A Study of the Strategies of Culture Loaded Words Translation

Acknowledgements

In the first place, I am grateful to my supervisor Professor Song, who supported me all the time during the process of writing this paper. He provided me with a lot of precious studying materials as well as so many new ideas, which made me form my own understanding towards the concept of translation, culture and culture loaded words. Thanks for his serious reading and revising. I will not accomplish this paper successfully without his unstinting help.

What's more, I want to thank my dear classmates and friends for their persistent encouragement and offering me plenty of information and references. What they have done built up my confidence and cleared up my confusion, and I benefited quite a lot from their support.

My gratitude also goes to all the teachers in the English Department, who have taught me in each different subject in English. My English proficiency has been promoted to a higher level after these years in university due to their effort.

Last but not least, my deepest thankfulness goes to my parents for their love and education. Without their devotion, I can not enjoy my study in the university and receive so many people's help in paper writing and all other things.

If there should be an ending in my acknowledgements, I want to say that all words written here are dwarfed before the deep affection inside my heart.

摘 要

翻译不仅是两种语言的转换，更是文化信息的传递。在所有语言要素中，与文化关系最为密切的是词汇，而文化负载词汇则是词汇的重要组成部分。文化负载词汇集中反映了某一民族的价值取向、风俗习惯、气质情感、思维模式、历史典故以及宗教心态等。如果我们只是从字面意义上翻译，忽略其文化内涵，就会在跨文化交际中导致误解，甚至麻烦。因此，我们必须追根溯源，从文化负载词汇的形成原因出发，去探究其翻译策略。

关键词 文化 翻译 词汇 文化负载词 翻译策略

Abstract

Translation involves not only language transfer but also transmission of culture loaded information. Of all the language elements, words, of which culture loaded ones are an essential part, are the most closely related to culture. Culture loaded words reflect the values, the customs, attributes, the way of thinking, allusions, the religious beliefs and so on of a certain nation. If we only translate the culture loaded words from their superficial meaning but neglect the real cultural differences, some understanding mistakes, misunderstanding in communication as well as a lot of unnecessary trouble will turn up. Therefore, we must trace the origin and analyze the reasons why culture loaded words exist. Only in this way can we get the wise strategies to translate culture loaded words.

Key words: culture; translation; words; culture loaded words; translation strategies

Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................1

1. The Analysis of Relationship between Culture and Translation...........................1

1.1 The Understanding of Culture............................................................2

1.1.1 The Definition of Culture............................................................ 2

1.1.2 The Characteristics of Culture......................................................3

1.1.3 The Relationship between Language and Culture........................... ... 4

1.2 The Understanding of Translation...................................................... 4

1.2.1 The Definition of Translation.........................................................4

1.2.2 The Accuracy of Translation......................................................... 5

1.3 The Relationship between Culture and Translation.................................... 5

2. The Differences between Chinese and English Words..................................... 5

2.1 The Analysis of English and Chinese Words...........................................6

2.1.1 The Characteristics of English Words........................................... ... 6

2.1.2 The Characteristics of Chinese Words.............................................6

2.2 The Reasons Why the Differences Exist ..................................... .........7

3. The Understanding of Culture Loaded Words............................................. 8

3.1 The Definition of Culture Loaded Words.................................................9

3.2 The Classification of Culture Loaded Words..........................................9

4. The Strategies of Culture Loaded Words Translation....................................10

4.1 Transliteration..............................................................................11

4.2 Transliteration+Notes.....................................................................11

4.3 Literal Translation........................................................................ 11

4.4 Explanatory Translation..................................................................12

Conclusions........................................................................................13

References...........................................................................................14

A Study of the Strategies