Influence of Culture on Translation

【Abstract】This paper introduces the difference that influences the translation between Chinese and the It aims at clarifying what are important between two cultures in translation and how to make the translation more vidvidly . It tells us that a good translator needs special， highly developed skills .He or she must be able to translate a message well so that others hear it as though it were the original message .

【Key words】culture； translation； language； influence： categories

1. Introduction

Though the activity of translation includes a series of language conversion， it is also the social and psychological activities in essence. The reason for translation to become the necessary activity of a society is that it has many practical functions. The functions of it under different culture background or different era are not always the same. As a translator， he or she should be able to answer such questions： “What to translate？ When to translate， how to translate and for whom？” In order to answer these questions， translators must understand the function of translation and the social background they are related to. Translation is a decision-making process in a certain social culture frame. The translator's decision not merely depends on the language he/she learns， but also on the cultural environment of a specific era to a great extent. As what Bassinet and Lefevere have said， “Translation reflects a certain ideology and poetics and as such manipulates literature to function in a given society in a given way”（BassinetLefevere： “Translation/History/Culture”）.So we can say that any translation can’t be carried on well without getting to know the culture. We should pay attention to the relationship between culture and translation. As we know translator doesn’t operate under an abstract and ideal situation. He is a human being living in a certain society. It is quite natural that his idea is greatly influenced by the environment around him. We can see this from his choice of words. The choice of a translator in different period shows different characteristics， which proves that the society and political background where the translator lives affect him a lot. Translators usually have certain anticipation or prejudice of the original text， while the anticipation or prejudices exactly reflect his political orientation. We can say the translation is jobs of recreation with the translators’ own feeling. The translator's political orientation can explain why a translator will intend to explain a neutral word in the original text into a vocabulary with obvious political tendency in the translation. And sometimes there is even a totally opposite meaning in it. ？As we mentioned above， the translator must be a person with certain culture in a real sense. As a translator， he must grasp the two languages well .It is quite true. And we can’t imagine someone can do a good translation without the understanding of the social culture of a language. Understanding the meaning of the original text while translating is not simply a matter of understanding. The language is a component of the culture， which is affected and limited by culture. In the course of translating， whether the translator has the right understanding or not， depends on his knowledge of the relevant culture to a great extent. For a translator， without the comparison of two cultures， his correct understanding of the spoken and written languages is unimaginable. That is why we say， “Learning a language is a kind of learning the culture and habit of the country where the language is spoken”. So long as we study the culture behind the language during the process of studying a language， a large amount of culture information can be transmitted equivalently. These are comparatively simpler in translation. Besides similarities， there are also many differences between two cultures， which form the most difficult part in translation. We must keep in mind that translation is a cross-cultural activity. When we face an original text， it may be well written， attractive， tempting and aesthetic. But if one does not know the difference between two cultures， it would be rather difficult for him to achieve the same effects in the translated work. In the following， I am going to discuss the relation between culture and translation in many aspects， such as thinking pattern， geography， social culture， religion， language and feminism etc.

2. Categories of culture and their influence on translation

Semantic translation， like thought， relates to the word or word-group. Communicative translation， like speech， relates to the sentence. The primary purpose of speech is to communicate， and the communicative translation is to the thought. Just as one learns a foreign language mainly to communicate not to think in it， so one is right in assuming that most translation is communicative translation which is close to ‘social speech’. Usually， one translates a text to meet reader’s demands——to inform him， to persuade him and to give him some advice. If the original is reasonably well written and either extra cultural or overlaps with the target language culture， there is no reason why it should be translated communicatively and semantically at the same time-the ‘ideal’ solution， not because it will be a unique ideal translation， but because it is designed to satisfy both the author of the text and the reader of the translation in equal measure. In order to achieve this goal， we must take a deep understanding about the differences between Chinese and western thinking patterns， which reflect different psychological feature in speech in the long race of history. How the western thinking pattern differs from Chinese thinking pattern？ I’ll expound it in the following aspects.

（1）Intuitional thinking and rational thinking

The way Chinese people think indicates a specific predisposition which means that they usually try to use sentences or phrases describing shape impression and sound to convey their thoughts and information. Analyzing from language structure， parataxis is used to enrich the content of the words， and thus the words are more vivid and intuitional. The thoughts of Chinese classic poems are conveyed through various specific and vivid images.

