recoding, but an act of communication, or that of cultural constructing. the different principles and criteria of translation in different periods of time are to satisfy the requirements of culture and of the different groups of people in a certain culture. she formally puts forward the concept of cultural translation for the first time, which marks that translation study has come into anew phase. 2.4 other views on culture-related translationin translation studies, apart from nida and susan bassnett, a number of other scholars have also realized the importance of cultural implication in translation. they have presented their own ideas about this in their works. larry a. samovar holds that “translators must grapple not only with structural differences between languages but also with cultural differences, which requires precision and the ability to convey the speakers or authors approach or attitude. more importantly, the translator needs to consider shared experiences.”(samovar,2000:133)that is to say, the meanings of words are derived from shared experiences and the potential of a word to convey the semantic dimension pivots on the culturally informed perceptions of both original and target readers. when readers lack cultural equivalents, they lack the words in our vocabulary to represent those experiences. besides, translations often occasion misunderstanding or incomprehension because of cultural orientations, such as tenses, cases, moods and other language and culture features.14for example, the chinese visualize the past as being in front of a person because it can be seen, and they visualize the future as being behind one because it cannot be seen. but, the americans perceive time quite differently; they speak of the past as being behind them and the future ahead. f this discrepancy were not known or ignored on the part of the translator, translations about time would be incomprehensible.david katan argues that “a basic presupposition is that the organization of experience is not reality, but is a simplification and distortion that varies from culture to culture. each culture acts as a frame within which external signs or reality are interpreted.”(katan,1999:1) people understand their experiences in different ways and believe that this way leads to the truth, so culture is actually the unique interpretation of people to certain experiences. therefore, katan frames culture and regards translators and interpreters as mediators daniel shaw, a bible translation expert like nida, has formulated his theory that is also applicable to general translations. what is special about his theory is that he approaches cross-cultural translation from an anthropological perspective. he believes that a translator should understand the reality from a nations world view. the more the experience of source culture and target culture over laps, the more the target readers can understand the source information. the various types of cultures have been formed on the basis of their economy, and the modes of production really decide peoples cultural types and lifestyles. as to dealing with the cultural factors in translation, in his opinion, translators should first understand the source culture and then the target culture, and finally build a bridge between the two cultures. the translated version should not be felt like a translation, but an original version, and at the same time it should faithfully transmit the original information. a translation process should be first to identify the meaning of source information, and then to transfer the original text meaning into the target culture by using various means of translation. because shaw mainly studies bible translation, he advocates domestication in translation. in his theory, to let the readers understand the translation without a lot of difficulties is more important than to introduce foreign cultures to them. under certain circumstances, this is true, but it is still up to the purpose of translation, the text type, the author intention and the readers academic attainments. 3 differences between chinese and western cultures reflected in the languages 3.1historicalculturaldifference thehistoricalculturaldifferencereferstothecultureformedbythespecialhistorydevelopmentprocessandthecultureaccumulatedbythesocialheritage.everynationandcountrydevelopsdifferently,sothehistoricalculturedepositedfromthelonghistorydefinitelydiffersfromeachother.inbothchineseandenglishlanguageshaveformedbythehistoricalliteraryidioms.theseidioms,althoughsimpleinstructure,carryonfar-reachingsignificance,whicharehardtounderstandandtranslateonlyfromtheliteralmeaning. everylanguagehascolorfulproverbs,idioms,theyareaccumulationsbythepeopleofallethnicgroupsinthelong-termuseoflanguage,possessingstrongindividualityandlocalcolor;itisalsothemostdifficultpartofthetranslation.intranslatingidiomsandproverbs,itisamusttounderstandtheirimplicationsandconnotations.itneedstranslatorstobeflexibletocombinetheliteraltranslationandfreetranslationskills. 3.2differentgeographicalandregionalenvironmentsduetoregionalsegregationanddifferentlivingenvironment,differentnationalitieshavetheirownpeculiarculturesunderdifferentnaturalenvironment.theculturalconnotationofwordsandthingsdiffersfromoneculturetoanother.thedifferencesinlivingenvironmentfindtheirexpressionsinusingtheidiomsaswell.idiomshavecloserelationwithpeopleslifeclosely.britainisanislandcountryenclosedbythesea.theenglishpeoplemainlyengagedincommercialactivitiesveryearlyontheoceanandtheenglishpeopleusuallyconnectedwhattheysawandthoughtwiththeirexperiencesontheoceanandthusplentyoftheirproverbsandsayingsrelatedtothesea, where as china is a country with large land areas and the chinese people involved mainly in agricultural activities from early times. when two languages refer to the same concept, they employ different expressions. the english describes that some one “spends money too recklessly” by “spend money like water” whereas the chinese will say “挥金如土”. there is proverb in chinese“前车之鉴 后事之师”，but in english, it is “let anothers shipwreck by your seamark.”; the chinese people use a proverb“未雨绸缪”(turn up the soil and fix the window before it rains) to express the meaning “making preparation beforehand in normal times”, while its english version is “while it is fine weather mend your sail”. from the above examples, it can be concluded that although the chinese sayings and the english ones share the same figurative meanings, they arouse different associations in the two different cultures. due to the different geographical environment, two people of different nationalities observe things; reflect the objective world not consistently. so it requires translators not to translate word for word by the dictionary explanation or translation.3.3differentmodesofthinking with regard to modes of thinking, western culture tends to dissect things into parts and analyze their relationships. on the other hand, chinese people are likely to synthesize parts and examine the whole. language inevitably reflects the mode of thinking of certain people.as for the core value, western linearity is embodied in the priority given to developing individual potentialities, realizing individual objectives, and seeking individual interests; chinese circularity is embodied in the importance attached to harmonizing community relationships, actualizing community objectives, and safeguarding community interests. the english words like “individualism”, “ambition” and “idealism” are commendatory terms while the chinese ones like“个人主义”，“野心” “理想主义”a derogatory terms.4 several methods of chinese idiom translation 4.1 metaphrase metaphrase is a method that the image and the forms of the original text are preserved, which can be translated literally. the readers also can catch the implied meaning by the wording translation. some chinese idioms have similar images, which the foreign readers can associate to the equivalent english idioms.4.1.1 literal translation in idiom translation, there is a tendency to find english equivalent idioms, equivalent in referential meaning rather than in the images. the reason is that the target text must be idiomatically english. therefore, literal translation of chinese idioms is often considered non-idiomatic. as long as the translation conveys a vivid image and the referential meaning is not distorted, literal translation can introduce chinese culture to the world. literal translation is a way by which the rhetoric, national and regional characteristics are kept in the target language. in this way the meaning and the form of the source language are unchanged. some chinese idioms can be translated literally with the same vivid figurative result of the original ones, which can make the foreign readers associate to the equivalent english idioms.for example:对牛弹琴 to play the lute to a cow.