On Cultural Differences in News Translation 浅析新闻翻译中的文化差异现象毕业论文
2022-03-01 19:57:42
论文总字数:44524字
摘 要
当今世界全球化趋势日益明显,国与国之间的距离不断缩小,人们交流愈加频繁。新闻作为沟通不同文化的桥梁,正帮助人们促进交流,而不同国家有着不同的文化背景,这也导致了文化差异。首先,本文分析了中西方新闻中的文化差异,包括认知差异、语言符号差异、文化积累和价值观以及思维模式的差异。其次,基于以上有关文化差异的分析,本文也尝试提出了解决以上文化差异的相关策略。最后,本文还支出了跨文化意识的定义以及重要性,并提出了作为新闻翻译者培养跨文化意识的一些方法。新闻翻译者在翻译英语新闻时,如果没有跨文化意识,则无法准确、合理地翻译出英语新闻。好的新闻翻译不仅能够让人了解新闻的内容,还能对新闻报道国家的文化有所了解,更重要的是新闻翻译者可以借此提高自身的翻译水平和文化视野。
关键词:文化差异 新闻翻译 跨文化意识
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 The Need to Study Cultural Differences on News Translation
English news refers to news transferred from written or reported news in one language to those in another. And then spread the news with the aid of some communication media so as to render the audience channels to know the latest happenings in the original place of the news, and obtain the roughly identical thinking and education just as the mother-tongued do. The non-English-speaking readers should be able to achieve the same feeling as their English-speaking counterparts do.
To realize this target, very high standards should be met by English news translators. That is to say, they should not only be equipped with a solid languages basis and the mastery of at least two foreign languages, but also be familiar with the language features in translation. Furthermore, it is imperative that they should make constant efforts to enrich their knowledge of national cultures and customs of both target language country and source language country. Failure to realize this target will probably lead to the incongruous translation between two languages, thus causing awkward situations or even misunderstanding. A correct translation will not only convey the local culture but also the traditions the original place. The common presence of the cultural differences in translation place very high requirements on English news translation, because culture in nature is very abstract. Therefore, something seemingly natural in one country tends to be obscure and even impenetrable which requires great efforts and attention in translation so as to help the people born in one culture better understand the culture of other countries.
Culture refers to a common “psychological procedure” between people in one country or region which is derived from the long-term life, work and study with each other. It usually includes such various factors as mode of thinking, religious belief, customs and traditions as well as history and culture, etc. Differences are inevitable between people from different countries and regions which will surely give rise to their obstacles in language communication. This phenomenon is defined as “cultural differences”. Professor Wang Zuoliang in his book “Translation and Cultural Prosperity” mentions that the so-called cultural differences refer to something which goes without saying in one culture but remains to be explained with great efforts in another.
Cultural differences have their influence in a wide spectrum such as religious belief, sense of value, ways of thinking, lifestyles, psychology, philosophy, language, science and technology, eating habits, concept of time, interpersonal relationship, etc. Samovar once points out that when a piece of information going off the culture being decoded, it carries the meaning the decoder wants to express. After arriving at the receiver, the connotation of the original information will be changed in the process of decoding the intercultural communication. That the bigger the cultural differences between the two sides are, the greater the extent of changes will be made shows that it will be more likely to confront intercultural setbacks and difficulties in interpersonal communication when the cultural differences are bigger. In short, having some knowledge of the extent as well as the points of cultural differences between the two sides in advance is beneficial to eliminating misunderstanding and polishing up communication.
English news translator should attach great importance to the cultural differences in news translation, and cultivate their intercultural awareness in order to be “a truly literate person”. However, to be “a truly literate person” requires that they boost not only their knowledge of the cultures and customs of the English news countries, but also that of the history, philosophy, science and technology of these countries. Last but not the least, the knowledge of cultural differences should be put in the first place. Therefore, it is highly necessary that the study of the cultural differences in news translation should be conducted.
