Study Of Cultural Default In Translation

Cultural default refers to the absence of the cultural background knowledge shared by an author and his intended readers. As a matter of fact, the author always leaves many semantic vacancies in his writing for economy's sake. On the other hand, he creates opportunities for intended readers to actively participate and appreciate the aesthetic value in his work. On the reader's part, the relevant cultural background knowledge is activated to fill in the vacancies left by the author. As for the target readers of translation, they are not the intended readers of the original writer. So they can not obtain coherent understanding. In this case, cultural default is regarded as a great challenge to translators.This paper presents a systematic study of cultural default, which begins with a complete analysis of its functions, followed by a discussion on various kinds of problems caused by cultural default, and on the basis of which, several factors contributing to these problems are concluded. To solve these problems mentioned above, the author argues that a translator must take a proper attitude toward the cultural function of translation and must be an expert, both bilingual and bicultural. Based on what is discussed above, the author, through the application of the Relevance Theory, creatively formulates a theoretical model for the translation of cultural default, and definitely proposes a dynamic and progressive viewpoint in translating cultural default. Furthermore, the author divides the translation of cultural default into three steps, namely, cultural transplantation, cultural annotation and cultural omission, which, in a dynamic process, should follow the procedure from cultural omission to cultural annotation and then to cultural transplantation.Outline in each chapter is as follows:Chapter One begins with a discussion on relations between language, culture and translation, and then presents the purpose and significance of this research.Chapter Two, the author attempts to make a systematic analysis of cultural default, including its definition, classification and its specific functions. Then great attention is paid to the textual coherence, pragmatic values and aesthetic values of cultural default.Chapter Three lists various kinds of problems in translation caused by cultural default, from which the author concludes: problems are the undertranslation or overtranslation resulting from the translator's incompetence in evaluating the target reader's receptive abilities, and the mistranslation caused by cultural presupposition. To solve these problems, translators must be an expert, both bilingual and bicultural.