从读者反应论看《围城》中文化负载词的翻译.doc

本科生毕业设计（论文）题 目 On Translation of Culture-Loaded Words In Fortress Besieged from the Perspective of Readers Response Theory从读者反应论看围城中文化负载词的翻译专 业英 语院 部外国语学院学 号姓 名杨代英指导教师从读者反应论看围城中文化负载词的翻译学 生：杨 代 英 指导教师：摘 要：钱钟书的围城在国内外都享有盛名。其英译本也是文学翻译中的佼佼者。在围城中有大量的文化负载词,它们极大地推动情节深化主题。因此在翻译时对这些文化负载词的翻译就不容忽视。本文从读者反应论的角度看围城英译本中文化负载词的翻译,探讨对文化负载词的翻译。从读者反应论看由珍妮凯利和茅国权翻译的围城比较成功地再现围城原文中生态文化、社会文化、物质文化、宗教文化、语言文化。尽管在某些方面依旧存在着文化缺失,但译文基本上能让目标语读者体会到原文本中那些文化负载词所承载的文化。关键词：文化负载词；读者反应论；翻译On Translation of Culture-Loaded Words in Fortress Besieged from the Perspective of Readers Response TheoryUndergraduate: Yang DaiyingSupervisor: Abstract: Qian Zhongshus Fortress Besieged, a well-known novel, is popular both at home and abroad. The English version of the novel is also great success in the literature translation. In the novel, a great many culture-loaded words are used, and all of these have contributed significantly to developing the plot and deepening the theme. So the translation of those words cannot be ignored. This paper studies on translation of culture-loaded words from readers response theory, and how to cope with those culture-loaded words in translation. From the view of readers response theory, the translation of culture-loaded words show the English version translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao reproduce those social culture, ecological culture, material culture, religious culture, and linguistic culture in Fortress Besieged successfully. To some extent, there are some parts existing culture loss, but the translation can let the target readers fundamentally understand those culture-loaded words carrying abundant culture in the original text.Key Words: Cultured-loaded words; Readers response theory; Translation Contents1. Introduction12. Literature Review12.1 Introduction to Fortress Besieged12.2 Introduction to Readers Response Theory22.3 Previous Studies on the Culture-Loaded Words from Fortress Besieged33. Culture-loaded Words in Fortress Besieged43.1 Ecological Culture-loaded Words43. 2 Material culture-loaded words ,43.3 Social Culture-Loaded Words43. 4 Religious Culture-loaded Words53. 5 Linguistic Culture-loaded Words54. Readers Response Theory and the Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Fortress Besieged64.1 Readers Response Theory and the Translation of Ecological Culture-loaded Words in Fortress Besieged64.2 Readers Response Theory and the Translation of Material Culture-loaded Words in Fortress Besieged84.3 Readers Response Theory and the Translation of Social Culture-loaded Words in Fortress Besieged104.4 Readers Response Theory and the Translation of Religious Culture-loaded Words in Fortress Besieged124.5 Readers Response Theory and the Translation of Linguistic Culture-loaded Words in Fortress Besieged135. Conclusion.15Bibliography16Acknowledgment17 1. IntroductionJohn Lyons asserts in his Semantics (1969:30), “Language is a part of culture. Differences on the language usage will expose the features of the social culture in terms of the substances, customs and other activities.” Meanwhile language is the carrier of culture, and some particular words are called culture-loaded words, which carry abundant cultural connotations and rich regional characteristics. Whats more, many of the translation errors are not because of grammar but of misunderstanding the source culture. When coping with text, a translator should firstly understand the source language firstly, especially culturally-loaded words. Therefore, it is very necessary to study the proper translation of culture-loaded words in the cross-cultural communication. Qian Zhongshu, a famous scholar, whose novel Fortress Besieged translated into English, French, Japanese, German, and Russian accordingly is popular both at home and abroad. And the English version of the novel is a great success in the literature translation. In the novel, a great many culture-loaded words deepen the plot and theme significantly, which give readers a hint the peoples every aspect of life during the Anti-Japanese War. Therefore, those words cannot be ignored when translators translate them into other languages. In this paper, studies on the translation culture-loaded words will be performed from the perspective of readers response theory. From the view of readers response theory, the translation of culture-loaded words show the English version translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao reproduce those social culture, ecological culture, material culture, religious culture, and linguistic culture in Fortress Besieged successfully. To some extent, there are some parts existing culture loss, but the translation can let the target readers fundamentally understand those culture-loaded words carrying abundant culture in the original text.First of all, a review of Fortress Besieged, readers response theory, and previous studies on the Culture-Loaded Words from Fortress Besieged are conducted. The following part is culture-loaded words in the original text of Fortress Besieged are classified into five types, and some typical culture-loaded words of each type are demonstrated. And then, the translations of different types of selected culture-loaded words in Fortress Besieged are analyzed from readers response theory accordingly. Then the conclusion of this paper is conducted. