Cultural Differences in CE and EC Translation

1、英漢互譯中的文化差異cultural differences in c-e and e-c translationcontentsabstract.1key words.1.introduction .1.literature review .22.1 defining culture from the angle of translation .22.2 defining translation from the angle of cultural exchange.32.3criteria of translation.52.3.1the informativeness of the cu

2、ltural message transferred from the sl text to tl text.52.3.2the effectiveness of the transferring of the cultural messages.5 .methods of dealing with cultural differences.53.1treaments of some special cultural phenomena of sl.53.1.1idioms.53.1.2proper name.73.2treatments of customs and habits in sl

3、.73.2.1different customs and different habits. .73.2.2general principles for correct treatments of customs and habit in translation83.3treatments of psychological structure in sl.113.3.1different psychological structures and their reflections in the sl text.113.3.2general principles for correct trea

4、tments of different psychological structures reflected in the sl text.113.3.3different psychological responses and different associative meaning.12.conclusion.14references.14cultural differences in c-e and e-c translation摘 要： 語言是文化的載體；文化是語言的土壤；翻譯是跨文化交流的橋梁。語言與文化是密不可分的,進(jìn)行翻譯也就是進(jìn)行跨文化交際。翻譯活動不僅是語言文字的轉(zhuǎn)換活動，

5、更是不同文化的交流和移植活動。因此,翻譯不僅涉及語言因素，也涉及文化因素。要成為合格的翻譯工作者，必須要具有深刻的文化意識。在翻譯過程中，譯者應(yīng)該注意文化因素的五個(gè)方面：物質(zhì)方面、精神方面、交際方面、制度方面和觀念方面。關(guān)鍵詞：文化；文化差異；翻譯；翻譯原則；習(xí)語；專有名詞；風(fēng)俗習(xí)慣；心理結(jié)構(gòu)abstract: languages are the carriers of culture; culture is the soil of language; translation is a bridge of exchange of two cultures. translation itself

6、 is the process of cultural exchange. translation is not only the activity of transferring two different languages, but also the activity of transferring two different cultures. without knowing the differences between the two cultures, it would be impossible for a translator to achieve a correct and

7、 efficient cultural exchange through the medium of translation. in the process of translation, translator must pay more attention on the five aspects of culture: material aspect of cultural, intellectual aspect of culture, communicative aspect of culture, institutional aspect of culture, conceptual

8、aspect of culture. key words: culture; cultural differences; translation; idiom; proper name; habit and custom; psychological structure.introduction the early beginning of travel and contact brought realization and the existence of many tongues and confusion. it was in the process of cultural exchan

9、ge that people felt translation highly necessary. on the other hand, translation is the result of cultural exchange, and it is for cultural exchange.if the translator has any of the misunderstanding of cultural messages of the sl (source language) text, it is impossible to convey the whole cultural

10、messages from the sl text to the tl (target language) text. the more misunderstanding of the cultural message, the less cultural massage will be transferred to the tl text. sometimes the cultural differences are very striking and obvious. they may involve conflicting values attached to the same obje

11、cts. take “dragon” for example. in the orient the dragon suggests good luck and fortune. it even a symbol of china and chinese people are called “successors” of the dragon. in the western world, however, the dragon is regarded as a threatening animal, symbol of evil power. as xu chongxin observes, c

12、ultural differences and cultural disparities usually bring the translator into a difficult position of attending to one thing and lose sight of another. thus it can be said that translation is the product of cross fire of cultural exchange and cultural disparity. .literature reviewas professor xu ch

13、ongxin observes, cultural differences and cultural disparities usually bring the translator into a difficult position of attending to one thing and lose sight of another. thus it can be said that translation is the product of cross fire of cultural exchange and cultural disparity. (1986:49) therefor

14、e, solving the difficulties caused by the cultural differences is the most important task for translators and its process is also the process of cultural exchange. speaking more specifically, the solving of the difficulties arising from cultural differences determines the informativeness and effecti

15、veness of cultural exchange through translation. the informativeness and effectiveness make up the degree of cultural exchange. the more cultural messages of a sl text are transferred to the tl text, the more faithful the translation will be, and the more informative the cultural exchange will be es

16、pecially where there are vast and striking cultural differences. at the same time, the more tactfully the cultural messages of the sl text are expressed in the tl text, the easier it will be for the reader to understand the tl text and the more effective the cultural exchange will be.2.1 defining cu

17、lture from the angle of translationculture is an ambiguous and intriguing concept. there are at least 200 different kinds of definitions of culture. what has been termed the classic definition of culture was provide by edward burnett tylor, the father of cultural anthropology, in his “primitive cult

18、ure ”: “culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, customs, and member of society.”(1971:1) american translator and linguist e.a. nida raised “culture” could be defined briefly as “the totality of belief and practices of a society.”(1954:105)but with the increas

