ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL CONTEXT IN TRANSLATION——TAKE A DREAM OF RED MANSIONS FOR EXAMPLE
摘 要
文化语境是研究语言应用与功能的重要语言学范畴之一。翻译是一项跨文化交际的活动，文化因素总是制约着文本的理解与表达，因此文化语境对于翻译的重要性不可忽略。在翻译的过程中，译者常常发现，扎实的语言功底似乎远远不能保证创造出一篇令人满意的译文。更重要的是，译者必须掌握原语文本中和译出语文本的文化差异。充分重视文化语境的重要性，就必须对文化中相关的时代背景，约定俗成的表达，价值倾向，某种文化中的特有物质以及含文化因素的表达有一定的了解和认识。本文通过对红楼梦部分具有代表性的不同文化语境的例句分析，从宗教信仰，动物的寓意和人们称呼的差异阐述了文化语境在翻译中的重要性。从而得出结论一个成功的译者不仅仅应该是一位双语学家，更应该精通两种相关文化，因为文字只有在特定文化语境中才有意义。
关键词：文化语境, 差异, 翻译, 红楼梦, 重要性
Abstract
Context of culture is one of the most important linguistic categories in the study of language use and function. As translation is an activity of communication across the cultures, it shouldn’t be neglected that context of culture will inevitably affect translation to a great extent. In the process of translation, we would often find that only the competence of the two languages involved is far too limited to produce a satisfactory translated text. As a matter of fact, translation is not a mere matter of translating languages, but more of translating cultures that involved. What's really difficult and important is the translators’ command of the specific differences on the cultures between source language text and the target language text. To get a full understanding of the importance of cultural context, one should pay enough emphasis on these specific reflections including that entrenched conventions, value preference, unique objects and some expressions cultural factors. This paper analyzes some representative examples in A Dream of Red Mansions. From the translation of different religious belief, animals images and ways of addressing people, the importance of the cultural context is outstanding. In a word, to be a successful translator, it seems that the ability to be a biculturist is more important than that to be a bilinguist, for words only possess meaning when culture functions.
Keywords：Context of culture; Difference; Translation; A Dream of Red Mansions; Importance
Content
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 2
2.1 The concept of context of culture 2
2. 2 Cultural context study in translation 3
3. The Importance of Context of Culture in A Dream of Red Mansions 5
4. The Cultural Context Differences in Translating A Dream of Red Mansions 7
4.1 The cultural context concerning different religious belief and its translation 7
4.2 Animals images in different cultural context and its translation 9
4.3 Ways of Addressing people in different cultural context 9
5. Conclusion 13
Acknowledgements 14
References 15
