A Study Of Translatability And Translation Methodology Of Culturally-Loaded Words

The concept of a "culturally-loaded word"is originated by Professor Wang Dechun. It is used to refer to words with national and cultural characteristics: such words can usually be divided into three classes: unique words, common words with cultural overtones, and idioms. One of the remarkable features of such words is their uniqueness of meaning: it is impossible to find a corresponding word in other languages. Because of their peculiar national features, culturally-loaded words are those with the thickest cultural coloring in the complete lexicon of any language. The translation of culturally-loaded words has always been a difficult problem that requires novel solutions and presents the translator with a meaningful challenge. The term "cultural schema"is derived from "schema theory". A "schema"is a kind of knowledge frame stored in the human mind. It is the product of thinking and memory. A schema is evolved out of the process of understanding, analyzing and remembering new information. According to schema theory, the reason why humans can understand something is that the new information they meet with is matched against the former schemata already stored in their minds: how much they can understand depends on the degree of coincidence between the two. This paper sets out to discuss the translation of culturally-loaded words from the perspective of cultural schemata, doing so by analyzing the relationship between culturally-loaded words and cultural schemata. It argues that the essence of translating culturally-loaded words is a process of transforming the relevant cultural schemata. Whether a culturally-loaded word has been fully translated or not depends on how much of the cultural schemata involved can be conveyed effectively. Through a discussion on the features of culturally-loaded words, a comparison of the relations between cultural schema and culturally-loaded words, the paper tries to probe into the translatability of culturally-loaded words, in the hope that it would contribute to the enrichment of cultural translation and to the perfection of translation methodology of culturally-loaded words. Tentatively the author puts forward seven methods of translating culturally-loaded words. The paper falls into five chapters. The following is an outline of what is presented in each of the chapters. The first chapter is intended to give a review of the literature on "schemata theory", especially cultural schemata. At the same time, it gives a brief introduction to research in China on the concept of culturally-loaded words. Chapter two is devoted to expounding two theoretical foundations for the paper. It begins with the introduction of "schema theory", and probes into the idea of a cultural schema, clarifying its notion, traits, essence and classification. Cultural schemata are conceptual frames that enableindividuals to store perceptual and conceptual information about their culture and make interpretations of cultural experience and expressions. It is the offspring of thinking and remembering, but at the same time that of a particular national culture. Furthermore, the paper postulates a definition of a culturally-loaded word, emphasizing the difference between such a word and any common words. It seeks to clarify the type of words that should be assigned to this category. They are unique words, common words with cultural overtones, and idioms. These words share common features, namely uniqueness in meaning and national cultural traits. Chapter three discusses the relationship between cultural schemata and culturally-loaded words, both of which are products of culture, the former being abstract and the latter concrete. The relationship between them is not static but dynamic. A culturally-loaded word can stimulate different cultural schemata in different human minds. The coincidence between the new schema and the stored one decides the degree of the reader's understanding of a culturally-loaded word. To some extent, a culturally-loaded word can be thought of as a concrete manifestation of a cultural schema and a cultural schema as an abstract version of a culturally-loaded word. Because of its cultural traits, any culturally-loaded word may reflect a certain cultural schema. Cultural exchange contributes to cultural ferment, which accelerates the renewal of culturally-loaded words. Studying these new words, people will modify and enrich the cultural schemata in their minds. Contrastingculturally-loaded words in English and Chinese from the angle of cultural schemata, we may find three kinds of relations between them: coincidence, overlap and conflict. This distinction is useful for the discussion that follows. Chapter four probes into the translatability of culturally-loaded words. On the basis of the relationship between culturally-loaded words and cultural schemata, we see that a culturally-loaded word is the expression of a particular cultural schema. Translating a culturally-loaded word is a question of transforming the corresponding cultural schema. If it is possible to transform cultural schemata between two cultures, a culturally-loaded word can also be translated. Because humans have some common cultural environment, the same thinking competence and similar reactive competence, cultural schemata in different languages can be conveyed. Secondly, culturally-loaded words, as a part of human language, have linguistic and social features. Because of language and social universals, and especially because humans have learning ability, culturally-loaded words can be translated. At the same time, however, we must confess that there are limitations to translatability. Chapter five proposes seven methods of translating culturally-loaded words on the basis of the ideas discussed: transliteration, transliteration plus annotation, literal translation retaining original imagery, free translation, literal translation plus proper interpretation, substitution and interpretation.