Cultural Contrastive Analysis and Translation of the Number "Nine" between East and West

In our country, people regard "Nine" as their own "days", which is the most colorful number because of its symbolic significance. The number "nine" covers the widest range of all figures in China. The following is what I have carefully prepared for you: the cultural comparative analysis and translation of the number nine in the East and the West. For your reference only!

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The cultural comparative analysis and translation of the number nine in the East and the West are as follows:

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I. Introduction

"Numbers are generated by symbols in order to meet the needs of social production activities when human thinking develops to a certain stage." (Su, 19 9 1) "Numbers are a special field in linguistics. In the scientific digital world, its function is calculation, with strict order and clear function, and it is a real number; In the digital world of human mind, its function is to express meaning, and many numbers pass by? Deification? Become? Xuan Shu? 、 ? Imaginary number? 、? God. " They have extremely rich extension and connotation. "(Wang Bingqin, 1998) is influenced by the eastern and western cultural traditions, religious beliefs, language worship and geographical environment. There are differences between the East and the West in the deification of numerals, but there are also * * * characteristics and * * * rules. All ethnic groups have something in common in the worship of the number of spiritual objects. Orientals have their own concept of "number of days", while western Renye Fang has its own concept of "number of gods". The evolution law of mysterious numbers will generally experience "deification? Generalization? Fuzzy process. " (Wang Bingqin, 1998)

There are many monographs and papers about digital science in the East and the West, such as T? Danzig's The Language of Mathematical Science (Commercial Press, 1998), by Englishman Lunrad? Farah's The Source of Seven; There are also many scholars in China who have written books and papers on numbers for academic discussion. For example, Professor Wang Bingqin titled "Comparison and Translation of the Semantic Range of Numbers" in the sixth chapter of his New Theory of Language and Translation. Su Zeng wrote Worship of Numerals (440 pages of Language, Society and Culture, Language Press, 199 1, 1) and so on. At the second annual meeting and the third academic seminar of China English-Chinese Comparative Research Association hosted by Nanchang University from 65438 to 0998, members of the English-Chinese Cultural Contrast Committee commented on the book Three Methods of Chinese and Western Literature by Mr. Wu from the School of Foreign Languages of Central South University of Technology. The cultural model of "launched a heated discussion. I think that orientals, especially China people, think that the number of days is "nine" instead of "three", and it is not entirely because "nine" is a multiple of "three".

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Second, the cultural comparative analysis of the number "nine" between the East and the West

In China, people regard "Nine" as the "number of days" and the most colorful number in their minds, because the symbolic meaning of "Nine" can be said to last the longest and cover the widest range in China. As a number, "Nine" was regarded as a mysterious number in ancient China. At first, it was a dragon (or snake) totem character, and later it evolved into the meaning of "sacred". Therefore, the emperors in ancient China tried their best to identify themselves with God to show that their sacred power was given by God. Nine? Be with each other. If the sky is divided into nine layers, it will be extremely high. The day of birth is the ninth day of the first month, and the son of heaven worships heaven nine times a year. More interestingly, even the palace buildings are related to the "Nine". For example, there are nine doors in Beijing, and the door in Tiananmen Square is a nine-square lattice, and the doors are decorated with nine nails (that is, each door has nine rows of doornails). In Chinese vocabulary, "nine" is often used to describe the titles of emperors and generals, such as "imperial throne". Calling the monarch whose official position is second only to the emperor "nine thousand years old" and so on.

According to the relationship between yin-yang, five elements and number, the root of everything is number, and so is the universe. Numbers start at 1 and end at 10, and the five elements are also numbers. According to the traditional theory of five elements, 1 and 2 are wood; 1 is Gong Mu, and 2 is mother wood. Take 3 and 4 as fire: 3 as yang fire and 4 as yin fire. Take 5 and 6 as soil: 5 is positive soil and 6 is negative soil. Use 7 and 8 as gold: 7 is positive gold and 8 is negative gold. Use 9 and 10 as water: 9 as yang water and 10 as yin water. This is to combine "image" and "number" with the five elements to deduce changes, thus showing the internal relationship between the development and changes of things. From this perspective, "nine" is the largest positive number, symbolizing the sky. It is said that in ancient China, talents were divided into nine grades, and grade nine heaven was the highest place in the sky. In Chinese, there are some related words, such as "the cloud of nine days" (referring to the extremely high sky, "beyond the cloud", "holding the moon for nine days" and "the land of nine days". Besides, the Temple of Heaven, as a place of worship in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, is reflected everywhere in its architecture? Nine? The symbolic meaning of. In folklore, there is also the story of "Nine-headed Birds".

