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Comparative Studies

Comparison of Modes of Expression and Ways of Thinking between English and Chinese Language in Cultural Perspective 易欢 Yi Huan

Abstract

The English language and Chinese language,with their own characteristics, embody their own cultural heritage and manifest different modes of thinking. Conspicuously, among language, culture and mode of thinking, there exists a closely related interaction. The culture affects thought, conversely, thought can reflect the culture. While language is under the impact of the both, presents the thinking and cultural differences in a most direct way. Therefore, this paper, from the perspective of culture, takes the relationship beween language and thought as the entry point to make a comparative study of English and Chinese language forms and ways of thinking. It is quite significant for the development of translation in cross-cultural communication.

Key words

language form; mode of thinking; English and Chinese language; culture

摘要

英汉语言各具特色，蕴含各自历史文化底蕴，彰显不同的思维模式。显而易见，语言，文化与思维模式之间形成了某种紧密联系的互动关系。文化影响思维，反之，思维也会体现文化，而语言受两者的影响，亦是阐明思维与文化差异的最直接的方式。因此，本文将从文化视域下，以语言和思维关系为切入口，对比探究英汉语言形式与思维方式，这对于跨文化交际下翻译发展来说至关重要。

关键词

语言形式；思维模式；英汉语言；文化

1. Introduction

 The relationship between language and thought is widely discussed among scholars at home and abroad. Karl Marx once remarks that language is a tool, carrier, shell, and a “dress” of thought. Language by nature is the embodiment of human thoughts and thoughts in turn is the mental reflection of the world around us. Language is therefore closely related to and supported by human thoughts. That is to say, without thought, language would be nothing sounds with no meaning or content. But thoughts, though accessible by various means, are best represented in language and can thus best fulfill its obligations to the speakers by such means. Also thought will further facilitate the development of language, Sapir once states, “ Thought processes set in, as a kind of psychic overflow, almost at the beginning of linguistic expression; further, that the concept once defined, necessarily reacted on the life of its linguistic symbols, encouraging further linguistic growth.”(1921: 12)

 At the same time, Language is part of culture. Such as Chinese language is a part of Chinese culture. Each country has its own language in a specific culture. However, their relationship is not just between part and whole. Language is the carrier and the representation of culture, while, as a mirror of culture, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture.
 
 Moreover, the thought also is largely influenced by its culture. Human thinking mainly consists of such elements as knowledge, ideology, methodology, intelligence, emotion, willpower, language and habits. The inter-relationship and interaction of these elements from a dynamic complex system is known as the mode of thinking. The mode of thinking is closely related to the worldview. It is the concentrated embodiment of all cultural and psychological properities and is shaped in a certain historical, social and geographical environment. Conversely, a person’s established mode of thinking conditions and even determines his/ her formation of judgement and pattern of behavior in a certain situation.
 
 In general, different culture leads to different mode of thinking which is demonstrated most in their own language. That is to say, the relationship among culture, mode of thinking and language is closely related to each other and they can be viewed as three parts of a whole. And in this paper, it is going to compare different mode of thinking and ways of expression between Chinese and English in cultural perspective, so as to better understand cross-culture communication.

2. The comparison of modes of thinking with the representation of ways of expression in English and Chinese

The language, thought and culture are independent but closely interrelated as we have discussed before. While in different countries, there exist vast differences in their thinking patterns, then this paper is going to illustrate four groups of opposite Chinese and Occidental thinking ways and present how these thinking patterns are reflected upon their language, and trace back to the cultural and historical foundations for these phenomena. While it just compares these modes of thought in a general way, and they are not simply manifested as opposite to each other, but intermingled to some extent with the exchange of culture and the common ground imparted in all human beings. All of the opposition between Chinese thinking and occidental thinking that I present is just a matter of degree, and we have to view it critically.

2.1 Holistic thinking vs Analytical thinking

 Generally speaking, human thought can be divided into two types: analytical thinking and holistic thinking. To some extent, Chinese emphasizes synthesis and English tends to be analytical.
 Holistic thinking puts emphasis on the integral concepts and the universal connection of objects. It regard man, nature and society as an unalienable organic whole. While analytical thinking will tend to focus more on labeling and analyzing different parts that eventually make up the whole. Actually, there must be some certain cultural background to the formation of western and Chinese mode of thinking. The formation of Chinese thinking mode can derive from Chinese people’s perspectives towards the nature. In Chinese classical philosophy, the conception of “One” better demonstrates the holistic view. According to Taoism, “All things obtained the One and became alive and kept growing.”(Tao Te Ching, chapter 36). Chuang Tzu promotes the concept of “One” to the state of the “unity of heaven and human”, and believes that the heaven and man, and the thing and self can all merge into one organically connected whole. Moreover, the essence that Chinese philosophy stresses the holistic view lies in the systematic evaluation and comprehensive grasp of all things, aiming to have a comprehensive and accurate understanding towards everything. After accumulated, condensed and sublimated through time, such philosophy facilitates Chinese people develop holistic thinking which is good at integrating, drawing up the guidelines and commanding the overall situation. While, in western culture, Plato firstly advocates “subject-object dichotomy” and then explain the world from a dualistic angle. In addition, the people can also be influenced by Aristotle’s syllogism, and always emphasize reasonable thinking in accordance with certain procedures, just like analysizing geometric problems in which one should derive the unknown, then demonstrate the process meticulously and finally draw a logic conclusion. It is exactly the characteristic of analytic thinking in which the object is divided into parts and one should investigate them respectively
 

Undeniably, thinking patterns can best be demonstrated in their language. In a word, Analytical thinking involves detachment of the object from its context, a tendency to focus on attributes of the object in order to assign it to categories, and a preface for using rules about the categories to explain and predict the object’s behavior. Holistic thinking involves an orientation to the context or field as a whole, including attention to relationship between a focal object and the field, and a preference for explaining and predicting events on the basis of such relationships. And parataxis and hypotaxis are exactly the concrete manifestations of holistic thinking and analytical thinking. In the field of linguistics and translation studies, parataxis, as opposed to hypotaxis , is the single most important feature distinguishing the Chinese language from English, with Chinese showing paratactic prominence and English hypotactic prominence. Nida once stated, “ So far as English and Chinese are concerned, the most important difference linguistically is the contrast between hypotaxis and parataxis.” (1982, 16) Liu Miqing believes that hypotaxis and parataxis can be viewed as the heterogeneous characteristics.(1992: 18). Zhang Li proposes that Chinese, in terms of grammar, belongs to parataxis, one of whose overall features lies in conciseness and economy. Hence, English uses many conjunctions, prepositions and other connective means to make links between phrases and words, because of which the language is more logical and better organized. on the other hand, in Chinese, the arranging of clauses is one after the other without connectives showing the relations between them. Hypotaxis can be viewed as the external logic forms of composing words into sentences, and parataxis the internal cognition of wording and phrasing. From the comparisons, we may see that the differences between hypotaxis and parataxis have resulted in the different sentence structures and language expression forms. Here are some examples:

(1) The thirty-two chapters of a novel — if we consider how to read a novel first —are an attempt to make something as formed and controlled as a building: but words are more impalpable than bricks; reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing.(Virginal Woolf, How Should One Read a Book?) 我们先来讨论一下小说的读法。一部三十二章的小说，作者努力把它塑造成像建筑物一样有形态、受制约的东西。然而，字句之比于砖瓦，更加触摸不到；阅读比之于观看，是个更为长久而复杂的过程。(Selected from the Anthology of Chinese and English Prose)

（2）门铃一声响，来了客人。从不谢客，礼当接待。忙把袜子穿上，整冠而出。来客红光满面，一开口就知道是远客。（楼适夷，《夜间来客——“名人”被访实录》） Suddenly the doorbell rang，announcing the arrival of a visitor. As Mr. Huang had never refused any visitor before, this one should be received with courtesy too. Quickly putting his socks back on and smoothing his hair，he hurried to the door，and there he was encountered by a man with a fat glowing face. (Lou Shiyi, A Night Visitor— A True Story a ‘Celebrity’ Being Interviewed. Translated by Zhang Peiji)

From the two examples above，we can percept that English is of very hypotaxis. In the first example, one preminent feature is the aboundant conjunctions, like “if”, “how”, “but” and “than”. And the sentence structures are tightly knitted with distinct subject-predicate. While in the Chinese version, it is in lack of these overt conjunctive devices. In the second example, in the source language, it uses more than ten verbs in succession, and narrates chronologically. Although it is loosely organized, all of these verbs are arranged in order and present with a clear clue. Therefore, when translating, the translator must demonstrate the hidden logical structure. But it is not absolute to confine English to hypotaxis and Chinese to parataxis, they just differentiate each other in the degree. Actually in English, Julius Caesar also famously said, “I came, I saw, I conquer.” And in some of Chinese works, some writers also tend to use the logical and connective sentences. That is to say, it is just the matter of degree, there are also hypotaxis in Chinese and parataxis in English. Moreover, as the exchanges in the world extend, the Chinese and English thinking modes can also be influenced respectively.

2.2 subject-oriented thinking and object-targeted thinking

 It is well know that Chinese culture and Occidental Culture are quite different, Chinese culture stress the subject, while Occidental people prefer the objective way of thinking.
 As China has confronted the sever natural and geographic condition, since the pre-Qin Dynasty, the governor would never think the outside world as the oppositt side of human beings. And Chinese people also advocate the harmony between men and nature, which has been retained till now. Moreover, Chinese Confucian school, Taoism and Buddhism all stress the subject. Lao Tsu said: “ Man models himself after the Earth; the Earth models itself after the Heaven; the Heaven models  itself after Tao；Tao models itself after the Nature. ” Mencius also stated, “All  things  under heaven are being prepared for me.” Hence, since ancient times, the Chinese people  have tended to consider all things from an anthropocentric standpoint. The outstanding scholar Qian Mu states that “In short, Chinese culture takes human and human affairs as a core. Human and human affairs refer to all reality and ideal when human are getting along with each other. The manifestation and achievement of Chinese culture is around the core. The reason why Chinese culture can be fused into a whole is that Chinese culture shows its value through its core-human and human affairs.” (1977: 331) Hence, Chinese culture is human-centered. It is, essentially, a kind of humanistic culture, under the deep influence of which the subjective thought-pattern has come into being. The subjective thought pattern refers to observing, analyzing, learning and studying objects anthropocentrically and view human beings as the part of a whole nature.
 On the contrary, the occidental objective thinking takes objects and nature as core, and pay more attention to the observation and research of the objects. The occidental culture originated in Greek peninsular and its coastal areas, where the sages in Ancient Greece has looked upon at the cosmos and nature, and always investigated the natural mystery. And based on the dichotomy and antithesis, gradually, the spirit of occidental culture is to separate subjective from objective and to conqure nature. Hence the occidental tradition takes nature as cognitive object. Unlike Chinese culture and tradition, the occidental rationalism adovacates objective attitudes. Francis Bacon once remarked, “Authority, habit, prejudice and exaggeration eration are barriers to truth. To seek truth, one should overcome these obstacles. ” Owing to English people’s objective thinking, they often use impersonal to account the events, and try to be objective. G. Leech and J. Svartvik point out: “Formal written language often goes with an impersonal style; i.e. one which the speaker does not refer directly to himself or readers, but avoids the pronouns I, you, we. Some of the common features of impersonal language are passives, sentences beginning with introductory it, and abstract nouns.”(1974:25) While Chinese people’s subjective thinking pattern demonstrates itself in Chinese in two notable ways: animate subjects and the majority used of active voice. Actually, according to Shen Xiaolong, the configuration of Chinese character demonstrates the subject-oriented thinking pattern. Based on the pictographs, the Chinese characters refer to the object and its ideographs are people-oriented. Hence in English-Chinese translation, the translator should transform from subjective thinking to objective thinking, for instance: 

The sight of the big tree always reminds me of my childhood. (连淑能) 一看见那棵大树，我便想起了童年的情景。

A good idea suddenly occur on me. 我突然想出了一个好主意。

 The two English sentences, with the abstract subjects: “The sight of the big tree” and “ A good idea” are quite natural to English readers, while in Chinese it is quite queer and none of Chinese people are accustomed to use them in such way. Hence, in Chinese version, it begins with the personal subject “我” and sounds quite smooth and comprehensible to the Chinese readers. 

 Moreover, in English, the two expletive words (it and there) are frequently used show its objectivity in the text. At the same time, in Chinese, there are many no-subject sentences, like “下雪了” “该去学校啦” “太冷了”.  While such kind of expression are not allowed in English, for it appears to be complete with a subject in English grammar. Hence, in English, they can be expressed in this way: “it snows”, “It is time to go to school” and “It is too cold”. And owing to English objective thinking, the English passive voice, especially the impersonal passive of “it” is used as the subject, such as “it is believed”, “it is said”, “it is reported”, etc., expresses the facts or ideas in an objective, indirect and roundabout way. It is obvious that the English passive sentences should be converted into the Chinese active sentences. Although the sentence structures are changed, the meanings still remain the same as the original sentences. Also in English “there” and “there be” pattern are impersonal expressions, But in Chinese translation, concrete persons and things are usually used instead. For instance: 

(1) 公交车来了。 There comes the bus. (2) 我家有五口人。 There are 5 people in my family.

 Clearly, the sentences above reveal that in Chinese there must be certain subjects supplanting the “there” or “there be” pattern. In general, with the influence of the respective modes of thinking, Chinese tends to be subjective and English prefers objection, but it is not necessarily absolute. In English, we can also find numerous personal subjects like “I think”, “I believe”. And in Chinese, it often use the passive tense in the writings in Classical Chinese, such as “受制于人” (be restricted by sb) “为人所骗” (be cheated by sb). Hence, it is also quite common to begin with personal subjects in English and use objective subject and passive tense in Chinese. Clearly, it is a matter of degree.

2.3 Concrete thinking and abstract thinking

 Generally speaking, Chinese people prefer thinking in images and English people prefer thinking in notions. Conspicuously, there are some cultural and historical factors leading to the formation of different thinking patterns. Actually, the change and development of Chinese characters is the best illustration for the concrete thinking of Chinese people. Chinese language is vivid and full of images. As we all know that the Chinese character is characterized by pictographs, which express the meaning through the outer form. For example, the character “人” (man) is like the two legs of a person; and “从” (follow) looks like that one person is followed by another; the “山” (mountain) is the shape of a mountain. Therefore, from ancient times, Chinese people tend to borrow the images of outside world to form their own hieroglyphs. Following such kind of thought model, concrete thinking is established and reflected in Chinese language. As Nakamura remarks, “The Chinese people had a high regard for particulars, and presented content concretely in accordance with their way of thinking, naturally fond of complex multiplicity expressed in concrete form.” ( 1991, 217) While Occidental people prefer abstract thinking which takes concept, judgement and reasoning as form of thinking, and expresses ideas and emotions through logical sentences. Since the English letters are based on the Greek alphabet, and it is hard to form a pictograph to express the meaning of the word which can only come from the object description of the nature. Also in the process of learning and analyzing the objective world, the occidental aim at exploring the essence and origin of the world. By means of classification and analysis, they try to find the universals of the same kind of objects and combine them together to form a so-called “the World of form” or “the ideal world”. Moreover, they are fairly interested in the properties of things, and examine them carefully and thoroughly. Their explorations about mathematics, geometry and astronomy contribute to abstract thinking. In the aspect of linguistic expression, the English language tend to be more abstract or logical. Abstract language refers to the language that uses method of abstract diction to express the complex ideas which lie mainly in abstract nouns. G. M. Young once pointed that an excessive reliance on the noun at the expense of the verb will, in the end，detach the mind of the writer from the realities of here and now, from when and how and in what mood the thing was done. and insensibly induce a habit of abstraction, generalization and vagueness. While in Chinese language, the concrete, clear and picturesque words are widely used, just as R. Flesch states, “ Chinese dose more to you than just simplify your constructions… They formed the habit of expressing ideas by metaphors, similes, and all aegis, in short, by every known devices for making a thing plain by comparing it with something else.” ( 1946: 15-16)The two different kinds of thinking patterns also can be medonstrated in the artistic design of literary works. For instance, the poem《凉州词》written by Wang Han, and the poem《登高》 writer by Du Fu can fully examplify the concrete and picturesque Chinese language, and both of them are translated by Xu Yuanchong.

葡萄美酒夜光杯， 欲饮琵琶马上催。

      — 王翰《凉州词》

With wine of grapes the cups of jade would glow at night, Drinking to pipa songs, we are summoned to fight.

无边落木萧萧下， 不尽长江滚滚来。

       —杜甫《登高》

The boundless forest sheds its leaves shower by shower, The endless river rolls it’s waves hour after hour.

 In the two poems above, the poets use several concrete images like “wine of grapes”, “cups of jade” “boundless forest” and “ endless river”. It is easy to visualize the certain situation that poets depict for us, when we read these lines. While in English there are more abstract nouns to replace the function of verb and express abstract meanings, which sometimes can cause puzzlement for Chinese people. For instance, in Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography: 

“To help myself live without fault, I made a list of what I considered the 13 virtues. These virtues are: 1 Temperance, 2 Self-control, 3 Silence, 4 Order, 5 Firmness of mind, 6 Savings, 7 Industry, 8 Honesty, 9 Justice, 10 Cleanliness, 11, calmness, 12 Morality, 13 Humbleness.” “为了使自己生活中不犯错误，特别列出我认为应该身体力行的 13 条守则。这些守则 是：1.节制饮食 2.自我克制 3. 沉默寡言 4. 有条不紊 5. 坚定信念 6.勤俭节约 7. 工作勤奋8. 忠诚老实 9. 办事公正 10. 衣着整洁 11.平心静气 12. 品行高尚 13.谦虚恭顺。” There are 13 abstract words in English and they are translated into Chinese concretely with the verbs to gover the phrases. So that it would be vividly explained what do these abstract words convey in a specific way.

Wisdom prepares for the worst; but folly leaves the worst for the day it comes. 智者防范于未然，愚者临渴掘井。（陈文伯译）

 In the sentence, “wisdom” and “folly” are two abstract nouns, but they actually refer to certain people. The expression in English is quite common and concise, while Chinese people are accustomed to the thinking in images, hence, in the translation, the concept of two abstract nouns is materialized as two people with certain properties. So that Chinese people can better understand the implicit meaning.

2.4 circular thinking and linear thinking

 According to Robert Kaplan who analynizes different discourses and their different organization in different notions, students from different cultural backgrounds adopt different patterns of writing. The Chinese text, in contrast with the English text which is organized in a linear structure, is usually arranged in circular structure (1966:1-2). 
 Circular thinking can also be known as inductive thinking in which we infer a conclusion on the basis of facts and draw a conclusion from particular to general. From ancient times, traditional Chinese medicine already sets a model for us. They follow the principles of “inspection”, “inquiry”, “listening” and “smelling” and can finally make a diagnosis. Later in Compendium of Materia Medica writen by Li Shizheng, it collect and summarize a vast of prescription based on his practical experiences and mothods. And underlying the observations, Chinese people will finally draw a conclusion and are not always accustomed to express their opinions directly. Actually, it can derive from the traditional Chinese culture where the Confucianism immensely governs people’s thought. Under the influence of “the doctrine of mean” and the underlined “mutual harmony” in traditional Chinese philosophy, which cultivate Chinese to avoid direct confrontation and conflicts and take a mean course while they are thinking. Hence such kind of circular thinking model can be reflected upon the Chinese language where ideas are often organized and linked in an overall  framework, and does not state the topic directly in the opening lines but constantly lays out  relevant or even irrelevant information to provide many-sided perspectives for judging. While, on the contrary, the occidental thinking pattern tends to be linear, or we can say it is a kind of deductive thinking model. It starts from general to particular, from abstract to concrete, and from outcome to reason. The occidental prefer to directly talk about the topic at the beginning without reservation. As a matter of fact, it is deeply influenced by the Greek philosophy. The way of thinking is inherited from the Greek philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, especially Aristotlian logical and reasonable thinking. Aristotle puts forward two thought patterns: “ deduction and induction”, while he himself view the deductive method superior to the inductive one. Just as Guo remarks, “ For over 2000 years, syllogism and deduction has been a mainstream for western culture and thought.” And also Aristotle generalizes the discourse into four parts: beginning, poising a question, analysis and expounding, conclusion, which can be viewed as an epitome of occidental linear thinking pattern. In general, English thought pattern is a straight pattern. And so a text is usually centered on a topic in the form of the topic sentence of topic paragraph and then it is developed in a deductive method, directly by many sentences in a sequence. So, the crucial part is usually put at the beginning of an English sentence, but at the end of a Chinese sentence. Here are some examples: 

(1) Soccer is a difficult sport. A player must be able to run steadily without rest. Sometimes a player must hit the ball with his or her head. Players must be willing to bang into or be banged into by others. They must put up with aching feet and sore muscles. 足球运动员必须不停地奔跑，有时得用头顶球，撞别人或被别人撞，必须忍受双腿和肌肉的疼痛，所以说，足球是一项难度大的运动。

There is another example to view how Chinese people and American people express their own emotions. The two excerpts are from the Keynote Speech By H.E. Xi Jinping President of the people’s Republic of China At the Opening Ceremony of The third China International Import Expo and President Obama’ speech at Fu Dan University in Shanghai respectively. (2) 各位来宾，

  女士们，先生们，朋友们：
  Distinguished Guests,
  Ladies and Gentlemen,
  Dear Friends,
  在各方共同努力下，第三届中国国际进口博览会开幕了！首先，我代表中国.   政府和中国人民，并以我个人的名义，向各位嘉宾，表示热烈的欢迎！对各位新老朋友，表示诚挚的问候！

With concerted efforts of all parties, the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) is now open. At the outset, let me extend, on behalf of the government and people of China as well as in my own name, a hearty welcome to all the distinguished guests. To the many old and new friends, I give you my warm greetings and best regards.

