Chinese Neologism Translation: Principles And Strategies

Language is the mirror of social reality and among which vocabulary is the most directelement that reflects the development of a society. The changes brought about by advancedscience and technology also influence people’s living style and their way of thinking. As a result,neologisms increase dramatically and it is also true of Chinese neologisms. The past years havewitnessed a vividness and diversity in Chinese neologisms. According to the report on thelanguage situation in China, there emerged171new words in2006,254in2007and359in2008.Although there have been numerous researches on Chinese neologism translation, most ofthe neologisms these papers and monographs focus on are between the late1970s and2005. Thetranslation approaches touched upon are mainly strategies such as domestication, foreignizationor specific methods such as transliteration, literal translation and free translation, which lacks asystematic and comprehensive discussion on translation principles and strategies. Besides, withthe lapse of time, the newness in most of the neologisms listed in the papers fades away, some ofwhich are even like singing the same old tune. So new words and expressions emerging after2006are the main concern of the present thesis.This thesis, based on an in-depth study on the English translation of Chinese neologisms,proposes three basic principles and strategies, namely: principle of Skopos, principle of contextand principle of ideology. According to Skopostheorie which is target readers-oriented, we haveto translate according to the purpose (Skopos) of the target text in order to make it understood byits target readers. Besides, the social-cultural context and the translator and the target readers’cognitive context should be also taken into consideration in Chinese neologism translation, forthey provide the basis of interpreting the meaning of neologisms. In addition, due to the functionof Chinese neologisms in international publicity, we have to pay special attention to the influenceof ideology on Chinese neologism translation and be cautious in translating ideology-labeledsymbols.