Answer to Question 3 (continued The reason perhaps is that behind the lexical items of a language there stand the textual grid of that language and cultural grid or the social grid relevant to the language, in Bassenett's terms. In de saussure's term the value of a word is determined by the value of relevant words in the same semantic field. In translation of chinese lexical items into English, we cannot translate the textual. cultural or social grid or even the semantic field relevant to the lexical items
Answer to Question 3 (continued) The reason perhaps is that behind the lexical items of a language, there stand the textual grid of that language and cultural grid or the social grid relevant to the language, in Bassenett’s terms. In de Saussure’s term, the value of a word is determined by the value of relevant words in the same semantic field. In translation of Chinese lexical items into English, we cannot translate the textual, cultural or social grid or even the semantic field relevant to the lexical items
Answer to Question 3 (continued though we can by other means introduce some ideas of the grid or the semantic field. As for which of the mechanisms to choose, it much depends on the inclination of the translator though on the translation situation as well Take the translation of the personal names of A Dream of Red Mansions for example. Some use pinyin while others turn to meaning translation and still others turn to a combination of pinyin and meaning translation. And the pinyin users can be divided into those who use the pinyin that can be witnessed in putonghua and those who use the code system of Webster
Answer to Question 3 (continued) though we can by other means introduce some ideas of the grid or the semantic field. As for which of the mechanisms to choose, it much depends on the inclination of the translator, though on the translation situation as well. Take the translation of the personal names of A Dream of Red Mansions for example. Some use pinyin while others turn to meaning translation and still others turn to a combination of pinyin and meaning translation. And the pinyin users can be divided into those who use the pinyin that can be witnessed in putonghua and those who use the code system of Webster
Answer to Question 3 (continued Note that in the above discussion we used sound translation instead of transliteration, as often used by some Chinese translation theoreticians. because we believe that transliteration literally means letter for letter translation and it is often, if not al ways, employed by Western theoretician accordingly
Answer to Question 3 (continued) ⚫ Note that in the above discussion, we used sound translation instead of transliteration, as often used by some Chinese translation theoreticians, because we believe that transliteration literally means letter for letter translation and it is often, if not always, employed by Western theoretician accordingly
Answer to Question 4 For university students translation mainly means rendering the original into the target by choosing proper lexical items and proper sentence patterns Generally speaking, they are not expected to transplant the seed as we do in translation of a chinese poem into English or the other way round, nor are they expected to do anything more sophisticated than to translate a passage of prose, real or fictional. It is in this sense that we say that translation of lexical items from Chinese into English is a demanding task for university students. For others, however, the statement may not apply
Answer to Question 4 For university students, translation mainly means rendering the original into the target by choosing proper lexical items and proper sentence patterns. Generally speaking, they are not expected to transplant the seed as we do in translation of a Chinese poem into English or the other way round, nor are they expected to do anything more sophisticated than to translate a passage of prose, real or fictional. It is in this sense that we say that translation of lexical items from Chinese into English is a demanding task for university students. For others, however, the statement may not apply
Answer to Question 4 (continued) Another account for the statement may lie in the fact that lexical items are extremely closely related to the differences of the two cultures that take the two languages as their code systems, as was discussed in the above answer
Answer to Question 4 (continued) ⚫ Another account for the statement may lie in the fact that lexical items are extremely closely related to the differences of the two cultures that take the two languages as their code systems, as was discussed in the above answer