Good afternoon. It is a great honor for me to be here in Shanghai, and to have this opportunity to speak with all of you. 诸位下午好。 我感到很荣幸能够有机会到上海跟你们交谈。

 Obviously, in the first example, in English versions, the topic sentence is presented first, then it begins to illustrate the topic in a logical way to convince us that soccer is a difficult sport. Then in the second example, we can see that the president Xi and American former President Obama show their delightment in quite different ways. We Chinese people tend to express our joy at the end of discourse, while American people are willing to show their emotions at the beginning, which also vividly presents the Chinese linear thinking and Occidental circular thinking. 
 

Although the distinction between Chinese linear thinking and Occidental circular thinking is widely recognized at home and abroad, it is not categorically clear about the line between Chinese and English. Actually, many ancient writers in China are fond of coming straight to the point and hit the nail on the head in a precise way. Liang Qichao, an excellent ancient scholar in Qing Dynasty, proposes in his the Methodology of composition above middle school, that the most important thing is to make readers get the writer’s purpose at a glance when reading an article, so that it can touch and gain the reader’s interest. And also the “general discussion-sub discussion-conclusion model” is only one certain structure for English writing. Hence it is hard to say that English is Linear and Chinese is circular as Robert Kaplan defines, and we have to critically think about the differences between Chinese and English.

3. Conclusion

 The discussions of the comparison between Chinese and Occidental thinking models have been carried out for a long time. In this paper, through the comparison on four opposite types of modes of thinking: Holistic thinking vs Analytical thinking, subject-oriented thinking vs object-targeted thinking, concrete thinking vs abstract thinking, and linear thinking vs circular thinking, and presenting how they reflect upon their language, it demonstrates that cultural diversity and different historical origin may dominate the formation of thinking patterns. Since in the sea of the Chinese and Occidental language and thought, the culture is like a mirror which reflects all-embracing phenomena. That is to say, language, thought and culture are essentially associated with each other. While there are also some other types of comparison among modes of thought like “static thinking vs dynamic thinking”, “fuzzy thinking vs accurate thinking” and so on. Moreover, we have to classify the writing style and genre of the articles, which would set up different principles in diction, so we can not lump together under one head and blindly follow that the Chinese and Occidental thinking models must be opposite in certain dimension. Hence this paper just tries to compare them in a general way, so that we can have a relatively overall view about the two language. Since the thought impacts a lot upon the language, we have to firstly understand how people from different nation think about the world and other objects around them, and then better understand why and how they tend to use such kind of ways of expression. Then it is greatly useful to learn a second language well and to better perform in the cross-cultural communication with the extent of cultural exchanges nowadays.

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English Translation of 2019 Government Work Report from the Perspective of Eco-translatology 义子楚 Yi Zichu

===Abstract=== In recent years, with the deepening of the reform and opening up, the Government Work Report has become China's foreign political communication hub conducive to a better understanding by the international community of the work of the Chinese government. Therefore, how to effectively write the corresponding English version and how to fully convey the message of the government's work is one of the main problems for translators. Eco-translatology is an ecological paradigm and research field which defines that translation is adaptation and selection and highlights multi-dimension transformation. This thesis analyzes the English translation of the 2019 Government Work Report from three perspectives: linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions. It is shown that eco-translatology help improve the quality of the English translation of 2019 Government Work Report .

===Key words=== eco-translatology; 2019 Government Work Report; multi-dimension transformation

===摘要===近年来，随着改革开放的不断深入，《政府工作报告》已变成中国对外政治交流的枢纽，有利于加深国际社会对中国政府工作的了解。因此，如何有效地编写《中国政府工作报告》对应的英文版本，从而全面清晰地解释政府工作的内容是政府对外翻译的主要问题之一。生态翻译理论从生态学视角对翻译进行综观的整体性研究，是一个‘翻译即适应与选择’的生态范式和研究领域。本文主要从生态翻译学的多维翻译理论着手，通过语言维、文化维和交际维三个角度对《2019政府工作报告》的英译版本进行分析。分析显示生态翻译理论较好地解决了政府工作报告中翻译难题，提高了英文翻译的质量。 关键词：生态翻译学，《政府工作报告》，多维转换理论

Introduction

The Government Work Report of the state council is a review of the work within a year, which the National People's Congress on the prime minister of state court reports to the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, including the task of deployment, and the transmission of the priority tasks. It reflects the national policy, culture, as an important text of national conditions. Over the past four decades and since reform and opening up, China's overall political, economic, cultural and military strength has grown steadily, and so has its voice in the world. On the one hand, China is recognized and supported by the international community in economic, political and cultural fields. On the other hand, countries hope to have a deeper understanding of China, strengthen ties with China and realize common development. Due to this, the translation of external publicity is particularly important. Let China know more about the world and let the world know more about China. As the latest work report of the year, the 2019 Government Work Report is not only a comprehensive summary of the work of the government in 2018, but also a plan for the work of the government in 2019. It covers the latest political, economic, cultural and diplomatic developments in China. Eco-translatology theory, which originated in China, provides a new and unique perspective for translation studies and has made great progress in the past two decades. Through the interpretation of the core concepts of eco-translatology, this paper interprets the report language from the perspectives of vocabulary and syntax, and proposes corresponding translation strategies based on language dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension, so as to provide reference for the translation of external publicity materials. In order to understand the Government Work Report accurately, we must be combined with the society and culture of China. So, the Chinese-English translation is of great significance. And in recent years, the domestic scholars attach great importance to the translation of political words. Therefore, it has important functions and research values to study on the Chinese-English translation of Government Work Report from the prospective of eco-translatology. Cheng Zhenqiu(2003）reposed that the translation of political articles should focus on politics. Huang Youyi(2004) proposed The Three Principles of External Publicity Translation. Tong Xiaohua (2014) explores the English translation of the Government Work Report from different perspectives. Wang Gangyi（2014）also pointed out that the former absolute loyalty to the translation of political texts can no longer satisfy the changing society and readers. Linguistics emphasizes the equivalence of texts from different aspects, which is of great guiding significance for texts like the Government Work Report that emphasizes fidelity. Under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory, Zhou Ji studied the economic and political terms in the report at the lexical and textual levels. In 2001, Joan Pinkham (2000:1) published a book and it is The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish, in which it explores the Chinglish in political publicity from the angle of lexis and syntax. In her book, she suggested that translators should not only understand the subtle connotations of words and sentences clearly and use more idioms to express the meanings of the source text, but also pay special attention to the tone and short sentences of Chinese, and avoid the use of outdated, rigid terms, slang and colloquialisms. Compared with domestic studies, the number of relevant studies abroad is very small, and there are almost no relevant translation studies. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that foreign countries are more interested in the content of the report, that is, to describe the national policies, culture and social issues. This thesis focuses on translation of political publicity from the perspective of eco-translatology in order to proves that eco-translation is conductive and practical in the process of translating the Government Work Report and summarizes several useful strategies in translating political texts. Moreover, this thesis analyzes the features of Government Work Report, which provides a clear mind for translators in selecting the proper strategies in translation process of the Government Work Report. This thesis includes three chapters. The first part introduces the research background of the study and the significance of the study, and also illustrates the previous research on the translation of Government Work Report at home and abroad. Chapter two surrounds on the theoretical framework of eco-translatology including adaptation and selection principle and multi-dimensional translation principle. Chapter three, as one of the main chapter of the thesis, analyzes the translation of the 2019 Government Work Report from the perspective of eco-translatology.  

1.Introduction of Government Work Report

Government Work Report has the features of com prehension and objection, it using the data and truth to telling the achievements of all aspects and obey the practical and realistic rules to implementing the plan. Government Work Report emphasizes on the key point of works which has plain and innovative writing style. As a typical political text, Government Work Report manifests distinctive features. First, we need to understand the characteristics of the words, phrases, and sentences in the report so that we can translate them naturally and logically.

1.1 Lexical Level

For Government Work Report has its own features at m any levels, it often uses the formal and concise words, terminology and plain words at lexical level. And the new, popular words and words with Chinese characteristics are also employed. Therefore, it is very necessary to pay attention to the features at lexical level when analyzing the Government Work Report.

1.1.1Formal and Concise Words

The expressions like “认真贯彻”(fully implement), “坚定不移纠正”(take stern action against)are quite formal and not common in colloquial conversation. Some expressions like “砥砺奋进”(forged ahead), “攻坚克难”(overcame difficulties) are quite condensed so that the simplest word can explain more meanings. The Chinese four-word structure characteristic can fully satisfy the need of concision, therefore, there are many this kind of structure occurred in the Government Work Report.

1.1.2 Terms with Chinese Characteristics

As the Government Work Reports involve many professional fields like politics, economics, livelihood, medicine and technology. Therefore, terms in different fields are inevitable，such as “半拉子”工程 ( Make sure that projects financed by such debts are not stopped half way.); “河长制、湖长制”( river chiefs and lake chiefs ) ; “革命老区” ( old revolutionary base areas ); “民族地区”( areas with large ethnic minority populations ) ; “携号转网”( keep their numbers and switching carriers ); “厕所革命”( the Toilet Revolution ). These words are all unique terms for China ’s national conditions in recent years. If they are translated literally, it will inevitably lead to differences in the understanding of target language readers. In this case, translators must adapt to the ecological environment.

1.1.3 New and Popular Words

The new words here refer to the popular expressions of the year. They are widely known by people. The internet and other media are also frequently and widely used, such as “好差评”(government service evaluation system); “互联网+”(Internet Plus); “包干制”(the creation of ceilings in funding that enable the retention of unused funds)”僵尸企业”(zombie enterprises);”大病保险”(serious disease insurance ); “绿色发展”(green development). They are too popular on the Chinese social life to let even the government leaders use them and create new ones.

1.2 Syntactic Level

In Chinese, the grammatical subject is always absent in a sentence. In Government Work Report, there have lots of this kind of structure frequently. English is a metamorphic language which requires a large number of logical word clauses to build the integrity of language form and meaning. In English grammar, the subject is inevitable so that it can be a complete sentence. Eg: “困难不容低估，信心不可动摇，干劲不能松懈。” (The difficulties we face must not be underestimated, our confidence must not be weakened, and the energy we bring to our work must not be allowed to wane.) It is clear that there is no subject in these sentences. However, it adds “we face” and “we bring to work” as subjects to make foreign readers better understand.

1.3 Rhetorical Level

In terms of the rhetorical devices in Government Work Report, repetition, parataxis, metaphor and personification are the figures of speech most frequently used.

1.3.1 Repetition and Parataxis

Repetition and parataxis structure have the reinforcement effect which make the language of Government Work Report vivid and easy to be understood. Although in Chinese, repetition has both the emphasis and coherence effect, in the translation it is not just repeating one word but also keep the similar linguistic structure. Eg: “进一步稳就业、稳金融、稳外贸、稳外资、稳投资、稳预期”(take further steps to ensure stable employment, a stable financial sector, stable foreign trade, stable foreign investment, stable domestic investment, and stable expectations) [1] “获得感、幸福感、安全感”(enable people to feel more satisfied, happy, and secure) [1] “增进稳增长、促改革、调结构、惠民生、防风”(sustain healthy economic development and maintain social stability) [1]===== Metaphor and personification, which seem not fit the formal style of Government Work Report, are actually adopted for certain purpose. A metaphor as a figure of speech identifies something as being the same as some unrelated thing for rhetorical effect, thus highlighting the similarities between the two. Eg:“我国发展仍处于重要战略机遇期，拥有足够的韧性、巨大的潜力和不断迸发的创新活力” (China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for development and has ample resilience, enormous potential, and great creativity to unleash. )[1] “在实际执行中，既要把好货币供给总闸门，不搞 “大水漫灌” (In implementation, we will ensure the valve on aggregate monetary supply is well controlled and refrain from using a deluge of stimulus policies)[1] “放水养鱼”(an accommodative effect)[1]

2.A Brief Introduction to Eco-translatology

Eco-translatology as a transdisciplinary approach to eco-translatology studies, it is a holistic study of translation using ecological rationality and an ecological perspective. It is considered an ecological paradigm of translation which is adaptation and selection. Translator-centered theory, adaptation and selection, and translation ecological environment are the three core concepts of the theory. The theory requires that the translator's subjective and active role be exerted, and continuous adaptation and choice be made in the translation process to meet the entire translation ecological environment, that is, the harmony between the translator and the original, target, and target language readers. Three-dimensional translation methods such as dimension and communicative dimension to get the original text with higher integration.

2.1 Evolution of Eco-translatology

Eco-translation was firstly generated in the beginning of 21st century. Before it was initiated by scholars in China, there was no such notion in theory. In this sense, it could be seen as a new school which “was built from ground” (Haggas, 2011). Eco-translation looks into translation from a brand new perspective. Therefore, many new terms and concepts are adopted in the relative studies. Both of confusion and contribution present themselves in the foundation of eco-translation. To better understand the theory, we need to figure out the basis on which it is formed

2.1.1 Previous Studies on Eco-translatology

As a translation theory originated in China, eco-translatology has been gradually improved in the past two decades. In 2001, professor Hu Gengshen laid the foundation for the theory of adaptation and selection of translation. Since then, the first decade has been the period of constructing and expanding the theoretical framework. In the second decade, with the holding of the international symposium on eco-translatology and the practice of the theory of eco-translatology of the professors of various universities, the eco-translatology system has gradually become mature. Liu Yafeng wrote adaptation and selection of translators -- a study on the translation process of external publicity, pointing out that translators should play their role of “selection” and “adaptation” as the center in the translation process of external publicity, so as to realize the harmony and unity of the whole translation ecological environment. For three-dimensional adaptation and selection principles, Zhou Li wrote the multi-dimensional integration principle under the care of the political party and government discourse translation to demonstrate the dimensions of language, culture, and communication in the perspective of the Chinese party guiding significance of discourse translation. It further enlightens the translator for the use of a multi-dimensional integration technique and set up a bridge of communication between the original language and target language.

2.1.2 Application of Eco-translatology

There are many types of text analysis related to eco-translatology. Specifically, it includes: first, the analysis of various classical translations, such as a dream of red mansions, etc. Scholars have analyzed the reasons for the success of these classic works from the perspective of the overall translation ecological environment and the principle of “three-dimensional” transformation, pointing out that translators can only translate good works if they adapt to the translation ecological environment. These analysis has been the focus of research, and can best prove the feasibility of the theory. Secondly, the text analysis of public signs points out the direction from a new perspective. Thirdly, the text analysis of film title and subtitle. Fourthly, the text analysis of news translation. Scholars have analyzed the phenomenon of news text translation from different perspectives of eco-translatology and provided theoretical guidance.

2.2 Focuses of Eco-translatology

2.2.1 Adaption and Selection

The relationship between “adaptation” and “selection” has rarely been discussed before the emergence of “translation adaptation and selection theory”, a basic research of eco-translatology, let alone a special topic, systematic description and explanation. According to the theory of adaptation and selection, translators should make both adaptation and selection. There are choices in adaptation, namely adaptive selection; There is adaptation, or selective adaptation. The specific characteristics of such selective adaptation and adaptive selection are as follows: first, “adaptation” -- translators' adaptation to the ecological environment of translation; The second is “selection” -- the translator carries out the selection of the target text with the “identity” of the translation ecological environment. Translation is described as an alternate cycle of adaptation and selection. The internal relations of this cycle are as follows: “the purpose of adaptation is survival and effectiveness, and the means of adaptation is optimization; and the method of choice is “tide weak stay strong”. The criterion of translation criticism is also expressed from the perspective of “adaptation/selection”[2]. The best choice is adaptive; The best translation is the one with the highest degree of integration, adaptation and selection.[2]

2.2.2 Multi-dimension Transformation

Language dimension adaptive selection conversion refers to the translator's emphasis on language level, including word use, language structure, language form and other aspects of translation. “Translators should have a deep understanding of the expression habits and methods of the original language, and choose language forms from different dimensions and perspectives, so as to adapt to the ecological environment of the original language” (Hu Gengshen,2013:57). Translators should avoid word-for-word translation for the formal level of language, and should further combine the target language with the imaginary language ecosystem. In this way, it is helpful to further realize the balance between the ecology of the source language and the ecology of the target language of translation, and provide the readers with a harmonious and thought-provoking translation. Cultural dimension adaptive selection transformation is an important translation method for translators to improve the quality of translation and realize the multi-dimensional transformation from different levels. The expression of different languages symbolizes different cultures. Of course there are big differences between the original and the target language culture. In the process of translation, to avoid misunderstanding of the original readers fully, conversion of the translator should try to reproduce the original language cultural ecology system, fully implement the original language ecological balance of ecosystem, and the target language to reproduce the original culture, thought and emotion and so on various aspects of the elements, the correct translation methods dealing with the unique cultural connotation, rich in every country to achieve successful communication and exchanges. Translators should understand the value orientation of the original language and culture and focus on the transformation of cultural connotation to achieve the best translation. Adaptive selection of communicative dimension focuses on whether the communicative intention in the original text is successfully realized in translation. If the communicative intention of the original information is not realized, the information processed by the translation will have no meaning at all. Translators should pay attention to many aspects and levels, including the transformation of language information and cultural connotation, and at the same time, should pay attention to whether the communicative purpose is successfully achieved in the transformation. By all means, it is forbidden to translate the original text faithfully and ignore the deep connotation of the original text. In a word, the focus of the multi-dimensional transformation in ecological translation theory is to carry out adaptive selection and transformation from three aspects of language, culture and communication. Although the selection and transformation of translators is not limited to these three dimensions in the process of translation practice, multi-dimension transformation is the most important way in the translation process. In addition, the more dimensions the translator pays attention to in the process of translation, the stronger the degree of adaptation and selection of the translation, and the higher the quality of the translation will be.

3.E-C Translation of 2019 Government Work Report from an Eco-translatology Perspective

From the perspective of the eco-translatology theory, the multi-dimensional transformation which includes the linguistics dimensional transformation, culture dimensional transformation and communication dimensional can help translator understand and translate effectively.

3.1 Linguistic Dimension

The transformation of linguistic dimension refers to the transformation of linguistic form and structure during the practice of translation so as to adapt to the ecological environment of the target language. English is a hypotaxis language, which focuses on the integrity of sentence structure while Chinese is a paratonic language, whose language form is simple, but often the deep meaning needs the reader to dig. Highly condensed Chinese expressions are often used in government reports Example 1 我们坚持不搞“大水漫灌”式强刺激(We were firm in choosing not to adopt a deluge of strong stimulus policies.) [1] “大水灌溉” is an irrigation method commonly used in Chinese agricultural production which water is poured directly into the ground. Not only does it waste water, but it is also prone to secondary salinization under drought conditions. This term is used to refer to a simple and broad way of working in the process of economic reform. In the Chinese ecological environment, it is not difficult for Chinese readers to understand the meaning of metaphors and related words, so a cognitive model for English readers is needed. In order to adapt to the ecological environment, the translator did not translate the metaphor of “flooding”, but chose to translate the economic structural reform model it represents. This not only adapts to the impact of cognitive context on the English language ecology, but also reduces the difficulty in understanding English readers. Example 2 “增强人民群众获得感、幸福感、 安全感”(Enable people to feel more satisfied, happy and secure.) [1] In the Government Work Report, “sense of gain, sense of happiness and sense of security” is people's expectation for a better life, and has become a familiar word in the original language. However, in the process of English translation, the translator does not repeat the word “sense”, but turns these three words into three adjectives, which are concise and clear Example 3 “绿色发展人人有责，贵在行动、 成在坚持”(Promoting green development is down to every last one of us; its success hinges on action and commitment.) [1] The translator doesn’t translate “贵在行动、成在坚持” into”its value lies in action and its success hinges on commitment”word by word while take the way of integrating. It is a model that targets economic growth and social development as efficient, harmonious and sustainable. In today's world, green development has become an important trend. Many countries regard green development as an industry and also an important measure to promote economic restructuring, and it is also a highlight. Green development means safety, environmental protection and sustainable development. “Green” often appears on topics related to life, such as “Green Peace” and green food. In traditional Chinese culture, “green” represents wealth, honor or prosperity, which reflects people's hope for a better life. From a linguistic perspective, translators translate “green development” to “green,” which conveys the concept of healthy development in China. It can also be accepted by readers.

