4.1 Application of Foreignization in The Family 12
4.2 Application of Domestication in The Family 15
4.3 Summary 18
Chapter Five Conclusion 19
References 21
A Study of the Translation of Culture-loaded Words in The Family from the Perspective of Skopos Theory
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Significance of the Study
Along with the rapid global development, China has played a more and more important role in the international world. It has become an urgency to let the world know more about China, therefore, China’s soft power of culture should be enhanced and spread to the outside world. On the other hand, translation is a very complicated process which not only involves the transformation between two languages, but also the transformation of their culture. Not all kinds of languages share the same culture. A word with cultural features in this language may not match properly an equivalent word in that language, but the translator should make clear what purpose of his translation is and why he chooses certain translation strategy. Meanwhile, it is of great importance to translate these kinds of words to promote the culture communication between different-language groups and to spread their own culture.
1.2 Reason of Choosing Sidney Shapiro’s Version of The Family
A great masterpiece The Family written by Pa Chin is well-known worldwide, in which we can find many words containing Chinese characteristics that can not be seen in other ethnic groups. Such words are called culture-loaded words according to Nida’s classification of culture factors. Through the translation of these words, we can find the realistic value of the study on culture-loaded words.
There are two different kinds of style in the translation of The Family, one is represented by Sidney Shapiro who translated the original work into English version and the other one is represented by Ying Ruocheng, who translated the work into a script of a TV play. The thesis focuses more on the words with cultural features than the plot of the work. Meanwhile, Sidney Shapiro’s translation of Chinese works has usually been remarked with the function of spreading Chinese culture to other ethnic groups, such as one of the four classics outlaws of the marsh. Under Skopos theory, we value the effect and purpose of translation more than others. For Chinese works, the mission of translation is to let Chinese culture go out. That suggests that Shapiro’s version is more suitable for this study, because it is closer to the source text on the level of linguistics.
Many scholars have studied The Family from different perspectives, such as the point of view, ethics, anti-feudal theme. In the aspect of translation, there are a lot of researches about the written stylistics, the angle of viewing translation as adaptive selection. Yet scholars have done a little research on the culture-loaded words in The Family. However, The Family is typical of the text with flourish culture-loaded words while few people study the translation strategies of its culture-loaded words, there do exist some space for us to study the translation of these words from the perspective of translation purpose. This thesis will make an analysis of the translation of culture-loaded words.
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Previous Studies on the Culture-loaded Words
Many scholars have conducted researches on culture-loaded words, such as Eugene A. Nida, Mona Baker, and Louis B. Salomon. Their theories about culture-loaded words are profound and fresh. The translation of culture-loaded words is really a headache to translators without any guides while many of previous theories on the translation of the culture-loaded words have yielded effective methods to guide translation actions. Thus, those previous theories have laid a solid foundation for the later study in this area. 巴金小说《家》中的文化负载词翻译策略研究(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_29396.html