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| 论文名：《从习语中看翻译和文化的关系以及影响文化的因素》 |
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The Relation between Translation and Culture from the Aspect of Idioms and the Factors which Influence the Culture
Acknowledgments
This thesis concludes my postgraduate study in Henan Normal University. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the professors in the College of Foreign Language, whose preciseness and strictness set a good example for me in the future academic career. I felt gratitude especially goes to my supervisor , Guo Yingzhen ,whose illuminating instruction and endless assistance have greatly conduced to the accomplishment of this thesis.
I’m also very grateful to the teachers who have taught me in various ways during the course of my study for the bachelor’s degree.Especially I would like to thank Professor Guo Yingzhen and other professors in the Faulty of Foreign institution who inspired me a lot.
Last but not least, I contribute this article to my dear family for their help during my college life.
摘要
翻译是一个复杂的过程,对于文化翻译尤其如此。一般来说,翻译涉及语言以及文化。译者应该知道外国文化以及文化自己的人民。此外,译者应连续比较两种文化之间的等价获得意义。翻译的主要任务是翻译源语言到目标语言。如何消除不同文化之间的语言障碍,如何传达源语言的意义的重点到底是不同国家的人。本文说明了不同文化的影响已经在翻译。文能从不同的方面分析:如思维的差异,心理学的文化之间的差异,不同的宗教、环境和生活环境不同的人,等等。
翻译是一个复杂的过程,它是关于文化翻译尤其如此。一般来说,翻译涉及语言以及文化。译者应该知道外国文化以及文化自己的人民。此外,译者应连续比较两种文化之间的等价获得意义。翻译的主要任务是翻译源语言到目标语言。如何消除不同文化之间的语言障碍,如何传达源语言的意义。本文说明了不同文化的影响已经在翻译。文能从不同的方面分析:如思维的差异,心理学的文化之间的差异,不同的宗教、环境和生活环境不同的人,等等。 关键字：翻译；文化意识；文化和思维；文化差别；习语
Abstract
Translation is a complex process, especially when we translate the cultural text. Generally speaking ,translation involves language as well as culture. A translator should know foreign culture as well as the culture of his own people. Moreover ,a translator should make continuous comparisons between the two cultures for getting the equivalence meaning . The major task of translation is to translate the source language to the target language How to get rid of the language barrier between different culture, how to convey the meaning of the source language exactly is the focus of the people in different countries. This thesis illustrate the influences of different cultures have upon translation. Wen can analysis it from different aspects: such as the difference of thinking, the psychology of culture, the difference between different religion, the environment and living surroundings of different people, and so on.
Key Words: translation; the consciousness of culture; culture and thinking; cultural difference; idioms
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments I
摘要 II
Abstract III
Table of Contents IV
Introduction 1
PART ONE THE CONCEPT OF TRANSLATION AND CULTURE 2
1.1 The concept of translation 3
1.2 The concept of culture 5
PART TWO THE FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE CULTURE 7
2.1 Religion 7
2.2 The psychology of culture 8
2.3 The way of thinking 9
2.4 different ways of life 10
2.5 Geographical environment 14
2.6 Geographical environment 15
PART THREE BETWEEN CULTURE AND TRANSLATION 16
CONSLUSIONS 18
Bibliography 19
Introduction
This article contains the concept of translation and the concept of culture. The aim of translation is to making communication. Human’s social development and process need translation and human’s social development and progress should make communication between different nations, and during the process of communication, translation is indispensable. Translation, as an cultural phenomenon, thinking activity, related to the era and social background all in all. Translation is to render the meaning of a text into another language in the way the author intended the text. Translation is an art that involves the re-creation of a work in another language for readers with a different background. Culture is a very broad concept, to give it a rigorous and precise definition is a very difficult thing. Many philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, historians and linguists have been trying to define the concept of culture from the perspective of the respective discipline. However, so far it still has not have a recognized and satisfactory definition. According to statistics, about "culture" at least, it has more than two hundred kinds of different definition. Broadly speaking, culture is a social phenomenon, which is the creation of the products for a long time. But it is also a kind of historical phenomenon and is the social history remains. Rather, culture refers to a state or national history, geography, local conditions and customs, traditions, lifestyles, literature and art, behavior standards, way of thinking, values, etc. When we translate something, the background of the culture and the background of history should be considered. The relation between culture and translation is very close in a great extent. In this context, we analysis this problem from different aspects: the way of thinking, the psychology of thinking, and the customs and habits in different nations. If the background of culture and history is ignored, the truly meaning of the context will be lost.
