Abstract

 Because of differences in historical development, each nation has its own unique culture. Culturally-loaded words, that is, words loaded with national culture, reflect national history and culture most directly. Chinese culturally-loaded words are extremely rich, and have created obstacles to the smooth communication and translation between cultures. This thesis introduces the causes of semantic vacancy, the classification of Chinese culturally-loads words, and mainly focuses on the strategies for translating those words. It aims to help English learners better understand Chinese culturally-loaded words. This study shows that: there are four reasons for lexical vacancies: cultural differences in the national environment, in the national values, in traditional beliefs and in national customs and habits. Chinese culturally-loaded words can be divided into material culturally-loaded words, religious culturally-loaded and social culturally-loaded. To translate Chinese culturally-loaded words, the translator can adopt five methods: literal translation, free translation, transliteration, cultural substitution and annotation translation. 

   Key words: cultural-loaded words; semantic vacancy; classification; translation strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Causes of Semantic Vacancy-2

2.1 Cultural differences in the national environment-3

2.2 Cultural differences in traditional beliefs-3

   2.2.1 Religion-3

   2.2.1 Superstition-3

2.3 Cultural differences in national values-4

2.4 Cultural differences in national customs and habits-4

3 Classification of Chinese Special Words-4

3.1 Material culturally-loaded words-5

3.2 Religious culturally-loaded words-5

3.3 Social culturally-loaded words-5

4 Strategies for Translating Chinese Culturally-loaded Words-6

4.1 Literal translation-6

4.2 Free translation-7

4.3 Transliteration-8

4.4 Cultural substitution-8

4.5 Annotation translation-9

5 Conclusion-9

5.1 Summary of the Main Points-9

5.2 Limitations of this study-10

5.3 Significance of the study-10

References