Font Size: a A A

A Study Of The English Translation Of Culturally-loaded Words And Expressions In Gladys Yang's Translated Works

Posted on:2005-06-25Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:C LuFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360125465162Subject:English Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Cultural transference has attracted increasing attention in the translation field with the development of economy and cultural exchanges. The close relationship between culture and language determines the relationship between language and culture. Cultures have general characters or similarities to some extent, because people undergo some common experiences even in different cultural environments, which make translation possible. However, we have to admit that there really exist the specific characteristics, which bring about the true translation barrier and make accuracy in translation all the more different. Language peculiarities refer to the uniqueness that a language possesses, that is to say, there are no equivalents or identities in the other language. Such words and expressions are called "culturally-loaded words and expressions".China has brilliant culture with a long history. The words and expressions which reflect its unique culture are countless. How to introduce Chinese culture and translate its culturally-loaded words and expressions in literary works has been an important issue concerned by translators. For decades, the Yangs have spared no effort to translate a great many classics of Chinese literature ranging from pre-Qin essays to contemporary Chinese literary works. Their translated works, enjoying a high reputation in the world, have been researched by many scholars. After 1980s, Gladys Yang had translated by herself a lot of modern and contemporary Chinese literary works, such as Shen Congwen's The Border Town, The Husband; Gu Hua's A Small Town Called Hibiscus, Pagoda Ridge etc. Although she is not a Sinologist in the strict sense, Gladys Yang masters English and Chinese language and is familiar with these two cultures. Small wonder that her translating skills have offered a large room for us to model after in our practice. And how does she translate Chinese culturally-loaded words and expressions into English in her translated works? What translation strategies does she adopt? What are the enlightening points of her translations that we beginners of present-day in this field can learn from? This thesis attempts an initial study of the above-stated. The Chapter One briefly introduces Gladys Yang's life and her own translated works, and points out the significance of studying her translation strategies in dealing with culturally-loaded words and expressions.The Chapter Two quotes some authoritative definitions of culture, language and translation, and analyses the relationship between them, then expounds the significance of translating culturally-loaded words and expressions. Domestication and foreignization have been a debated topic in the translation field. After elaborating the two translation strategies, this thesis holds that whether the strategies employed by the translator are optimum is judged by text type, the intention of translator, readers' acceptability and the criterion of translation. Gladys Yang takes these factors into consideration as a whole when translating.The Chapter Three gives a brief account of Gladys Yang's major translated works and points out that most of the Chinese culturally-loaded words and expressions in these literary works mainly involves ethics, outlook on life(world outlook), means of existence and so on, but scarcely touch upon technology culture(e.g. automobile culture, hi-tech culture). To reveal Gladys Yang's strategies for translating, this thesis has categorized culturally-loaded words and expressions in her translations into four groups. Then it applies translation theories to analyzing these strategies and their effects.The last chapter concludes: firstly, to faithfully introduce Chinese culture, the translator mainly adopts literal translation to render culturally-loaded words and expressions without too many explanations or notes. For those words and expressions with partial correspondence in meaning between SL and TL, she employs literal translation with proper explanation or plus notes. As to words and expressions with non...
Keywords/Search Tags:Gladys Yang, culturally-loaded words and expressions, literary works, denotative cultural information, connotative cultural information
PDF Full Text Request
Related items