On Cultural Default And Translation Compensation In Anthony C.Yu's English Version The Journey To The West

Cultural default refers to the “absence of some cultural background knowledge shared by the author and his or her intended reader”.This phenomenon is commonly seen in literary works,the aim of which is to improve communication efficiency and motivate readers' imagination.However,the cultural difference between the source language and target language may influence the TT(target text)readers in understanding the original work.Therefore,translators need to acknowledge cultural default and understand the cultural connotations of the source text,and then they should employ proper translation methods to convey its true meaning and help the target text readers understand the original work better.Xi You Ji,one of the Four Great Classic Novels in China,is a myth adapted from a historic journey.It tells a story that the protagonist Tang Sanzang,together with his three disciples,leaves for India and seeks for the Buddhist scriptures there.Since the end of nineteenth century,some domestic and foreign translators have translated the original work into English,and the first complete English version is translated by Professor Anthony C.Yu(1938-2015).Taking Yu's version The Journey to the West as a case study,this thesis categorizes the examples related to cultural default in the light of Nida's and Newmark's categorizations as well as the traits of the source text,including:religious culture,ecological culture,material culture,social culture,linguistic culture and erotic culture;it analyzes Yu's translation methods dealing with different kinds of cultural default.Moreover,this thesis also groups the methods compensated for cultural default in his translation,including: annotation,amplification,transplantation,substitution,transliteration,omission,and generalization.The author expects that this thesis is helpful to study Yu's version and makes contributions to the translation of Chinese literary works.