3.2 Cultural Dimension

The transformation of cultural dimension means that the translator should pay attention to the transmission and interpretation of cultural connotation in the process of translation, taking into account the cultural differences of the source language. The Government Work Report is a summary of the work of the Chinese government in various fields in the past year. The purpose of the report is to let foreign audiences know the content of the report. In particular, the report covers a large number of vocabularies with Chinese characteristics and cultural form. Example 4”双随机，一公开”(Oversight conducted through the random selection of both inspectors and inspection targets and the prompt release of results was implemented nationwide.)[1] It means, during the supervision process, the inspection objects are randomly selected, law enforcement inspectors are randomly selected, and the inspection results and investigation results are made public to the society in a timely manner. If the literal translation is only superficial, the readers of the target language will be confused. In order to solve this cultural difference, the translator added the complete connotation of each phrase to realize the intention of conveying cultural connotation. Example 5 “思危方能居安”(Only alertness to danger will ensure safety.)[1] In Chinese, it means”居安思危，思则有备，有备无患”, which means that even though you are in a peaceful environment, you are aware of the possibility of danger. To be mentally prepared for unexpected events. When translating, the translator takes full account of this difference in thinking and understands it as a literal translation after modern Chinese. Example 6 “是广大干部群众筚路蓝缕、千辛万苦干出来的” (...have been made by our officials and people through perseverance and hard work.)[1] “筚路蓝缕” refers that people drive a simple car, wearing ragged clothes to split the mountains. The use of great hardships in the original text fully reflects the hard-won achievements and presents a very vivid image in front of people. However, for the target language readers, this cultural connotation is missing, therefore, the translator chooses to omit the specific image of “enduring hardships” and directly translate its persistence and diligence, which is more understood and accepted by the target language readers

3.3 Communicative Dimension

From the perspective of the essence of translation, the ultimate purpose of translation is to meet the needs of communication between people and achieve smooth communication. The communicative dimension mainly reflects the communication between different languages, with different factors such as the way of expression and the way of construction, etc. Chinese expression cannot find the corresponding words or sentences in English expression. Therefore, the theory of adaptive selection is particularly important in translation practice. Example 7”大班额”问题 (“The problem of oversized classes”) For western countries, due to different economic development levels and different education systems, the problem of “large class size” is relatively strange to western countries. Therefore, it is necessary to explain the concept of “large class size” in order to achieve the purpose of communication. Example 8”继续推进保障性住房建设和城镇棚户区改造”(We will continue to build government subsidized housing and rebuild rundown urban areas.) “保障性住房”is a fixed standard, price or rent housing provided by the government to families with low and middle-income housing difficulties. “Shantytown renovation” is a livelihood project launched by the Chinese government to renovate dilapidated old houses in cities and towns and improve housing conditions for poor families. These are the unique policies of the Chinese government to achieve the comprehensive implementation of poverty alleviation, translators need to adapt to the target language readers to understand the transformation. Example 9 “加大”破、立、降”力度” (We strengthened work to cut ineffective supply, foster new growth drivers, and reduce costs in the real economy.)[1] In the sentence, there are only three simple and clear words—”破、立、降”，which is usually seen in the Chinese. It lacks the objects, as we have discussed before, English sentence must be complete. If it is literally translated, the foreign readers will be confused and different meanings will be produced. So due to the purpose of communication, the translator adds the specific objects to be better understood. In short, the emphasis of three-dimensional translation in eco-translatology theory is to carry out adaptive selection and transformation of translation from three aspects: language, culture, and communication. Although in the process of translation practice the translator is not limited to multi-dimensional transformation. In addition, the more dimensions the translator pays attention to in the process of translation, the stronger the degree of adaptation and selection of the translation, the better the translation will be.

Conclusion

During the process of translation, many factors should be taken into consideration in order to fit with the actual situations and catch public’s attention quickly. Different languages have their language systems and certain features in expression. As the most important carrier of culture, language can also be regarded as an extremely complex linguistic system. Translation is the process of transforming different cultures. Therefore, both source language and target language’s culture should be considered carefully. As a result, every translator is supposed to think about all the aspects before translating and select the most suitable words and sentence patterns. Because of its important political status and function, the Government Work Report has its unique linguistic features, such as the use of formal words, four-character words and Chinese characteristic words. The mastery of its language features lays a foundation for the application and analysis of multi-dimensional translation strategies. Aiming at repeated words in sentences and information, the translator mainly uses the province translation skills. Aiming at the same word in different parts of the sentence translation, the translator should choose according to the sentences and words in the context. Due to the differences between Chinese and English, translators mainly adopt the translation techniques of free translation or joint translation to deal with the translation of parallel structures. In cultural adaptation in the process of translation, or from the historical allusion and the Chinese characteristic vocabulary and culture, the analysis can be concluded that the Government Work Report in English translation does not affect the ecological balance and harmonious between the original language and target language, the translator mainly uses the province translation or free translation skills to deal with allusions. For some corresponding expression in target language vocabulary, they can be directly applied with those unable to find corresponding expression in target language. There is no established translation, the translator mainly adopts province translation, free translation, literal translation and annotation methods for translation, which is committed to preserving the original and the translation of balance and harmony, and achieve effective transformation of culture level. Finally, translators can use these skills to achieve communicative intention. First of all, we have explained the significance and background of the essay. The preview studies of political texts are also included. In the first chapter, we analyze the characteristics of 2019 Chinese Government Work Report from three levels and also give specific examples to further explain. In the second chapter, We introduce the concept of eco-translatology and mainly explain the two core theoretical principles of eco-transtology to build the foundation of the essay . In the third chapter, we have discussed the Government Work Report translation from the perspective of eco-translatology with multi-dimension theory and in this way, we have summarized that eco-translatology can be applied to Government Work Report translation. However, this study still has its limitations. Firstly, the eco-translatology is a new theory which is not systematic and it is a new perspective to the translation of political text, which may not be convincing in the global range of translation areas. Meanwhile, as the Government Work Report is a special political document, the readership is not very wide, so it is difficult to conduct an in-depth investigation on the readers' acceptance, so as to make an in-depth analysis on the shortcomings of the English translation of the Government Work Report.

Bibliography

Ayto, J. Bloomsbury Dictionary of World Origins[M]. London: Bloomsbury, 1991. Bliss, A.J. A Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases in Current English[M]. New York: Dutton Press, 1966. Baker M.Corpus. Linguistics and Translation Studies: Implications and Applications[M]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing,1993. Hermans, T. Translation in Systems: Descriptive and Systemoriented Approaches Explained[M]. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 1999. Hu, Gengshen. Translation as Adaptation and Selection [J]. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 2003 (4): 283-291. Joan Pinkham. The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000. 程镇球. 政治文章的翻译要讲政治[J]. 中国翻译, 2003(3): 18-22. 方梦之. 从核心术语看生态翻译学的建构[P]. 首届国际生态翻译学研讨会，2010, 澳门. 胡庚申. 初探翻译适应选择论[P]. 国际译联第三届亚洲翻译家论坛，2001, 香港. 胡庚申．生态翻译学的研究焦点与理论视角[J]．中国翻译,2011 (2) : 5－9． 黄友义. 坚持”外宣三贴近”原则，处理好外宣翻译中的难点问题[J]. 中国翻译,2004(6):27-28. 胡庚申．生态翻译学解读[J]．中国翻译,2008 (6) : 11－15． 刘润清. 西方语言学流派[M]. 北京:外语教学与研究出版社, 2002. 童孝华.翻译的主体意识——2014年政府工作报告翻译心得[J]. 中国翻译,2014(4):92-97. 王刚毅.政治文件翻译的几点思考和建议[J]. 中国翻译, 2014(3):8 王英. 功能对等视角下汉英翻译中的冗余研究—以2012年政府工作报告为例[D]. 广东外语外贸大学, 2013. 周吉.《政府工作报告》中有中国特色政经用语的对等翻译[J]. 广西大学学报,2006(28):167-169. 周丽. 多维整合原则关照下的时政党政话语翻译[J]. 上海翻译.2015(3):42-44. 杨广,吉鑫悦. 生态视角下的政府工作报告英译解读[J]. 海外英语,2017(13):108-109 中国外交部. 2019年中国政府工作报告[R], 2019.

 

A Simple Comparison between Nida and Catford’s Translation Theory of Equivalence - 欧阳玲 Ouyang Ling, 202070080603

欧阳玲 Ouyang Ling

Abstract

Abstract: Nida and Catford shared the same period of translation studies but carried on their studies from different perspective. Nida put forward two types of equivalence and accordingly some methods to achieve his ideal equivalent response of receptors(Munday, 2008: 42). His equivalence theory was built on his ideas about nature of translation, which was the process of reproducing in the receptor language the message of source language(Nida, 1964: 12). So Nida tends to provide a new direction which is oriented by the receptors. The nature and task of translation in Nida’s opinion formed a theoretical basis to set the equivalence theory in a comprehensive and systematic way. Catford, in another way, held a idea that any theory of translation must draw upon a general linguistic theory and therefore presented the equivalence at different linguistic levels between source language and target language(Catford, 1965: 1). In his opinion, the equivalence exists between the categories and the conditions to examine the equivalence lie on the relatable extent with the features of substance. Therefore, Catford’s theories seem to be more of abstract. The paper intends to develop a comparative study upon Nida and Catford’s theory of equivalence and my thoughts on their application in translation practices.

Key words

Nida; Cartford; equivalence theory; linguistic theories

题目

《论翻译对等理论——奈达与卡特福特比较研究》

摘要

奈达和卡特福德在翻译学研究中处于同一时期，但二人开展的研究却是基于于不同的角度。奈达提出了两种对等类型，并提出了相应的策略以达到他理想的对等状态，即使译文接受者获得与原文接受者相同的反应（芒迪, 2008: 42）。他的对等理论建立在他关于翻译本质的观点之上，即在接受语中再现源语信息的过程（奈达, 1964: 12）。因此奈达提供了一种以译文接受者为导向的新研究方向，并基于对翻译的性质和任务的界定构成了对等理论的理论基础。另一方面，卡特福德认为任何翻译理论都必须借鉴一般语言学理论，因此提出了源语言和目的语在不同语言层面上的对等（卡特福德, 1965: 1）。他认为对等是通过范畴表现出来，而判断对等的条件就是原文和译文中各个范畴特性的相关性，因此卡特福特的理论似乎更具抽象性。本文旨在对奈达和卡特福德的对等理论进行比较研究，并对二者在翻译实践中的应用进行思考。

关键词

奈达；卡特福德；对等理论；语言学理论

1.Introduction

1.1.Nida’s Theory of Equivalence

Nida’s translation theories were formed along with the process of his translating the Bible. Through the reflection upon these translation practices, he defined the nature of translation and pointed the task of translators. Afterwards, he discarded the old term such as “literal”, “free” and “faithful” translation by putting forward the theory of equivalence(Munday, 2008: 42) . The equivalence in Nida’s theory can be achieved at two levels: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence and he saw the two approaches to realize his ideal translation that equivalent effect between source language receptors and target language receptors. By bringing the two concepts up, Nida provided two directions when working on a translation work as well as standards of evaluating the work after it was done. Specifically, formal equivalence in Nida’s definition is the status of translation being equivalent with the source text in both contents and forms. To achieve this status, translators should be oriented towards the source text’s message and structure(Munday, 2008: 42). And dynamic, or functional equivalence, turned further to a new focus on the response of receptor. If the target language receptors react to the translation in the same way as source language receptors do to the source text, the success of a translation is then achieved in Nida’s functional equivalence theory. His theory put forward a new trend of translation studies at that time. Nida’s equivalence theory directed people to evaluate a translation by judging and comparing the response of receptors in stead of considering the correctness and accuracy of translation or comparing the formal and stylistic features between source language and target language. In a comprehensive and systematic way, Nida’s equivalence theory elaborated the approaches and the ideal status of translation based on his understanding on the nature of translation, and this equivalence theory has always been praised as his greatest achievement in translation studies.

1.2.Cartford’s Theory of Equivalence

Catford’s translation theories were built on the discipline of linguistics, and his equivalence theory was included of course. Catford stated in his book A Linguistic Theory of Translation the theory of translation is concerned with a certain type of relation between languages and is consequently a branch of Comparative Linguistics(Catford, 1965: 20). His theory of equivalence was also originated his definition of the nature of translation, which is the replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material in another language( Catford, 1965: 20). His definition, in other words, portrayed the task for translators. In his opinion, in the process of translation, translators are supposed to replace every grammatical and lexical items in the source language with equivalents in the target language. So in this way, the equivalence in Catford’s theory can be graded into different levels according to the extent of the replacement, and then he put forward the distinction of full translation and partial translation. Moreover, he raised another pair of concepts: textual equivalence and formal corresponding, and it may give a clearer picture for us to understand his theory. If the target language text can be judged by bilinguals or linguists equivalent with the source language text in any given discourse or occasion, the textual equivalence is achieved. As regards the formal corresponding, Catford defined it as an approximate status when any target language category occupies, as nearly as possible, in the same place in the structure of the target language as the given source language category occupies in the source language. This pair of concepts presented two different degrees of equivalence and have become a valuable source in translation studies.

2.Similarities and Differences

2.1.The Similarities between the Two Theories

As representatives of the linguistic school of western translation theory, Nida and John Catford's translation theories try to analyze and describe translation more objectively, accurately and scientifically from the linguistic level. The influence of linguistic was exerted in both of their equivalence theory. Also, some translation methods were put forward based on the linguistic level by them. Besides, the approach to achieve the equivalence upheld by Nida and Catford was similar. They tended to depart from the previous word-for-word or literal translation methods and promoted a natural closeness of target text with the source text. Since they held a similar idea that absolute equivalence in translating is never possible(Nida, 1984: 14), the approach in their view to achieve the equivalence turned out be moderate and flexible.

2.1.1.The Influence of Linguistics in Both Theories

Nida was considered as a representative of communicative theory school, and therefore, he built his equivalence theory based on the communicative purpose. Basically, in the view of Nida, translation can be seen as a communicative activity and the transformation of linguistic form is necessary. From this the influence of Chomsky's linguistics, especially his transformational-generative grammar (Munday, 2008: 40) . Nida believes that Chomsky's transformational-generative view of on language is of great importance to the process of translation. Specifically, the transformational-generative was used for Nida to describe the process of translation, which includes the grammar analysis, transferring and restructuring and the reproducing the information of source text. (Munday, 2008: 40) Chomsky’s generative–transformational model was incorporated in the description of translation process by Nida and, at the same time, it provides the basis of his building of dynamic equivalence, as a component of “the science of translation” in his eyes.

Similarly, the influence of Chomsky’s linguistic theories can also be found in Catford’s theory in the following aspects. Firstly, as is defined by Catford, translation is the replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material in another language(Catford, 1965: 20), and here the definition claims that there is sometimes no entire translation but a simple replacement by textual material at one or more levels of language(Catford, 1965: 20). To be specific, the replacement between source language and target language may be at grammar or lexis levels. Secondly, through his classifications of translation in terms of the extent, levels and ranks, Catford actually gives some standards to discuss the nature of translation equivalence, and these concepts are presented based on the linguistic knowledge. For example, the distinction between full and partial is related to the extent of source text which is submitted to the translation process(Catford, 1965: 20), and the extent may involve linguistic elements, such as lexical items. The same case occurs in the definitions of total and restricted translation, in which phonology, graphology, grammar and lexis are all considered as the elements when estimating the replacement.

2.1.2.The Approach to Achieving Equivalence

The key role played by Nida is to point the road away from strict word-for-word equivalence.His introduction of the concepts of formal and dynamic equivalence was crucial in introducing a receptor-based orientation to translation theory(Munday, 2008: 40). He also divided meaning into linguistic meaning, referential meaning and emotive meaning. Furthermore, several techniques such as hierarchical structuring, componential analysis and semantic structure analysis were presented to analyse the structure of words and differentiating similar words in related lexical fields. The classification of the three meanings and aided translation techniques serve as crucial elements in the mechanism of back-transformation presented by Nida. By the application of back-transformation, the surface structure of the source text is analyzed into the basic elements of the deep structure; these elements are transferred in the translation process into the deep structure of the receptor language and then restructured semantically and stylistically into the surface structure of the target text(Munday, 2008: 40).

The similar approach pointed out by Catford is translation shift, which consists of two major types: level shifts and category shifts. Catford made a distinction in his book A Linguistic Theory of Translation between textual equivalence and formal correspondence. Furthermore, textual equivalence refers to the specific relationship of the source text and translated text while formal correspondence is presented and defined based on the systematic concepts of both source and receptor languages. Since the differences between the two concepts are obvious, the occurrence of translation shift is inevitable. Therefore, by presenting the translation shifts, Catford meant to depart from formal correspondence in the process of going from source language to target language(Catford, 1965: 73), which means, in a sense, he want to achieve the status of equivalence through the approach. In other words, level shifts and categories are presented as some techniques in the process of translation, which can be regarded as similarity when compared to Nida’s theory described above.

2.2.The Differences between the Two Theories

Before comparing the two theories in terms of the following points, we should make it clear that the development of the two equivalence theories were started with the views of translation nature. Nida and Catford put forward their understandings toward the nature of translation, and, consequently, the central problem of translation practice and the central task of translators were proposed. In Nida’s view, translation is to reproduce information of the original text and exert the same feeling of the receptors with the source language readers(Munday, 2008: 42). Based on this receptors-oriented and text-centered principle, his equivalence theory turns to be more dynamic because the readers’ response, which is the essential factors to examine, occurs only in the process of the transferring of information. In other words, the behavior of encoding and decoding is a must once the equivalence is achieved. The equivalence in Catford’s view, by contrast, which lies in the internal structure of linguistics, turns out to be more static. The nature of translation given by Catford is the replacement of equivalent textual material between two languages(Catford, 1965: 20). By saying textual material, he held the idea that equivalence only occurs within the language and through its categories. The context of language and the components of linguistics including phonology, graphology, grammar and lexis are considered as elements to examine the equivalence(Catford, 1965: 22). And in this case, the equivalence between the source text and target text is to be realized by the equivalence of contextual features of both the source and target languages. Catford’s theory of equivalence, in this sense, differed from Nida’s theory by research methods.

2.2.1.Different Conditions of Equivalence

Functional equivalence described by Nida put a great emphasis on communicative effect of translation. He believed if the communication can be created between the source text and its receptors, the equivalent effect should be made when the translated text was presented before its receptors. Therefore, the comparison of receptors’ response between source language and target language would be necessary when it comes to the conditions of Nida’s equivalence theory. Besides, the meaning and style of the both texts should also be analyzed in a comparative way because this two factors are very influential in the formulating of receptors’ response. Firstly, by the division of formal equivalence and functional equivalence by Nida, he tried to generalize the two types of equivalence that which focused respectively on the faithfulness and closeness of the receptor language with the source language in both from and the equivalent response. Thus, the conditions to achieve formal equivalence may include accuracy and correctness of translation, which is determined by the approximation to source text structure. Furthermore, Nida put forward “four basic requirements of a translation” as the conditions to examine the achieving of equivalent response, which are making sense, conveying the spirit and manner of the original, having a natural and easy form of expression, producing a similar response(Munday, 2008: 42). These requirements were generalized to be the conditions of a success of translation.

Since Catford defines translation equivalence as the empirical phenomenon, he discussed the conditions of translation equivalence by specific points within the context of sentences. First, the equivalence from his view is between categories including grammar, lexis, phonology and contextual meanings. From this we can know the same meaning at a linguistic level is hard to achieved between source language and target language. In this case, he describe a condition by pointing out a concept of total translation, in which the texts or items in source language and target language are interchangeable in a given situation(Catford, 1965: 49). In this way, he presented a new condition to evaluate equivalence. Based on this, he further his discussion on total translation by examining the overlapping contextual meanings in the items of source language and target language. He claimed contextual meanings include relationship to certain situational features, a more abstract and broad way to discuss equivalence. Therefore, another condition of equivalence was described as the overlapping extent of situational features common to the contextual meanings(Catford, 1965: 49). To conclude, Catford classified the conditions of equivalence on different scopes of translation. In the process of evaluating the equivalence in total translation, phonological translation or graphological translation, the examining of the relatable features between source text and target text should be made.