1.2 The Lexical Features of English News
Generally speaking, lexicon includes vocabularies and phrases. In the long-time development process of the English news, many words and phrases are embodied with the special meanings of the news. To learn and master the lexical features of the English news is one of the most basic requisites to understand the English news.
To control the word number and the length of a piece of the news, the journalistic workers usually convey the content of the news with a limited number of words and avoid the lengthy and complex words so as to enhance the readability of the English news. It’s not difficult for us to find that the English news is always presented by a number of small and terse words or some concise acronyms and compound words when reading all sorts of English news, for example, such words as “back up” or “support” are commonly used instead of “in favor of” or “in assistance of”. In the meantime, acronyms frequently occur in the English news such as NGO(non-governmental organization), FBI(federal bureau of investigation), GDP(gross domestic product) and so on.
The cultural development of today’s world, the frequent exchanges across the borders as well as the emerging of the new things give birth to the constant development and update of the lexicon of English news which showcase the obvious characteristics of the times such as “watrgate”, “hyperloop”, “window shopping”, “dink”, “selfie”, etc.
As the social life moves towards the modernization and recreation, people’s mind and ideology is becoming increasingly open, which requires that the English news should keep pace with it and journalistic workers present the English news with more common, colloquial and recreational words so as to make news more vivid and interesting, thus capturing the intense interest of the public such as the words “supercrat” (超级官僚), “masscult”(平民文化).
The objective and genuine report of facts and happenings is the most basic pursuit of the news coverage, with the English news coverage being no exception. Therefore, the English news coverage requires the pursuit of the objectivity and truth of the matters and the use of the accurate and regulate words to present the news in order to ensure the truth of news and the rigidness of the language.
1.3 The Syntactic Features of English News
The word “news” embodies an evident characteristic of the matter----newness, so the English news coverage is commonly put in the present tense and the present progressive tense, the two being mutually exchangeable sometimes, for example, certain sentences usually employ the present tense to take the place of the present progressive tense to report the current happenings in some English news, which can facilitate the participation of the public and then arouse their interest in reading.
The increasingly quickening pace of people’s life contributes to the even faster update of the English news, making short news become the mainstream of the news. The short English news, full of brief sentences and with short and simple sentences and phrases replacing long and complex ones, simplifies the content and enhances the readability of the news, saving the reader’s time.
With the fast development of the English news, its language is also becoming increasingly distinctive in style and gradually getting rid of the traditional and stereotyped language pattern. Be it the vocabulary, grammar or the syntactical structures, innovation has been made to form the brief, vivid and interesting language styles. The application of such rhetorical methods as personification, hyperbole, allusion and analogy brings the vigor and vitality together with attractiveness to the news, promoting the charm and readability of it. From the perspective of the English news, the language of the English news should be oriented to the common people and conform to the reading habits of the public, while from the perspective of the English news media, in order to realize the economic value of the English news, short and terse language is commonly used to present the news which can also make the coverage more vivid and understandable, thus drawing the attention of more people.
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Studies on News Translation
With the increasingly frequent exchanges across borders, English news, featuring latest content, modern languages and timeliness of transmission, has served as a convenient channel for people to obtain domestic and overseas information. However, cultural differences, especially those between the East and the West, will lead to different understandings or interpretations of the same piece of news between people of various backgrounds. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on cultural differences when translating English news.
In terms of news translation, one cannot turn his or her back on the theories as well as strategies commonly applied. The thesis, On Cultural Differences on English News Translation(2015)by Wang Yang, has showcased such translation methods as deletion, addition, reorganization and processing in order to help people avoid the “Cultural Shock” and translate international news from English to target language in an appropriate manner.
Apart from Wang Yang, heated discussions have been conducted by many well-renowned scholars in the academic circle when it comes to stylistic features of news as well as its translation methods . Xiao Aiping(2004:65-67)provided such three translation strategies as liberal translation, literal translation and recasting, etc. Wang Zhijiang(2001:7-9)put forward the principles on transliteration of foreign words. For example, it pointed out that there should be a unity in the translation of a place or a person, in which both the referential meaning and the associative meaning should be translated, with derogatory association being avoided.