PART ONE THE CONCEPT OF TRANSLATION AND CULTURE
One linguist in China has said: “what is the most difficult thing during the process of translation , it is the differences between two cultures.” Nida has mentioned this too: “translation is the communication between two different cultures.” And we can not ignore the importance of the background of culture and the background of history if we want to translate a piece of text which contains the information about culture or some thing else. When translating some thing, mastering the knowledge of culture and history is indispensable. There are too much factors which can influence the culture of the source language.
Zhu Guangqian, one writer in modern times, thinks the associate meaning is the most difficult thing when we translate one language into another language. Because in the dictionary you can not find the truly meaning under a certain context.
But for literary study, it is one important factor you can not ignore. This requires us to know the custom and habit of the country we want to translate the language of it. Or we will find we do not know how to translate when we are given a piece of text. We can take a poem as an example. For example the poem:
《静夜思》 “窗前明月光，疑是地上霜。举头望明月。低头思故乡。”
Using English, we can not convey the essence of this poem without the background of old Chinese and the thought when the author write this poem. And there are so many versions of it. For instance:
(1) In the still of the night : I descry bright moonlight in front of my bed. I suspect it to be hoary frost on the floor. I watch the bright moon, as I tile back my head. Yearn, while stooping, for my home land more.
(2) A tranquil night: before my bed I see a silver light, I think the ground is covered with hoar frost. Raising my head, I find the full moon bright; and bowing down, in thought of home I’m lost. And there are lots of other versions translated by other translators. No matter which version , the emotion of the author must be considered, or they will ruin the essence of the poem. Tyler, one anthropologist in England, whose book primitive culture raises the concept of culture and describes it as “culture is a kind of complex abilities and habits, which includes knowledge, faith, art, moral, law and custom”. Thus we can know the wide coverage of culture, it is a complex system. Language, as a component of culture, reflect the phenomenon of a resourceful culture.
Translation is so difficult as language reflect the culture, which conveys to much cultural content and limited by culture. Once language entered the human’s life as a tool of communication, the problem of cultural connotation and the ability of express something will arise. This not only requires the translator master the knowledge of bilingual ability but multilingual ability, especially they must know the consciousness of two different culture, religious culture and the geographic features, the historical customs and traditions, the process of forming culture, etc. For these factors, the language cultures of different nations reflect their own national features and the background of the nation.
1.1 The concept of translation
There are many different definitions of translation, in The Oxford English Dictionary it means “to turn from one language into another ”. Or recreating according the original text. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language gives us the definition of translation is “to turn into one’s own or another language”. While the definition in Columbia Encyclopedia is that translation is the art of recomposing a work in another language without losing its original flavor. “Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual in another language.(J.C.Catford, 1994)”. “Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. (Eugene Nida, 1969)”. Translation is an old and young work, which come into exist since the old times and it becomes so hot in modern times.
Translation is the need of human’s development and progress. The concept of translation can be defined from two aspects: broad sense and narrow sense. Generalized translation refers to the language and the language, language variation and language variants, such as language and nonverbal code conversion which convey the basic information. Extension of the concept is quite broad, including his translation between different languages, translation between language variation, language and other symbols of the communication conversion, etc. The contents of translation rules only emphasizes the "basic information", does not emphasize "completely loyal". Some translation theorists put forward the understanding and translation theory, so the language and thinking are also included in the general translation.
