II。Folk Language, Folk Culture and Folk Literature
2。1 The Formation and Development of Folk Language
Language roots in the earth and has unlimited vitality, which is also inseparable from its local environment。 It grows in the particular soil, enabling the language to have the concept of growth and possess a kind of inner vitality and energy。 Earth and the human beings are the direct source of language, so the language will have a natural texture, making us tease out a local spirit and charm from it。 “Every continent has its own great local spirit, and every nation is condensed in a particular area, known as the hometown。 The local spirit is a great reality。”
In order to study the translation strategies of the folk languages, it is necessary to make clear in mind what “Chinese folk language” is。 Chinese folk language is such a kind of words or expressions that exhibits the rural life in China for the reader。 This kind of language describes the distinctive local nature, cultural landscape, folk customs and social psychology。论文网
When it comes to the development of folk language, it has been accepted that the first category is a kind of imitation, also known as an objective, realistic folk language, which belongs to a traditional vernacular language。 Its representative writer is Lu Hsun, whose works include The True Story of Ah Q, Hometown, The Near-Year Sacrifice etc; the second category is behavioral, subjective, and emotional, which lays the foundation of traditional folk language, represented by Shen Congwen’s The Border Town, Fei Ming’s Tales in the Forest of Bamboo etc。 But after the new period, the new folk language took on an extremely subjective texture, such as that of Mo Yan, Han Shaogong, Zhang Chengzhi, Liu Heng, Jia Pingwa, etc; the third category is symbolic, also known as the formalism, and the whole text is symbolic, referring to the pioneers of native novels such as Lv Xin, Ge Fei, Lin Bai, Han Dong etc。 Their representative works include Stroke, The Root and Invisible Cloak and etc。
2。2 The Folk Culture in Folk Language
Language is the core of culture, as well as the main tool which can carry and inherit culture。 Therefore, there is always a kind of folk culture behind the specific folk language。 Folk culture is the spiritual being for a nation to multiply and a collective crystallization of a nation's development as well as the unique characteristic that distinguishes a nation from any other civilization。 And it also leads to national cohesion and initiative。 Both material and immaterial folk culture are irreplaceable and invaluable assets, including folk customs, legends, ancient relics, celebrity biography, pacts, family genealogy, traditional arts and crafts, old trees and famous wood species etc。 There is no doubt that folk literature cannot appear until one country’s folk culture develops into a mature stage。 As a big agricultural country, China has rich resources of folk literature。 On the one hand, China is a great agricultural country with a long history, so most people live on the land, which is determined by the agricultural civilization。 Chinese people are scattered by the water or bay, which is a life style determined by the land。 On the other hand, since the twentieth century, nearly 90% of the modern novelists are born in a farmer's family, or maintain a close relationship with the land。 Thus, it's very natural for Chinese novelists to be the representatives of the folk literature。 Furthermore, folk literature is a vital factor for the formation of modern Chinese novels, and Lu Xun was considered as the first one to create the modern Chinese novels, and the folk literature was also put forward by him firstly。文献综述
2。3 The Development of Folk Literature
Folk literature has gone through a history of one hundred years since it was put forward。 When Lu Xun set an important precedent of the folk literature, digging into the citizen’s bad quality, there emerged a large number of rural literature writers gathering around him。 Then Shen Congwen chanted the countryside, adding some new elements to folk literature。 And during the 1940s, “Lotus Lake School” and the so called Potato School suddenly appeared and made outstanding achievements。 Besides, the emergence of the root-seeking literature in 1980s, led the folk literature to have further developments。