Abstract:As the world’s political and economic exchanges develop rapidly, cultural communication becomes more and more important. As an important device in cross-cultural communication, studies of translation are no longer confined to linguistic analysis and textual comparisons only. More and more attention has been paid to the cultural factors in translation．As a matter of fact, translation is not only a linguistic transformation but also a cultural transfer. During the long history, each nation has been forming its own distinctive culture, in which a large number of folk-custom terms are produced as well. As is known to all, folk-custom terms are the most sensitive language items directly reflecting a nation’s history and unique culture. However, because of many different existing factors such as geographical environments, social conventions, living habits, religious beliefs and historical literary allusions, it is hard for translators to find equal language expressions in target language, which in consequence causes many barriers among cultural communication and translation. Therefore, conducting researches on the non-equivalent translation of folk-custom terms is conducive to the development of linguistics, especially for the study of translation and intercultural communication. 

This thesis first discusses the relationship among language, culture and translation, and then it describes two manifestations of non-equivalent translation of folk-custom terms and analyses the factors that result in the non-equivalent translation phenomenon. Some cases of translation related to folk-custom terms are also listed along with their corresponding analysis. Finally, based on the above analysis, the last chapter explores some proper and effective methods to solve these problems. The aim of this thesis is to help translators to minimize the chance of mistranslating folk-custom terms, so that their translations can better promote cultural exchanges, which highlights cultural distinctiveness.

Keywords:  folk-custom terms  cross-cultural differences  translation strategies                     non-equivalent translation phenomenon

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Background of the Study-1

1.2 The Purpose and Significance of the Study-1

1.3 The Organization of the Paper-2

Chapter Two Literature Review-3

2.1 Language, Culture and Translation-3

2.2 Previous Studies on Folklore Translation Home and Abroad-3

Chapter Three The Analysis of Non-Equivalent Translation of Folk-Custom Terms-5

3.1Two Manifestations of Non-Equivalent Translation of Folk-Custom Terms-5

3.1.1 Lexical Item Vacancy-5

3.1.2 Semantic Gap-5

3.2 Causes of the Difficulties in the Translation of Folk-Custom Terms-6

3.2.1 Differences in Living Environments and Life Experiences-6

3.2.2 Differences in Customs-6

3.2.3 Differences in Social Values-7

3.2.4 Differences in Religious Beliefs-7

3.3 Case Analysis of the Translation Related to the Folk-Custom Terms-8

3.3.1 Case Analysis 1: the Translation of“龙”-8

3.3.2 Case Analysis 2: the Translation Related to“红色”-8

3.3.3 Case Analysis 3: the Translation of“纸钱”-8

Chapter Four Suggested Methods for Non-Equivalent Translation of Folk-Custom Terms-10

4.1 Literal Translation or Literal Translation with Footnotes-10

4.2 Transliteration-11

4.3 Borrowing-11

4.4 Free Translation-12

Chapter Five Conclusion-13

References-14