A Study On The Approaches Of Translating Culture-loaded Terms In Rickshaw Boy From The Perspective Of Cultural Schema Theory

Translation is a bridge of facilitating information exchange and cultural communication among different nations.The translation of culture-loaded terms is regarded as a major obstacle for translators when texts in different languages are transferred.Cultural schema is a kind of organization mode of cultural knowledge which has been stored in human brains through previous experience.People can utilize relevant cultural schemata to perceive and understand various cultural phenomena.A certain cultural schema is embedded in each culture-loaded term.The accumulation of related cultural schemata is conducive to the comprehension and translation of culture-loaded terms.This research,based on cultural schema theory,explores the reproduction of culture-loaded terms in the English version of Rickshaw Boy.Rickshaw Boy,as a masterpiece of the celebrated Chinese novelist Lao She,is abundant in culture-loaded terms with distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics.The latest English version,translated by American sinologist Howard Goldblatt,came out in 2010.With respect to this version,the author of this thesis firstly divides the culture-loaded terms into three types from the perspective of cultural schema theory,including culture-loaded terms with corresponding cultural schemata,culture-loaded terms with divergent cultural schemata and culture-loaded terms with vacant cultural schemata respectively.Then,the approaches Goldblatt adopts to translate these culture-loaded terms are elaborated.Through the analysis,the author finds out that in the process of translating culture-loaded terms in Rickshaw Boy,Goldblatt adopts different approaches.When it comes to the translation of culture-loaded terms with corresponding cultural schemata,Goldblatt adopts literal translation.When translating culture-loaded terms with divergent cultural schemata,Goldblatt employs free translation and substitution.With respect to the translation of culture-loaded terms with vacant cultural schemata,different approaches,like literal translation(plus annotation),transliteration(plus annotation),free translation and omission,are adopted.Furthermore,the author expounds the reasons why Goldblatt adopts various translation approaches from two aspects.In the first place,the similarity,uniqueness and inclusiveness of cultural schema affect Goldblatt's adoption of different approaches.In the second place,Goldblatt's accumulation of cultural schemata as well as the principles of cultural adaptation and cultural transmission exert an influence on his selection of translation approaches.The research manifests that when translating culture-loaded terms in Rickshaw Boy,Goldblatt's abundant cultural schemata relevant to both the SL and the TL play a significant role.He,meanwhile,takes the TL readers'cultural schemata into account in order to achieve successful intercultural communication.Through this research,the author attempts to make a contribution to the translation of culture-loaded terms in classic Chinese literary works.Besides,the feasibility of cultural schema theory in the reproduction of culture-loaded terms is further proven.