ABSTRACT
Within the long history and along with the fast social and economic development, Chinese language has gained a large amount of words with cultural characteristics. In this more and more globalized world, China has more and more communication with the rest of the world in every aspect of our life. At the same time, people are being more and more interested in Chinese culture. Translation-as a way to help people understand each other - plays a very important role in this point. How to translate these words with distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics in a proper way has always been heatedly debated. This thesis aims to take same typical cultural words as our sample, base on the theories in translation study and the previous studies in this area, to give a thorough analysis about the category and classification of this kind of words. Also this thesis will discuss about the ways in translating these words from the prospective of domestication and foreignization. This thesis is expecting to have some innovations in the ways of translation, which will help the display of Chinese culture.
Key Words：Culture, Chinese characteristics, domestication, foreignization, translation
CONTENTS
1. Introduction 1
2. Backgrounds of words with Chinese characteristics 2
2.1 Forming of words with Chinese characteristics 2
2.2 Classification and features of words with Chinese characteristics 3
3. Mistakes in translating words with Chinese characteristics 5
3.1. Translating literally without knowing the deep meaning 5
3.2. Translating in Chinese thinking without caring about English language habits 6
3.3. Translating without knowing the origin of the words 7
4. Methods for translating words with Chinese characteristics 7
4.1 Basic theories for the ways of translating words with Chinese characteristics 7
4.1.1 The theory of domestication 8
4.1.2 The theory of foreignization 8
4.2 Methods for translating words with Chinese characteristics 9
4.2.1 Transliteration 9
4.2.2 Transliteration plus graphs, paraphrase or suffix 10
4.2.3 Literal translation 11
4.2.4 Literal translation plus paraphrase 11
4.2.5 Literal translation to create new words 12
4.2.6 Literal translation plus free translation 12
4.2.7 Free translation 12
5. The comparison between domestication ways and foreinization ways 16
6．Conclusion 17
Acknowledgements 19
References 19
1. Introduction
Ever since the adoption of the Reform and Opening-up policy, the fast development of China's economy has improved its nation power, meanwhile Chinese cultures are also being more and more realized all around the world. More and more western scholars have focused their studies on Chinese culture. And also more and more ordinary western citizens are learning Chinese too. We, as Chinese, should take the advantage of this opportunity, to strengthen the influence of Chinese culture, to improve the communication between China and the rest of the world, to make people of other countries know more about our country and eventually improve the development of the world.
Language, as one of the basic systems of culture, is a media for restoring, describing and transmitting culture. While words are the most basic unit in this system, and cultural loaded words are those which have deep association with a particular culture, words with Chinese characteristics belong to this category. How to transmit the deep cultural implication of these words to the outside world and make the target language reader know the uniqueness of Chinese culture through translation has been the focus of this thesis.
This paper will adopt an objective prospective, base the research on previous scholars' study and put forward a thorough discussion of this topic.
In part one, some basic knowledge, such as the forming, the classification and the features of those words with Chinese characteristics will be discussed.
Then in the second part, some negative translation samples will be listed and analyzed.
The third part will be the center of this thesis. First it will have a description of the basic theories for translating words with Chinese characteristics. That is foreignization and domestication. Then the passage will list a variety of ways of translations of words of Chinese characteristics, either in a domestication way or in a foreignization way. The different approaches of translation will be classified according to different kinds of words.
Then comes the fourth part, which will make a comparison between domestication ways and foreignization ways, in which the foreigniztion way will be valued for its ability in showing Chinese culture.
Finally, the last part will give a conclusion about the appropriate ways for translating words with Chinese characteristics according to the analysis made in the previous parts.
