Location of Postcolonial Translation Studies in China1

1、location of postcolonial translation studies in china 后殖民主義翻譯研究在中國的定位 acknowledgementsi am grateful to my supervisor professor xxx for his / her encouragement, guidance and advice to me throughout the writing of this thesis. i also wish to express my thanks to professors yyy and zzz who, at various

2、times, not only gave me valuable advice, but provided me with additional sources of reference materials. my gratitude extends to mr. aaa for his insightful advice on my choice of topic, as well as to professor bbb of ccc university, who lent me reference books which were invaluable to me in the cour

3、se of my writing. i am also indebted to my other instructors and to my classmates for their constant encouragement to me in the course of my studies. abstractidioms are a mirror of a nation. they comprise the historical and cultural background as well as the attitude to life and the ways of people.

4、the formation of english idioms is influenced by such cultural factors as geographical conditions, historical developments, customs, religious beliefs, literature and arts of the british nation. the origin of english idioms goes back to ancient times. it has a strong expressiveness and vivid nationa

5、l character. a right use of them in speech and writing will add much to variety, strength and vividness of the language. with the increasing cross-cultural communication, approaches to the comprehension and translation of english idioms are urgently needed. an appropriate translation of english idio

6、ms plays a significant role in the more frequent cross-cultural communication. through expounding the origins, characteristics, translation principles and methods of english idioms, the thesis aims to help english learners have a better understanding of western cultures and develop their abilities o

7、f english idiom translation by listing many lively examples.the thesis is divided into five parts. the first three parts deal with the definition, origins and characteristics of the english idioms respectively. the fourth part expounds mainly that functional equivalent is a significant principle of

8、idiom translation and based on it, a thorough investigation is made for methods of idiom translation. through the demonstrations and examples in the above four parts, the last part concludes that the translator must have a deep understanding of the two languages and cultures concerned so as to reali

9、ze pragmatic functional equivalence in idiom translation by proper employment of the translation methods.key words: english idiom, origin, characteristic, translation principle, method-ii-摘 要習語是民族的一面鏡子，它包含了一個民族的歷史文化背景，他們對生活的態(tài)度及其生活、思維的方式等眾多的信息。英語習語的形成受到英語民族的地理環(huán)境、歷史發(fā)展、風俗習慣、宗教信仰、文學藝術(shù)等諸多文化因素的影響。英語習語源遠流長

10、，有很強的表現(xiàn)力和鮮明的民族色彩。恰當?shù)厥褂昧曊Z能夠豐富語言，增添其形象性和表達力。隨著跨文化交際的增多，迫切需要對英語習語理解和翻譯的方法進行探索。恰如其分的習語翻譯對日益頻繁的跨文化交際起著重要作用。本文通過對英語習語來源、特征及翻譯的原則和方法的詳述，結(jié)合大量生動的例子，旨在幫助英語學習者更好地了解西方文化，提高他們翻譯英語習語的能力。 論文分為五個部分，前三部分分別就英語習語的定義、來源及其特征進行了論述。第四部分詳述了習語翻譯中的功能對等原則的重要性，并在此基礎(chǔ)上對英語習語翻譯方法進行了詳細研究。通過上述四部分的闡述和例證，第五部分得出結(jié)論強調(diào)譯者應深入了解雙方的語言和文化，采取相應

11、的翻譯策略，以實現(xiàn)習語翻譯的功能對等。關(guān)鍵詞：英語習語；來源；特征；翻譯原則；方法-iii-table of contentsacknowledgements.iabstracts.iitabler of contentsivi. introduction.1ii. invisibility of translators subjectivity in traditionaltranslation theories.4iii. passivity in translators subjectivity.93.1 cultural constraint on translators.93.1.1

12、 itamar even-zohar: perspective of literary polysystem.103.1.2 gideo toury and theo hermans: perspective of norms.103.1.3 ander lefevere: perspective of ideology, poetics and patronage.123.2 translators dependence on culture.14iv. towards initiative of translators subjectivity.184.1 doubts on exclus

