Cultural Default In Translating

Translation is not only a transformation process between different languages, but also an inter-cultural communication process. Cultural default is a frequent phenomenon in text translation. It is the "absence of relevant cultural background knowledge shared by the author and his/her intended reader". The defaulted elements don't appear within the context, but they can be activated in the reader's brain by particular cultural context. Cultural default is to fill in the slots by the way of the intended reader retrieving the relevant cultural information in his schema. Cultural default conforms greatly to the opinion of Aesthetics of Reception and the Principles of Pragmatic Economy. However, in the process of translation, due to the difference between the social circumstances and cultures of the SL writer and those of the TL reader, cultural default becomes an obstacle in translation. Therefore, the settlement of cultural default in translation seems to be especially important. If the translator can not treat it reasonably, translation problems, such as undertranslation, overtranslation even mistranslation, come into existence. These translation problems undoubtedly influence the TL reader's interpretation of the source text. In order to promote the TL reader's effective interpretation of the source text and help them understand the alien culture as accurate as possible, the translator must make some compensations for cultural default.Foreignization and domestication are two strategies often used by the translators in compensation. Foreignization can preserve the cultural characteristics of the source language to a much greater extent. In view of the culture-exchange function of translation, foreignization is a more popular strategy to the translators. But it doesn't mean that domestication is useless because some culture information can not be effectively compensated through foreignization. If the translator takes no account of the particular situation, single compensation strategy of foreignization is sure to cause a poor translation version. Consequently, as for the compensation for cultural information, foreignization should be placed first and domestication second. The thesis is divided into five parts.The introduction of this thesis mainly deals with the essence of translation and the interrelationship among language, culture and translation, elaborates the significance of cultural default study on translation study, and reviews the relevant translation study in cultural context. Finally it points out the significance and organization of the thesis.Chapter One mainly introduces the definition of cultural default, reviews the study of cultural default in translating, expounds its theoretical support, shows its communicative function, aesthetic function and coherent function of cultural default and analyses the cultural factors contributing to translation.Chapter Two elaborates on cultural default in light of translation. First it gives the definition of translation from the transcultural perspective, then analyses the relationship between the translator's interpretation of cultural default and translation of cultural default, analyses the challenges posed by cultural default to translation from the angle of the reader and that of the translator, points out the requirements for the translator to tackle cultural default and finally expounds culture-exchange function of translation and the compensation strategy for cultural default decided by it.Chapter Three mainly elaborates cultural default's compensation. It includes necessity and principles of compensation, compensation strategies and techniques as well as the advantages and weakness of each of them.The last part is the conclusion. It summarizes what we have investigated in the previous chapters and attempts to point out that the compensation strategy of foreignization should be given the priority from the transcultural perspective.