On The Acceptability Of Cultural Transmission In Translation

The essence of translation determines the criterion for translation and hence the strategy for it as well. As a medium of communication, translation has been playing a vital role in cross-cultural exchange. In our age, when cultural globalization is speeding up, it seems more urgent to understand the essence of translation from the perspective of its function. Functionally speaking, translation is nothing but an intercultural communicating activity with a relatively high degree of cultural exchange; and the continual exchange between different cultures will, in turn, make it easier and more convenient for a people to communicate with others.Cultural transmission, as a strategy for translation, means to transmit as much as possible the cultural elements of the source language into the receptor language. It answers the call of time, for it fills the need of cultural exchange.Reception theory, which deals with the reader's response or reaction in the act of reading, justifies this strategy of cultural transmission in translation. This theory can be understood from two aspects. Firstly, the reception capacity potential in the reader is considerably great, perhaps much greater than we usually think. Secondly, the reader' horizon of expectations is dynamic rather than static; in other words, his changed horizon will certainly ensure for him a changed reception capacity. In thisway, the reader's reception potentiality is constantly enhanced, so that he is capable of accepting the transmitted cultural information.More and more translation practice shows that the implementation of this strategy can satisfy the reader's aesthetic need, enrich the reader's cultural knowledge, and enlarge the vocabulary of the receptor language. This also accounts for the acceptability of cultural transmission in translation.This thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One discusses the significance of cultural transmission in translation by expounding its close relationship to the essence of translation. In this part, the author of the thesis not only illustrates the importance of cultural exchange, but also analyses its inherent connection with cultural transmission in translation.Chapter Two focuses on the feasibility of this strategy. The author first gives a brief introduction to reception theory, then demonstrates different manifestations of cultural transmission in translation, and finally discusses the feasibility of this strategy through reception theory, and universal human experience and language universals as well.Chapter Three makes a detailed analysis of the specific values brought about by the adoption of cultural transmission in translation.