Narrow sense translation is a linguistic activity, which is a kind of language to express the content of the faithfully expressed in another language. This definition emphasizes "translation is a language activity". The nature of translation determines the narrow sense ,which indicates that it is a human’s communicative approach in language communication, which emphasis on "one language to another language",which ruled out unification between different variants of translation between languages, which emphasis on "faithfully", avoiding the confusion of the translation and interpretation or rewrite. For example:"Sent someone to Coventry" refers to “reject someone”. The Coventry is a small town in UK, where the people hate soldiers very much, so when the soldier
was sent after Coventry, there will be people from the group. Look at this sentence “1 will be with you from the egg to apples”, if translated into "I will eat eggs and apples with you”.It sounds obviously puzzling. Be translation should "I will always be with you"? This is because "in the west, people always eat eggs, bread and drink milk for breakfast, and finally a dish always ended up with desserts including apple". Then, from the egg to the apple, from dawn to dusk, from the beginning until after the most. Again, such as, "fishery occupies an important position in the British Isles, so that the British fish (fish) is commonly used to represent all kinds of people, poor fish (poor), a strange fish (eccentric)". If the translation were translated into the big fish, small fish and poor fish, can every person can really understand the meaning of it, sometimes may even make a joke.
Translation is not simply a matter of seeking other words with similar meaning but of finding appropriate ways of saying things in another language. Different languages, may use different linguistic forms. Translation is also the social and psychological activities. One should be familiar with one’s own culture and be aware of the source language culture before the attempting to build any bridge with an alien culture that requires that its message be conveyed in anything but a alien way. That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that is “culture-bound”cultural words, proverbs and of course idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called upon to do a cross - cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with.
1.2 The concept of culture
In dictionary the definition of it is the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc. Or a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period. Or the development or improvement of the mind by education or training. Or the behaviors, beliefs or characteristics of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.
Culture is a very broad concept, to give it a rigorous and precise definition is a very difficult thing. Many philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, historians and linguists have been trying to define the concept of culture from the perspective of the respective discipline.
However, so far it still did not have a recognized and satisfactory definition. According to statistics, about "culture" at least, it has more than two hundred kinds of different definitions. Broadly speaking, culture is a social phenomenon, is the creation of the products for a long time. But it is also a kind of historical phenomenon, is the social history remains. Rather, culture refers to a state or national history, geography, local conditions and customs, traditions, lifestyles, literature and art, behavior standards, way of thinking, values, etc.
About the relationship between translation and culture, Bassnett think the relation between culture and translation is the relation between the body and heart., culture is the body, language is the heart. As surgeons do surgery can't ignore the body surrounding tissue, the translator can not ignore the factors of culture when they translate some material. Hatmi and Mason believe that translation is a dynamic communicative process, the translator should not only understand two languages themselves,they should have two more cultural horizons, the translator should be acted as the role of the coordinator (mediator) between the original author and the reader .
Anyhow, the translators emphasize the cultural factors of translation scholars stressed. The translator should be familiar with two cultures, introduce the primitive cultural factors in the translation activity. Whether translators' understanding of the original is correctly or not, largely depends on his understanding of the culture, the success of translation, is mainly related to culture .
PART TWO THE FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE CULTURE
2.1 Religion
Everyone knows, Bible plays the role of the source in western’s life. Some statistic shows most Americans still have faith in the church. The British law protects religious freedom. Everyone has the freedom to believe any church, or not to believe any religion at all. There is no interference from the state or the community.
Most of the world’s religions have followers in Britain, but the majority of the British people believe Christianity. The first Christian church was established at Canterbury in 597. While the Chinese are under the influence of Confucian School in great extent. Though the Buddhism, which spreads very well in China, is till a polytheism. This is different from westerners’ religious faith.
