A Study of English Translation of Culture-loaded Words from the Perspective of Cultural Schema Theory — Taking Selected Modern Chinese Essays as an Example

LI Siyi; LI Lijun² ¹Postgraduate; China

Article Details

A Study of English Translation of Culture-loaded Words from the Perspective of Cultural Schema Theory — Taking Selected Modern Chinese Essays as an Example

Authors:

LI Siyi | LI Lijun² ¹Postgraduate | China

Publisher:

SKY Publications

Journal:

International Journal of English Language, Literature and Translation Studies Vol.12 Issue 2, pp.19-28

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

1/2025

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001927947

pISSN:

2395-2628

Keywords:

Abstract:

 Culture-loaded words are words that carry rich cultural connotations in a specific culture. Due to the differences between Chinese and Western cultural backgrounds, people from different cultures often perceive such words differently, making them obstacles in cross-cultural communication and translation. Therefore, the study of culture-loaded words is essential. The cultural schema theory provides a feasible perspective for translating culture-loaded words: based on cultural schemata, translators could decode culture-loaded words in source language, then restructure and transform them to construct intelligible cultural schemata for target language readers. Prose works contain numerous culture-loaded words. This study focuses on Zhang Peiji’s Selected Modern Chinese Essays, applying cultural schema theory to analyze translation methods for culture-loaded words in prose. The study finds that: when the cultural schemata of source-language and target-language readers correspond, translators often use literal translation and idiomatic translation methods to activate the cultural schemata of the target language readers; cultural schemata conflicts are mostly manifested in religious culture-loaded words, where paraphrase method of free translation is usually used to explain their special cultural connotations; when cultural schemata default, translators either use free translation or retain the original cultural schemata and adopt the transliteration method to transplant the unique cultural schemata into the target language, thus maintaining Chinese cultural characteristics.

Article Details

A Study of English Translation of Culture-loaded Words from the Perspective of Cultural Schema Theory — Taking Selected Modern Chinese Essays as an Example

Authors:

LI Siyi | LI Lijun² ¹Postgraduate | China

Publisher:

SKY Publications

Journal:

International Journal of English Language, Literature and Translation Studies Vol.12 Issue 2, pp.19-28

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

1/2025

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001927947

pISSN:

2395-2628

culture schema

culture-loaded words

Selected Modern Chinese Essay

Zhang Peiji. PDF Journal categories

Issues

Article Details

A Study of English Translation of Culture-loaded Words from the Perspective of Cultural Schema Theory — Taking Selected Modern Chinese Essays as an Example

Authors: LI Siyi | LI Lijun² ¹Postgraduate | China

Publisher: SKY Publications

Journal: International Journal of English Language, Literature and Translation Studies Vol.12 Issue 2, pp.19-28

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 1/2025

Document Language: English

Document ID (Org No.): 2001927947

pISSN: 2395-2628

culture schema

culture-loaded words

Selected Modern Chinese Essay

Zhang Peiji. PDF Journal categories

Issues

Authors:

LI Siyi | LI Lijun² ¹Postgraduate | China

Publisher:

SKY Publications

Journal:

International Journal of English Language, Literature and Translation Studies Vol.12 Issue 2, pp.19-28

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

1/2025

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001927947

pISSN:

2395-2628