A Comparative Study On The Translation Of Culture-Loaded Words In Na Han

Language is the carrier of culture; due to the disparity of cultures in different countries, specific words must have distinctive cultures loaded. Culture-loaded words are those carrying specific cultural connotations. Through understanding these words, readers can acquire knowledge about foreign cultures; however, the translation of these words is always a difficult point in the translation field."Fusion of horizons" is one of Gadamer’s hermeneutics concepts. When used in translation, it refers to the involvement of many horizons in translation, such as the original text’s horizon, the translator’s current horizon, the TL culture’s horizon as well as the target reader’s horizon. All of these horizons would fuse with each other in the course of translation.This thesis mainly analyzes two fusions of horizons when translation occurs, i.e. the fusion between the translator’s horizon and the original text’s horizon; and the fusion of the first-fused horizon with that of the TL culture. The reason why the author chooses these two fusions of horizons is that translation is a course of understanding and expressing, and the above first fusion is how the translator understands toward the original text, whilst the second one is the process of the translator expressing the original text in the target language. Through analysis of these two fusions, the author tries to assess the translation of culture-loaded words in Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s version as well as William A. Lyell’s version, attaching much importance to the effect of fusions among those horizons. In the present thesis, the author narrates some examples embodying the above effect, and points out the differences in fusing horizons between the two versions. What’s more, the author wants to emphasize that maintaining the cultural connotations of culture-loaded words and making the target readers know these hidden cultural meanings are the core of translating these words. According to the specific circumstances of Na Han, culture-loaded words are divided into three categories, i.e. material culture-loaded words, institutional culture-loaded words and ideological culture-loaded words. The "fusion of horizons" concept can provide a new perspective for analyzing culture-loaded words’translation in the two versions. It emphasizes the importance of the translator’s horizon, giving some enlightenment to the translation of culture-loaded words.This thesis is made up of five chapters. Chapter One mainly introduces the research background, objectives, structure and research methods. Chapter Two is literature review, successively reviewing the research of English translation of Na Han and culture-loaded words. Chapter Three gives a brief introduction to the "fusion of horizons" concept and some related ideas in Hermeneutics; Chapter Four is the main part of this thesis, in the first place, it mainly introduces the definition of culture-loaded words given by scholars at home and abroad. Secondly, it analyzes the original text horizon, the two translators’horizons and the horizon of TL culture in Na Han, and then it gives a specific comparative analysis of three kinds of culture-loaded words in the two English versions of Na Han from the degree of two fusions of horizons. Chapter Five is the conclusion part; it briefly concludes the discoveries in this research and states some limitations.