In China, people have faith in the Buddhism and Taoism, so there phrase arises, such as “YuDi” “FoZu” and so on. While the westerners have faith in Christian, so there arises the word “God”. In Chinese, “谋事在人，成事在天”, In English there are two different versions, (1) “man propose, heaven disposes” or “man dropose , god disposes”. Their difference lies in the different translations of the word “天”。“天”has the strong color of Buddhism and Taoism. While the word of “God” has the oblivious color of Christian. The latter translation version is easy to understand and accept for the westerners, but can not convey the essence of connotation of it in China. The religion has great influence on English, it expresses in such phrases as “It is in God’s hand”(听天由命), etc.
When translation, it is very necessary for us to master the basic knowledge of religion. We can take the example of “临时抱佛脚”. If we translated it into “to embrace Buddha’s feet in one’s hour of need”. It is very eccentric for the westerner. Why we need to embrace the Buddha’s feet sometimes? What is the use of this strange act? If we can deal it a little, it is another meaning for the westerner. We can translate it into “to embrace Buddha’s feet in one’s hour of need ----seek help at the last moment”. So the westerners always say “God” “Holy” “Goddess” etc. While we Chinese choose to take the Heaven as our faith. This truly gives us another example of the different religious belief.
Religious culture is an important part of human culture, which is made up of ethnic culture which is formed by the religious beliefs, awareness, etc. Fang Wenhua thinks different religion penetration and melt in their own language to express, only a deep understanding of many of the differences between Chinese and western culture, unique cultural connotation of understanding language, to avoid wrong translation, mistranslation, making the translation really play the role of cultural exchange. Chinese culture is extensive and profound, has a long history, in China's traditional culture, owing to the popularity of Taoism and Buddhism, there are many "the jade emperor, the view sound, bodhisattva." terms. Westerners believed in Christ thought that god created everything, many religious "god, the bible, the church, nuns," and other words.
2.2 The psychology of culture
As different nations use different language, and their history and culture are different too. So during the process of development in every nation, they formed their own national features owning to the unique historical background and cultural background. It is very important for the forming of a nation’s psychology state. The difference of history and culture mainly reflect on the aspect of some history stories , many taboos and preferences, and so on. We can take the number of “9” for an example, the number has special meaning in the culture of China, no matter in old times or in modern times, for it stands of the high position-- “jiujiu gui yi--the meaning of ruling the world”. While most Chinese do not like the number of “4”, for the pronunciation of it is similar with the pronunciation of “死--which means death”, especially in the number Of telephone, most people do not like the number “4” ended as the ending. As for another number “8”, which have the similar pronunciation of “发--which means fortune”.
While in the eyes of the westerners’, “4” “8” “9” is only the common signs, which do not has special meaning. As we all known, “13” is a bad number for the westerners, which means bad luck. So the number are absent in the daily life. Especially, the number of seat, the number of the floor, and so on. But in China, this number do not have this kind of meaning. For the cultural connotation of these nonlingual words represent, the translators can understand and translate them well after knowing the historical culture of every nation.
When talking about Chinese culture, people always come to the word “龙”. Because in old times, the emperor always describe themselves as “龙”，which is a symbol of “God”, which can consolidate their power, nation and land. But for the westerner, “龙” is another symbol, “a large fierce fabulous animal with wings and a long tail , a crested head and big claws, that can break the outfire ”. So it is very strange for the westerner to see the meaning the dragon. And they will not wish their children to be the Dragon. So to avoid misunderstanding the word of dragon, we can translate the phrase “望子成龙” into “long to see one’s child succeed in life ”.
2.3 The way of thinking
Different district, different physiology, different psychology and the difference of culture will form different ways of thinking, especially the difference of culture decides the way of thinking in great extent. When translating, the translator must know the the barrier of the different culture and overcome it , then grasp the two different thinking moods. The Chinese will take a whole thing as a organic part. While the westerner are good at logical thinking, they will take the whole thing into different part. The difference between Chinese doctor and western doctor can illustrate this point very well. Chinese doctor emphasize the measures according the whole symptom. While the western doctor emphasize headache is an illness, foot ache is another disease, they will separate the whole thing into different part.
