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1、The Transmission of Culture Information in CE Translation from the Perspective of Sentence Conversion 从句子转化看汉英翻译中的文化信息传递摘要语言作为人们交流的工具，是文化的一部分。在这个世界上，有许许多多的语言与文化。不同的语言是不同文化的载体。然而，是翻译将这两种不同的文化与语言衔接起来。因此，通过翻译，文化与语言之间的不同变得更为明显。当面临语言及文化信息差异翻译的困难时，如何将源语言的信息完整的传递到译入语，是这篇文章要重点讨论的问题。通过句型转换，可以有效的解决上述问题。 在句型转换
2、的过程中，有些句子的顺序被颠倒了，但并不影响信息的传递。一般来说，有许多句型转换的方式，但是在这里，作者只是讨论了部分句型转换的方法与策略。关键字：语言；文化；翻译；文化差异；句型转换AbstractLanguage, by which people communicate with each other, is a part of culture. In this world, there are so many kinds of languages and cultures. It is said that different languages bearing different cul
3、tures. However, it is the translation that bridges two different languages and cultures together. Thus, cultural and language differences become obvious through translation. When facing culture default and difference, how to communicate without any problems and carry most of the source information t
4、o the target language and culture is the core of this thesis. Sentence conversion is one of the efficient ways to deal with these problems. While during sentence conversion, the sequence of the source language was changed, but the information of the source language has been kept. Generally speaking,
5、 there are many types of sentence conversion. But in this thesis, the author just discusses some of them through supplying some strategies of the sentence conversion. Key words: language, culture, translation, cultural differences, sentence conversion 1 IntroductionAs mankinds most important tool of
6、 communication, language reflects peoples thinking process, communication and understanding. Great England writer Edward Taylor on human culture in his book Original Culture has defined culture as “culture is a body, which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, ethics, laws, customs, as well as on the r
7、est of society with the purpose of attaining the ability to learn.” This shows the complexity and breadth of culture. Language is a rather special part of culture. Language, as an integral part of culture, reflects the rich and varied culture situations. Language and culture should not be completely
8、 separated, because language is deeply rooted in culture. Due to the far distance and the steep areas between the East and West, the two continents seldom communicate until recent centuries, so they grew up totally in their own ways with almost no interference from each other. Because of the isolati
9、on, translation shows its importance. Through translation, the differences of languages and cultures become obvious. Good translation can not only show the meaning, it can also point out the culture differences between the different languages. Good translation can transfer the culture information fr
10、om the source language to the target language freely and effectively. Culture plays an important role in Chinese-English translation, which can not be ignored. If translation only attaches the transmission of semantic information while ignoring the transmission of culture information, it is difficul
11、t to truly reflect the original meaning. How to control this problem has been a history question in translation history. From the former researches, it can be seen that during cross-cultural communication, many brilliant translators have concluded different ways of translation. And during Chinese-En
12、glish translation, the most difficult thing is to transfer Chinese culture into English, due to the different ways of expressions and speaking and thinking habits. In Chinese-English translation, sentence conversion is one of the efficient ways to deal with the culture and information problem. By us
13、ing sentence conversion, the cultural information and meaning of the source language can be kept completely. There are many rules of sentence conversion, but the basic rule is that to state the meaning and culture information from the source language to the target language. Therefore, in this thesis
14、, Chinese culture and English culture and the differences between these two cultures and languages are discussed. How to get good translation during Chinese-English translation is the main topic in this thesis. It is the authors hope that the ways of getting good translation in Chinese-English trans
15、lation can help us in future studies, especially when facing the culture difference and communication between different cultures and languages. 2 Culture DifferencesThere are many kinds of cultures in this world. Every culture is different from each other. It is the differences that make each cultur
16、e as unique one on the earth. The differences differ from one culture to another. In the following, it is going to discuss the main differences that commonly seen in our daily life.2.1 SpaceThe western world has more conception on space then on place. The horizon far away is not only the boundary of
17、 heaven and earth, but also the symbol of future. Westerners will not base on a certain place for long time, no mater how beautiful there is. They will be attracted by expansive space stretching into the horizon, where their future is. On the contrary, Chinese have deep emotion on land and never tre
18、at wonder as a kind of happiness. Chinese are always based on own ground. The Chinese house, the court is usually surrounded by a long wall. There may be a garden in the corner. Architectures corridors, rockeries, and meniscuses are all arranged well. It will be quite and harmonious once you came in
19、to this private place. However, you cant get a broad scene. Without an expansive place, all things reflected in a court are only changes of each season. 2.2 Greeting and PartingWhen meeting acquaintances, people usually greet each other. The purpose of greeting is to establish or maintain social con
20、tact. So formulaic expressions are often used, but such formulaic expressions often causes conflicts because of great culture differences between Chinese and native English speakers. In English, people often employ the following expressions to greet each other: “Good morning / evening / afternoon.”
