从文化差异角度谈中式菜名的英译—英语本科论文.doc

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密 级
编 号

本科生毕业论文

题 目 从文化差异角度谈中式菜名的英译
学 院 外国语学院
专 业 英 语

目 录

一、 论文正文……..….……………………………………… 1-15
二、 附录
1． 毕业论文成绩评定表
2． 答辩小组意见
3． 答辩成绩评分表
4． 论文指导记录
5. 开题报告

On English Translation of Chinese Dishes from the Perspective of Cultural Differences
Zhang Ting

A thesis
Submitted to the School of Foreign Languages and Literature Tianshui Normal University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree

of

BACHELOR OF ARTS
In
ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Tianshui, Gansu

May, 2013

原创性声明

本人郑重声明：本人所呈交的论文是在指导教师的指导下独立进行研究所取得的成果。学位论文中凡是引用他人已经发表或未经发表的成果、数据、观点等均已明确注明出处。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的科研成果。
本声明的法律责任由本人承担。

论文作者签名： 年 月 日

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CONTENTS
Abstract: i
摘要 ii
Ⅰ. Introduction 1
Ⅱ. Literature Review 2
2.1 Early studies on cultural perspective 2
2.2 Other studies of English translation of Chinese dishes 3
2.3 Summary 4
Ⅲ. Theoretical Foundation of English Translation of Chinese Dishes 4
3.1 Culture and Translation 4
3.1.1 Definition of Culture 4
3.1.2 Definition of Translation 5
3.1.3 The Relation between Culture and Translation 6
3.2 Differences between Chinese and Western Culture 6
3.3 Differences between Chinese and Western Diet Culture 7
3.3.1 Differences in Concepts of Diet 7
3.3.2 Differences in Ways of cooking 8
3.3.3 Differences in Materials of Diet 8
.3.4 Differences in Ways of dining 9
Ⅳ. Principles of English Translation of Chinese Dishes 9
4.1 Pragmatic principle 9
4.2 Concise principle 10
4.3 Cultural conflict avoiding principle 10
Ⅴ. Strategies for English Translation of Chinese Dishes 11
5.1 Literal translation 11
5.2 Liberal translation 12
5.3 Transliteration 13
5.4 Comments adding translation 14
Ⅵ. Conclusion 14
References 16
Acknowledgements iii

On English Translation of Chinese Dishes from the Perspective of Cultural Differences
Abstract:
From the perspective of the cultural differences between China and the West, and on the basis of analyzing the four aspects(including: concepts of diet, ways of cooking, materials of diet and ways of dining)of diet cultural differences between China and the West, this paper studies the principles and methods of the English translation of the Chinese dish names; it tries to take away the cultural barriers between the Chinese and Western; and makes the English translation of Chinese dishes more accurate and more acceptable by the English-speaking readers. Thus, the time when foreign friends will enjoy Chinese cuisine, they can also understand the culture and art it contained; meanwhile Chinese food culture can also have deep influence on the world.
Key words: Food culture; Chinese dishes; Translation principles; Translation methods
ii

从文化差异角度谈中式菜名英译
【摘要】
本文从中西方文化差异的视角出发，在分析了中西方饮食文化差异的四个方面，（即：饮食观念，烹饪方式，饮食对象，进餐方式）的基础上，研究中式菜名的英译原则和英译方法，尽量消除中西之间的文化障碍，将中式菜名英译的更为准确，并更能使译语读者理解。从而使外国友人在享受中国美食的同时，了解其中的文化内涵和艺术，同时使中国饮食文化对世界产生深远影响。
【关键词】饮食文化；中式菜名；英译原则；英译方法

On English Translation of Chinese Dishes from the Perspective of Cultural Differences