Li Xia(2004:126-128)generalizes four features of the news translation as follows: large amount of information, simple structure, rich ways of using grammar and preposing the nominal modifier. Three translation methods were brought forth by him when translating English news into Chinese: making long sentence short; daring add and omit and adjusting the order of all parts in a sentence; using four-character structure.
It is held by Tang Jianduan(2005: 44-46)that the following translation methods must be adopted in order to recur the meaning and style of the original title in the Chinese language. First, translate the title of news in a literal or basically literal manner. Second, add annotations in the translation. Third, recur the rhetorical features of the original as much as possible. Fourth, adopt the weighing methods of translation by adding words to complete the meaning or using Chinese or foreign poetry. This thesis summarizes the translation methods of news titles in a holistic approach.
In regard to translation theories, Wu Zixuan(2005:4-7) puts it due to such various differences as language culture, ways of thinking, ideology, etc. translators in foreign publicity usually deviate from the original so as to be really loyal at a high level. Hence, it is feasible and even imperative for translators to make addition, omission, or annotation in the translation. In short, translation depends on context, to be specific, on the context of the translation.
From the perspective of Wang Zhijuan(2002:11-15), translators usually make subjective choices in many aspects such as the selection of words or sentence patterns. However, owing to the vast differences of news broadcasting in content, style, ways of transmission, tools of publicity, etc., it’s rather important to preserve the style of the original in the process of translation with casualness and subjectivity being abandoned by translators.
Tang Liwei(2006:73-75)puts forward that translation should be faithful to the original in the information structure. However, due to the differences in the language and ways of thinking between Chinese and English, translators should be aware of different features of syntactical components between the two languages and make flexible changes in the translation instead of imitating the structures of the original mechanically. All in all, holistic approach should be taken to the application of any theory.
With reference to the principles of news translation, Wu Zixuan(2004:29-32), with his rich practical experience in translating English news of CNN for Tianjing TV Station, questions the standard of “faithfulness” by a large amount of examples from three aspects of cultural differences, the quality of the original as well as the special requirements of TV news broadcasting. He brings forth that TV news translators sometimes have no way but to deviate from the original, not only abandoning the literal meaning of the original, but also the style of the it so as to yield the prospective and ideal effect of foreign publicity.
Chen Mingyao(2001:11-14)proposes that the translation standards of lead equivalence in news translation, namely, the equivalence of information between
source language and target language. She holds that the prerequisite of lead equivalence is to classify the leads of news correctly and then translate in a specific approach. In translation, “faithfulness” and “expressiveness” are crucial elements while “elegance” is a supplement.
2.2 Conclusion from These Studies
In general, these studies involves every respect of the news translation theories, strategies and principles. English news, as a convenient channel for people to know the latest happenings, has been gaining popularity in this increasingly interconnected world. It’s also an important medium for people of different countries get to know each other and enhance exchanges. Overall, China started late in news translation, most of the earliest materials we can collect are the scientific and research findings in the 1990s. However, in the last two decades, especially in the new century, Chinese scholars have placed greater emphasis on this field and made prominent progress, which is the result of tremendous changes against this economic and cultural background. Nonetheless, we are still lacking in the systematic theory studies, methodology as well as the independent awareness of discipline. That is to say, we still have a long way to go in terms of the studies on news translation.
