由东西文化差异谈英语颜色词翻译策略A Preliminary Exploration in Translating English Color Words into Chinese

1、由东西文化差异谈英语颜色词翻译策略a preliminary exploration in translating english color words into chinese摘要人类多姿多彩的生活从来都离不开颜色的点缀，颜色是人们对客观世界的一种感知。颜色被广泛运用于不同领域中，从人物情绪的表达到新闻事务的报道，从历史故事的回顾到经济事件的描述。随着时代的发展、社会的进步、科技的不断提高，来自不同文化背景的人们之间的交往与融合也随之不断加强。在跨文化交际时恰如其分地将英语颜色词翻译成汉语，对促进中西方交流必将发挥重大的作用。 如果两个民族对各种颜色词的感受和理解存在着共性，这将可译性和跨

2、文化交际的可能性奠定基础；然而两个民族思维方式、信仰、风俗习惯的差异不仅造成跨文化交际的失误和误解，而且给翻译工作者译出合理译语制造了障碍。本论文首先列出英语常见基本颜色词及相对应的汉语翻译，根据翻译基本定义、翻译标准、及中英文化差异，进一步分析其异同点，然后提出英语颜色词的四种汉译方法，即：直译法；直译加注法；替代法；意译法。全文结合四十个英语颜色词重点讨论了如何有效地采用这四种方法进行翻译，并归纳出翻译中所需要遵循的原则和规律，希望对以后的翻译有所借鉴。颜色词是语言的一个重要组成部分，由于人类生活有许多共同之处，汉英民族语都有共同的颜色词表示事务特征，这些颜色词出现了形式上的完全对等，因此

3、译者应寻找能够替代源语的“最接近、最自然”的译文。语言又是思想的载体，受到文化的影响，颜色词的文化内涵在某些地方有相同之处，某些地方又有很大的差异。所以在翻译过程中，要先弄清颜色词在源文化和目标文化中的内涵，再选用合适的翻译方法，这样才能准确地传递信息。因此本文提出在翻译英语颜色词时，译者应根据不同情境，采用适当的翻译策略，传递出源语的真实意义。由于语料的局限性，在翻译英语颜色词过程中必将碰到更多复杂的问题，因此，更多的方法和理论还有待于开发和研究。关键词：颜色词 ；文化差异 ；翻译策略abstract the world is colored by all kinds of colors.

4、it is the perception of people to the objective world. colors are widely used in different areas, from the expression of peoples mood to the reports of news, from retrospection of history to the description of economic events. with the advancement of times and the rapid development of technologies a

5、nd the world economy, cross-cultural communications and penetrations among different cultural communities are being strengthened. in this cross-cultural communication, a proper translation of english color words into chinese will inevitably play a great impact on the promotion of communications betw

6、een eastern and western countries. if the understandings and feelings to color words of chinese and english people are much alike, it will lay the foundation of the possibilities in cross-cultural communication as well as translatability. however the ways of thinking, beliefs, customs and habits of

7、different cultures not only cause failures and misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication but also create obstacles to translators who are trying to translate the “ideal target texts”.the paper first lists the basic common english color words and their corresponding chinese translations. acco

8、rding to the basic definitions of translation and criteria for translation, the differences between eastern and western cultures, the paper further analyzes their commonness and differences, then put forward four strategies in translating english color words into chinese, i.e, literal translation, l

9、iteral translation with notes, substitution and free translation. the whole paper chooses forty english color words, focuses on discussing how to effectively adopt these four strategies and summarizes the principles and rules that shall be obeyed in english color words translation. color words are a

10、n important component of human language, as human-beings have many common places, both chinese and english nations have same color words to express the characteristics of the things, these color words appear to be fully equivalent in form, the translator should seek the most nearest and natural targ

11、et language that can replace the source language. language is the carrier of the thinking, and it is often influenced by the culture, the cultural inherent of the color words have both similarities and differences. in the process of translation, the translator must be very clear about the inherent m

12、eanings of the color words in both original and target cultures, choose the appropriate translation strategy to correctly transmit the reliable information.therefore, the paper puts forward that in translating english color words, the translator should adopt suitable translation strategy according t

13、o different situation in order to transmit the real meaning of the source language. nevertheless, due to limit of data size, many more complicated problems may be met with in the process of translating english color words, therefore, more follow-up strategies and principles can be done in the future

14、. key words: color words; cultural differences；translation strategiestable of contentspages1.introduction 1 1.1 research background11.2 objective of the research1 1.3 significance of the research2 1.4 organization of the paper22. rationale3 2.1 concept and categories of color words3 2.2 basic transl

15、ation theory3 2.2.1 definitions of translation4 2.2.2 criteria for translation5 2.3 strategy and principles on the translation of english color words5 2.3.1 literary translation6 2.3.2 literal translation with notes6 2.3.3 substitution6 2.3.4 free translation73. data description74. data analysis8 4.

