文化功能对等理论下汉语“禄”语义及翻译效果的研究

Chapter One Introduction 

1.1 Statement of Purpose 
Jixiang  (auspiciousness)  is  a  phenomenon  of  the  Chinese  culture  which originates  in  the  native  habits  and  customs. The  word  Jixiang (auspiciousness)  is derived from Zhuang Zi of the Spring and Autumn periods. “If the spirit is empty and calm, all is well.” Cheng Xuanying of the Tang Dynasty gave the explanations: “Ji” means good deeds; “Xiang” is an indication of happiness.”（ 蓝先琳 et al. 2004）.This is the earliest definition of the word Jixiang (auspiciousness). The connotation of the auspicious  culture  has  developed  with  the  extension  of  history  through  ages. Happiness praying, moral principles, to drive out evil spirits and to destroy calamities are social functions of Chinese propitious culture. Fu, Lu, Shou, Xi, Cai, interrelating and  interdependent  with  individuality  auspicious  theme,  stand  at  the  core  of  the propitious culture. Fu stands at the very heart of Chinese auspicious culture. Evolving from Fu, Lu has the connotation of pursuing fame and social status.   Language is a social cultural phenomenon and a product of social and cultural development.  Different  languages  in  different  nations  record  and  reflect  specific cultures. Both the role which language plays in a culture and the influence that the culture makes on the meanings of words and idioms are so pervasive that hardly any text can be adequately understood without taking a careful consideration of its cultural background. Thus this paper  intends to do some research on the Chinese word of  “Lu” from the perspective of linguistics.  
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1.2 History and Background of the Problem
As an important branch of the Chinese auspicious culture, the Chinese word of “Lu” often appears in the sayings, artistic products, or the everyday communications from the past to the present day, in mainland China, or the other part of the world where there is Chinese people living. For instance, the Chinese word of “Lu” is often seen  in  paintings  or  paper-cuttings,  on the  wall,  at the  gate of  a  house or on the various  kinds  of  porcelains  including  bowls,  jars,  vases,  etc.  and  many  idioms  or expressions. In this way, the translation of the word or the idioms with it can also be found  in  many  Chinese-English  dictionaries  and  books  while  they  are  mostly translated  by  the  Chinese  without  much  feedback  from  the  target  readers,  or  the English native speakers. Still there is little systematic research on this cultural-specific word of “Lu” about the missing  meanings or the translation equivalence  from the linguistic perspective up to now.    Chinese  people’s  understanding  of  Lu  is  reflected  in  the  use  of  language. Profound cultural foundation is hidden among the specific expressions. According to Shuo Wen Jie Zi (Explanation of Chinese Characters), Lu is equivalent to Fu. During Shang  and  Zhou  periods, to  receive  royal  titles  was  considered  as  Fu;  to  receive King’s favors was considered as “Lu”. In feudal society, people with the higher royal positions earned higher salary, therefore came the saying “High office and high Lu (pay)”高 gao(1)官 guan(1)厚 hou(4)禄 lu(4).(蓝先琳，et  al.  2004).  To  obtain  an inheritable royal position was almost every scholar’s dream. So the two main themes of Lu culture are to gain high position in the royal rank and pass the imperial civil service exam to climb the royal ladder. That is to say, in China, especially in ancient China,  Lu  has  very  close  relationship  with  rank  and  success  in  the  imperial  civil service exam. 
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Previous Studies on Word Meaning
Word,  the  smallest,  independent  and  meaningful  unit  of  language,  can  well reflect the  national  and  historical  characteristics  of  a  language.  It  consists  of  two interrelated parts: form and its various meanings. As to the word form, there are great differences between Chinese and English: Chinese is made up of strokes and English is a unit of letters. In Chinese, compounds of two or more Chinese characters are most popular and the meaning of the latter character always comes from or is the result of the former character. For example, in the idiom高官厚禄gao(1) guan(1) hou(4) lu(4), 厚禄 is  thought  to  come  after 高官.  While  there  is  no  such  relationship  between English words.  The study of word meaning, which lies at the center of human communication, is one of the basic issues in linguistics. Translation is closely related to meaning, thus the standard of translation should be described as: based on a thorough understanding of the various meanings of both the source language and the target language, one should make an adequate and best equal-valued translation from the source language to the target language.  
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2.2 Meanings of the Chinese Word of “Lu”  and Its Existing Translations
As an important branch of Chinese auspicious culture, idioms and expressions of Chinese  word  of  “Lu”  appears  to  be  popular  both  in  communication  and  in  the literature. Thus, the translation of the word or idioms can also  be  found  in  many bilingual dictionaries. In the following part, meanings of the Chinese word of “Lu” are talked about in detail, and its existing translations were collected from dictionaries and related literature.“Jixiang” (auspicious) is a phenomenon of the Chinese culture which originates in the native habits and customs. The auspicious culture is an integral part of Chinese traditional culture. It forms a complete cultural system with the development process during thousands of year, such as mascots, auspicious patterns, and auspicious words. Lying at its heart are the traditional “Five Fortunes”: longevity, affluence, good health, virtue and “natural death”. That is to say, if one remains healthy and peaceful both physically  and  psychologically,  behaves  virtuously  and  benevolently,  possesses  a considerable amount of wealth, lives for a long time, and eventually dies without any pain,  conflict  or  worry,  then  he  or  she  is  fortunate  in  its  truest  and  most comprehensive sense. As  for Five Fortunes, the posterity provides a  more general summary:  Fu  (happiness,  good  fortune),  Lu  (salary,  job,  fame,  prosperity),  Shou (health, longevity), Xi (joy, love, marriage), and Cai (money, wealth).  
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Chapter Three Research Design........23 
3.1 Goal and Hypothesis......23 
3.2 Research Methods....24
3.2.1 Participants ....24 
3.2.2 Test materials.......24 
3.3 Procedures.........29 
3.4 Data Collection........29 
Chapter Four Results and Analysis.........31 
4.1 Results of Equivalence in Denotative Meanings.......31 
4.2 Results of Equivalence in Cultural Meanings.....34 
4.3 Results of Equivalence in Symbolic Meanings.........36 
4.4 Results of the Acceptance to the Existing Translations.........37 
Chapter Five Discussion.......41 
5.1 Non-Equivalence in Denotative Meanings of “Lu”.........41 
5.2 Non-Equivalence in Cultural-specific Meanings of “Lu”......42 
5.3 Non-Equivalence in the Symbols of the Chinese Word of “Lu”........43 
5.4 Non-Equivalence in the Existing Translations....44 

