Culture_Differences_and_Translation文化差异与翻译英语毕业论文.doc

Culture Differences and TranslationAbstractInterlingual communication is actually intercultural communication, Language is part of the culture of a people and the chief way by which the members of a society communicate。Basing on these points, this article gives examples to show the facts that there exists in translation semantic correspondence and semantic zero between different languages and different cultures. When we do translating we should try to make up semantic zero caused by the culture. 1. What is A Good TranslationTranslation is, in fact, a converting process. Theoretically, a good translation should give its reader the same conception as what a native reader gets from the original. Nida1 remarked that how to determine a good translation is the response of the receptor to the translated message, and this message must then be compared with the way in which the original receptors presumably reacted to the message when it was given in its original setting. Jakobson2 held the view that translation does not just mean the change of symbols into another language, but it is a process of information substitution. The task of a translator is to translate the information he receives into symbols which he will send out. Catford3 explained that in translation there is no meaning equivalence, but just the signifier equivalence. Because of the differences between the original language and the target language, there exists the translation equivalence4 limitedness. This limitedness is not only manifested in the meaning of words, grammatical features, but also manifested in cultural differences more seriously.2. Culture and LanguagePerhaps culture is one of the most difficult terms to define. Different people in accordance with their different specialties have given different definitions. Eshleman says “The term culture means different things to different people.” In the minds of many people, it is associated with such activities as attending the opera, listening to classical music and going to art museums. As used by sociologists and cultural anthropologists, however culture has a different meaning. To sociologists, a culture is a system of ideas, values, beliefs, knowledge, norms, customs and technology shared by almost everyone in a particular society. A culture is a societies system of common heritage and each of us has culture. We express our culture continuously in our dress, food, work, language and other activities. What Eshleman says gives a definition of culture. To put it simply, culture means the total way of life of a people. Language does not develop in empty space1. Language is a part of culture, perhaps best defined as “the totality of beliefs and practices of a society”. These beliefs may be further described as consisting of knowledge, patterns of reasoning, and sets of values. A language, therefore, is both a part of culture and a medium through which the other parts of culture are expressed5. This makes language the distinctive feature of human society, something in which immigration officials put more trust than in documentation. Papers can be readily falsified, but not accents. But language is also indispensable for the functioning of a culture and for transmitting it to succeeding generations. That is to say, language plays a very important role in culture. Without language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture. Language can not exist without culture. Therefore, language and culture are inseparable. 3. Culture and TranslationTranslation means intercultural communication by means of which one culture can be transmitted into another, so the cultural special characteristics unavoidably influence translation. The equivalence limitedness of the translation between the original language and the target language is almost caused by the differences between the two cultures and how to convey the cultural meaning is often the difficulty of a translation.Different languages are bound to adopt different meaningful devices to show their cultures in order to reflect their national consciousness and cultural tradition. The research of the cultural features embodies rich contents. According to the research of some scholars, the cultural features of language include:a. ecology,b. material culture, c. social culture, d. religious culture, e. linguistic culture. 6Take English and Chinese for example: in Britain, the weather changes a lot, and so people have a special feeling for weather. “Lovely day, isnt it ?” becomes the most convenient and safe greeting. In china, the problem of daily bread has been the subject people have been concerned with. In Western culture, there are many Gods, such as Jesus, Apollo, Jupiter, while in China, we have “盘古”, “嫦娥”, “牛郎”, etc. English people would say “as poor as a church mouse” , but in Chinese we have “穷的像叫化子”。