2. Backgrounds of words with Chinese characteristics
2.1 Forming of words with Chinese characteristics
Many new phenomena, new substances have come out along with the overall de
velopment of Chinese society, consequently many new words in politic, economics, technology and social life are being created. These words are implied with Chinese culture or are in deep association with Chinese society, such as “福娃” “龙的传人” “黑色收入” “白色收入”etc. In describing this social linguistic phenomenon, a famous professor ever said: "all newly come out from social life, be it social system, new measures, new ideology, new conception, new action or new tools, all need to be reflected by language, if not, they will not have their communicative effects in daily life."[7]6 Thus new words are a relative concept, it’s the reflection of social changes and progress, and it’s a direct mirror for social development. Words with Chinese characteristics are those tightly associated with Chinese culture and development, its birth and popularization are the results of China’s social development and progress.
2.2 Classification and features of words with Chinese characteristics
As to the classification of words with Chinese characteristics, there are many different opinions of different scholars. They can be divided into two kinds: the new ones and the old ones. Those new ones are created for describing new things, new phenomenon and new conception at the beginning of the time when those new things are created. Thus this way of division is a relatively progressive concept. That means those old ones are also very new when the first time they were used.
Ever since the beginning of reform and opening-up policy, many new words which are deeply connected with Chinese background have been created, a study showed that around 1000 new words are created every year, these words cover many areas of our daily life, such as politics, economics, science and technology etc., so newly came out words with Chinese characteristics can be typically classified in the following categories:
1.Politics
廉政建设( clean government building), 反贪(anti embezzlement), 权钱交易( trade power from money), 村民自治( villagers’ autonomy), 求同存异(seek common ground while putting asides differences), 小康社会( a well-off society), 和谐社会(harmonious society), 八荣八耻( the “eight honor and eight shame” outlook), 以人为本( human-oriented; people oriented; people foremost)etc.
2. Economics
竞争上岗( compete for a post) 、小金库( a private coffer) 、扶贫( poverty alleviation) 、转轨( transfer to a different track) 、下海( go into business) 、假日经济( holiday economy) 、“万村千乡”市场工程( the project of developing rural retail network) 、草根工业、朝阳产业( sunrise industry) 、三农工作(work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers) 、形象工程(vanity project)等。
3. Technology
火炬计划( Torch Program) 、中国硅谷(China’s “Silicon Valley”) 、神州飞船(“Shenzhou” Spaceship) 。
4. Culture, sports and entertainment
韩流( South Korean fad) 、假唱( lip synch) 、超女( super girl) 、八卦(Eight Diagrams; bagua) 、恶搞(spoof) 、走穴、福娃( Fuwa ) 、绿色奥运( the Green Olympics) 。
5. Social phenomenon
啃老族( young people relying on their parents) 、负翁( young people with a big loan from a bank) 、月光族( young people who spend out all their monthly income) 、走过场( go through the motions) 、走后门(get in by the back door) 、托儿( salesperson’s decoy) 、素质教育( quality oriented education system)弱势群体( disadvantaged groups) 、包二奶( have a concubine).
After talking about the classification of newly came out words with Chinese distinctions, we have to know some deep features of those which have been formed along the long history.
First, these words are with strong Chinese traditional ideology. 2500years ago, confusion ever said,“岁寒，然后知松柏之后凋也。”竹，松，梅，（Bamboo, pine, mume）these three things have the impression of good qualities in people, people will have the idea of strong mind and noble personality when talking about them. But to western people, these are just ordinary plants with no special cultural implication. The symbolic meaning of flowers between Chinese culture and western culture are also not the same. For example, lotus has totally different symbolic meanings in Chinese culture and western culture, our Chinese people have praised lotus a lot since the ancient time. Many poets have wrote poems praising lotus, such as “清水出芙蓉, 天然去雕饰”，“出淤泥而不染，濯清涟而不妖”etc. All these descriptions in Chinese have considered lotus as a symbol of elegance and purity. But in the west, lotus means estranged love( 疏远的爱). Second, these words are always associated with religions and philosophy. For ex
ample some words such as “ren仁” “yi义” “xiao孝” “dao道” are from Taoist and Confucianism which are created independently by Laozi and confusion. Third, some of these words are about those activities and foods, etc. that are typical Chinese ones. These words are very normal in our daily life. For example Chinese traditional sports, such as Chinese wushu(武术) and qigong（气功） are parts of Chinese culture. Foods like zongzi(粽子) jiaozi（饺子） and so on are also typical Chinese-only things.
