The Influence of Native Language Cultural in Translation.doc

母语文化在翻译中的影响the influence of native languageculture in translationabstract: the translation process involves difference as well as knowledge of language; the difference native language cultural has a great influence upon the quality of translation. this paper focuses on the difference of native language cultural between china and western countries from various aspects such as the difference of life custom, the distinct value concept, the different background of history and different religious faith. therefore, native language cultural elements deserve translators attention in the translation process, and translators need to polish themselves on their knowledge concerning culture.key words: translation; native language culture; influence; elements摘要：翻译的过程不仅涉及语言问题，更涉及文化问题。母语文化对翻译有很大的影响,本文对中西母语文化的差异在不同生活习俗，不同的价值观念，不同的历史背景和不同的宗教信仰等方面进行一一探讨。因此，结果表明，母语文化因素对翻译起者重要的作用，因此译者在翻译过程中，重视母语文化因素，并不断提高自己的文化素养。关键词：翻译；母语文化；影响；因素contentsi. introduction .1ii. literature review.2iii. principles for translation. 5a. various principles for translation .6iv. the relationship between language culture and translation.6a. different definitions of translation.6b. different definitions of culture.7c. relationship between language culture and translation.7v. native language culture influences translation.7vi. the elements of native language culture in translation.8 a. the different background of history.8 b. the difference of life custom.10 c. the distinct value concept.11d. the different religious faith.11vii. conclusion.13 viii. works cited.13 the influence of native language cultural in translationi. introduction thousands and millions of people in our country are foreign language learners. however, quite a lot of them think the english is hard to learn and master though they own an amount of the vocabularies. sometimes they can not understand the meaning of the reading material with their vocabulary. some of the foreign language learners want to be translators. although they have high english level, they can not translate it well and even more the readers can not understand what he or she translated. one of the main reasons is that they do not know about the influence of native language cultural in translation. if they want to translate something the influence of native language cultural is hard to overcome. in order to get a perfect translation version the translator not only have much enough english level but also know how to overcome the influence of native language cultural in translation. it requires the translator should pay more attention to the native language culture. with the development of the society, information becomes more and more important. different information comes from different areas or countries. if we want to get the information from other country sometimes language is an obstacle. in this way, the translation is necessary. translation could deliver the information and also expand the culture to other people. certainty, it has other functions. no matter what kinds of the translations (english-chinese, chinese-english or others) are all have these same functions. if the information material is translated incorrectly or not appropriately, the reader could not understand or misunderstand the meaning. why does this mistake happen? the main cause is that most of the translators themselves do not understand the translation material or their translation level is not good enough to do it well. many kinds of the elements influence the translation, such as grammar structure, volume of vocabulary, sentence structure, language level and native language culture etc. in fact, these elements are easy to overcome but the last one-the influence of language culture in translation is hard to overcome. the translation process involves cultural difference as well as knowledge of language. the cultural difference between source language and target language has a great influence upon the quality of translation. this paper focuses on the cultural difference between china and western countries from various aspects such as words and expressions, thinking patterns, social and religious traditions and thus points out the significance of appropriately dealing with cultural difference in translation. the native language culture influences the translation not only in negative aspect but also in positive aspect. in this paper, the author does not talk about the positive influence of native language cultural in translation because it is good for translator to do it. ii. literature reviewthe act of translation dates back to the beginning of the development of written scripts and the genesis of interlingua and intercultural contact necessitating the transfer of the meaning from one languages written code to another. superficially, the translation process may seem straightforward-a mere matter of finding a word in the target language that equates to that word in the source language. but, as world renowned translator and translation scholar, eugene nida, has said recently, some of the more aggravating frustrations suffered by translators are the numerous false ideas about language (savory 40). lay perceptions about the straightforward nature of the translation process have been reinforced further in modern times with the development of machine translation using computer. since ancient times, there had been analyses and pronouncements about translation upon which some principles were set up for the activity in the chinese context. only a sketchy line of the synchronical development of chinese translation theory will be traced here. it is now known that about 1,700 years ago, during the three kingdoms period (220-280) in china (as quoted