On Translation Of Chinese Culture-loaded Words In The Light Of Domestication And Foreignization

Culture-loaded words are the reflection of culture in language. In the translation of culture-loaded words, it is hard for the translator to find the equivalents and corresponding words to convey the same meaning. In translation, domestication and foreignization are the two major strategies. Domestication refers to “the translation strategy in which a transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of foreign text for target text readers” and foreignization refers to a term“designates the style of translation in which a target text deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the original”(Shuttleworth& Cowie 1997:59). With the improvement of China’s international status,foreignization strategy, Chinese culture-oriented, will be widely adopted in translating culture-loaded words. This thesis applies domestication and foreignization in the translating of culture-loaded words of Chinese traditional Festivals and discusses the specific translation methods on culture-loaded words. Some typical domestication and foreignization methods will be explained, such as transliteration, transliteration plus annotation, literal translation, literal translation plus annotation, free translation,omission and substitutionThe text material the author chose is a kind of pragmatic translation from Chinese into English with about ten thousand words. It is intercepted from a book named Chinese Traditional Festivals, which aims to exhibit Chinese nation’s excellent culture. Up to now, no English versions have been published, which gave the author the thought of translating it. In this book, the writer demonstrates the rich culture of festivals by presenting historical allusions, interesting stories and fairy tales in plain and vivid languages. It is popular among people who are interested in Chinese culture. Thus, it is particularly vital to translate this book into English, so as to make more people from the western have the chance to read it and appreciate our broad and profound culture about festivals. In the process of translation, the author has looked up many materials about cultural translation, domestication and foreignization strategies and relevant information about culture-loaded words. The referenced information provides the theoretical guidance to the translation of Chinese Traditional Festivals. In this thesis, the author tries to solve problems as: Under the backgroundof globalization and international communication, what is the importance of translating culture-loaded words? What is the proper principle in guiding the translation of culture-loaded words? How to properly apply the domestication and foreignization strategies in the English translation of Chinese culture-loaded words about festivals?...