2.4 different ways of life
Different ways of life influence on translation: from the history tradition and the real life, China has a long history of farming life, which formed the “farming”in Chinese is traditional, and is associated with the large number of idioms. If we meet the Chinese,they will ask "eat?" And according to the tradition of western English habits. They often talk about the weather.So we can only translate it into “how do you do” or “hello”.
Three different influence of custom on translation in social life and cultural exchange, different countries will be formed in the process of its peculiar customs. The differences of English custom is various, such as in the attitude to the dog, the dog in Chinese is commonly used to describe the bad things, such as "evil, a coward, bailiffs, brutal and cold blooded" etc.The British people usually use “dog” to express good meanings. however, they often be used to describe people, such as "lucky dog" (lucky), "top dog" (VIPs), "love me, love my dog" (love me, love my dog). Again, such as, "dead and marriage", if we translate them into "weddings, funerals," is inappropriate. Chinese symbol red festival, when they get married in red color, and the funeral to wear white, so the Chinese idiomatic "red" said "marriage", "white" means "death". Westerners, however, think the white represents purity, loyalty, bride wears white,when there is a funeral they should wear black. So "funerals" is not accurate for people in British or American. And there is another example, when talked about dragon. British people often takes it as an bad word. They often refer it as “evil” or something related. But for our Chinese, we thinks that dragon is our ancestors. So they are totally different between our Chinese and the English.
Historical allusions in different countries.They have different influence on translation between English and Chinese.Two languages have been formed by historical allusion, language acquisition. These idioms simple structure, profound, often come from a single literal meaning to understand and translation. Such as "meet one's Waterloo” means totally failure for somebody in western countries.But in Chinese we cannot understand this phrase without the background it concerned.And there is another example.”一个臭皮匠，顶个诸葛亮”, they can translate it into “three cobblers equal to Zhu Geliang -----the master mind”. When we translate it, if we don’t consider the background in China, the westerners even don’t know what is Zhu Geliang. Let alone the truly meaning of the sentence. In western countries , they don’t know the truly meaning of the sentence for the deficiency of cultural background. However, in China, even a little child can understand it with his mind abstracted.
Chinese and English, two languages are produced in different cultural background. This will lead to two languages existed in the expression of difference it the views of people. To deal with the culture differences during the process of translation, we should focus my mind on the two cultures, comprehension ability. We should also improve our cultural accomplishment. To overcome the differences between Chinese and western culture in the translating process into obstacles, make the translation vivid as possible.
Understanding the meaning of the original text while translating is not simply a matter of understanding. The language is a component of the culture, which is affected and limited by culture. In the course of translating, whether the translator has the right understanding or not, depends on his knowledge of the relevant culture to a great extent. For a translator, without the comparison of two culture, whether he can understanding the spoken and written language well is unimaginable. That is why we say, “learning a language is kind of learning the culture and habit of the country where the language is spoken”. So long as we study the culture behind the language during the process of studying a language, a large amount of culture information can be transmitted equivalently. These are comparatively simpler in translation.
Besides similarities, there are also many differences between two cultures, which from the most difficult part in translation. We must keep in mind that translation is a cross - cultural activities. When we face an original text, it may be well written, attractive, tempting and aesthetic. But if one does not know the difference between two cultures, it would be rather difficult for him to achieve the same effect in the translated work.
National culture and long history and develops with the time. Although they are very short sometimes ,their significance is far-reaching. However the thinking modes of different notions are very different sometimes . We need to make some conversion while translating the idioms.
路遥知马力，日久见人心。 A long road tests a horse’s strength and a long task proves a man’s heart
飞流直下三千尺，疑是银河落九天。Down it cascades a sheer thousand feet, as if the Silver River were falling from Heaven!