19、ing maturity of anthropological science, concept led to a multiplication and diversification of culture. by 1900, american anthropologists were using “culture” to refer to distinctive groups of traits characterizing particular tribal societies. in 1930, ruth benedict discussed: “culture as a pattern

20、 of think and doing that runs trough the activities of people and distinguishes them from all peoples.”(1930:37) in later years, culture became a term used to describe the distinctive human mode of adapting to the environment-molding nature to conform to mans desires and goals. there are three meani

21、ngs under the term of “文化” in 辭海:1) extensively speaking, it refers the total of material and spirit fortune, which was created during the human history. narrowly speaking, it refers to ideology of society and the system and organization that appropriate for it. 2) it refers to general knowledge, wh

22、ich also contains language. 3) it refers to the total systems that the feudal dynasty ordered. (辭海1980)“culture” in english and “文化” in chinese is becoming the same meaning after a long period of the developing and changing of semantics. among various definitions of culture, there are two main group

23、s of definitions. that is to say, culture has at least two senses. in narrow sense, culture means intellectual and conceptual culture. in broad sense, culture means human culture in contrast with nature, i.e. the sum of peoples customs, material and spiritual products, ways of think and so on. trans

24、lators and linguists tend to consider culture in its broad sense.2.2 defining translation from the angle of cultural exchangetranslation is not a new activity. indeed, it is almost as old as human history. but a scientific definition of translation is not known by everybody even some translator. in

25、fact, a translators attitude towards the concept of translation is an important factor affecting the effects of translation in culture exchange. so it is necessary to know the definition of translation clearly for every translator.at first people only consider translation as an inter-lingual activit

26、y. for example, in “websters new collegiate dictionary” (1960), translation means, “to turn into ones own language to another language”. this definition grasps nothing of the essence of translation and it has nothing to do with the social value of translation, culture exchange. according to the defi

27、nition cited by slype, translation is “the process of replacement of a text written in a source language by a text written in a target language, the objective being a maximum equivalence of meaning.” (1983:33). this definition comes closer to the essence of translation but still it hasnt reach the t

28、rue essence of translation, intercultural communication and culture exchange. introducing information theory into translation theory, e.a. nida defined translation as reproducing the messages of sl with most appropriate and most natural equivalents of tl both semantically and stylistically. (1981:20

29、). nida has in fact nearest to saying that translation is a most important medium for intercultural communication.translation itself is the process of culture exchange. as newmark points out, translation in normally written in modern language, which is in a form of interpretation, and lexically at l

30、east a reflection of the tl culture. (1982:35).translation in fact is an intercultural activity: comparing the differences of the two cultures, introducing new things from the sl culture into the tl culture, and making tl absorb something useful from other cultures.2.3criteria of translationsome lin

31、guists and translation theorists had raised many different kinds of criteria of translation, the number of which is as great as that of the definition of translation and that of the persons who have undertaken to study them.the trinity principle of faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance was first

32、 put forth by yan fu as the criteria of translation. although his interpretation of “faithfulness”, “expressiveness” and “elegance” is partial and problematical, the way these three characters were propounded is praise worthy and commendable. it is really succinct, readily acceptable and universally

33、 desirable. of course, according to the new requirements of present day translation, handfuls explanation of “elegance” as using the classical chinese language before the han dynasty is wrong. but his translation practice guided by his own criterion did promote culture exchange in a significant sens

34、e.another principle of translation, the equivalent effect principle raised by e.a.nida has been widely held for a long time and effectively started by a number of specialists in the field of translation abroad. as early as 1861, matthew arrold declared that “ a translation should affect us in the sa

35、me way as the original maybe supposed to have affected its hearers,” although he rejected in actual practice the principle of “similar response” or “equivalent effect” (as quoted in savory 45) from above statements we can see the main types of the criteria of translation prevailing at home and at ab

36、road. they can help to promote the cultural exchange through translation in a significant way but they dont contain any direct claim for cultural exchange through translation. since translation is the process and result of cultural exchange, the new approach to the nature of translation requires us

37、to formulate some criteria of translation directly from the point of view of cultural exchange.referring to the above criteria, the assessment of the quality of a translation must be made according to the degree of the cultural exchange achieved through translation. speaking specifically, our criter

38、ia consist the following two aspects:2.3.1the informativeness of the cultural message transferred from the sl text to tl textthis criterion requires us to try our best to convey as many cultural messages as possible from the sl text to the tl text. generally speaking the more cultural messages are t

39、ransferred, the more faithful to the original author the translation will be and the more similar response can be achieve. we can judge the informativeness of the cultural messages transferred to the tl text.2.3.2the effectiveness of the transferring of the cultural messagesas newmark points out, “a

40、 translation is normally written and intended for a target language reader even if the source language text was written for no reader at all, for nothing but its authors pleasure”(1982:128). the translator has to assist his reader. it is usually very important for the translator to try to enhance th

41、e effectiveness of the transferring of the cultural message of the original text. zero degree of the effectiveness of the transferring of the cultural messages, no matter how many messages are transferred this criterion has something to do with “expressiveness” and “elegance” of the trinity principl

42、e, and also with the readers response criterion of the equivalent effect principle above. understanding the value standards of communication between the both parties and trying to pursue the common thing in the two different cultures is the key link to achieve intercultural translation successfully.

