On The Translation Of Appellations From The Perspective Of Cultural Differences

Language and culture are closely intertwined. As Malinowski puts it,"Language is essentially rooted in the reality of the culture […] it cannot be explained without constant reference to these broader contexts of verbal utterance"(Malinowski 305). Therefore, translation activities, which span two languages, unavoidably involve two cultures.Culture is"that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society"(qtd. in Katan 16); language is the very medium of transmitting and preserving culture. Compared with UK and US, the two major English-speaking countries, China has experienced a much longer feudalist society and it is blessed with a kinship system different from that of UK and US. Due to these factors, in Chinese kinship systems more emphases have been placed on the distinctions between seniority and juniority, between patriarchal and non-patriarchal clans, and between blood relations and relations by marriage. In terms of names, the English and American people value their given names more than the surnames, while the Chinese attach more importance to their surnames. Concerning cultural patterns, the Chinese stress collectivism, while the English and American people, especially the latter, stress individualism; moreover, China is a higher-power-distance country compared with UK and US. These differences in names and cultural patterns, plus those in politeness strategies, are the root causes of the different non-kinship appellations in Chinese and English languages.Appellations are words that people have acquired owing to their kinship and other relationships and not all appellations can be used as face-to-face address terms. Appellations are generally divided into kinship and non-kinship appellations. Most appellations are comparatively stable, but they do change slowly with the passage of time and vary with the speakers'geographical positions, ages and status. Chinese and English kinship appellations are similar in their basic terms, but the Chinese make much clearer distinctions in the above-mentioned aspects. Moreover, many Chinese kinship appellations can be extended to address non-relatives, which is rare in English. With respect to non-kinship appellations, there are general appellations like tongzhi, shifu, xiansheng, nushi, xiaojie, taitai etc. in Chinese and Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms in English; the Chinese prefer to adopt professional titles, such as the names of their professions, positions, academic titles, and official positions, as address terms, while the English people only use a small proportion of them. For those with titles of peerage, however, English and American people generally address them with their peerages. Besides, there are similar characteristics appellations in the two languages and in terms of appellations of names, the English and American people separately use their given names more frequently than most Chinese would do.The traditional translation studies focus on the equivalence of the target text to the original text, while more attention has been paid to the cultural elements in translation in the modern translation studies. The translator's role, as defined by Basil Hatim and Ian Mason, is broadened to a"cultural mediator". Moreover, translation is always influenced by the translator's purpose, text type, target reader etc. Therefore, the translator may decide how he/she will transfer the cultural differences into the target language when translating such culture-bound elements as appellations. Domestication and foreignization are two main strategies adopted in translating appellations; this selection largely depends on the translator's emphasis. The actual methods in translating appellations include literal translation, substitution, paraphrasing and annotation etc..In brief, only in taking cultural differences into account and adopting a comprehensive view toward translation activities can a translator avoid making mistakes and achieve successful communication when translating appellations as a cultural mediator who spans two languages and two cultures.