On Transmission Of Cultural Images In Translation

Language and culture are interactive and interdependent. It is no exaggeration to say that language is the foundation of culture and culture is the track along which language forms and develops. As a means of communication, translation plays an important role in cross-cultural exchange. However, the cultural difference has posed untold difficulties to translation. The conflict between different cultural concepts and cultural backgrounds may hamper or even discontinue communication.On the broad horizon of globalization, more and more translators have developed their cultural awareness, tending to explore the translation study in the context of Chinese-Western comparative culture studies. However, it must be pointed out that the translation circle has put much more emphasis on cultural content, and ignored the cultural form, which, in fact, has the same importance as content. In view of this, the author of the present thesis raises the issue of how to transmit cultural images in translation.A cultural image is a kind of cultural symbol, including both the superficial form and the deep cultural content. Both the image form and the image content are worth studying, but the clash of images between the two languages often makes it difficult to keep both the form and the content in translating, and sometimes loss and distortion of the original image is inevitable. Therefore, it is essential to find suitable ways to transmit cultural images. This thesis discusses the categorization of 'images and the cultural elements that cause the image differences, and puts forward some tentative methods in dealing with cultural images.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One chiefly expatiates on some basic concepts such as culture, cultural schema, cultural image, and the cultural images are roughly classed into five categories with reference to Nida's categorization of culture.Chapter Two discusses the differences in cultural images, which are observed from two perspectives: the cultural elements that cause the differences in culturalimages, and the image differences in English and Chinese metaphorical phrases. These differences may cause some problems in image transmission.Chapter Three is devoted to the necessity of conveying the cultural images to the largest possible extent. Since the purpose of translation is to promote cross-cultural communication, translators should try their best to convey cultural information as much as possible.Chapter Four dwells on the principles and the general approaches to translating cultural information. Those who are target-language oriented is likely to choose the domestication approach, favoring the content equivalence, and those who are source-language oriented may prefer foreignization, tending to keep the original image.Chapter Five provides some specific methods in dealing with cultural images. In image transmission, it is best to keep both the form and the content so as to achieve the purpose of translation. So the priority is given to the method of keeping the original images. This chapter also discusses the importance of correct understanding and appreciation and the cultural factors which will influence the translator's choices of methods.It is hard to say which method is the best. In translation one should adopt a flexible and practical attitude, and choose the translating method according to the actual situation, not adhering to a single approach or method. Only in this way can the conveyed image be satisfying to the target language readers.It is hoped that this thesis will provide a basis for understanding the cultural images and for bringing about more proper ways of conveying cultural information in translation.