On The Translation Strategies Of Culture-loaded Words And Expressions In Selected Chinese Stories Of The Song And Ming Dynasties

With frequent increasing of cross-cultural communication, translation research hasalready transferred from the perspective of pure language to the perspective of culture.Translation has been widely perceived as cultural communication. With the furtherdevelopment of translation studies and cultural studies, cultural translation has drawnuniversal attentions by scholars both at home and abroad, especially embodied in thetranslation of Chinese literature. When translators reproduce Chinese splendid culture totarget language readers, one of the most difficult obstacles they meet is the translation ofculture-loaded words and expressions. Culture-loaded Words and Expressions are languageembodiments of national culture with distinctive feature. They are one of symbols ofnational culture. But the translation of culture-loaded words and expressions hinders targetreaders to understand and enjoy the original test. The translation of culture-loaded wordsand expressions is the key and difficult point. And the success or failure of the literarytranslation is greatly related with translation of such culture-loaded words. If theculture-loaded words are improper handled, the rich cultural connotation in Chineseliterature could not transmitted to foreign readers who are eager to know China andChinese culture, leaving a lot of confusion and regret.This thesis analyzes the translation strategies and methods Professor Yang used whenhe translated culture-loaded words and expressions existing in the book Selected ChineseStories of the Song and Ming Dynasties. From the perspective of culture, guided by theconcept of cultural translation theory, with well consideration of macroscopic historyenvironment, society setting and the features of speakers etc, this thesis analyzes thetranslation strategies and methods Professor Yang used in this English version. This thesisaims to provide the later translators a more scientific perspective and the specifictranslation strategies and methods on translation of culture-loaded words and expressionsin the Chinese literature.Professor Yang who is a celebrated translator in China, chose faithfulness as a leadingprinciple when he translated the book Selected Chinese Stories of the Song and MingDynasties. He has shown preference for domestication instead of foreignization, adopting more literature translation than free translation. To deal with Chinese characteristic culturalfactors and Chinese unique expressions, Professor Yang mostly chose methods maintainingChinese original information. From detailed analyses of culture-loaded words andexpressions in the English version of Selected Chinese Stories of the Song and MingDynasties, the author has drawn a conclusion as following. For the large proportion ofculture-loaded words and expressions in this English version, translators adopted literaltranslation, faithfully expressed its denotative meaning and connotative meaning to theforeign readers. For some unique words containing its special history or abstract meanings,the translator adopted literal translation plus note. For vocabulary vacancy, the translatorused free translation. At last, the translator used simplification, amplification and omissionto deal with the rest special words or words in special text setting.In conclusion, translator could choose a wise and appropriate translation strategy afterconsideration of these factors: the types and the purpose of the certain text, the translator’sown understanding ability, TL readers’ receiving capacity and bearing capacity and otheruncertain factors. Translators need to combine domestication and foreignization. It isunscientific and one-sided if one praises extremely high of domestication or foreignization.