Chapter Three The Cultural Differences Between English News and Chinese News
There are many factors contributing to the influence of cultural difference on news translation, which go mainly in three parts as follows:
3.1 Cognitive Differences
Cognitive differences refer to the differences arising from such aspects as value orientation, religious belief and esthetic concept and the different understandings of and associations on the same matter. Attention of the translators should be paid if the piece of news is concerned with animals or colors because the associations of these things are totally different between China and the western countries. For example, “dragon” in the Chinese language is of profoundly cultural importance which is the symbol of elegance, solemnity, majesty and auspiciousness. On the contrary, the “word” “dragon” in the English language embodies the meaning of ferocity and atrocity, and the appropriate counterpart in English is “tiger”. This explains why “亚洲四小龙” is translated as “four Asian tigers” instead of “four Asian dragons”. Another example concerns religion, “Judas Kiss” will be literally translated as “犹大的吻” which is superficially correct, but most of the Chinese readers without knowledge of western religion will fail to understand the hidden meaning of this phrase which means betrayal or treachery. Because it is Judas who betrayed Jesus for thirty silver coins, Juda’s name is then be used to describe those treacherous and crooked people.
3.2 Language Symbol
English news is transmitted with language symbols as the media. As for the news transmission of different cultural backgrounds, it is of prominent importance to resort to the translation leverage in order to realize the intercultural communication. The issue of language symbol in the process of translation is involved if we plan to spread the news reports of one area and one ethnical group to other fields. Apart from such constraining factors as the sense of the world, sense of value, customs and so on, the differences in the language symbol are also been posed the restricts of the quality as well as the cultural cultivation of the news translators. Take the Chinese language as an example, in the news transmission in which Chinese is the major
language symbol, rhetorical skills, ancient sayings and even analogy are widely applied. As for foreign news translators, some loopholes and even emotional misunderstanding easily occur in the news transmission without the desired depth and degree of understanding of the Chinese language culture. Worse still, it may make foreign readers prone to regard the news as vacuous content.
3.3 Cultural Accumulation and Sense of Value
Cultural accumulation mainly refers to a large amount of slang, allusions, motto, epigrams formed in the long-term process of using languages of all ethnic groups as well as the emerging new concepts and vocabularies in such fields of the modern society as politics, science, technology, economics and culture. Since they embody rich cultural connotation, appropriate translation cannot be achieved without some understanding of the cultural accumulation. To take an example concerning culture, according to the Greek myth, Pandora’s box refers to a box given by the god to Pandora and the god made it clear that it shouldn’t be open, otherwise disasters would occur. However, the intense curiosity drives Pandora to open the box one day and everything gets released, including disasters, sorrow, plague, etc. Therefore, nowadays people use Pandora’s box to symbolize the source of disasters.
Generally speaking, essential differences stay between individual cultures, which give rise to the invisible but clear cultural border. As we all know, the core of culture is sense of value, which ,in a strict manner, can be defined as a permanent belief, that’s, a person’s or a society’s preference in an ultimate state for a particular behavior or existence. Just like the culture, it has both the stable and changing sides. Sociologists, according to cultural sense of value, observe the cultural border and establish a series of observation criteria such as the individualism, collectivism, sexism, feminism, uncertain avoidance, high context, low context, polychronism and synchronism, ect.
Life, occupying the majority of the reports, turns on diverse cultural features in an implicit or explicit way. For example, in China mainly led by collectivism, the overwhelming majority of people agree with the concept of family harmony, social unity, mutual assistance and common prosperity, and people advocate such social norms as benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust. On the contrary, westerners lay emphasis on freedom and equality, advocating personal value.
Western people usually consent to the concepts of absolute power, private property, individual interests and fair competition and worship such social norms as democracy, independence, openness, legalism and consultation.
The main cultural part of the news, especially some values being prioritized or pursued will lead to the repeating occurrence of certain type or topic of English news , contributing to the major features of cultural manifestation of news. In the practice of English news, different news values are important basis of journalists’ choice and judgment of news.
3.4 Differences on the Patterns of Thought
The so-called patterns of thought refers to a psychological or cognitive-map-style process which is relatively culturally-featured and fixed and used to reason, think and solve problems. Obviously, people of different cultural backgrounds and traditions have vastly different modes, habits and ways of thinking. Language is the body of thinking, so the differences in the ways of thinking contribute to the diversity of the languages. Because the Chinese culture is for concrete, comprehensive and subjective thinking while the English culture is for abstract, analytic and objective thinking, great differences emerge in such aspects as lexicon and syntax. Just as Bao Huinan puts forwards that English news translation, as a branch of translation, requires that translators take full consideration into the language features under the influence of different ways of thinking when making transformation between two languages. In short, translators should care about the acceptability of the readers. That is to say, they have to make sense of the differences between the Chinese readers and English readers.