China people regard "nine" as a large number, and Liu wrote in the book Doubtful Cases of Ancient Books: "Anyone who refers to its extreme number can be called" nine ";" Su Wen said: "The number of heaven and earth begins with one and ends with nine." Therefore, there is a saying in Chinese that "99 returns to one" or "99 returns to the book". Because the number "nine" leads to the limit of life, so "bright nine" or "dark nine" are the "hurdles" of life, so what should be avoided? Nine? The era of. For example:? The old lady will be eighty-one years old next year, so she is a dark nine. "(A Dream of Red Mansions). Japanese generally believe that "Nine" is a symbol of "bad karma and pain", because it is a homonym of "Nine" and "Bitterness", so "Nine" is taboo. However, Foreign Languages and Foreign Language Teaching once reported that a domestic scholar counted thousands of surnames and names of telephone numbers in a certain place in Japan by "all-selection method" and found that only a few people took "nine" as their surnames (about 0.35%), while many people took "nine" as their names (about 35%). It seems that the Japanese taboo "nine" is not absolute.

In addition, the etymology says: "Nine: Virtual refers to the majority." When using "nine" to solve imaginary numbers, it is a semantic ambiguity phenomenon of numbers. In Modern Chinese Lexical Dictionary, "nine" has three meanings: (1) number, eight plus one; (2) From winter, every nine days to Sunday is a "nine", counting from one "nine", two "nine" and three "nine". Practice three or nine in winter and three volts in summer; (3) Most or many times: Jiuquan, three bends and nine turns, etc. Therefore, there are many idioms related to "Nine" in Chinese. Such as: Niu Yi's Nine Hairs, A Narrow Death, The Dickens of a job, Nine Guests, etc.

In China, the number "nine" covers the widest range of all numbers. Words with the number "nine" are also rich. For example, "Kyushu" refers to the ancient administrative divisions of China, which was later used as a synonym for "China". Therefore, some national TV programs are named? Kyushu Fiona Fang? ; ? Nine-level kinship: they are generations from a person's great-great grandfather to his great-great-great grandson; Or four generations under one roof, three generations with the same mother and two generations with the same wife), there was a cruel criminal law in ancient times called "killing nine families"; According to the ancient legend, "the dragon gave birth to nine children, and each of them benefited." Therefore, in the ninth episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, "one dragon gives birth to nine kinds, which are different" is used to describe a large number of Jia adults, mixed dragons and snakes, mixed good and bad, and all kinds of people. And "kowloon cup" and so on. In addition, in entertainment and sports, the number "nine" can be seen everywhere. For example, many songs begin with "Nine": Nine Sisters, Sunny September Day and 999 Roses. There are also "nine-tone gongs" in musical instruments; In sports activities, there is a "nine-section whip" in the "nine needles" weapon [but what is the difference between this and the "nine-tailed whip" in western culture? (cat-o'-nine-tails: a punishment instruction so called from another one or nine pieces of rope that make it up) has different meanings. Some place names begin with nine, such as Jiuzhaigou, Jiuhuashan, Jiujiang and Jiulong. In addition, China people often regard "nine" as one of the auspicious numbers. People are more willing to pay more when applying for a phone number.

Buy lucky numbers with a mantissa of "8" or "9". Biru, the number of "Happy Hotline" of Hunan Cable TV Station is "168999 19". In the west, the number "nine" is also one of the "divine numbers" in people's minds. For westerners, the symbolic meaning of "Nine" is "Divinity" and "Most Holy". The meaning of "nine" in Webster's Ninth Edition New University Dictionary and Webster's Third Edition National Dictionary is more than that in Modern Chinese Dictionary:

1) one to eight, three three, three squared; 2) Nine units of objects (nine in total); 3) a: a countable quantity represented by Arabic numeral 9; B: the number 9; 4) Nine o'clock? Compare clocks and time charts; 5) The ninth size in the set series: as a; A sports team of nine people, especially a baseball team; B:/kloc-the first 9 holes or the last 9 holes of the 0/8 hole golf course? .

