A China-Related English Corpus-Based Study On Translation Strategies Of China-Specific Words From The Perspective Of Cross-Cultural Communication

China-specific words(CSWs)denote things,events or concepts etc.peculiar to China,and their English equivalents can hardly be found,which causes the barrier to China's cultural communication.Previous studies focus on case studies of specific translation methods for given examples or quantitative studies whose samples may not be representative or reliable.Besides,the treatment of China-specific words in Chinese-English dictionaries is deficient due to the lack of corpus support and applicable translation principles.Hence,a comprehensive and quantitative analysis on the translation strategies of CSWs based on a large and reliable corpus is needed.In this study,CREC-based analysis has been made on the translation strategies of CSWs for the sake of cross-cultural communication and relevant findings can be applied to Chinese-English dictionaries.Quantitative and qualitative analyses are adopted.This study is based on a total of 1164 English equivalents of CSWs extracted from CREC.First,a descriptive and qualitative analysis has been conducted to figure out the classification and formational features of the English equivalents of CSWs.Second,quantitative studies on the English equivalents of CSWs have been made to figure out the general strategies concerning the translation of CSWs as well as the differences in and similarities of the strategies favored respectively by foreigners and Chinese.Besides,an analysis of China's global communication and translation based on Lasswell's“5W” communication model is conducted to explain why such translation strategies are adopted and what are the translation strategies for the benefit of China's cultural communication.Finally,we illustrate that such strategies can be used to guide the translation of CSWs and try to apply relevant findings to the treatment of CSWs in Chinese-English dictionaries.The present study has found that 1)China-specific words can be classified according to their typicality.This classification can help select translation strategies for CSWs;2)“Foreignized at cultural level” is favored no matter when we study theoverall tendency or the preference of Chinese people and that of foreigners.Besides,Chinese people prefer foreignization at cultural level and domestication at linguistic level while foreigners favor a strategy of foreignization at both cultural and linguistic levels;3)When it comes to transliteration of CSWs,the old-style Chinese phonetic forms are more likely to be accepted than Chinese pinyin among foreigners;however,pinyin is favored much more than the old-style Chinese phonetic forms by Chinese people.4)The translation principle for China-specific words for the sake of global communication can be: as foreignized as is possible and as domesticated as is necessary at cultural level;as domesticated as is possible and as foreignized as is necessary at linguistic level;5)If a China-specific word is more typical,it is more likely to be transliterated and foreignized and if it is less typical,it is more likely to be translated freely and domesticated.6)The inadequacies in the treatment of CSWs in Chinese-English dictionaries are caused by lack of corpus support and applicable translation strategies for cultural communication.Relevant findings in this study can help to improve the selection and arrangement of English equivalents in Chinese-English dictionaries.