16、1 comparisons of english color words and their chinese translations8 4.2 strategies of translating english color words into chinese10 4.2.1 literal translation10 4.2.2 literal translation with notes11 4.2.3 substitution12 4.2.4 free translation125. results and suggestions13 5.1 results14 5.2 suggest

17、ions on the use of translating strategies156. conclusion17bibliography18appendix19a preliminary exploration in translating english color words into chinese1. introduction 1.1 background of the researchcolor words are perceptions of people about the objective world. it has a close relationship with h

18、uman life. we human beings contact with colors almost every day. there is a great variety of colors in this world with its distinctive physical property and rich cultural connotation, which have been vividly demonstrated in the language. language, being a very important component of culture, is play

19、ing an increasingly vital role in cross-cultural communication. in the human language, the unique charm which the color words express and display, makes people marvel at their richness.with chinas economic development and increasingly frequent cultural exchanges with the international community, man

20、y chinese people meet so many english color words in their daily life, but they often get confused about their real meaning and sometimes make jokes . a lot of english color words are needed to be understood and translated into chinese so that we chinese can have a better understanding about western

21、 countries and communicate with westerners freely. on one hand, peoples cognition to the color words have obvious common place, e.g, the basic same meanings of both english color words and its chinese translations; on the other hand, owing to different customs, geography, psychologies, historical tr

22、aditions, religions and beliefs of different nations, color words also demonstrate its distinctive personality with its cultural mark. therefore, it is indispensable to get acquainted with the culture when translating the english color words into chinese.1.2 objective of the research in order to fin

23、d out the proper translation strategies for english color words, the author studies different strategies of translation, focusing on four strategies, i.e, literal translation, literal translation with notes, substitution and free translation. to do that, the author gathers relevant examples (english

24、 color words and their chinese translations) for analysis. that is to say, in each strategy, comparisons are to be made between translation versions with their english originals. the research is intended to explore the translation strategies in the area of english color words. a list of translation

25、strategies will be presented and examples will also be provided to elaborate why certain strategies are employed to translate corresponding color words. through many research, a conclusion is reached on about what kinds of translation strategies are more suitable according to different situations.1.

26、3 significance of the research in cross-cultural communication, people from different nations have different cultures, color words have been endowed with different meanings in many circumstances. in the process of translating english color words, we can not always use literal translation method for

27、the exchange between chinese and western cultures. thus we should take the cultural element into consideration and make every effort to avoid the mistake in the translation process and reduce mistranslating. therefore, the author has chosen to make a study of translating english color words into chi

28、nese so that we could greatly achieve the goal of communication.in this paper, the author uses the plain words for readers easy-reading and understanding, addresses the issue by using new and clear classification of translation approaches. it is hoped that this thesis will play an important role in

29、the study of cultural translation theory and the better translation of english color words into chinese so that it could make a certain contribution to the communication of the international community.1.4 organization of the paper the paper comprises six parts. following the introduction, part two p

30、resents the concept and categories of english color words and their chinese translation. at the same time, basic translation theory including the definitions of translation and criteria for translation are introduced which are based on some famous writers books. part three describes the data to be a

31、nalyzed, the source and types of data. part four makes a tentative analysis of the translations of english color words. the author compares the original language meaning with its target language meaning from a point view of culture, then use different strategies to translate some english color words

32、 examples into chinese. part five is the result and suggestion about using proper translation strategies. the last part concludes the paper.2. rationale2.1 concepts and categories of color wordsin both english and chinese languages, there is a great variety of color words. but both english and chine

33、se languages divide color words into three categories: basic color words(基本颜色词)，color words with colors of objects(实物颜色词)和color words in shades(色差颜色词). （jiang&ding ， 2005：86，translated by the author）in view of the two nations cognition to the color words, they almost have same concept towards the ba

34、sic color words. basic color words refer to those color words they can express the objects colors. there is not too much difference of color words between the chinese and english languages. in english, basic color words include red, white, black, green, yellow, blue, purple, gray , brown; while in c

35、hinese, we have 赤、橙、黄、绿、青、蓝、紫。color words with colors of objects refer to those color words are named with its self original colors of objects e.g, silver(银白)，gold(金色)，chestnut-brown(栗色)，lead-gray(铅色).this category of color words is widely used in peoples daily life and literary works. （jiang& ding，

36、 2005：86，translated by the author）the above are the category of color words. owing to the limited length of the paper, here, the author will only explore the basic english color words and its chinese translations.2.2 basic translation theory translation is a rendering from one source language into a