Due to the differences in the ways of thinking, the Chinese and English languages differ from each other very much in the sequence of the sentences. The Chinese language takes the sentences in the order of the logic with cause prior to effect, hypothesis prior to reasoning and narration prior to reflection, while the English language comes the other way around. Take an example from a line of the NPR listening material on April 6th,2017, the line “What will they do and will they help bring an end to this war if the U.S. does end up sending thousands of more troops” should be properly translated as “如果美国最终决定增派数千名士兵,那么这些士兵的任务是什么?他们会为结束这场战争提供帮助吗?” From this
example we can find that the sequences of the sentence in Chinese and English are different.
Chapter Four The Strategies to Handle Cultural Differences in the Translation of English News Based upon Cultural Differences
In today’s globalized world, the global transmission and exchanges of information has been increasingly frequent and the spread of the international news plays a pivotal role in promoting the communication and exchanges between countries. English news has a wide spectrum, including politics, economics, history, culture, social customs, etc., which more or less reflects the cultural background and mindset of English-speaking countries, and are important channels for the communication and development of the culture and information between the East and the West. Therefore, the translation of the English news is of paramount importance. Many methods come into handy in terms of translation of the English news. In view of the analysis of the lexicon, syntax as well as language style of the English news, methods and techniques are briefly summarized as follows:
4.1 Facing up to Cultural Differences and Enriching Cultural Backgrounds
English news translators should, on the one hand, face up to the cultural differences between the East and the West, raising the awareness of the influence of the cultural differences on the English news translation, and on the other hand, strengthen the learning of the eastern and western culture and deepen the understanding of the Chinese culture while cementing their own culture so as to obtain the great proficiency in translating English news in a reasonable and careful manner.
4.2 Caring about the Mind of the Readers and Following the Language Habits
In the course of translating the English news, the news translators should not only stay loyal to the original, but also give full consideration to the emotional attitudes and language habits of the readers. By abiding by the principle of “readers coming first”, it is imperative that the news translators, while presenting the news in a just, objective and clear way, should also boost the cultural identity and recognition of the news and shorten the distance with the readers so as to increase the transmission efficiency of the news and the improvement of the quality.
4.3 Observing the Translation Standards and Mastering Its Techniques
In the process of translating the English news, the following techniques can be employed to steer clear of the phenomenon of “cultural shock”:
First and foremost, the meaning of the sentence should be clear. In the process of translation, the principle of “clear sentence meaning” should be put in the first place to ensure that the news content is true, objective and clear, for example, “Jim got out of the bed on the wrong side and quarreled with his wife out of no reason.” We will fail to get the correct meaning of this sentence and confuse readers if we take it as “吉姆从床的错误一侧下来”. Henceforth, it can be seen that news translators should have an panoramic view of the cause and effect of the whole matter and some knowledge of the language habits and slang so as to get the specific and correct meaning of the news to the readers.
Furthermore, the language should be concise. One of the major features of the English news is its brevity and summary of main points, which should be paid attention to. For example, the first line from one piece of English news is “ballistic missile, fired by DPRK.” From this example, it’s easy to find that this line is grammatically wrong but everyone with English knowledge can get it by resorting to their long-term accumulated language habits and cultural background.
Last but not the least, a piece of good English news should not only be specific and concise, but also fully express the emotions or feelings hidden in the news. For example, the line “The dust, the uproar, and the growing darkness threw everything into chaos” should be translated as “烟尘滚滚,人声嘈杂,夜色愈浓,一切都陷入嘈杂之中”. In that case, not only is the true content of the news presented ahead of the readers, but the vivid description of the environment has been unfolded.