Thus, in translation, we should put more emphasis to the cultural factors in languages.In the following, there are some examples to support the influence of culture on translation and the translation between English and Chinese will be focused on.4. Influence of Culture on Translation4.1 The Translation of IdiomsIdiom is considered as the special cultural image. Its translation requires not only to convey the meaning of the original as much as possible but also to keep the national features.In English and Chinese, there are some idioms which are of the same grammatical forms and of the more or less same meaning. In this case, these idioms in the target language can be borrowed. For example:Two heads are better than one. 三个臭皮匠, 胜过诸葛亮。7One swallow does not make a summer. 一花独放不是春。Among the blind the one two eyed man is king. 山中无老虎, 猴子称霸王。Some idioms cannot find their equivalent expressions in target language. In this case, we should understand the culture they are involved in, and reconstruct the true meanings they carry faithfully. For example:“The children of the bride chamber”, which is from the Testament. It means “the guests at the wedding ceremony” or “the friends of the bridegroom”, but not “the children of the house of the man who marries the woman”. So it should be translated into “婚礼上的宾客” or “新郎的朋友”, but not “新郎房间里的孩子”。4.2 The Translation of Chinese 4-character Phrase97% Chinese idioms are in the form of 4-character phrases because of their beautifulness in sound, parallel in form, concise and comprehensive in meaning. Its a tendency that more and more 4-character phrases are used in writing and translation of Chinese8.Sometimes there are set-phrases that have equivalent meaning in English. For example:a drop in the ocean 沧海一粟burn ones boats 破釜沉舟smell of the baby 乳臭未干not to have a bean 囊空如洗Sometimes there are no equivalent set-phrases in English, so a right expression should be chosen by translator. For example:Misery loves company. 同病相怜The truth comes out. 真相大白The storm clouds gathered darkly. 乌云密布There are cultural differences between Chinese and English because of different beliefs, religions, custom and so on. So we should pay much attention to this factor in translating culture-loaded components into 4-character phrases.as strong as a horse 健壮如牛as clear as daylight 洞若观火as clear as the sun at midday 昭然若揭bleed like a pig 血流如注as dumb as an oyster 守口如瓶Often a translation from English to Chinese with appropriate 4-character phrases is more popular and encouraged. For example:He was struck by her powerful profile, her rich black hair falling freely onto her shoulders and the intensity of her dark eyes. 他一下子为她的出众长相所倾倒:她一头乌发披肩,飘逸潇洒,一双黑眸炯炯有神。4-character phrases are very popular, but they can not be used too much. Otherwise it will make negative effect in translation. In short, the adequate use of 4-character phrases in translation can make the translation graceful and concise, but there are still some factors which we should pay attention to.4.3 The Translation of Color WordsThe widely used color words and the connotations they carry in one culture are generally different form another culture. In Chinese, we often use the seven kinds of color “赤橙黄绿青蓝紫”, while in English the basic color words are black, red, yellow , green, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange, and grey. Red is related to happiness, anger, danger, fire, blood and crime. For example: red-letter 喜庆的9red with anger 气的满脸通红red ruin 战祸red alert 紧急通报red-handed 血淋淋的get into the red 负债To Chinese people, blue can produce fine imagination, and it stands for purification and magnanimousness. To English people, blue expresses failure, depression, horror and grief. For example: “She looks blue today.” means “She is depressed.” .“in the blues” means “in low spirits”.“blue Monday” means “the dejected Monday after the rest of weekends”.“blue murder” means “horrid scream”.Green not only symbolizes life and youth, but also carries the meaning of ignorance and inexperience in English. For example:“green hands” means “new hands”.“green eyed” means “jealously”.“green power” means “the power of money”.English color words are colorful. Both Chinese and English color words have their different cultural connotations. Color words, though very small in number, reflect to a certain extent the cultural, moral and aesthetic values of different races and people of different times. 4.4 The Translation of PoemsA poem can very often show the culture of a language. It may involve allusions, history, geography and its religion, etc. The good translation of poems cannot be isolated from culture. Let us look at part of the poem entitled “The Fiddler of Dooney” by W. B. Yeats.When we come at the end of timeTo Peter sitting in stateIf “peter” is translated into “阎罗大王”, it is improper. According to Bible, Peter is related to honesty and goodness, and he is in charge of the key to Heaven. In Buddhism, “阎罗大王”is in charge of the Hell, and it is the symbol of cruelty and ugliness. More properly, Peter should be translated into “圣彼得”. The translation of Shakespeares Sonnet XV III also shows the importance of culture. In this poem, there is the sentence and its translation by Liang Zongdai (梁宗岱译):Shall I compare thee to a summers day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summers lease hath all to short a date:我怎么能够把你来比作夏天？