On Translating Chinese Culture-loaded Words Into English In Light Of The Theory Of Adaptation To Cultural Context

With the promoting of China's international status, more and more foreigners have great interests in learning Chinese traditional culture. Studies on the translation of Chinese traditional classics into English can help improve the influence of the Chinese traditional culture in the world. However, the wide gap between Chinese and the western culture produces great difficulties in translations. And this is obviously shown in translations on the lexical level, i.e. the translation of culture-loaded words.In the classic of Fu Sheng Liu Ji, there are a large number of culture-loaded words concerning every aspect of life. They reflect the characteristics of Chinese traditional culture as well as casue much hardship in cross-cultural communication and the translations from Chinese to English. Thus, research on the translation of these culture-loaded words is of great practical significance. So, the author of this thesis adopts Verschueren's Adaptation Theory as the guidance, uses the English versions by Lin Yutang, Leonard Pratt and Chiang Suhui respectively as the case study, with the assistance of the mini-database and the mothedology of the combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, from the perspective of the Theory of Adaptation to Cultural Context.Within the framework of the Adaptation Theory, translation is also a choice-making process, which includes the choice on the source text, the information the translator intends to convey and the translation strategies and methods. The author focuses on the choice of translation strategies and methods when translating culture-loaded words. The author holds that in the stage of interpreting, the translator should base on the source culture to make a full and correct understanding of the source items, while in the stage of transferring, the translator should adapt to various cultural contexts to adopt proper translation strategies and methods. Specifically, if the translator can not find a counterpart in the target language at all, she/ he can adopt the methods adapted to the source language culture, i.e. transliteration and literal translation; if the translator can find a target item to a certain degree of equivalence, she/ he can use the methods adapted to the target culture, i.e. transliteration plus a generic word/ note, literal translation plus a note, free translation, paraphrase, amplification, substitution, omission and blending. But the acceptance and requirements of the target reader should always be taken into consideration since they are an important role in translation activities. Besides, other factors such as the translator's quality, the assessment on the target reader's cultural background also influence the translator's choice on translation methods.Based on the analysis of the database, the author finds that both versions give priority to the target culture. Although transliteration and literal translation are frequently used, the methods adapted to the target culture are used more widely. In a word, the translation strategies and methods adopted to convey Chinese traditional culture provide a good reference for translators.