in luo,x. 589), the major aspects in translation, e.g. fidelity to the original, expressiveness, and elegance, were first mentioned by zhi qian in the last part of his preface to a sutra. this discussion on the matter of translation approach did not seem to make a great impact then, and had largely remained unknown until its close resemblance to yan fus famous three criteria for translation was proved by qian zhongshu in the 1970s. according to ma zuyi, dao an (313-385) summarized the early experience of buddhist scriptures translation by pointing out that there were three difficulties which the translators could hardly overcome and five case in which the chinese version could not adhere to its sanskrit original (maz. 1995). kumarajiva（鸠摩罗什）（344-413）was the first one who used the method of free translation in translating buddhist scriptures; yan cong (彦琮) （557-610）made a further summering up of such experience and put forth eight requirements for his fellow translators; and xuan zang (玄奘)(602-664) raised five principles of transliteration and mastered such techniques as omission, addition, transposition, substitution , division or combination and restoration of nouns for pronouns (ma 17）.serious, large-scaled and enduring discussion in modern times on the theory of translation in china, strictly speaking, started with yan fus introductory remarks (1896) on translating t.h. huxleys evolution and ethics, in which he succinctly summerised three criteria for translation in three chinese characters; xin (信)（faithfulness）da (达) (expressiveness), and ya (雅) (elegance). the three-character criteria field in china in the late 19th century and debates between translators and theorists for generations thereafter were mainly centred on them (e.g. their divergence of views over literal versus free translation methods), with each translation school being merely its variation (see zheng, z.1921; lu, x. 1932; dong, q.1950; cao, j.1962; liu, j.1980; lao, l.1987; shen, s. 1992). during the may fourth new culture movement period in the early 20th century, some scholars argued against wenyan(文言) (literally cultural language) for baihua(白话) (literally plain speech),and yan fus criterion of elegance, ya, came under severe attack, with lu xu(鲁迅)and qu qiubai (瞿秋白)at the forefront, they both held that faithfulness tothe original rather than expressiveness was important ( ma 18).in the early 1950s, while most people were still locked in heated debates over the three criteria, some people begin to pay attention to the closeness of spirit(神似) and closeness of form（形似）.for the reasons known to all, the prc was not open to western world until the late 1970s; therefore most translation theories from out- side china began to be introduced into chinese translation circles from the early 1980s on an unprecedented scale, including those from the former soviet union, eastern europe, israel as well as from the west (guo, j. 1999), e.g. those of j.c.catford, geore steiner, peter newmark, eugene a. nida,wolgram wilss, albrecht neubert, georges mounin,and so on, which brought about considerable cross influence and new development in the chinese translation field（ma22).translation and schools of translation theory in the west demonstrated a huge and diversified field of study. general narrative chronicles of different lengths and depths have been produced by many western scholars as well as from various perspective. for instance, bassnett looks mainly from a historical perspective at the different concepts of translation prevailing at different historical stages, and the function and role of the translator that has according altered.instead of repeating what has been expertly done on the history of western translation theory since its inception, this thesis will focus on the more recent theories, selectively those that have been introduced to china and made considerable impact on the theoretical development in the chinese field of translation studies in the last three decades of the 20th century, especially those pertaining to the cultural turn in translation.as the interchange between theory and practical need continued, the communicative approach to translation began to be seen as lacking in breadth in that it has not provided a sufficient basis for understanding the nature of linguistic signs on all levels of discourse, nor does the communication theory provide adequate insight into the relationship of language to culture.the translation strategies can help the translator do the work very well and deal with many complex problems in translation. the above literature review is authority; it mentioned that the influence of native language cultural is an important and difficult point in translation, so all of the translation researchers should put their stress on it continuously.iii. principles for translation principles for translation and criteria for translation are actually identical in essence. as far as we can see, the only difference between the two terms lies in the fact that the former is observed from the perspective of the translator, while the latter is examined from the angle of the translator critic. while doing translation, the translator is guided by the principle for translation. while criticizing or appraising, or evaluating translated works, the critical scholar abides by the criteria or standards for translation.a. various principles for translation translation theorists at home and abroad present various principles or criteria for translation. summarizing the practice of many translators, savory offers similar accounts of a number of the criteria for translation. some of them are listed below and some supplements are provided to make the accounts more adequate (savory 20).1. a translation must reproduce the words of the slt (source language text).2. a translation must reproduce the ideas of (meaning) of the slt.3. a translation should read like an original work.4. a translation should read like a translation.5. a translation should reflect the style of the original.6. a translation should possess the style of the translator.7. a translation should retain the historical stylistic dimension of the slt.8. a translation should read as a contemporary piece of literature.9. a translation may add to or omit from the original. 