On Cultural Connotation And Translation Of Addressing Terms

Addressing terms are the ties of daily communication. Throughout human history people have sought to identify themselves and others in social contexts. The identification is established, in part, through the act of naming. Speech communication always functions to regulate behavior. The initial acquisition of speech communication automatically limits and thus regulates our range of linguistic and thus behavioral options. Each language, manifested in speech communication, organizes experience differently. As a vehicle of culture, addressing terms can reflect not only the traditional culture of a nation but also the attitude and emotion of the speakers.The functions, the features and the meanings of addressing terms have been studied and the influence of Chinese culture-Chinese cultural orientation, Chinese social structure and Chinese axiology - on Chinese addressing forms and that of western culture on English addressing forms are analyzed in this essay. On the basis of above analysis, the issue of cultural conflict between SL addressing terms and TL addressing terms has been examined from the perspectives of pragmatic meaning and the specific cultural connotation and a framework of the intercultural translation of addressing terms is presented. In translating addressing terms a translator is supposed to overcome not only the language barrier, but also the cultural conflict. At present, there exist many kinds of strategies, norms and ways in translating addressing terms. Domestication and foreignization are the typical ones. While the idiomatic fluency and transparency of domestication is apt to conceal the ideological assumptions and sometimes to cause profoundly misleading, foreignization is apt to breach the idiomatic use of the addressing terms in TL, thus make the readers puzzled or misunderstood.The author believes that the conveyance of pragmatic meaning and of cultural connotation and semantic loss deserve attention to in translation of addressing terms. The translation strategy depends on different factors such as the contextual factors of the SL, the consideration of referential accuracy, the reader's acceptability and the "pragmatic economy". The value-driven nature of the social-cultural framework should also be taken into account in translating addressing terms. Translators are supposed to overcome the obstacles of both language and culture in addressing terms translation, especially the kinship terms, honorifics and self-abasing terms, whichreflect the traditional culture of a nation. An appropriate strategy ---rational and flexible strategy as the final resolution of translating addressing terms is suggested in this paper.