A Report On The Chinese Translation Of Toward A Theory Of Cultural Linguistics

Garry B. Palmer, a well-known American linguist, develops the theory of cultural linguistics with a view to approaching the problems encountered by anthropologists in their study of different cultures. The theory is elaborated in great detail in his monograph Toward a Theory of Cultural Linguistics.The book Toward a Theory of Cultural Linguistics was published in 1996 by University of Texas Press. Palmer is the very first one that puts forward the term of "cultural linguistics" in the field of western languages and cultural studies.The book has been widely read, frequently quoted and highly evaluated. However, up to now, there has been no full Chinese translation. Then, we decided to translate this book. We formed a translation group of five, assigning the whole task to the members and the author is in charge of 4 chapters, namely, "Introduction", "Three Traditions in Linguistic Anthropology", "The Emergence of Cognitive Linguistics" and "The Synthesis of Cultural Linguistics", covering more than one-fifth of the whole book. This part is the introduction of this book. For language learners and researchers, this part is of great significance.Due to the limited references I can resort to and my poor knowledge of the theory, I have met different kinds of problems in the process of the translation, and found the task of translation greatly challenging. The main problems are basically in two aspects. One is the how to translate so many long and complex sentences, and the other how to express effectively and academically in the target language.Most academic works involve profound theories and long and complex sentences. In this report, analysis and solutions in particular of long and complex sentence translation are elaborated.Furthermore, for the translator it proves to be a strenuous task to express effectively in the translation. To be faithful to the source text and expressive in the target can sometimes frustrate the translator. Thus, to improve the translator’s ability to express can never be too much emphasized.At last, some findings of the translation task are concluded in the report. Translation is a text-oriented event. The excellent translators should be skillful, knowledgeable, academic and good at expression. And they have to make an accurate judgment of the original text and appropriate arrangement of the translation process. It’s a long journey of becoming an excellent translator.