Apart from observing the translation standards, hereby there are two major techniques which remain to be mastered. The first technique is omission. Generally speaking, the differences in the language habits as well as ways of expression between the East and the West tend to result in the occurrence of impedimenta or repetition in the translation version, which urge that the translators should make necessary omissions to reach the target of brief wording and semantic smoothness. For example,the sentence of “花园里面是人间的乐园,有的是吃不完的大米白面,穿不完的绫罗绸缎,花不完的金银财宝”is translated as “The garden was a
paradise on earth, with more food and clothes than could be consumed and more money than could be spent.”
The second technique is addition. The differences in the cultural backgrounds between the oriental and occidental readers bring about various understanding and recognition of the same piece of news, which requires the news translators make appropriate addition and annotation so as to bring the fullness of the news to the readers. For example, news translators make translation annotation to the concept of “Double Ninth Festival” on a piece of news reporting this traditional Chinese festival when people get together to climb the hills and enjoy the flourishing chrysanthemum and the news translators amplify in such a way that Double Ninth Festival, a day falling on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, is set by the ancient Chinese people to climb hills in hope for progress in the year and show great respect for the elderly. It can be clearly found that this addition makes this traditional Chinese festival more easily understandable to foreigners. Another example concerns the addition in the translation, “Pounding on the midstream rocks, the river roars thunderously.” (增译为险滩上江流汹涌,回旋激荡,水击礁石,浪花飞溅,声如雷鸣)。
Chapter Five Intercultural Awareness and Its Cultivation Among News Translators
Translators with average translation proficiency usually make direct and shallow language transformation with little consideration into the gap between the Chinese and English languages as well as the cultural differences arising between different countries. In that case, readers cannot get the accurate content of the English news with the presence of the cultural differences even if the translation is readable in a superficial way. As for the translators with a high sense of responsibility and translation proficiency, apart from pursuing the accurate news translation, they will also integrate the cultural backgrounds of English-speaking countries with Chinese unique cultural factors and make necessary changes so as to help the Chinese readers understand the news in a more favorable manner. In addition, the way of thinking together with the judgment ability of translators are also reflected in the translation version.
5.1 The Definition and Importance of Intercultural Awareness in News Translation
News reflects the latest happenings of society and culture. News translation can help people know about the newest culture. Therefore, the translation of the English news can be regarded as a means of intercultural communication, which urges that news translators should be equipped with intercultural awareness. Intercultural awareness refers to the communication and exchanges between persons or groups under different cultural influence or of different ethnic groups. To take it in a common way, people with intercultural awareness can shield themselves from the influence of the cultural differences and make appropriate adjustment spontaneously to form certain cognitive standards. In the meanwhile, intercultural awareness can serve as a judgment criterion to assess whether a English learner can take up the job of translation and even take off in this industry. As far as news translators are concerned, intercultural awareness is indispensable for ensuring high quality of the translation version.
On the whole, the job that news translators take up is highly strict which calls not only for solid English proficiency and relatively high language cognitive ability, but also a cautious and prudent attitude. Vast and evident differences exist in the sequence and structure of the sentences between the Chinese and English language, and such structure as inversion is often used in English and its grammatical usage is obvious. Under this circumstance, the direct literal translation will lead to the structural chaos, incomplete or redundant sentence. Hence, the pertinent transformation between the Chinese and English should be made by the translators, which cannot be achieved without the intercultural awareness of translators. Of course, intercultural awareness cannot be effortlessly obtained, and the translators should not be content with their current word base and grammatical mastery, but try by all means to enrich their cultural knowledge, ranging from national conditions, politics, geographic environment to history and literature.
