论文总字数：27352字
摘 要
经济全球化的发展导致贸易的频繁化，而翻译在贸易中起着重要的作用，是经济、文化和技术交流的必要工具。语言中难免会产生一些文化负载词。为了方便不同文化背景的人更好地交流，需要我们对于文化负载词有一定的理解。本文对文化负载词的英译进行探讨，以习主席APEC发言时引用的古诗、成语、专用术语等中国文化负载词为例。分析文化负载词与翻译的定义、翻译的方式、思维方式、政治体系等方面，探讨文化差异对文化负载词翻译的影响。
关键词：汉英翻译；峰会演讲；文化负载词
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 1
2.1 The definition of culture-loaded words 1
2.2 The definition of translation 2
3. Some Methods of Translation 2
3.1 Literal translation 2
3.2 Liberal translation 3
4. A Case Study of Chinese Culture-Loaded Words in Translation—Based on President Xi’s Address at the APEC CEO Summit 3
4.1 In thinking modes 4
4.2 In language expression 6
4.3 In political system 9
5. Conclusion 12
Works Cited 13
1. Introduction
With the development of economic globalization, trade between countries is becoming increasingly dense. English is becoming more vital in international communication. Culture-loaded words refer to words, phrases and idioms, which contain a lot of culture unique things. It is also a direct response of a particular nation in the historical accumulation. However, due to different cultural backdrops, there are many differences between the parties to the transaction, such as behaviors, habits and languages.
At the APEC business leaders summit, President Xi"s address clearly shows that culture is closely related to all aspects. We should understand the differences between Chinese and other cultures and deal with English translation in a rational way, which will improve the quality of translation.
This paper mainly discusses how to avoid some cultural misunderstandings in English translation, and next I will use the translation of President Xi’s address as an example, hoping to provide some thoughts for the English translation.
2. Literature Review
Culture refers to the sum of all material and spiritual products created by human beings. We need to be proficient in cultural terms and understand each other’s cultural background, origins, customs, habits and political systems to understand the diversity of languages better.
At the APEC CEO summit, President Xi uses a large number of ancient poems, Chinese idioms, metaphor or simile, parallelism and other rhetorical devices. He shows the Chinese political strategy with Chinese special culture. So how to find an appropriate translation method to spread Chinese culture to other countries is a problem worth discussing.
2.1 The definition of culture-loaded words
Culture-loaded words refer to the vocabulary embodying the cultural information and reflecting the life of humanity. By studying the culture-loaded words of a nation, you can understand the values, ways of thinking, lifestyles and traditional customs, religious beliefs (Hornby 186).
Language is not only a tool for human expression and communication, but also a carrier and an important part of the culture. Language is a specific medium of social communication (Poole 6).
Especially, culture-loaded words are inherited from state or national history, geography, local customs and practices, customs, lifestyle, literature and art, behaviors, thinking ways and values, and they are the legacy of human communication ideology. Culture is the human conquest of nature, human activity, process, results and other aspects, existing in the human existence and civilization.
2.2 The definition of translation
Translation is a information transfer and a dissemination behavior. Translation is the procedure of changing a relatively unknown utterance into a more familiar form of expression. In language communication, translation is the direct way to convert two languages. That is the completed information, which expresses that accurate information with the target readers. And they get the obtained information about the same meaning.
Translation is generally divided into written translation and interpretation. Written translation requires “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance”. The standard of interpretation is summarized as “accuracy, smoothness and rapidity”, which is put forward by an interpretation expert Li Yueran.
3. Some Methods of Translation
3.1 Literal translation
In literal translation, we must be faithful to the original content and make the target language consistent with the content. But literal translation is not a kind of word to word translation, literal translation should be consistent with meanings, and it should be easy for readers to understand or it will become rigid translation, even dead translation. Since Chinese and English have their own structures, how to avoid word to word translation is becoming essential.
For example, as a Chinese, we know “希望工程” (Hope Project) is a kind of charity for the youth, “东方明珠” (Pearl of the Orient) is a tower and a symbol of Shanghai.
The advantage of literal translation is that the characteristics of the source language are preserved through simple words, but the disadvantage is that the reader can only understand the literal meaning of the words. In some cases, literal translation may produce lots of misunderstandings, leading to the idea improperly conveyed. When translating an address, we must try to avoid the misunderstanding and confusion.
3.2 Liberal translation
Liberal translation refers to the translation of the original text without a verbatim translation, which differs from “literal translation”. The liberal translation is mainly used in translation languages that reflect the great cultural differences.
