Jul 2026· Studies in Linguistics and Literature· 0 citations
Abstract
Documentary is an important medium for the overseas dissemination of culture. Therefore, subtitle translation in documentaries has made the translation of culture-loaded words a significant topic in translation studies. This paper takes the documentary Journeys in Nature: The Ewenki Series as its research subject, analyzing the subtitle translation of culture-loaded words within the framework of domestication and foreignization. It explores the translation strategies for different types of culture-loaded words and their intercultural communication effects. The findings reveal that foreignization is predominantly adopted for place names among ecological culture-loaded words and domestication is employed for linguistic and social culture-loaded words. Meanwhile, the translation of material culture-loaded words demonstrates great flexibility. Overall, the documentary exhibits a strategic preference for domestication supplemented by foreignization, offering a reference for the subtitle translation of documentaries on ethnic minorities and the international dissemination of Chinese culture.
In the current context of accelerating the spread of Chinese traditional culture, the translation of culture-loaded terms has become a key issue in the study of translation and intercultural communication. Based on the analysis framework of translation compensation theory, this study takes the column of “24 Solar Terms” in China Daily as the corpus, and systematically explores the translation methods of culture-loaded words in this column. According to the four categories of ecology, material, society and language, this study examines how translators compensate for cultural loss and information loss in translation. The results show that the translator widely adopts compensation techniques such as free translation, amplification, transliteration and annotation, and logical explicitation, which effectively improves the understanding smoothness and text acceptance of the target readers while maintaining the cultural connotation of the source language. These strategies not only ensure the faithful transmission of cultural information, but also effectively promote the overseas dissemination of Chinese excellent traditional culture. It is expected that the research results can provide useful reference for the Chinese-English translation practice of culture-loaded words in similar publicity texts in the future.
Zhiming Jiang, Mengyu Wang· Scientific Journal Of Humani...· 0 citations
This thesis aims to investigate the translation strategies for culture-specific items in the English translation of Moses on the Plain, a representative work of “New Northeast Literature”, so as to provide a practical reference for the overseas reception of contemporary regional Chinese literature. Adopting Aixelá’s theory of culture-specific items as the core framework and incorporating the cultural classification models of Newmark and Nida, the study selects typical examples from four dimensions—ecological, material, social, and linguistic culture—for analysis. The thesis shows that the translator tends to employ retention strategies such as transliteration and literal translation for ecological culture-specific items; the absolute universalization strategy for material culture-specific items; a combination of literal translation and absolute universalization for social culture-specific items; and free translation and functional equivalence for linguistic culture-specific items. Overall, the translator seeks a balance between “cultural authenticity” and “reader acceptability”, prioritizing the readability and communicative intent of the target text.
Bo-Han Zhou, Dan Cui· Communication Society and Me...· 0 citations
Literary translation involves more than linguistic conversion; it also entails the reconstruction and re-encoding of cultural meanings. From the perspective of cultural translation theory, this study takes Liu Cixin’s original Chinese novel The Three-Body Problem and its Spanish translation El problema de los tres cuerpos by Javier Altayó as the objects of analysis. Drawing on Nida’s framework of cultural classification, culturally embedded elements in the source text are grouped into five categories: ecological, material, social, religious-philosophical, and linguistic. Through a comparative reading of the Chinese and Spanish versions, the paper examines the translator’s shifting strategies among foreignization, domestication, and cultural negotiation. The analysis suggests that the translation does not rely on a single or fixed strategy. When dealing with culture-specific elements that carry strong historical or regional specificity, the translator is more likely to preserve foreignness through transliteration, literal translation, or brief explanatory additions. In contrast, for expressions that may hinder comprehension or lead to cultural misinterpretation, freer rendering, generalization, or contextual adjustment tend to be adopted in order to reduce the cognitive burden on target readers. Overall, the Spanish translation of The Three-Body Problem reveals a flexible negotiation process, in which cultural difference is retained to varying degrees while comprehension is facilitated and narrative flow is maintained. This case offers a useful reference for the Spanish dissemination of Chinese science fiction and more broadly for the cross-cultural transmission of heterogenous cultural elements.
Yueyang Zhang· Journal of Language, Culture...· 0 citations
Taking the three dimensional transformation theory of Eco translatology as its theoretical framework, this study focuses on A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, and conducts an in depth exploration of translation strategies adopted for core Confucian cultural elements (such as filial piety, ritual system, family ethics and educational concepts) as well as its overseas dissemination effects. By comparing the adaptive selection and transformation of the source text and its English version from the linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions, this paper investigates the role played by this translated version in the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture. The study reveals that the Yangs’ translation realizes the systematic transplantation of Confucian culture through three dimensional transformations. Nevertheless, its dissemination effect is constrained by cognitive barriers within the target language cultural ecology, which offers important implications for the practice of “in depth cultural facsimile” in the English translation of Chinese classics.
Gao-Feng Yu· Literature History and Philo...· 0 citations
As Chinese culture “goes global,” political documents have become a key medium for external communication. Taking the official English version of the 19th CPC National Congress Report as its corpus, this paper applies Javier Franco Aixelá’s eleven strategies for translating culture-specific items (CSIs) to the analysis of culture-loaded words and phrases. It further examines these strategies from the perspectives of domestication and foreignization, exploring how to minimize the limits of translatability and maximize translation acceptability so that China’s political message is accurately and effectively conveyed to international audiences.
Tingting Dong· Scientific Journal Of Humani...· 0 citations
This article examines the linguistic and cultural aspects of translating socio-political Arab (Iraqi) realities within the context of an intercultural approach in Russian-language media during a period of forced communication. Language, as a means of mass communication, quickly responds to all changes occurring in the modern world. Non-equivalent vocabulary undoubtedly plays a key role in shaping the linguistic picture of the world, reflecting the historical experience, thought processes, and cultural traditions of a particular people. In the context of the American occupation of Iraq after 2003 and active intercultural contact, translation has acquired key significance as a means of effective communication between representatives of different cultures. Translation strategies are determined by an anthropological approach, which in modern scholarship is considered the methodological basis of both general linguistics and translation studies. Undoubtedly, translation during this period faces numerous challenges in conveying elements reflecting the national and cultural characteristics of vocabulary and expressions denoting realities characteristic of one culture and which may be perceived differently in another cultural environment, as well as preserving their cultural nuances, which may be incomprehensible or interpreted differently in another cultural context. Arabic lexical units with national and cultural specificity (realia) used in Russian media, their translations into Russian, and methods of adapting such units, as well as their impact on the accurate conveyance of cultural context, are the subject of this study.