3. Mistakes in translating words with Chinese characteristics
The translation of words with Chinese characteristics is a huge and creative job. It shares some basic principles with other Chinese-English translation works. But it also has some unique features that should be obeyed. For example, it is creative, it needs to be timely and it is hard to find a standard for preciseness. Thus the work of translating words with Chinese characteristics is a very tough job and needs a very creative mind.
Because a language will obtain a wide range of special expressions through the daily use of people and along with the long history of its own development, it is definitely not an easy job to transmit the deep meaning of the words in a proper and vivid way, this requires a translator not only to have a deep understanding of the emotional and cultural implications of the original language from semantic way, but also to have a precise maneuver of the culture mode, lifestyle and linguistic habits of both the original and target language users. Thus due to the difficulties in translating words with Chinese characteristics, many mistakes have been made during the translation procedure. Here this thesis will list some typical mistranslation cases:
3.1. Translating literally without knowing the deep meaning
Both English language and Chinese language have a long history, they are located with different national and cultural backgrounds. In translating words with Chinese distinctions, we should not only obey the English grammar rules and language habits, but also care about the understanding ability of foreign readers. Some translators only focus on the literal meanings of words, and translate them directly to English, which result in the great difference between the words and the English translated versions.
Some examples of this kind of mistakes are as follows:
1. “一条龙”服务;望子成龙;亚洲四小龙, these three words are usually translated into "a Dragon service" "hoping that one’s son will become a dragon" and "four Asian dragons". But we should know, in Chinese culture dragon symbolizes fortune, power, noble and prosperity. But in western culture, dragons are usually considered as something evil, it is the incarnation of devil, an ugly monster. So the correct translations should be as follows: "a service of coordinated process"-一条龙服务, "hoping that one’s son will be somebody"-望子成龙 and "four Asian tigers"-亚洲四小龙.
2. “白色收入” mean “someone get his money in legal ways” and “黑色收入”, in retrospect, means “someone gets money in illegal ways”. Some translators translate them directly into “white income” and “black income”. But they neglected one important cultural difference, we all know that “black” and “white” mean black people and white people, so the translation of” white income” and “black income” will cause misunderstandings, in the west, maybe people will think they are “income of black people and white people”. So the right translations should be “legal income” and “illegal income”.
3. “白页”means the pages of a directory which contains the numbers of governments and social organizations. The usual translation is “white page”, but actually in English, “white page” stands for a famous searching website (www. whitepages. com) which provides services for searching individuals, commercial organizations and government institutions. So the right translation should be “directory with phone numbers of government agencies and social groups”.
3.2. Translating in Chinese thinking without caring about English language habits
In translating some words, some translators are always being greatly influenced by Chinese thinking and translate every Chinese character into English without caring about English language habits. Such as “保护伞”which is always translated into “protective umbrella”. In fact the meaning of the word “umbrella” contains the meaning of protective,(Merriam-Webster 10th edition “something that provides protection as defensive air cover or a heavy barrage”).Some other examples such as “厄尔尼诺现象” is translated into “the ELNINO phenomenon”, but “ELNINO” wi
ll be enough. “核威慑力” will be better to be translated into “nuclear deterrent” rather than “nuclear deterrent force”; “开胃菜”will be better to be translated into “appetizer” instead of “appetizer course”; “网络咖啡吧” be better to be translated into “cybercafé” instead of “cybercafé bar”.