21、“Beautiful day, isnt it?” “How is your exam?” “How are you?” etc. Westerners usually treat the following greetings as real questions: “What are you going to do next?” “Where have you been?” While in Chinese, the following greetings are usually seen: “你吃饭了没？” “你到哪儿去了？”“干什么去啊？” These questions show pe
22、oples consideration to others rather than really ask them where they have been or where they are going. Parting may be divided into two steps. Before the final parting, there is usually a leaving-talk. Western and Chinese culture have diverse ways to deal with leaving-talks. Firstly, in English soci
23、ety, during the closing phase of encounter, from “I” perspective, reasons for terminating the encounter is presented in mediatory comments. Typical comments are associated with expressions of apology. Such as “Im afraid I must be off, I have to relieve the baby-sitter” etc. Western people believe th
24、at to be willing to visit and converse with someone means having respect for him. To terminate the visiting is not of ones own free will, but because of some other arrangements, they always try to make their leaving sound reluctant by finding some reasons and apologize for it to make the leaving acc
25、eptable for both parties. English speakers often signal several times before leaving. “Well, its been nice to see you again. I do enjoy our talk and the lovely dinner, but I must be going soon”. “Thank you very much for asking me over. I hope well be able to get together again before long” Consolida
26、tion in a wider range of common acquaintances also occurs, in expressions such as “Say hello to your parents for me” or “Remember me to your parents”. In Chinese society, during the closing phase of an encounter, usually reasons for ending the encounter are set forth in mediatory expressions. Such e
27、xpressions include: “看样子你挺忙的，我就不打扰了.”“你今天累坏了吧，那就早点休息，我要告辞了.”etc. With these words, they may stand up from their seats. Chinese leave-taking is very short and quick. Western people think it so abrupt that they have not prepared for it. While moving to the door, Chinese employ expressions of apology l
28、ike“不好意思，打扰了.”“占用你不少时间,真不知道该怎么感谢你才好.”2.3 AddressingDifferent ways of addressing can show the different culture habits and different ways of expressions. Both western and Chinese people have two kinds of personal names-a surname and a given name. But the order and the use of these names in two langua
29、ges are somewhat different. In Chinese, the surname comes first and then the given name and people like add“小/老”before their family name. Such as“小/老马”、“小/老邱”、“小/老谭”、“小/老白”and so on. This kind of addressing can show respect or concern to others. In calling their superiors or elders, the Chinese are
30、accustomed to the nonreciprocal or asymmetrical addressing, in other words. They use “title +surname” to address their superior or elders rather than call them surnames, while the superior or elders call the addressers their names. But the westerners do not like a fixed addressing which may hold the
31、ir forward steps. This kind of addressing can show the differences from Chinese culture to English culture. Chinese tend to abide by the polite principle of depreciating oneself and respecting others to show appropriate respects towards the persons being addressed, otherwise, the addresser may be co
32、nsidered as ill mannered, ill educated or rude. But in English speaking countries, people have a tendency to follow the reciprocal or symmetrical addressing. Although they are different in age and status, they can call the other directly, namely, their names, even first names.2.4 Thanks and Response
33、s “Thank you” is widely used in English to show gratitude in such cases as being invited, helped, given a gift, etc. Cultural differences exist between Chinese and western in how to express thanks and responses. In fact, “Thank you” is uttered in English for more than acknowledging favor or gratitud
34、e, and it is often a means to show politeness. On many occasions, the English use this utterance while the Chinese may say “麻烦您了”or do not say a word at all but just smile or nod. As a matter of fact, “Thank you ” is used more widely by westerners than Chinese use “谢谢”, for minor favors like borrowi
35、ng pencil , asking directions, requesting someone to pass on a message, receiving a telephone, etc. “Thank you” not only shows politeness but also carries a persons grateful feeling for those who offer help. Without using expressions of gratitude, misunderstandings may arise because the help seems t
36、o be taken for granted and is not appreciated, For westerners, each person is an equal individual, whether he is a family member of not. In Chinese, “谢谢”is not frequently used between intimate friends and family members because it may imply a certain distance between the addresser and the addressee.
