（英语语言文学专业论文）《红楼梦》翻译中的照应衔接——一种语言学视角的译本对比研究.pdf

南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 i 摘要 自从韩礼德和哈桑于 1976 年首次提出衔接理论以来衔接和连 贯理论就一直备受语言学界的关注 国内外学者围绕着这个理论展开 了多层面的研究不少学者认为衔接与连贯具有密切关系衔接是 生成语篇的必要条件之一近年来 关于对比语篇衔接手段方面的论 文和专著在逐渐增多 但值得注意的是国内的语篇对比研究大多是 在广义的语篇范畴中对多种衔接手段进行分析 较少以专题形式对某 类衔接手段作深入系统的探讨尤其是就特定的文学作品进行某一 种衔接手段的定量分析则少之又少 本文以韩礼德和哈桑的衔接理论为基础以红楼梦原文及两 个英译本为语料对英汉照应手段的三种常见类型即人称照应指 示照应和比较照应进行定量和定性的分析研究 研究结果表明 就使用频率而言英语中人称代词的使用频率远 远高于汉语的 汉语偏向以名词的重复使用作为照应手段 从指示照 应的使用频率看汉语比英语更多地使用这那及其变体在 比较照应中英汉两种语言无明显差异 关键词衔接照应红楼梦翻译 on the references in the translations of hong lou meng a contrastive study from the linguistic perspective ii abstract cohesion and coherence have been of great concern in the linguistic circle since cohesion theory was first put forward by halliday and hasan in 1976. scholars at home and abroad have made the multi-level researches about this theory and many researchers have found that cohesion is closely related to coherence, and cohesion is an indispensable condition in the construction of text. in recent years, it is not difficult to find papers and books concerning cohesion. however, it is noteworthy that most of them in china focus on cohesive devices in ordinary texts rather than literary classics and seldom approach certain cohesive devices in a deep and detailed way. based on halliday reference; hong lou meng; translation 承诺书 本人郑重声明所呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下独立 进行研究工作所取得的成果 尽我所知除文中已经注明引用的内容 外本学位论文的研究成果不包含任何他人享有著作权的内容 对本 论文所涉及的研究工作做出贡献的其他个人和集体 均已在文中以明 确方式标明 本人授权南京航空航天大学可以有权保留送交论文的复印件 允 许论文被查阅和借阅, 可以将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其他复制手段保存论文 ( 保密的学位论文在解密后适用本承诺书) 作者签名 日 期 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 1 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 need for the study cao xueqin, the greatest as well as the most complicated writer in chinese history, is famous for his novel hong lou meng. as we all know, hong lou meng is more than an ordinary novel. its a cultural novel with encyclopedic characteristics that enriches chinese culture. its also closely related to the chinese nation. at the thought of the novel, people may recall chinese culture spontaneously, and vice versa. as an absolute gem of chinese literary works, this novel has aroused academic or personal interests of scholars at home and abroad. hong lou meng is the peak of chinese classical works comprising cultural treasures of the chinese nation. it also represents the aesthetic and artistic achievements of its people. in view of hong lou mengs important status in chinese literary circles, it has been translated into more than 20 foreign languages since its publication, and the english editions amount to 9. to study the english translations of this novel will definitely contribute to the translation of other outstanding chinese works. cohesion theory, which arose in the circles of text linguistics in the 1970s, is a widely-recognized study method applicable to the research on translation. the main research object is english. first, it intends to explore language, establish theoretical framework and describe the language system. second, it is supposed to be put into practice, providing information and evidence for theory establishment (halliday gutwinsky, 1976; beaugrande, 1980; beaugrande halliday it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text. cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another. on the references in the translations of hong lou meng a contrastive study from the linguistic perspective 4 the one presupposes the other, in the sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by recourse to it. when this happens, a relation of cohesion is set up, and the two elements, the presupposing and the presupposed, are thereby at least potentially integrated into a text. (halliday on the other hand, the text without noticeable cohesion is sometimes coherent in context (hu, 1994: 19). in his book, he adds chinese data to his analysis. halliday supposes that all his readers are those who generally know english, so the examples are all from english. but hu knows that this book is intended for chinese readers, so he explores the characteristics of chinese texts in addition to english ones. besides, he also notices the differences between chinese and english. other domestic scholars have also conducted extensive researches on cohesion and coherence. zhang delu and liu rushan (2003) extend the scope of cohesion research, bringing forward cross-type cohesion and cross-hierarchy cohesion. consequently the cohesive mechanism is expanded from the texts interior to exterior. zhu yongsheng, zheng lixin and miao xingwei, in their book a contrastive study of cohesion in english and chinese (2001) adopt the latest achievements to make a detailed description of differences of the cohesive devices between english and chinese. they have made the most detailed and systematic description and contrast of reference, ellipsis, substitution, conjunction, reiteration, synonym, hyponymy and collocation, as well as their functions in text. they accept opinions of different kinds to elaborate their own points of views, and thus succeed in effective and three-dimensional discussion. particularly, they have probed into the reason that causes the difference from both the linguistic and cultural systems. moreover, their on the references in the translations of hong lou meng a contrastive study from the linguistic perspective 6 study has application values to both english language teaching and translation activities. 