On The choice of Translation Strategies of Culture-oriented Words in Foreign Oriented News Reporting20.doc

从“福娃”英译看对外报道中汉语文化负载词的英译策略之选择on the choice of translation strategies of culture-oriented words in foreign oriented news reporting: from the case of english translationof “fuwa”目 录abstract1摘要1outline2提纲31.introduction42.thinking about the english translationof “fuwa”52.1 the difficulty in chinese-english translation of culture-loaded words52.2 the difficulty in chinese-english translation of “fuwa”53.the comparison between domestication and foreignization63.1 the strategy of domestication63.2 the domestication of “fuwa”83.3 the strategy of foreignization93.4 the foreignization of “fuwa”114. basis for the choice of translation strategies124.1 purpose of translation134.2 types of source text134.3 the specialty of chinese-english translation of foreign oriented news reporting145.conclusion15works cited17abstract: from the translational perspective, the controversy of the chinese-english translation of the phrase “fuwa” reflects the issue that what strategy should translators take to deal with culture-oriented words in the chinese-english translation process of foreign oriented news reporting. generally speaking, the culture-oriented words translation is closely related to the combat between domestication and foreignization. this text, proceeding with the major influential factors of the choice of the translation strategies and through the comparison between the domestication and foreignization, draw a conclusion that each strategy has its own applicable scope.key words: domestication; foreignization; culture-oriented words摘要：从翻译角度说，“福娃”英译之争反映了在对外报道中汉英翻译实践中，处理文化负载词时译者该选用什么样的翻译策略的问题。从根本上讲，文化负载词的翻译依然离不开归化与异化之争。本文将会对英译策略选择造成影响的一些主要因素入手，并通过对归化与异化的比较确定在处理文化负载词英译时归化与异化其各自适用的范围。关键词：归化；异化；文化负载词outline1. introduction2. thinking about the english version of “fuwa”2.1 the difficulty in chinese-english translation of culture-loaded words2.2 the difficulty in chinese-english translation of “fuwa”3. the comparison between domestication and foreignization3.1 the strategy of domestication3.2 the domestication of “fuwa”3.3 the strategy of foreignization3.4 the foreignization of “fuwa”4. basis for the choice of translation strategies4.1 purpose of translation4.2 types of source text4.3 the specialty of chinese-english translation of foreign oriented news reporting提纲1 概述2 福娃英译的思考2.1 “福娃”的英译难点2.2 文化负载词的英译难点3 归化与异化的比较3.1 归化策略3.2 “福娃”的归化3.3 异化策略3.4 “福娃”的异化4 策略选择的依据4.1 翻译的目的4.2 文本的类型4.3 对外报道英译的特殊性1. introduction in the 21st century, with the improvement of science and technology and under the effect of the development of economy and modern media, the trend of culture developing toward oneness has became the main trend in the development of human society. however, cultural differences cant be neglected. these differences brings a big handicap in cross-cultural communication and difficulty in translation, especially in the translation of culture-oriented words. for these words reflect the special means of activity which is calculated in the long historical process by a specific nation and can be distinguished from other nations, it is difficult for a translator to find a completely equivalent expression in the target language in translation. the mascot of the 2008 olympics “fuwa” is just such kind of phrase. “friendlies”, the english translation of “fuwa” gave rise to extensive arguments. those different opinions can be mostly concentrated in two points: firstly, friendlies may be erroneously assumed to be a wrongly written character. secondly, it is difficult to embody chinese characteristics and the vivid culture of chinese language. therefore it can not reach the requirement for a mascot of the olympics. to be a mascot of the olympics, it must can contain wide cultural connotation and reflect host countrys national characteristics. this text proceeding with the debate of chinese-english translation of “fuwa”, explore main effects causing the choice of the strategies of the cultural oriented word translation and each advantage of each strategy. finally, try to draw a conclusion what strategy is appropriate in the cultural oriented word translation.2. thinking about the english translationof “fuwa”since the unveiling of the mascots last november, the accuracy of its english translation, the five friendlies, of the mascots fuwa which literally means kids embodying blessings in chinese, has been questioned by the public. the thinking about the english translation of “fuwa” essentially involves in the chinese-english translation of culture-loaded words. 2.1 the difficulty in chinese-english translation of culture-loaded wordsculture-loaded words refer to the words that are embedded with cultural connatation, or the culture of a nation is manifested at the lexical level. language is colsely connected with the development and change of culture. words are the most important linguistic element, which can reflect culture and are in fluenced greatly by culture. according to the study of culture-loaded words, we can know a culture-loaded word contain a nations value, way of thinking, way of life, customs or religion, etc. those charateristics we have talked above causes a lot of difficulties in the chinese-english translation of culture-loaded words. in the translation practice, the translators must compare two cultures in order to produce satisfactory translation works. however, becauese of the differences of the two languages, the way of thinking and the life of experience, it is almost impossible to find a complete equivalence. firstly, chinese which is pictograph belongs to chinese-tibetan family language system. while english belongs to the indian-european family language system, which is phoneticized language. with these differences, a variaty of chinese expressions can show the image and characteristic of an issue , however english can only