Among them, there are nearly 20 words and idioms related to "Nine". Commonly used are:

Nine-day miracle (an object or event that produces a temporary feeling)

_ _ _ _ Those political discourses? It was a nine-day miracle before something new came? Mary Deasy. Nine times out of ten (very often)

Dress up beautifully (for formal occasions)

She dolled herself up for the party.

In the Nine Holes: Maurice of the Group of Nine: Maurice plays with nine counters in a difficult situation. A cat has nine lives: a cat can move so fast and jump so well that it seems that he has escaped being killed many times.

From the above explanation, we can also find a rule: the number "nine" and its multiples are also widely used in western entertainment and sports activities. For example, the ninepins in bowling is "nine"; There are eighteen holes in the golf course: nine holes on each side of the striped board; In ancient England, there was also a dance in which nine people danced together. From this point of view, the number "nine" is also favored by westerners.

In a word, in eastern and western cultures, the number "nine" contains the following main features:

1) most people in the east and west regard the number "nine" as a mysterious number, and its symbolic meaning is "sacred".

2) In eastern and western cultures, the number "nine" can refer to the majority in vain.

3) The number "nine" is widely used in sports events.

Numbers? Nine? I'm afraid the individuality in eastern and western cultures mainly lies in: for China people, its magic color is stronger than that of westerners; Its symbolic history is longer in eastern culture than in western culture; Its coverage is wider in eastern culture than in western culture.

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Third, the translation of the number "nine"

Cicero of Rome said: "Translation is not to match words with sentences, but to preserve the overall style and strength of the language." Translate words by weight, not by quantity. The numbers mentioned here refer to imaginary numbers that are deified, generalized and blurred, and the translation of real numbers is not in this case. According to this theory, combined with the * * * and individuality of eastern and western cultures, we can adopt the following translation methods and follow the following translation principles.

The translation methods that can be adopted mainly include:

(1) Keep the original number.

When our cat fell off the roof, we thought it would die. He didn't. He used up one of his nine lives.

We think our cat will die if it falls off the roof. It didn't die, just lost one of its nine lives. This translation is easily accepted by people, because people are already familiar with the idiom "a cat has nine lives", which can promote the integration of eastern and western cultures.

(2) Convert into numbers that all ethnic groups like.

Like nine tenths? Nine Days of Surprise can be translated into a flash in the pan, which can deepen the understanding of Nida's translation theory of equivalence and Newmark's translation theory of transformation.

(3) surplus figures

For example, "a narrow escape" can be translated into "a narrow escape; Survival after many obstacles "; Another example is "99 is one, or what he said is right." All things considered, what he said is right. Its translation abandons numbers and translates its image meaning instead.

The principles to be followed mainly include:

Nationality principle

For example, in Chinese, the Chinese-English Dictionary (FLTRP, 1996) has three translations: "strain yourself to the limit; Try one's best; Make great efforts. The author thinks that the second translation "try your best" is more in line with the principle of nationality? Successfully transformed the figurative meaning of this idiom in eastern culture into the figurative meaning in western cultural language.

(B) the customary principle

For example, "Superman Kuang seems to have seen the fairy of Yao Palace, and Chang 'e is under the moon, and her soul has gone to heaven." ("The Scholars"), translated as "Kuang feels that he is publishing a book in front of a goddess, and his spirit has fallen to heaven. "This kind of translation follows the idiom principle and fully embodies one of the most fundamental principles of human communication behavior? Language? The economic principle of symbols.

(3) the principle of visualization

When numbers are used in a vague sense, they generally lose quantitative meaning and have image meaning. In translation, we must transcend its rational meaning and capture the image meaning produced by its combination with other words.

For example: "The flying stream is 3,000, and it is suspected that the Milky Way has fallen for nine days (Li Bai)." The image of "nine days" in this poem means "extremely high sky", so it can be translated as "it descended to Kara with three terrible feet of a sheep? Like a silver river [the Milky Way]. Road] fell from the sky! "