硕士学位论文-从语言与文化的关系角度看词汇空缺.doc

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSAt the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my sincere gratitude in the first place to my supervisor Zheng Lixin, whose inspiring instructions and patient help have been essential to its realization. I also want to thank all my teachers in Shanghai Maritime University for their excellent guidance in my postgraduate education.This thesis also owes thanks to many of my classmates and friends for their personal guidance, encouragement and support during its production.At last, I would like to give my special thanks to my dear parents and sister. Their permanent support and encouragement have helped greatly to complete this thesis.摘 要语言是文化的组成部分，同时，也是其载体。任何一个社会的物质发展、制度体系等都是通过语言的记载才得以传承。从另一方面来说，语言在很大程度上受文化的影响。文化在具有共性的同时，也拥有着各自的特性，虽然有些特性涉及的只是极其细微的方面，却也是不容忽视的。由于文化在历史背景、社会习俗、宗教信仰和意识形态等方面的差异性，每个民族都存在着某些特定的实物或者意识形态方面的概念，而这些在另一种语言中找不到与之对应的表达。词是构成语言的基本单位，所以社会文化的差异性可以在词汇系统中得到体现。文化负载词，尤其是文化空缺词作为最易受影响的语言词汇，直接反映了一个民族或者国家特有的文化。词汇空缺作为一个专业术语首先出现在语义学领域，而后被引入翻译学用来指在源语言中存在但目标语中缺失的词。随着全球化进程的加速，跨文化交际已经成为日常生活中一种司空见惯的事情。在这种情况下，作为跨文化交际障碍之一的词汇空缺受到越来越多的关注，尤其自上世纪70年代以来，很多学者对其从不同方面进行了研究并取得了一定进展。就词汇空缺的定义而言，主要有两种不同的视角。一种是从语义学的角度；另一种则是从语言与文化的关系角度。根据本文研究角度的需求，作者侧重于对后者的阐述。也就是把词汇空缺视为文化差异或者文化空缺的结果及其在词汇层面的反映。很多学者依据各自的标准对词汇空缺进行了不同的分类，鉴于文化与语言的密切交互关系，本文依据文化的三个不同层次对其进行了分类物质文化层面的词汇空缺，精神层面的词汇空缺以及社会制度与习俗方面的词汇空缺。在每一层面，作者都列举了大量具有代表性的事例并从语言与文化的关系角度进行了阐释。从分类到较为全面综合的分析阐述是本文的主要研究贡献。为了让文化因素更多地渗入到翻译和语言教学的考虑范围，作者在从文化角度分析词汇空缺的同时，也注重于实际交流的应用并提出了一些切实可行的方法。该论文共分为七大部分，第一章对该论文的研究目的、理论依据、资料收集、研究方法以及论文基本结构进行了总的概述。第二章介绍了在语言与文化关系领域的一些主要观点；第三章陈述了词汇空缺的相关研究，主要涉及词汇空缺的定义及其分类。接下来的三章是本文的核心部分，作者从三方面对词汇空缺进行了较为系统、全面的阐述，其中，第四章介绍了物质生活层面存在的词汇空缺，包括饮食，服装，动物，颜色等。第五章则列举了精神层面的词汇空缺，主要包括宗教，神话和传说，文学表达以及价值体系方面。第六章就社会制度和习俗对词汇空缺现象进行了分析阐释。最后一章是本文的结论部分，指出了该研究的意义及不足之处。关键词：词汇空缺；文化负载词； 跨文化交际；等价翻译ABSTRACTLanguage is part of culture and also the carrier of it. On the one hand, culture is loaded in language, through which the material developments, institutional systems, conceptual features and the like of a certain society are recorded, expressed and transmitted. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture.Similarities, together with the general characteristics of culture constitute its generality, while each culture has its specific characteristics, which cannot be bypassed and superseded no matter how trivial they could be identified. Due to cultural differences in historical background, social customs, religious beliefs and ideology, each nation is peculiar about certain objects and concepts which cannot be found equivalents or corresponding expressions in other languages. Word is the basic unit of a language so the social and cultural differences can be displayed in lexical systems. Culture-loaded words especially culture-gapped words are the most sensitive language terms and directly reflect a nations unique culture and it is from these culture-gapped words that lexical gaps appear. In fact, lexical gap is originally a term in semantics and then it has been introduced into translation field to refer to the phenomenon that we have no ready equivalent in the target language for an existing word in the source language. With the acceleration of globalization, the intercultural communication has become a usual phenomenon in our daily life. Because of this lexical gap has drawn more and more attention recently and many scholars have made significant studies on it from different perspectives. Generally speaking, on the definition of lexical gap, there exist two kinds of views. One is from the perspective of semantic domain and the other is from the angle of the relationship between language and culture. Take study of this thesis into consideration, the author gives more relevant statements of the latter. Lexical gap can be regarded as the result and reflection of cultural differences and cultural vacancy on lexical level. Different classifications of lexical gap also have been made by many scholars and the author classifies it by means of cultural levels: lexical gap in material culture, lexical gap in spiritual culture and lexical gap in social systems and custom. On each level, a great deal of examples are listed and explained from the perspective of the relationship between language and culture. From the classification to the all-round illustration are the main contributions of this thesis.With the hope of bringing more consideration