功能对等理论视角下英语文化负载词的翻译以《生活大爆炸》字幕翻译为例_英语论文

On the Translation of English Culturally-loaded Words from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence — A Case Study of Subtitles Translation in The Big Bang Theory

摘要

由于中西方文化存在差异，中英语言中均存在一些文化负载词。将英语文化负载词翻译成恰当的汉语，既有助于中国受众更好地理解这些词，又有助于他们加深对英语国家文化的了解，促进英语学习和跨文化沟通。本文主要介绍词汇空缺的成因，并主要以美剧《生活大爆炸》的字幕翻译为例，介绍英语文化负载词的类型，然后从功能对等理论视角重点分析文化负载词的翻译方法，以帮助英语学习者更加全面地了解英语文化负载词。本研究表明：文化负载词源自词汇空缺，而后者产生的原因有四方面：国家历史背景差异、宗教信仰的差异、社会环境和生活方式的差异、语言文字系统的差异。英语文化负载词大致可以分为物质文化负载词、社会文化负载词、典故文化负载词和语言系统文化负载词。功能对等理论主张翻译不求文字表面的死板对应，而要在两种语言间达成功能上的对等。据此，对文化负载词的翻译，译者可以采用五种方法：增补音译法、意译法、借译法、注解法和零翻译。

关键词：文化负载词 语义空缺 类型 功能对等 翻译方法

Abstract

Culturally-loaded words exist both in Chinese and English due to cultural differences. The proper translation of English culturally-loaded words may help Chinese audience gain a deeper understanding of those words as well as the culture of English-speaking countries, thus contributing to English learning and cross-cultural communication. This thesis, in which examples are mostly taken from the subtitles of American sitcom The Big Bang Theory, introduces the causes of semantic vacancies and the classification of English culturally-loaded words, and mainly focuses on the strategies for translating those words from the perspective of Functional Equivalence. This study shows that culturally-loaded words result from lexical vacancies, for which there are four reasons: differences in the historical backgrounds, in religion, in environment and living styles and in language systems. English culturally-loaded words can be divided into material-specific words, social-life-specific words, allusion-specific words and language-specific words. According to Functional Equivalence theory, the aim of translation is not to achieve absolute correspondence, but functional equivalence between the source language and the target language. Therefore, to translate English culturally-loaded words, the translator can adopt five methods to achieve functional equivalence: complementary transliteration, free translation, cultural substitution, annotation translation and zero translation.  

Key words: cultural-loaded words; semantic vacancy; classification; functional equivalence; translation methods

Contents

1 Introduction.1

2 A Brief Introduction of Functional Equivalence Theory.3

3 Causes of Semantic Vacancy.4

3.1 Differences in historical backgrounds .5

3.2 Differences in religion 5

3.3 Differences in environmant and living style .6

3.3.1 Differences in material products.6

3.3.2 Differences in social activities.7

3.3.3 Differences in intellectual products.8

3.4 Differences in language systems .9

4 Classification of English Culturally-loaded words10

4.1 Material-specific words11

4.2 Social-life-specific words12

4.3 Allusion-specific words.13

4.4 Language-specific words14

5 Strategies for Translating English Culturally-loaded Words.15

    5.1 Complementary transliteration15

    5.2 Free translation.16

    5.3 Cultural substitution17

    5.4 Annotation translation.18

    5.5 Zero translation.19

Conclusion.20

References.22