3.3. Translating without knowing the origin of the words
Along with the communication among different countries, many words of the west are being used in Chinese directly. These foreign-origin words are used more and more often in China and finally they become the words of Chinese. But when the time comes that we should translate these words back into English, the original words are usually f-orgotten,and the words are always mistranslated. Here are some examples, “单亲妈妈”is translated into “mother in a single - parent family”. But actually the concept of “单亲妈妈” first come out in the west, and the word in English is “single mother”. Then it is unnecessary to express what “single mother” is to western readers, just “single mother” will be enough for western readers to know the meaning. Other similar west-origin Chinese words are 冰毒- ice ; 摇头丸-dancing out reach; 保鲜期sell - by - date ; 朝阳工业- sunrise industry ;代孕- surrogacy ; 功能食品- functional food; 连锁店-chain store; 子弹头列车-bullet train etc. In translating this kind of words, we only have to “find out” the correspondent original words in English.
4. Methods for translating words with Chinese characteristics
4.1 Basic theories for the ways of translating words with Chinese characteristics
Foreignization and domestication are an extended concept of literal translation and free translation. They are first created by American scholar L. Venuti [8]12-18, but the terms of domestication and foreignization are from German scholar Schleiermacher, who implemented a thorough exploration of the indivisible relationship between translation and understanding. He pointed out that there are 2 kinds of translation methods, one is to let writers draw near to readers, and the other is to take the readers near to the writers. When taking the second method, the reader would be able to feel the foreignness of the text. This concept of readers-centered or writers-centered is not within the definition of literal translation and free translation and has a great impact on later scholars.
4.1.1 The theory of domestication
Domestication means that a translator should focuses on the readers of the target language, and uses the expressions which are familiar to target language readers to transmit the ideas of the original text. Nida said translation is just like the communication of different cultures, during this process, what really matters are those obtained by the readers when they were reading or listening the translation. [8]12-18 Thus whether meanings of words, grammar rules and language figures used in the translated version and original text are the same or not should not be the only way to judge the translation work. What is really important is the degree of readers’ understanding and interest in the translated version. Fluent and nature translation could help readers understand the original one better, avoid culture crashes, eliminate cultural obstacles and finally help people achieve the aim of cultural communication. Consequently, fluency is considered as an ideal strategy for domesticating translation.
4.1.2 The theory of foreignization
Foreignization means that a translator should focus on the writers, to use expressions corresponding to those that were adopted by the writers to transmit the ideas of the original texts. A representative figure of this theory, Venuti, holds the opinion that the aim of translation is not to eliminate the differences of languages and culture, but is to display the differences of languages and cultures.[13]7 he development and supplement of a language needs the absorption of foreign elements, and needs to get nourishments from other languages. And the foreignization of translation can perfectly achieve this. The history of Chinese language development is also a good example of consequent absorption of foreign language. Many words once come into Chinese through the expansion of Buddhism and the adoption of western science and technology are no longer “foreign words” nowadays. They have become an inseparable part of Chinese language and culture.
4.2 Methods for translating words with Chinese characteristics
As we know, there are many different methods in translation. It is even very hard to list all the methods. So in the translation of words with Chinese characteristics, it is very important to choose a proper way to translate, or the idea of the original text will not be naturally and precisely
transmitted. So in this part will give some practical methods for translating different kinds of words with Chinese characteristics.
4.2.1 Transliteration
Along with the popularity of Chinese language and culture all around the world, more and more Chinese words have been accepted by western readers. Many even have become members of English vocabulary. Among them,"风水"(fengshui) is a typical example, the 1995edition of webster dictionary embodied this word. Other similar examples are:
豆腐- tofu; 饺子- jiaozi; 馄饨- wonton;
炒面( chow mein); 抄手( chaoshou );
武术-wushu; 功夫- kungfu; 太极-Tai chi;
气功(qigong); 武侠小说- kungfu novel;
磕头- kowtow; 苦力- kou lie; 麻将- mahjong;
秀才- xiu cai; 琵琶- pi pa;
中关村高科技园( Zhongguanchun High—Tech zone). [17]6
In this case, the differences between the original language and the target language are very obvious, which means that it is unlikely to find a word in English to describe a thing that does not exist in English culture and social life. In this case, the method of transliteration has always been chosen.
