Word Translationg In The Bible From The Perspective Of Socio-Semiotics

The Bible, one of the most influential works in the world, as a cultural and religious classic, has exerted profound and far reaching influence on the Western society. It is a great text of literature with a long history. It is not only abundant in content but also in cultural connotations and historical background. Today The Bible has been translated into over 2000 languages in the world in numerous versions.The words in The Bible, as the structural element of the religious and culture classic, have always been widely concerned in various translations by the translators. One of the basic factors of the success in the translation of The Bible depends upon the translation of words in The Bible. As the biblical words are abundant in cultural connotations, it has become a difficult problem for the translator to transfer the culturally-loaded information. Because of the cultural difference between Chinese and English, cultural connotations involved in them have become a difficult problem. Since there hasn't been any systematic study on the translation of biblical words, this thesis attempts to discuss the biblical words from the perspective of socio-semiotics.According to socio-semiotics, translation is a kind of transformation between two sign systems, which take place in the different social-cultural contexts. What is correspondent with semiotics are three types of linguistic semiotic meanings, namely, linguistic meaning, referential meaning and pragmatic meaning. The process of translation includes a double coding and double decoding. Meaning and function should be considered as two indispensable factors in assessing the quality of translation. As the source language text differs from the target language text in the special cultural background, it is very difficult to achieve the complete and absolute equivalence in the three kinds of meanings between them. And furthermore, the translators should take the various non-linguistic sign system into consideration. In all, translation is translating meaning, while the purpose of translating is simultaneously to convey the three kinds of meaning above mentioned. Therefore virtually, translating is the communication between cultures. Socio-semiotic translation method can help the translator reproduce the meanings and functions at various levels, thus achieving correspondence in meaning and similarity in function.In the view of socio-semiotics, this thesis reviews the history of biblical translation both in the Western countries and China, analyzes the rules and theories of these various translations and attempts to discuss the three kinds of meanings about them due to the vast differences between the Chinese and English cultures, and their non-equivalence in translation, thus summarizing some operational techniques of translation.In the light of the socio-semiotics, the translation of the biblical words has undoubtedly provided the translator with a much wider scope, which enables the translators to solve the problem in the translation of The Bible, thus promoting the cultural communication between Chinese and English.