Applications Of Susan Bassnett’s Cultural Translation Theory To Animal-Related Words Translation

The close relationship between language and culture made many researchers shift their focuses from language to culture and then translation studies entered a totally different perspective under the influence of this trend since1980s. Among these scholars,Susan Bassnett was the most outstanding one,because she put forward that translation methods should change and the translation unit should shift from discourse to culture.She also emphasized the close relationship between language and culture and presented the cultural translation theory. She believed translation was the communication between different culture and translation equivalence is the cultural functional equivalence between target language and source language.She provided a totally new perspective for translation studies which could better guide the translator’s translation activities.And animal-related words refer to the animal words,phrases and idioms.The emergence and development of animal-related words in Chinese and English are closely related to their historical backgrounds,customs and habits,religious beliefs,cultural traditions and ecological environment,etc.They come from social practice, production activities and constantly changing cultural information and reflect the cultural differences.They are cultural accumulation of working people in the long term and essences laborers create from their work.Although the animal-related words are only a small part in the long history of language cultural development, the cultural connotation that these words contain can not only transmit culture,emotions and verve of language,but also own the unique charm and expressive power that any other culture cannot be replaced.This thesis intends to study the animal-related words translation in "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" under the guidance of Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory,applying the cultural comparative methods.And we can find the cultural connotations of animal words will affect translator’s translation methods.Specifically speaking,if the animal words share the the same or similar cultural connotations in English and Chinese and can be easily understood by target language readers.And literal translation is a very effective translation method to transmit culture and can reach the cultural functional equivalence.But sometimes this situation will change when we put the animal-related words in different contexts.Therefore,we must pay attention to the particular contexts except culture.And different contexts will produce different meanings.Consequently,the translation methods have to be changed.So the issue that translation equivalence is the cultural functional equivalence between source language and target language by Susan Bassnett is very reasonable and scientific.Besides that,for those animal words with different cultural connotations,the author must pay attention to the acceptability of target language readers,because people in different cultures will have different descriptions and understanding of the same thing.The translator must flexibly deal with these animal-related words translation and take different translation methods in different situations.But we cannot forget to transmit the source language culture to the target language readers,as "culture" is the basic translation unit in Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory.Besides that,personally I believe some animal-related words translation by Mr.Goldblatt in "Big Breasts and Wide Hips"is not appropriate.Maybe he ignored the acceptability of target language readers or it is related to the cultural background of the famous translator Howard Goldblatt,that is to say,the cultural background of translator will also affect the translation methods.