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Introduction to Fortress BesiegedQian Zhongshu is a respected scholar, and his novel Fortress Besiege describing the educated intellectuals living situation during the Anti-Japanese War(1937-1945), and it is also of high literature value. Qian Zhongshu points out very clearly in the preface of this novel “I intended to write about a certain segment of society and a certain kind of people in modem China”. The title “fortress besieged” itself stands for a dilemma that everyone may confront in the real world. Fortress Besieged are highly appraised, whats more, only people with rich both Chinese and Western culture can they really appreciate the wisdom, irony, and irony of the author because of many classical allusions, metaphors and culture-loaded words in the novel.The English version, one of “the most outstanding academic works”, published at an academic press Indiana University Press in 1979. In the translation, the translators Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao try to explain the cultural allusions and Chinese customs which are employed in the novel by listing many notes. However, there are also many criticisms such as impure English, inadequacies, rigid cultural transplantation. For instance, Dennis T. Hu commented on the first three sections of the version and concluded as the following: some expressions are inadequate and mistranslated; the target language is not pure English but with such a rich Chinese characteristic; and most of idioms are directly translated without any proper adjustment to English culture (Dennis T. Hu，1977) In the introduction written by Nathan K. Mao, he holds that Fortress Besieged is “scholar novel”, and the English version of Fortress Besieged is the most outstanding academic works. At the same time, in order to grasp the excellence of Fortress Besieged, both Chinese readers and target readers are needed to keep Chinese traditional knowledge and western knowledge in the mind. From this, we can assume that most of the target readers are educated people who eager to learn more about Chinese traditional culture through Fortress Besieged. In order to let these people can fully comprehend the irony and humor created by the scholar Qian Zhongshu, it is of importance for Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao to reproduce those social culture, ecological culture, material culture, religious culture, and linguistic culture in Fortress Besieged.2.2 Introduction to Readers Response Theory As one of the contemporary western literary criticisms, readers response theory is different from traditional theories focusing on authorial intention in a text and the text itself. Reader-response theory holds it is the readers who play the important role in reading process. Readers response critics (Guerin and others 1999:357) hold that it is the reader who makes a text exist and the reading process is also a process of interpretation. Wolfgang Iser (1978) argues that in the readers response, readers past experiences and background knowledge are the key factors to fill the blank which the writers have created. Meanwhile, readers grasp the meaning according to their own background biases, expectation, need, reading ability, and so on. Whats more, readers who have different cultural background and values, thus the readers are able to response differently and have various ideas about the same text. Nevertheless, the readers interpretations are not infinite because the text restricts them. During the dynamic reading process, readers do not follow the authors the social and cultural values passively but have their own understanding or opinions towards the same issue with their own values at the same time.In The theory and Practice of Translation, special and intense classification of readers response theory and propose evaluating from readers response theory are conducted by Nida. He was the first one to introduce the reader into the field of translation studies. Based on the readers response theory, he put forward his famous “dynamic equivalence theory”. He holds that dynamic equivalence refers to the degree which the target readers response to the translation actually is the same manner as the readers of source language do (Nida 1969:24). Above all, readers response theory is an indispensable element in Nidas translation theory, and the target readers play an important place during the translation process. During the translation, the translator should keep the essence of the source text, whats more, the translator should also keep in mind that the importance of readers response. From readers response theory, the choice of translation strategies is affected by readers expectation and readers reaction is different due to different life experiences, academic background even for the same text. At the same time, with the development of cross-cultural communication and in different time, even for the same text, readers expectation is not the same and readers acceptance varies from time to time. Therefore, it is significant for translators to take the target readers into consideration while choosing the specific translation strategy. 2.3 Previous Studies on the Culture-Loaded Words from Fortress Besieged Wang Fang (2008) analyzed Qian Zhongshu and his literary works Fortress Besieged from the perspectives of cultural presupposition on the basis of Skopos theory. Yang Hongying (2011) did a research on how to retain the originals grace and charm in the translation of Fortress Besieged, so that the English readers can appreciate Qians linguistic manipulation. Wang Jing, Ma Xiuli, Xiao Ying (2009) gave some translation strategies to translate culture-loaded words from Fortress Besieged. Gao Linxia (2012) analyzed the translation of culture-loaded words from Purpose Theory. Cheng Hui (2012) under the guidance of aesthetics of reception, aimed at analyzing the relationship between translated version of Fortress Besieged and readers expectation, and tried to offer some suggestions on the translation of culture-loaded words. 3. Culture-loaded Words in Fortress Besieged In this chapter, culture-loaded words are classified into five categories namely ecological culture-loaded words, material culture-loaded words, social culture-loaded words, religious culture-loaded words and linguistic culture-loaded words. Then some of these five types of Culture-loaded words in the Fortress Besieged will be listed accordingly. 