Corpus-Based Study on the English Translation of Culture-Loaded Terms in Tao Te Ching

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-382-5_28How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Tao Te Ching; Culture-loaded words; literal translation; free translation

Abstract

The translation of culture-loaded words in Chinese classics is a topic of academic discussion. This research summarises previous studies and conducts a comparative analysis using four words from five different translations as examples, based on Eugene Nida’s classification theory. Regarding the effects of these strategies, literal translation requires the translator to convey the meaning and emotions of the original text as much as possible while preserving its structure. On the other hand, free translation demands strong creative abilities and flexibility to maintain the mood and emotions of the original text. When translating the cultural-loaded words, translators need to consider comprehensively and choose the strategy flexibly.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Kaiwei He
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/03/28
TI  - Corpus-Based Study on the English Translation of Culture-Loaded Terms in Tao Te Ching
BT  - Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Social Sciences and Educational Development (ICOSSED 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 265
EP  - 275
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-382-5_28
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-382-5_28
ID  - He2025
ER  -