（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）《红楼梦》双关语英译策略之研究.pdf

shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis iv 摘摘 要要 充分性和可接受性是文学翻译中的两种不同倾向， 代表着翻译规范连续体的两极。 充分 性是指遵循来源系统的语言及文学规范， 可接受性则指遵循目标系统的相应规范。 双关语在 跨语际处理中可有多种方式进行改写，但是其中的一些处理方法在传统理论家看来却不够 “忠实”，无法被称为“好的”或“真正的”翻译。对双关语的处理最能揭示译者在充分性与可接 受性之间做出的根本抉择。目前已有相当数量的研究针对红楼梦中双关语翻译的策略和 倾向，但是定量研究仍较为少见。本文针对双关语的翻译策略，在结合定量分析的基础上进 行描述性研究。 在前人研究成果的基础上， 作者将双关语的各种翻译方法划分为不同的充分性和可接受 性等级。之后比较了红楼梦两个译本（杨译和霍译）中50个双关语的翻译方法及策略， 并考察了两者的关系。 本研究采取随机抽样的方式，进行了曼惠特尼u检验、相关分析以及频率和相对频率检 测。 结果表明两个译本在双关语的翻译倾向上存在显著差异。 这些差异反映了翻译处理中存 在的规范及其背后的影响因素。同时，对源文本中同一双关语采用相同的处理方法则表明， 两位译者遵循着某些普遍的翻译原则和指导思想。 此外， 折衷的翻译方法在两个译本中都占 有主要地位， 说明两位译者都相当重视译本的充分性与可接受性， 并且对源语和目标语都有 很好的掌握。 关键词：关键词：充分性， 可接受性， 双关语， 等级 shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis ii abstract adequacy and acceptability are two different translation tendencies in literary translation. they represent two poles of the continuum which relates to the norms used in the translation process. the former refers to adherence to the norms (both linguistic and literary) of the source system, while the latter designates adherence to those of the target system. puns may be amendable to various forms of interlingual processing, but some kinds of processes are simply not “faithful” enough for the traditional theorists to qualify as “good” or “genuine” translation. the treatment of puns can be most revealing of the translators basic choice between adequacy and acceptability. there has been a considerable amount of research on the strategies and tendencies observed in the pun translation of hong loumeng, but quantitative studies are seldom reported. the present study is designed to make a descriptive study with statistical analyses to investigate translation strategies of puns. in light of previous researchers work, different methods of translating puns are graded to represent different degrees of adequacy and acceptability. then, on the basis of the grades, the study first examines the differences in the adoption of the strategies to the puns between two english versions of the chinese great classic hong loumeng (yangs and hawkes), and then investigates the relationship between them. a mann-whitney u-test is performed to compare the grades of translation strategies recorded among the randomly selected 50 samples in the two versions. the results show that there is statistically significant difference between the two versions. furthermore, the study examines the relationship between the two versions by means of correlation analyses, which reveals that the two translations correlate to each other. finally, in order to have a clear view on the adoption of every grade in the two shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis iii versions, the frequency of each grade in yangs translation and hawkes version are indicated and compared. findings show that 1) there is significant difference between the tendencies of the two versions in terms of the treatments on puns. the distinctions reflect the norms which operate in the process of translation, and further the factor behind those norms; 2) the coincident translation method applied to the same pun in source text displays some general principles and guidelines of translation by which yang and hawkes abided, and 3) compromising choices of methods are found to be dominant in both translation versions, which suggests that the adequacy and acceptability of the translated text were taken into great consideration by the two translators and both of them processed good command of the source language and target language. key words: adequacy, acceptability, pun, grade 上海交通大学上海交通大学 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下， 独立进行研究工作所取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本 论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。 对本 文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。 本人完全意识到本声明的法律结果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名：浦焱青 日期： 2007 年 1 月 17 日 上海交通大学上海交通大学 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定， 同意学校保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版， 允许论文被查阅和借阅。 本人授权上海交通大学可以将本学位论文的 全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫 描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文。 保密保密，在 年解密后适用本授权书。 本学位论文属于 不保密 不保密。 （请在以上方框内打“” ） 学位论文作者签名：浦焱青 指导教师签名：陈德 民 日期： 年 月 日 日期： 年 月 日 shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis i acknowledgements i must acknowledge my debt to all the teachers and professors who helped me a lot during my m.a. study at sjtu. the invaluable ways to conduct academic research they have taught me will certainly benefit me all my life. i owe a particular debt of gratitude to my supervisor, professor chen demin, for the considerable efforts he put into getting me to turn out this thesis. his comments were always penetrating and stimulating, and he worked through my drafts with caution. a final personal note of thanks is extended to my family for the love, encouragement and self-giving support they have always provided me in the past years. shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis 1 introduction this study investigates the translation strategies of the two english versions of the great chinese classic hong loumeng (yangs and hawkes) via a descriptive way with statistical analyses. different methods of translating puns are graded to represent different degrees of adequacy and acceptability. on the basis of the grades, the study first examines the relationship in the adoption of strategies to puns between the two versions, and then further investigates the initial norms which operate in the production of targettext. specifically, the study addresses the following questions: 1) are there any significant differences between the two english versions of hong loumeng in terms of strategies in translation of puns? what are the differences like, if any? if not, what are the similarities like? 2) what is the relationship between the two versions in terms of translation strategies? 