On the other side, just as the previous passage has mentioned, many words with Chinese characteristics are actually from English. When translating these words, translators only have to "find out" the original English words for these things. There is no need to explain what they are.
For example“丁克族”is the equivalence of English word "DINK", which means "double incomes no kids", so when translating“丁克族”, we only have to use the word "DINK". But if the translator do not know the origin of "丁克族", he may translate it into “childless couples”. In resent years, another word " 丁宠族" have been invented from "丁克族", which means among some young DINK couples one of the couple don't want to have babies, but the other want to be a parent, so they keep a pet as their child and provide their pets with good living conditions, considering it as a part of the family. People in the west are familiar with the word "DINK", so in translating the word "丁宠族", we only have to translate it into "pets - only DINK family", and extra explanations are unnecessary. Many other words are:
博客- blog; 克隆- clone ; 秀-show ;
粉丝- fans; 吧- bar; 黑客- hacker. [15]6
Recently the Chinese word“晒客”is very popular in the internet, in fact this word is also from English, the equivalence is "share", which means someone who is willing to show his life, experiences and moods on the internet and share them with others.
Many other words which come into the mainland through Taiwan and Hong Kong media themselves are also from English, when translating them, we have to pay attention to the original words. Such as "资讯", it is always translated into "data", it seemed to be right, but actually it is wrong. Because "资讯" is the translation of "information" by Hong Kong and Taiwan media. The correct translation should be "information", the other word "瘦身" is also from Cantonese, which is the translation of the English saying "on diet", so its unnecessary to translate it into "slim".
4.2.2 Transliteration plus graphs, paraphrases or suffix
This method can be considered as the supplement of the method of transliteration. In order to show the Chinese culture in translation, we choose transliteration to translate those Chinese-typical things, but in some circumstances, a problem is always caused, that is the meaning of the word is not known by the western readers, for example, when we translate "观音" into "guanyin", people in the west will not know what this is, so in this condition, a paragraph of "guanyin" should be added, that is "Buddhism Guan, the goddess of mercy". The other examples are:
"压岁钱": yasuiqian( the money given to children during the Chinese lunar new year）.
"跳槽": tiaocao( seek for better position)
Similarly, when an explanation is needed, some graphs can also be added as the explanation, such as taichi "太极", a graph of taichi diagram can be added, so people will understand what it is.
The third one is suffix, this maybe a new and most creative way among these ways. A very good example of this kind is "taikonaut", which is the equivalence of spaceman or astronaut. After the successful launch of "神州六号" spaceship, the Chinese word" 太空人"has been very popular in the newspapers, so some western media translate it directly into "taikonaut" using the suffix of "-aut" is a creative way and it combines Chinese and English together.
4.2.3 Literal translation
Literal translation means not only to transmit the meaning of the original texts, but also to reserve the grammar rules and language figures of the original texts in the target language. Chinese-English translation aims to find the equivalent words in English to transmit the meaning of Chinese original texts. So when the equivalent words are available, the method of literal translation can be used. Literal translation can also be divided into" literal translation"字面意思翻译 and "word for word
translation"逐字翻译
Such as:
草根- Grass roots; 关系网- connection network;
春节- Chinese New Year; 贺岁片- New Year’s film;
八股文-eight-legged essay; 龙舟-dragon boat
剪纸-paper cut; 文化快餐-cultural fad
假日经济-holiday economy; 铁饭碗-iron-rice-bowl
玉兔-Jade Rabbit [22]6
4.2.4 Literal translation plus paraphrase
Just as previous way, in considering that literal translation of the original words may not be so clear to the target language readers, sometimes, an explanation is needed, such as "三从四德", can be translated into" the three obediences and four virtues", but people may not know what these are, so an explanation is needed,( obedience to father before marriage, to husband after marriage, and to son after husband's death; morality, proper speech, modest manner, and diligent work. In this way readers can have clear idea about the requirements to a woman by Confucianism.
