Cultural Connotations of English Words and Translation 英语毕业论文.doc

cultural connotations of english words and translationabstract: language and culture are closely related, while the words and most rich cultural connotations. this paper lists and analyzes a number of chinese language and english language to reflect some cultural connotations and associative meaning of words and images presented according to different translation purposes to deal with the translation of these terms, ideas, and describes several specific methods for translation of words . 1 introduction language and culture interacting with each other, language is the carrier of culture, human society has their own unique culture and tradition is reflected in the language, it carries a different language to express their cultural imprint. translation is not only a bilingual event, is also a cross-cultural activities . with regard to cultural factors should be taken to do as the romans of the treatment is the principle of the culture of the reader from the translation point of view, to meet the readers reactions and feelings of translation, it should be based on the principle of respect for the original culture, and honestly reflect the source of cultural images and content for readers to enjoy the exotic, which in the translation profession has been a bone of contention and a major challenge. in fact, due to language and cultural differences, we can not use one or two standards, or simply use naturalized or alienation in the process of translation will be able to handle a variety of cultural phenomenon. moreover, the naturalization and alienation in translation is not entirely opposite, and they complement each other throughout the entire process of translation. the translator is the translation process in the main body should not only be proficient in languages, and should be familiar with both chinese and english language to reflect culture. only by correctly grasp the words in the english-chinese cultural connotation implied in order to reduce errors in the translation translation, erroneous translation, asked readers to help cross-cultural divide, to achieve the purpose of cross-cultural communication. second, the meaning and cultural connotations of english words famous british linguist g * leech would be the meaning of the word is divided into seven kinds: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning, emotional significance, reflecting the significance, with meaning and significance of the theme. this paper only from the concept of meaning and connotation to explore the rich cultural connotation of some words in the semantic differences. 1. english and chinese languages, the vocabulary of the language has a large number of vacancies reflected in the vocabulary of their own unique culture, in the chinese language to reflect the most typical traditional chinese philosophy, traditional chinese food, traditional chinese medicine name, and the vocabulary of historical events and sports activities . such as: gossip, feng shui, yin, yang, tofu, dumplings, spring rolls, qigong, tai chi, dragon-boat racing, etc., the concept of the meaning of these words in the english language is a vacancy. similarly, there are also some english language reflects the history of english culture, political system and sports terminology, it is difficult to find in chinese corresponds to the vocabulary to express the concept of its meaning, of course, it is also difficult to understand the connotation of meaning, such as the : frontier, hippie, yuppie, brodway, lobby, fair play and so on. in addition, history, literature, myths and legends related terms have a strong cultural flavor. for example: ancient chinese mythology, jingwei, epoch-making, kuafu chasing month; chinese literature in the kong yiji, monkey king, lin tai-yu; reflect the historical events of chinas great revival , real or imagined and so on. foreign mythology much cry and littlewool, achillesheel, an app le of discord; foreign literary works in the frankstein, romeo, hamlet; to reflect historical events in foreign countries meet ones w aterloo, keep ones power dry, cross the rubi2con, send one to coventry and so on. english and chinese languages, the story of a large number of cultural traditions reflected in the myths and legends, literary works and historical events, the characters appear in well-known people-oriented, people often use these words and characters to describe the real-life and things, for foreigners should be aware of these connotations is not easy. 2. the concept of english words the same meaning, while the connotation does not correspond to cuckoo, cicada, crane, and other animals in the chinese and western cultures have a different two kinds of associative meaning, azaleas in the chinese classical literature often sadness, qiqie, sad, a symbol of crane symbolizes longevity in china, such as songhe sickness. while the americans, the crane and the cicada, do not have these images to make associations. chinese in the cricket has bleak and lonely sad and lonely lenovo, ouyang xiu, du mu, yue fei deng jun expressed sadness with the crickets emotions. however, in the anglo-american culture, the connotations of cricket has not sorrow, but joy, happiness. if asmerry as cricket (such as the cricket-like happiness). han nationality through loose, bamboo, plum symbol of hardy habit characteristics of a strong and noble human virtues, these three plants known as the three friends of winter, containing three plants idioms are many: songbai evergreen, oh, with confidence and so on. particularly because bamboo is a common plant in southern china, people often use it to constitute a figurative terms: with confidence as a metaphor a person has a good program, with the chance of winning the hearts of certainty, but in english there is no such an analogy is if you want to use this phrase to hehas long