On Interpretation Of Culturally-loaded Lexemes In The Light Of Cultural Translation Theory

Translation is the centuries-old cultural and communicative activity. While it can never depart from transference of the language, translation is not only the simple transference, for the language reflects the culture and meanwhile is restricted by the culture. Therefore, to be successful in transferring, two things are necessary---mastering the language and being familiar with the cultures that represent the two languages. Translation studies are as-a-matter-of-fact the cultural reciprocal study. Since the publication of Translation, History, and Culture written by Susan Bassnett and AndréLefevere in 1990, they first formally put forward that translation studies should take"cultural turn", which marked a shift of emphasis.The novel Moment in Peking is an English work written by a Chinese writer Dr. Lin Yutang. Because of this particularity of selecting material, the version itself might be seen as translation. This paper, based on the cultural translation theory of Susan Bassnett, the representative of cultural school, chiefly attempts to probe into the following problems through an analysis of interpretation of culturally-loaded lexemes in Moment in Peking. It is the national culture stereotype that has determined Lin Yutang's choice of SL, as well as his translation strategies; the interpretation of culturally-loaded lexemes should adopt various translation strategies in order to accomplish accurate transculturation. With the reference of concrete data analysis, the following conclusion can be reached: the culturally-loaded lexemes in Moment in Peking are represented in the national cultural stereotype expressed specifically by thinking and behavioral stereotype. The accuracy of its interpretation will directly affect the quality of translation. Analysis shows that the interpretation of culturally-loaded lexemes could be conducted with Susan Bassnett's cultural translation theory as a guideline.This thesis consists of six chapters included in this thesis: Chapter one is an introduction. Chapter two pertains to a previous research related to cultural translation theory, introducing cultural translation theory with an analysis of the relationship among language, culture and translation, and also specifies the contents of Susan Bassentt's cultural translation theory, which is the guidance for analyzing the interpretation of culturally-loaded lexemes. Chapter three presents reasons why the author takes the culturally-loaded lexemes as the focus for analysis. Chapter four is an introduction to Lin Yutang's life and his novel Moment in Peking. Chapter five is a case study made of three parts: firstly illustrating at an explanation that provided for the flexible adoption of interpretation of culturally-loaded lexemes in Moment in Peking, and then making detailed comment on translation strategies adopted in the novel in the light of the cultural translation theory; finally analyzing the gains and losses of translation in Moment in Peking. Chapter six is the conclusion in which some suggestions are made for the further research in this field.To sum up, in the study of cultural turn, translation process is closely related to the cultural interpretation. And as long as those strategies are adopted by different translators within different social cultures and as long as a translator can apply them in rendering the definite concrete text, the textual interpretation can be translated into a better version. In this regard, Lin Yutang's Moment in Peking could be considered to be a successful translation in spite of some flaws. Thus the possibility and applicability is further verified.