43、 as newmark points out, the translation theorists main concern is “to select an appropriate general method of translation” (1982:22). methods of translation are usually proposed to accord with the demands of the criteria of translation. traditionally, there are two major methods of translation, lite

44、ral and free. translation theorists at home and abroad have made a lot of discussions on them. besides these two major methods, some other methods from the angle of cultural exchange are very useful in translation. methods of dealing with cultural differences3.1treaments of some special cultural phe

45、nomena of sl 3.1.1idiomsidioms are combinations of words whose meanings cannot be deduced from the meanings of the individual parts. the term “idioms” here is used in its broad sense, i.e. refers to phrase idioms, clause idioms and sentence idioms (proverbs and sayings), including “xiehouyu” (歇后語),

46、a special type of chinese idioms. as long as the translated idioms can be understood and accepted by the tl reader to a certain degree, literal translation is the best way for promoting cultural exchange through the translation of idioms. in such situations literal translation of idioms can greatly

47、promote cultural exchange in enriching the communicative aspect of tl culture by introducing new idioms or other fresh figurative expressions. it is through literal translation of idioms that a lot of new idioms and other fresh figurative expression have become part of the chinese language. the foll

48、owing are some of chinese idioms or other figurative expressions originated from the literal translation of different types of english idioms. every type of english idioms may be literal translated into chinese and become part of the chinese language. e.g.:打破記錄 (from “to break the record”）酸葡萄 (from

49、“ sour grapes”)武裝到牙齒 (from “ armed to the teeth ”) 黃金時(shí)代 (from “golden age”) 火中取栗 (from “to pull the chestnut our of the fire)“潘多拉”的盒子 (from “pandoras box”)in rendering idioms, literal translation should also be applied in proper situations so as maintain the advantages in promoting cultural exchange

50、. the following are some of the situations in which sl idioms can be successfully literally rendered into tl.1) the sl idiom used in its literal sense sometimes a sl idiom may be used in its literal sense. in such a case, only literal translation is the possible and the best way to render it. e.g.:

51、the chiefs met the amicable pipe was smoked, the hatchet buried, and peace formally proclaimed. (w. irving: captain bonneville.)version: 首領(lǐng)們聚會在一起，輪流抽好煙，埋掉戰(zhàn)斧，正式宣告和平。 it was and is the custom of the indians to go through the ceremony of burying the tomahawk when they made peace. when they went to war,

52、 they dug it up again. (j. barlett) (印地安人要講和平時(shí)，便舉行埋斧典禮，要開始作戰(zhàn)時(shí)，又把戰(zhàn)斧挖出來。這過去是，現(xiàn)在仍是印第安人的習(xí)俗。) 2）the sl idiom used both in its literal sense and its figurative sense some writers may intentionally use both the literal sense and the figurative sense of an idiom to make a pun or to achieve some other specia

53、l purpose. his intention and style can also be transferred to the tl text through literal treatment of the idiom sometimes. and only literal translation can achieve such purpose.e.g.:“oh! tell us about her auntie.” cried imogen: “i can just remember her. shes the skeleton in the family cupboard. isn

54、t she?”“she wasnt much a skeleton as i remember her.” murmured euphemia, “extremely well covered.” (j. galsworthy : in chancery)version: “哦！請給我們講講她的事吧，好姑媽，”伊莫金喊道：“我簡直不記得她了，她是我們家衣柜里的骷髏，見不得人，是嗎？” “我記得她并不像是骷髏，”尤菲米婭低聲說，“肌肉挺豐滿的呢?！?.1.2proper nameproper names are reflections of a culture. through this win

55、dow of proper names, one can find some clues to the understanding of a culture. therefore, the translator should try his best to transfer as many cultural messages of proper names as possible to the tl text, increasing the informativeness of the cultural message transferred. in the transliteration o

56、f proper names some translators like using some words or characters which seems to be a tl proper name to translate a sl proper name for the purpose of more readability. but this treatment may block cultural exchange by giving the same in the way of naming persons, place, etc. this treatment of prop

57、er names, therefore, should be avoided. for example, “franklin” should be transliterated as 弗蘭克林 instead of 范克廉 and “stubbs” should be transliterated as斯塔布斯 instead of司徒拔.another disadvantage of this treatment of proper names is that it cannot produce true phonological correspondences between the sl and the tl because of the choosing of the words or characters to suit tl culture, thus reducing the