摘 要

语言与文化密切相关：语言不仅仅是文化的载体，还是其重要体现。尽管语言是翻译的基石，但现如今人们更多关注的是语言背后的文化内涵。当中，译者面临的一个重大挑战就是如何翻译具有文化背景的语言，或者更简洁地说，如何翻译文化负载词。2015年，刘慈欣作品《三体》斩获极负盛名的科幻小说奖项“雨果奖”。这是一部植根于中国社会生活的文学作品，更确切地说，它以文化大革命为故事背景。书中众多文化负载词的翻译对译者来说是一种障碍。另外，作为一部科幻小说，书中出现了少数新造词。本文就是在这两中语言障碍的基础上展开探讨。

首先，论文将阐述此项研究的背景及意义；其后介绍该作品、作者及译者的相关信息；最后将会结合相关理论着眼于文化负载词及新造词的译介。该论文旨在研究译者处理语言障碍的方法，并总结一些实用技巧以供未来翻译所用。

关键词：文化负载词；新造词；语言障碍；《三体》

Abstract

Language is closely related to culture: it is not only the carrier of culture but one of the important embodiments. Despite language’s role of cornerstone in translation, much more attention nowadays has been shifted to the cultural connotation behind language. Among of that, how to translate language with cultural context, or culture-loaded words has become an evident challenge to translators. In 2015, The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu won the Hugo Award, one of the most prestigious science fiction awards in the world. As a novel set against, narrowly speaking, the Cultural Revolution or generally speaking, the Chinese social life, large amounts of culture-loaded words has been a great barrier to the translator. Moreover, as a science fiction, The Three-Body Problem also brings out some coined words to translate in the text.

The combined two language barriers above constitute the two themes to discuss in this paper. This paper firstly will expound the background and the significance of the research. Then it introduces the book, the author and the translator. At last, this study will focus on the translation of culture-loaded words and the coined words, coupled with relevant theories. The aim is to probe into how the translator deals with languages barriers in the text and propose some practical methods for future translation.

Key Words: culture-loaded words; coined words; language barriers; The Three-Body Problem

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Significance of the Research 1

1.3 Previous Studies on The Three-Body Problem 2

2 Glimpses of The Three-Body Problem 3

2.1 On the Novel The Three-Body Problem 3

2.2 On the Author Cixin Liu 3

2.3 On the Translator Ken Liu 4

3 On Translation, Culture and Language 5

3.1 Inreaction between Translation and Culture 5

3.2 The Influence of Cultural Differences on Translation 5

3.3 Translation of Culture-Loaded Words............................................................................6

4 Analysis of the Language Barrier in the Text…………….......................................................8

4.1 Translation of Special Items in Cultural Revolution.......................................................8

4.2 Translation of Idioms....................................................................................................11

4.3 Translation of Coined Words.........................................................................................12

5 Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

On Language Barrier in Translation Based on The Three-Body Problem

1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

The prosperity of Chinese economy has triggered great attention towards China, followed by growing interest in Chinese literary works. In recent years, an increasing number of local works has been translated into English yet among which only few has received wide popularity except Red Sorghum by Mo Yan or the 2015 Hugo Award winner The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu.^[1] A strong economy merely can not underpin a strong country without expanding cultural influence. Based on the five-thousand history and culture, modern literature in China continue to prosper in the 21st century when a brand new look should be displayed on the new centurial stage. Thus the translation of Chinese literary works should be taken priority in order to advance the development of modern cultural career.

1.2 Significance of the Research

The research will be conducted based on the English edition of The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, the Hugo Award winner in 2015. As an internationally well-accepted literary masterpiece, the Chinese-American translator Ken Liu deserves to be praised and appreciated. Like the translator Howard Goldblatt of Mo Yan, Ken Liu also excels in two languages and cultures, which is important in language-based translation. Their success in translation also gives translation workers helpful enlightenment that a solid mastery of two languages and cultures is essential to a smoothly translated work.^[2] However, only few workers nowadays devote to the promotion of Chinese works and most translators are not natives, lacking profound cultural and linguistic basis. As a result, many outstanding Chinese literary works are missed by foreign readers and that consequently prevent from the internationalization of brilliant Chinese culture. Among the problems, limitations in translating culture-loaded language have hindered the smooth understanding as well as the promotion of Chinese culture. Fortunately the great success of the English edition of The Three-Body Problem provides an excellent opportunity to study the secrets and charms of languages in translation and hopefully can draw some experience as guidance. The Three-Body Problem, according to the comments of oversea readers, reads unbelievably well in English and flows as smoothly as readers would imagine the original world. Through the comparative analysis between the Chinese edition and the English one, this paper will deal with how a translated work can be smooth as if written by native writers.

1.3 Previous Studies on The Three-Body Problem

There are some studies on this book has been performed, such as 《中国科幻小说英译研究 ——以lt;三体gt;为例》(2015) written by Linqian Li and《论lt;三体gt;英译本中的女性主义翻译策略》(2015) written by Lang Jing, but both of them discuss little about the basic elements in translation, namely, the language. The former focuses on the theoretical development in Chinese science fiction, while the latter conducts the survey on feminism of the novel. This paper, therefore, focuses on the detailed level of language and study how the translator deals with language barriers to conclude according translation strategy and skills. Through this way, the shortcomings in Chinese-to-English translation can be found out and reference can be accumulated for its further development.

Given that language is the primary and core concern in translation, this paper will probe into the problems on the level of language during Chinese-to-English translation.