Abstract
Because of differences in historical development, each nation has its own unique culture. Culturally-loaded words, that is, words loaded with national culture, reflect national history and culture most directly. Chinese culturally-loaded words are extremely rich, and have created obstacles to the smooth communication and translation between cultures. This thesis introduces the causes of semantic vacancy, the classification of Chinese culturally-loads words, and mainly focuses on the strategies for translating those words. It aims to help English learners better understand Chinese culturally-loaded words. This study shows that: there are four reasons for lexical vacancies: cultural differences in the national environment, in the national values, in traditional beliefs and in national customs and habits. Chinese culturally-loaded words can be divided into material culturally-loaded words, religious culturally-loaded and social culturally-loaded. To translate Chinese culturally-loaded words, the translator can adopt five methods: literal translation, free translation, transliteration, cultural substitution and annotation translation.
Key words: cultural-loaded words; semantic vacancy; classification; translation strategies
Contents
Abstract
摘要
1 Introduction-1
2 Causes of Semantic Vacancy-2
2.1 Cultural differences in the national environment-3
2.2 Cultural differences in traditional beliefs-3
2.2.1 Religion-3
2.2.1 Superstition-3
2.3 Cultural differences in national values-4
2.4 Cultural differences in national customs and habits-4
3 Classification of Chinese Special Words-4
3.1 Material culturally-loaded words-5
3.2 Religious culturally-loaded words-5
3.3 Social culturally-loaded words-5
4 Strategies for Translating Chinese Culturally-loaded Words-6
4.1 Literal translation-6
4.2 Free translation-7
4.3 Transliteration-8
4.4 Cultural substitution-8
4.5 Annotation translation-9
5 Conclusion-9
5.1 Summary of the Main Points-9
5.2 Limitations of this study-10
5.3 Significance of the study-10
References