你不独比他可爱也比他温婉；狂风把五月宠爱的嫩蕊作贱，夏天出赁的期限又未免太短。10Here comes a improper translation caused by different geographical culture. Because the summer in Britain is mild and lovely, the comparison of “you” to “summer” is very proper. If the summer in the target language country is not as lovely as in Britain, then “春天” is more proper than “夏天” in translating the word “summer”.Let us read the following stanza by Robert Burns:John, Anderson, my Jo, John,When we were first acquaint,Your locks were like the raven,Your bonnie brow was brent.The Chinese Version by Liang Yuchun (梁遇春) 11 :John, Anderson, 我的爱人, John我们当初认得的时候你的头发黑得象乌鸦你的额头也是丰润无痕The poet compared his lovers locks with that of the raven and which has no derogatory connotation. But to a Chinese, the raven is unwelcome, unpleasant, and is usually associated with derogatory sense , such as in the expressions “乌鸦嘴” and “天下乌鸦一般黑”. The Chinese version retains the metaphor, but runs counter to the aesthetic standards of Chinese readers; therefore, the original meaning of the poem may not be perfectly represented. I attempt to translate it as the following:约翰安德生,我的爱人记得我们初相遇你的头发如墨你的脸儿似玉4.5 The Translation of Autochthonal NameSometimes quite a few names of the things are created and used in only one community or part of the community. The translation of them should give a explanation about them in brief.糖葫芦 Tanghulu, a sugar-coated on t he stick which is a kind of children s favorite food in winter. 6气功 Qigong, a system of deep breathing。炒杂碎 Chaozasui, a fried mixture long on bean sprouts and miscellaneous chopped vegetables with diced meat and shrimps.我属鸡。我从来不吃鸡。鸡是我的本命年。 I was born in the year of the Rooster. I never eat chicken. The Year of Rooster will bring me good luck or bad luck. (Chinese people traditionally use 12 animals, representing the 12 Earthly Branches, to symbolize the year in which a person is born, Spring Festival 1993 is the first day of the year of the Rooster. People born in this year have the rooster as their life symbol. All of her years of the rooster, according to an old Chinese saying, become either good-or-bad-luck years for t hem. )凭你有李、杜文章, 颜、曾的品行, 却是也没有一个来问你。 You might have the genius of LiBai or DuFu and the moral worth of YanHui or Zeng Shen (both of them were disciples of Confucius), no one would ask your advice.Chinese people are very familiar with the four men - Li Bai, Du Fu, Yan Hui and Zeng Shen. In the source language only their first name are given, the source reader can understand. But it is unfamiliar for a tar get reader. Therefore, it should be amplified when translating, or it cant be understood by the reader.With the extra annotation, the source messages semantic, the linguistic and social meaning are all conveyed. Thus, the reader can understand the Chinese unique culture.5. Overcome Cultural BarriersGregory Rabassa said that a translation can never equal the original, it can approach it, and its quality can only by judged as to accuracy by how close it gets. That is to say, we have to overcome cultural barriers and try to track our brains for the closet natural equivalents to make up the semantic zero.The ideal translators are not necessarily those who are readily bilingual and bicultural in daily affairs, but those who are unusually competent in their mother tongue (normally, the receptor language in the translation process) and who have a profound knowledge of the culture of the source text1. The most serious mistakes in translating and interpreting are usually not the result of verbal inadequacy, but of wrong cultural assumptions. This means that the training of competent translators and interpreters must include not only a careful study of the intimate relations between language and culture, but must go beyond this limited goal in order to show how both language and culture are two similar symbolic systems.This same development should be recognized in verbal and cultural types of meanings. The meaning of a word must be determined by both the semantic contexts and the cultural contexts. To understand Navajo healing ceremonies it is not enough to consider the various herbs and incantations, which have certain parallels in the medical practice and pharmacology of the Western World, but also the confessions of wrong doing that are thought to cause illness and the sand paintings that restore symmetry and balance to life. Real meaning is always total meaning.6. ConclusionFrom what was discussed above, it is better for us