词语的文化内涵与翻译Cultural Connotation of Words and Their Translation

1、词语的文化内涵与翻译cultural connotation of words and their translationabstract: this paper is about cultural connotation of words and their translation. because of the different culture in the world, we may not understand the explicit meaning of a word. in this paper, we just discuss the comparison of the cu

2、ltural connotation of words, and put forward some methods.key words: cultural connotation of words and translation；non-equivalence；conceptual grouping；cultural background；and association-deviation摘 要：词语的文化内涵与翻译，由于世界文化的差异，我们可能无法理解一个词的准确含义，并作准确的翻译。我们通过对词语文化内涵的比较分析，提出一些方法。关键词：词语文化内涵与翻译 不对等 概念归类 文化背景 联想

3、差异as either literal translation or cultural translation is associated with two cultural contexts in which their cultural content is conveyed in two different languages. undoubtedly, one of the basic principles of translation is to be faithful to the original. according to this principle, translation

4、 should first of all be faithful to the content of the original, with literal translation on how to convey in a precise way the original cultural connotation and how to interpret it on the basis of the native cultural perspective.from the above, to those who are interested in translation, literature

5、 translation in particular, an important topic for study is the culture value of language. and what is culture? “culture consists of all the shared product of human society,”(robertson, 1981) this means culture includes not only material things such as cities, organizations and schools, but also non

6、-material things, such as ideas, customs, family patterns, and languages. in a word, culture refers to the entire way of life of a society. whats more, culture is like an iceberg with a big part of its real substance hidden in the sea. “ culture hides much more than it reveals, and strangely enough,

7、 what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants”（kaplan, 1989）.language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. some social scientists consider it the keystone of culture. on the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture. in

8、 the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. language is the principal means whereby we conduct our social lives, when it is used in contex

9、ts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.as lexicon is the most active and the liveliest component of a language, in the course of translation, due attention must be given to the analysis and comparison of the cultural connotation of words. they can be found in t

10、he following areas of lexicon: non-equivalence, conceptual grouping, cultural background, and association- derivation.1 non-equivalencein translating one invariably searches for an equivalent to render the original meaning in the target language, using the word “ equivalence” in this context, immedi

11、ately brings to mind the idea of identifying the absolute corresponding equivalent words in two languages. but this is not the case.11 term in one language that does not have a counterpart in another languagewhen the american historian, henry brooks writes, “words are slippery.” he must have referre

12、d to the fact that language translation is difficult and subject to countless misinterpretations.one thing is unique in one country, and the equivalent word reflecting this object cant be found in other countries. thus non-equivalence of words comes into being, which illustrates culture difference d

13、irectly. for instance, there is no equivalent chinese term for sphinxs riddle. on the other hand, the chinese words “芝麻酱煮饺子” which means dumplings being cooked in the sesame paste. and “夏炼三伏，冬炼三九”, which means urging people to exercise, and keep fit, are difficult to translate into english.when a wo

14、rd is adopted by one language from another it is referred to as a loanword. loanwords may retain a pronunciation similar to what they had in their language of origin or the pronunciation may be adapted to the phonology of the adoptive language. for instance, chinese words such as “咖啡，啤酒,吉普车”，etc hav

15、e become the basic vocabulary in daily life, so anyone wouldnt feel “an exotic atmosphere” when using these words.some english words with the color “red” can hardly find their equivalence in chinese. the phrase “red-handed”, for instance, can not be translated into chinese as “红手” as it means “ caug

16、ht in the act of doing something wrong” as in the sentence: they caught him red-handed while he was just putting the stolen diamonds in his pocket.12 ords or items in both languages that appear to refer to the same object or concept on the surface, but which actually refer to quite different thingst

17、here are numerous examples that we could cite of an object or concept that exists in one culture but not in another. for example, “改善生活” is not equal to improve ones standard of living. this short term in the peoples daily is an example of its present day meaning. “ one of my neighbors is a woman ov

18、er sixty. every now and then, she goes out for a meal for a change. but she always goes to one particular eating placeone owned and run privately. when asked why she stuck to that place, she explained that it was because of the friendliness of the people there they always greet you with a smile and

19、a word “ welcome”. in current chinese usage, “改善生活” means simply to have an occasional good meal or feast.2 conceptual groupingwhen defining the same object, languages in different countries is different in category, extension and intension, etc, which reflects culture difference, too.21 things or c

20、oncepts that are represented by one or perhaps two terms in one language, but by many more terms in the other language, that is, finer distinction exist in the other languagelanguage and its cultural influence are exemplified in the theoretical formulations of the sapir-whorf hypothesis, which in es

