文化含义词的翻译

ON TRANSLATION OF CULTURALLY-LOADED

WORDS

By

Ding Zhen

June, 2010

Xiaogan University

Abstract

Translation is the communication between two different cultures as well as between English and Chinese language. Culturally-loaded words reflect the history, political system, geographical location, religious belief, social customs and value system of certain culture. It is hard to achieve complete equivalence in terms of culturally-loaded words, which thus become the main obstacle in intercultural communication. It is significant to translate culturally-loaded words. The paper aims to explore translating strategies of culture-loaded words on the basis of the classification of such words by Zhou Zhipei and the Functional Equivalence raised by Eugeue A. Nida. By shifting the focus of translation theory from the traditional dispute about the form versus content and literal versus free to the issue of receptors‟response, Functional Equivalence make contributions to the theory and practice of translating, which essentially applies to culturally-loaded words translation. It puts emphasis on the spirit and meaning of the original in the receptor language as well as preservation of the form as possible as the translator can, thus reproducing in the receptor language in the closest natural equivalence of the source-language message. The rendering is not merely understandable and acceptable and it retains the cultural characteristics as much as possible but also achieves the substantially the same readers‟response in target-language text as original receptors. So the translation of culturally-loaded words will convey the cultural elements and varied expressions and in turn enrich the target language, realizing the true culture communication. With no exception, functional equivalence has its limitations and deficiency. For the length of the paper, here it will be not discussed further.

Key words: Culturally-loaded words;Translation; Functional Equivalence

文化含义词的翻译

摘要

翻译不仅是语言的转换，更是文化之间的交流。文化含义词集中反映或表达着某个民族独特的发展历史、社会制度、地理环境、宗教信仰、民情风俗，价值体系等。这一特殊性使文化含义词很难找到完全对等的表达法，成为信息传递的障碍。因此，文化含义词的翻译具有重要意义。本文旨在依据周培志对文化含义词的分类和尤金·奈达提出的功能对等翻译原则，探讨文化含义词的翻译策略。功能对等（即动态对等）把传统的形式与内容之争，直译与意译之争转化为以读者为中心，对于指导翻译文化含义词具有重要意义。它着眼与原文的精神和意义，同时尽可能的兼顾其形式，用最贴切而自然的对等语再现原语信息，便于读者接受和理解，还保留了文化含义词的文化特色，达到译文读者对译文的反应与原文读者对原文的反应基本一致。这不仅将文化含义词的文化因素和丰富的表达法传递给读者，一定程度上还丰富了译语文化，实现真正的文化交流。当然，功能对等理论也有一定的局限性，在此由于篇幅的关系就不加以讨论。

关键词：文化含义词；翻译；功能对等

Contents

1. Introduction (1)

2. Culturally-Loaded Words (2)

2.1The Definition of Culturally-Loaded Words (2)

2.2The Classification of Culturally-Loaded Words (3)

2.2.1Due to Different Hierarchies of V ocabularies (3)

2.2.2Due to Different Association (3)

2.2.3Due to Different Cultural Norms (4)

3. Functional Equivalence (4)

3.1The Origin of Functional Equivalence (4)

3.2The Nature of Functional Equivalence (5)

3.3The Content of Functional Equivalence (5)

4. Functional Equivalence in Translating Culturally-Loaded Words (6)

4.1Feasibility of Achieving Functional Equivalence in Translating Culturally-Loaded Words (6)

4.2The Translation Strategies in Achieving Functional Equivalence in Translating Culturally-Loaded Words (8)

4.2.1Borrowing (8)

4.2.2Transliteration (8)

4.2.3 Loan translation (8)

4.2.4 Substitution (8)

4.2.5 Paraphrasing (9)

5. Conclusion (9)