37、nother target language. as a means of communication, it plays an important role in human civilization. people from different parts of the world can have good exchanges and communications with each other. with the expanding of cross-cultural communication in this information age, interpreting one lan

38、guage into another language appears increasingly important, which can greatly promote the international economic, political, cultural, scientific and technological development.2.2.1 definitions of translationfor quite a long time, various translation definitions have been put forward by many linguis

39、tic experts both at home and abroad. it has been taken for granted that translation merely takes place between two languages, with its emphasis on the concept of equivalence. however, li jianjun, a very good chinese pioneer in english-teaching, broke away from the limitations of equivalence theory a

40、nd reorients translation towards cultural rather than linguistic transfer. professor li, who formulated his definition of translation as follows:as different nations has its distinctive survival environment and development course, translation activity is not merely a means by transforming language s

41、igns, it is more than a communicative activity to transfer the cultural value and regenerate the cultural meaning. it is inevitably that translation shall concerns with political and historical factors, language and linguistic styles, ethic values, customs, emotional orientations and so on. the basi

42、c task of the translator is to translate the unfamiliar cultural concepts and information into the information that can be understood and accepted by the readers.(li, 2010:13, translated by the author).professor lis definition most suits our need of conducting research on cultural translation of col

43、or words. by his definition, we know that translation studies are linked with cultural studies. besides, translation is a complex process characterized by intercultural communication and interpretation, in other words, the translation of those works rich in cultural connotation requires an understan

44、ding of the subtle and rich cultural content first and then a faithful reproduction of these cultural elements with the adoption of an appropriate translation technique.2.2.2 criteria for translationthe criteria for translation is the judgement of the quality of the translation. a good translation m

45、ust correctly and fluently expresses the meaning of original language. with regards the criteria of translation, from the three characters guide faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance (信，达，雅) proposed by yan fu, a well-known chinese translator in the end of the 19th century to mr luxuns faithfuln

46、ess and fluentness ( 信，顺) till todays loyalty and fluentness which is universally accepted by the translation circle. as a matter of fact, their basic concepts are the same. the so-called faithfulness and loyalty requires the translation version must conform to the original meaning without any disto

47、rtion. from the high-standard view, the target language should not only correctly express the meaning of the source language, but also keep the style of the source language. the so-called expressiveness and fluentness requires that the target language must be fluently and conform to the language sta

48、ndard without unnatural feeling. with regards to the elegance which is put forward by yan fu, different translators from different dynasties have different opinions, there hasnt been an agreement till today. therefore, it is very hard to judge the quality of the translation by this ambiguous eleganc

49、e. the writer believes once the target language is loyalty and fluentness, it meets the criteria of translation. (sun, 2000: 2, translated by the author)2.3 strategy and principles on the translation of english color wordsthe english color words, the core and cream of the language, intensively refle

50、ct the cultural factors of the western countries. the translator must pay high attention to the relationship between culture and translation. it is not very hard to find out that owing to the different national psychology, aesthetic standard and many other factors, the english color words and its ch

51、inese translation has a great gap in symbolized meaning and emotional tint, this difficulty must be solved by both the english learners and english translators. just as professor li hongying stated the analysis and translation of color words should not be limited to their physical property, the tran

52、slator should take coherent meanings of the color words as well as humans cognitive behaviors to the color words into full consideration. (li, 2007:36, translated by the author)of course, english color words translation must go under the guidance of certain principles and criteria. eugene a. nida is

53、 the representative of western translation theorists, whose functional equivalence theory has great influence on the translators all over the world. he stated that a minimal, realistic functional equivalence could be stated as the readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the p

54、oint that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understand and appreciated it. (nida, 1993: 118) there are four basic translation methods for english color words translation under the guidance of nidas functional equivalence. (1) literal translation (2) literal translat

55、ion with notes (3) substitution translation (4) free translation2.3.1 literal translationthe so-called literal translation means when translating the meaning of source language, making the expressive style and sentence structure of the target language consistent with the source language. if it is po

56、ssible, make them completely equivalent, otherwise, to be as near as possible. this translation strategy is mainly used when there is cultural commonness between source language and target language that makes people causing the same association of ideas. (song, 2005: 19, translated by the author) 2.

57、3.2 literal translation with notesbased on literary translation, sometimes the target language couldnt be clearly, correctly and completely reproduced，we add remarks to clearly express the real meaning of the source language. the remarks include annotation，footnotes, endnotes and so on, which are th

58、e effective compensation method in deal with cultural-transplantation while translating.2.3.3 substitutionin the process of translation, according to the custom of the target language, sometimes the color words in the source language can be replaced by another different color words which are familiar by the readers.2.3.4 free translationthe so-called free translation refers to the further comprehension and digestion of the meaning of the source language. it needs to break the original structure and restructure a new one, and translate it into a