Equivalence And Non-equivalence In Culture-Loaded Words Translation

Language as a part of culture is not only the expression of culture but also a kind of social and cultural phenomenon. In this sense translation is the bridge linking two languages as well as two cultures. Nida and Reyburn (1981: 2) said, " In fact, difficulties arising out of differences of culture constitute the most serious problems for translators and produce the most far-reaching misunderstandings among readers" . Ten-year' s continuous translation practice convinces the author that the difficulty of translation lies not in the translation of language codes but the transfer of the cultural connotation in the languages. Culture-loaded words often cause most troubles in translation. Literal meaning is often affected by cultural presupposition, and in consequence causes mistakes without the translator' s conscious awareness."Equivalence" is important in the development of translation theory. Many famous translation theorists have put forward their special ideas on "equivalence" such as Nida, Reiss and Wilss. The translation theories may develop and translation criteria may diversify, but the translators are always seeking a kind of equivalence between the SL and the TL during their translation process. Complete equivalence may be only a beautiful ideal, but translated works as the approximation of the original are readily obtainable in most cases.In culture-loaded words translation, the translators should try to seek for cultural equivalence. Cultural equivalence can arouse similarresponse from the TL readers without losing the cultural color of the SL. It requires the translators to have ample knowledge of both the SL culture and the TL culture. "Functional equivalence" and "cultural equivalence" both emphasize on the function of translation, but cultural equivalence lays stress on retaining the cultural color of the SC.At the same time, the translators should bear in mind that complete equivalence of culture-loaded words between two languages is rare, and most culture-loaded words don' t have an equivalent in the target language. It' s the duty of the translators to make up the non-equivalence by employing some strategies (discussed thoroughly in the paper) in order to realize smooth trans-cultural communication between two languages and two cultures.This paper is divided into six parts inclusive of the introduction and conclusion.In the introduction the author mainly explains the reasons and aims of writing this paper.Chapter one gives a brief account of the definitions of culture, connotation, culture-loaded words, the classification of culture-loaded words, and the different opinions held by native and foreign scholars. The latter portion of this chapter lists some typical culture-loaded English words.Chapter two expounds on the definition of cultural equivalence and why it is the ideal criterion for culture-loaded words translation. Cultural equivalence in verbal rank is discussed from three layers, namely thesemiotic level, the pragmatic level and the semantic level. This chapter then analyzes some cultural differences in culture-loaded words such as non-equivalence, conceptual grouping of words, association-derivation of words, and cultural background.Chapter three discusses briefly the clashing models to handle and manipulate these cultural non-equivalences in translation, namely the block model, the modulation model, the go-ahead model and the integrating model.Chapter four introduces the strategies adopted by Peter Newmark, Fulei and put forward some useful strategies usually used by the writer of this paper.The conclusion sums up the whole paper and addresses its limitations.