On the other hand， western culture is a kind of rational culture， in its nature， and rationalism is not only its persistent convention， but also an important feature. This rationalism showed in thinking is that western people trend to inference and logic. Western philosophy art， and thinking emphasize natural time and space， especially the existence of natural space. Differences between Chinese and western thinking greatly affect the use of different languages， such as propaganda in advertisement， In Chinese the product well be given a specific and vivid name through meaning and sound， while for a western product， its name is just given in abstract letters.

（2）Chinese thinking makes point on entirety and western thinking emphasizes analysis.

Chinese traditional philosopher is used to recognize an object in a comprehensive way， which is closely related to the Chinese culture that has connection with god， nature and human being. This study is never conducted independently， on the contrary it is often integrates human life， society and nature. For example， Chinese character益 is made up by 水（water） and 皿（pot）， and the phrase means water overflowing from the pot. This unique way of forming characters just reflects one of the features of Chinese thinking pattern which stresses intuition and integration.

Western thinking is analytic. Western people are accustomed to analyze an entirety when pondering over the natural society， and in their eyes， the natural world， society and individual are utterly diverse subjects and objects that can be distinguished. Comparing from linguistic angle， Chinese bears ambiguity implication and parataxis， but English makes a perfect linguistic morphology and hypotaxis through using grammar and conjunction to organize sentences. In Chinese the words of time or places are usually listed in proper order， whereas in English are listed in reverse order， for example， “Sooner or later” 遲早，“Northwest” 西北，“Right and left” 左右。

（3）Dialectical thinking and reutilized thinking.

Chinese traditional philosophers consider the objective world as two kinds of objects which are antagonist to each other and are unified in the same time. This unity of opposite renders Chinese language that pronunciation of characters， semanteme and words are arranged in pairs and such rhetoric as reduplication， antithesis and parallelism is usually adopted. English sentences are dominated by logic， the limit of referent is distinct， the structure of sentences is terse and the stratification is closely connected. The principle of agreement can never be neglected. The structure of the Chinese sentences is not closely connected and there is no format that how the subject， predicate and object are arranged， while the English sentences are exactly opposite. If the following sentence is translated into Chinese， some extra words should be added to perfect the sentences.

“An Englishman thinks seated， a Frenchman standing， an American pacing， an Irishman afterward.”（F.O.Malley）. The equivalence is， 英國人坐著思考，法國人站著思考，美國人邊走遍思考，愛爾蘭人則是干完了后才思考. Therefore， English is regarded as a formative language and Chinese a pliable language. English sentences must follow such logic grammar as passive and active voices， present and past tenses， while Chinese sentences are hardly limited by voices or tenses. And Chinese is like a multifunctional screw that can be turned right or left. The words can be matched in the case that has a complete meaning to be understood. In the eyes of western people， god has prepared everything for them， so their language has a fixed mode， and cannot be matched at random.

（4）Chinese thinking characterized by unifying of both the subject and the object， while western thinking is opposite.

Chinese is based on unifying of the subject and object， which is an essential feature of Chinese traditional philosophy. But western philosophical thought pursuing antagonism of the subject and the object and idealist existence beyond realistic world. Therefore， people’s recognition to the world appears to be a series of concepts that antagonize each other. Things are biotic and non-biotic， recognizable and unrecognizable， corporeal and spiritual， existential and non-existential. In linguistic structure， the subject of a Chinese sentence is usually a creature， while the subject of an English sentence is usually a nonliving noun. In addition， English passive voice is more frequently used that that of Chinese. For example.

（1） What happened to him yesterday？ 他昨天出了什么事？

（2） She is elected as our chairman. 我們選她當主席。

3.Conclusion

All in all， any translation can’t be separated from culture. Culture is a complex collection of experiences， which includes history， social structure， religion， traditional customs and everyday usage. This is difficult to comprehend completely. Especially in relation to a target language， one important question is whether the translation will have any readership at all， as the specific reality being portrayed is not quite familiar to the reader. Whether the translator can express the original meaning or not depends on his understanding of the relevant culture to a great extent. For a translator， it is impossible for him to do so if he doesn’t possess the knowledge of the two cultures. Cultural transfer requires a multi-pronged approach. It is concerned with the author's relationship to his subject matter and with the author's relationship to his reader. These should be reflected in a good translation. The translator has to transmit this special cultural quality from one language to another. So we should pay much attention to the relationship between culture and translation when we are doing translation.

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