An Adaptation Approach To Cultural Mistranslation

"Fidelity to the original" has always been seen as the primary p(?)ciple and criterion in most translation theories, old or new, at home or abroad However, absolute fidelity is impossible. Mistranslation unavoidably penetrates huan being's translation activity through all eras. Mistranslations, especially thos(?)related to cultural factors, reflect vividly the collisions and distortions of the two laguages and cultures and studies on mistranslation contribute greatly to the pmotion of communication and understanding of different cultures. So exploration of cultural mistranslation is of profound significance to translation practice (?)d cultural exchange.This thesis revisits cultural mistranslation from a pragmatic pepective of adaptation, which is recently developed by Jef Verschueren. On t(?) basis of Verschueren's Theory of Adaptation, the thesis sets up a pragmatictheoretical framework for the investigation of cultural mistranslation. As proved in th thesis, the three properties of language and the four angles of pragmatic investigati(?) advanced by Verschueren can explain many translational phenomena a(?) promote understanding of the current principles and strategies in translation practie. Inspired by Verschueren, the researcher proposes that translation is a dynamicprocess of making adaptation with regard to linguistic structure and context at varios levels of salience.On the basis of the above pragmatic investigation of translation, thelissertation applies the same to cultural mistranslation, a particular phenomenon inranslation. The present study holds that cultural mistranslation is a process d linguistic adaptation for the purpose of cross-cultural communication or comunication between different cultures. We sort the objects of adaptation into twoategories: linguistic and extra-linguistic motivations. Hence, we deem th cultural mistranslation is the result of the translator's adaptation to the linguisti(?)as well as extra-linguistic parameters in translation.Investigation of cultural mistranslation from the perspective of a(?)tation hassignificant implications for the making of cultural mistranslation in literary translation. Firstly, it develops a theoretical framework of translation that integrates the cognitive, social and cultural elements functioning in the process of specific instance of translation into the analysis and provides the feasibility of cultural mistranslation in various types of discourses. Secondly, it could enable us to attain a deeper and extensive understanding of the situation and the nature of cultural translation in the process of cross-cultural communication. Thirdly, it reconstructs the situation translators found themselves in when they translated certain texts.