On Culture-specific Words in Chinese-English Dictionaries: A Corpus Translatology Approach

Culture-specific words are difficult to translate in Chinese-English (C-E) dictionaries.Based on the framework of corpus translatology and compilation practice of C-E dictionaries, the present study analyzes the translation of their culture-specific words.After stratified sampling and comparative analysis, the present study indicates that the lexical diversity of culture-specific words is characterized with hierarchy, simplification, and abstractness.Furthermore, the transformation of structure is asymmetrical and featured with expansion in definition but constriction in exemplification.Finally, the present study reconstructs the translation framework based on initial and operational norms reducing facilitation and simplification in the translation of culture-specific words in C-E dictionaries for the improvement of the dictionary compilation.