5.2 The Ways to Cultivate Intercultural Awareness in News Translators
Cultural differences exerts profound influence on news translation and directly linked to the quality of translation and the information transmission. With constantly emerging news and frequent news activities, it’s imperative that the intercultural awareness should nurtured in news translators. The following steps can be adopted to cultivate it among news translators:
5.2.1 Promoting the Study of Linguistics, Intercultural Communication and Translation
Apart from the most common courses such as “Brief Introduction of English-Speaking Countries”, “British and American Literature” and “European Culture”, the news translators should also take up the courses like “Bible”, “Ancient Greek and Roman Myth”. On top of that, they should also consolidate the learning in such areas as politics, literature, history, philosophy, religion and culture. Certainly, it is necessary that they should know about the hotly discussed issued regarding politics home and abroad, economics, science and technology, and form the habit of reading newspaper and listening to English news every day so as to stay on the forefront of the line. Little by little, essential leaps and bounds will be taken by them on the level of both language and culture.
The practice of translation should be guided by the translation theories, so the news translators should conduct deep study and analysis of linguistics, especially
concerning culture, intercultural communication as well as translation so as to be well-equipped and effective in dealing with news translation. At the same time, news translators, as a bridge between multinational communication, should be equipped with a thought that it is never too late to learn and be ready to keep pace with the development.
5.2.2 Deepening the Intercultural Concepts and Consolidating the Transmission
Basis
A knowledge of the cultural differences between China and the western countries is the prerequisite for building up the correct and healthy concept of intercultural transmission. With news in different countries facing up to diverse cultures, the differences between these cultures as well as those between these cultures and the culture represented by news itself are enormous. Therefore, it is an inevitable process for Chinese media people to retrospect upon the cultural differences between the two sides. People tend to unconsciously measure and even criticize people from other cultural background with their own cultural standards. Hence, the English news translators together with the Chinese news media people should dare abandon their outdated cultural perspectives and learn the culture of the target country with an open mind.
In the meantime, the choice of news and judgment of value in the intercultural transmission should also be adjusted. The western countries mainly represented by the U.S. lay great emphasis on such news value as punctuality, proximity, prominence and recreation and the news media are viewed as the goods to meet the social demand of information whose news value depends purely on the market orientation. Although Chinese news transmission should not copy entirely the western concept of news values, study on and reference to the foreign audience and news value are necessary so as to realize the target of intercultural transmission and refine the effect of transmission.
Chapter Six Conclusion
The thesis, based upon the studies conducted by many well-renowned scholars and professors in this circle, starts from introducing the lexicon and syntactical features of the news translation and then studies the cultural differences between the East and the West as well. In terms of the cognitive differences, the auspicious and powerful “dragon” in the eyes of the westerners is referred as an evil symbol. In regard to the differences on the sense of value, the Chinese people advocate collectivism while the westerners call for individualism. When it comes to the differences on the patterns of thought, the Chinese people take the sentences in the order of the logic with cause prior to effect, hypothesis prior to reasoning and narration prior to reflection, while the westerners take the other way around. At the same time, some strategies have been put forward to eliminating the influence from it, such as facing up to cultural differences and enriching the cultural backgrounds; caring about the mind of the readers and following the language habits; observing the translation standards and mastering its techniques. In the end, some approaches to nurturing the intercultural awareness of the news translators are put forward in the thesis, such as promoting students’ study of Linguistics, intercultural communication and translation; deepening the intercultural concepts and consolidating the transmission basis.
All in all, language is inseparable from culture and translation is the transformational process of information between languages. As language is inevitably imprinted with cultural traits, translation process will surely be constrained by the cultures of both target language and source language. From the above analysis, we can find that it is imperative that news translators should realize that translation is the communication across languages and cultures. An eligible news translator should not only be familiar with the grammatical knowledge of both target language and source language, but also develop the sensitivity to cultural factors in the source language and learn about the culture behind the languages so as to eliminate the likelihood of serious omission or mistranslation. What is more important is that news translators should deal with cultural differences with appropriate translation methods and present the hidden information to the readers so as to enable them to receive the accurate information and experience rich foreign cultures.
Certainly, this thesis is far from perfect, and in the future I will collect more materials and data to polish it up. All in all, I hope this thesis can bring about a set of more reasonable ideas to promote the development of news translation so as to narrow down the gap between people from different cultures.
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