TheLexicalGapbeweenEnglishandChinese_开题报告

一、Literature Review

•••••    Lexical gaps are the products of communications between different cultures and languages. Caused by cultural differences between English and Chinese language, the phenomenon of lexical gap is an objective reality, is a natural phenomenon, prevalent in cross-cultural communication. Scholars at home and abroad have done many investigations before which laid great foundations for this thesis.

Studies abroad

In 1950s, foreign scholars began to study the phenomenon of “lexical gap”. In 1957, the concept of “lexical gap” was first put forward in the Cross-cultural Linguistics by Lado. In 1970s, the phenomenon of “vocabulary vacancy” has aroused wide attention of foreign scholars. 

David Cristal held that the lexical gap commonly exists between English and Chinese and may cause great influence. The translator should pay great attention to this and adopt proper translation strategies. (David Cristal, 2002) 

Because translation is a great way to promote the cultural communication, so the translator should proceed from the concrete cross-cultural situation and adopt the most the appropriate method so as to decide how or whether to establish cultural equivalence between the source language and the target language (Chinese or English).

Studies at home 

In 1960s, foreign scholars began to realize the phenomenon of “lexical gap” between English and Chinese. Since then, a lot of scholars have been on the ongoing research and exploration of the “lexical gap between English and Chinese and its translation strategies”, and indeed achieved good results. 

Chen Hongwei thinks that lexical gap refers to “the cultural phenomenon of a certain nation, which does not exist in another nation.”（陈宏薇,2000）As is known to all, language is often a reflection of the objective world. People living in what kind of environment will produce what kind of language.

Professor Wang Binqin pointed out that there are mainly three kinds of definitions of lexical gaps: first, unique in vocabulary in one culture; second, some words in one language is difficult for the readers in another culture to, easily causing misunderstanding; third, words with special cultural flavor and the way of expression.(王秉钦,2007) 

Xie Jun and Zhou Jian paid great attention on the lexical gap between English and Chinese, and they think that lexical gap can be found in the various aspects of vocabulary.Translation is not only a language transformation process but also a culture communication process. As a bridge that links up different cultures, translation should constantly transmit the uniqueness of different cultures through filling the lexical gap. The forming of lexical gap is the result of a variety of factors together, including the living environment, the culture the value and so on. ( 谢军、周健,2004)

Apart from the upper scholars, there are many others who committed to the study of lexical gap, such as Zhou Fangzhu, Zhou Zhipei, Zhou Yuzhong etc. In a word, lexical gap is commonly seen; we should take proper translation strategies. Only when the translator is a good master of language and its own culture can he or she translate the cultural words very well.

二、Contents

1. Introduction

1.1The definition of lexical gap

1.2 The lexical gap between English and Chinese

2. The Causes of Lexical Gap

2.1 Living Environment and Experience

2.2 Religion

2.3 Value Orientation

3. Strategies of Lexical Gaps on Translation

3.1 Literal Translation

3.2 Free Translation

3.3 Annotation

3.4 Transliteration

4. Conclusion

三、References

[1] Chen Xiaofang. A Probe into English and Chinese Lexical Gaps and Foreign Language Teaching [M]. Fujian:Fujian Normal University press, 2006.

[2] David Cristal. Language Death [M]. England:Cambridge University Press ,2002.

[3] Deng Lin. National Thinking Differences between English and Chinese and Their Impact on Sentence Translatio [M]. Wuhan:Wuhan University, 2005.

[4] 陈宏薇.《新实用汉译英教程》[M]. 湖北：湖北教育出版社,2000:112.

[5] 金惠康.《跨文化交际翻译续编》[M].北京:中国对外翻译出版有限公司，2003：148.

[6] 王秉钦.《文化翻译学:文化翻译理论与实践》(第2版）[M].天津：南开大学出版社，2007.

[7] 谢军;周健. 词汇空缺现象与翻译[J]. 湖南师范大学教育科学学报，2004(05).

[8] 周方珠.《翻译多元论》[M].北京：中国对外翻译出版社，2004.

[9] 周志培.《汉英对比与翻译中的转换》[M].上海：华东理工出版社,2003 :85. 

[10] 周玉忠.《英语语言文化差异对比研究》[M].宁夏：宁夏人民出版社，2004.