Lost and Found in Translating Tourist Texts free essay sample

This neutralising strategy with its information-oriented, association-applied and concept-based principles can be employed to ensure the equivalents in information, concept and aesthetics. KEYWORDS Domesticating and foreignising, advantages and disadvantages, neutralising, informationoriented, association-applied, concept-based. 1. Cultural Translation and Translating Culture When we discuss the translation of tourist texts from Chinese to English, it is very important to make a distinction between the two terms ? translating culture‘ and ? ultural translation‘. Translating culture, in a narrow sense, refers to the act of transferring meaning from one specific culture -bearing language to another. Cultural translation refers to a dynamic process where everyone and everything that are a part of the interact ion in translation undergo change, where notions are constructed about other cultures and about oneself. That is to say, translating culture is an act only in translati on and cultural translation is the understanding and rendering of cultural concepts. Translating tourist texts is not simply translating culture, but also involves cultural translation. We will write a custom essay sample on Lost and Found in Translating Tourist Texts or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In a sense, translating tourist texts means translating the source culture to the reader. It is known that culture is the ? integrated pattern of human knowl edge, beliefs, and behaviour that is both a result of and integral to the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. Culture thus consists of language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies, symbols.? Stevens et al 2008: 430). Tourist attractions are often deeply rooted in the culture of a country. Every society, on every level, has its own culture influenced by its history and geography. Therefore the aim of tourist text translating should not be only to perform cultural rendering but also to translate culture from Chinese to English. 2. Qualities of Tourist Texts Tourist texts are designed to introduce the scenic spots to the viewers, and to convey the related information to them in order to enable the viewers to unders tand and enjoy the spots. They mainly offer the expressive, the informative and the vocative functions. The expressive function works as the mind of the speaker, the writer, or the originator of the text. He or she uses it to express his or her feelings irrespective of any response. The core of the informative function is an external aspect, the facts of a topic, that is, reality outside language, including reported ideas or theories. The core of the vocative function is the readership, the addressee. The term ? vocative‘ is used in the sense of ? calling upon‘ readership to act, think or feel, in fact to ? eact‘ in the way intended by the text. Nowadays, vocative texts are more often addressed to a readership than to a reader (Newmark, 1988: 40-45). In my opinion, the vocative function is the goal, while the informative function is the premise. This is because tourist texts are a type of popular reading material for ordinary people. The purpose is to attract the tourists‘ attention, a rouse their interest and give them an aesthetic impression, so that they may be persuaded to visit the tourist attraction and gain knowledge of the nature, ulture, history and customs of the tourist attraction through reading the text. Therefore the vocative function is of utmost importance. As a result, a number of factors need to be taken into account. As Newmark (1988: 41) points out, ? The first factor in all vocative texts is the relationship between the writer and the readership. The second factor is that these texts must be written in a language that is immediately comprehensible to the readership.? However, this effort can be achieved only through the provision of sufficient background information. Before potential visitors make up their minds to go sightseeing, they may want to obtain some relevant information about the tourist destination such as its location, historical importance, and cultural traditions . A detailed, accurate and attractive description will strengthen visitors‘ resolve to go; therefore to be informative is also another important consideration. According to Newmark (1988), both informative text and vocative text belong to communicative translation, while the expressive text belongs to semantic translation. In his opinion communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original text in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership (Newmark 1988: 48-49). At the same time, the expressive function should not be neglected either. By reading a well-translated tourist text, people can sense national pride and a warm welcome emanating from the host country‘s guidebooks. Apart from the above-mentioned functions, tourist texts still possess ? the 125 aesthetic function? (Chen 1998: 273) and cultural values. When speaking of the aesthetic function, it is evident that the tourist text is often very short and well-organised in structure, and concise and sparkling in language. As far as the cultural value is concerned, it is manifested primarily through three aspects: the inherent values in natural views like rivers, lakes, mountains and so on; the traditional values long-established in heritage such as habits, traditions, practices, social structures, arts and crafts, etc. ; and the artificial values held in man-made sights like palaces and temples, imperial tombs and underground museums, architecture and gardens, and elsewhere. The translation of such texts is characterised by a special intention but disadvantaged by inadequate cultural equivalents. As we know, the ideal tourist texts should maintain such qualities as being informative, intriguing, realistic, practical, cultural, educational, humorous and even poetic. Thanks to the aforementioned qualities and their functions, the translator has to think of ? genre conventions‘ and follow the target reader‘s reading habits and feelings when translating the text. Nord (2001: 53) states, ? Genre conventions are the result of the standardisation of communication practices. As certain kinds of text are used repeatedly in certain situations with more or less the same function, these texts acquire conventional forms that are sometimes even raised to the status of social norms .? In this context, the translation of a tourist text should attach importance to the equivalence of the informative contents and stylistic functions between the original and the translated texts, rather than the equivalence in linguistic forms. Translation of tourist texts is a kind of publicity activity.