Functions Of Translation: From The Perspective Of Intercultural Communication

Translation takes place not only between different languages but also betweendifferent cultures. As one of the most important means for human communication, it ismore a cultural action or cultural exchange than simply a linguistic transformation fromone language into another. Communication concurred with human culture and it promotedcultural development and change, whereas in intercultural communication, translationbridges languages and cultural barriers. It is no exaggeration to say that without translationthere would be no cross-linguistic and intercultural communication between differentlanguages, let alone rapid progress of human society. Throughout the world history,translation plays a unique and profound role in human civilization: whose function can beproved either in the rise of European Renaissance or in the wide spread of Buddhism fromancient India to East Asia, or in the inflow of the Western learning to China in late Mingand early Qing Dynasty.Given an overview of the chief proponents as well as the features of translating andtranslation theories, the school or theory of Translation Studies comes to the front. Itintegrates translation studies with culture to realize "cultural turn" in translation studies andfurther proposes a "translation turn" in cultural studies, the purpose of which is to puttranslation in a social context to study its socio-cultural functions. With the cultural turn,translation studies have gone beyond language texts and focused on the interactedrelationship between translation and culture, particularly in the way that culture constrainstranslation and translation or translating exerts more or less influence on the society andculture of the target language. From the perspective of intercultural communication, thisdissertation, focusing on interrelationship between translation and culture, adopts culturalparadigm of translation studies to perform a study with authentic proof on socio-culturalfunctions premised on Skopos Theory. Or in other words, translation is placed in theintercultural context so as to exploit the roles of translating and translated works in thetarget culture from a macro, dynamic and external view.In the light of the logical arrangement of the structure: literature review, theoryelaboration, theme statement, empirical study and sense-oriented analysis, this dissertation covers content as follows:Chapter One reviews the literature of translation studies at home and abroad,introduces the work done on the socio-cultural functions of translation, and analyzes thehistorical background, internal reasons, philosophical basis, and methodology of culturalturn proposed by the theory of Translation Studies, from which a conclusion has beendrawn that cultural turn is an inevitable trend in the evolution of translation studies.Currently, we are confronted with another important study topic—translation turn inCulture Studies. It studies, in intercultural communication, what role that translation plays,in the development of history and culture of the target language, including how it worksand what effects it will produce. Thus emphasis should be focused on translation turn inCulture Studies as well as on cultural turn in Translation Studies.Chapter Two makes a survey of intercultural communication—a new perspective forTranslation Studies, including some main concepts, basic principles and its functions ofintercultural communication. Intercultural communication originates from communicationstudies, thus the main thread in this part is the transformation from communication modeand its function to those of intercultural communication: from5W mode of HaroldLasswell (who, what, to whom, in which channel, with what effect) to7elements ofBradlock (adding "in what circumstance" and "for what purpose" on the basis of5W). Astranslation is a special cultural transmission activity, this dissertation adds another newelement：what kind of communication mode. For one thing, it establishes a perfectcommunication mode or process in intercultural communication; for another, it gives riseto the key research topic discussed in the later part—translation, or more specifically,translation functions from the perspective of intercultural communication.Chapter Three probes translation from the perspective of intercultural communicationwith a different interpretation of translation at début. Previously, scholars mainly maderesearch on literature translation, but this dissertation expands its domain to culture, anall-inclusive concept. In this way, therefore, cultural translation involves such categories asliterature translation, sci-tech translation, institution translation, custom translation, andeven object translation; and this in turn extends the intension and extension of translation.According to the eight communication modes aforementioned, this chapter affirms theintercultural nature of translation. At last, it defines "cultural translation" and "translation culture" and considers the process from cultural translation to translation culture as therealization of the translation function from its start to the stage that generates effects, and,as a result，the communication functions of translation in the intercultural context iselucidated.Chapter Four takes Buddhism translation or translating as an example to make anempirical demonstration of the unique dissemination functions of translation. It firstlydescribes Chinese original indigenous culture before Buddhism spread into China to set abackground for contrast to the later socio-cultural situation influenced by the translationeffect. Then the role of translation is exploited in Chinese history and cultural changes tohighlight the impacts of translation in intercultural communication, human civilization andsocial progress by descriptive and empirical analysis. It is in some way so overstated thatsome may take it as "pan translation" or "only translation". The author is attempting toreveal the historical and socio-cultural function of translation in a tune of hypercorrectionso that the whole society will attach more importance to translation and translators as asocial drive to facilitate China’s translation progress. Ultimately, translation culture inChina will become prosperous in the foreseeable future.As Chapter Four is a general and theoretical study on translation functions linearlyand planarly, the main story of Chapter Five, otherwise, highlights some case studies inpoint concerned with the Chinese history of translation. Yan Fu and Lin Shu, the twoeminent figures in the Chinese translation history, employed translation to accomplishsome tasks by means of rewriting against the original under a given social milieu. WhenUncle Tom’s Cabin, the great novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an American writerwas translated and introduced into China since1901, it has been producing effects andeven changes on Chinese society and culture in different eras and in various ways. Anothercase in point is the initial introduction and dissemination of Marxism in China, which alsoowed a lot to translation. Hereupon translation’s role and its socio-cultural function areclarified by respectively incisive analysis of translators, translated works, translationstrategies, and translation of social ethos.Chapter Six, the conclusion part, demonstrates the historical and socio-culturalchanges or turns generated by translating and integrating alien culture into Chinese culturein the wake of several translation climaxes. Thereupon such concepts as "post-translation era","visible translation" and "invisible translation" are put forth, aiming to contrast it withthe era during which there is no major translated or alien culture. Only in this way will therole or impact of translation stand out. Through pros and cons, a truth has been conveyedthat during a specific period of history, translation has a closely positive or negativerelation with culture prosperity and social progress. In the context of globalization andcultural diversity, we need to highlight the translation action—the key to interculturalcommunication, and introspect some translation phenomena and dilemmas. Finally anappeal is made to call for a translation equivalence between strong or dominant culture andweak culture, and for a statistic balance on translation from foreign languages to Chinese,or vice versa.The significance of this study may be listed as follows:Firstly, the study is made from a brand new perspective, that is, by integratingintercultural communication studies with translation studies, which theoretically extendsthe domain or frontier of translation studies, and thus contributes somehow tointerdisplinary research.Secondly, from the perspective of intercultural communication, this study objectivelydescribes and analyzes all elements involved in translating, such as the trio relation amongthe author, translator, and target reader, and among translation purposes, translationstrategies, and translation effects. All the above-mentioned description and analysis unfoldthe principle, disciplinarian and function of translation, and further enrich the connotationof translation studies. It may duly turn out to be an indispensable step in the construction oftranslation studies.Furthermore，in the light of latest Western translation theory, this dissertation adoptsthe cultural paradigm created by the school of Translation Studies and Skopos Theory todiscuss the translation activities in Chinese history, which adapts the notion of servingChina with foreign stuffs to translation studies. The study itself proves the significant roleof translation in intercultural communication and its practical application.Finally, all the theoretical explanation and empirical analysis indicate that translationever played an irreplaceable role in both Oriental and Occidental history. Time will neversee the value of translation dwindle; instead, it will be constantly strengthened. Translationis, therefore, supposed to be a matter of concern and regards rather than of any neglect. In sum, translation as an important medium of intercultural communication has thesame factors and characteristics with intercultural communication. The cultural turn intranslation studies and the translation turn in cultural studies both represent a tendency, abreakthrough, and a hot topic in the present field of translation studies. This dissertation,from the perspective of intercultural communication, is an academic interpretation aboutthe indispensable function and role that translation has played so far in introducingWestern culture into Chinese culture.