On Translation Of Culture-Loaded Words From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

With the further development of China's reform and opening-up and the economic growth,cultural development and exchanges become frequently.One of the important aspects is the increasing of the translation kinds and amounts of Chinese classical literary works.Meanwhile,the focus of translation studies also turns from pure linguistic level to the cultural level.Researchers pay more attention to the cultural factors in translation and then cultural exchange becomes the theme of translation in the world today.Actually,there are a lot of culture-loaded words in Chinese classical literary works.Culture-loaded words are the enrichment and essence of national culture.Therefore,the translation of culture-loaded words determines the success of literary translations.Translation is a purposeful human activity.As early as the late 20 th century,German scholars put forward Skopos Theory.Skopos Theory considers that translation is a human communicative activity which is clearly purposeful and cross-cultural.It is the productive activity of target text under the interaction of many factors.During the establishment and development of Skopos Theory,Katharina Reiss,Hans Vermeer and Christiane Nord have made important contributions.Skopos Theory believes that translation is purposeful and resultant action which is based on the source text and must be negotiated to complete.Meanwhile,translation must follow the three rules,including Skopos Rule,Coherence Rule and Fidelity Rule.Among of them,Skopos Rule,the most important rule,means the target text depends on translating purposes.Meanwhile,translation should follow the Coherence and Fidelity Rule.According to Skopos Theory,translators can select translating purposes and methods by themselves.Based on the Skopos Theory,this thesis chooses Mencius—the Chinese Confucian Classic as the research object and selects James Legge's English version of Mencius as a study case to explore the translation of culture-loaded words.Through verifying James Legge's life stories and analyzing his translation works,this thesis considers that James Legge's has two translating purposes: to spread Christianity and western culture;to spread Chinese traditional culture and build the cultural exchange bridge between China and the West.First of all,this thesis screens out culture-loaded words in James Legge's English version of Mencius and divides them into five categories: ecological culture-loaded words,material culture-loaded words,social culture-loaded words,religious culture-loaded words and linguistic culture-loaded words.What's more,it summarizes the translation methods of each culture-loaded word.Secondly,this thesis concludes the translation methods under three rules of Skopos Theory.Thirdly,this thesis points out the gains and losses of culture-loaded words translation in James Legge's English version of Mencius.After researching,this thesis finds that James Legge uses many translation methods in his English version of Mencius.There are literal translation,transliteration,free translation,omission,paraphrase,addition,substitution,transliteration plus annotation and literal translation plus annotation.Among of them,literal translation is used most.Then,to be faithful to the source text is the most important feature of James Legge's English version of Mencius.Finally,this thesis summarizes the gains and losses of James Legge's English version of Mencius.James Legge uses the creative translation methods—word formation and annotation.In his English version of Mencius,he praises the Chinese culture and expresses strong religious color.All of these are consistent with Legge's translating purposes.At the same time,there are also some limitations in his English version of Mencius.They are mistranslation and the different translations of same culture-loaded words.