3) what might be the factors which manipulate the choice of initial norms? purposes of the present study there has been a considerable amount of research on the strategies and tendencies observed in the translated texts, but descriptive studies with statistical analyses are seldom reported. the present study is conducted 1) to provide a new perspective to investigate the relationship between the tendencies of acceptability and adequacy; and 2) to probe into the translation norms via grading of adequacy and acceptability. the two english versions of hong loumeng have been both widely read and highly valued. it is obvious, however, that a lot of differences can be detected in these two versions from various perspectives. thus it seems that successful translation does not necessarily appeal to the same criterion. most of the existing translation theories overemphasize “faithfulness” to the source-text, while neglecting other factors which also influence the production of translation, such as the target-language, the motivation, and the audience. and these theories can hardly explain why the versions of the same source-text are both satisfying by resorting to different translational shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis 2 criteria. in the recent 30 years, great achievements have been made by some pioneering scholars in the field of translation study. among them, the two leading figures, who work on the descriptive translation studies, are especially notable. they are itamar even-zohar and gideon toury. they argue that it is pointless to determine the translation a “real” or “good” one by the prescribed criteria. through investigation into the characteristics of the target text, their research aims at figuring out the norms which guide the production of the translated text, rather than prescription or judgment. evenzohar proposed the polysystem theory to account for the behavior and evolution of literary systems. the term polysystem denotes a stratified conglomerate of interconnected elements, which changes and mutates as these elements interact with each other (even-zohar, 1978:117). on the basis of polysystem theory, toury developed the target-oriented theoretical framework, which is applied to the descriptive translation studies, with the core concept of “norms”. tourys approach to literary translation rejects any notion of there being one “proper” way to translate, and aims rather to describe the translation norms which operate in the output of a single translator or which typify the translational practices prevalent in a particular literature at a given time. in tourys model, translation is seen as involving “an encounter, if not a confrontation, between two sets of norms” (1980:55), one of which is drawn from source system and the other from target system. any translated text occupies a position between the two poles of acceptability or adherence to the norms (both linguistic and literary) of the target system and adequacy or adherence to those of the source system. one of the published quantitative studies related to translation strategies was made by hai fang (2003)，who studied choices of translation strategies to figures of speech in conversations of two translation versions of hong loumeng. in light of the procedures for translating metaphor provided by newmark (1988), he classified the translation of figures of speech into seven grades representing the degrees of domestication and foreignization. on the basis of the above classification, he collected 41 samples to compare choices of translation strategies. the results showed shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis 3 the difference between the two versions was statistically significant at the level of 1% and got certain correlation. he thus concluded that the two translators owned different cultural attitudes and translation logic. the issue of translating puns is special in that there are so many different and conflicting constraints (formal ones as well as semantic and pragmatic ones) crowd in on the translator in the narrow space of a few words that the need to prioritize becomes much more acute than in ordinary translation. puns often hamper the easy compromise between source vs. target, form vs. function, content vs. expression, and so on, and bring the customary and approved negotiation strategies to grinding halt. therefore the traditional theories either hold that puns are untranslatable unless there are the exactly corresponding terms, or assert that though occasionally the translators can create another pun for compensation, they simply rely on their own talent. the above two opinions both deny the necessity of studies on pun translation. dirk delabastita, a scholar from belgium, holds the opposing point of view. he argues that puns may be amendable to various forms of interlingual processing, but the problem is that many kinds of processes to which puns might lend themselves are simply not “faithful” enough for the traditional theorists to qualify as “good” or “genuine” translation (delabastita 1992: 146). indeed, puns often push translators to extremes and force them to “show their cards”, as delabastita put it (1997: 11). the treatment of puns can therefore be most revealing of the translators initial norm: his or her basic choice of between subscribing to source norms or to target norms; in other words, the translators choice between adequacy and acceptability. in light of the above mentioned theories and previous research, the current study aims to describe the translational phenomena, through investigation into the actual strategies adopted by the translators, and tries to grade the methods of translation and explain them mainly from the perspective of initial norms. overview of the paper following the introduction, which describes the authors motivation, purposes of the present research and the outline of the