The culture difference in English-Chinese   literal translation

XCLW37228  The culture difference in English-Chinese     literal translation  (字数：3720)

Abstract

Translation is no longer regarded as merely a cross-linguistic activity, but essentially cross-cultural communication. As Theodore Savory claims "Because thinking is the same, translation is possible, and produce the cause of the same mind, is all ethnic groups belong to the same class, and highly effective communication between people is possible." But Just as Peter Newmark claims "Anything that can be translated to a certain extent, but is often accompanied by many difficulties.”The main cause of these difficulties is the different culture and history between the two languages. And as Nida claims that “for truly successful translating, biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism translation in nature is an activity of cross-cultural communication”.

Literal translation refers to an adequate representation of the original, it is a type of translation in which more attention is given to preserving the SL (source language) wording intact than producing a naturally reading TL (target language), also known as word-for word translation. Just as Peter Newmark claims "attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original". It strives to reproduce both the ideological content and the style of the original works and retains as much as possible the figures of speech.

As translators, we are faced with an alien culture that requires its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way. That culture express its idiosyncrasies in a way that is "culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and idiomatic expressions. So we are called upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with.

This paper will firstly check the definition of culture and its relation with language and translation. Then it introduces some examples in translation, tries to explore some differences between Chinese and Western cultures reflected in language, providing some background information for further analysis. Lastly the paper tries to explore some workable approaches to major obstacles in cultural translation.

Key words: Translation, Cultural differences, Literal Translation

文献综述

翻译已经不单单是跨语言的一种活动，而且是一种跨文化交际活动。如西奥多，萨沃里（Theodore Savory）认为：“思维相同，翻译才成为可能，而产生这种相同思维的原因，则是各民族都属于同一类，因而人们之间高度有效的沟通是有可能的”，但是正如彼得·钮马克（Peter Newmark）所讲“任何事物在一定程度上都是可译的，但是往往伴随着许多困难”。造成困难的原因主要是两种语言之间，语言所承载的历史和文化之间的差异。奈达（Nida）更进一步指出，“翻译是两种文化间的交流，对于真正成功的翻译而言，熟悉两种文化甚至比掌握两种语言更为重要，因为词语只有在其作用的文化背景中才有意义。”

直译在转达原文意思时，使译文的表达形式和句法结构尽量同原文一致起来，能完全对等就完全对等，不能完全对等的也要大致对等。正如彼得·钮马克所讲，“试图使之呈现，与之密切相关的语义和句法结构”。其理想目标做到“神”、“形”兼备。即不但表达原文内容，而且保持原文形式上的特点，如比喻，形象、民族特色等。一般认为，译文形式和内容都与原文一致谓之直译，即把原语的表达形式直接移入译语，保持原文的形式与内容。

作为翻译者，我们所面对的是一种外国文化，那么这就要求信息的传递也是要以一种不同的方式进行。那文化在表达自己的特点时就明显带有地域色彩：例如方言、谚语即惯用语等，他们的起源和使用与对应的文化息息相关。因此，我们翻译成败的关键将取决于我们对异域文化的理解程度。

本文先从讨范文化的定义入手，进而阐述文化，语言和翻译的内在关联，然后以英汉翻译实践中的一些典型例句为例，探讨了中英文化差异在两种语言上的反映，最后一部分针有对性地阐述了如何采取适当的翻译策略去处理其中的文化差异。

关键词：翻译 文化差异 直译 

Contents

Abstract I

Contents I

Introduction 1

1.Culture Language and Translation 2

1.1 Language and Culture 2

1.2 The realation between Translation and Culture 2

1.3 The Essence of Translation 2

1.4 Literal & Free Translation 2

2.Difference between Chinese and Western Cultures Reflected in the language 4

2.1 Historical Cultural Difference 4

2.2 Different Geographical and Regional Enviroments 4

2.3 Proverbs or idioms involving animal metaphor 4

2.4 Different Modes of Thinking 4

3.The Method of Literal Translation 5

4.Conclusion 6

References 10