Animals have been our friend since ancient time. The images of animals have been rooted in various nations. Many Languages contain numerous animal words. These animal words form unique animal culture of each country. China and Britain are not exception, too. Moreover Animal words in the course of our development play an significant role and have rich cultural connotations in Chinese and English.
Concerning the fact that cultural gap between two nations and the inseparable relationship between language and culture. Culture is now attracting ever-increasing attention in the field of translation studies.
This thesis is aim to explore the translation of animals from the cross-culture perspective. Several cross-cultural translation strategies are introduced in thesis. One of them should be adopted. One is to maintain the animal images that readily convey connotations. Another is to replace animal images of the original text with other animal images to convey connotations. The last strategy is added or reduced animal words to convey clear meaning of the source language.
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It is essential to review some theories to understand this thesis .And the following are several concepts about cross-cultural translation. This thesis pays much attention to the translation of animal words, cultural connotation and value of this thesis will be discussed.
2.1 Culture and Translation
Gentzler says “Translation is not static, but the communications between two cultures. I always re-explain symbols according to different codes, and it always never stops.”(Brown, Gentzler 2009), According to Li Qian, “In the modern society, Chinese culture integrates with foreign cultural.”(Li Qian,2007:24). Translation is not only the transportation between different languages, while it should be ‘cultural fax’ that is transporting the information of culture in source language to that in target languages.
The concept of culture as “a totality of knowledge, proficiency and perception” is essential in our approach to translation. According to their theories, translators not only need proficiency in two languages but also should be at home in two cultures.
2.2 Cultural Connotations of Animal Words
In our daily life, words are always are related to our feelings, actions and ideas. There are lots of animal words in both Chinese and English, which carry cultural connotations. They play a significant role in both languages.
Various linguists and scholars spend their entire lives studying animal words and relating their meaning to cultural backgrounds. According to Zhu Guangqian, a famous Chinese scholar, “besides, its dictionary meaning, a word may have associative meaning and contextual meaning”( Bao Hongming,2002,56). He also relates the associative meaning more or less to culture. So the meanings of animal words are more than creatures that they refer to. In 1974, according to Leech’s theory, the meaning of words is pided into seven types: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning, reflective meaning, collocative meaning and thematic meaning”(Crystal, David,2008). He studies the meaning under the cultural background and recognizes the associative meaning is related to culture.