paper, the study is reported in six chapters. shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis 4 chapter 1 supplies the background information against which this study is developed; chapter 2 provides a grading of adequacy-acceptability to puns; chapter 3 gives a description of the research design of the quantitative study; chapter 4 and chapter 5 report and discuss the results obtained from the study; and the conclusion part presents the theoretical and practical implications of the study and puts forward suggestions to future research. shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis 5 chapter 1 literature review this chapter first introduces the definition and connotation of the two terms: adequacy and acceptability, then looks through the discussion on the two translation tendencies. furthermore, the definition and scope of pun will be exposed. and the previous research on and findings of pun translation will be presented. 1.1 translation as a norm-governed activity 1.1.1 adequacy and acceptability adequacy and acceptability are the terms used by toury (1980, 1995) to denote two poles of the continuum which relates to the norms used in the translation process. a translation is termed adequate if the translator seeks throughout to follow source rather than target linguistic and literary norms. in other words, a translator who is translating adequately will perform only those translational shifts which are truly obligatory, thus producing a target-text which where possible retains source-text features unchanged. on the other hand, a translator may subject him-/herself to the norm active in the target culture, or in that section of it which would host the end product. thus adherence to target norms determines a translations acceptability. (shuttleworth and the position of translated literature in the literary polysystem. it is because of such wide-ranging considerations that the notion of the norm has been deemed “an absolutely essential concept” (hermans 1991: 165). it is toury who defines the term “initial norm” as one of a number of basic types of norm which guide the production of a tt. in spite of the name, this type of norm does not precede other norms, but has logical priority over them, in that the functioning of other types depends on this norm operates. in other words, the initial norm refers to “the translators (conscious or unconscious) choice as to the main objective of his translation, the objective which governs all decisions made during the translation process” (van leuven-zwart 1989:154). interpreting the statement that “translation, especially literary translation, always involves an encounter, if not a confrontation, between two sets of norms” (1980: 55), toury defines the initial norm as reflecting whether the translator attempts to remain as faithful as possible to the parameters of the original text, or seeks to adapt the emerging tt to the linguistic and literary norms active in tl to as great an extent as possible (a choice between adequacy and acceptability). as is the case with most other norms, the initial norm is not directly observable, but may be inferred by identifying the shifts contained in tt (van leuven-zwart 1989:154). 1.1.3 the debate of adequate translation and acceptable translation in his speech on the methods of translation delivered in 1813, the german philosopher schleiermacher pointed out that there were only two methods of translation. “either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the readers towards him; or he leaves the readers in peace, as much as possible, shanghai jiao tong university m.a. thesis 7 and moves the author towards them” (venuti 1995: 19-20). ever since then, various opinions have emerged, while the debate of adequate translation and acceptable translation has never stopped. the majority of arguments turn out to be prescriptive rather than descriptive. in addition, the discussions have usually been carried out in a broader sense, that is, the cultural perspective. nevertheless, since language is an indispensable part of culture and the two are closely related to each other, their stands and views are worth mentioning as well. acceptability-oriented translation in the west started in britain in the 17th century. there have been many advocates such as john dryden. in 1964, nida put forward his “dynamic equivalence” theory. his ideal translation is to reach “closest natural equivalence” (dynamic equivalence or functional equivalence) (nida while in a weak culture, adequate strategy or resistant translation prevails (1978:121). although china has a translation history for as long as 2,000 years, its literary translation in the true sense actually started in the 1870s in the late qing dynasty. thus chinas literary translation history is only 100 years or more. during the 100 years, there were four peaks. the first peak appeared in the first ten years in the 20th century. at that time, literary works were regarded as the tools of reforming society for the sake of social change. whether it is yan fus “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” or fu leis “spiritual likeness”, each of them has the same purpose of making the readers of the tl feel that the version they are reading does not read like a translated version, but rather, it is like a created work. the exotic expressions were often abandoned or adapted or replaced by chinese expressions which were assumed to have the same pragmatic force. then with the rise of the may 4th movement, the literal translation in our country set off another peak. under the leadership of lu xun, a lot of translators tried to absorb nutrition from the foreign literary works in order to adapt the development of the society. lu xun stressed that the translated version must “try to retain foreignness” and it was the “foreignness” that would render “exotic flavor” to translation (chen，1992). during the fifteen to sixteen years after the may 4th m