display the function of an issue. secondly, orientals excel in imagining and depend on intuition. this reflets complete form and lively image in the language. on the contrary, occidental peoples are good at analysing and reasoning, which results in terse expression. finnaly, language is the product of life experience and custom. different life experience leads to the difference in the value orientation and esthetic orientation which is finally embodied in the language. all of these factors conduce to the difficultise in chinese-english translation of culture-loaded words.2.2 the difficulty in chinese-english translation of “fuwa”from the design to naming, “fuwa” as mascot of the 2008 beijing olympic games, the product of many people s hard work and arguments, contains plentiful chinese cultural meanings. fuwa has created five mascots. they are five little childrena fish, a panda, a tibetan antelope, a swallow, and the olympic flame who form an intimate circle of friends. they represent five features of nature: sea, forest, fire, earth, and sky. each mascot has a two-syllable name in english, and combining the first syllables from all five produces the greeting “beijing huan ying ni,” which means “beijing welcomes you.” the connotation of fu is a wish for good fortune, luck, blessing and happiness, but also high rank (or achievement) and longevity. wa extends this wish to the newborn, the young, the becoming. taken together as fuwa, it means kids embodying blessings. these wishes are extended to the young athletes who will participate in the 2008olympicgames, to the chinese people who are emerging onto the world stage in a way never seen before, that is, as something new and evolving, and as a wish for good fortune and harmony to youthful people in the world at large. considering the abundand cultural connotation, the lack background knowledge of the target language readers , it is difficult for a tanslator to find a complete equivalence. the english translationhas cause a a lot of controversies, this papper try to find the best tanslation strategy which is most suitable in this case through comparing the different tanslation strategies in the following chapters.3. the comparison between domestication and foreignization through the comparison between domestication and foreignization, this chapter answers the question what strategies should be adopted when tanslating culture-loaded words under different condition.3.1 the strategy of domestication domestication strategy refers to the translation strategy in which a transparent，fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers. in other words, it is tl-oriented or reader-oriented and aims at maintaining intelligibility and elegance in the tl at the sacrifice of the sl form without changing the main cultural message of the original. nida, an important representative of domestication，regards domestication as an essential means to avoid linguistic and cultural conflict. according to his disciplines, the author summaries the advantages of domestication as follows:first of all, since translation is an important and indispensable medium for interlingual and intercultural communication, the original culture should be embedded into modes of behavior of the target culture in translation. with the use of domestication, it can avoid cultural conflict, in addition, when adopting domestication, translators must overcome the barrier of the language as well as the culture so that readers can better understand the source text for the content of the source text is conveyed within the knowledge scope of the real world of the receptors.secondly, one of the requirements of translation is that language of the translated translationis supposed to be natural, idiomatic and intelligible for the target readers in order to avoid misunderstanding caused by the linguistic obstacles. some features of domestication are just in accordance with the requirements. in nidas viewpoint of naturalness of expression in translation, the fluent translation strategy involving domestication is regarded as the primary importance. it is in agreement with dominant transparent translation. as he ever claimed that the translator must be a person who can aside the curtains of the linguistic and cultural differences so that people may see clearly the relevance of the original message”. to put it in another way, not only the form of the translation should conform with the norms of the language, but also the culture familiar to them.finally, in view of communication, one of the most important purposes of translation is to create effective and successful intercultural communication. because the target readers perceive the content of translated texts in their own cultural perspectives, an effective mode of communication in one culture is not necessarily efficient in another culture. even if every word of the source text has its equivalent in the target text, it can not necessarily be guaranteed that the translated texts can function in the target language culture the same as the source texts do in the source language culture. hence, through domestication, translators try their best to embed source language culture into target language culture and eliminate the cultural barrier which can be performed better by target-language-culture-oriented translation so as to achieve an effective communication（qtd. in huang11-12）.since this paper mainly deals with the translation of chinese culture-loaded terms into english, we have to know the definition of culture-loaded words firstly. chinese culture-loaded words refer to the words which exist in chinese culture and are readily recognized as applying only to that culture. there may be similar words but no identical ones in any other culture. this simple definition show us the characters of the cultural loaded words: antiques, embedded with cultural connotations and no