21、sence states that language is a guide to “ social reality”. this hypothesis implies that language is not simply a means of reporting experience, but more important, it is a way of defining experience. i provide an example of the sapir-whorf concept in practice: if my language has only one term broth

22、er-in-law that is applied to my sisters husband, my husbands brother, and my husbands sisters husbands, i am led by my language to perceive all of these relatives in a similar way.22 terms that have more or less the same primary meaning, but which have secondary or additional meanings that may diffe

23、r considerably from each otherr. wardhaugh once said: “the color spectrum is a physical continuum showing no bleaks at all.” yet we parcel it out in bits and pieces and assign names to the various component parts. we also find that we sometimes cannot directly translate color words from one language

24、 to another without introducing subtle changes in meaning.the english phrase “ red-blooded” does not mean “红血”, rather, it is another way of saying that someone or their behavior is confident and strong. and the english phrase “ red-eyed” just means “ having red eyes” ( for lack of sleep), while the

25、 chinese equivalent “红眼” means at least two things: having red eyes, and interesting enough, “ green” with envy.3 cultural backgroundthe words people utter refer to common experience. they express facts, ideas or events that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge about the world

26、 that other people share. words also reflect their authors attitudes and beliefs, their points of view, which are also those of others. in both case, language expresses cultural reality.if we include culture as a variable in the process of abstracting meaning, the problems become all the more acute,

27、 for culture teaches us both the symbol and that the symbol represents. when you are communicating with someone from your own culture, the process of using words to represent your experiences is much easier because within a culture people share many similar experiences. but when communication is bet

28、ween people from distinct cultures, different experiences are involved and the process is more troublesome.intercultural awareness becomes especially important. lack of cultural knowledge affects his comprehension negatively. for example, if a learner does not know that english pillar-boxes are pain

29、ted red, he might not be able to appreciate the humor in the following passage:bright red costumes, with hats, shoes and stockings to match, are to be all craze in the spring. smart women will have to be careful not to yawn in the streets in case some shortsighted person is on his way to post a lett

30、er.moreover, intercultural awareness cannot grow naturally. it has to be trained. it is known that in native language learning, a childs acquisition of “cultural competence” (wallace, 1998), each supportive of the other. for example, when a child from the anglo-american world learns the word “ dog”,

31、 he will normally learn the cultural meaning of the word: the dog is “ mans best friend”. a child brought up in the chinese culture may be taught that the dog is a dirty and dangerous animal. people, who have thus been initiated into the culture associated with their mother tongue, are naturally inc

32、lined to interpret things with their own cultural references. this natural inclination is called “ intuitive competence”. (brown, 1990)in linguistic translation, it is important to be familiar with cultural background of the words. when creating an artistic image, a writer not only takes the descrip

33、tion and portray of the image, but also projects his own thoughts and feelings into the image.lets look at one example as follows:government policy in interest rates, and on finance generally, have been marked by vacillation, useful thinking, electoral expediency of the most shameful type towards th

34、e end of last year, contortions and contradictions all to accommodate the redneck economics of the national country party.the word “ redneck” might strike chinese counterpart“红脖子”, hints that someone is turning extremely angry. in english, however, these words first appeared in 1830, referring to a

35、white member of the us.the chinese culture was once profoundly influenced by religion, mainly buddhism and taoism. as a result, in the contemporary chinese language, we find many sayings with origins in religious stories, true or fabricated. for instance, “平日不烧香，临时抱佛脚”，“to embrace the buddhas feet i

36、n case of emergencybut it is too late” shows us a wisdom of buddhism: we should keep faith in what we believe is true and work hard to achieve our goal. by contrast, the english culture is strongly influenced by christianity that has found its way into english-speakers language. in “ man proposes, g

37、od disposes.” “god” is believed to be an omnipotent presence and disposes and this god is, of course, a western god, who can exert very little, if any, power over the chinese people, whose belief is always with “ buddhas”. in english, people talk of “ bring sleep to the fold” which means the verge o

38、f committing wrongdoing. this idiom clearly shows its christian origin.4 association-deviationit is clear that people often associate certain qualities with certain creatures or objects. these qualities often arouse certain reactions or emotions, although there is little or no scientific ground for

39、such association. the qualities that are associated, or the emotions that are aroused, are not always the same with different people.in the chinese culture, the most favored animals should be the dragon and the phoenix. the dragon stands for the emperor, and the phoenix for the empress. all chinese

40、people regard themselves as descendants of the dragon. to english speakers, however, the dragon is often a symbol of evil, a fierce monster that destroys and therefore must be destroyed. and the phoenix is by no means the spouse of a dragon; rather, it is associated with rebirth and resurrection.ano