had fully2grown bamboo in his bosom. , english readers will yunliwuli and incomprehensible. for this geographical environment is an important factor does not correspond to the most typical is the west wind and dongfeng if do not understand china and the united kingdoms geographic location and climatic phenomena, it will cause misunderstanding. in the united kingdom is a moderate westerly wind, symbolizing the arrival of spring, suggesting recovery of the land of all things, so only shelleys west wind song (ode to the westw ind). however, in china, lenovo westerly winds are cold, while the wind only the meaning of spring. english and chinese words often have the same color in the literal meaning, and different value systems and cultural backgrounds and different cultures have a vocabulary of color makes it different and even opposite associations, such as red corresponds to the literal meaning of english and chinese, but the lenovo does not equal meaning. red is the favorite color of the chinese nation, on behalf of the revolution, festive and auspicious in chinese history we have the red army, red guards such a revolutionary force, the establishment of red power, the opening of red revolution base. similarly, the red is a symbol of celebration, the chinese wedding tradition since ancient times to wear the red, point red candles, paste dhs. however, in western eyes have a different association, the red symbol in western culture of violence, dangerous, bleeding, vulgar and loss, etc., the red may is 1968 5 months student unrest in paris. precisely in order to avoid the english reader revolution and violence, lenovo, davidhawks translate the phrase dream of red mansions is a red but will gaidiao title to thestory of the stone, will be mourning red lodge translated into nostalgia studio (old landmark ), yihong was translated into the house of green delights (yee green house), yi hong son, translated as green boy, so to avoid mistakes westerners think. of course, this may also ignore the red in chinese culture of lucky happy and associative meaning. i think it chinas red go into the wests green have to grasp the degree, otherwise you will distort the facts, a person wearing red clothes, eating red apple, may become a man dressed in green clothes and eating green apples. white (white) is also true, although the meaning of reciprocity, but the cultural differences are large, english white is pure, clean, goodwill and auspicious symbol, so the bride married to white wedding dresses, a symbol of purity but unlucky girl hope and pray, there are white days auspicious, a white lie white lies, days marked with a whitestone, happy days. in addition to the color white, said in chinese, the important thing is its extended meaning, such as: blank, vain, no cost and so on, such as: quiz, white to, white dry, no good, white effort and so on. can be seen in the vocabulary of any language are inextricably linked with its cultural background, leaving the number of such frames of reference and culture can not understand those who have rich cultural connotations of the word, because language does not exist from the culture, not from the kind of intergenerational determine the outlook of our lives, customs and beliefs in general . third, the translation of english words belong to two completely different languages, english and chinese words in the meaning of symmetry, and totally does not correspond to the corresponding part of the three circumstances, it not only in word polysemy of irregular staggered , but also in the content item in the same sense differences . how to have a rich cultural connotations in the original vocabulary of the implementation of the translation of this level is a major problem of translation. naturalization and alienation are two different ways to language translation, translation is the naturalization of the heterogeneous elements of a culture into another culture in which people are familiar with the contents of it to abandon the original statement and image, focusing on language use meaning, to meet the readers understanding and response translation, but it may result at the expense of a large number of cultural information attached to the expense of the reader a sense is a translation of a fool . translation is to the alienation of a culture and language information in order to maintain its origins close to being delivered to another culture and language, this translation is conducive to two kinds of alienation of cultural and linguistic interaction and penetration. such as english idiom: go to law for a sheep, you lose a cow go into picking up sesame, foolish, and alienation as a sheep in order to court, but the loss of a cow. in cross-cultural translation, the translator is faced with a language different from their mother tongue and culture, often encounter in their own language, culture and values can not understand things, we have to do under different circumstances be treated differently , the following i will introduce to deal with several english-chinese translation with rich cultural connotation vocabulary approach. 