Reflections On Language And Cultural Relevance In Translation

Translation inevitably involves transformation of cultural messages from one language to another. A proper mastery and understanding of the language employed in the original text constitutes the first important step in the actual process of translation. Besides, in order to correctly translate the source text, the translator needs to understand the language of the source text in its multileveled functions. Details of the kind of culture expressed in it, in particular, demands to be faithfully and vividly conveyed in the target language, just because language and culture are inextricably linked.Typical American is a story told by a native English speaker, but its author Gish JEN projects her imagination and some of her Chinese thoughts here and there in the text, a cultural result coming directly from her Chinese family background. In translating into Chinese some of its chapters, I come to some reflections upon the interrelations and interactions between the Chinese language and the Chinese culture, resulting in the form and method I adopt in the present thesis.