4.2.5 Literal translation to create new words
Some typical culture loaded words can not easily find their counterparts in the target language, so a translator can translate literally and thus create a new word or phrase. Such as "纸老虎", was once translated into scarecrow(稻草人), but this can not reflect the real meaning of "纸老虎", later it was translated to "paper tiger" directly, this translation has been a standard word in English nowadays.
4.2.6 Literal translation plus free translation
When literal translation is not so clear to target language readers, but the translator still want to show the Chinese culture to the target language readers, then we can choose to use this method, that is to add an explanation of free translation to supplement the literal translation, which will help the target language readers understand both the literal meaning and the Chinese culture. There is a good example here, “望子成龙”was translated into "long to see one's son become a dragon"(win success in the world). When without the free translation supplement, this translation can be considered as bad translation (just as the previous passage have stated), but with the supplement, it becomes a subtle and creative translation.
4.2.7 Free translation
Free translation means that the content and structure of the original text are not suitable for literal translation, and are reorganized and expressed in the target language, which could be considered as domestication. This method of translation focuses much more on the transmission of the meaning rather than the foreign culture and tradition. Since China and English-speaking countries have great differences in history background, politics, economics, social cultures and values, very often it is not easy to find the equivalences in the other language. Thus in order to let the target language readers know better about the ideas of the original texts, free translation has often been adopted.
Among free translation, there are many different approaches as follows:
First one is explanation. Explanation means to use the target language to explain the meaning, the nature and the features of the original language. This approach is always used to translate those words which are only familiar to the original language readers and are not easy for foreigners to guess the meaning literally. Some political words are typical examples of this kind, such as:
三讲(讲学习, 讲政治, 讲正气) [20]6 : emphasize on three things : study , politics and integrity ;
三个代表: three represents - represent the development trend of China’s advanced productive forces ;represent the orientation of China’s advanced culture ; represent the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.
Some other words with Chinese characteristics are also need to be translated in this approach, such as:
本命年- the year of one’s animal sign;
青春饭- profession for young persons only;
民工潮- farmers’ frenzied hunt for work in cities;
紧箍咒- inhibiting curse;
狗仔队- paparazzi - journalist s who haunt celebrities;
Many oral Chinese words are the same, such as:
叫座- be a big draw at the box office ;
吃醋- be jealous ;
宰人- rip sb. off;
有路子- have friends in high places ;
吃闲饭- stay idle.
Second is to use those expressions which have the same meaning of the original texts. As we all know, it is very common that English and Chinese use different expressions to describe the same thing, thus what a translator needs to do is to know the different expressions of both the language for a same thing. He should be proficient in both the languages. Here are some examples:
1"爱屋及乌"in Chinese literally means if someone love a house, he will also love the crow on the top of the house. This is a metaphor for describing someone who loves something and thus loves everything related to it. The English version for this is "Love me, love my dog". From this example, we can see animals in different culture have different symbolic meaning.
2.In Chinese, we use"犹如雨后春笋
" to describe the quickly coming out of new things, but in English, it should be "just like mushrooms",(犹如蘑菇一样) , this is because bamboo shoots do not grow in Britain and mushroom is very much like bamboo shoot. They all grow very fast after the spring rain. In this case, the 2 sayings are different in structure and content, but their deep meanings are the same.
3."红眼病"in Chinese means jealous, but in English we use "green" rather than" red" to describe the feeling of jealousy, so the right translation should be "green-eyes, if we say "red - eyes", that must be real red eyes( maybe caused by weeping or hurts). It is a very normal phenomenon that English and Chinese use different color-words to express the same meaning, such as:
红茶- black tea ; 脸色苍白- green ; 青衣- black dress ; 生手- a green worker.