2.2.2.Different Classifications of Equivalence

Since Nida and Catford held different views on the conditions required to achieve the equivalence, they classified translations from different perspective. Nida raised a classification of two types of equivalence: formal equivalence and functional equivalence(Munday, 2008: 42). These two types actually reflect Nida's research on structure of language from shallow to deep. Nida believed that different languages should have the same deep structure and the same functions between languages lead to equivalence in translation. In his view, the functional equivalence occurs when the response of target language receptors is as same as possible the response of source language receptors. In describing equivalence, Nida pointed out that the correspondence between the original form and the target form should not be excessively pursued in translation. Instead, attention should be focused on accurately conveying the meaning of the original text in a natural way. By this dynamic equivalence theory Nida paved a road away from the static mode of focusing on the comparison of texts. He believed that only when the target receptors understand the translation thoroughly, the same response can be achieved, and this is the main task of translation(Munday, 2008: 43). Therefore, Nida’s classification was based on the specific situation in which the receptors communicate with the texts.

In Catford’s view, translation is the replacement of textual material. From this definition, he actually drew a line between source language and target language because by textual material he meant to point out that there would be no entire translation of meaning. In his words, at one or more levels of language there may be simple replacement by non-equivalent target language material(Catford, 1965: 20). Based on this, Catford classified translation into categories in terms of the extent, levels and ranks. Full translation and partial translation are divided by the extent of parts replaced in the process of translation. This two concepts are maybe the basic components of his later presenting of formal correspondence. In his view, formal correspondence is an approximate status in which categories cannot be replaced totally in another language. And by dividing total translation and restricted translation, he intended to involve the replacement of grammar and lexis and consequential replacement of phonology and graphology in his definition. All of these classification provide certain perspective to evaluate the translation and help to create a structure when analyzing the language. In a word, the classifications by Catford was built in the internal language.

2.2.3.Different Research Approach

To some extent, the research method employed by Nida and Catford was shaped under the guidance of different linguistic theories. Guided by the transformational-generative grammar by Chomsky, Nida analyzed the structure of language and put forward the back-transformation theory that entails the transferring of surface structure to deep structure between source language and target language(Munday, 2008: 38). So the research methods adopted by Nida turns to be more flexible and have a focus on dynamic factor when discussing equivalence. Since Nida's translation theories were built up consciously to serve the research on the translation of Bible, his theories may have distinctive features in guiding the translation practices(Munday, 2008: 38). In another aspect, Nida held a view that "meaning is universal" and emphasized the common ground between languages, which reflect in his equivalence theory, information conveyed by meaning is the focus To be specific, the equivalence can only be examined during the communication of these information between texts and receptors. Oriented by this communicative principle, Nida therefore took the reader's response as the standard to evaluate the translation. In a word, Nida described the equivalence and its mechanism in a developing process, during which the texts, context and receptors are performing their dynamic role. In a word, Nida’s carried out its study by the method of dynamic comparison, and through his discussion of receptor-oriented principle, his theories greatly contribute to the later translation practices.

By contrast, in the process of Catford’s research on equivalence, the system-functional linguistics by Halliday was incorporated. The substance, form and context Language, which are the three basic levels in Halliday’s theory (Halliday, 2004: 16), constitute the categories of Catford’s equivalence theory. Moreover, language was define by Catford as a patterned behavior and this behavior is casually related to various other features of the situation in which it occurs(Catford, 1965: 2). Therefore, in terms of research methods, Catford carried out his comparative study mostly from the static and fixed perspective of language. Most of the examples he took are words, phrases and sentences, which are the units of language. He pay little attention to the dynamic context and receptors’ reaction. In describing the formal correspondence, he also held a view that categories of every language is defined in terms of relations holding within the language (Catford, 1965: 27). In this way, his research methods seem to be more static and fixed in the internal structure of language. Due to the static traits, Catford’s theories may be properly used for reference in academic study on languages because his theories exactly provide a macro framework.

3.My Thoughts on the Two Theories

3.1.My Thoughts on Nida’s Theory

3.1.1Strengths and Contributions of Nida’s Translation Equivalence Theory

In my view, there are many strengths and contributions of Nida’s translation equivalence theory. Firstly, Nida’s research integrated multiple disciplines, which means he set up his theory on a strong basis and it has convincing examples and explanations from various perspective. The development of Nida’s translation theory can be generally divided into three stages: the stage of descriptive linguistics, the stage of communicative theory and the stage of social semiotics(Tan, 2017: 132). I think Nida also developed its equivalence theory from formal equivalence, dynamic equivalence to functional equivalence along with the three stages. Secondly, Nida’s equivalence theory is of significance in training translators, guiding translation practice and more importantly, his functional equivalence offers approaches to studying the communication between the cultures of source language and target language. Nida emphasized the importance of translator's initiative in the translation process because he put forward a principle of equivalent effect(Nida, 1964: 159). This effect cannot be formulated within the language or items of a text, but through the subjective activities of translators. Therefore, Nida's functional equivalence and dynamic equivalence offers a guidance to the translators to consider the needs of the target receptors, and to convey the message of source language into the expression that conforms to the habits of the target language. Thirdly, Also, the equivalence theory described by Nida is concrete and practical for people to understand and adopt for it is oriented by receptors’ response that can be easily examined and analyzed.

3.1.2.Deficiency of Nida’s Translation Equivalence Theory

Nida’s functional equivalence was mainly applied to the translation of the Bible , and the criterion of the Bible translation in his view is to convey the will of God faithfully(Munday, 2008: 38). Therefore, the translation theory may tend to emphasize on the content rather than the form. For this reason, the range of its application may be limited. For example, when it comes to the translation of poetry that has its own aesthetic value in its form, people cannot simply discuss and analyze it according to Nida’s equivalence theory. What’s more, in Nida’s theory, equivalence is oriented by the response of receptors(Munday, 2008: 42). However, sometimes, the equivalent effect between source language readers and target language readers is hard to achieve because receptors of different cultures may have different responses. And translation is actually a cross-cultural communication through the translators, who may have their own translation purpose, preference and expressions, so the equivalent effect is also restricted by the difference of translators.

3.2.My Thoughts on Catford’s Theory

3.2.1.Strengths and Contributions of Catford’s Translation Equivalence Theory

Catford developed his equivalence by going deep into internal system of language. In my opinion, the most important strength of his theory is that he built the equivalence theory in a complete set of linguistic model, which provides a scientific and systematic theory. By introducing broad types of translation respectively according to extent, levels and ranks, he present new categories to discuss the nature of translation and the task of translators. By describing the translation shifts, he made a distinction of formal correspondence and translation equivalence and explained the conditions when equivalence occurs. Furthermore, since Catford believed there is no “total” translation in a strict way for the replacement by all equivalents at all levels can never be achieved(Caford, 1965:22), he sought to avoid the rigid trend toward the absolute equivalence and developed his theory in a more scientific and mature way.

3.2.2.Deficiency of Catford’s Translation Equivalence Theory

Firstly, Catford carried out his research on the structural transformation of the source language and target language simply from the perspective of linguistics. The equivalence in his view is between textual materials, and this equivalence can be achieved at one or more categories in the materials(Wang, 2008: 166). Therefore, his theory is also limited and underestimates the influence of subjective activities of translators. Secondly, Catford did not pay enough attention to the cross-cultural factors in translation. On his discussion on the limits of translatability, he even pointed out that it may be not necessary to distinct linguistic and cultural untranslatability for the cultural untranslatability may be just caused by the impossibility of finding a equivalent collocation in the target language(Catford, 1965: 101). This shows he explained the cultural within a linguistic category. I think the translation involves more than language itself or the substituting of lexical terms and grammars, but also cultural elements. Therefore, the research method of Carford’s theory is rather incomplete.

4.Conclusion

In conclusion, the two theories are developed based on two types of equivalence. Nida presented formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence while Catford put forward formal correspondence and textual equivalence(Munday, 2008: 42; Catford, 1965: 27). The two theories share some points in their theoretical basis and approach to achieving equivalence. Besides, Nida and Catford also have their own understanding on the nature of translation and the main task for translators, so they had a distinctive research method in building up their theories especially in the classification of equivalence and the description of conditions. Supported by various theories from other disciplines, the two theories were set up in a systematic way possess many strengths in such aspects as innovative perspective and scientific research method. However, it need to be emphasized that the two kinds of translation theory should be discussed and evaluated in a critical way and the analysis should be made on the scope of their application.

References

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Nida, Eugene Albert 奈达. (1984). Approaches to Translating in the Western World 《西方世界的翻译方法》, 《外语教学与研究》 Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 1984年第2期, 9-15.

Tan, Zaixi 谭载喜 (2017). Translation Studies 翻译学. Shnghai: Fudan University Press. 上海：复旦大学出版社.

Wang, Ning 汪宁 (2008). 《论翻译中的等值——卡特福德、奈达和巴斯耐特比较研究》 A Comparative Study on Translation Equivalence of J.C. Catford, E.A Nida and Susan Bassnett. 科技信息 Science & Technology Information, 2008年第三期, 2008(3), 166.

Comparison of translation theories by Eugene nida and Susan Bassnett 胡慧芳 Hu Huifang

摘要

尤金·奈达与苏珊·巴斯奈特都是西方翻译史上著名的大翻译理论家和翻译家。奈达提出了“动态对等”的翻译理论，而巴斯奈特提出了“文化等值”的概念。奈达和巴斯奈特虽然在各自的翻译理论中都强调了“对等”或“等值”的概念，但理论内容却大相径庭。本文从两人翻译理论产生的背景和对各自翻译观的解读入手，来对两人的翻译理论的不同点和相通性进行初步对比分析处理，从而达到对两人翻译理论更深理解。

关键词

尤金·奈达；苏珊·巴斯奈特；功能对等；文化等值

Abstract

Eugene Nida and Susan Bassnett are both famous translation theorists and translators in the history of Western translation. Nida proposed the translation theory of "dynamic equivalence", and Bassnett proposed the concept of "cultural equivalence". Although Nida and Bassnett emphasized the concept of "equivalence" or "equivalence" in their respective translation theories, the theoretical content is quite different. This article starts with the background of the two people's translation theories and the interpretation of their respective translation concepts, to make a preliminary comparative analysis of the differences and similarities between the two people's translation theories, so as to achieve a deeper understanding of the two people's translation theories.

Key Words

Eugene Nida ;Susan Bassnett; dynamic equivalence; cultural equivalence

1.Introduction

Eugene Nida is a well-known American translator, translation theorist, and PhD in linguistics. He was born in Oklahoma City in the south-central United States. In 1936, he studied at the University of California, and later received a master's degree in Greek "Bible New Testament" studies from the University of Southern California. In 1943, he received a PhD in linguistics under the guidance of Bloomfield and others. He served as the executive secretary of the translation department of the American Bible Association for a long time, and in 1968 he was the president of the American Linguistic Society. In addition to translation theory, Nida has engaged in research in linguistics, semantics, anthropology, and communication engineering. He has also been engaged in Bible translation work for a long time, and has investigated a large number of languages, especially minor languages in Africa and Latin America. . Nida is engaged in translation studies and has written many books. From 1945 to 1986, he published nearly 200 articles and more than 30 books (including co-authored and co-edited works), including 16 monographs on translation and linguistics, the most important of which is "Toward a Science of Translation" "The Theory and Practice of translation" etc. His "dynamic equivalence" translation theory and "reader's response theory" translation standards not only have considerable influence in the western translation circles, but also promote the transformation of Chinese translation theory circles. Dr. Nida broke the research paradigm that emphasized static analysis in traditional Chinese translation theory research, and put forward a new idea of open translation theory research, which has brought enlightenment for the establishment of a new translation theory model in my country's translation theory community. Susan Bassnett is a professor, translator, writer and messenger at the Graduate School of Comparative Literature Theory and Translation, Warwick University, UK. As a leading figure in the school of translation culture, her concept of "cultural equivalence" and related translation theories have had a huge impact on contemporary translation studies. Nida's "dynamic equivalence" and Bassnett's "cultural equivalence" theory have certain similarities, but there are also many differences. This article starts with the "similarities" and "differences" of the two, to gain a more comprehensive understanding and understanding of the two translation theorists and translators and their translation theories, so as to achieve a deeper understanding and Understand the purpose of their translation theory.

2.The background of the two translation theories

Before the birth of cultural translation school, linguistic school, functional school and structuralist school were the main schools in the field of western translation theory research. Representatives of the linguistic school, Jacob Button, Catford, and Nida, put more emphasis on equivalence in translation issues. They believe that translation is to replace one language material with an equivalent language material; functional school The representative figures Les, Nord and Mantari believe that the focus of translation studies should be the target text, not the original text. Their theoretical sources are mainly communication theory, action theory, information theory and reception aesthetics. But whether it is the linguistic school, the functional school or the structuralist school, in their research process, they are more or less trying to achieve language equivalence from all levels of text content and form. Translation researchers] hope to find a scientific and effective method to solve the various problems faced by translation, but cultural diversity determines the diversity of text cultural connotations. Therefore, these researchers have encountered great troubles when they encounter a context that is quite different from their own cultural background. The cultural translation school was born to better solve these problems. Before the 1970s, translation theorists mainly studied various translation problems from linguistics. After the 1970s and 1980s, the acceleration of globalization, the acceleration of information dissemination, and the diversification of communication methods have made the relationship between language and culture closer. In information dissemination, language differences have become more prominent, and the status and role of translation activities have also changed. Therefore, with the acceleration of globalization and the popularization of multicultural views and values, translation theory researchers who conform to the trend of the times pay more and more attention to the diverse cultural values ​​embodied in translated texts.

2.1 The background of Eugene Nida’s cultural equivalence theory

Nida's "dynamic equivalence" translation theory was deeply influenced by his time. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, linguistic studies in the United States really started. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that American linguists who studied in Europe and were influenced by Europe began to study American linguistics. They developed American descriptive linguistics and structural linguistics. Beginning in the 1940s, American linguistics began to have a huge impact on world linguistics research. During this period, the representative figures in American linguistics were Boas, Sapir and Bloomfield. Although their theories are not exactly the same, they are basically structuralism and descriptive linguistics (Liu Runqing, 2002). Nida learned and grew up during this period. In 1943, he obtained a doctorate in linguistics under the guidance of two famous masters, Bloomfield and Fries. Therefore, his thinking is deeply influenced by Bloomfield, an American structuralist, and Sapir, a human linguist, and he emphasizes the collection and analysis of language materials in language research. In the 1950s, since Nida served as the executive secretary of the translation department of the American Bible Society for several years, Nida has proposed and started to use dynamic equivalence theory to guide the actual work of "Bible" translation. Since the 1950s, translators have generally followed the dynamic equivalent translation theory in translation projects organized by the American Bible Society (Tan Zaixi, 1991).

2.2 The background of Bassnett’s cultural equivalence theory

As one of the most representative figures of the cultural translation school, Susan Bassnet's translation concept with cultural translation theory as the core has had a significant impact on contemporary translation studies. In the introduction to "Translation, History and Culure" (Translation, History and Culure), Andre, Lefevere and Susan Basnett proposed that "Culural lurn" (culural lurn)-the term, this is the concept that was first proposed from here. Bassnett believes that the linguistic school of translation faces the following problems: The method of machine translation is an effective method, but it is not suitable for literary translation. In response to this situation, Bassnett pointed out that the research method of translation should undergo an cultural turn (eulturalturn). She believes that translators must perform translation activities in a specific cultural context, and translators must not conduct translation activities in cultural isolation under the influence of their own cultural background. In short, Bassnett’s cultural translation view is that translation is not a purely linguistic activity, it is rooted in and influenced by the culture of the language.

3.1 Nida' s“dynamic equivalence" Theory

“Dynamic equivalence” is the core conception of Nida ’s translation theories. the essence of it is a receptor-centered theory of translation that aims at achieving a“dynamic”equivalence between the effect obtained from respective readers of the originaltext and the translated version, which requires that translators view from the angle of the sense and spirit of the original instead of rigidly adhering to language structures of it. That is, not rigidly adheringto formal equivalence. The theory of“dynamic equivalence" is the most well- known and the most frequently discussed theory, and the focus of discussions on it may attribute to different interpretations of the term "equivalence".

3.1.1The nature of "equivalence" “Equivalence" is an important proposition in translation for it involves some key problems such as nature of translation, translation norms as well as quality and evaluation of translation. As a mathematic term, the word “ equivalence" refers to an absolutely symmetrical and equal relationship, but in many English dictionaries, it gets obscure meanings that things possess similarities or areessentially identical. Then, is the concept“equivalence in translation theories derived from its absolute mathematics reference orborrowed from its indistinct meanings as a word of general linguistices? According to many translation theorists (including Nida), it may mean more of the latter than the former. " Equivalence" is a scientific descriptive notion that is more objective that "loyalty" or "faith", for the concept of "loyalty"or "faith" refers to attitudes of translators while "faithful translation" indicates the quality of translation. But "equivalence" involves no translator' s attitudes, and thus let us get a more explicit conception. The "equivalence” needed in translation is a comprehensive impact, not mechanically synthesizing equivalence of linguistics,semantics and pragmatics, but taking into account factors in different levels all around with artistical views and accomplishments of different cultures and languages. The historic contribution of Nida's" dynamic equivalence" is that it provides a convincing solution to the dispute of literal translation and free translation held by many western translation theorists for about 2000 years. Literal translation emphasizes equivalence in language forms and the effect oftranslation is overlooked while free translation focuses much more on “beauty” of translation effect with litle regard to equivalence.Nida' s "dynamic equivalence". however, puts emphasis on equivalence of both effects and then solves this contradiction.

3.1.2 Views on Nida s theory of " dynamic equivalence” It has been mentioned above that Nida s "dynamic equivalence" theory is the most influential as well as the most frequently criticized and reproached due to dfferent interpretations of the theory. And here, a ittle more comments are given to be shared. 3.1.2.1Apprehension of the theory What Nida's values a lot in dynamic equivalence" is that receptors of the two languages ( SL and TL) have approximately similar response and get basically equivalent ffect( 杨柳， 2006). The great contribution Nida made was to shift the focus from the comparison of the source- language and the target- language texts to acomparison of the two communication processes involved." (金隄,1998:231) Thus, Nida's dynamic equivalence " focuses mainly onthe relative side of " equivalence " rather than absolutizes the term,which may imply that the equivalence theory in translation does originally mean something relative, obscure and indistinct. As a relative conception, the goal " dynamic equivalence" pursues is that the readers of the translation can obtain basically similar message smoothly from the translated text as the readers of theoriginal do from the original text, including their perception of the main essence, specific facts and artistic conception, although the two texts may vary greatly or entirely in forms. This goal can be applied to almost all types of translation. For all of these viewpoints,Nida and his theory have encountered constant criticism and reproaching. In sum, those who are against the theory argue that effect of equivalence can never be possible in translation because translation involves at least two different languages, cultures etc.which are rather hard to the non-native, while those who are in favor hold that equivalence can be achieved not only in senses and styles, but in effect as well. Nida has made it very clear that "the response can never be identical' , but "a high degree of equivalenceof response" is required and possible. And for "functional equivalence",Nida elaborates that no translation can be completely equivalent. Actually, different translations represent varying degrees of equivalence, That is, "equivalence" doesn't mean identity as its mathematical meaning. (Nida, 2001:87) In order to stress the conception of function and meanwhile avoid misunderstanding, Nida holds that the expression“functional equivalence" is much more satisfactory in describing the degrees of adequacy of a translation（Nida, 2001:91). So, Nida, as he puts it explicitly in his works, doesn' t prescribe something " identical" or total equivalence between the original and the translated texts, but expects high degrees of closeness" to ine ongmal and reproducing nearest translated message to the originai message. He advocates that translators work hard to pursue equivaiencerather than identity". Professor Jin Di may have standpoint identical to Nida' s, he holds that the term " equivalence" in Nida ' s theory indicates a linguistic notion that is different from "identity", and " equivalence"is a rela- tive conception, which requires no totally identical effect, but striving for the closest impact produced by the translation within a possible range as what is produced to readers of the original text by the ST (金隄, 1998:44).

3.1.3 Theoretical Practice of "Functional Equivalence" in China-A Comment on the Translation of "A Madman's Diary" Here are three examples to analyze the theory of "functional equivalence" used in the "Madman's Diary" in the translation of "The Call" by Yang Xianyi and his wife.