树倒猢狲散。 Once the tree falls, the monkeys on it will flee helter-skelter.
穷棒子闹翻身，是八仙过海，各显其能？ The way we poor folks try to emancipate ourselves is just like the way the Eight Fairies crossed the sea each displaying his own talent......Note: The Eight Fairies are the eight immortals of Taoism in Chinese folklore.
成也萧何败萧何 To meet one’s Waterloo
逼上梁山 Watergate Scandal
杀手锏 Lame duck
一个和尚挑水吃，两个和尚抬水吃，三个和尚没水吃。 One boy is a boy, two boys half a boy, three boys no boy.
杀鸡取卵 Kill the goose to get the eggs.
鱼米之乡 Milk and honey
青出于蓝而胜于蓝 The master is surpassed by the apprentice.
贪字变贫字 Grab all, lose all.
人不可貌相 You can not judge a horse by its saddle.
As for the ways of cohesion, English will choose hypotaxis, namely in the syntactic form using the connection words connect sentences or causes; While Chinese intentions Darataxis, which depends on the sense of cohesion rather than relying on connectors. English grammar is quite closely, pay attention to hypotaxis, precise shape. Each sentence, paragraph or paragraphs usually consists of some function words and some specific phrases, clauses. These features can represent different function or a word or phrase ideas, such as cause and effect, comparison, concessions, conditions, twist, etc. Each clause in complex sentences, distinct, clause must be guided by the subordinator. In the compound, coordinate clauses are usually connected by some punctuation marks. As we all know, Chinese is heavy parataxis, regardless of primary and secondary relationship between a lot of sentences or clauses, only through meaning for cohesion. There are some sentences which we can compare them with each other.
It is so cool that we decide to go out for a walk. 天气凉爽，我们决定出去散步。
Where there is a will, there is a way. 有志者事竟成。
The difference between the overall thinking and individual thinking. Chinese culture emphasizes the overall thinking pattern no matter in old times or modern times .Harmony and unity is good embodiment of thought.
So, In Chinese as the main body of the behavior subject, often omitted, is often said that without the main clause. But western culture is different, which emphasizes the opposition of subject and object. In the embodiment of the language is what is called a subject-predicate two points. In addition to the imperative sentence, every English sentence should have a subject, or the sentence is incomplete. In the english-Chinese translation, therefore, for many Chinese sentences we need to according to the specific context for them to add the subject. There are an example of it: “眼看天就要下雨，又没有带雨伞，都很关着急，真不知该去哪里。 It is raining; we do not have no umbrella with us. We are all worried about it, because we do not know where to go at the moment ”.
We can see that the original words of description is not a word which can be made as the subject. But here, according to the context and context of the specific environment, when we translated into English, adding “ it “ and “ we “ as different clauses of the subject, so it make the state of the person’s mind be in harmony with the environment at the time, and totally reached the realm of "harmony between man and nature". After added the subject, which is in conformity with the English sentence --it must have a subject requirements. Also, it is in line with the European and American culture known as the separation of the subjective and the objective mode of thinking. The whole structure of the target language is complete and distinct.
2.5 Geographical environment
As we all known, England is an island country, more than one thousand kilometers from south to north and 500 kilometers from east to west. Its coastline runs about ten thousand kilometers, making it one of the countries with a long coastline in the world. In Britain no place is over kilometers away from the sea. British people are sensitive to privacy and they do not like to talk of personal affairs such as money, wage, age, or wealth, but they are fond of discussing the weather. Sometimes they even argue heatedly over what the weather is going to be like. Perhaps it is nothing more than a habit.