1. transliteration annotated for its own national characteristics, unique things that can be used phonetic translation, in order to maximize preservation of traditional cultural identity and ethnic styles, if necessary, the reader can understand when asked why these things matter in the end, to an additional comment. such as the china-specific food dumplings, fritters, glutinous rice balls, steamed buns and so that we can literally, because in english there is no such food, even if the translator souchangguadu able to find several similar food, in the end still does not completely right , etc. in addition, foreigners will be a resuscitation, two back to cooked, these words will be an english loan words in chinese. such as the wonton, chow mein (guangdong transliteration) chaos, chow mein has been an income english-chinese dictionary, a foreigner living in china had also used to say tofu, jiaozi, mantou (tofu, dumplings, steamed buns), but do not use the the old translation beancurd, dumpling, steamed bread and bun. we have reason to believe that the characteristics of food and other things through the transliteration of law are also accepted and used by foreigners. as we now know pizza, sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, the same pie. 2. literal translation with footnotes, france is trying literal reproduction of the original content and style, while preserving the form of . for the default for cultural vocabulary that we can literally add comments, asked readers to the cultural background knowledge, is conducive to cultural exchange. for example, jane ao siting of pride and prejudice chapter 13 . and on thesegrounds, i flatter myself that my p resent overtures of good2will are highly commendable, and that the circum stance ofmy being next in the entail of longbourn estate w ill be kindlyoverlooked on your side, and not lead you to reject the of2fered2olive2branch. . . (in this regard, i am confident that i zhefan kindness is highly commendable, and i will inherit the property subject to lang bern, you do not mind , it need not lead you refuse to accept my olive branch presented.) (yilin version: p61), after reading the translation, the reader may not understand, presented the olive branch means, in western culture, the olive branch a symbol of peace , or olive branch is a metaphor body, ontology is peace , the translator to convey to readers through the comments, olive branch is sum the meaning of . this method is suitable for cultural characteristics and connotations of the vocabulary as well as the symbolic and the things mentioned above in english and chinese for the story of two languages as reflected in the characters and idioms we may adopt the method of literal translation with footnotes, so that both the transmission of cultural information has to take care of the readers understanding. 3. the image of english idioms translation (1) the image of a commonality of human reproduction, the feelings of nature are striking similarities between english and chinese languages in the form and meaning to the right, etc., etc., or the basic phenomenon, many analogy is overlap. therefore, when the combination of images and figurative meaning in the original language and target language is common, we can reproduce the original language with its equivalent translation of the image. if all the rivers run into the sea; yet sea is notfull. phrase from the bible, in english idiom, the old testament, ecclesiastes and chinese huainanzi pan on the training and tends in one direction, while the sea-no gain exactly the same as . there are like father, like son, strike while the iron is hot, fish introubled water, seeing is believing, as light as a feather, constant dropp ing wears the stone has his father, one must be his son, build on the progress, fish in troubled waters, seeing is believing, light as a feather, effort brings success, and so the image of the same, meaning similar to english words were inevitable, which makes the image reproduction carried out in the translation is possible. (2) to replace the image when the image of the original language can not be carrying the figurative meaning is reproduced in the target language, we can use the target language readers familiar with the image of the replacement of the image of the original language, so translation to achieve the same or similar with the original expression of results , such as: beard thelion in his den 太岁头上动土, draw water in a sieve zhulandashui, go forwool and come back shorn. gained nothing in losing the rice. chinese idioms of timid as a mouse, hujiahuwei, wengzhongzhibie, squaring the circle, wearing a pair of pants and you can select figurative meaning the same, but different from words yu body, such as timid as a rabbit; like a donkey ona lions hide; a rat in a hole; fish in the air; be hand in glovewith sb. (3) the image is omitted in the translation process, some of yu body image has not been able to reproduce the image, but also the image can not be replaced, we can image omitted, translated semantics. if knowing full well the importance of the tourna2ment, all the p layers pulled their socks up. team members are well aware of the importance of championships, so that everyone in high spirits, ready to make a big fight . pull ones socks up in chinese can not find the corresponding replacement image, we can omit the image of france, translated the original semantics, so that the reader at a glance. another example: jan daras fist, cloud inside the sun. scholars (p.75) can be translated into a stepmother is always cruel. (yang hsien-yi couple translated). the same as in english gordian knot, as poor as a churchmouse, in chinese the huff, sit back and wait, pleasures of the labor, iron rice bowl, with confidence and so on can do this. 4. english translation of the word color (1) the literal translation law: to retain the original form of reproduction of the original content in order to reproduce the original content and style, in the translation, we can use literal translation. such as 天下乌鸦一般黑 (crows are black all o2ver the world.); red guards (the red guard); white collar white collar; a white christma s blanketed by su-wrapped christmas. (2) color conversion: the pursuit of functional equivalence, to avoid the collision lenovo sometimes forms in order not to make the information carried translation occurs lenovo distortion caused by the collision, we can switch from the literal meaning, with a view to functional equivalence. auspicious, purple robe, tea, we will be translated into luckydays, scarlet robe, black tea. will be green2eyed and brown sugar translated as red eye and brown sugar. it was also for this reason, professor xu yuan