（1）“我同赵贵翁有什么仇.....把古久先生的陈年流水簿子，踹了一脚....”(鲁迅，2019: 08)

“what grudge Mr. Zhao has against me...Itrod on Mr. Gu Jiu's old ledgers.." (杨宪益、戴乃迭，2000: 23)

If this example is literally translated "赵贵翁", it may be translated as "Zhao Guiweng" in many cases, so that the translation person seems rigid and the translation traces are too obvious. Yang Xianyi and his wife directly translated "Mr. Zhao" in the translation, which conforms to the native language habits of foreigners and avoids the appearance of translation accent. This translation achieves functional equivalence for the translation of personal words in the original text (Chen Weijia, 2009). The "old-year running book" here is a characteristic term of China's old society period, which means "old account book". If literally translated as "aged jour-nal", obviously there is no "old ledgers" which is more suitable for the time. Time backgroud. The Yangs’ translation handled the translation of characteristic nouns well and reached the result of information equivalent translation.

(2)“陈老五赶上前，硬把我拖回家中了。”(鲁迅，2019: 09)

“Old Chen hurried forward and draggedme home." (杨宪益、戴乃迭，2000: 25)

The personal pronoun "陈老五", if translated literally, might be translated as "Chen Laowu". Yang Xianyi translated "Old Chen", which is more authentic. "Chen Lao Wu" may be the habitual name of this person by the locals, rather than the name Chen Lao Wu. The Yangs' translation as "Lao Chen" here conforms to the Chinese people's habit of addressing acquaintances and conforms to the original cultural background (金瑞, 邵华, 2018).

(3)“狼子村的佃户来告荒....”(鲁迅，2019: 09)

“a tenant of ours from Wolf Cub Villagecame to report the failure of the crop..." ( 杨宪益、戴乃迭，2000: 25)

"狼子村" is a place noun. If it is simply translated as "The Wolf Child Village", it is obviously inappropriate. Such translated names are not only not beautiful enough, but also cannot express the charm of Chinese place names. Here, the expression of "Cub" in "Wolf Cub Village" of the Young couple is quite vivid and accurate. "Cub" means "cub" and it is used here in line with the original meaning. Yang Xianyi has certain accomplishments in the translation of Chinese-specific place nouns, and conveys the Chinese-specific culture well in the translation process.

3.2 Bassnett's "cultural equivalence" theory

Bassnett believes that the goal of translation should be changed from the text commonly accepted by people to culture, which is the so-called cultural shift. If we compare culture to the human body, then language is the human heart. Only when people's heart, language and body are coordinated with each other, can people maintain vigor and vitality. When performing heart surgery on a patient, the surgeon must take into account the overall physical condition of the patient. The same is true for translation practice. In the process of translating the target language into the target language, members of parliament must take into account the double standards of language accuracy and cultural adaptability, and must not strip away culture and treat translation in isolation.

3.2.1 Translation methods and strategies Regarding translation methods, Bassnett believes that language and text materials in different cultural contexts should have different translation requirements, and therefore different translation methods. For example, for original texts that are descriptive, or contain certain cultural beliefs, or are technological in nature, the translator should try to literally translate from a cultural perspective when translating. If the original text does not belong to the above three types of texts, then the translator can play relatively freely when translating, use more translation skills, and less consider the limitations of the original text culture on translation activities. It can be said that the degree of freedom of such translation activities is relatively high. Regarding translation strategy, Bassnett believes that the translator's translation activity is a process of information transmission. In this process, the translator should first find the cultural factors in the original text that are different from the target language, and then understand these factors in depth, and try to retain these factors on this basis. Such a strategy helps readers of other countries to better understand the connotation expressed in the original text, and enable them to have a more accurate understanding of the cultural context of the original text.

3.2.2 Content and form of translation As far as the content and form of the translation are concerned, Bassnett regards cultural exchange as the focus of translation, and she believes that the original flavor of the original language text should be kept as much as possible. At the same time, she also pointed out that literary translation must not lose its form. Taking poetry as an example, the translation of poetry is not simply a translation of the original poem content, but a new understanding and creation in translation. The translator must use his own translation skills and literary quality to create new content. But at the same time, the form and content of the poem are unified. The length of the syllables and the distribution of rhymes in the form are also conveying the content. The information of the times is all revealed behind it. Therefore, if the original form of the poem is discarded in the translation, Then it cannot fully reflect the content of the original poem. Take Chinese rhyme poems as an example. When its prosperity turned from its peak to its decline in the Tang Dynasty, the strict flat correspondence and cohesion were not only for making people melodious and catchy, but its pursuit of form revealed that The literati in the era remembered the dead Tang Dynasty and their strong unsatisfied political demands.

3.2.3 "Intelligibility" of the translation Before the rise of the cultural translation school, translation researchers sometimes translated the literary language in the original text into plain and simple language in order for the translation to be better understood by readers, deleting literary metaphors and associations. In this way, the translation will indeed become easy to understand, but the literary nature of the work has been reduced, and the interest and depth will not reach the effect of the original text. Therefore, Bassnett believes that the "understandability" of the translation cannot be based on abandoning the original style and artistry, but should try to maintain the original flavor of the original.

3.2.4 Evaluation Criteria of Translation For the evaluation criteria of translations, Bassnett believes that the evaluation criteria of translations are not unique. The standards for translating academic articles and applied and literary articles are different. When checking and evaluating the standard of translation, we should start from the target of translation, and judge the translation based on whether the translation can meet the needs of the target. In short, the translation should meet the needs of readers in different cultural contexts as a starting point, and use a suitable translated language that can meet this demand.

3.2.5 Examples of Bassnett's Cultural Translation Theory-Taking 《道德经》‘s Arthur Willy's Translation and Gu Zhengkun's Translation as Examples

原文:

“六亲不和，有孝慈(孝子)。”(章十八)

辜译: "Filiality and benevolence come along with the family feud,"

韦利译:“It was when the six near ones were no longer at peace that there was talkof dutiful sons." (Waley, 1999:37 )

"六亲" in modern Chinese generally refer to all family members and relatives, but in ancient Chinese there are specific references to father and son, brothers, and couples. Gu Zhengkun knows that family ethical relations are not as complicated in the West as in China, so he adopted the approach of being close to Western readers and translated it as "the family; while Wiley used the method of alienation in order to get close to the original work, calling it "sixnear ons" , And supplemented by the notes at the end of the chapter to further explain the specific meaning of "six relatives". (the six near ones: father, son, elder brother, younger brother, husband and wife.). Both translators have realized the function of the language opposite to them. The equivalence of the above. That is to realize the equivalence of cultural functions, but also convey the meaning of cultural connotation.

原文:“虽有拱璧以先驷马” (章六十二)

辜译:It would be better to present to the emperor Tao than jade disks followed by ateam of four horses." ( 辜正坤，1995: 251 )

韦利译:“Rather than send a team of four horses, preceded by a disc ofjade.e.."(Waley,1999:131 )

Both translators translated "驷马" into "four horses", which is correct. In ancient China, the number of horses pulling carts was used to reflect the rank of status, such as driving two horses as a parallel, three horses as a stallion, and four horses as a parcel. Usually the emperor drives six, princes drive five, Qing drives four, doctors three, scholars two, and common people one. There are also horse-drawn chariots in wars, usually one carriage with four horses and three passengers. If the translator can comment on this, it will better help the target readers to understand the ancient Chinese horse culture.

4.The difference between the two translation thoughts

Nida's translation thoughts are mainly influenced by language structuralist translators, which are manifested in his use of the syntactic structure analysis method, semantic component analysis method popular in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, and the core similar to Chomsky's deep structure Syntactic analysis is a structural analysis of language expression forms and translation procedures from the perspective of language translation, that is, interlingual translation. However, the essence of Nida's translation thought lies in far more than its language structuralist translation view, but more of him In "translation is science", "translation and communication", "translation must emphasize readers' reflection" and many other propositions. Moreover, Nida's contribution in translation theory, especially in the translation theory of the Bible, and his position in contemporary American and Western translation studies are very important and widely recognized. (Tan Zaixi, 1991) But Bassnett's "cultural translation view" focuses on cultural exchanges, with culture first, and information second. Through translation to introduce the unique culture of each nation, explain the similarities and differences between each other, so as to promote the comparative study of two languages ​​and cultures. Bassnett also pointed out that culture puts forward various requirements for translation, and these requirements are closely related to the nature of the original text. In the process of translation, the translator should demonstrate the unique charm of different cultures through translation, so that people of different cultural backgrounds can communicate and communicate in a true cultural sense.

5.The similarity of the two translation ideas

Nida believes that the service object of translation is the recipient. It is necessary to evaluate and judge the quality of the translation. It is not only necessary to compare the language form of the translation and the original text, but also to see how the recipient reflects the translation. Only when the translated works are easy to understand and in proper form can they be widely accepted by the public. Bassnett’s cultural translation view also emphasizes that translation should meet the requirements of different objects in a certain culture. In order to meet the requirements of different specific groups, the translator must find a suitable translated language functionally. It can be seen that both translation theorists believe that translation works should focus on the demands of recipients of translation at different levels. Nida believes that when there is a contradiction between form and content in the translation process, form should give way to content. Bassnett also believes that in the process of functional equivalence, the translator can not be restricted by the literary image. It can be seen that the two translation theorists pay more attention to the content and form of the translation. Nida pointed out that the languages ​​and cultures of the world have 90% similarities and only 10% differences. Bassnett also believes that the translator should perform functional equivalence in the target language culture based on the target language; the reading object and the original language's function in the original language culture. It can be seen that both translation theorists believe that the source language and the target language can communicate and communicate in terms of culture. Although there is a cultural loss in the translation process, there are more similarities between different languages. Similarities or similarities (ie cultural common core).

6. Conclusion

Both Nida and Bassnett are great translation theorists and translators in the history of Western translation. Their theoretical research ideas and academic vision are broad, and their insights are unique, which give people deep inspiration. In the process of translation research, the two masters placed translation in the multi-dimensional space of the original text and the target text, investigated from different angles to reveal the essence of translation, and achieved fruitful results. The two translations: principles and methods. There are both common points and their own characteristics. We should work hard to understand the characteristics and development trajectories of the two major translation theories, and find out the contributions and shortcomings of the two major translation theories. In order to find things that Chinese translation theories can learn from, to promote the development of Chinese translation studies.

References

[1]Nida, Eugene and Charles Taber. The Theory of Translation[M]. Leiden:E. J Brill,1969. [2]Liao Qiyi.(2000).廖七一.当代西方翻译理论探索.[Exploration of Contemporary Western Translation Theory].译林出版社[Yilin Publishing House] [3] Liu Runqing.(2002).刘润清.西方语言学流派[Schools of Western Linguistics].外语教学与研究出版社[Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press] [4]Lu Gang. (2006). 陆刚. 巴斯奈特理论与翻译中文化等值的不确定性[Bassnett's theory and the uncertainty of cultural equivalence in translation].中国比较文化[Chinese Comparative Culture] [5]Tan Zaixi. (1991). 谭载喜. 西方翻译简史. [Western Translator Business History]. 商务印书馆[The Commercial Press ] [6]Duan Feng. 段峰.(2006). 苏珊·巴斯奈特文学翻译思想述评. [A Review of Susan Bassnett's Literary Translation Thoughts]. 四川大学学报[Journal of Sichuan University] [7]Lu Gang. (2010). 陆刚. 巴斯奈特理论与翻译中文化等值的不确定性[Bassnett's theory and the uncertainty of cultural equivalence in translation]. 扬州大学学报[Journal of Yangzhou University] [8]Deng Ju, Qin Zhongshu.(2007). 邓巨，秦中书.苏珊·巴斯奈特翻译思想述评[A Review of Susan Bassnett's Translation Thoughts. 四川文理学院学报[Journal of Sichuan University of Arts and Science] [9]Luo Chengli. 罗承丽.(2010). 操纵与构建：苏珊·巴斯奈特“文化翻译中”思想研究. [Manipulation and Construction: Susan Bassnett's "Cultural Translation" Thought Research].北京语言大学[Beijing Language and Culture University] [10]Waley,Arthur.The Way and Its Power:A study of the Tao Te Ching and its Place in Chinese Thought.London:Allen and Unwin，1934. [11]Lu Xun. 鲁迅.(2010). 呐喊. [The Call].江西教育出版社[Jiangxi Education Press] [12]Lu Xun. 鲁迅.(2010). 呐喊. [The Call]. 杨宪益，戴乃迭，译.北京外文出版社[Beijing Foreign Languages Publishing House] [13]Gu Zhengkun. 辜正坤.(2008). 老子道德经[ Tao Te Ching].北京大学出版社[Peking University Press]

A Comparative Study Between the Skopos Theory and Yan Fu’s Theory 吴一露 Wu Yilu 202070080610

Abstract

Skopos theory and the theory put forward by Yan Fu, that is “ Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance” are one of the most representative translation theories respectively in the history of Chinese and Western translation theories. And these two theories have a profound impact to Chinese and Western translation theories and practices. This paper will compare the similarities and differences between these two theories as well as their historical contributions and limitations. It aims to get a deeper understanding of Skopos theory and Yan Fu’s theory and a better application of theories in practice. In the meantime, the collision and comparative analysis of Chinese and Western theories will also promote the study of translation theories and provide a reference for guiding translation practice.

Key words

Skopos Theory; Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance; Hans Vermeer; Yan Fu

摘要

目的论和严复提出的翻译理论即 “信达雅”分别是中西方翻译理论史上最具代表性的翻译理论之一。并且这两种翻译理论对中西方翻译理论和实践产生了深刻的影响。本文将对比研究目的论以及严复理论的同异，结合比较这两种理论的历史贡献及局限,旨在加深对目的论和“信达雅”理解，并将理论更好地运用到翻译实践中。同时中西方理论的碰撞和对比分析，也会促进翻译理论研究和为指导翻译实践提供依据。

关键词

目的论；信达雅；汉斯·弗米尔；严复

1. Introduction

Skopos is the Greek word for “aim” or “purpose” and was introduced into translation theory in the 1970s by the German linguists Hans J. Vermeer as a technical term for the purpose of a translation and developed in Germany in the late 1970s. The creation of Skopos theory is a significant achievement of western translation theories, providing a new perspective for translation study. In 1897, Yan Fu set down the triple translation criteria of “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance,” (Xin Da Ya), which influenced the development of translation practice and theory for almost half a century after it came into being and it still exerts great influence on contemporary TS. As now the scope of integration and exchanges between China and Western world are expanding to various fields, this paper will reexamine these influential theories by comparing their commonalities, differences and influences, so as to broaden our vision of translation theory study.

2. Introduction of Skopos Theory and Yan Fu’s Theory

2.1 Skopos Theory

“Skopos theory comprises the idea that translating and interpreting means to produce a target text in a target setting for a target purpose and target addressees in target circumstances” .(Vermeer, Hans J.1987a, 26). The purpose decides everything, from the translation strategy and translation method, to the choice of the form and content of the original work, to the production of the target text. All these take the purpose as the reference.

2.1.2 The Development of Skopos Theory

The creation of Skopos theory in not going to happen overnight; it is a gradual process that can the skopos theory become the core of functionalist approach, which is initially proposed by Hans Vermeer. Its formation and development experienced mostly three periods.

(1) Katharina Reiss’s research

The book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism, written by Katharina Reiss in 1971, marked the appearance of German translation theories and was the first time raised the idea that text function could be listed as a standard of translation criticism and came up with thoughts of functional translation theory. The core of her translation theory is text typology, including informative text (content-focused), expressive text (form-focused), operative text (appeal-focused) and the auto-medial text, which laid a foundation of Skopos theory.

(2) Hans J. Vermeer: Skopos theories and beyond

Vermeer, Reiss’s student, casting off the chains of Translation Equivalence, thought: translation is not a mechanical language interpretation, but an activity with an aim or purpose. According to Action Theory, human action is a kind of purposeful behavior in a given situation. In his opinion, translation also is such a kind of action with purpose on the foundation of a source text. Hence, Vermeer names his theory Skopos theory, a theory of purposeful action. Hans J. Vermeer believed that the purpose of a text determines the translation strategies. The most important ingredients determining the purpose of translation is readers. So translators should better to consider integrally both the purpose of translation and special circumstances of target-text readers before interpreting.（Zhou Mengzhen 2007, 154）

(3) Justa Holz-Manttari and Christiane Nord: the theory of translational action and Function plus Loyalty Principle

Manttari differentiated “translation” and “translation action”. She thought that “translation” is simply transformative action while “translation action” is more intricate behavior designed to transfer message overcoming culture and language barriers. In Christiane Nord’s Translating as a Purposeful Activity-Functionalist Approaches Explained, she defines the Skopos theory as the prime principle determining any translation process. But Nord also found there were some drawbacks of Skopos theory, so she putted forward the “loyalty principle”: the responsibility of translators towards to their partners in translational interaction. (Christiane Nord, 1997)

2.1.3 Rules of Skopos Theory

There are three rules of Skopos theory, including skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule.

The top-ranking rule for any translation is thus the ‘skopos rule’, which means that a translation action is determined by its skopos; in other words, that is “ the end justifies the means” (Reiss Katharina & Vermeer Hans J. 1984). As defined by Vermeer and translated by Nord, the Skopos rule states: “Each text is produced for a given purpose and should serve this purpose. The Skopos rule thus reads as follows: translate/interpret/speak/write in a way that enables your text/translation to function in the situation it is used and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function.” (Christiane Nord, 1997) Whether the function of the source text or passages in the source text can be preserved or have to be modified or even changed all decided by the purpose of translation. The skopos is divided into three forms: translator purpose, communicative purpose of the translated text and the purpose of using some kind of translation strategies. Coherence rule talks about that the target text must be coherent with the source text, given target text receivers circumstances and knowledge (Pochhacker, Franz 1995, 32). Translators should pick out what is meaningful in the receivers’ condition. The last rule, fidelity rule, concerns the intertexual coherence between target text and source text---the target text is determined by its skopos. In accordance to this, the form of the target text would be determined by both translator’s interpretation of the source text and the translation’s purpose.

These three rules connect with each other. Coherence rule and fidelity rule are subject to skopos rule. From above three rules, we come to a conclusion that the evaluation criterion of translation is “adequacy”—dynamic standard-- rather than “equivalence”. Therefore, translator should not be literalists who rigidly adhere to the words of the source text.

2.2 Yan Fu’s Theory

Yan Fu (1854-1921) was an outstanding Chinese Scholar and translator who had studied abroad from 1877 to 1879 in Britain. In this period, he was interested in western politics and started to learn academic theories of capitalist politics. His solid foundation of language as well as rich reserves of theories made adequate preparations for his future translation work. Because realizing that it was important for old China to catch up western countries in fields of politics, economy, culture, ideology and institutions, this famous Chinese translator devoted his life to importing western ideas and theories by translating various foreign works, including Evolution and Ethics, Yuan Fu (the Chinese version of The Wealth of Nations), The Spirit of Laws and other essays. It is these translated works and his translation theories --- “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” that impressed large numbers of Chinese scholars profoundly, which also contributed to his everlasting name in the history of Chinese translation theory study.(Chen Fukang 2000, 105）

2.2.1 The Development of Yan Fu’s Theory

(1)The proposal of “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance”

The idea of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” （Xin, Da, Ya) was firstly seen in The Dhammapada sequence （《法句经序》）written by Zhi Qian , a venerable monk and a translator of Buddhist scriptures in the Three Kingdoms Period. But as a translation theory, it is known to the public and handed down because of Yan Fu. (Chen Fukang 2000, 106) In 1898, Yan Fu made a conclusion of all the debates related to translation since Han dynasty and Tang dynasty after research. Then he put forward “the three difficulties for translating” in the preface of the translation of T.H. Huxley’s book Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays more than one hundred years ago. The first draft of Evolution and Ethics was finished in 1895. As this was the first book he translated, he met many difficulties in translating and got a lot of thoughts. Then he put his thoughts into Yiliyan （《译例言》）: “ Translation involves three requirements difficult to fulfill: faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance. ” (Yan Fu, 1987) However, there are still some people holding the opinion that these translation thoughts of Yan Fu took their ideas from the three principles of famous British translator Tytler.