37、 Here comes the big culture gap between Chinese and English by using the same sentence. Different culture developing background can cause culture differences. The following examples can make an extra explanation. Native speakers may respond to “Thank you” by saying: You are welcome /Its /my pleasure
38、/ Not at all/ Dont mention it/No problem. Thats all right. While Chinese people may say:“别客气，应该的,没关系” which may convey to westerners the message that the Chinese did not really want to do it, or that he /she did it only because it is his/her duty. This message is quite different from what the Chines
39、e speaker intended to express.2.5 Individualism and CollectivismWestern culture is based on individualism rather than on collectivism. For instance, in the US, you always talk about individual rights, instead of placing the whole society above your own self. Western culture is adventurous and explor
40、ation based. So westerners like to discover new things, invention and expand outwards. The westerns prefer to show off, and they value their own plans. “In individualist cultures people tend to be less aware of others feeling and may talk more than people from group-oriented cultures.” (Linell Davis
41、，2001：213）The Chinese are famous for their modest; they value the groups importance. “In the grope pattern of social relationship members of groups may be relatively equal or they may be arranged in a hierarchy.” (Linell Davis，2001：212） For example, when concluding the job, Chinese prefer to say “由于
42、领导的英明决策,兄弟单位的大力配合以及同志们的关心，鄙人取得了一些微不足道的成绩.”(谢旭升，2007:40) Another condition is even achieve great success, the Chinese tend to say the group did great job and help a lot, their own work much lesser than the group devotion. But the westerns prefer to emphasize on their own devotion rather than the grou
43、p, they tend to show themselves, they like companion, they do not like modest. For example, during an election, the western will self glorifying, they will enhance people to vote for him, like “Vote for me!” or “This city will be famous if I am the mayor.” Some students dont know the difference betw
44、een Chinese and English, or they know a little about it and can not use it correctly, so it is obvious that they will make mistakes in cross-culture communication. For example, when writing resume applies for the cross-sea job, because of lacking of cross culture knowledge, they usually use humility
45、 words, so they will lose the chance. In another case, when writing for the letter apply foreign college education, or when writing a composition, they write the contents by using Chinese way of thinking and expression, the result is he will lose the chance. These two problems caused by lacking of c
46、ross-culture knowledge. From the above discussions, it is clear that Chinese and English have many differences. However, translation bridges the languages and cultures differences together. Through translation, the differences between different languages and cultures become obvious. Thus, during cro
47、ss-culture communication, the differences should be translated from source language to target language. 3 Culture and Translation3.1 Culture and Translation With the study of translation going further, the idea that translation is for cross-cultural communication was put forth by linguists and trans
48、lators. New Mark has two statements: “translation is the most economical method of explaining one cultures way to another” and “translation mediates cultures”. Culture and language are inseparably integrated, “language is a social fact” (Halliday, 1987:1). “Language is the mirror of thought and both
49、 reflector and reflected are conventional” (Palmer, 1981:8). “Language is deeply embedded in culture.” (Rivers, 1983:263) As a significant medium for cultural exchange, translation aims to promote understanding among different countries and nations, hence to improve communication cross cultures. Translation from language to language is in fact translation f