about culture in translation and language teaching, the author also pays much attention to practices. Except for the analysis on the lexical-gapped words, some practical means of translation also have been listed.This thesis is divided into seven parts. Chapter one gives a general introduction of this thesis. It mainly introduces the research motivation, the theoretical foundation, the data resources, the methodology and the general layout. Chapter two states the major studies in the field of the relationship between language and culture. Chapter three gives pre-studies of lexical gap which mainly includes the definitions and classifications of this phenomenon from different views of different schools. It is because of the close relationship between language and culture that the author starts to study the phenomenon of lexical gaps from three different aspects as the following three chapters. Chapter four focuses on lexical gaps in material culture which involves all the tangible things in our daily life such as cuisine, dressing, animal and colors and so on. Chapter five lists manifestations of lexical gaps in spiritual culture which mainly includes religion, myths and legends, literary expressions and value system. Then chapter six gives lexical gaps in social systems and custom. The last part chapter seven is conclusion and it points out the significance and limitation of this thesis.Key words: lexical gap, culture-loaded words, intercultural communication, translation equivalenceCONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTSi摘 要iiABSTRACTivChapter One Introduction1Chapter Two Literature Review of the Relationship between Language and Culture42.1 The Definition of Culture42.2 The Debate on the Relationship between Language and Culture52.2.1 Stalins Point of View62.2.2 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis72.2.3 Franz Boas Viewpoint92.2.4 The Current Views9Chapter Three Pre-studies on Lexical Gap133.1 Different Definitions of Lexical Gap143.2 Different Classifications of Lexical Gap16Chapter Four Lexical Gaps in Material Culture214.1 Lexical Gaps Related to Geography214.2 Lexical Gaps Related to Cuisine Culture224.2.1 Dishes Named after People234.2.2 Names with Legend Origin244.2.3 Names with Best Wishes254.2.4 Chinese Medicated Food264.2.5 Some Usual Main Food274.2.6 Other Specialized Dishes284.3 Lexical Gaps Related to Clothing304.4 Lexical Gaps Related to Animals304.5 Lexical Gaps Related to Colors334.6 Others36Chapter Five Lexical Gaps in Spiritual Culture385.1 Lexical Gaps in Religion385.2 Lexical Gaps in Myths, Legends and Literary Expressions405.2.1 Lexical Gaps in Myths and Legends405.2.2 Lexical Gaps in Literary Works415.2.3 Lexical Gaps in Allusions425.2.4 Lexical Gaps in Allegorical Saying445.2.5 Lexical Gaps in Other Literary Expressions455.3 Lexical Gaps in Value Systems465.3.1 Lexical Gaps in Kinship Terms465.3.2 Lexical Gaps in Euphemism and Taboo485.3.3 Lexical Gaps in Honorific and Courteous Expressions525.4 Others53Chapter Six Lexical Gaps in Social Systems and Custom556.1 Lexical Gaps in Politics, Economy and History556.2 Lexical Gaps in Folk Custom57Chapter Seven Conclusion59Bibliography6263Chapter One IntroductionAs a linguistic phenomenon, lexical gap was once a term in the area of semantics, and later was introduced into the field of translation studies. On the whole, there are two different ways in studying lexical gap. One is from the angle of historical lexicology and semantic domain while the other is from the angle of the relationship between language and culture. Thanks to these two different perspectives, the definitions of lexical gap can be classified into two categories. Cruse points out that “By a lexical gap is here meant what structuralists often describe, metaphorically, as a hole in the pattern: that is to say, the absence of a lexeme at a particular place in the structure of a lexical field” (Cruse, 1986:76). That is to say, as far as the word structure is concerned, the language phenomenon of lexical gaps stemmed from sense relationship in semantic domain. Such as antonymy and synonymy, hyponymy, as one of the relations of meaning, is used to refer to the meaning inclusion or hyponyms. For instance, the English word “horse” includes “stallion” and “mare”. Then the words “stallion” and “mare” are said to be the hyponyms of “horse”. However, in some cases we can find in some