Chapter Five Discussion 

5.1 Non-Equivalence in Denotative Meanings of “Lu”
There  are  four  main  denotative  meanings  of  the  Chinese  word  of  “Lu”: happiness and good fortune; the official salary; the position in an official department; and to give salary. Among them, official salary and to give salary are relatively more acceptable in English native speakers. That is to say the word salary, which can be used both as a noun and a verb in English share the most similar meanings with the Chinese word of “Lu”.       In Chinese official salary always collocate with “high official position”. Thus in the  Chinese  word  of  “Lu”,  the  collocative  meaning  the  position  in  an  official department exists as one of its denotative meanings. While from the collected data, we have got that there is no inevitable relation between official salary and official position in English and derogatory senses would even be produced by combining the two. For example, the corresponding expressions given by English native speakers to the  existing  translation  of  高官厚禄 gao(1)  guan(1)  hou(4)  lu(4)  are  high  office; corruption; pork-barrel politicians; embezzlement; betraying the public trust. That is why  the  denotative  meaning  the  position  in  an  official  department  obtains  less acceptance in English.  
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conclusion

The  purpose  of  this  research  has  two-folds:  firstly  to  explore  the  missing meanings in the Chinese word of “Lu”, including its denotative meanings, associative meanings,  specially  the  part  of  cultural  meanings  and  symbolic  meanings  of  it; secondly  to  detect  the  acceptability  of  the  Chinese  word  of  “Lu”  among  English native speakers.  By  searching  and  reading  the  related  books,  academic  periodicals  and dictionaries, four denotative meanings of the Chinese word of “Lu” were collected: (1) happiness and good fortune; (2) the official salary; (3) the position in an official department;  (4)  to  give  salary.  And  the  inherent  associative  meanings  or  cultural meanings were summarized as follows: (1) a kind of happiness and good fortune; (2) a good place in an examination; (3) high position and great wealth; (4) a security for a stable life; (5) a high social status; (6) authority; (7) a big success in one’s studies and  occupation  career;  (8)  the  realization  of  one’s  self-values.  Language  has  two types of functions: psychological and sociological. The first function negotiates the relation  between  human  and  reality  while  the  other  works  between  persons. Denotative meanings are mainly used in the former function and cultural meanings are more applied in sociological situations. Compared with the denotative meanings or core meanings of words, the cultural meanings are less stable thus more difficult to understand and master. Therefore cultural meanings of the Chinese word of “Lu” will be paid more attention in this thesis.  
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The reference (omitted)