英汉口译中文化因素的传达（二）

2The transmission of the connotation of cultural factors

Just as we mentioned above, cultural factors refer to beliefs, customs, social systems, institutions, objects, techniques, ways of thinking, family patterns, etc that comprise the culture. So, it’s obvious that the transmission of the connotation of cultural factors is to pass on what comprise the culture stemmed from the English-speaking countries to the listeners in E-C interpretation.

It goes without saying that both English and Chinese languages are endowed with profound culture. Language is an important carrier of culture. Different Languages reflect different cultures. What’s language? “In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking” And what about culture? According to the definitions of sociologists and anthropologists, the term “Culture” refers to the total pattern of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects, and techniques that characterize the life of a human community. (Deng Yanchang, Liu Renqing, 1989). Language is a very special component of culture. As a symbolic system of human communication, language is part of the conventional culture. Most of the languages are contained within their cultures, and a society’s language is an aspect of its culture. There is a dialectical relationship between language and culture. Every language is part of a culture and every culture is part of a language. As such, language can’t but serve and reflect cultural needs. The two are intricately interwoven such that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture. Thus, the relation of language to culture is that of part to whole. Culture is really an integral part of the interaction between language and thought. Cultural patterns, customs, and ways of life are expressed in language. For example, Eskimo tribes commonly have as many as seven different words for snow to distinguish among different types of snow. In African cultures of the equatorial forests, there is no word at all for snow.

We shall not go further into the relationship between language and culture. What needs to be stressed here is that the two interact, and that understanding of one requires understanding of the other.

What we call “cultural factor” refers to beliefs, customs, social systems, institutions, objects, techniques, ways of thinking, family patterns, etc that comprise the culture. The criteria of interpretation differs from person to person, which, in general sense, are quickness, exactness and fluency. E-C interpretation covers broad contents in which the transmission of cultural factor is not only important but also can’t be ignored.

2The transmission of the connotation of cultural factors

Just as we mentioned above, cultural factors refer to beliefs, customs, social systems, institutions, objects, techniques, ways of thinking, family patterns, etc that comprise the culture. So, it’s obvious that the transmission of the connotation of cultural factors is to pass on what comprise the culture stemmed from the English-speaking countries to the listeners in E-C interpretation.

(1)To be an interpreter, what he or she should convey in E-C interpretation? Maybe someone would say “I’ll interpret what he or she says” The answer to the above question may be right or wrong. For example, a foreigner says “How about having supper together tonight? Go Dutch.” If it is interpreted as:“今晚一起吃饭如何?去荷兰,”the Chinese listeners might think that you would invite him or her to have supper in Dutch or in a certain restaurant named Dutch. Here “Go Dutch” means “pay your bill yourself ‘not’ to have dinner in Dutch or a Dutch Restaurant.” The example reflects one kind of characteristics of culture. On the contrary, if someone in China invites you to have dinner with him or her, he/she will pay the bill. This phenomenon is called cultural difference. There are plenty of examples to show the cultural difference between English and Chinese. Chinese has a complex system of kinship terms. It distinguishes“外甥、侄子、堂兄、表兄、姑母、姨母、姑夫、舅父、姨夫、外祖母、外祖父”,While in English there are no counterparts. This is because the Chinese are more particular about these relation distinctions while the English people do not need to make these distinctions so often. Therefore, an interpreter has to pass profound knowledge about the cultural connotation of English-speaking countries. In this way and only in this way, he or she can convey the cultural connotation in E-C interpretation. This is the main point of cultural factor transmission.

(2)The requirements of cultural factor transmission

The interpreter should have to interpret not only what the speaker says but also what he or she really means. Cultures differ from one another, and each culture is unique. Language is influenced and shaped by culture and it reflects culture. Different language backgrounds determine the form of language expression. For instance, “It was Greek to me” in one of Shakespeare’s plays “Julius Caesar” means “I know nothing about it.” It means“一窍不通”in Chinese. So the requirements of cultural factor transmission, in my opinion, are:

1)to convey the real meaning of culture

Some phrases and sentences in English have inner meaning. It’s difficult for our Chinese interpreters to grasp. What we must do is to put across the meaning(not every individual word in the given phrases or sentences)in the light of the context. For example: