The Forms of Cultural Differences and Translation英语专业毕业论文.docx

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1、The Forms of Cultural Differences and TranslationCultural differences have many expressive forms. Any subtle difference can bring out problem to translation. We should try to know and recognize as many forms of cultural differences as possible, so that we can deal with problems of translation more f

2、lexibly. I list some typical forms to explain the relationship between cultural differences and translation.1 The differences in ways of thinking and translation Ways of thinking is the process of an individual choosing, evaluating and organizing external stimulus, which is the process of changing e

3、xternal stimulus to personal experience. A nations ways of thinking not only affect individuals social activity, but also affect response of other nations, and the attitude of translated culture towards original culture agreement, appreciation or belittlement, exclusion. In western culture, people t

4、hink that there is direct relation between ideology and actual world, laying great emphasis on rationale and deduction, believing that as long as following right logical steps, they will obtain truth. While in some eastern culture, such as Buddhism, people think that rationale and logic cannot obtai

5、n truth, the best way of obtaining truth is speculation, meditation and waiting, and then truth will appear naturally. In addition, different nations have great difference in standpoint and response to outside things. It is said that, an American, a German, a Japanese person and a Chinese person wen

6、t to visit Ocean Museum. The American wondered at the sight of the museum, saying “Terrific!” and admiring the fish with huge and beautiful shape. The German inquired into the water temperature and habits of the fish carefully. The Japanese examined the quality and cost of the fish tank. While the C

7、hinese wanted to know whether the fish is eatable and whether it is delicious. We do not evaluate the creditability of the hearsay, but different cultures indeed have different response. For example, Americans put emphasis on the size and price of things they met, while Japanese think color is a muc

8、h more important standard. It demands translators understanding relevant languages and deeds of different nations, being familiar with relevant cultures ways of thinking. Differences in ways of thinking can directly affect peoples response to the same thing. Samovar once cited such an example: Limbs

9、 broke as a result of too much snow. Americans think the reason is: The limb was weak. While some Chinese think the reason is: The limb was strong. Westerners think that, the breakage of the limb is due to the lack of intensity and hardness that can bear the heavy snow. I t seems common sense. While

10、 easterners think that it is the exchange of strongness and weakness. As the limb was too strong, and was not easy to bend, being lack of flexibility, which led to the result that more and more snow was accumulated thus, the limb broke last. If the limb can bend under the pressure of heavy snow, the

11、 snow will not accumulate to the extent that the limb cannot bear, this is called using flexibility to overcome hardness. The change of notion between strong and weak usually becomes the trap of translation.2 The differences in beliefs and translation Except ways of thinking, different cultures have

12、 quite different beliefs. These different beliefs can be expressed in languages and deeds directly and indirectly, becoming barriers of translation. For example, there is great different aesthetic appreciation value between Chinese and western culture. Lin Daiyu, the traditional character in China,

13、may be thought to be sick person in westerners eyes. Many white women in America pursue suntan in every possible way. It is said that in black community, some schools are propagating the aesthetic appreciation value of “Black is beautiful”. Beliefs can be divided into experience beliefs, information

14、 beliefs, and deduction beliefs. Direct impression and experience can gain experience beliefs, therefore, it is restricted by regions and social climate. It is said that, French boys can list more than ten kinds of liquor easilY; Boys in Eava Farm of America can use ten different words to call ploug

15、h. In Arabian language there are hundreds of words relating to camel and its body parts. Eskimos use countless words to describe snow and different forms of snow. Differences in cultural focus usually make translation hard to find a proper word, for example, in Chinese culture, which attaches great

16、importance to social relations, “叔叔” is hard to be translated into English properly. Either we can use the method of undertranslation and translate it into “uncle”, or we can use the method of descriptive translation, and translate it into “uncle on fathers side and younger than father”. However, ne

17、ither of these two translations is accurate. Information beliefs are formed through the influence of media like television and films, public opinions, books, newspaper, and magazines. For example, some people are partial to news reports in some TV station; others may believe Bible to be the source o

18、f the right information; therefore, they believe miracles of Jesus Christ. Some others may think that only I Ching can explore the laws of world changing. Deduction beliefs also have much to do with ways of thinking in different cultures. Some cultures attach importance to intuition, some may attach

19、 importance to rationale, and other cultures may put emphasis on experience. In western culture, there is a set of thinking habits based on Aristotls principles. Syllogism and deduction have been the main stream of western culture for more than two thousand of years. While in Chinese culture, intuit

20、ion and the concept of viewing the situation as a whole have great importance in ways of thinking.3 The differences in values and attitudes and translation A cultures value system is another important aspect that affects translation and cross-cultural communication. Cultural values, showed in philos

21、ophy and moral sense, are a set of behavior guidelines of making decision and setting conflicts. When accepting others commendation, people in Chinese and western cultures have different response. One root cause of this difference is that modesty has different status in Chinese and western cultures.

22、 Modesty is the traditional virtue of Chinese culture. Chinese people are partial to plum blossom; one important cause is that plum blossom is implicit, without overbearing gorgeousness. While in western culture, people should try their best to perform themselves and gain others acceptance. Age is a

23、n important value notion in many cultures. While different cultures have different emphasis. In Chinese culture, senior is the symbol of wisdom, power and prestige. In most cases, calling others “lao” is proper, “laoshifu”, “laoganbu”, “Wang lao”, “li lao”, even become a respectful form of address t

24、hat people with noble character and high prestige worth calling. On the contrary, respecting young people is the first value in western culture. Youth represents the future, symbolizing endless flexibility and possibility. In westerners eyes, “It is great to be learned, it is greater to be young”. T

25、hat is why simply translating “lao ren” into “old man” or “old lady” will bring about absolutely different effect of translation. Another aspect that eastern and western cultures have much difference is the relationship between individual and group. In most eastern countries, groups interests are mo

26、re important than individuals. In feudal society of old China, “zhu lian” and “yi ren dang guan, ji quan sheng tian”, are all the radical expressive forms of groups consciousness of responsibility. In contrast, in western culture, individuality is an extremely important value concept. The developmen

27、t of personal potential, personal interest and habits are always paramount. Many Americans are educated to be independent and self-reliant from very young age. Attitude, acquired after birth, is a tendency of consistent response to special things. Persistent degree of attitude depends on the stable

28、degree of the notion of belief and value. There is obvious difference in the attitude towards money between Chinese and western people. Chinese attach more importance to personal loyalty than to money. Regarding personal loyalty or money as important has always been the dividing line of gentlemen an

29、d villains. While in western culture, people put great emphasis on their interests and neglect other things, and they think it to be natural and important.4 The differences in history culture and translation History culture is the culture that is formed during special process of history development.

30、 Each nation has its own history, the history culture formed during the long history river is also quite different. Therefore, when doing translation between two languages, we will meet difficulties in translation arising from differences in history culture. History allusions are the important repre

31、sentative of history culture and the rarity of a nations history culture. They have strong national color and distinctive cultural characteristics, containing rich history culture information and showing features of different history culture. If we want to translate these allusions properly, we must

32、 understand their rich connotation and use proper translation method, or else we cannot express and convey the connotation of history allusions appropriately. For example, “三个臭皮匠，合成一个诸葛亮.” “诸葛亮” is known by every Chinese. He is the representative of wisdom. But foreigners may not know who he is, wha

33、t relationship he has with “臭皮匠”. If we use literal translation, we cannot convey rich history culture which is contained in this sentence. Therefore, only by adopting the method of combination of literal translation and adding translation, can we make cultural information of original language reapp

34、ear. We can translate this sentence like this: Three cobblers with their wits combined equal Chukeh Liang, the mastermind.（郭建中，2000：156） Many idioms have history persons who are known by foreigners, such as “叶公好龙”, “毛遂自荐”, “班门弄斧”, “名落孙山”, “项庄舞剑，意在沛公”, “狗咬吕洞宾， 不识好人心.” Etc. Every idiom and allusion co