(2)The evolution of “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance”

Since this translation theory was put forward, it have inspired continuous debates for nearly one hundred years and the interpretation of the later scholars cannot be ignored. There are four main directions of this evolution. The May Fourth New Culture Movement ushered in a new epoch vernacular literature and translation, which changed the status of Classical Chinese and Vernacular Chinese. So Yan Fu’s interpretation of “Elegance”, which refers to application of Classical Chinese before Han dynasty, became out of step with the Times. Attempting to prove the rationality of “Elegance”, many translators made new interpretations of it. While there are also some made adjustments on the basis of Yan Fu’s theory. Qu Qiubai suggested using Vernacular Chinese instead of classical one; Lin Yutang, Liu Zhongdei and Zhu Wenzhen proposed to change “Elegance” into “Beauty”, “Closeness” and “Appropriate” respectively. Among which “ Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Closeness” not only inherits rational thoughts, but also overcomes limitations of “Elegance”. So this principle is a remarkable symbol presenting that China’s translation theories are becoming mature.(Liu Qijia 2000, 97)

Besides, Lu Xun simplified this three-character standard, turning it into a two-character one--- “faithfulness and smoothness” (Xin Shun Shuo). From “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance” to “Faithfulness, Smoothness and Beauty”, from “Similarity in Spirit” to “Sublimation”, we can see that the translation spirit of Yan Fu is carried forward and how profound an impact this theory made.

2.2.2 Main Contents of Yan Fu’s Theory

Whenever the criteria of translation is discussed in China, the principle of translation proposed by Yan Fu would be mentioned, namely: “ Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance”. From the perspective of Yan Fu, “Faithfulness” referred to the meaning of the target text should be close to that of the original one, that was, being faithful to the original meaning, as well as its sentimental color, style and flavor. There are two aspects of “Faithfulness”: being faithful to the original work and to target readers. “Expressiveness” meant the target text should be coherent and clear, there being no need to follow the exact order of words and sentences structure of the original language but reorganize and elaborate to respect the rules of target language. And “Elegance” indicated that the target text should be of refinement in language, namely, the use of ancient Chinese before Han dynasty so as to meet the expectation of target readers who were well-educated in China. He claimed that “where language has no refinement, its effects will not extend far”(言之无文，行之不远). (Chen Fukang 2000, 108）

In Yan Fu’s point of view, “Faithfulness” is the core while “Expressiveness” and “Elegance” are two measures, which can be noticed from the order of these three characters. That means “Faithfulness” is the premise and basis of translation and the other two are the aim of translation. So these three standards are integrated.

3. Similiarities and Differences

3.1 The Similarities betweeen these Two Theories

Although Skopos theory and Yan Fu’s theory originated in two different countries and cultural environments, and there are hundreds of years between the times when they were put forward, these two theories have many similarities.

3.1.1 Fidelity Rule and Faithfulness

The Fidelity rule in Skopos theory is similar to “Faithfulness” in Yan Fu’s theory. Comparing the two theories of translation, we find that both theories have a criterion based on the original text and pursue the principle of fidelity, which is only expressed in different words. Fidelity rule in Skopos theory holds that translator should respect both the original author and readers in the translation process. Translation is to try to reach an agreement with the original work's intention and translator is responsible not only to readers but also to the original author, reconciling the purpose of the translation with the author's intention and mediating between the two. In Nord’s opinion , the faithfulness principle gives translator the right to make changes to the original text according to the purpose of translation, showing an open, tolerant and dynamic view of translation; on the other hand, it requires translator to be responsible for all parties involved in the translation, to explain or interpret his or her translation strategy, and to reach an understanding and consensus among all parties.(Christiane Nord, 1997)

This coincides with Yan Fu's "Faithfulness", which emphasizes not to deviate from the original text. And "Faithfulness" is the premise and foundation of translation. In the process of translation, translator is required to correctly understand the original text and then reproduce it in another language. If the ideas, expressions, and emotions in the translation are not consistent with the original work, then it violates the requirement of "Faithfulness", as well as the requirement of the fidelity rule in Skopos theory. Thus, we can find that both theories emphasize the importance of faithfulness to the original text.

3.1.2 Coherence Rule and Expressiveness

The coherence principle in Skopos theory is similar to the “Expressiveness” in the Yan Fu’s theory. In short, they both emphasize the fluency and smoothness of the translation from the point of view of readers’ receptivity and comprehension, so that receiver can accept and understand the translation smoothly. The coherence principle refers that translation should be readable and acceptable, so as to achieve interlingual coherence and to be consistent with the communicative situation of the target readers. As elaborated by Nord, a communicative interaction can only be regarded as successful if the receivers interpret it as being sufficiently coherent with their situation. (Christiane Nord 1997, 32) Under this rule, the receivers of the target text, their cultural background, social circumstances, expectations, values and norms should all be taken into consideration as major factors to produce meaningful translations. In translation, translator should reproduce the content and form of the original text as much as possible, and such translations usually require extensive annotation so that readers can have a better understanding of the translation.

This point is consistent with Yan Fu's viewpoint in his translation work, Evolution and Ethics · Yiyanli : “ 顾信矣，不达，虽译，犹不译也(A translation is faithful but not expressive, then it is not a qualified translation)。” (Yan Fu, 1987) According to Yan, “Expressiveness” means to reproduce the meaning of the original text in a way that is consistent with the terminological conventions of the target language, which also emphasizes the understandability of the translation. That is to say, translator should focus on conveying the content of the original text and conveying the meaning and gist of the original text, rather than sticking to the order of the words and sentences in the original text. At the same time, Yan also points out that the sentence structure in English is very different from that in Chinese. If one mechanically translates long sentences from English, the Chinese translation will certainly be unintelligible. Therefore, a translator must first understand the main idea of the original text clearly before he can translate it without compromising the original meaning. It can be seen that both Skopos theory and Yan Fu's theory emphasize expressing the main idea of the original text in a way that can be understood by the target readers.

3.1.3 Skopos Rule and Elegance

The Skopos rule in the Skopos theory is similar to “Elegance” in Yan Fu’s theory to some extent. The Skopos rule states that the purpose of translation determines the entire act of translation at the macro level. In the meantime, translator must decide what methods and strategies to use in translation based on the function of the translation in the target culture. Vermeer regards the recipient of the translation as an important part of the translation requirements and "one of the most important factors in determining the purpose of the translation". Translation is "the text produced in the target language environment for the purpose of translation and for the target readers.”.(Christiane Nord 1997, 12)

While in Yan Fu’s theory, “Elegance” is more specific, as it is based on the specific era and target readers at that time he lived. Because in the 19th century, the books Yan Fu translated were not for the general public, but for old literati and intellectuals who had the right to speak at that time. And most of them respected the old and discriminated against the new, advocating the ancient language while opposing the promotion of the vernacular language. There was no way to introduce Western ideas and knowledge to the scholarly class in China without taking into account their feelings. It is clear that he was thinking from the perspective of target readers, then this theory was put forward. (Chen Fukang 2000, 109) So, in essence, both theories share the same reader-centered viewpoint.

3.2 The Differences between these Two Theories

Although there are many similarities between these two translation theories, big differences in the theoretical system, translation standards and translators' status still exist. These differences are not only caused by the different traditions of Chinese and Western theories, but also by the differences in cultural background and personal theoretical knowledge.

3.2.1 Different Theoretical Systems

Skopos theory is closely integrated with other disciplines. This theory was born out of the behavioral theory. Vermeer places Skopos theory in the framework of cross-cultural communication. He denies that translation is a purely linguistic transformation, and pays more attention to communication and culture.It makes the translation theory more logical, scientific and systematic. Thus, it breaks the text-centered translation research tradition, providing a new perspective for translation study. A theoretical system with diversified translation standards was formed. Skopos theory clearly puts forward some translation concepts, such as the three rules, and there is a clear hierarchy among the three rules, with both Fidelity rule and Coherence rule being subordinate to the Skopos rule. It makes clear to translator the standards and principles that they should follow.In addition, it also made a distinction between intertextual coherence and intratextual coherence, adequate translation and equivalent translation, and translation and translation action.(Zhou Mengzhen 2007, 156)

But Yan Fu’s theory is relatively abstract and vague. Although it concludes the translation requirements, it is not as clear as Skopos theory. Different translators have different interpretations of these three translation criteria. Some think that "Faithfulness" refers to the faithfulness to the original work's ideological content, while others think it is faithful to the content and linguistic style of the original work, which leads to differences in content and form. Zhu Guang Qian and Tang Ren even advocated condensing “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance” into “Faithfulness”; people’s understanding of “Elegance” was even more diverse. Besides, Yan Fu's theory is not closely integrated with other disciplines and focuses more on content and aesthetics.(Chen Fukang 2000, 348）

Therefore, Yan Fu's theory is not clearly demonstrated and scientifically summarized, which easily cause ambiguity. It is not as theoretical and systematic as Skopos theory, and tends to be more of an empirical theory.

3.2.2 Different Translation Standards

Before the emergence of Skopos theory, the mainstream translation standard was functional equivalence. The emergence of the Skopos theory broke through the constraint of equivalence，replacing the "faithfulness principle" as the first principle with the Skopos rule. The success of a translation depends on whether the intended purpose of translation is achieved. "Skopos" usually refers to the communicative purpose of the translation, that is, "the communicative function of the translation in the target socio-cultural context for the target readers". Therefore, the Skopos theory pays more attention to the translation requirements, the target readers, the target language’s environment and culture. It has a broader scope of application, increasing the number of alternative translation strategies, which opened the shackles of translators.（Vermeer, Hans J. 1989, 186)

In contrast, Yan Fu's translation theory, which can also be regarded as a translation standard, puts forward requirements for translations in three directions of “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance”. Although “Faithfulness” is the first among the three, Yan Fu also emphasized the importance of “Expressiveness” and “Elegance”. In Yan Fu's view, these three standards are integrated. Even he himself didn’t explain it clearly. In this way, “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance” are only three abstract translation criteria, rather than a systematic translation theory. And it has different requirements to different types of text. The requirements are highest for literary works, lower for philosophical and social science works, and even lower for science and technology related works, official documents and the like.(Chen Fukang 2000, 108)

3.2.3 Different Translator Status

For a long time in the past, the role and subject status of translators have not received enough attention and research. Traditional translation theories holds that translators should be subordinate to the original text in the translation process. However, Skopos theory emphasizes the subjectivity of translator and frees translators from the prison of the faithfulness standard of translation theory. According to Vermeer, the purpose determines translation action. And the intended purpose is determined by many factors: (1) translator's basic purpose (e.g. to earn a living), (2) the communicative purpose of the translation (e.g. to enlighten readers), and (3) the purpose to be achieved by using a special translation method (e.g. adopting literal translation to illustrate the grammatical structure of a language). (He Xiaoling 2012, 46)So translators has more freedom and rights. They can have their own judgment and understanding in the translation process. They can adopt different translation strategies, like omission or addition, according to different translation purposes. Therefore, under Skopos theory, translator is the medium of communication between the author and readers, original text and translated text. He plays a creative role in the translation process, instead of just converting two different languages mechanically. At the same time, translator acts as a central role in the translation process who is responsible for the results of the whole translation activity.

However, in Yan Fu's theory, the content of the translation cannot deviate from the original work. The role of translator is more to convey the meaning of the original work to readers after understanding the ideological basis of the original author. He should strive for the consistency or similarity between the translated text and the original, without compromising the readability and acceptability of the translated text. Therefore, under this theory, translator is more of a bridge between the original work and the translated text. This would still be original text-centered, and translator would not be able to exercise much initiative. As we can see, “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Faithfulness” still advocates the primacy of the original text. Compared with the subjective initiative of translator in Skopos theory, translator's act is largely passive .

4. A Comparative Study of the Contribution and Limitation of these Two Theories

Skopos theory proposed by Vermeer and the theory proposed by Yan Fu play an important role in Chinese and Western translation theories respectively. Then what are the similarities and differences between the two theories in terms of their contributions and shortcomings? Through the analysis in this chapter, we can glimpse the development trend and characteristics of translation theory in the world of Chinese and Western translation.

4.1 Contributions of these Two Theories

When the linguistic dominance in translation studies was questioned before the birth of Skopos theory, translation studies gradually shifted to a cultural orientation, Vermeer placed translation in the framework of cross-cultural communication, which freed translation from the shackles of Nida's equivalence theory, and liberated translation studies from the constraints of source-text-oriented approach . In Skopos theory, the status of the source text is not as important as that of the target text. Vermeer regards the original text only as a "source of information", which provides only the information needed for the translation commission, and is no longer the only or the highest criterion for evaluating the translation ( Hans J. Vermeer 1982, 98.) Taking the purpose of translation as the starting point and foundation of translation has greatly changed our original concept of translation. Skopos theory also provides a good explanation for the controversy over domestication and foreignization in the history of Chinese and Western translation, as well as the widely discussed form equivalence and dynamic equivalence in the translation industry in the past two or three decades. Whether to adopt domestication or foreignization in translation depends on the purpose of translation. More emphasis is placed on the purpose of translation, the goal of translator and the effect of the translation on readers. The social and communicative effects of translation, as well as that of readers and translation are also of great importance , thus a multifaceted and integrated translation standard was formed. Therefore, the creation of Skopos theory has finally freed translation research from the confinement brought about by “equivalence” and provided a new direction for translation study.

Skopos theory has played a subversive role in the history of Western translation, while Yan Fu's theory is to a greater extent a summary and refinement of the previous theories of Chinese translation schools. But it has played a pivotal role in the history of Chinese translation and has long been valued by translation scholars. The contribution of this theory to translation lies not only in proposing a far-reaching translation standard, but also in its rich vitality. This is because this translation standard summarizes the main characteristics of translation work to a great extent and shows the requirements of translation work. Secondly, because of its inclusive nature, after several generations of scholars' discussions, the meaning of “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance” has already exceeded the definition given by Yan Fu. In particular, there are various new interpretations of "Elegance" in literary translation, no longer sticking to the use of ancient Chinese before the Han Dynasty, but focusing on the use of literary style, writing style, and rhetoric. Over the past 100 years, Yan Fu's theory has aroused translators’ long-term thinking and exploration of translation theory, then its academic connotation has been unceasingly explored, which, in return, has been continuously developed and perfected, and has become the classic of Chinese translation thought. In the words of Shen Suru, “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance” is “still the most well-known and influential translation principle and standard, and no other principle or standard can replace it”(Shen Suru 2001,7).

4.2 Limitations of these Two Theories

Although Skopos theory has made a great breakthrough to translation theory, it has some shortcomings of its own. Firstly, it overemphasizes the purpose of translation and translator, while neglecting rich meaning and multifunctionality of the original text, which undermines the ontological meaning of translation, and is not suitable for some text types. Skopos theory contains a certain degree of idealism, focusing on analysis and refinement, and sometimes it tends to neglect the integrity. As a result, sometimes the stylistic and semantic features of the original text are lost in order to achieve the translation goal. Many scholars have also criticized Skopos theory. Among them, Pym argues that it is a matter of common sense that translation has a purpose, and there is no need to make a fuss over the theory (Pym Anthony, 1996). Besides, Newmark claims that the “purpose-oriented” view is overkill. He strongly resents the approach of Skopos theory which eliminates the authority of texts and is oriented to translator's culture. Secondly, the possibility of realizing the purpose of translation depends on the conditions of the target culture rather than the culture of the source language, so fidelity to the original text is only a possibility. Thus we can see that the coherence rule and fidelity rule are not universally applicable.

Obviously, there are also limitations to Yan Fu’s theory. Compared with Skopos theory, Yan Fu's theory gives sufficient attention to the original text, but, as we mentioned earlier, it is an abstract and general theory, which is more theoretical rather than expository. The lack of analysis and discussion of specific issues keeps the theory at an abstract level, making it difficult for translator to grasp the degree: what degree can be called “Faithfulness”, what degree can be called “Expressiveness”, and what degree can be called “Elegance”?(Zhou Mengzhen 2007, 157) It is this ambiguity that makes this theory less scientific and accurate than Skopos theory. Thus its guiding role in practice is greatly reduced. In addition, as a product of the times, Yan Fu’s theory is deeply influenced by the background of the time, and cannot be scientifically combined with other disciplines, which once again limits the application of this theory.

5. Conclusion

There are many similarities between the theory of purpose and Yan Fu's translation theory, “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance”, in terms of pursuing fidelity and consistency, and observing reader adaptation, while there are also many differences in the theoretical systems, translation standards, and translator status. Although both theories have certain limitations, it is undeniable that they both provide important guidance for translation practice.

Through a comparative study of these two typical Chinese and Western translation theories, we can find that the Western translation theory pays more attention to scientific argumentation method. It attempts to combine with many other disciplines, and takes them as the theoretical support. Thus, the translation theory model is constantly proposed and improved, and the translation research perspective is expanded. Similarly, Yan Fu's theory is constantly being carried forward, and its influence is far-reaching.

Nowadays, as the world is in the period of fast development, dramatic change and great integration, Chinese and Western thoughts and cultures are deeply interwoven. We should adhere to the essence of Chinese translation theory while learning Western theory, so as to better master the essence of both, grasp the development trend of translation theory, and more actively guide our translation practice.

Reference

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--Wu Yilu (talk) 13:26, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Comparison of Eileen Chang’s Self-Translation and Conventional Translation from the Perspective of Gender 纪甜甜 Ji Tiantian

摘要

张爱玲作为中国女性主义文学的代表人物，在她的创作过程中，女性主义思想、性别意识得到了充分的体现。张爱玲本人除了是一个作家外，也身兼译者的身份，从性别视角研究其自译与他译文本中所采取的翻译策略及其体现出来的性别意识，有助于张爱玲翻译研究的进一步发展，弥补中国翻译史中女性翻译史的欠缺，也有利于性别研究在中国语境下的进一步发展。

关键词

张爱玲，性别，自译，他译

Abstract

As a representative figure of Chinese feminist literature, Eileen Chang’s feminist thoughts and gender consciousness have been fully reflected in her creation process. Besides, she is not only a writer, but also a translator. Studying her translation strategies in self-translation and conventional translation and exploring the gender consciousness reflected in her process of translation can help to the further development of translation studies of Chang, make up for the lack of translation evaluation of Chinese women and it also conducive to the further development of gender study in the context of China.

Key words

Eileen Chang, gender, self-translation, conventional translation

Introduction

Eileen Chang, as a Chinese well-known female writer in the 20th century, her novels and prose have attracted much attention, so that many scholars focus on her literary creation achievement but ignore her translation, numerous books aiming to introduce the Chinese translation history make no mention of Eileen Chang's identity as a translator. In fact, Eileen Chang should be reckoned with in the translation field in that she has also made significant contributions in translation. Mao Dun has pointed out that “ People who can translate literature books must be someone has talent in creation”, looking through the Chinese history, we can find that there are not so much Chinese writers who can also translate, but Eileen Chang is one of them. She, with her powerful creative talent and bilingual skills, has translated diverse works, including a variety of novels, prose and poems, at the same time, she has also made her contributions in compiling movie scripts. Here, the translations will be talked about are her self-translation of Jin Suo Ji (The Golden Cangue) and conventional translation of The Old Man and The Sea.

Eileen Chang, as a leader of feminist literature in China, the feminism thought profoundly embodied in her literary creation and translation, however, speaking up for women has not limited her exploration of male identity,in the process of depicting the typical characters with different genders, Eileen Chang, as the author or the translator, represents different gender identities.--Ji Tiantian (talk) 12:33, 22 November 2020 (UTC)

Ⅰ Gender and Translation

Since the rise of feminism in the western continent in the 20th century, the topic of gender has always been placed at the core of its theoretical development. Feminist translation theory thought that between women and translation there was some kind of similarity - both of them were placed in the inferior position. So they combined feminism and translation, advocating from the feminist standpoint, using language to create positive intervention to change women’ s weak position in translation, so that it can criticize the traditional translation theories which degrade women and translation to the bottom of the society or literature phenomenon. During this period, the research on the relationship between gender and translation has seen the influence of gender identity on translation, which is a big development. However, the over-emphasis on the opposition between the two sexes has its limitations.

As Sherry Simon has pointed out, “Men can adopt the rules of feminist translation theory, and women can successfully translate men’ s works...Another interesting area for study is how gender identity can be disguised through translation” (1996: 168), that is, gender identity can be disguised during translation, or the identity represented by the translator is not a single fixed one.With the development and innovation of various theories, translation studies from the perspective of gender, when developed into the 1980s, under the influence of post-structuralism theory, its focus has shifted from the over-emphasis on the opposition between men and women to the exploration of meaning and gender fluidity.

This thesis, facing such a change of gender translation studies, aims to study Eileen Chang’ s translations from the perspective of gender liquidity. To some extent, this thesis breaks the status quo that the study on Eileen Chang is onefold about feminism and explores her gender identity transformation in translation to dig out the influences different gender identities make to the translation.

