Cultural-Loaded Terms from the Perspective of Corpus-Based Analysis: The English Translation of “Treatise on Febrile Disease Caused by Cold”



Author Information

Yulin ZHuang, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Abstract

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a medical system with a history of 23 centuries, aiming to prevent or treat diseases by maintaining the balance of Yin and Yang. This study is based on Zhang Zhongjing’s “Treatise on Febrile Disease Caused by Cold”, and explores the translation norms of cultural-loaded terms (CLT) in traditional Chinese medical classics from the perspective of data analysis, aiming to promote the dissemination of traditional Chinese medical culture. The objective of this study is to analyze how different English translations handle the profound cultural and philosophical concepts of TCM. To achieve this, qualitative research methods and quantitative research methods were adopted in this study. First of all, with a dedicated bilingual corpus, including the source text and two influential but different English translations (such as the translations by Nigel Wiseman and Luo Xiwen). Secondly, it is analyzed that each translation term is systematically encoded to determine its main strategy, including foreignization and domestication. In addition, the quantitative analysis results are interpreted through qualitative analysis to explore the philosophical and pragmatic motivations behind the translation strategies. Finally, a structured questionnaire survey was conducted among target readers with different levels of knowledge in traditional Chinese medicine to evaluate the acceptability of different translation strategies. By combining corpus-based analysis with reader feedback data, this study aims to map out the mainstream norms for the translation of TCM classics, providing valuable insights for translation training, standardization of TCM terms, and the global dissemination of traditional Chinese culture.


Paper Information

Conference: ACCS2026
Stream: Linguistics

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Posted by James Alexander Gordon