浅析影响英汉翻译实践的社会文化因素(2)
With the expanding of communication in the world’s politics, economy, science and technology, culture, the combination and communication of language culture between different states and nations is in deepening. Different countries in the world have different cultures of their own. Though there are many differences between cultures, there are a lot of similarities and sameness among them. And the similarities and sameness form the fundamental basis for the communications between the different cultures. The medium between them is translation. Translation is the most effective and the most important way for the cultural exchange among countries in the age of globalization. At the same time, translation is also an important part of social life. Whether studying the theory of faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance of Yan Fu or the theory of spirit likeness of Fu Lei, it reflects a kind of precipitation of language culture. From translation literature of Lin Shu to the prevalent henrik Ibsen in theatre in our country have proved the social values and cultural influence of translation practice. For the culture of a nation to develop, it should not only depend on its own power, but also absorb foreign cultures. Translation is such an effective means as to absorb different culture and to promote the further development of cross-cultural communication. Translating, which involves two languages, is unavoidably by two societies and two cultures, the source culture, source society and the target culture, target society. In this paper, we discuss the cultural and social factors by history, customs, religion, geographical environment and region, survival mode and so on to explore its influence and significance on translation practice.
II. Different Background Between English and Chinese
Without cultural similarities and universals, there is no way for people of different cultures to communicate with each other and translation would be impossible. However, this kind of ideal equivalence cannot always be found. Because English and Chinese belong to different language families, English is a branch of Indo-European family while Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family. Functioning within two sign systems that bear tremendous pergences from each other, they show a lot of differences in terms of linguistic levels. At the same time, deeply rooted in two different cultures of the West and the East, the English and Chinese expressions also show remarkable cultural and social differences. Cultural differences do exist everywhere between any two nations.
Sometimes the cultural differences are striking and obvious. They may involve conflicting values attached to the same objects. Take “dragon” and“龙”for example. The dragon in English and“龙”in Chinese are both imaginary animals but have very different connotations and evoke different associations. To Chinese people,“龙” which symbolizes auspiciousness, is also something sacred and has been referred to as the ancestor of the Chinese nation, that is why we Chinese call ourselves “descendants of the dragon”（龙的传人）, and Chinese feudal emperors were often referred to as“真龙天子”, wearing“龙袍”, living in palaces decorated with images of dragons. Many Chinese parents would“望子成龙”, but its literal translation “to expect one’s son to become a dragon” would sound ridiculous to English speaking people, because in their mind “dragon” is an evil monster which can spit fire and sometimes possesses three to nine heads and represents evilness. This is a good of cultural gap between English and Chinese.
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