A Study On Culturally-loaded Lexemes And Their Translation Approaches

As the cultural turn for translation, cultural barriers in translation have drawn an increasing attention of translators. Nida points out that most of the translation errors occur not from the patterns of the complex grammar but from misunderstanding of the source culture. When a translator translates from one language into another, equivalence at word level is the first element to be taken into consideration by him/her. The most important part is usually the rendition of culturally-loaded lexemes. This thesis tries to study culturally-loaded lexemes and their translation approaches. It consists of four chapters.Chapter one clarifies the relationship between culture and translation first, then concentrates on the concerning theories: relative translatability of culture, semantic translation, communicative translation, domestication and foreignization. According to whether the approach takes the orientation of target language (TL) culture or source language (SL) culture, there are two approaches involved in translating culturally-loaded lexemes, that is, adaptation and alienation. Chapter two defines the culturally-loaded lexemes. They are direct or indirect reflection of national culture in the structure of lexemes. In this thesis, culturally-loaded lexemes are classified from the angle of semantics: (1) lexemes with same conceptual meaning and same associative meaning; (2) lexemes with same conceptual meaning and partially same associative meaning; (3) lexemes with same conceptual meaning but different associative meaning; (4) lexemes with same conceptual meaning and associative meaning which is rich in one language but vacant in another language; (5) lexemes unique to one language.Chapter three analyzes the difficulties in the translation of culturally-loaded lexemes. They are linguistic difference, different modes of thinking and life experiences.Chapter four serves as the main body of the thesis. First, general principle and process of translating culturally-loaded lexemes are introduced. Secondly, the adaptation approach and alienation approach are put forward respectively. Finally, the specific translation methods are discussed in different situations with appropriate examples. On the premise of relative translatability of culture, this thesis summarizes four types of relationships between Chinese and English culturally-loaded lexemes: lexical coincidence, lexically same connotation, lexical gap and lexical conflict. Accurate understanding and proper translation are the key to breaking-through of the barriers between Chinese and English culturally-loaded lexemes.