10. a translation may never add to or omit from the original.11. a translation should let the readers of the slt and the target language text (tlt) essentially the same response. 12. a translation should convey what the slt author intends to convey.13. a translation should satisfy the need of the client (tan 8). iv. the relationship between language cultural and translation a. different definitions of translationtranslation theorists have formulated various definitions of translation, but up to now consensus has been reached upon a unified satisfactory definition（zheng 14).1. the definition of translate in the oxford english dictionary is to turn from one language into another. 2. the definition of translate in the websters third new international dictionary of the english language is to turn into ones own or anther language.3. the definition of translate in the new encyclopedia britannia, macromedia is a continuous concomitant of contact between two mutually in comprehensible tongues and one that does not led either to suppression or extension of either is translation. 4. eugene a. nida definite the translation is translating consist in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style(zheng 1). b. different definitions of culturalthere are more than 250 definitions concerning cultural. there are various ways to classify. there are seven definitions in the oaled（wehmeier 412).1. u (a) refined understanding and appreciation of art, literature, etc. (b) (often derog.) art, literature, etc. collectively 2. u state of intellectual development of a society 3. u, c particular form of intellectual expression, e.g. in art and literature 4. u, c custom, arts, social institutions, etc. of a particular group or people5. u development through training, exercise, treatment, etc.6. u growing of plants or rearing of certain types of animals (e.g. bees silkworms, etc.) to obtain a crop or improve the species 7. c (biology) group of bacteria grown for medical or scientific studyc. relationship between language cultural and translation language is a part of culture. language is a carrier of culture. translation is to turn from one language into another, so translation is also a carrier of culture. translation and culture are not separable. we can say that culture is the general environment of different activities in translation. translation is strongly influenced and shaped by culture just as a mirror. culture is reflected in translation. in this sense, we ought to really pay special attention to the aspect of native language cultural when we are engaged in the task of translation.v. native language culture influences translationmany kinds of the elements influence the translation, such as grammar structure, volume of vocabulary, sentence structure, language level and native language culture etc. in fact, these elements are easy to overcome but the last one-the influence of language culture in translation is hard to overcome. the translation process involves cultural difference as well as knowledge of language. the cultural difference between source language and target language has a great influence upon the quality of translation. the influence of native culture in translation from various aspects such as the different religious faith, the different background of history, the difference of life custom, the distinct value concept and the different thinking way in east and west. in view of the problems of cultural factors in translation, exemplification and induction are taken to explore and analyze how important the cultural factors are in translation and how to avoid mistranslation due to cultural factors which play a decisive role in his/her translation. therefore, language cultural elements deserve translations attention in the translation process, and translator need to polish themselves on their knowledge concerning culture.vi. the elements of native language culture in translation a. the different background of historyscience research shows that there are more than hundreds of colors in the world. the words and expressions of colors vary from culture to culture. but the basic classifications of colors between china and english-speaking countries are roughly the same. they are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. because of physical, meal and psychological reasons, the semantic meaning remains different in different customs, habits, and expressions. red is usually associative with celebrations, happiness, delight and joyful occasions. this is true in both english-speaking countries and china. we usually find antithetical couplets written on scrolls in red or both sides of doors during the spring festive in china, the brides often wear red clothes in weddings, and when people meet their animal years every twelve years, they frequently wear red belt and red underwear so as to be lucky and dispel misfortunes. similarly westerns also like the red color, which is still associated with the same pleasant meaning as chinese do. they regard christmas and other holidays as red-letter days (feng 133).the word red, however, sometimes may give us a kind of unhappy feelings when reading.a red battle 一场血战red ha