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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments.i
Abstractii
摘要.iii
1 Introduction 1
2 Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory 3
2.1 Nida’s Concept of Translating 3
2.2 The Development of Functional Equivalence Theory 4
3 Culture-loaded Words 6
3.1 Definition of Culture-loaded Words 6
3.2 Classifications of Culture-loaded Words in Chinese Classics 7
4 Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Chinese Classics 10
4.1 Problems in Translating Culture-loaded Words in Chinese Classics 10
4.2 Reasons behind the Translation Problems of Culture-loaded Words in Chinese Classics11
5 Translation Strategies of Culture-loaded Words in Chinese Classics Based on Functional Equivalence Theory.13
5.1 Transliteration and Literal Translation for Semantic Presupposition13
5.2 Annotation for Contextual Presupposition15
5.3 Free Translation for Cultural Presupposition 16
6 Conclusions.18
Bibliography..20
1 Introduction
Culture is usually known as an integrated system of people’s knowledge, value, belief, and behavior in a nation. Most nations have come to recognize that with the rapid development of globalization, besides economy, culture needs to be “globalized” as well. With the function of describing, reflecting and spreading the culture at different times, literature works are the key element in cultural exchanges. As a cultural giant, China has numerous persified literature works, with a high percentage of Chinese classics. Chinese classics have outstanding cultural value and the essence of traditional Chinese culture, such as Confucianism and Taoism, should be shared by the world.
Owing to the fact that there is no universal mother tongue in the world, the first and indispensable step of culture exchange is translation. Translation is not just a transformation between source language and target language. More importantly, it is a cultural phenomenon for its indispensable role in introducing one culture to another. Given the differences of different cultures, translation, as a bridge for cultural exchange, is no easy job, especially the translation of Chinese classics for they usually contain a large amount of culture-loaded words, which are local expressions carrying peculiar meanings and symbolizing unique information in ancient China. It is quite difficult to give an appropriate and accurate translation to them.
Language is in possession of lots of the so-called culture-loaded terms, which are the symbols of thinking patterns, customs, value system, religion, and life styles of that peculiar culture. There are no equivalent words or expressions since such things do not exist in another culture (金, 2003: 264). Mona Baker, an Egyptian professor of translation studies, claimed that “The source-language word may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture. The concept in question may be abstract or concrete; it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or a type of food. Such concepts are often referred to as culture-specific” (2000:21). According to Hu Wenzhong, “Culturally-loaded lexemes are loaded with specific national cultural information and indicate deep national culture. They are the direct or indirect reflection of national culture”(1999:64). “There are many words in both English and Chinese which have rich cultural connotations, especially those idioms, slang and dialects. These words are called culture-specific terms or culture-loaded words”(孙, 2003:17).
From the above definitions and understandings of culture-loaded words, it can be inferred that culture-loaded words are rich in cultural connotation and have no equivalents in other languages. Translation is the exchange of cultures and cultural factors have played a not negligible role in today’s translation, thus several translation theories emerged. And some of them give some inspirations on the translation of culture-loaded words