Ⅱ The Gender Identities in Eileen Chang’ s self-translation -- A Case study of the English translation of Jinsuo Ji

As one of the most representative works of Eileen Chang, Jin Suo Ji was once honored as “the greatest novella in the history of Chinese literature” by Xia Zhiqing, while Fu Lei also gave a high evaluation of this work, and he said that it was “one of the most great achievements in our literary world”. In order to perfectly present the culture and thought of the original work, Eileen Chang chose to translate it herself. It took her nearly 10 years to rewrite or self-translate Jin Suo Ji, including four different versions: Pink Tears, The Rouge of The North, Yuan Nv and The Golden Cangue. However, due to the cultural differences between English and Chinese contexts, the English version is far less successful than the Chinese version especially the first two English versions did not receive much attention. It was not until 1971 that her fourth English version was produced and chosen into Twentieth - Century Chinese Stories.

Eileen Chang’ s works overturns the traditional patriarchal discourse, turning to the female as the center of her literature creation, and in her works, the main objects are those ordinary women who live a tragic life. These works fully show her sympathy to the fate of women, and reflect her intense gender consciousness which is also reflected in her translation.

1. Translator’ s female identity used to show the emotional resonance to female characters

In Jin Suo Ji, Ch’ i-ch’ iao is definitely a beautiful and healthy girl. However, due to the economic reasons and family pressure, she has to marry a disabled husband with an ugly appearance. In the face of such a marriage, Ch’ i-ch’ iao’ s sorrow is obvious, and hoping for love, she turns her eyes to Jiang Jize. However, the reality proves to her that Jiang Jize’ s so-called emotion is just a use. Eileen Chang, as a female translator, is full of sympathy for Ch’ i-ch’ iao’ s situation, and this sympathy is fully reflected in her translation.

ST： （七巧的手直打颤，扇柄上的杏黄须子在她额上苏苏摩擦着......）七巧低着头，沐浴在光辉里，细细的音乐，细细的喜悦.....这些年了，她跟他捉迷藏似的，只是近不得身，原来还有今天！

TT： ( Ch’ i-ch’ iao’ s hands trembled until the yellow tassel on the fan handle rustled against her forehead...) Ch’ i-ch’ iao bowed her head, basking in glory, in the soft music of his voice and the delicate pleasure of this occasion. So many years now, she had been playing hide-and-seek with him and never could get close, and there had still been a day like this in store for her.

Comparing the source text with the target text, it can be found that Eileen Chang made three main additions here: “of his voice”, “of this occasion” and “in store” to explicate the implied information in the source text, which more powerfully revealed Ch’ i-ch’ iao’ s strong feelings of love and uneasiness for Jiang Jize all the time. From then on, It can be seen that Qiqiao once placed her hope in Jiang Jize for love. However, from the description in the following text, we can find that for Jiang Jize, the affection with Ch’ i-ch’ iao is just for regulating his life. Eileen Chang clarified Ch’ i-ch’ iao’ s emotion in the translation and revealed Jiang Jize’ s so-called emotion in the later text, which could show the tragic color of Ch’ i-ch’ iao to express the translator’ s sympathy for the character.

2. The Translator’ s Male Identity Used to Show the Passive Position of Women

In Jin Suo Ji, the author used a large number of metaphors and suggestive words to describe the traditional women’ s survival condition. In order to more intuitively present such a state to the readers, Eileen Chang tried her best to translate from the male identity, which to a certain extent derogates the female consciousness of the text, to show the passive and helpless of female characters under a specific era background.

ST： 娟姑娘扶了正，做了芝寿的替身。

TT： Miss Chuan was made a wife and became Chih-shou’ s substitute.

The source text describes that after the death of Ch’ i-ch’ iao’ s daughter-in-law Chih-shou, Chuan, as a concubine of Ch’ ang - pai, was supported as his wife. The expression of “扶了正” is full of metaphorical color, “正” is a metaphor for the official wife, and “扶” indicates that Chuan is a passive object controlled by the feudal family. In the translation, Eileen Chang used the passive voice to translate “扶了正” into “was made a wife” to convey the manipulated situation implied in the source text. In addition, here Chang uses the article “a” instead of “the”, just as there will be others to take the place of Chih-shou after her death, the position of the official wife is also low in the feudal family.

Another typical example in which the translator expressed herself as a male to show the passive position of the female is reflected in the translation of Ch’ ang-an and Ch’ ang - pai’ s separation scene:

ST： 长安和长白分了家搬出来住。

TT： Ch’ ang-an got her share of property from Ch’ ang - pai and moved out of the house.

The original describes the scene in which Ch’ ang-an and Ch’ ang - pai split up after Ch’ i-ch’ iao’ s death. Here “分家” is a phrase with metaphorical color, instead of translating it directly into “divide the property”, Eileen Chang, from the perspective of male identity, conceals the hidden information of the original in the translation. She translates the sentence “长安和长白分了家” into “Ch’ ang-an got her share of property from Ch’ ang-pai”, which reveals the fact that in the feudal familyof China, men had the right to inherit the family while women were subordinated.

3. The translator reveals the reality objectively under the disguise of gender identity

In the process of translation, Eileen Chang not only used the identity of male or female to flexibly express the meaning of the original text, but also appropriately concealed her gender identity in some situations to reveal the reality of all characters including both sexes.

ST： （去年她戴了丈夫的孝，今年婆婆又过世了。）现在正式挽了叔公九老太爷出来为他们分家。 TT： （Last year, she wore mournings for her husband and this year, her mother - in - law had passed away.）Now her husband’ s uncle, Ninth Old Master, was formerly invited to come and divide the property among the survivors.

The source text shows us that after the death of the old woman in power of Jiang Mansion, a group of men and women gathered to separate their families.In the translation of the text, Eileen Chang did not make too many adjustments, but only abstracted the word “他们” which indicates “them” into “survivors”, a word with multiple meanings.Firstly, the survivors were indeed “alive” relative to the old woman who died, so the “survivors” conveyed the meaning of the original text. Secondly, to some extent, in Eileen Chang’ s eyes, both men and women were struggling in the mud in this turbulent era shrouded by feudal ideology, “everyone is a survivor of suffering”. Therefore, she used the word “survivors” to reveal the abuses of the era and sigh over life.

Due to the work itself has strong female consciousness, therefore, as a translator, Eileen Chang inevitably translates from female perspective most of the time, but this does not mean that female translators do not have the male consciousness, from the second case, we can see that the identity of the translator can be transformed. In addition, the fluidity of the translator's gender identity is not only reflected in Eileen Chang's translation of female texts, but also reflected in her translation of male texts.

Ⅲ. Eileen Chang’ s Gender Identity in her conventional translation -- Taking the Chinese translation of The Old Man and the Sea as an example

The Old Man and the Sea is an outstanding masterpiece of the famous American writer Ernest Miller Hemingway. It was published in 1952 and won the Pulitzer Prize in the second year. In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize of Literature by virtue of this work. Eileen Chang left Shanghai and arrived in Hong Kong in 1952, just after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. Invited by the press Office of the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, Eileen Chang began to participate in a large-scale Chinese-translation project of American literary works, including The Old Man and the Sea.

When it comes to The Old Man and the Sea, in the prologue of its Chinese version, Eileen Chang expressed her affection of this work many times and different from the self-translation in which she has taken a bold rewriting, in the translation of The Old Man and the Sea, Eileen Chang was more faithful to the original, and only presented her subjectivity in the choice of the gender identity. Eileen Chang expressed her understanding of the gender of the source text in the prologue, and then creatively translated the gender-loaded words in the text accordingly.

1. The translator' s female identity used to deepen the work’ s emotion

It is undeniable that female translators depict emotions more deeply and delicately than male translators. Therefore, in the process of translating The Old Man and the Sea, Eileen Chang, as a female herself, is particularly adept in showing the emotional characteristics of Sandiego. “...In her translations, she uses rephrasing, color words and onomatopoeia words which are full of feminine characteristics. Those words hint about her feminist thoughts and subtly reveal her identity as a female translator.” (Mao Pingping, 2018)

ST： “Come on.” the old man said aloud. “Make another turn. Just smell them. Aren’ t they lovely? Eat them good now and there is the tuna. Hard and cold and lovely.”

TT： “再兜一个圈子。你闻闻看。这沙丁鱼可爱不可爱?好好地吃它们吧，不时还可以吃吃那鳍鱼。硬硬的，冷的，可爱的。”

Here Eileen Chang uses a number of reduplicated words “闻闻”, “可爱不可爱”, “好好地”, “吃吃” and “硬硬的” to translate the dialogue between the old man and the fish, or in other words, the old man’ s self-talk to soften the whole image of Sandiac and also show his loneliness.

2. The translator concealed gender identity to break the arbitrary male discourse

As a work of men power, the word “man” can be found throughout the whole novel, and translation of this word has mainly two kinds of different ways, one is to follow the novel emotional qualitative, translating it into “男子汉” or some words having the similar meaning, and this way is often taken by many male translators. The second way is to expand the scope of objects, translating it into “人” or “人类” which includes both men and women. To some extent, this way blurs gender identity or conceals gender identity to achieve gender balance in the meaning. Eileen Chang adopted the second method in her translation:

ST: It is what a man must do．

TT: 男子汉就应该这样。(海观译) 男子汉就该这么干。(吴劳译) 活总是要干的。(张爱玲译)

Wu Lao and Hai Guan both translated “man” into the concept of “male”, while Eileen Chang avoided using such words in translation. Here she translated the original text into a sentence pattern without subject, omitted the subject with gender description, and in fact blurred the gender boundary of the words, thus breaking the arbitrary power of male discourse.

3. The translator’ s male identity used to recognize the limitation of male power

For the translation of “man”, Eileen Chang also adopted another translation method:

ST： “But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

TT： “但是人不是为失败而生的，”他说。“一个男子汉可以被消灭，但是不能被打败。”（张爱玲译） “可是一个人并不是生来要给打败的，”他说。“你尽可把他消灭掉，可就是打不败他。”（海观译） “不过人不是为失败而生的，”他说。“一个人可以被毁灭，但不能给打败。”（吴劳译）

Here, contrary to the previous example, Hai Guan and Wu Lao translated “man” into “人”, while Eileen Chang translated “man” into “男子汉”which means male, pointing out that “a male can be destroyed”. Compared with Hai and Wu's translation, Chang’ s translation, though excluding the female crowd, emphasizes the limitation of male power. Eileen Chang's translation is very characteristic. By taking advantage of different gender identities to give play to her translator's subjectivity, Eileen Chang transformed the image of Santiago, a tough man who fought bravely against nature created by Ernest Hemingway in the original text, into the image of a fisherman, a symbol of gender equality and a representative of all mankind.

Through the self-translation and conventional translation of Eileen Chang, we can see that the gender identity of the translator is not unchangeable, either in the feminist text (Jin Suo Ji) or in the text expressing the male discourse power (The Old Man and the Sea). The translator can adjust his/her gender identity to represent different genders and thus achieve his/her translation purpose.

Ⅳ. Reasons for the change of gender identity in Eileen Chang’ s Self-translation and conventional translation

1. The influence of cultural context on the transformation of translator's gender identity

Malinowski, a Polish anthropologist, first put forward the concept of “context” and he divided context into cultural context and situational context. Here the author mainly expounds the influence of the cultural context on the transformation of the translator’ s gender identity in the two literary works Jin Suo Ji and The Old Man and the Sea. “The literary creation of any country or region cannot be separated from the rendering of the corresponding cultural context...A good translation cannot be achieved without a profound understanding of the context of the text.” (Xi Peihua, 2017)

The creation context of Jin Suo ji is different from that of The Old Man and the Sea, and the social background of the readers of the target language and the source language is also different, which all affect the choice of the translator’ s gender identity.For example, Eileen Chang’ s work Jin Suo Ji reflects the difficult survival of Chinese women in the feudal family under the background of the 20th century. The original text uses many metaphors and suggestive words to describe the traditional women’ s survival, and it’ s not difficult for the source language readers who are in the same social background to understand the indicating meaning of those words, however, when the text is take into a different context while the text content is presented in the same way, it is not easy for the target language readers to understand, just as the expression “分家” in the sentence “长安和长白分了家搬出来住” has not only the surface meaning of “separation” but the implied cultural meaning that “Ch’ ang-an got her share of property from Ch’ ang-pai” which is the hidden information the target language readers won’ t get if the translator did not take appropriate measures to make up for the difference of context.Therefore, in her translation process, Eileen Chang clarifies the cultural characteristics of the source language through the transformation of gender identity.

2. The gender of the translator and the purpose of translation

As a female translator, Eileen Chang’ s female thought is inevitably reflected in her process of translation. And in addition to some potential unconscious female thinking, it is believed that Eileen Chang's adoption of different gender identities is more consciously chosen according to her translation purpose. For example, in the translation of Jin Suo Ji, Eileen Chang translated from the perspective of her own or the gender identity of the opposite sex, with the ultimate purpose of expressing the struggle and survival of the female characters in the patriarchal society and expressing her lament for that era.

On the other hand, in The Old Man and the Sea, Eileen Chang expressed her different understanding of this work in her translation preface: “The old fisherman showed astonishing perseverance in his struggle with the sea -- not superhuman, but a kind of grace and spirit due to all human beings.”Therefore, Eileen Chang, based on her understanding of the work, attempts to abstract the image of “old fisherman” into all mankind through her translation, and either from a female identity perspective, from a male perspective or conceal her gender identity in her translation the purpose is to soft the male discourse in the original text.

Conclusion:

Through this comparative study on Eileen Chang’ s self-translation and conventional translation, we can see that Eileen Chang, as a female translator, can not only translate feminine literature from a female perspective, but translate male literature from heterosexual gender perspective. On the other hand, in the same literary work’s translation, her gender identity is not fixed, for example, in translating the female literary, in order to better achieve the purpose of translation, the translator can translate from a male perspective. In a word, this thesis provides the corresponding empirical evidence for the fluidity of translator's gender identity, breaking the current situation that the research on Eileen Chang's translation mainly focuses on her feminism.

Reference

Chang Eileen, trans. The Golden Cangue. Twentieth-century Chinese Stories[M]. NY: Columbia University Press. 1971.

Simon, Sherry. Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission[M]. London: Routledge, 1996.

马悦, 穆雷. 译者性别身份流动性 :女性主义翻译研究的新视角[J]. 解放军外国语学院学报. 2010(6): 66-70.

毛萍萍. 张爱玲《老人与海》译作中女性主义的东方色彩[J].大众文艺. 2018：171-173.

欧内斯特· 海明威. 老人与海[M]. 张爱玲译, 香港: 香港今日世界出版社. 1979.

王璟. 性别意识与文学翻译——张爱玲翻译个案研究[J]. 中国外语. 2011(8): 102-106.

王晓莺. 离散译者张爱玲的中英翻译——一个后殖民女性主义的解读[M]. 广州:中山大学出版社. 2015.

席培华. 浅谈语境文化对英美文学翻译的影响[J]. 黑龙江教育学院学报. 2017(10): 121-123.

张爱玲. 金锁记[M]. 上海印书馆. 1955.

Art of Translation

The Art and Science of Translation --Take the Literary Translation as an Example 桂一枝 Gui Yizhi

--Liu Ou (talk) 11:50, 8 December 2020 (UTC)==Study on the English Translation of Hunan Scenic Spots Names from the View of Culture Translation 刘欧 Liu Ou==

Abstract

Key words

摘要

关键词

2.1 The Abundant Resource of Hunan Scenic Spots

2.2 The Meaning of View of Culture Translation

2.3 The Existing English Translated Versions of Hunan Scenic Spots

2.4 The Strategy of English Translation of Hunan Scenic Spots Names from the View of Culture Translation

Conclusion

Reference

The Visible Images and Invisible Hands: An Analysis of Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory and Venuti’s Deconstruction of The Translator’s Invisibility 祝美梅 Zhu Meimei student no. 202070080632

Abstract

This thesis tries to explain the visible images and invisible hands in the process of translation based on Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory and Venuti’s Deconstruction of The Translator’s Invisibility. The inferior status of translation and improper techniques have rendered translators “invisible” in the past, however the improvement of the translator's status and the “cultural turn” in Translation Studies, have both served to make translators more “visible”. Thus the translator's subjectivity has received increasing recognition and status. Nonetheless, as a key point in translation studies, the translator's subjectivity should not be confined to the change from “invisibility” to “visibility”, but should be studied in all respects, and the challenges being faced should also be identified and dealt with.

Key Words

invisibility; visibility; Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory; Venuti’s Deconstruction of The Translator’s Invisibility; the translator's subjectivity

摘要

论文基于勒弗菲尔韦努蒂提出的术语translator’s invisibility解读,翻译地位的提高以及翻译研究的"文化转向",促使译者"显形",译者主体性也随之受到重视;但值得注意的是,在当今崭新的翻译时代背景下,各种翻译技术的发展导致译者"忘形",从而使译者主体性面临挑战。译者主体性作为翻译研究的重点,不应拘泥于由忽视到重视的转变,而应以全面地眼光,发现并正视其现在所面临的挑战。

关键词

隐形；显形；劳伦斯韦努蒂；操纵理论；勒菲弗尔的操纵理论；韦努蒂《译者的隐形》

3. Factors Influencing translator's subjectivity

3.2 External Factors

In the early 1990s, Lefevere, a representative of the cultural school of translation studies and a well-known translation theorist, elaborated Manipulation Theory is his book Translation, rewriting and the Manipulation Literary Fame, in which he said: Translation is, of course, a rewriting of an original text. All rewritings, whatever their intention, reflect a certain ideology and a poetics and as such manipulate literature to function in a given society in a given way. Rewriting is manipulation, undertaken in the service of power, and in its positive aspect can help in the evolution of a literature and a society. Lefevere, defines translation as a form of rewriting, thus treating translation as a form of creating another text image, just like literary criticism, biography, literary history, film, drama, fiction, falsification of anthologies and reader’s guides. But it doesn’t mean that translation is rewriting. Lefevere thinks rewriting includes some other forms, for example, historiography, anthology,, criticism and editing. He ven emphasized that translation creates the literary and cultural image of the original text, the original author, and the original text. All rewriting, regardless of its intention, reflects a certain ideology and poetics. Therefore, translation is actually the manipulation of the translator to the text, which makes literature work with a certain way in a particular society. In any case, the understanding of translation as rewriting or manipulation of the original text deepens people’s understanding of translation to a great extent. In Lefevere’s view, there are three elements influencing the function of translation. The first one is professionals within the literary system, including critics, reviewers, teachers and translators who will affect the acceptance of translated works; the second is patronage outside of that system. Patronage here can be seen as the powers that can further or hinder the reading, writing, and rewriting of literature, and the third is the dominant poetics. Lefevere’s translation theory represents an important turning point in the history of translation study. He developed Zohar’s poly-system theory. And he studies translation in cultural approach. Before the “cultural turn”, translation was seen almost as an exclusively linguistic process, in which the translator was required to find the TL equivalent for a SL expression and which was not influenced by any other factors than linguistic ones. But in fact, Lefevere’s translation theory could instruct translation activities in many cases. Based on the understanding of three control factors, the translator will solve problems encountered in the process of translation, exploring changes of translation strategies under various factors, mainly including ideology, poetics and patronages, which will be introduced in the next chapter.

Three control factors Lefevere points that all literature works should be placed in a certain social and cultural environment. Thus its meaning and value is influenced by these factors. The audience’s apprehension of the work also differs for these factors. He emphasizes three factors manipulating translation: ideology, poetic and patronage. Introduction of poetics According to Lefevere, a poetics includes two components. One is the literary method which consists of literary genres, prototypical characters and situations, motifs, symbols. The other is the concept of the literature function. As a theory about the study of poetry and their skills, poetics is also a theory of literature and art. After choosing some types of practice at a certain period, while excluding others, the poetics is codified. Then it will have tremendous influence on the further development of the literary system. Lefevere holds that the translation methods adopted by the translators are carried out under the guidance of certain strategies of certain poetic factors. It exerts on the choices of words, sentecnes, even the style and translation strategies of the whole article. Translation has greatly influenced the exchange of different literary systems, not only in introducing new literary methods into a certain poetics, but also in whether the image of a writer or a work can be successfully introduced into another literary system. In Lefevere’s view, as the manipulatin of a translator, rewriting should be regarded as a cultural necessity in essence, because translators are bound to be influenced and constrained by different social and cultural factors in the process of translation. Rewriting under the guidance of poetics is an important part of the cultural system in which the rewriters produce works. Rewriters often adjust the original works to a certain extent to be in line with the dominant ideology and poetics of the period in which the rewriters lived, and to make the rewritten works accepted by as many audiences as possible. In order to adapt some famous works to the cultural background of various society and history, they have also been rewritten to varying degrees. As is mentioned above, works of the dominant poetics is what people called classics for future writers to follow. But “a poetics, any poetics, is a historical variable: it is not absolute.” For instance, poetics today differs from the dominant poetics of the Tang dynasty. In cater to the change of the dominant poetics, these canonized works will be adapted o rewritten. This is why some classical Greek works still have an impact on Western literature. Translators pay more and more attention on the poetic factors in translation, further developing translation theory. Poetics solve the problem of what literature should or can be, and deciding the role and influence of translation in the society to some extent. In the process of translation, emphasizing more on meaning and lesson poetic factors and literary component will make the poetic aesthetic sense of the original work disappear. Lefevere also points that any poetics transcend language, ethnic and political entities which is demonstrated by listing Multilanguage regions or various forms of social and political organizations in Africa share a common poetics. In his eyes, the poetics will not be adapted to any language, but the dominant poetics is dominated by the ideology. Introduction of ideology

Cultural differences on English interpretation and the coping strategies 谭媛媛 Tan Yuanyuan

Abstract

Because of the cultural differences between China and western countries, interpreters are required to do both the surface interpretation of the language itself and the deep interpretation of the meaning conveyed in that culture. During the process of interpretation, dealing with cultural obstacles caused by the cultural differences inappropriately can cause misunderstanding, resulting in communicative suspension. This paper, while analyzing the cultural obstacles caused by the cultural differences, expounds on the specific coping translation strategies that an interpreter should take in dealing with cultural differences in the process of interpretation.