13、ive emphasis on translators passivity.184.2 components of translators initiative.214.2.1 fore-structure.214.2.2 self-consciousness.234.2.3 selectivity.244.2.4 productivity .254.3 displaying translators subjectivity.27v. role of translators in pursuit of cultural transformation.295.1 nonethnocentric

14、translation in favor of cultural transformation.295.1.1 text decision.305.1.2 strategy decision.325.1.3 specific device decision.335.2 initiative over passivity.365.2.1 troubles from domestic traditional culture.36 5.2.2 perseverance in nonethnocentric translation .41vi. conclusion.47bibliography.49

15、-iv-i. introductionmainly referring to the fundamental characteristics of the culture instead of concrete and superficial elements, a cultural pattern in which a nation or a community has been living for long is rather stable. however, it may be encountered with certain crises resulting from drastic

16、 outside changes in a particular period. when these changes grow drastic enough, the original cultural pattern cannot efficiently control its residents any more and needs to be reconstructed. this kind of reconstruction is named cultural transformation. (依俊卿, 2001: 167) during a cultural transformat

17、ion, the original cultural pattern is gradually giving place to a new cultural pattern, with the much disconcerted original society adjusted to meet with the tremendous exterior changes. as a result, a new cultural pattern comes into being, and the society sees a fast development.now, china is encou

18、ntered with a cultural transformation. as a matter of fact, china began present cultural transformation as early as yangwu movement. however, this cultural transformation has not been finished because it was mainly concerned with scientific and economic elements, with fundamental cultural structure

19、neglected before sino-japanese war. after sino-japanese war, although fundamental cultural structure was highlighted, it was not carried through till ultimate success. the present china has established relatively effective market economy system and reached great achievement in industry, science, civ

20、il lives and national defense system, but her cultural pattern is still mainly of agricultural-civilization because traditional naturalism and empiricism is still in control of social activities and personal lives. (ibid.: 206-7) the development of contemporary world foregrounds the problem once aga

21、in, and in a more urgent manner. at home, general development in realms of science and market economy demands a new cultural pattern characterized with ration, legality and contract. however, this demand has not entirely been met so far, which conversely seems to hinder the scientific and economic d

22、evelopment. such phenomenon, named “cultural lag” in academic research, is common in present developing countries including china. cultural lag must be eliminated; otherwise it is certain to impede the whole modernization. internationally, economic globalization is flooding in all social domains in

23、more and more countries, causing globalization in finance, science, art and academic research, etc. in this sense, economic globalization is to bring in cultural globalization. all the nations throughout the world are gathered generally speaking, we advocate that a translator should stick to nonethn

24、ocentric translation, display initiative over passivity and prefer altruism to egoism. this requires that a translator should be somewhat sacrificial. as for the ideal image of a translator in the period of cultural transformation, maybe the following excerpt from lu xun is the most impressive: revo

25、lutionists are always likened to prometheus in greece myths, who is not regretful though tortured by zeus, for their common generosity and firmness. but i steal fire from other countries just in order to stew the flesh of my own, and i believe my sacrifice of body worthwhile if eaters, may the flesh

26、 be tasteful, can benefit much from it however, i wish myself somewhat beneficial to the society so that readers still have the opportunity to enjoy the stolen fire and light. (qtd in 陳?？?，1992）notes：1 e.a. nida.2001.language and culturem. shanghai：shanghai foreign language education press.28.2 林承璋，1

27、997，英語詞匯學引論m，武漢：武漢大學出版社，48頁3 chitra fernando.2002. idioms and idiomaticitym.shanghai：shanghai foreign language education press.1-22.4 longman dictionary of contemporary english.2002.beijing：foreign language teaching and research press.7065 mona, baker.2000. in other words: a course book on translation m. beijing：foreign