The third one we call it "combination", which means to combine 2 words together and make a new word. This method is usually used for translating some high-tech words, such as:
微电子学microelectronics (micro + electronics);
电力捕鱼electrofishing (electro + fishing);
光植物学photobotany ( photo + botany);
电视电话telephovision ( telephone+ television);
电子机械产品electromechanical (electronic+ mechanical) products, etc. [14]3
The fourth is the use of affixation(词缀法), which is a kind of derivation(派生法),this way uses suffix and affix to create new words. Suffix and affix in English are very useful in expressing ideas, when being used for translating words with Chinese characteristics, could be even more powerful. Here are some examples:
Ex.1:化
Many words with Chinese characteristics have the Chinese suffix of "化", such as "教育产业化"、"知识社会化"、"科研成果产业化"、"经济全球化"etc. In translating these words, sometimes literal translation can be used, such as"经济全球化"can be translated to “economic globalization", but not all the words with" -化"can be translated with" - ize"or "- ization", we should choose more flexibly in dealing with these words. Such words as"教育产业化"and"知识社会化" can be translated into "a market - oriented education" and "a knowledge - driven society". And "领导干部年轻化" means to let younger people to be the leaders of the country, but was mistranslated into "make the leadership members younger", which means to "使原有的领导成员变得年轻",this is obviously wrong，thus the right translation should be "bring younger people into the core of the leadership" or "make the ranks of cadres younger in average age".
Ex2:奴 [18]5
"奴" itself is a noun. But now it is used as a suffix to describe the state of being under great pressure. Such words as"房奴" "车奴" have been very familiar to Chinese people, and also recently similar words such as"节奴"（means those who are fed up with festival expenditure or social life),"墓奴" (means those who pay a lot money on the tomb of their beloved ones who passed away.)"证奴" (means those who work very hard in order to get many certificates which are thought to be helpful for their future career.) have been invented. In this case the suffix of "slave" can be used , for example,房奴- the slave to house ,车奴- the slave to car ,节奴- the slave to festival ,墓奴- the slave to tomb ,证奴- the slave to certificate.
Ex3 :门[18]6
In English the suffix of "gate" originates from the "Watergate scandal" of president Nixon in seventies of the 20th century, which results in the resignation of President Nixon and which is also one of the most shameful scandals of American politics. Not long after the scandal, the suffix of "-gate" appeared in English language, and in Chinese it has its literal translation"门",which means scandals like "Watergate scandal". Afterwards, the international presses like to use the suffix of "-gate" when a celebrity or government has a scandal, such as:伊朗门- Iran Gate、翻译门- Translation Gate 、虐囚门- Maltreatment of Prisoner Gate etc. In 2006 the word"解说门- Commenting Gate" appeared in Chinese presses. This word is related to a scandal of a famous sports anchorman of CCTV. In the beginning of 2008, 10 Hong Kong stars are related to a scandal of erotic photos, which are exposed before millions of Internet users and caused very bad influences in public. This incident is called"艳照门" and should be translated into-" Erotic Photo Gate”.
The fifth one is different translations of a single word(一词多译).This is a common phenomenon in translation, then the translation of words with Chinese characteristics is no exception. Chinese is a complicated and flexible language, which means a single word will have different meanings in different circumstances. When translating them, we should use different words according to different circumstances. The word"一次性" is a very good example, such as:
一次处理- single/ primary treatment; 一次污染- primary pollution;
一次付清- pay in full; 一次消费- one - time consumption;
一次误差- first - order error; 一次偿还信贷- non - installment;
一次性杯子- sanitary cup; 一次性筷子- disposable chopsticks;
一次用包装- non - returnable
container； 一次性雨伞- throw away umbrella;
一次性收入- lump - sum payment; 一次性(用) 照相机- single - use camera. [3]
In the above examples, although the Chinese word is the same"一次性", we use different words to express the meanings.
