Linguistic and Cultural Issues in Translation: Differences between English and Chinese - Essay Example

Linguistic and Cultural Issues in Translation: Differences between English and Chinese s Introduction Language is a very important element of communication. For instance, there are various languages that are used on social media. Chances are very high that most of the people we know use Facebook, since it has over 1 billion users. Facebook is regarded as one of the most crucial facets of many people’s social life. The article, “How to Use Facebook” appears both in Chinese and English. There are distinct variations between the Chinese and English language. Today, English and Chinese are the two languages spoken by the largest number of people in across the world. More people are interested in learning Chinese with the recent rapid development of China, but it has really been very difficult for the westerners to learn Chinese language and culture (Bassnett, 1999). On the one contrary, the Chinese language is different from the western alphabetic languages in both and pronunciation. Furthermore, the Chinese culture is different too, and it is a very crucial factor for numerous individuals to learn the language. Meanwhile, it is evident that English is becoming an international language as well being an indispensable tool to communicate with other countries. The paper will discuss the linguistic and sociocultural issues in translating texts across languages with specific reference to English and Chinese in terms of language and culture. Discussion Free of forced migration and increased globalisation has increased the need for people to communicate in multiple languages. This has created the need for language translations. Various issues arise in the process translating literary texts. On a global scale, English is regarded as working language for many people. Bush (1998:127) defines translation as an original subjective activity that is at the centre of a comprehensive network of social and cultural practices. As cited by Moll and González (2008), pursuing a second language: assists the people utilise their first language with greater purpose and precision; knowledge of a second language helps the students to be interconnected with the world; in the global economy, a second language opens the door to job opportunities; finally, language knowledge is vital to humanistic inquiry into the histories and cultures of the world. Mossop et al. (2005) argue that translational language arises out of a certain form of communication. Munday (2009) notes that language and language varieties are closely linked with regard to issues of regional and personal identity construction. During the process of translation, it has been found that interaction between two or more cultures leads to the creation of a hybrid text. The text that appears in the original text appears to adopt some of the features that are in the text of the original source culture. The article read was originally in Chinese, but the English version appeared to have adopted some features of the Chinese culture. The concept of culture is very crucial in translation. Culture relates to intellectual development, social conditioned aspects of human life such as religion, customs, education, political institutions, and history. As noted by New Mark (1998:201), the literary English language that was used to translate the document remained aesthetically pleasing and there was a constant tension between aesthetic and informative functions of language. The English version of the document was accurately and translated reflecting the style, thought, emphasising rhythm, poetry and sound of the original Chinese work. In that respect, cultural translation is considered as being sensitive to linguistic and cultural factors. This is because the Chinese language is becoming more popular in the current world. The English language has numerous variances with the Chinese language. In English, there is emphasis on structure. This means that various meanings can be expressed clearly together with a complicated structure in a single sentence. On the other hand, the Chinese language has put emphasis towards meaning. The Chinese way of communication is subdued, and it is more particular about guanxi (connections). This implies that a sentence is often short with a little modifier (Landers, 2001), resulting into confusion in meaning. The other difference between Chinese and English in terms of language is that when expressing meaning short sentences are used in Chinese, and long sentences are used in English. It can be concluded the English sentences are typically long while the Chinese sentences are short. Nida, a linguistic researcher, noted that in Chinese learning, “one should get the meaning and forget the words” (Nida, 2008). The next difference is that English sentences have numerous clauses that are often separated in small sentences in a Chinese way of expression. Excluding modifiers, English sentences have many clauses that make its sentences more complicated. However, in Chinese, one meaning is often expressed in separate sentences that are connected with comma (s) Nord (1997) The English speaking people are characterized of using pronouns a lot in their writing and speaking, while the Chinese people usually use nouns. The English people besides using “you,” “we,” “they,” “he,” and “she,” they also use “which” and “that” to ensure that the sentence is well structures and avoid repeating meaning. In a Chinese expression, a pronoun is commonly replaced by a noun due to their short sentence structure (Lu, 2004). In English expressions, the passive voice is often used; one usually uses the active voice in Chinese. The passive voice is broadly utilised in English, particularly in scientific articles. For instance, in the article “How to use Facebook, “It is (always) suggested that...” In Chinese it is generally expressed as “People (always) stress that... (Wang, 1968). Comparatively speaking, English has more grammar as compared to Chinese. In Chinese there are grammatical units such as words, characters and sentences. The Chinese solely rely on characters so as realise its grammatical functions. There are affixes for characters, but they are numerous changes with the term or words that are formed with the characters. Therefore, Chinese grammar relies majorly on the various parts of speech to realise its syntax. On the other hand, English grammar depends on the word changes themselves to indicate the various grammatical elements. For instance, an –s is added to the end of nouns so as to realise the number of nouns or through the alterations of the nouns themselves (Nabokov, 2005). The Chinese people also value close family relationship, besides preferring living together. Even in today’s Chinese society, majority of people who work far away from home have some guilt. The Chinese families are also very large making it convenient to pass on the language culture more easily. This is why the Chinese language has very many kinship terms. Blum (1997) asserts that in verbal interaction, the Chinese use kinship terms as a face-saving strategy. On the other hand, the English people prefer nuclear families. The families are usually small, and it is they on formal education to teach language. Besides, the English language has few kinship terms. The other difference is between the Chinese Pinyin and the English phonetics (Baker, 2012). In the Pinyin, there are 24 vowels and 21 consonants, while English has 5 vowels and of 26 letters and words are combinations of these letters. When these words are seen they are easily pronounced. However, Chinese use logographic system for its written language. In this system, the symbols represent the words themselves. Words do not consist of the various letters of the alphabet. In relation to phonology, English has a phonology system. Some English phonemes are non-existent in Chinese since the intonation and stress patterns are different. Chinese is a tone language, unlike English. To differentiate a word meaning, it uses the pitch. Pitch changes in English are used to express or emphasize emotion in order not to give a different word meaning to the sound (Nida & Taber, 2009). Much information in English is carried by the utilisation of verb inflections and auxiliaries such as eat/eats, ate/eaten and is/are/were. Chinese, however, is an uninflected language and usually conveys meaning via adverbials, word order or the shared comprehension of the context. Conclusion Since literature is a product of dominant ideology, it is evident that sign system cannot be comprehended by every person. In the current societies, due to globalisation, translations have become very prominent. However, one of the difficult problems in translating literary texts is the variations between cultures. Each translated text contains elements that are derived from its culture. Chinese and English are differentiated basing on phonology, alphabets, sentence structure, grammar, vocabulary, Reference List Baker, M. (2012) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London and New York: Routledege. Bassnett, S. (1999) Translation Studies. London: Routledge. Blum, S. D. (2008). Naming practices and the power of words in China. Language in Society 26, 357-379. Bush, P. (1998) "Literary Translation." In: M. Baker, ed. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, London: Routledge, 127-130. Landers, Clifford E. (2001) Literary Translation: A practical Guide, New Jersey University Press: Multilingual Maters. Lu, H. (2004). The true story of Ah Q. In W. J. Meserve & R. I. Meserve (eds.), Modern literature from China (pp. 27-66). New York: New York University Press. Nabokov, V. (2005). 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