The Effect Of Language And Cultural Difference On Untranslatability

With the development of globalization, the exchange between China and foreign countries increases. More and more importance is attached to Traditional Chinese Medicine for its patterns of treatment based on syndrome differentiation. Thus, it promotes the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, due to the linguistic and cultural differences between China and the West as well as the Traditional Chinese Medical terminology itself, that is, not only the medical terms but also the character of traditional philosophy and aesthetics accompanied, it appears more difficult to translate the relevant terms, and untranslability becomes a common phenomenon in the field of relevant translation. Based on Basic Theoty Of Traditional Chinese Medicine by Publishing House of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, WHO International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific Region by WHO, Yellow Emperor's Canon of Medicine-Plain Conversation compiled by Professor Li Zhaoguo, and some related materials, this paper expounds the definition of traditional Chinese medical terminology and analyzes its translation from the perspective of intercultural communication, pointing out that because of linguistic and cultural difference, the translatibity of traditional Chinese medical terminology has its own limits. In other words, untranslatability is not a rare case. However, in some condition, untranslatability can be changed into translatability if the linguistic and cultural untranslatability is not absolute. Through the study on the translation of traditional Chinese medical terminology, this paper proposes that to solve the problem of untranslatability, we should obey the principles of liberal translation, transliteration and the strategies of foreignization and domestication. And this paper aims to arouse more scholars' attention to the study and research of the limits of translatability.