Study On The Translation Of Culture-loaded Words From The Perspective Of Constructivist Translatology

Language is a carrier of a given culture,as well as the most crucial medium to inherit and spread culture.Each nation has their own unique language,and thus to a large extent cultures can determine how a nation thinks and acts.The cultural differences among nations can be presented in literature works in a direct and descriptive fashion.Therefore,it is an effective way to interpret and translate some literature works to learn about a nation’s culture characteristics and traits.In recent years,the exportation of China’s traditional culture has become an inexorable trend.An increasing attention to Chinese traditional culture from scholars at home and abroad highlights the significance and necessity to study conventional culture of China.Hong Lou Meng has long been regarded as a cultural novel that comprehensively reflects China’s traditional culture.Definitely,the translation of and research into the culture-loaded words of this novel will play a big part in illustrating,interpreting and promoting Chinese traditional culture.It is well-known that culture-loaded words are centralized reflections of a nation’s culture at all levels,which accounts for the phenomenon that culture-loaded words have become the main target of cultural study and linguistic study in particular.At present,the relevant studies of culture-loaded words are conducted largely from such perspectives as Translation Teleology,Dynamic Equivalence,Relevance Theory,Pragmatic Equivalence,Poly-system Theory and the like to demonstrate the instructive significance of these translation theories in handling culture-loaded words.This thesis,from the perspective of constructivist translatology,takes the culture-loaded words of the first 80 chapters of Hong Lou Meng as its research subject,and a qualitative analysis and comparison as its research methodology to compare and analyze the varied translating strategies and approaches embodied within the culture-loaded words of the three complete English translated versions,namely A Dream of Red Mansions by Yang Hsien-yi&Gladys Yang,The Story of the Stone by David Hawkes&John Minford,and The Red Chamber Dream by B.S.Bonsall.By doing this,the present study,under the guidance of the Constructivist Translatology is designed to investigate and verify the feasibility and effectiveness of translation strategies of handling different types of culture-loaded words such as material culture-loaded words,ecological culture-loaded words,social culture-loaded words,religious culture-loaded words and linguistic culture-loaded words.The case study of this thesis has found that the three principles of Constructivist Translatology,that is obedience of the objectivity of knowledge,rationality of understanding and universal validity of interpretation and conformity to the directivity of the original texts provide a novel and perceptive evaluation and verification system for the translation and practice and translation research of culture-loaded words of Hong Lou Meng and beyond.