The last one is to use idioms and fix phrases. Although Chinese vocabulary have been enlarged recent years, words with Chinese characteristics can still find their equivalent idioms in English. This is also a way of foreignization. For example:
拆东墙补西墙- to rob Peter to pay Paul;
低调- A new broom sweeps clean;
不打不成交- No discord , no concord.
5. The comparison between domestication ways and foreinization ways
Based on the above statements, this thesis will have a comparison between the different ways of translating words with Chinese characteristics. First, as have been talked about in part three(3.1).Foreignization and domestication are an extended concept of literal translation and free translation, so the above methods can be divided into two groups, the domestication group, which includes free translation, and the foreignization group, which includes transliteration(3.2.1,3.2.2). and literal translation(3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.2.5). As to the free translation, it has many advantages especially when it comes to the words which are impossible or very different to translate in literal ways, it can help the target language readers know the meaning of the original texts more easily and is much more close to the target language culture, meanwhile is far from the original language and culture- Chinese. Thus it's not good for showing Chinese culture and tradition. On the other side, the foreignization way is much close to the original language and culture-Chinese, it is good at showing the uniqueness and greatness of Chinese culture, it may cause confusions to the target language readers at first, but it also functions to help those people understand Chinese culture and tradition better. At this point, this thesis would prefer the use of foreignizing ways, but in considering that foreinizing may not be enough for transmitting the meaning of text, and may not be universally usable, just as previous passages have mentioned, some still need the supplement of domesticating, this passage would encourage both the use of these 2 kinds. This thesis also hold the prediction that along with the developing and thriving of China and Chinese culture, people in the west will know more about Chinese culture, and the methods of foreignizing in translating words with Chinese characteristics will be more and more used.
6．Conclusion
Nowadays, because of the globalization, Chinese culture has become more and more popular all around the world, people of other countries are more and more interested in Chinese culture and language. So it is very necessary to translate those words with Chinese characteristics properly. These words are a vital part of Chinese culture. Therefore, the translation of words with Chinese characteristics is very important. Due to its importance, this paper studies and sets forth some opinions upon the translation of words of Chinese characteristics.
Words with Chinese characteristics are those tightly associated with Chinese culture and development, its birth and popularization are the results of China’s social development and progress. These words function to help foreign people know more about China.
Due to their functions, words with Chinese characteristics have the following features—tightly associated with every aspects of China, uniqueness, uneasy to translate. This thesis has a brief introduction about the origin, classification and features of words with Chinese characteristic. These words are related to Chinese philosophy, sports or food or traditional festivals etc. Then the passage gives some bad examples of mistranslating words with Chinese characteristics.
Translation theories and methods have also been discussed; the basic approaches for translating words with Chinese characteristics can be divided into 2 parts, domestication and foreignization. And different kinds of words with Chinese characteristics can be translated in different ways, such as transliteration, free translation and literal translation. The domestication ways are close to the readers and focus on the transmitting of meanings, the foreignization ways are close to the original texts, and focus on the display of the culture of original texts. There is no good or bad thing on these two methods, but the foreignizing ways are much effective in showing our Chinese culture and tradition.
Meanwhile, language is in a constant developing and changing state, many new words with Chinese characteristics will come out along with the development of the society. In the new century, China will become more and more close to the rest of the world, the translation of words with Chinese characteristics will help them know more about us. As a translator, he has to pay great attent
ion on this trend, and gradually improve his skills and introduce our Chinese culture to the rest world through translating.
Due to the limited time and space, many points remain untouched in this paper. Translating word with Chinese characteristics is a complex job. During translating, we may meet some other problems, so we should still exert more effort in the work of translating words with Chinese characteristics.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis. I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor, Penghefen, who has helped me to shape the ideas that have gone into this paper. She has provided me with numerous advice and suggestions on the reasoning and analysis process of the paper. I would also like to express my gratitude to other teachers from whom I have also acquired a lot of knowledge during my four years’ studies. Finally, I want to extend my appreciation to all others who give me constant support and encouragement during the whole process of my study and paper writing.
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