35、ntains colorful Chinese history culture. Therefore, while doing translation, we should firstly understand the connotation of the allusion, paying attention to differences between different cultures and adopting proper translation method.Western culture also has its own history. Idioms and allusions

36、are frequently found in Bible and Shakespeares works. Now writers and speakers quote these idioms and allusions.For example, “listening is his heel of Archiles”. Here “the heel of Archiles” is an allusion coming from Greek mythology. Archiles is a history person in Greek. He is very strong and power

37、ful. But he has a fatal weakness, which is his heel. Thus this phrase comes into being.There is such a sentence in Time, “Many took to gambling and got it over their heads, borrowing from Shalock to pay their debts”. Hence the writer cited Shalock from Shakespeares play The Merchant of Venice for a

38、usurer. Shalock is no more a person in the play but a history image now. For Chinese, he may not know about Shalock. Other western cultural images with colorful history information can also be found in idioms and allusions, such as “paint the lily”; “meet ones Waterloo”; “cut the Gordians knot”; etc

39、. If we want to translate these allusions properly, we should also pay attention to the differences between Chinese and western cultures and use appropriate methods.5 The differences in regional culture and translationDifferent geographical situations and natural conditions have caused different cul

40、tures, which is the regional culture. This kind of cultural differences show themselves especially in the directions and its corresponding things. In China, north is noble while south is humble. So Chinese say “南面为王, 背面为朝”. Chinese people are also accustomed to say south before north, such as “从南到北”

41、; “南来北往”. While in western cultures, the situation is opposite. Westerners understand “从南到北” in Chinese from the aspect of English regional culture, they naturally mean “from north to south”. In the version of “西北”, “西南”, “东北”, “东南” they also have opposite statements, that is, northwest, southwest,

42、northeast, southeast, Take “东风” and “east wind” for example. There are corresponding words in Chinese and western culture, their reference meaning is the same, but the connotative meaning is quite different. In Chinese peoples eyes, “东风” symbolizes spring and warmth. It makes every living things rev

43、ive. Therefore, comes the saying of “东风报春” and Chinese people are partial to east wind. While in Britain, east wind comes from north of the European continent, representing coldness and unpleasantness.Therefore, British people dislike east wind. But they like west wind, which represents warmth and s

44、pring. There are two famous sentences from Sherleys Ode to the West Wind:O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? Here, “wind” should be translated into “西风”, and make some explanation to this region cultural difference, or else it will bring about confusion to Chinese readers who are unf

45、amiliar with English region culture.In addition, differences in region culture make nations have different notions on the same thing. Some things have rich connotation in one culture and can bring about rich association while in another culture they may be prosaic and have no cultural meaning. This

46、is the cultures individuality and difference. For example, in Chinese culture, cow is the representative of hardworking. Many famous people like to compare himself to a cow, such as Lu Xuns “俯首甘为孺子牛”, etc. Different from China, in ancient Britain, people use horse to plough, instead of cow. Therefor

47、e, in western culture, horse is the representative of hardworking and bearing hardships. And “力大如牛” in Chinese should be translated into “as strong as a horse” in English. “老黄牛”, “像牛一样勤劳” should be translated as “work like a horse”.（王秉钦，1995：254）6 The differences in customary culture and translation

48、Customary culture refers to the culture that is formed by a peoples customs and habits during the social life and communicative activities. Different nations have different conventions and habits in greeting, form of address, thank expressing, flattery, apology expressing, saying goodbye, and so on.

49、In China, when people meet each other, the greeting is often “Where are you going?” “What will you do?” “Have you had meals?” These words do not have deep meanings, only a courtesy greeting. While in western culture, these words are sensitive and serious. They regard these things as their privacy, other people cannot ask about, unless you are close friends. These greetings should be changed with relevant cultural transformation depending on specific situation. We can change