The Study On Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In To Live From The Perspective Of Semantic And Communicative Translation

Translation is one of the most significant ways to promote the cultural communication, in which the efficient translation of culture-loaded words(CLWs) is very important to make the cross-cultural connection successful. Culture-loaded words are loaded with specific local cultural information and indicate deep national culture. It reflects the distinctive history and geography, social activities, habits and customs, religious beliefs, ways of thinking, common values and other aspects of a certain nation. Therefore, how to deal with the CLWs is of great significance to the success of literature translation and communication of literary works between Chinese and English nations. It can not only help foreign readers to learn Chinese well, but also promote the reception of Chinese culture in the world. The novel To Live written by Yu Hua who is a Chinese writer, has been a big draw for readers after being published, and it was translated into several foreign languages to sell in many foreign countries. Thus, it is one of the symbols that prove our country?s native culture is successfully outputted to the world. There are many local culture-loaded words in this novel, so it is worth making a detailed study on the translation of them.Peter Newmark puts forward the semantic and communicative translation on the original text?s language-function-centered basis. He holds that the former is original-text-centered, tries to express the message of original text exactly and keeps the peculiarity of the culture from source language. However, the latter is reader-centered and prefers the natural, fluent, and simple language. Applying Peter Newmark?s semantic and communicative translation theory, this thesis makes a descriptive and case study on the translation of CLWs in English version To Live translated by Michael Berry. This thesis attempts to answer the following three research questions: 1) In translating Chinese culture-loaded words in To Live, what translation methods does Michael Berry mainly use? 2) From the perspective of Peter Newmark?s semantic and communicative translation, which one is more adopted in the translation of culture-loaded words in To Live? 3) What factors contribute to the preference of this more-adopted principle in the translation of culture-loaded words in To Live?Through the comprehensive analysis and discussion, some conclusions can be drawn as below: firstly, this research uncovers that, in the process of translating CLWs, the semantic translation-oriented methods that Berry uses mainly include the literal translation, literal translation with annotation, transliteration, transliteration with annotation; and the communicative translation-oriented methods that Berry uses are mainly the free translation, substitution and amplification. Secondly, through the classification and statistical data analysis, this thesis finds that compared to the communicative translation, from the angle of culture-exchange, the semantic translation is preferred by the translator. At last, according to Newmark?s translation studies, this thesis concludes three factors that contribute to the reader?s preference of semantic translation in translating CLWs: the language-functions and text-categories, intentions of the text and translator as well as the target language reader?s acceptability. The semantic translation and communicative translation are not opposite absolutely but complementary with each other. Only with the combination of semantic and communicative translation, can a translated text be considered perfect. Thus, people can translate CLWs better and achieve the final goal of cross-cultural communication.The structure of this thesis is mainly divided into six chapters. The first is introduction that mainly includes the research background, aims and meaning, etc. The second chapter is literature review, in which some relative overviews of studies on translation of CLWs abroad and at home are introduced and some studies on the English version To Live are briefly illustrated. The third part is theoretical framework, and it mainly offers a systematic elaboration of Newmark?s semantic and communicative translation theory and makes a comparison between them. At the same time, it also offers an illustration about factors influencing the choice of translation methods in Newmark?s translation studies. The forth part is research design that mainly includes research question, research methods, data collection and data analysis. The fifth chapter is the main part of this essay, discussing the concrete translation methods in the process of translating CLWs in To Live, analyzing the translator?s preference in semantic translation or communicative translation, and concluding three factors contribute to the preference of this more-adopted principle in the translation of To Live. The sixth chapter is the conclusion part, illustrating and discussing the research findings and pointing out this essay?s limitations as well as the improving direction.