“metaverse”以文学概念诞生,先后应用于科技和商业领域并译入汉语社会,最终以“元宇宙”之名实现跨语言的知识传播。这一译名并未再现源语词的内涵和外延,却在与其他译名的竞争中获得汉语文化的广泛接受。从知识翻译的角度出发,结合知识金字塔模型和传播学理论,分析“metaverse”的发生、传播和接受过程,可以发现术语翻译中知识译介的符号载体与媒介模式对知识传播与转化的效率至关重要,有时甚至以牺牲译名的信息功能为代价,获取目标语社会较高的接受度。
Abstract: “Metaverse”, emerging as a literature concept, was applied to sci-tech and business field and then translated to Chinese culture as “元宇宙”, which realized interlingual knowledge communication. Despite the loss of connotation and denotation of the source word, this Chinese term has been met with great reception compared with other translations. From the perspective of knowledge translation, this paper applies DIKW model and communication theories to the analysis of how “metaverse” was coinaged, translated and received. It offers an insight into the significance of sign and communication model for a local term to achieve its knowledge dissemination and transfer, even at the expense of accurate information conveyed by the original term. In this way, it might be more possible for a local knowledge concept to be received by another culture.
