Approaches Of Cultural Translation From The Comparison Of Chinese And English Kinship Terms

Translation is an activity involving usually two languages and two national cultures. Conditioned by the strikingly multiplied dimensions of the worldwide cultural exchanges in recent years, the focus of contemporary translation studies has gradually shifted to the culture-related contemplation on translation practice. So the cultural translations are given more attentions now.English and Chinese languages are different not only at the linguistic level but also at the cultural level. Without the awareness, translators are liable to fall into the "cultural traps" in translation. And since the kinship terms, as a part of language, are culture-loaded to a certain degree, we will focus on the translation of the kinship terms, especially from Chinese to English. I am to concentrate my attention to the translation of kinship terms from Chinese to English because I think such a kind of translation is typical of cultural alienation with its plenty of cultural expressions.In the field of translation there exist two approaches towards dealing with the cultural differences between the source language and the target language, that is, the approaches of domestication and foreignization. These two approaches are inseparable and complementary to each other. Generally speaking, in a particular translation, domestication and foreignization are adopted alternately. Neither of them can be used exclusively.For the purpose of cultural appreciation and introduction, preference should be mostly given to foreignization. We should try our best to apply foreignization first, but turn to domestication only when the former has proved to be impossible.Here I cite the kinship terms in the Chinese masterpiece A Dream of Red Mansions as the major examples. Based on the brief knowledge about kinship terms and its historical research, we try to find the best way to the cultural translation.The thesis consists of six parts:The first part serves as the introduction to the whole thesis, and discusses the significance of translating the kinship terms in the cultural communications. Then in the translation practice, for introducing our Chinese culture to the world, it is a general tendency to apply the approach "foreignization" first, while "domestication" is an auxiliary way, with the faithfulness as the basic standard of translation. Specifically, with citation from the masterpiece "A Dream of Red Mansion" as the major examples, cultural factors and implications of kinship terms and also their translation with the two approaches are analyzed.Chapter one gives a general introduction about the kinship terms. And by involving its historical research, it shows that the studies of kinship terms are not new and really significant to the cultural communication.Chapter two compares the English kinship terms and Chinese kinship terms, and then analyzes its different cultural background. The detailed discussion about the vocatives and designatives and also its extension of the kinship terms was the further indication to this difference between the kinship terms in two language cultures.Chapter three discusses the prevailing views of the two approaches in translation "foreignization" and "domestication". And since these two are closely related to the cultural factors, the relationship of language, culture and translation comes first.Chapter four involves the translation of the Chinese kinship terms by applying the two translation approaches, with the citation from the Chinese classic "A Dream of Red Mansion" as the examples.In the conclusion part, the paper comes to an idea that translators should try their best to adopt foreignization primarily and domestication secondarily in an appropriate, reasonable and scientific way for introduction of Chinese cultures to the outside world.