semantic domains there are only specific terms and no general terms, for instance, in English we have the word “cow” and “hall”, but there is no super-ordinate term. This vacancy is called “lexical gap”. The other notion of lexical gap is under the general heading: language and culture. One representative definition is that “It refers to the absence of the appropriate words” (Lado, 1957:310). That is to say, some words and expressions conveying the features of a certain culture have no equivalents in other language of a given culture. Take her own study into consideration, the author of this thesis emphasizes particularly on the latter perspective. So some relevant studies on the relationship between language and culture which from Stalins point of view, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Franz Boas viewpoint and then to some current views are stated. The study of lexical gap has been greatly developed recently both home and abroad. For example, Mona Baker noted some common types of non-equivalence at the lexical level between two languages and she classifies them from the aspects of source language and target language. Lado R. once made a contrastive study of Russian and English from the perspective of lexical gaps and Anna Wiezbicka researched into the field of understanding cultures through key words in different languages.Some domestic linguists such as Lin Dajin, Zhang Peiji, Tan Zaixi, Deng Yanchang and Liu Runqing and so on have also made achievements in this field. The research into any field is endless. Although many studies on lexical gaps have made significant progress, problems still exist. Some researches stated phenomenon but lacked contrastive studies between different languages, some made up the shortage just mentioned but did not relate to Chinese, and others made contrastive studies between Chinese and other languages but only in some certain aspect such as lexical gap in food or clothing.This thesis aims at making a comparatively comprehensive study of lexical gaps from the perspective of the relationship between language and culture which mainly including lexical gaps on three different cultural levels on the basis of pre-studies. Through the contrastive studies of lexical gaps on these different aspects, we can dig out the roots that gave birth to lexical gaps more clearly. And with the hope of bringing more consideration about culture in translation and language teaching, the author also pays much attention to practices. As we have mentioned above, the study on lexical gaps in this thesis is under the heading: language and culture. The relationship between language and culture has drawn many scholars attention for many years and the debate has never stopped till today. But on the whole, the point that there exists an interactive relation between them is generally accepted. That is to say, language and culture influence each other. Culture is the foundation for language to exist and language reflects culture as a medium of communication. It is because of this interactive relationship that the author of this thesis divided lexical gaps into three categories according to the classification of culture given by Chinese scholar Qi Yuchun who classified culture into three levels-material culture, spiritual culture and culture of social systems and custom (Hu Wenzhong, 1999). On each cultural level, more detailed studies have also been made. The examples in this thesis are not only from linguistic books but from some cultural ones and of course, some relative dictionaries contribute a lot.This thesis is divided into seven chapters. Chapter One mainly introduces the research motivation, the data resources, the methodology and the general layout of this thesis. Chapter Two gives an overview of studies on the relationship between language and culture, which includes the definition of culture and different views on this relationship. Chapter Three states pre-studies of lexical gaps. It consists of different definitions and classifications of lexical gaps. Of course, the authors own classification of lexical gap is put forward: lexical gaps in material culture, lexical gaps in spiritual culture and lexical gaps in social systems and customs. Then the next three chapters are the main contribution of the author and in each chapter many representative examples are analyzed on the basis of the relationship between language