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5. An Illumination from the difference in cultural connotations between English and Chinese color terms to English -to- Chinese Translation
5.1 Importance of cultural awareness in the process of translation
5.1.1 The relation between cultural awareness and translation
5.1.2.Cultural non-equivalence existing in the process of translation
5.2 Methods of translation
5.2.1 Literal translation
5.2.2 Free translation
5.2.3 Substitution
6. Conclusion
1. Introduction
“Miss. Green is a white woman. Although she is a green hand in gardening, she is a very white woman. She never tells a lie. But today she looks very blue. What happened to her? I want to let her become pink again.”When reading this discourse, most of us might feel confused about what the speaker really wants to express. Though both the words and structure used in it are quite simple, the connotations of the color terms in question are not easy to grasp.
What do these color terms imply? How can we come up with the idiomatic Chinese version for these sentences so that everyone can catch their real meaning ? In what lights can we interpret these color? In this thesis, the author will discuss these questions and hope what has been analyzed will give you a good understanding of some basic English color terms.
Culture is a reflection of human life, a record of events and a product of history. At the same time, language is the carrier of culture and the important part of culture. That is to say, culture is the source of language and can influence the formation of language . In a word, people with different culture backgrounds may have a different understanding of a particular lexical item. Language and culture have a very close relationship. Without the knowledge of different cultures, it can be quite difficult to learn a foreign language well.
In a language, there are many culture-loaded words , among which are color terms. Just because the world is full of various colors, a great variety of color terms exist in a language. Different color terms not only contain various cultural connotations and extended meanings but also help us express our feelings about some objects and concepts. Thus, Color terms can be used either literally to refer to specific colors or to convey their cultural meanings metaphorically. In a sense, color terms are worth a thorough study in the process of a second language acquisition. Researches show that the world has as many as 7 million kinds of colors, but the words of colors are no more than hundreds. English and Chinese, as languages with a long history, are both rich in color terms. However, there is a special subset of color terms, known as basic color terms. According to Kay and McDaniel(1978), the “primary colors ” are “red, white, yellow green, blue and black”. These six color terms mostly represent people’s perception of colors in the world and they are endowed with more meanings than other colors. Based on their views, this paper focuses on the comparative study of the six basic color terms in English and Chinese. 源[自*751^`论\文"网·www.751com.cn/
Because of different geographic conditions, national customs, histories, politics and national psychology, the same color terms usually have different cultural associations and meanings in different languages. With the gradual intensification of globalization, communication and interaction between eastern countries and western countries are getting stronger. It is natural that misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication occurs from time to time. Thus appropriate translation of color terms is necessary in the process of communication. In order to have a successful communication with different people from different cultures, we should possess certain knowledge of certain color terms. In translation, we not only transform one language into another language, but also transfer one culture into another. Thus, it is important and essential for a translator to comprehend the connotations of color terms in Chinese and English. Further，in the process of translation about color terms, choosing proper translating methods is also equally important. The focus of the thesis is on the cultural differences in translation and some English-to-Chinese translation strategies.