Cultural factors play an important role in translation studies

涂于德

Cultural factors play an important role in translation studies

         Cultural factors play an important role in translation studies. Nida also emphasized the role of cultural background: \"The role of language within a culture and the influence of the culture on the meaning of words and idioms are so pervasive that scarcely any text can be adequately understood without careful consideration of its cultural background.” The translator has to consider both the distance between the text and the source-culture reality and the distance between the text and the target culture reality. Some traditional Chinese words and expressions are profoundly imbued with unique Chinese cultural characters such as“阴”and“阳”(yin and yang), which do not have counterparts in English, and perhaps will never have equivalents in English. Longman Modern English Dictionary explains them as \"two forces though whose essences, according to Taoist cosmology, the universe was produced and cosmic harmony is maintained. Yin is dark, female and negative, and yang is light, male and positive\". At the stage of international communication, as yin and yang are the two main elements in ancient Chinese philosophy, it is difficult to understand when they are transliterated just as \"yin yang.\" Usually, more background information should be added in the footnote in English version.