An Analysis of Chinese Culture-loaded Terms Translation from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory: A Case Study on the English Version of The New Year Sacrifice功能对等理论下汉语文化负载词的翻译研究-以《祝福》英译本文献综述

 2021-12-28 21:29:59

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文献综述

1. Introduction1.1Research backgroundWith the deepening of political multi-polarization and economic globalization, it is clear that learning to appreciate and accept diversity is the tendency of future. Civilization is no longer the exclusive domain of developed countries. Especially China, as one of poor and backward countries in the past and the biggest developing country now, has proved it. In fact, it has made great progress in economy and social development since the implementation of the reform and opening-up. And China is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world. Those above all are catching quite a few westerners attention, but the totally differences in eastern culture makes westerners perplexed.In fact, the history of learning from western countries consciously dates back to the end of Qing dynasty. At that time, Westerners had almost no knowledge of China, especially Chinese literary classics that are collections of unique Chinese culture. On the contrary, the colonists only cared about invading and conquering China. Frankly speaking, it was after the founding of New China that Chinese culture began to consciously be introduced to the world. Additionally, language is the carrier of culture, and vocabulary is the core of language. In view of this, the translation of culture-loaded words becomes tough but significant. 1.2 Need of the research The thesis aims to explore C-E translation methods of culture-loaded terms in literary works. The most important principle of literature translation is to make the target audience have the same understanding as the author or the source language readers. Therefore, the combination of functional equivalence theory and culture-loaded terms is an appropriate match. This topic not only conforms to the research trend in recent years, but also explores several feasible methods of culture-loaded terms translation so that the colorful world cultural exchanges could be enhanced.Generally speaking, the research has both academic and practical meanings. For one thing, it is an academic research, which will illustrate more systematically how to translate literary works during the War of Resistance against Japan with strong national characteristics and how to deal with the translation of culture-loaded words containing rich connotations. For another, it must be conductive to provide some viable ideas to translation practice. It will be efficient for two different individuals who live in disparate cultural contexts to exchange information and understand each other. Similarly, for second language learners, keeping Functional Equivalence Theory in their mind is a helpful way to get rid of the limitations of native language such as Chinglish and transform appropriately and rapidly when they engaged in translation work. Whats more, an appropriate English translation text could better promote Chinese culture to the English target audience. There are also many great literary works in China that are not inferior to those in the West, but it is a pity that they cannot be widely disseminated due to the restriction of language. After all, English is the most widely spoken language in the world. Due to all these above reasons, the research is necessary. 2. Literature Review2.1 Introduction to Nidas Functional Equivalence TheoryContemporary western translation theories are diverse. Functional Equivalence Theory is an extremely important translation theory brought forth by a famous linguist in America－Eugene. A. Nida. At the same time, Functional Equivalence Theory is also called Dynamic Equivalence, which is built on the basis of the translation practice of the Bible. This theory includes four aspects to help the achievement of functional equivalence that are lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, textual equivalence and stylistic equivalence. The above four aspects are all significant, however, Nida also made it clear that content comes first and form second. On the one hand, the translator should not focus on the content but ignore the form. In addition to content and information equivalence, equivalence is also required in form as far as possible. On the other hand, content equivalence takes precedence in both cases. In other words，the theory of functional equivalence requires emphasis on meaning and avoids translation accent, which means achieving functional equivalence between the two languages in effect is more reasonable, rather than the rigid correspondence on the literal surface. Translators should pay attention to the social background of the text and the reader's psychological reaction and living environment. Nida believes that the relationship between the recipient of the translation and the information of the translation should be basically the same as that between the recipient of the original text and the information of the original text. (Nida, 2001:76). In China, Nida's translation theories, especially the theory of functional equivalence, were first introduced and most influential among the contemporary western translation theories. Many Chinese scholars have conducted in-depth studies on Nida's theory of functional equivalence, which is effectively combined with the current situation of translation in China. Over the years, most of the Chinese experts applied the theory of functional equivalence in translating assorted texts such as tourism text, business English text, legal texts, news text, film subtitle text, advertising text, the text of science and technology, government report as well as the literature text, and other types of translation. Scientific translation theories contribute to the study of linguistics as well as the all-around communication of the world. As we all know, Nida puts more emphasis on the feelings of the target language readers and advocates that translators should consider the readers more when translating. It not only realizes the communication in diverse language, but also has more effectiveness in solving problems caused by the cultural differences between China and the West. 2.2 Previous studies on culture-loaded termsCulture-loaded terms are widely used in the field of cross-cultural communication. Culture-loaded terms, as an important and main carrier of culture, have been hot discussed by scholars of translation circle at home and abroad. At the beginning, culture-loaded terms have attracted the attention of foreign translation scholars. In the language system, culture-loaded words can best reflect the cultural information carried by human social life. American translator Nida (1998:17) pointed out that for a truly successful translation, being familiar with two cultures is even more important than mastering two languages, because words are meaningful only in the cultural context in which they function. Also, he systematically classified culture into five categories: ecological culture, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture. Next, domestication