equivalents in the english language. with different cultural background and mode of thinking, these words become a obstacle for the target language to understanding. if the translator doesnt do any appropriate treatments to eliminate the cultural impediment, readers cannot grasp the implicit intention of source text. and that will make readers lose the interest in reading the report for the lock of chinese cultural knowledge causing difficulties in understanding. as a result, the value of foreign oriented news reportingcan not be realized.3.2 the domestication of “fuwa” this paper argues that it can help the target language readers avoid misunderstanding caused by the diversity of the culture in translating cultural-loaded terms with the use of the domestication. it take the phrase “fuwa” for example. in a reporting of china daily updated on january 31st, 2006, the mascot “fuwa” was tackle as follow: nba star kevin garnett poses with chinese adolescents holding the friendlies 2008 olympic mascots at the great wall near beijing on july 13, 2006. in this version, the translator adopted domestication. “friendlies” is a plural noun originated from the word “friendly”. according to longman advanced american dictionary, the interpretation of “friendly” is list as follow: “behaving toward someone in a way that shows you like them and are ready to talk to them or help them” (“friendly,”def.580). so it is easy for a foreigner to feel happiness, cordiality and hospitality what the phrase “fuwa” expressed plus the interpretation for the word. “fuwa” serve as the official mascots of beijing 2008 olympic games, carrying a message of friendship and peace-and blessings from china-to children all over the world. in addition, “friendly” as a noun has the meaning of friendly match. in sporting fields, there are a great of friendly games such as football friendly and basketball friendly. when the foreigners see this word, they will easily associate the 2008 beijing olympic games. “friendlies” as the english translationof the mascots of beijing 2008 olympic games can transmit the original intention of the mascots and the spirit of olympic games.in order to achieve domestication, there are many methods, such as substitution and free translation. “substitution is a common translation method to replace the sl expressions with another established tl ones with similar idiomatic meaning no mater whether it employs the same or different images” (he 50). “friendlies” is the application of substitution. to some extents, “friendlies” and “fuwa”have the similar idiomatic meaning. all of them contain the meaning of happiness, cordiality and hospitality.in effect, it is also a kind of free translation which dispenses with the need to preserve the cultural flavor of sl.obviously, “friendlies” as the english translationof the mascots has its own advantage just as the above analysis. however, we can not deny that there still exist plenty of questions. wang yinquan thinks that it is hard to embody chinese characteristics and reflect the culture of chinese language. liao cheng also throw out a question that can “friendlies” equal the phrase “fuwa”. the dispute about the english translationbecame increasingly intense. at last, the nation olympic committee endorsed fu wa as the official translationof the phrase “fuwa”. is this translationreal more appropriate? before draw a answer, let know more about the foreinization which is adopted to translate the phrase “fuwa” to “friendlies”.3.3 the strategy of foreignizationin translation，culture-loaded terms are the main forms of the cu1ture.when translators try to transmit cultural terms, cultural meaning should be considered firstly,for this is the main form which can make readers experience the foreignness in target text. for this purpose, foreignization is a good choice in dealing with the culture-loaded words. “foreignization is a strategy that takes the orientation of the source language or the author, and it is source language culture oriented, while in domestication, translation takes the orientation of the target language or the reader and it is target language culture oriented.”(he22). many experts and scholars had done much in defining the term of foreignzation. german philosopher schleiermacher proposed “the translator leaves the author in peace，as much as possible，and moves the reader towards him”.(wilss 3). in a few words，he clarified the connotation and gist of foreign1zation. however，he did not bring forward the nomenclature of “foreignjzation” with regard to the content of his statement. schuttleworth and cowie said，in their dictionary, “foreignization is a term used by venuti to designate the type in which a tt is produced which deliberately breaks target convention by retaining something of the original”(ning59). venuti is a famous representative of foreignization school. he maintained that “fluency translation strategy will cover cultural differences, which, in fact, is a practice of cultural imperialism.” therefore, “translation should adopt resistant strategies to reflect the language cultural differences coded in the source and target text and to resist imperialistic domestication” (rethinking translation: discourse, subjectivity, ideology 13). venuti and his supporters have their reasons for foreignization as follows:1) the foreignizing translation retains the foreignness and cultural otherness of a foreign text only by destroying the target-language cultural norms. when the target text tries to be faithful to the source text，to be accurate，it can only deviate from the cultural norms of the target language. venuti emphasizes that foreignizing translation restrains the ethnocentric violence on the foreign text and in todays world，and this strategic cultural intervention is particularly desirable in order to resist the hegemony of english-language culture and to fight against the phenomenon of in