Cultural factors in translation

Cultural factors surface from the confrontation of cultural deposits in the process of translating from one language to another and make it impossible to recapture the relationship of the source text in the source culture. Generally speaking, four different models can be identified in translation practice: the Blocking Model, the Modulation Model, the Go‐ahead Model and the Integrating Model. Certain parameters work for the option of each of the four models. Cultural factors often take three linguistic forms, i.e. culture‐specific expressions, imagery confrontations and discourse patterns. Examples from Chinese‐English or English‐Chinese are included and discussed.