2.2 the application of cohesion theory in translation study 2.2.1 cohesion and translation study though influence of textual analysis on translation is always a hot issue because translation is actually done on the level of the text, the early translation studies at home did not pay enough attention to textual analysis, but only focused on the level of sentences. actually there are close connections between sentences and passages from the angle of construction and meaning; the cohesive devices help to unite as a whole the form and the meaning of the text. the forming of the text lies in the continuity of the linguistic forms and the continuity is the continuous network constructed by the linguistic forms which could explain each other from both the construction and meaning through cohesive devices. therefore, in the process of translation, the textual analysis has a direct effect on the quality of the translated text. the researches on reference from the perspective of translation are also numerous. there are studies to discuss the specific translation techniques of the reference items, as are done by chen xiaoxiang liu, 2002). this partly explains the choice of the current research to focus on the exploration of one of the cohesive devices, in order to make a more exclusive observation of different references and a comparative research on the similarities and diversities between the textual materials selected from the original and the two english translations. 2.3 research on the translation of hong lou meng 2.3.1 english versions of hong lou meng hong lou meng, like any other literary works, is open to various interpretations. on the references in the translations of hong lou meng a contrastive study from the linguistic perspective 8 where there are one thousand readers, there will be one thousand versions of hong lou meng. different aspects of the same text could be observed by different readers with varied interpretations. the openness as well as artistic and cultural values of the novel makes it everlasting in chinese literary history. as an encyclopedia representing most aspects of chinese culture, the classic works hong lou meng written by cao xueqin and gao e is a must in the bookshelf if one intends to wander around the colorful garden of chinese culture. standing on the top of chinese literary works, hong lou meng presents to the readers not only comprehensive cultural reflections of chinese society, but also wonderful language deprived from the inspiration of a literary genius. expressive in diction and outstanding in figurativeness, the language in hong lou meng suits both the refined and popular tastes, just like a young girl elegant in appearance and aural in spirits. the appearance of this novel marked a break with traditional ideas and method of writing. the first english-language version of this chinese classic appeared as early as in the 1830s, when john davis, the member of british royal society, translated chapter 3, under the title chinese poetry, and published it in the journal of royal asiatic society in 1830 (hu, 1993: 130). the first attempt at a systematic translation was that of bencraft joly, deputy consul in macao, who translated the first 56 chapters. it was published in hong kong in 1892 by kelly however, it is still understandable as the omitted can be recoverable in the context. e.g.: 4 pour out some tea, said jia rong. auntie feng and uncle bao didnt get any (tea) after their dinner. (dh: chapter 11) in 4 though the word tea is left unsaid in the latter sentence, it can be filled out by resource to the preceding text. 3.1.2.4 conjunction as cohesive device the fourth cohesive device is conjunction, which is rather different in nature from the above three ones. like reference, conjunction is also a structural relation, but a different type of semantic relation. in the case of conjunction, “a specification of the way in which what is to follow is systematically connected to what has gone before” (halliday the condition of reference in chinese is far more complicated. based on the study of the characteristics in using reference in chinese texts, hu zhuanglin (1994) extended the theory by adding the lexical reference and zero reference to the reference system. the use of zero anaphora is the most striking difference between chinese and english. zero anaphora is the norm of chinese (hu, 1994: 66). still, the theoretical framework by halliday and hasan will be selected to make comparative observations due to its maturity and original position from which other developments have been made up to this moment. 3.2.2 personal reference halliday and hasan define personal reference as the “reference by means of function in the speech situation, through the category of person.” different from the traditional recognized categories, which are the first person, the second person and the third person, intersecting with the number category of singular and plural, halliday and hasans classification emphasizes the significance of person system as the means of referring to relevant person and object on the level of text. for a clearer look at the classification of personals, we may look at the following table (halliday passage of text it, its 它(它的) other roles generalized person one, ones in addition, there are many personal references, such as zanmen(咱们), renjia(人家), ziji(自己), dajia(大家), and bieren(别人), in chinese language, especially in its spoken form. as can be seen from the above table, in english, the second person you does not have the distinction in number as the singular form nin(您) and the plural form nimen(你们) in chinese, as well as in the degree of respect as nin(您) and ni(你). moreover, the third person plural they does not show gender differences as tamen(他 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 19 们), tamen(她们) and tamen(它们) in modern chinese, although in ancient chinese all the three of ta(他), ta(她) and ta(它) are presented by the same ta(他). and tamen(他们) normally refers to all human beings either male or female. although the personal reference system in chinese is not totally corresponding to that in english, as seen in the above table, they differ little in their basic function as reference in the textual situation. but there are certain differences between chinese and english in frequency in the use of reference. 