Chapter One Introduction
1.1Research Background
Nowadays，China is increasingly integrating into the international community andmore closely linked with the outside word. Therefore, China is beginning to pay moreattention to carry out external publicity. However, Chinese is not a universally usedlanguage. Thus, in order to introduce China to the outside world better and give world agood image of China, the translation of Chinese into English is badly needed. The qualityof the translations has great impact on the effect of publicity that much importance shouldbe attached. This thesis mainly focuses upon the Chinese-English (C-E) publicitytranslation which deals with the translation of Chinese publicity materials to English.Language is the carrier of culture and it is full of cultural connotations. Meanwhile,culture is deeply rooted in language. So translation is a kind of cross-language and cross-communication process. So in the process of translation the translator should not onlyovercome the language barrier but also step over culture barrier，while the biggest barrier iscultural default. Cultural default refers to the omission of shared relevant backgroundinformation between the author and intended readers. The cultural default phenomenon isvery common in our daily communication. But due to different country and language mayhave different cultural information, so the cultural default problems and misunderstandingwould be occurred in cross-cultural communication. In C-E publicity translation, culturaldefault problems would have bad impact on the understanding of original text or on thespreading of Chinese culture. Therefore, it is essential for us to find certain compensationstrategies to compensate the problems caused by cultural default in C-E publicitytranslation so that the translation can accomplish the goal of publicity.
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1.2Research Questions and Objectives
This thesis is going to solve the following questions;
(1)What kind of cultural default problems can be found in C-E publicity translation inthe light of the three rules of Skopostheorie?
(2)What kind of compensation principles and strategies can be used to solve thecultural default problems in C-E publicity translation in the light of the three rules ofSkopostheorie?
The objectives and meanings of this thesis lie in the following aspects:
(1)The three rules of Skopostheorie are creatively applied into C-E publicitytranslation to dig out the cultural default problems, compensation principles, andcompensation strategies.
(2)According to the three rules of Skopostheorie, three different kinds of culturaldefault problems are classified by the author according to the previous study and examplesanalysis.
(3)According to the three rules of Skopostheorie, two different C-E publicitytranslation compensation principles and six kinds of cultural default compensationstrategies are put forward to guide the following C-E publicity translation compensation.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 C-E Publicity Translation
The C-E translation is different from other types of translation and has its uniquecharacteristics. This part will firstly explore the definition and characteristics of the C-Etranslation; and then the previous study of C-E publicity translation will be presented. Not a long development history though it has, the study of C-E publicity translationattached more and more importance to China's opening up to the outside world. As for thisreason, to make sure the definition of C-E publicity translation is the foremost and keyfactor for our further study.In the first place, we need to make clear what publicity translation is. Defining whatpublicity translation is can give us a direction to carry out the study. Many scholars inChina had tried to put forward the definition of it. Zhang and Meng (2007) hold that withthe development of national economy and overall progress of society and the deepening ofexternal exchange, we need to translate a great deal of all kinds of information about Chinainto the foreign language. All the translated information will be published andcommunicated in outside world through books, journal，newspaper, radio, television,internet, and international conference. All of the above mentioned is publicity translation.
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2.2 Cultural Default
This part includes three parts. First of all，the definition of cultural default will bepresented; and then the previous study of cultural default will be reviewed. Thirdly，theprevious study of cultural default in C-E publicity translation will continue to be reviewed. The relationship between translation and culture are inseparable. The great translatorin China professor Wang (1985) states that something, which is self-evident in one culture,needs to be explained by great efforts in the other culture. The “something” Wang stateshere is what we called “cultural default,’.“Cultural default" was firstly put forward by Wang Dongfeng in 1997. He (1997)states that cultural default means the omission of common background information sharedby two sides of communication. According to the definition, what omitted is the sharedcommon knowledge. People in the same society may share the same language or sameculture. So in the process of communication, omission occurs to improve communicationefficiency. Due to the same cultural background, the two ends of communication can easilyunderstand the information that is defaulted.
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Chapter Three Theoretical Framework..........16
3.1A Historical Overview of Skopostheorie..........16
3.2Three Rules of Skopostheorie..........17
3.3 The Feasibility of Application of Three Rules of Skopostheorie..........21
Chapter Four Cultural Default Problems and Compensation Principles..........24
4.1Cultural Default Problems under Three Rules of Skopostheorie..........24
4.1.1Cultural Mis-Translation..........24
4.1.2Over-Translation and Under-Translation..........25
4.1.3Loss of Aesthetic Form and Function..........27
4.2Compensation Principles under Three Rules of Skopostheorie..........28
4.3Compensation Strategies under Three Rules of Skopostheorie..........31
4.4Summary..........43
Chapter Five Conclusion..........45
Chapter Four Cultural Default Problems and Compensation Principles and Strategies under Three Rules of Skopostheorie
4.1 Cultural Default Problems under Three Rules of Skopostheorie
Lots of mistakes appear in C-E publicity translation, including spelling，grammar,non-standard expressions and so on. A number of scholars have classified that kind ofmistake generally but seldom have categorized cultural default problems into types under acertain theory. What's more, there are no scholars that categorize the cultural defaultproblems under the three rules of Skopostheorie. Therefore, this part is going to analyzemany examples in the light of the three rules of Skopostheorie and classify them intotypes.As we have mentioned, firstly，the skopos rule demands that any translation has certainpurpose; and then coherence rule has the demand that the translation must be coherent inthe target text; besides，intertextual coherence is the top demand by fidelity rule.So the author concludes that there are three different cultural default problems whichviolate the three rules of Skopostheorie, that is cultural mis-translation, culturalover-translation and under-translation, and loss of aesthetic form and function.In the following part, we are going to analyze the three different mistakes separately.
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Conclusion
This thesis mainly analyzes C-E publicity translation cultural default problems,strategies of cultural default compensation on the basis of the core part of Skopostheorie,that is, three rules of Skopostheorie—skopos rule, coherence rule, and fidelity rule.Through analyzing plenty of C-E publicity translation examples, this thesis puts forward aseries of practical compensation strategies and principles which provide a new way to solvethe problems in C-E publicity translation caused by cultural default. Finally, this chapterwill conclude the major findings of the whole thesis and acknowledge some limitations thatthis thesis can't solve and sincerely give some research suggestions for further study.Since chapter one proposes two research questions, this part will answer them and putforward the major findings of this study.First of all, the three rules of Skopostheorie are complicated but useful in translationfield. Many scholars, from home and abroad, study it from different perspectives. But thereis hardly anyone who has applied it in the study of compensation of cultural default in C-Epublicity translation. The characteristics of cultural default in C-E publicity translation arein line with three rules of skopostheorie. By unearthing the possibilities of using the threerules of Skpostheorie to solve the cultural default problems in C-E publicity materials, thisthesis finds it is feasible to apply the three rules of skopostheorie to guide the translation ofC-E publicity materials. In a word, through analyzing many examples, this thesissuccessfully combine the three rules of Skopostheorie with the compensation of the culturaldefault in C-E publicity translation, and make the three rules of Skopostheorie function asthe theoretical foundation of the thesis.
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References (omitted)