From the view of cultural exchanges, numerous examples show that liberal translation reflects the ecology, language, religion, material and social culture in different languages and ethnic groups. Because the poetic allusions are difficult to translate, when we translate the ancient Chinese phrases, we need to understand the allusions. For example, “东施效颦” comes from a Chinese fable story an ugly woman imitated as a beauty Xishi, only to make herself uglier. It means rough imitation has a ridiculous effect.
4. A Case Study of Chinese Culture-Loaded Words in Translation—Based on President Xi’s Address at the APEC CEO Summit
Each country has its own background of culture, history and political system, all of which lead to cultural differences. The word vacancy means that the meaning or implication of Chinese words does not exist in English, resulting in zero referential meaning or zero implication meaning(Chenamp;Li 75).
Generally speaking, for people around the world, the only way to appreciate different cultures is to translate them into various languages. This requires translators thoroughly understand the target language and have better skills of translation. Cultural factors usually become an essential part in translation and we must focus on it when we meet problems. There are several aspects of culture-loaded words in Chinese-English translation.
4.1 In thinking modes
Chinese and other people differ in thinking and expression under the influence of culture. Language can be carried out by human thinking activities, and it can also be expressed through thinking modes, because the most fundamental way to express the thinking is language. In the process of other cultural communication, it is easy to find that Chinese have an inherent way of thinking in their expression. In many cases, Chinese tend to use progressive mode, especially when expressing some of the most important content.
Contrary to the other thinking modes, they usually use the most typical model for the straight line in the process of expressing things, and they often make the importance of things according to the order from large to small one, forming a different mode of thinking.
However, it is necessary to pay attention to the way of thinking, instead of using the habitual thinking to translate what is seen or heard.
The following is the analysis of some examples based on President Xi Jinping’s address.
4.1.1 The logical relationship
A logical relationship is a relationship that reflects “conditions” and “results”. There are many logical relationships, such as juxtaposition, progression, transition and causality.
The transition relationship is one of them. It represents the transformation and emphasizes the state of change.
1) 经济全球化大潮滚滚向前，但保护主义、单边主义为世界经济增长蒙上了阴影。
While economic globalization surges forward, global growth is shadowed by protectionism and unilateralism.
The use of transitional words are varied in Chinese sentences. In this example, “while” is used to describe the international situation. Chinese sentences seem to be separated, but there is a logical relationship between them. “大潮滚滚向前” is a kind of natural phenomenon. In Chinese, “大潮” means a trend, and “滚滚向前” means keep moving forward. But in English, we use refined words in translation. So we translate it to “surges forward” in liberal meaning.
4.1.2 The reasonable choices
The meaning of a word can be divided into two parts. The original meaning of a word is taking the original meaning as the starting point, according to the various characteristics of the things. Word in its development process will produce different meaning, this is the extended meaning of word. In translation, we should try to choose the correct meaning.
1) 当今世界的变局百年未有，变革会催生新的机遇。
The changes we are encountering in the world are unseen in a century. Changes create opportunities.
The focus of Chinese language is a mood and a state in this one. The subject is omitted, “we are encountering” is added as an attribute in the translation, which makes the sentence easier to understand. “催生” has two literal meanings originally. One is “give birth”, and the other is “create”. In this sentence, “create” is better to understand.
We can find that the expression habits of Chinese sentences on this topic have been weakened. They are used to using a collective subject, while others will care about the emotional expression of the particular one. In some cases, they need to add some subjects from the root to respect other individual thinking habits.
4.1.3 Traditional cultural thoughts
Chinese thinking modes are to use intuition to understand the overall and direct grasp of the internal rules. In the expression of language, the sentence is incomplete. We should translate words according to the liberal translation. While translating Chinese into English, we need to complete semantic expressions and understand the relationships hidden in Chinese sentences, supplemented by conjunction or adjustment of word order in English.
1) 努力做到求同存异、取长补短，谋求和谐共处、合作共赢。
We should seek common ground while putting aside differences, draw upon each other"s strengths and pursue co-existence in harmony and win-win cooperation.
There are some special phrases in the sentence, “求同存异” and “取长补短”. Four-character is commonly used in speech to make a concise and precise context.
“求同存异” means “find the similarities and keep the disagreement”. “取长补短” means “draw on the strengths of others to make up for their own shortcomings”. It comes from the work of Mencius.
In this address, they use liberal translation to translate it with a simple word which expresses the Chinese philosophy meaning, so that it will be easier for others to understand the meaning of the whole content. We translate “求同存异” to “seek common ground while putting aside differences”. “取长补短” is translated to “draw upon each other"s strengths”.
There is not an appropriate way in Chinese literal translation, because literal translation will destroy the context, and it may make the speech more difficult to understand. So we use liberal translation in these cases.
- 一大批重大合作项目已经落地生根。
A large number of cooperation projects have been launched under this Initiative.
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