and foreignization are two translation terms put forward by an American translation theorist called Lawrence Venuti in The Translator's Invisibility. For domestication, it refers to the localization of the source language. In Lawrences view, taking the target language or target language readers as the destination, translators adopt the way of expression used by the target language readers to convey the content of the original text. While foreignization is the opposites and complement concept of domestication. The purpose of using foreignization strategy is to consider the difference of national culture, preserve and reflect the characteristics of foreign nationality and language style, and retain the exotic atmosphere for the target readers. As two translation strategies, neither absolute domestication nor absolute foreignization exists.Chinese scholars also have some viewpoints on culture-loaded terms. Zhang compares differences between English and Chinese culture-loaded vocabulary and analyses that as the name suggests, culture-loaded terms refers to expressions which reflect unique things or local traditions in Chinese culture with no equivalents in English. (2019:14). Zhu concluded that the difficulty of translating culture-loaded words is determined by complexity of culture. (2017:305). As is known to us all, China is an ancient civilization with a history of five thousand years. The country also has assorted words reflect the unique geographical environment, way of life, national historical environment, religious belief, customs and habits of a specific nation, which are different from other nations gradually accumulated in the long historical process. Tang emphasizes the concept of translatability of culture-loaded words and says: although there exists semantic zero in cross-cultural communication and the translatability is in dispute, culturallyloaded words are still translatable. (2006:127). Based on that, she also summarizes some more comprehensive translation approaches such as transliteration, literal translation, substitution, paraphrasing as well as annotation.2.3 Overview of the two English versions of the New-Year SacrificeThe novel the New-Year Sacrifice is included in Lu Hsun's collection of novels called Wandering, which is one of the most important crystallizations of the twentieth-century Chinese experience. It is a piece of work with folk-custom color. Through the tragic experience of Mistress Xiang Lin's life, this novel reflects the social contradictions in China after the Revolution of 1911, and profoundly reveals the destruction and persecution of working women by the landlord class. The evil nature of feudal ethics and the necessity of opposing feudalism thoroughly are both revealed. What is more worthy of recognition is that these collections of Lu Hsun's short stories also contain rich cultural-load terms in the process of English translation. In English translation activities, it can effectively promote the equivalence of reading functions and promote the communication between Chinese and English language cultures to a great extent. Since the original work is of great significance and profound connotation. Many famous translators competed for the translation. Two English versions of this work are chosen. One is translated by Liu Wugou, the other comes from Yang Xianyi and Glaydis Yang.Liu Wugou, the youngest daughter of the famous patriotic poet Liu Yazi in the 20th century, occupies an important place in the literature of Nanshe for her outstanding literary talent and the world-famous work Beads from Bodhi Trees. As a translator who fought for the development of the Chinese in the 1940s and 1950s, Liu Wugou participated in a lot of translation activities in her short life and left a large number of translated works to the world. However, nowadays, her translation activities and translated works rarely catch the attention of researchers. However, Liu Wugou's excellent ability of English translation had been fully recognized during her lifetime. The patriotic thought in Liu Wugou's translation also conforms to the trend of the Times when the China opposed foreign aggression during the Anti-Japanese War. And a series of patriotic acts resulting from it also promoted the independence, development and prosperity of the Chinese nation. Her translation ideas, including skopos theory, free translation and advocating the use of vernacular Chinese, enriched and promoted the development and maturity of Chinese translation theories. And her translation work associated the paper is Benediction that has been published by Shanghai World English Compilation Press in 1946. This translation is characterized by its simplicity. The whole translation has no esoteric vocabulary and the grammar is not complicated. At the same time, the translation of this article is basically literal translation, so that the young students who love literature and art take it as the material for English reading, thinking and practicing. Therefore, foreign readers who do not know China and Chinese readers who are not good at English can easily understand it. Additionally, The English translation of Liu Wugou belongs to the Chinese-English literature and art series, which is based on the principle that English is the main part and Chinese is the auxiliary part. If we compare the English version with the original version, we will find that the Chinese original version has been deleted in many places for the convenience of foreign language readers and translators.Yang Xianyi was born into a wealthy family of bankers. Since childhood, he has studied Chinese classical literature works and made old style poems from private teachers at home. In middle school, besides reading Chinese literature, he also dabbled in a large number of classics of Western literature. Through extensive reading, he was enthusiastic about the classics of Greece and decided to study it at Oxford University in England. At this time, he has accumulated a deep foundation of Chinese and Western literature. During his six years at Oxford, he was not only exposed to more Western literature, but also met Glaydis Yang who was an Englishman, born in Beijing of an English missionary family. And then they married and both returned to China in 1940. In 1943, they joined the National Compilation and Translation Center and began their legendary career as translators. Additionally, by collecting Yang's thoughts on translation, the author finds that this modest master has profound and enlightening insights into the nature, translatability and translation strategies. Also, Yang's reflection on the translator's rights and freedom in translation is a result of his many years of translation experience. For their translation work New-Year Sacrifice, it can better reflect the changes and preservation of Chinese culture in modern and contemporary time. Yang's English version is precise in its choice of words. He does not rigidly adhere to the original form, does not find the original copy to translate word by word, but in the understanding of the original text and after figuring out the context of the original text to decide. 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