3.2.3 demonstrative reference with regard to demonstrative reference, halliday and hasan (2001) give a concise description ? a form of verbal pointing. the speaker identifies reference by locating it on a scale of proximity. in english, demonstrative reference has normal categories, consisting of this, these, that, those and the, and circumstantial (adverbial) categories, including here, there, now and then, intersecting with the distinction between “near” and “not near”, as well as the distinction between “singular” and “plural” and the distinction between modified and head. all the three distinctions have some relevance to cohesion, in that they partially determine the use of the demonstratives in textual reference. a clearer classification of the demonstrative reference is presented in the following table (halliday so- as- equally- +quantifier, eg: so many comparison particular (non-deictic) epithet comparative adjectives and adverbs, eg: better; so- as- more- less- equally- +comparative adjectives and adverbs, eg: equally good likewise, there are such devices as comparative reference in chinese, which show great similarity to the system in english for both languages have a lot of similar lexical words with comparative meaning. for the general comparison, the commonly used adjectives or adverbs in chinese are as follows: on the references in the translations of hong lou meng a contrastive study from the linguistic perspective 22 figure 7 classifications of chinese comparative references identity similarity unlikeness 相同的, 相等的, 一样的 (地) 这样的, 相似的(地), 同样 地. 其他的, 别的, 不一样的 (地) same, equal, identical(ly) such, similar(ly), likewise other, else, different(ly) with regard to particular comparison, it is realized through both lexical and structural means. in english, particular comparison is achieved by the comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs. however, in chinese, the adjectives and adverbs do not have such inflective form -er to show the comparative degree, which, however, can be achieved through some other means. the cohesive power of comparative reference lies in the fact that comparison involves two entities or ideas. when a word with comparative meaning appears in the text, the reader can usually seek other words establishing a comparative relation to it in the context. according to the above discussion, we can see that english and chinese present both similarities and differences in the use of references. detailed and illustrative researches on this topic will be put forward in chapter 5. 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 23 chapter 4 research methodology this chapter presents the methods and the procedures used in this study. it is divided into three sections. the first section raises the research questions and raises a hypothesis. the second analyzes the feasibility of the study. the last section describes how these questions are resolved. 4.1 research questions and hypotheses 4.1.1 research questions this thesis tries to offer answers to the following questions: 1. are there any differences in terms of the frequency of the use of references between the original text and the two english versions of hong lou meng? 2. are personal references more frequently used in english than in chinese? 3. what are the characteristics of demonstrative references in the original text and the two english versions of hong lou meng? 4. are there any differences in the use of comparative references between the original text and the two english versions of hong lou meng? 4.1.2 hypotheses this thesis is expected to have a discussion on the differences and similarities of references used in the original text and the two english versions of hong lou meng. in other words, it presupposes that different translators have different intentions which are affected by their backgrounds. hypotheses are tentatively made as follows: 1. there are differences in the use of references between the original text and the two english versions of hong lou meng. 2. personal references are more frequently used in english than in chinese. on the references in the translations of hong lou meng a contrastive study from the linguistic perspective 24 3. demonstrative references are more frequently used in chinese than in english. 4. there is no obvious distinction between comparative references of two languages. 4.2 feasibility analysis first, the english versions selected in this paper are both widely-accepted and popular among readers as well as scholars. they are translated by famous scholars and sinologists who live in china and in english-speaking countries alternatively. therefore, the translators are professional both in chinese and english. next, this thesis explores from the perspective of cohesion theory, which accords with the translation studies trend of the world as well as the situation in china. 4.3 how to resolve the questions 4.3.1 corpora construction corpus-based translation studies (cts) emerged at a critical time in the discipline of translation studies. growing out of corpus linguistics and thus inherently having an allegiance to linguistic approaches to translation, cts at the same time marks a turn away from prescriptive approaches to translation toward descriptive approaches, approaches developed by scholars over the last thirty years, notably by poly-systems theorists such as itamar even-zohar, gideon toury and andre lefevere. cts focuses on both the process of translation and the product of translation (holmes, 1998: 67; bassnett, 2004: 7) and takes into account the smallest details of the text chosen by the individual translator, as well as the largest cultural patterns both internal and external to the text. this study uses the tools of corpus linguistics to enable accurate and rapid access to surface features over a whole text, reducing the arduousness and tedium of what has previously been a m