The weather in England is changeable, even the weather is raining at most times. Britain has a maritime climate and changeable weather. So the people in England have special feelings about the weather and then they want to talk the weather when they meet each other. There are some examples: “a lovely day. Is not it ?” “What is the weather like today?” and so on. This is the common phrase they use when they meet. And England is a typical maritime nation. So there are a lot of idioms and phrase about the ocean. While the land of China is interior. The resource of culture have relation with the farmland and the Chinese have a special feeling with the land. For example: we can express spend money very quickly and without limited. In English, we can say “spend money like water”. And in Chinese, we can say “挥金如土”.
2.6 Geographical environment
Geographical environment has great influence on climate. At the same time, geographical environment have great influence on the the language or clause used by the local people. For example: in Chinese culture, "dong feng" is "spring wind", summer often and intense heat relates in together, hot "scorching sun" is often used to describe the summer. And British in the western hemisphere, north temperate zone, oceanic climate, report message but is west wind in spring, a famous poet Shelley's "ode to west wind" is the song of spring. The British summer is a pleasant season, commonly used "lovely, gentle, beautiful" to describe.
PART THREE THE RELATION BETWEEN CULTURE AND TRANSLATION
Different nationalities in greeting, appellation, thanks, compliments, apologies, farewell, phone calls etc are different. Customs is with corresponding national characteristics. As Chinese people meet each other , they often say "hello" to each other or "where are you going?" , "what do you do?" or "have a meal?" and so on. In Chinese culture, these words do not have any meaning. these words is just a courtesy meet, a way of greeting. For westerners, however, it is sensitive to this kind of problem. Because in their view, it is a purely private matter, which can't be casually asked. Meet greeting, like that in the western world should do according to the specific circumstances corresponding culture conversion, convert in English idioms, such as "Hi!" , "Good morning" or "How are you?.
In terms of title, and allegations of a concepts in different languages have different application scopes. This is also decided by beauty, such as different cultural background. Because Chinese pay attention to the concept of family and the system of family is very big, so the system becomes more developed to distinguish different relations between family members. Like “sister”, “brother” and “sister” and “brother”, they are distinguished clearly between the lines. In western countries because of focus on so-called nuclear family, so family members is not too much and appellation vocabulary is not rich. Sister and brother in English can be respectively used to say sister and brother and sister and brother. So many Chinese feel they don't understand about this appellation very much. In many cases, the translation of this kind of text must be quoted so as not to cause misunderstanding. Also Cousins is also not the same in both English and Chinese kinship terms, all require that we should be careful in Chinese and foreign communication, so that communication can be re-scheduled accordingly.
To sum up, a kind of language is the product of this kind of specific culture. In cross-cultural communication, the "cultural conflict" (culture shock) phenomenon is inevitable. However, if you want to overcome these conflicts , it may be very difficult in a short time. Because taking a language from the surface meaning to all of the ingredients in the symbolic meaning by translation all accurate expression is almost impossible. Translation of translatability is restricted by many factors, like differences in people's thinking, the different culture and regional culture differences and so on. In the process of translation, therefore, how to deal with the cultural factors becomes the translator is very important task. As a responsible for the translator, the translator should be able to accurately grasp the cultural meanings of the original, if necessary, to the original because of the cultural background in translation properly, for easy to make readers misunderstanding in the alien culture concept to make the necessary clarification, which can help the readers across the cultural divide, to achieve the best understanding.
CONSLUSIONS
All in all, any translation can not be separated from culture. Culture is a complex collection of experiences, which includes history, social structure, religion,traditional customs and everyday usage. This is difficult to comprehend completely. Especially in relation to a target language, one important question is whether the translation will have any readership at all, as the specific reality being portrayed is not quite familiar to the reader. Whether the translator can express the original meaning or not depends on his understanding of the relevant culture to a great extent. For a translator, it is impossible for him to do so if he does not possess the knowledge of the two cultures. Cultural transfer requires a multi - pronged approach. It is concerned with the author’s relationship to his subject matter and with the author’s relationship to his reader. These should be reflected in a good translation. The translator has to transmit this special cultural quality from one language to another. So we should pay much attention to the relationship between culture and translation when we are doing translation.
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