17
17

On English Translation of Chinese Dishes from the Perspective of Cultural Differences
On English Translation of Chinese Dishes from the Perspective of Cultural Differences
Ⅰ. Introduction
With the further development of the internationalization and China's reforming and opening up, more and more foreign visitors ,as well as many overseas investors, have been attracted by China's abundant tourist resources and huge market. Especially the success of the 2008 Olympic Games in Bei Jing, which once again push the old and new China toward the world with the most shocked and eyes dazzled way. And now, China is stepping its majestic goal of realizing travel and tourism power country. Among the six elements of tourism (eating, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, entertainment), ‘eating’ rows in the first place and occupy a very specific in the tourism process (Qiu, 2009)
Food is the paramount necessity of the people. China, which is known as the kingdom of cooking of the world, has broad and profound Culinary Arts which has a distant origin and a long development. Tasting the unique Chinese delicious food has become a important content for overseas tourists sightseeing in China. As the most important part of Chinese culture, Culinary Arts what is created by Chinese people's long-term diet practical activity is the sum of the material wealth and spiritual wealth, and is also a way for the foreigners in China to understand Chinese culture.
As a mean of convey information and disseminate culture, dishes play a important role in the foreign exchange of food culture. Therefore, if the translation of Chinese dishes is misconduct, not only can it affects the spreading of Chinese excellent food culture, but can influence the appetite of the foreign tourists and lower the functional purpose of the tourism at the same time. That is to say, it can not spread Chinese excellent food culture exactly by character or word of mouth. It is acknowledged that China's food culture is rich and colorful, and has a long history. Looking at its naming way, it has both realistic approach and freehand style; not only rich in historical and cultural background, but also full of folk fun and local flavor. Some name of the dish is not simply a name of a dish, but a imagination and an artwork, some name of the dish even has an interesting or moving story. Therefore, translating the Chinese dish’s name into English accurately and vividly is very important and thus, from this way, foreign friends can understand cooking art of Chinese cuisine, as well as the cultural connotation it contains, in the time he/she tastes the delicious dishes in China, or just by seeing the name of the dish. Therefore, the name of the English Translation of Chinese cuisine has a practical significance.
Ⅱ. Literature Review
2.1 Early studies on cultural perspective
Narrowly speaking, culture refers to the “use of special language to express ideas of a community unique lifestyle and forms of expression”, while language is the carrier of culture, language conversion is difficult to get rid of cultural backgrounds (Zhao, 2002). Guo Jianzhong (2003), in his Culture and Translation, collected many of the foreign experts and professors’ papers which talking about the language, culture and the relationship between them; Eugene A Nida (2004), in his Language and Culture-Contexts in Translating, analyzed the relationship between language and culture in different sides, and discussed how to deal with all the translation relations and issues from the view of context. Dishes as a direct manifestation of the language and culture, with the widely advent of varied restaurants, has become to be see in everywhere. The English translation of dishes has become an urgent and pressing task. Whereas，many a scholar have done researches on English translation of Chinese dishes. They are:
(1) Zhang Lehui(2007), a scholar of Dongbei University of Finance & Economics, taking cultural translation theory as a basis, discussed the problems appeared in Chinese dishes’ E-translation. After explaining the basis of cultural translation theory, that is language, culture, as well as the relationship between them, he discussed the feasibility of cultural translation.
(2) Li Jianwei(2009), taking the two main cultural theories-foreignization and domestication as a support, focused on the importance of cultural factors, and raised four cultural characteristic-protected methods when dealing with English translation of Chinese dishes.
(3) Lin Hong (2009), who declared because of the great cultural differences carried by China and the West, English translation of Chinese dishes, in cultural level, appeared nor-translatability. The causes include both cultural factors and non-cultural factors.
(4) Qiu Yongqiang (2009), also studied the principles, basic elements and strategies of Chinese dishes’ English translation on a cultural approach.
(5) Li Fuzhen (2010), after deeply analyzing the background of Chinese diet culture, raised three principles of English translation of Chinese dishes, including knowing the dishes absolutely, meeting the aesthetic value and transmission of cultural information.
(6) Yan Fanbo(2011), a scholar in North University of China, thought that many of the errors appeared in the English translation of Chinese dish names are main caused by people’s misunderstanding about culture in his paper.
It is pleased that the above scholars noticed the importance of affects that cultural factors bring to dishes translation.
2.2 Other studies of English translation of Chinese dishes
