Title: Studies on the Translating Procedures of Culture-Specific Words in Root-Seeking Novels: Exemplified by Julia Lovell’ s Translation of A Dictionary of Maqiao

Abstract: Exemplified by the root-seeking novel A Dictionary of Maqiao and its English version, this article explores the translating procedures of five types of culture-specific words, namely ecological, material, social, religious and linguistic culture-specific words. It tries to prove that George Steiner’ s hermeneutic translation motion theory plays a guiding role in the translation of culture-specific words in root-seeking novels. The findings show that: the procedure of translation of five types of culture-specific words in A Dictionary of Maqiao as a root-seeking novel can be well explained by Steiner’ s fourfold translation motion, which plays a significant role in the translation of culture-specific words in root-seeking novels; additional explanations such as literal translation with notes, literal translation with transliteration, literal translation with free translation, free translation with transliteration can preserve the linguistic and cultural information of source language to the greatest extent and even show more than it.

Keywords: Hermeneutics, fourfold translation motion, root-seeking novels, A Dictionary of Maqiao, culture-specific words

Authors: Xiaojuan Lu, School of Advanced Translation and Interpretation, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, Liaoning, China; Xia Yue, School of English Studies, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, Liaoning, China.