题目（英文）On Barriers to English-Chinese Translationfrom
the Perspectives of Cultural Background and Mode of Thinking
题目（中文）从文化角度看英汉翻译的障碍
Abstract
On Barriers to English-Chinese Translation
from the Perspectives of
Cultural Background and Mode of Thinking
Abstract: Translation should be the reappearance of the original work. In other words, the image, the artistic effect, and the meaning of the original works should all be successfully delivered in the translated version. But there exist some factors that make it impossible to produce excellent translations. Among the factors that affect translation, different cultural backgrounds and different mode of thinking are the most influential ones. Language is the embodiment of culture, and in dealing with the translation of works, what is the most important of all is to deal with the element of culture. Good management of cultures of different nations is one of the key points in doing translation. Idioms, enigmatic sayings and allusions are the most culturally specific expressions that cause great difficulties for translators. Mode of thinking is the factor that affects the composition of a sentence, a paragraph, or an article, and even the understanding of them. Because of Chinese emphasis on perception and intuition, Chinese characters are pictographic; and because westerners are reasonable and logical, objectivity is the main property of English vocabulary. Today there is almost no integrated analysis on this topic. Some unsuccessful translations resulting from different cultural backgrounds and different mode of thinking are easy to be found in translated works which is hard for target readers to understand. The aim of this paper is to analyze the elements of cultural background and mode of thinking that affect English-Chinese translation, and then to provide some good methods to overcome these difficulties. Through analyzing these barriers, it can be concluded that, to produce good translated versions, a well awareness of different culture backgrounds, a good command of different thinking modes, and an adoption of proper translation methods are needed.
Key Words: translation; cultural background; mode of thinking; translation method
Contents
Abstract I
Contents I
Introduction 1
1.Cultural overview 4
1.1Anglo-American culture 4
1.2Main Differences between Chinese and Western Cultures 5
1.3Cultural Differences between Chinese and English 5
2An example of cross - cultural translation of idioms. 6
2.1Examples of Chinese Idioms Translation 6
2.2An Example of Translating English Idioms
6
3An Analysis of the Cultural Causes of Cultural Loss in Cross - cultural Translation of Idioms. 7
3.1Negative transfer of culture 7
3.2To the problems brought about by different mode of thinking 7
References 8