Besides the studies on cultural perspective, there are still some scholars who study the English translation of Chinese dishes or menu from other perspectives.
(1) Ren Jingsheng(2001), in her paper, talked about the basic features of the English translation of Chinese dishes and the key food, and raised some of the certain formulas used in English translation of Chinese dishes and the key food.
(2) Liu Qingbo(2003), who just proposed the principles and stretregies of English translation of Chinese dishes based on the naming of Chinese dishes.
(3) Liu Qi(2005), a scholar of Shanghai International Studies University, after concluding the features and functions of dish names, who analyzed the theoretical basis of the translation of the Chinese dish names, that is, “faithfullness”, “equivalence” and “domesticating & foreignizing translation”.
(4) Gong Yang(2007), who also studied the methods of English Translation of Chinese dishes under the guidance of Eugene A Nida’ functional equivalence theory.
(5) Cheng Shuang(2010), who used the functionalism skopos theory of translation in her paper, and emphasis that the English translation of Chinese dish names should be pay more attention to.
(6) Wang Ai(2011), scholar of Anhui University, who analyzed the classic cases of translation of Chinese dishes by taking the cultural adaptation as a basis.
Indeed, many of the principles and methods that raised by these scholars are usefull and practicable.
2.3 Summary
All in all, these scholars above are all discussing the principles and methods which using in English translation of Chinese dishes, while many examples are used repeatedly, not only have similar content, but confused the concepts of the menu, the dish names, the recipe and cuisines. Translation of this field has great no determinacy and arbitrariness, and also lacks of unification and standardization, in addition, there have a few references about the English translation of Chinese dishes from the perspective of cultural differences. From the cultural differences, especially the four aspects of cultural differences in diet, this paper systematically discusses the principles of the English translation of Chinese dishes, hoping to find more practical way to make clearer specification, so it can spread China’s outstanding food culture better.
Ⅲ. Theoretical Foundation of English Translation of Chinese Dishes
3.1 Culture and Translation
3.1.1 Definition of Culture
Culture is reflected in all aspects of human’s social life: Chinese eating dumplings in the Spring Festival, eating ‘Zongzi’ at the Dragon Boat Festival and eating moon cake in the Mid-autumn Festival; westerners dressing Christmas tree on Christmas Day and eating turkey on Thanksgiving Day. As a social phenomenon, culture excited everywhere; it is hard to give culture a complete and scientific definition.
According to Yan Fanbo (2011), the English word “culture” comes from the Latin word “cultura”, which basically means “cultivate; crop.” With the development of social civilization, the connotation of culture has been enriched. In 1871, the British cultural anthropologist Edward Tylor first put forward culture as a central concept in his book Primitive Culture, and defines culture from the perspective of anthropology. That is,“Culture, or civilization, is the complex whole that consists of knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a man as a member of society(Yan,2011:19).”
China’s largest comprehensive dictionary Ci Hai defined culture as: "From the broad sense, culture refers to the sum of the material and spiritual wealth which are created in the historical practice of human society. From the narrow sense, it refers to the ideology of the society as well as compatible with this system and organization.” (Yan, 2011).
Liu Qi(2005) thinks that the definition given by Bates and Plog (Samovar, 2000:36), includes most of the major territory culture on which scholars currently agree: it is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.
With rich and varied contents, culture covers all the sides of human beings’ social life and has deep implication with history. Thus, it brings many difficulties to translation.
3.1.2 Definition of Translation
Translation is a behavior of exchanging the information of one language into another language on the basis of fluency and accuracy. As a very broad notion, it can be defined in many ways. Some people think that the translation is an art, an innovation requires both form and spirit. It was also regards as a kind of skill, which passes a certain amount of information from one language to another language.
After overview the Western Translation theories, Liu Miqing thinks that the cultural patterns of interlingua’s transformation are indispensable for any kind of genre theory of translation. He proposed “meaning→structure→communicative function→Translation of style→overall partern” (Fan, Zhou, 2011).
“Peter Newmark (2001:7) gives a definition from the linguistic perspective: ‘Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language.’”(Zhang, 2007)
For translation is not only a code-switching process, and relative cultural factor is an integral part of translation studies, so cultural factor must be taken into consideration when translating works occurs.
3.1.3 The Relation between Culture and Translation
Culture is a national character, and the translation is a language activity; language is the carrier of culture, and culture is the soil of language, so the communication between different language and culture must rely on translation, and translation process, of course, also have to consider cultural factors. Just like what Kong Huiyi said, in the history of human ci