41、ther example, the english word “daffodil” is often used to mean the spring and joy, as in shakespeares sonnet:when daffodils begin to peer,with height, the doxy over the dale!why, then comes in the sweet o the year.a fuller description of daffodils as the messenger of the spring can be found in will

42、iam wordsworths “the daffodils”. such an image of the daffodil has been a symbol of the joyful springtime, however, it is not popular in the chinese literature. conversely, a number of chinese words with special images can hardly arouse english-speakers any association. consider the word “ crane”, w

43、hich is a widely used symbol for sturdiness and long life. gifts with such paintings of the crane the pine trees are favorites for older people, especially on birthday occasions.the title “ a dream of red mansion” may cause misunderstanding in americans minds. for in their opinions, it means a perso

44、n slept in a red room, which may cause their mysterious association. but unfortunately, it is not what the chinese title means. david hawkes translation of “ the story of the stone” is even easier for the americans who dont have a solid foundation in ancient chinese to understand the text. to this e

45、xtent, it is a successful translation, for it is faithful to the original and expressive in the target language. however, to the chinese, the title “ a dream of red mansion” can cause them unlimited association. this clearly illustrates cultural difference.on the basis of his own translation practic

46、e wang zuoliang stresses that in translating literature, one should emphasize the following three points: (1) to translate the concept and convey the complete feeling of the original rather than just one word;(2) to use different styles with different genres; (3) to pay more attention to the reader.

47、( wang 1989:35). that is, a translator should attach greater importance to cultural equivalence than to any other aspect. obviously, equivalence can be achieved, but not always on the same level. we can choose suitable translation method from the following seven procedures of establishing cultural e

48、quivalence.41 retain original cultural flavorwhether to retain original flavor depends on the literal form and inner meaning that can be accepted by the reader. for example, in “ a dream of red mansion”, 黛玉道：“跌了灯值钱呢，还是跌了人值钱？你又穿不惯木屐子。那灯笼叫他们前头点着：这个又轻又亮， 原是雨里自己拿着的。你自己手里拿着这个，岂不好？明儿再送来。-就失了手也有限的，怎么忽然又变出这

49、剖腹藏珠的脾气来！”（曹雪芹红楼梦）daiyu said: which is more valuable, lamp or man? youre not used to rearing patterns, so get them carry the horn lantern in front and take this one yourself, since its handy and bright and meant to be used in the rain. wouldnt that be better? you can send it back later. and even if

50、you drop it, it wont matter. whats come over you suddenly that you want to cut open your stomach to hide a pearl? (translated by yang xianyi and gladys yang) “剖腹藏珠” is translated in literal meaning directly. the metaphor in the original text is extremely lifelike in the translated text, which is wid

51、ely accepted by the readers, and achieved the same effect as english idiom “ penny wise and pound foolish”. other idioms such as “打草惊蛇”( to stir up the glass and alert the snake), “雪中送炭” ( to send charcoal in snowy weather), “画蛇添足” (to draw a snake and add feet to it) has the same result.42 transfer

52、encetransference means that the original word is all or partly transferred into the translated text. such word are popular for the propaganda of media, for example, vcd, ktv, iso9001, mtv, wto, etc. almost all the chinese readers can understand their meanings.43 translationtranslation means words ar

53、e translated according to the pronunciation, for instance, aids（艾滋病）， benz（奔驰）， pizza（比萨）.44 translation plus a generic wordchinese readers may not understand the explicit meaning when using transliteration, so we should plus a generic word after transliteration if necessary. such words include moto

54、r (摩托车), jeep（吉普车） , hamburger（汉堡包）, sonnet（商籁体）.45 replace the cultural expressions of the source text with those of the target languagesuch method is most useful in translating proverbs. proverbs are short sayings of folk wisdomof well-known maxims, facts or truthsexpressed succinctly and in a way

55、 that makes them easy to remember. people in different regions use proverbs and sayings invariably display deep-rooted chinese qualities. “芝麻开花节节高”( a sesame stalk puts forth blossoms notch by notch, higher and higher) is widely used by chinese people, who are familiar with or taught about the agric

56、ulture plant of sesame. other examples: “路遥知马里,日久见人心”( as a long road tests a horses strength, so a long task proves a persons heart.) “初生牛犊不怕虎”(new-born calves make little of tigers)these examples demonstrate the truth that people in different cultures do have the same understanding of certain natu

57、ral phenomena and social events. and they have a common wisdom with regard to many respects of life. this might explain why people say “ great minds think alike” “英雄所见略同”, which in itself is a good example of the similarity in the two cultures: after all, people do think alikeat least in some ways.46 explanationsometimes when translating certain word of the cultural flavor, there is no equivalent word in target language but only to e