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On Cultural Mentality Approach To Text Analysis

Posted on:2005-08-12Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:J M LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360122980700Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Chinese culture is profound in content and rich in heritage. However, Chinese culture today has been largely "Europeanized" or "Westernized". The launch of post-modernism and post-colonialism debate in China aims to revive Chinese culture and move Chinese culture from periphery to center, and eventually deconstruct the myth of so-called monolithic western center. In the campaign of reviving Chinese culture, much attention is given to the emerging Chinese tourism. Nowadays, tourism is moving away from its traditional role of just boosting economic development and stepping into a new era of promoting cross-cultural communications. The English translation of Chinese tourist texts, as part of the publications aiming at cross-cultural communications, has become the focus of attention. However, the traditional translation practice, usually the outdated literal translation, can no longer satisfy the demands coming from the growing tourist market. In the meantime, the English translation of Chinese tourist texts abounds in great numbers, and very few relevant studies in the academic field are generated. Therefore, the English versions of different qualities are intermingled with each other, lacking a clear standard to regulate the translation work. In this thesis, the tourist texts are specifically concerned with tourist resorts in the southwest of China: Dazu Grottoes, City of Zigong, Emei Mountain, Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, Sanxingdui Museum, Temple of Marquis Wu, Wang Cong Temple, and Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. The following problems proposed and analyzed in this thesis result from the careful examination of the English translation of these Chinese tourist texts: 1) They are full of information pieces but lacking in proper information pattern and logic framework.2) They are deprived of smoothness and coherence in writing. Although the target text is presenting the ideas included in the source text, it still involves difficulties and ambiguities to tourist readers. 3) They are devoid of the cultural connotations of the source language and convey insipid ideas.These problems are approached in two perspectives: one is the perspective of linguistic level, the other is the perspective of cultural level. The former employs text analysis and text functions to detect the problems in the translated works, and the latter resorts to cultural mentality approach to access the factors contributing to these problems of text analysis. The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter 1 offers the general introduction to the study. It is under the background of the post-modernism and post-colonialism debate which lays emphasis on reviving national culture that the study of this thesis comes into being. And the English translation of Chinese tourist texts assumes the responsibility of glorifying Chinese culture. However, problems in the English translation not only fail to add to the splendid Chinese culture, but also discourage cross-cultural communications. To approach the problems, academic theories of text analysis and cultural mentality are employed.Chapter 2 analyzes the problems on the linguistic level of text analysis. For the first problem of lacking in the logic framework in the target text, the informative and evocative functions are to be taken into consideration, and structural cohesion under the cohesive forces within text shall be employed. For the second problem of being deprived of smoothness in the target text, the aim of the translated works is to inform the English-speaking tourists of the features of the tourist attractions and evoke their desires for visiting the places, and non-structural cohesion under the cohesive forces within text shall be of great help to analyze the problem. For the third problems of being devoid of cultural connotations of the source text, the expressive function of the target text is to be achieved. Thus, context of situation under the cohesive force out of text comes as a remedy. Chapter 3 accesses the underlying factors contr...
Keywords/Search Tags:English translation of Chinese tourist texts, Chinese culture, text analysis, cultural mentality
PDF Full Text Request
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