Key Words:interpretation, cultural differences, coping stratcgics

摘要: 由于中西文化存在很大的差异,对于口译员来说，除了掌握译出语语言表层次的信息外，更要掌握译出语语言深层次的文化内涵。在口译过程中，若不恰当处理由文化差异引起的文化障碍问题，就会产生误解，导致交际中止。本文分析了口译中因文化差异而引起的文化障碍问题，并着重指出了口译中应对文化差异现象的翻译策略。

关键词:口译，文化差异，应对策略

2.4.1 Introduction

The wave of globalization sweeping the world has provided vehicles, tools and channels for cultural exchange and dissemination among countries. At the same time, globalization has brought out the holistic quality of cultural spirit, prompting people to pay attention to the overall examination of problems, recognize certain commonalities of human cultures, and generate new cultural concepts such as "global consciousness" and "global values". However, due to the different geographical locations, social environments, religious beliefs, ways of thinking and living habits of different ethnic groups, different regions have a variety of cultural characteristics, and therefore there are huge cultural differences, and cultural conflicts will become more complex.（简芳，张健 2012） Therefore, no matter from which perspective, interpreters play the role of bridge and link. Therefore, when interpreting, interpreters should fully consider the cultural differences between China and the West, seek the common ground of cross-cultural communication, and establish a harmonious language communication atmosphere on the basis of improving mutual understanding in order to avoid the phenomenon of cultural conflict in interpreting communication.

2.4.2 The Problem of Cultural Barriers Caused by Cultural Differences in Interpretation

Mr. Wang Zuoliang points out that "the greatest difficulty in translation is the difference between two cultures." He believes that "the interpreter must be a cultural person in the true sense of the word." The differences between Chinese and Western peoples in terms of thinking, values, historical culture and cultural imagery, as well as traditional customs and religious beliefs, have led to cultural differences between the peoples. Therefore, in the process of interpretation activities, the interpreter needs not only to translate the literal meaning of the original language, but more importantly, to grasp its unique cultural connotation and be able to convey it to the other party through language.（连淑能 1993） According to American translation theorist Eugene Naida, translation is an exchange between two cultures, "For a truly successful translation, it is even more important to be familiar with two cultures than to master two languages. For words have meaning only in the cultural context in which they . function in the cultural context in which they are used." Therefore, a translator cannot reach a true sense of communication if he or she does not have the support of culture in the process of translation.

2.4.2.1 Cultural barriers caused by the way of thinking

Generally speaking, Western culture belongs to linear rational way of thinking, which emphasizes logic, hierarchy and abstraction; while Chinese culture belongs to spiral thinking, which emphasizes discernment, enlightenment and emotional meaning. Westerners tend to think that Chinese people are too subtle and even logically confused. Chinese people may also think that Westerners are too cumbersome and sometimes feel uncomfortable because of their overly direct expressions. Therefore, interpreters should not only correctly understand the difference between Chinese and Western cultures during the interpretation process, but also take appropriate measures to compensate for the understanding barrier caused by this difference. This difference is manifested in the language: Chinese sentences are clear and concise, while English sentences are compact and tightly structured, emphasizing the subordination and modification between components, and mostly using conjunctions, prepositions and relational words to link sentences together.

For example, the Chinese have the traditional virtue of respecting the elderly. To show courtesy, the host will say to the visitor, “您比我年长，您请上坐”. If the translator translates it literally as, “You are older than me. You take the upper seat.” Westerners will definitely feel uncomfortable when they hear it and think to themselves: Am I that old? At this time, the original meaning of the Chinese expression has been distorted, so the contradiction arises.

2.4.2.2 Cultural barriers caused from values

Values are a deep element of cultural composition, which is both a part of social culture and the result of long-term penetration and accumulation of social and cultural factors in people's minds. Chinese people talk about collectivism, while Westerners advocate individualism. The Chinese focus on the group, highlighting the role of the collective is the mainstream of their values, highlighting their own will be suspected of arrogance and arrogance. The British and Americans advocate the primacy of the individual, fully expressing their own values and highlighting individual contributions. Humility is deeply rooted in Chinese values and is a Chinese virtue, yet sometimes it is not as welcome in the eyes of Westerners. This obvious difference in values inevitably leads to a culture clash. A classic example: at a party, a foreign guest complimented a Chinese lady, praising her for being very beautiful, when the Chinese lady replied, “哪里，哪里”. The accompanying translator on the side, however, translated word-for-word into, “where, where ”. This was difficult for the visitor to understand. So he had no choice but to answer, “from up to toe”.And at this time the Chinese lady was also very dissatisfied, thinking that the foreigner was disrespectful to her.

2.4.2.3 Cultural barriers from historical culture and cultural imagery

Cultural imagery is a cognitive pattern agreed upon in different national or community cultures. Cultural imagery coalesces the wisdom of each nation, and is the crystallization of history and culture. Throughout the long history of each nation, they have appeared in people's language, forming a cultural symbol with a relatively fixed and unique cultural meaning. For example, in a business event, the Chinese side said something like this, “建立‘一条龙’服务中心”.The interpreter translated it as “set up the ,one-dragon service center to provide a coordinated process service for foreign investors in obtaining approval".“一条龙” was translated into“one dragon”.The word "龙" means something evil in the West, but "auspicious" in China, so it is easy to misunderstand if you don't understand the situation. Another example is that the phrase "望子成龙" should never be translated as “to hope one"'s child can become a dragon"，but to“to hope one’s child can be somebody”.

2.4.2.4 Cultural barriers caused by traditional customs and religious beliefs

Different countries have different traditional customs. Chinese people give "New Year's Lucky money" to the younger generation during the Chinese New Year, but "Chinese New Year" does not exist in Western countries, so they do not understand why they have to give money. On the contrary, Christmas, Halloween and other holidays in Western countries do not exist in Chinese traditional culture, and we do not fully understand the importance of these holidays, even though they are very popular in China nowadays. Cultural barriers due to differences in religious beliefs often occur in the interpretation process. Sleep with father" is a biblical euphemism, which means the same as "go the heaven" and "kick the bucket". It means the same as "go the heaven" and "kick the bucket", but for those who do not understand Western religions, it is likely to be mistranslated as "与父亲睡觉", which would be ridiculous.（Lu Naisheng 1993）

Look at the following example: If this sentence is understood as "约翰是可靠的，他不吃鱼，还玩游戏", it is because the translator failed to understand " eats no fish " and "play the game". After the Protestants overthrew the old government, the Protestants refused to eat fish on Ramadan to show their loyalty to Protestantism. So "" means "loyalty" and " to eat no fish " means "loyalty" and " to play the game "means "race",The correct meaning of the word is Therefore, the correct meaning is "John is reliable, he is both loyal and upright".

2.4.2.5 Cultural barriers caused by non-verbal language behaviors

The means of communication between people is not limited to verbal language. Non-verbal language, such as:eyes, facial expressions, gestures, distance between speakers, and physical contact, etc. are all conveying information to people around them. Ethnic cultures differ in their expressions of non-verbal language communication. This cultural aspect of difference should be taken into account when communicating across languages.（张文 2002）

In one example, an American teacher, who was new to China, noticed that several students were looking at the student grade book she happened to have open during recess without permission. This teacher seriously told the students that this was rude behavior and that they should be careful to respect the privacy of others. Personal things are not to be looked at without the person's permission. Several students felt embarrassed and didn't know what to say, so they gave an apologetic smile. This smile upset the American teacher even more, and she thought that the students not only disrespected her, but also mocked her. The reason for her misunderstanding was that she did not understand that the Han Chinese often use laughter to express embarrassment and apology.

Another example is that when Chinese people see a cute child, they can't help but go up and touch or pat it to show their affection for it. A Chinese mother would feel proud and smug when she encounters such a situation, while a Western mother is not used to this practice and considers it rude to pet her child, or even offensive.

2.4.3 Strategies for Handling the Phenomenon of Cultural Differences in Interpretation

Eugene Naida, a famous American translation theorist, put forward a. The whole set of theories and methods on dealing with cultural phenomena in translation has caused strong repercussions in the translation theoretical circles and is considered one of the most representative theories on dealing with cultural phenomena in translation, the core of which is his principle of "functional equivalence". This principle emphasizes that what translators pursue is not literal correspondence, but the reflection of cultural factors in the translated text to achieve functional equivalence. (叶子南，2001:38) This* view of Naida, although presented mainly for translation, is also useful for dealing with cultural phenomena in interpretation. Given that interpretation is very different from translation, it should not, and cannot, exactly replicate the strategies for dealing with cultural phenomena in translation. The focus of interpreting is not to transmit cultural connotations, but to serve the communication on the spot, so the treatment of cultural phenomena in interpreting should be in line with the characteristics of interpreting. According to the criteria of "accuracy, smoothness and speed" and the specific characteristics of interpretation such as "on-site, present and limited time", the first step in dealing with cultural phenomena in interpretation should be to find the "nearest natural equivalence" between English and Chinese, and to try to find the "nearest natural equivalence" from the target language. In dealing with cultural phenomena, interpreters should first try to find the "nearest natural equivalents" between English and Chinese, and try to find authentic expressions or interpretation methods from the target language for the understanding of listeners. According to the above principles and requirements, the following strategies can be used in dealing with cultural phenomena in interpretation:

2.4.3.1 Flexible use of naturalization and dissimilation

Naturalization in interpretation is to express the linguistic and cultural factors in the source language in the closest equivalent form in the target language as far as possible, and transform them into a form familiar to and understood by the audience of the target language. This undoubtedly avoids the cultural conflicts and understanding barriers caused by the differences between the source language culture and the target language culture, and enables listeners to better understand the original language for interactive communication between the two sides of the conversation. Many scholars advocate that cultural phenomena in interpretation should be dealt with mainly by naturalization. This view has its own validity. In many occasions, the focus of interpretation is not to perform cultural output, but to provide services for both parties in the live communication. The first step in dealing with cultural factors in interpretation is to find the "nearest natural equivalent" to the source language culture in the target language, and try to find authentic expressions or explanatory methods from the target language for the audience's understanding. For example, the use of naturalization means to put Chinese allusions "三个和尚没水吃" into " Everyone‘s business is no one"s business." is very easy to be understood by native English speakers in Western countries.

However, when using naturalization to deal with cultural factors, we should also see that while naturalization reduces the difficulty of audience acceptance and comprehension, it also sacrifices many cultural features of the source language, which may result in the loss of a large amount of accompanying information and prevent the audience from fully appreciating the original connotation of the source language and the foreign culture. For example, for foreigners who want to learn Chinese, in order to explain the cultural implications contained therein, he will translate“她有沉鱼落雁之容，闭月羞花之貌" by naturalization to “Her beauty would make the fish sink, the wild geese fall down and the moon hide herself, and put the flowers to shame.”（Deng Yanchang 2006）

Therefore, while emphasizing that interpretation should be mainly naturalized, it is important not to overlook the value of the means of dissimilation. This is because besides providing services to both parties of live communication, interpretation also has the function of cultural transmission, which is conducive to enhancing mutual understanding among peoples. For the specific forms and expressions containing strong cultural color and ethnicity, the dissimilation means can best reflect the ethnic color of the source language and make the audience feel novel and vivid, thus opening their eyes and gaining knowledge and enlightenment, especially on occasions such as tourism interpretation and banquet interpretation. In order to meet the needs of cultural exchange, interpreters should undoubtedly adopt the strategy of heterogeneity as much as possible in the process of interpretation, so as to retain the heterogeneous components in the source language to the greatest extent possible and transmit the information in the source language to the audience as originally as possible. In addition, the use of dissimilation can enrich the linguistic expressions of the target language and inject fresh blood into the culture of the target language, so that the language and culture of the target language can continue to develop and maintain vitality.（Edward Spir 2006）

2.4.3.2 Rational Use of Direct Translation, Substitution, Paraphrase, Interpretation and Other Translation Methods

The German functionalist translation theory, which emerged in the 1970s, advocates a "purpose-oriented" approach, which frees the translator and the translator from the bondage of the original language and regards translation as a purposive act. Functionalist scholars especially pointed out that their theory is also suitable for interpretation. The theory requires the translator to determine the strategies to be used in the translation process based on the specific requirements of the client and the translation purpose and the actual situation of the potential readers (or listeners) on the basis of a full understanding of the original language. The functionalist translation theory emphasizes flexibility and practicality in the translation process, which is a great inspiration for translators to flexibly use various translation methods to deal with cultural factors in interpretation. Combined with the specific characteristics and requirements of interpretation and the actual situation of the interpretation site, translation methods such as direct translation, substitution, meaning translation and interpretation should be flexibly used in dealing with cultural factors in interpretation according to the needs.

2.4.3.2.1 Direct translation method

Language is the carrier of culture, which reflects the cultural traditions and psychological habits of a nation. Direct translation not only preserves these cultural features and avoids ambiguities, but also facilitates cultural exchange and enriches the vocabulary of the target language. Without affecting the understanding of the audience, direct translation is preferable if the source and target languages can be unified or largely unified in content and form. The direct translation method is the fullest manifestation of dissimilation at the linguistic level. It is the fullest expression of alienation at the linguistic level. For example, " Let sleeping dogs lie" is directly translated as “勿惹睡狗”. “火上加油” is directly translated “Pour oil on the flame”.

1.2 Substitution Method The substitution method is also called the "reciprocity method". It is a method of translation by applying words and expressions in the target language that have different expressions but are similar in meaning to the cultural concepts of the source language. The substitution method is the most typical manifestation of using naturalization to deal with cultural phenomena. For example, the Chinese idiom "冰冻三尺非一日之寒" is translated into " Rome cannot be built in one day”. English idiom "to spend money like water " translated into "挥金如土" is a good example.

2.4.3.2.3 Intentional translation method

When the source language and the target language cannot be unified in terms of content and form or cannot be harmonized, translation is a method of expressing the meaning of the source language in the language of the target language from the meaning of the source language, free from the superficial form of the source language. The meaning translation method is also a common method of using naturalization to deal with cultural phenomena in interpretation. It is mainly applied to occasions where cultural communication is not the purpose. For example, during the second session of the Ninth National People's Congress, Premier Zhu Rongji held a press conference. In response to a reporter's question about the "U.S. accusation of China's theft of U.S. nuclear technology," Premier Zhu stated a series of reasons and then concluded that: "The U.S. has been accused of stealing nuclear technology from China. After stating a series of reasons, he concluded that,“我们为什么还要冒政治.上的风险和道德上的风险去盗窃什么人的军事机密呢?所以，所谓中国盗窃美国军事机密的问题可以认为是一种天方夜谭”.The last sentence of the translator's translation reads“So, the alleged Chinese theft of U.S. military technology is only a fiction.” Here, "天方夜谭" is not translated directly as" TheArabianNights"，but is instead translated as " fiction ". This shows that the interpreter is fully aware of the cultural differences between Chinese and Western cultures and adopts the method of paraphrasing and flexibly and accurately conveys the speaker's meaning to the audience in the target language. As we all know, in Chinese culture, when people refer to an absurd, unsubstantiated phenomenon or statement, they often say: 这简直是天方夜谭。But in English-speaking cultures, The Arabian Nights is not synonymous with ridiculous or absurd. Therefore, the word "天方夜谭" has a much richer connotation in Chinese than the same word has in English.（Bao Huinan 2001）

2.4.3.2.4 Interpretation

Chinese and English belong to different language families, and they are very different in terms of cultural and historical background, cultural psychological structure, thinking styles and methods, and language expression. Although there are some cultural concepts in the two languages that are equivalent, corresponding or basically corresponding, most of them are not corresponding or completely corresponding, and some concepts are completely vacant in the target language. When trying to preserve the cultural characteristics of the source language and the literal translation cannot make the audience understand its meaning, the cultural phenomenon of the source language can be properly explained to facilitate the audience's understanding. This method is called interpretation. Interpretation is actually a means of alienation-a disguised form of expression, similar to literal translation and annotation. The interpretation method is not only easy for the audience to understand, but also can retain the cultural flavor of the source language. It is a good way to deal with cultural gaps in interpreting. The interpretation method is mainly applicable to the following scope:

1) Proper nouns formed in the accumulation of source language culture 诸葛亮—-Zhuge Liang，a master mind in Chinese history. Mickey Mouse—-指一个小人物或一件微不足道的小事

2) Abbreviations, special phrases or collocations formed in a specific cultural atmosphere 三资企业—-refers to“外资”，namely, foreign- funded enterprise; “合资”， joint adventure and“独资”，wholly foreign-owned or funded enterprise. An LDC—-指 “a life and death commodity”始用于英国报刊，一般指成本低廉，但却是人类赖以生存的商品，如水。

3) Lingo, idiom, allusion, slang or colloquialism 解铃还需系铃人—-“Let him who tied the bell on the tiger take it off”, meaning, whoever started that trouble ends it himself.”

4)Special cultural words

敬老日—- Generally speaking, this phrase refers to the Double Ninth Festival in China，a day of giving and advocating more concern for the senior citizens. the Beatles—-指英国的披头士乐队，20世纪六七十年代曾风靡全球。

2.4.3.2.5 Simple translation and no translation

Chinese people use more adjectives when narrating and describing people and things, especially when introducing landscapes and historical sites, adjectives and four-character patterns are quite frequent. For example, when introducing a lake, we often hear commentary similar to the following: “ 湖水澄澈如镜，水光天接，湖中有十多个高矮不等的小岛被水相望，似断似续，烟水迷茫，错落有致....”. If during the interpreting process, the interpreter translates the described words one by one according to the original language, it is likely to be thankless and make people feel that the language is extremely exaggerated and ridiculous. In this case, omitting some adjectives will not affect the overall situation. It is undeniable that some of the special expressions in different nationalities and different languages cannot be translated or equivalently translated. Especially in time-stressed interpretation situations, it is inevitable to encounter difficult problems, such as humor in English. No matter how you translate them, the meanings of, puns, allegorical words with puns in Chinese, and word-breaking games in Chinese, etc., cannot fully reflect their meanings. In this case, you can use "no translation" or incomplete translation. For example, Chinese people are used to introducing themselves by saying: "我姓张，弓长张。"Directly translating it as “My family name is Zhang”is enough.

2.4.4 Conclusion

Interpretation is a cross-language communication activity as well as a cross-cultural communication activity. Due to the commonality and individuality of culture, the cultural characteristics carried by different language systems in cross-cultural communication appear the same, partly the same, gaps and conflicts. Therefore, the interpreter must not only be proficient in both the source language and the target language, but also understand the two cultures and understand the differences between the two cultures reflected in the differences in language expression. In addition, due to the characteristics of interpreting: timeliness, directness, diversity of occasions and forms, as well as the looseness of oral expression, resulting in the cultural sensitivity of the interpreter, the broad aspect of knowledge and the ability to deal with cultural differences There are higher requirements. Therefore, interpreters should focus on cultivating cross-cultural awareness, increasing their sensitivity to the differences between the two cultures, and mastering the principles and methods to fill the gaps in understanding between different cultures. For interpreters, cross-cultural awareness refers to a cognitive standard and adjustment method formed by the translator consciously or unconsciously in cross-cultural communication. It is the interpreter’s unique way of thinking, judgment, and The sensitivity of cultural factors. The interpreter is the carrier of cross-cultural awareness, and the broad cultural information foundation is the fundamental guarantee for the completion of cross-cultural communication. Only by following the principles of culture can the translator better control the language and make the target language truly accurate, decent and fluent.

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