A Study Of The English Translation Of Culture-related Concepts In Panghuang:a Perspective Of Cultural Schema Theory

There are scholars who have conducted related researches on culture-related concepts in translation with the help of schema theory.It is suggested that the comprehension of culture-related concepts lies in the schemas TT readers possess,or,in other words,the cognition of culture-related concepts reflects TT readers' cultural schemas that are implicit and abstract.This provides translation studies that are culture-oriented with new a perspective and a realistic meaning.Schema is a set of knowledge acquired through experience.It is accumulated and reinforced in the course of constant social activities and stored in memory.During the process new information is received with the presence of corresponding or relevant schema,or pre-existing background knowledge.The schema can only be activated through the correlation of the two.In translations that are culturally-bounded,the schema asymmetry resulting from cultural difference will undoubtedly cause difficulty in understanding for TT readers.Therefore,it is obligatory for translator to transfer explicit information to the TT text,and re-express the cultural elements that are implied within the discourse,in order to help TT readers get a full understanding of the source text and the culture behind it.Panghuang is a well-known collection of novels by Lu Xun with considerable cultural significance.It sets a precedent for the writing of China's contemporary novels.The thesis attempts to study the phenomenon of culture-related concepts and its delivery in the two translations of Lu Xun's Panghuang,within the framework of cultural schema theory.The aim is to explore the phenomenon of cultural schema in the translations of Panghuang from the perspective of schema theory and attempts to make a summary of the translation methods for culture-related concepts that are employed in the two translations according to the working mechanism of cultural schema.Hopefully it will be a source of inspiration for further studies.The thesis attempts to perform a brief analysis of the working mechanism of schema in translation activities with cultural schema as the theoretical basis.The process of decoding the source text and encoding the target text will be discussed,which will serve as the foundation for explaining the transfer of cultural schema in translation.The thesis argues that translators should lay emphasis on the communicating of cultural characteristics,in addition to the transferring of cultural information by tuning the schema related the ST culture in order to comprehend the cultural information in the ST text and making it acceptable to the TT readers.This is followed by an example analysis of the two translations of Panghuang concerning culture-related concepts and a tentative generalization on the translation strategies that have been used,from three different aspects: cultural schema correspondence,cultural schema mismatch,cultural schema conflict,and cultural schema default.It is found out that a number of translation strategies have been used,including literal translation,free translation,transliteration,literal translation with annotation and free translation with annotation,thus activating,adjusting existing schema or even creating new schema for the TT readers.Their feasibility and respective merits and demerits will be discussed.Hopefully it will provide a new perspective for further studies on the translation of Panghuang.