3.3 Barriers in Translation of PunsAs a kind of language phenomenon, pun is deep-rooted in language and culture. Since different languages bear different styles and expressive means, the Chinese pun, under the influences of its language and culture, bears the distinct traits which are different from those of the English pun. Puns can be easily translated if they come from the same language family that has near-equivalents in the source and target languages, particularly if they simply contrast the material and the figurative sense of the word. However, as we know, English and Chinese belong to different language families. The two languages are lexically different in writing and pronunciation, some words in one language even having no semantic equivalents in the other. Therefore, pun translation between Chinese and English really needs pains-taking efforts, if not completely impossible. Barriers in pun translation are mainly caused by differences in language and culture.3.3.1 Language BarriersLanguage barriers mostly occur in the translation of homophonic puns, whose appeal lie in the similarity of sound and disparity in meaning. Meng Jiangang points out that most English words are composed of two or more syllables. There are few words that share the same pronunciation. English puns are mainly based on the polysemy. On the other hand, a large number of Chinese words are monosyllable or disyllable. There are far less combinations of syllables in Chinese than in English because few Chinese words begin with vowels or have any consonant clusters. As a result, most Chinese puns fall into the homophonic category (Meng Jiangang, 2000: 3). To retain such puns depends on the coincident correspondence in pronunciation and word meaning between two languages. However, since Chinese belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family while English belongs to Indo-European language family, when a Chinese word is translated into its correspondent meaning in English, the coincidence in pronunciation will most probably disappear. Thus, translators have to struggle between the maintaining of sound and meaning, which are of equal importance in the pun translation. Liu Miqing maintains that the sound-form rhetoriccan seldom be perfectly transferred in the Chinese-English translation because the information channel of the bilingual transfer is blocked on the phonetic level. In other words, there is no meaningful correspondence on the phonetic level. Correspondence between different languages only exists on the semantic level (Liu Miqing, 1999:110). This explains why in most cases, the pun translation does not result in another pun in the target text.Moreover Chinese characters are the most distinguishing feature of Chinese. Most meaningful words in Chinese are composed of more than two Chinese characters. Therefore, an independent Chinese character, when combined with other characters, may lead to a new meaning. This unique feature supplies new means for writers to create puns. For example, the author of HLM sometimes embeds the punny words in a sentence or creates puns in a palindrome style. The following examples help to illustrate the idea:Example 10:桃李春风结子完(Cao Xueqin, Gao E, 1978: 75)Peach and plum in spring winds finish seeding. (Yang Xianyi, GladysYang,1978: 76)“李” in the original text means plum and “完” means “finish”. However when these two characters are put together it bears the same pronunciation as the name of a character “李纨”in the novel. The author creates the pun as a kind of riddle to imply the character’s fate.Example 11:玉带林中挂，金簪雪里埋。

(Cao Xueqin, Gao E, 1978: 73)Buried in snow the broken golden hairpinAnd hanging in the wood the belt of jade. (Yang Xianyi, GladysYang,1978: 74)“玉带林”means “the belt of jade” and “wood” respectively, but when these three characters are read in a reverted manner, their pronunciation coincides with that of the heroin’s name “林黛玉”.3.3.2 Culture BarriersTranslation activity involves two or more languages, which are sign systems consisting of social and cultural information. Culture plays an important part in the correct comprehension of the source text, which is essential for the production of a successful translation. Meng Jiangang holds that when doing translation, the translator deals with not only words and sentences but also the cultural backgrounds in which all the linguistic features are deeply rooted (Meng Jiangang, 2000:3). There exists an inter-related and interdependent relation between language and culture. Meng believes that a language can never be separated from its social environment just as a plant cannot live without its natural environment (Meng Jiangang, 2000:3). Culture affects people’s way of thinking and behaving in the world, which in turn is reflected in their use of language. Therefore ignorance of certain cultural backgrounds will most probably leads to misinterpretation of the original text.The definition of culture always seems to be elusive and complicated. Wang Yajuan summarized a definition of culture based on the Canadian anthropologist Bates’ and Plog’s theory as follows:Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. This includes not only patterns of behavior but also patterns of thought (shared meanings that the members of a society attach to various phenomena, natural and intellectual, including religion and ideologies), artifacts (tools, pottery, houses, machines, works of art), and the culturally transmitted skills and techniques used to make the artifacts (Wang Yajuan，2004:21).In brief, culture may be defined as a system of shared knowledge, which exemplifies itself in history, art, customs and traditions. It sows the seed in people’s thoughts that finally becomes values and beliefs. Culture is in its essence a natural result of communication, acquisition, accumulation and interaction carried out by human being through the process of creating and using different signs. Culture diffuses in every aspect of people’s life. Translation barriers, no matter language onesor culture ones, can all be attributed to the differences in the sign behavior of different cultures.As mentioned above, Halliday believes that translation can be regarded as a process of discovering the meaning potential, which to a great extent is determined by the context. Such a trait of language can be best exemplified in the pun translation, whose value lies in the thorough comprehension of the meaning potential hidden in the context. The use of a pun is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cultural one. The context in discussion includes not only the one in linguistic sense but also the cultural background which serves as a broader and more embracing context. All kinds of social context consist of a large culture context. Meng Jiangang maintains that context is rooted in culture habits, which in turn restricts context (Meng Jiangang, 2000:4). Cultural nuances make the pun translation more complex, as it is not so easy for a translator to understand and appreciate the point of a pun, let alone to reproduce it, even when he is familiar with the meanings and cultural background of the word or phrase used. Therefore translators should spare no effort to search for the unique meaning contained in the social and cultural context.Chapter Four The Socio-semiotic Approach to the Translation ofPuns4.1 Socio-semiotic Nature of PunsIn most cases, meaning is regarded as the priority in the translation process. However, when the translation of literary works is concerned, the reproduction of the style and aesthetic effect of the source text is of equal importance with the semantic faithfulness. The application of puns in literary works highlights the beauty of language and creates a thought-provoking effect. The appeal of puns lies in the polygamic relationship between sound and meaning of words. Sound and meaning are of equal value in the comprehension of puns. Therefore translating meanings alone is not enough to reproduce a whole picture of the function and the aesthetic attraction puns possess in the source text. Sound also contends meaning in puns, which serves as a bridge to combine the double context as an organic whole in a word. The writer counts on the sound of puns to guide readers and help them find the associative meaning which conveys the writer’s real intention. By using puns, the writer intentionally conceals the intended meanings in the context instead of presenting them to readers directly, which creates an aesthetic distance between readers and the text.As mentioned above, translators are bound to meet with both language and culture barriers in the pun translation. Many translators choose to interpret the hidden meaning and give up the rhetoric effect contained in the sound and form of puns. Thus the aesthetic distance skillfully crafted by the writer of the source text is rendered void. The intended meaning is just like an uncut jade while the rhetoric means of punning represents the supreme skills of the lapidary, without which the stone will never become a valuable artifact. Socio-semiotic approach emphasizes the fact that all kinds of signs carry meanings, so do sound and form of a pun. Thus, translating Chinese puns consists in reproducing in the English language the closest natural equivalent of。