- 上一篇：初中英语教学中的跨文化教育
- 下一篇：《曼斯菲尔德庄园》英国道德观
After the discussion about language, we shall go on to say something more about
culture, another factor effecting the simile translation．
English and Chinese are nations with different cultures, social systems and traditions, which have their reflections in rhetoric. China experienced a prolonged feudal society with centralized governing system, advocating respect for everything labeled with age and position, therefore, figurative language of imagery surpasses that
of satire and humor which are peculiar in English. Traditionally in culture and literature, fantasies are the spiritual and inspirational sources of the Orient while rationalism from the ancient Greek tradition is the foundation of the Occident. Often,
one can detect the sensitivity of rationalism in English. These differences surely find
their respective reflections in the rhetoric of both English and Chinese and in simile translation in particular．
Culture is really all ambiguous and intriguing concept .Scholars and experts in various research fields propose a lot of definitions of culture from their points of view according to the need of their discipline. And Edward Burnett Tylor provided the classic definition of culture “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”(Zheng 16)
Translators, like linguists, tend to consider culture in its broad sense and translation is a very important medium for cultural exchange between people speaking
different language.“It is one of the most important tasks for translators and translation researchers viewing problems of translation from the angle of cultural exchange in order to increase the degree of cultural exchange achieved by translation
as much as possible．”(Zheng 17)
And the differences between cultures make great boundaries in simile translation as well even though the effect of culture on our life is largely neglected Fortunately culture call be learned for “every inpidual is conditioned by learning and training within a particular context of cultural tradition. ”(Liu 71) For example, we may rather naturally use a figurative language “packed like sardines”to describe a crowded bus although Chinese people seldom have sardines and are not very familiar with the fish. People can know things happening in other cultures and more and more Chinese people can know what God is and what kind of fish sardine is. By now we have discussed language and culture, the two factors influencing simile translation. This is a topic that can hardly be exhausted But at least this pan is already a fairly detailed treatment．
Ⅲ. Cultural Influences on Simile
3 .1 Culture Differences Reflected in Simile
Because the culture backgrounds and nature environments are different, similes in different nations have heavy and rich local distinctive. Analyzing the meanings of a chosen image, one can see the culture differences reflected in a simile.
On the same subject, people from different nations have a similar view. They come to the conclusion through their similar experiences. Non-culture knowledge is shared among nations. Many similes can be found with the same vehicle and sense. This is cultural overlap. In English, they use the simile “as light as a feather” to describe the importance of somebody or something is little. In Chinese, to express the same meaning, we use “轻如鸿毛”. Feather and “毛” have the same conceptual meaning and pragmatic implication. That is to say, the cognition of feather is the same in both Chinese and westerners’ opinions. In the early age, they have had the common knowledge that feather is light which is its most distinctive point. So when they talk about feather, they would not misunderstand others, even they come from other countries. Culture overlap helps a lot on these occasions.