论《红楼梦》中服饰颜色词的翻译_英语论文

On Translation of Color Words of Clothing in A Dream of Red Mansions

摘要

《红楼梦》是中国文学中最伟大的小说之一,同时也被广大国外读者熟知。在小说塑造的色彩世界里，对服饰的描写可谓是淋漓尽致，显示出作者卓越的文学成就。颜色词是语言中一个有趣而重要的问题，中英文化中颜色词都占据很大比例。由于中西方巨大的文化差异，对颜色词的研究不仅应该包括对基本含义的了解，也应该包括对象征意义的理解。在古代中国，服饰代表着一个人的身份地位。本文以杨宪益、戴乃迪的译本为例，探讨颜色词的翻译技巧以及如何在文化差异下正确翻译颜色词。本文将首先探讨颜色词在概念意义和联想意义下的差异，其次探讨颜色词的分类以及翻译方法。目的在于使译者意识到这些翻译技巧的重要性，能够应用于日后的实践中并取得理想的效果。

关键词：翻译; 《红楼梦》; 颜色词

Abstract

A Dream of Red Mansions is one of the greatest novels in Chinese literature, which is also famous in the foreign countries. It can be found that plenty of color words are used in this famous work especially in clothing; it shows the writer’s outstanding achievements in literature. Color words are both rich in Chinese and English culture which show a great charm. Due to the great cultural differences between two nations, the study of color words should not only include the knowledge of the basic meaning, but also the understanding of the deep symbolical significance. In ancient China, clothing represents one’s social status. This paper will take the translation by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang as an example to discuss the translation techniques of color words as well as the ways to translate color words accurately under the circumstances of great cultural differences. And it will explore the differences in conceptual meaning and associative meaning between two nations. Then, the classifications and translation methods of color words will be discussed. It also aims to make translators aware of the importance of these techniques and also put them into practice in the future. 

Key words: color words; A Dream of Red Mansions; translation

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Color Words 2

2.1 A brief Introduction to color words 3

2.2 Differences between Chinese and Western culture in color words 4

2.2.1 Cultural differences in conceptual meaning 4

2.2.2 Cultural differences in associative meaning 5

3 Classifications and Translations of Color Words of Clothing in A Dream of Red Mansions 6

3.1 Classifications of color words of clothing in A Dream of Red Mansions 6

3.1.1 Basic color words 6

3.1.2 Combined color words 6

3.1.3 Object color words 6

3.2 Translation methods of color words 7

3.2.1 Literal translation 7

3.2.2 Free translation 8

3.2.3 Annotation 12

4 Conclusion 13

References   14