and culture. Chapter Four focuses on lexical gaps in material cultures which involve all the tangible things in our daily life such as cuisine, clothing, animals and colors and so on. Chapter Five lists manifestations of lexical gaps in spiritual culture which mainly includes religion, myths, legends, literary works and value system. Chapter Six gives lexical gaps in social systems which mainly consist of economic and political systems and other folk customs. The last part chapter seven is conclusion and it points out the significance and limitation of this thesis.Chapter Two Literature Review of the Relationship between Language and Culture2.1 The Definition of CultureBefore we refer to the relationship between language and culture, the definition of culture should be mentioned first. Culture is an extremely complex concept and enormous subject. In the past few years, the term culture was usually applied to mean what we now term as “high culture”, i.e. a knowledge of and preference for the things preferred by the upper class. As time goes on, culture has been endowed with new meanings.(Mark Nathan Cohen, 1998:66) So many scholars and researchers such as E.B. Tylor, R. Benedict, E. Sapir, D. Bates, have all tried to define culture in a satisfactory way but it is hard to have a unified concept.The founder of anthropology E. B. Tylor puts forward the following definition of culture: “culture is the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom and many other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tylor, 1871:213).Edward Hall thinks of culture as the silent language that members of a specific ethnic, racial, or cultural group understand, but with which outsiders have great difficulty, even they speak the same language. (Hall, 1976) Robert Murphy holds that：Culture means the total body of tradition borne by a society and transmitted from generation to generation. It thus refers to the norms, values and standards by which people act, and it includes the ways distinctive in each society of ordering the world and rendering it intelligible. Culture isa set of mechanism for survival, but it provides us also with a definition of reality. It is the matrix into which we are born, it is the anvil upon which our persons and destinies are forged. (Robert Murphy, 1986:14)According to Daniel Bates and Fred Plog, culture is a system of shared belief, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another. It is transmitted from generation to generation through learning. (Daniel Bates & Fred Plog, 1990)Up to now, more than 200 definitions of this term have been made by different schools. In most dictionaries, two kinds of interpretations are listed: the broad meaning and the narrow meaning. The broad meaning of culture mainly refers to the totality of material and spiritual wealth produced by human beings in the history. The narrow sense of culture refers to the social ideology as well as corresponding system and organizations and sometimes it indicates the spiritual level such as science, literature and art, etc. in order to differ from the knowledge and establishment in aspects of politics, economy and military affairs and so on.Generally speaking, the scope of culture actually includes three levels: One is the material culture. It is demonstrated through a variety of products such as buildings, food, supplies, clothing, tools, etc. Another level refers to the culture in social systems and customs, it is reflected through the common social norms and codes of conduct which abided by people and mainly consists of the system of laws, regulations as well as the corresponding facilities and customs, etc. The third level is spiritual culture. It is exhibited through the mode and products which formed by peoples thoughts. On the one hand, spiritual culture mainly includes peoples values, ways of thinking, aesthetic, moral sentiments, religious beliefs, and on the other hand, it also involves the achievement and products in philosophy, science and art.2.2 The Debate on the Relationship between Language and CultureThe relationship between language and culture is considered as one of the most important issues in linguistics, sociology, anthropology, etc. From early time to now, there has been a wide range of views about their relationship, and it is probably safe to say that every possible view concerning the relation between language and culture h