Analysis of Mistranslation
Abstract: It’s agreed that translation should transfer the original text as faithfully and correctly as possible. But owing to differences between the two languages, translating errors and defects are inevitable. Because of the inevitably existent gap in material life, traditional history, politics, social system and developing process between China and English-speaking countries, we suffer from blunders from misunderstanding and misinterpretations, which hinder greatly the smoothness and promotion of intercultural exchange process. Thus, it’s necessary for English learners to analyze the factors that may cause misinterpretation in order to reduce mistranslation in the cross-culture communications. This paper briefly introduces the categories of mistranslation, analyzed the main causes of mistranslation, and emphasized discussing cultural mistranslation, raised possible methods to deal with this phenomenon, and mainly hoped that some mistranslation will be avoided in the further translation process to improve the cross-cultural communications.
Key Words: mistranslation; cultural mistranslation; blunders; cross-cultural communication
浅析翻译中的误译现象
摘 要：尽管人们认识到，翻译应该尽可能忠实，准确的传达原文。译者也孜孜不倦，尽量避免误译。但由于英汉两种语言的差异，翻译错误在所难免。由于各国的物质生活、历史传统、政治文化、社会制度及发展道路各方面的文化差异，在跨文化交际中会不时的出现误译的现象，对两国文化之间的正常交流产生很大的影响和障碍。因此作为一名英语学习者有必要对误译产生的原因进行分析并做到在跨文化交际中尽量减少误译的出现。本文简要介绍了误译的分类，引起误译的主要原因，并着重讨论文化性误译，试探性的提出几个解决该问题的方法，并希望能够在翻译过程中尽可能的减少或避免误译的发生，以促进跨文化交际的进一步发展。 关键词：误译；文化性误译；重大错误；跨文化交流
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1. Categories of Mistranslation 2
1.1 Technical Mistranslation 3
1.2 Cultural Mistranslation 3
2. Causes of Mistranslation 4
2.1 An Analysis of One Relevant Research on the Causes of Mistranslation 5
2.1.1 General Pattern of the Research 5
2.1.2 Conclusions of the Research 5
2.2 Causes of Mistranslation from the Aspect of Non-cultural Factors 7
2.3 Causes of Mistranslation from the Aspect of Culture 7
2.3.1 Definition of Culture 8
2.3.2 Cultural Factors in Mistranslation 9
3. Cultural Blunders in Translation and its Negative Effects 10
3.1 Examples of Economic Losses Caused by Cultural Mistranslations 10
3.2 Examples of Political Failures Caused by Cultural Mistranslations 11
4. Ways to Reduce the Problems of Mistranslation 12
4.1 Ways to Reduce Technical Mistranslations 12
4.2 Ways to Reduce Cultural Mistranslations 13
4.2.1 Introduction of Cultural Awareness 13
4.2.2 The Significance of Cultivating Cultural Awareness 14
5. Conclusion 14
Bibliography 17