3.1 Ecological Culture-loaded WordsSeasons, rain, wind, rivers, mountains, and other geographical features makes up the ecological culture. Different nations have formed and developed their own ecological cultures because of their different climates and geographical features. Generally speaking, It is not easy for the people from one country to understand and receipt the ecological culture which is of other countries. There are many words and expressions which show the special ecological culture of China. Therefore, It is necessary for translator to keep in mind that to get a general idea of different ecological culture between English-speaking countries and China, which is the key to let people from different countries to have a access to cross culture to communicate.In Fortress Besieged, there are many ecological cultural-loaded words in Fortress Besieged. For instance, “San-fu”, “the rainy season”,” smile radiantly”, “autumn tiger” and so forth.3. 2 Material culture-loaded Words , Material culture-loaded words reflect material culture characteristic of a certain country which covers tools of production, daily appliances, food and costumes, etc. On account of peoples habits and culture background differing from one country to another country, the material culture-loaded words are used to play different roles in different culture. Material Culture-loaded words can be picked up easily in the novel of Fortress Besieged, such as “wedding dinner”, “yamen”, “majhong”, “sedan-chair”, “pack his bedding”, “outlet”, “baked sesame buns, fried puffs and five-spice beans”, “mou”, “li”, “Chinese dress”, etc. 3.3 Social Culture-Loaded WordsThose words refer to social culture are named social culture-loaded words. For that different societies own different history background, political features and cultural practice, Social culture is the richest and most complicated. It includes everything non-material. Social culture-loaded words carry their unique social characteristics. And China as one of the most ancient civilizations in the word, there is no doubt that many social culture-loaded words. Moreover, nearly all these social culture-loaded words in Chinese have no counterparts in English. When translators translate those social culture-loaded words they are not just coping with words but two totally different cultures. Social Culture-loaded words can be easily picked up in Fortress Besieged, such as “The Flower in the Mirror”, “dowry”, “I”, “father-in-law”, “my wife”, “bowed and genuflected “, “horoscope”, “Chen-yuan times”, “at expert in all eighteen of the military arts”, “pull the empty-town bluff”, “Shaoxing operas”, “sympathy-getting ploy”, “The one installed three days earlier becomes the wife”, etc. 3. 4 Religious Culture-loaded Words It is Religious culture that plays a crucial role in the process of human culture. Almost in every nation you can find religions. For the most westerners, they have faith in Christianity. And since the ancient times, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism have great influences on Chinese culture, the language of Chinese, and peoples thinking patterns. Those religious culture-loaded words have no equivalence in the target language English due to their unique religious beliefs. In order to transmit the connotations of religious culture, the translators are supposed to use the proper translation strategies to let the target readers react to text just like the readers in the original language do. In Fortress Besieged, there are numerous words which are embedded with religious culture. “choose an auspicious date”, “goddess of Mercy chant”, “a friend read my fortune”, “along the way bad luck will turn to good”, “ultimately everything came out well, and we reach the Western Paradise Buddhist heaven”, “affinity”, “Kitchen God”, and so on. 3. 5 Linguistic Culture-loaded WordsLanguage, as a part of culture, itself also make a contribution to human culture. Linguistic culture-loaded words can reflect the linguistic characteristics of a certain language community. It is a common knowledge that Chinese belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family while English belongs to Indo-European language family. Since Chinese and English belong to different language family, so they own different language features. Qian Zhongshu who is a master of language applied numerous verbal techniques in Fortress Besieged to make the language humorous and enrich the novels linguistic culture. Under the circumstance, the translation of linguistic culture-loaded words is far more difficult than above four kinds of culture-loaded words. There are a lot of linguistic culture-loaded words in the novel of Fortress Besieged, which show authors superb language skills, such as, “after the bitter comes the sweet”, “call him Granny ”, “when they were equals”, “chattered”, “as western science moves forward, Chinese scientists move upward”, “this man should have this disease”, “The same manner as the peerless beauty whose one glance could conquer city and second glance could vanquish an empire”, etc. 4. Readers Response Theory and the Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Fortress BesiegedIn the following part, some translations of five types of culture-loaded words in Fortress Besieged are picked up to analyze from reader-response theory. Whats more, several translation methods are employed in the translation of those culture-loaded words. At last, from the view of readers response theory, the translation of culture-loaded words show the English version translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao reproduce those social culture, ecological culture, material culture, religious culture,