简析英汉文化差异及其不可译性_英语论文

The Cultural Differences between English and Chinese and Untranslatability 

摘要

可译性和不可译性是翻译界一个争论已久的问题。它伴随着整个翻译发展的历史。翻译是一种跨文化交际,是原语与译语之间文化交流的桥梁。然而,原文与译文要在形式上和精神上取得完全一致是很难的。大量的语言实例证明,原语和译语由于文化差异,只能做到相对的对等,不能完全绝对等值。本文从物质、地域、思想、宗教文化差异方面论述了英汉语言中的文化差异及其不可译性，尝试找出翻译中不可译性的解决方法。

关键词：文化；文化差异；不可译性

Abstract

The question of translatability and untranslatability is a long-debated issue in translation. Its history accompanied the development of translation theory and practice. Translation is a kind of intercultural communication, which builds a bridge between the source language and target language. But, it's difficult to keep great harmony both in form and in meaning in the course of translation. Large quantity of examples show that translation can only get relative equality rather than absolute equality due to the cultural differences between source language and target language. This thesis paper discusses the cultural differences reflected in languages between English and Chinese from the perspectives of material, regional, ideological and religious cultural, aiming to find out the causes and solutions of its untranslatability in language translation.

Keywords: culture; cultural differences; untranslatability  

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 Culture and cultural Differences 1

2.2 Translatability and Untranslatability 2

2.3 Relevant Studies at Home and Abroad 2

3. Cultural Differences and Untranslatability in translation 4

3.1 Untranslatability Due to life experiences 5

3.2 Untranslatability Duet to ideology 5

3.3 Untranslatability Duet to Custom and traditions 6

3.4 Untranslatability Duet to Other Cultural Factors 8

4. Solutions to the Untranslatability 9

4.1 Domestication 9

4.2 Foreignization 10

4.3 Substituttion 10

4.4 Supplementation 11

4.5 Paraphrase 11

5. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 13