Translation Theories Applied to Literary Translations

Translation Theories Applied to Literary Translations

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1 周巧: A Case Study on Chinese Translations of Toni Morrison’s Novel Beloved Based on Catford’s Translation Shifts Theory

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摘要

长篇小说宠儿是美国当代黑人女作家托妮·莫里森独具特色的一部作品。因为这部小说的语言具有黑人英语的典型特征，且塑造的黑人形象非常丰满独特。因此本文以美国著名非裔女作家托妮的《宠儿》的汉译本为语料，从卡特福德翻译转化理论的角度分析宠儿的翻译策略和特点，从而更加了解该作品中爱与自我的主题，也更理解奴隶制下美国黑人的生活状态。

翻译转换理论是翻译学家卡特福德站在语言学的角度解释翻译过程中是从源语到目标语出现形式偏离现象的理论。根据该理论，翻译转换包括两种：一为层次转换，一为范畴转换。其中，层次转换包含两类：（1）数的转换及（2）时态和体的转换；而范畴转换则包含四大类：（1）类别转换、（2）单位转换、（3）结构转换及（4）系统内部转换。以美国非裔小说家托妮.莫里森的小说《宠儿》为例，从词汇、句法方面分析其语料特点，结合卡特福德翻译转换理论探讨在文学翻译过程中采取的转换策略与方法，并分析该理论在文学翻译中的可行性。

关键词

翻译转换理论；《宠儿》；黑人英语

Abstract

Beloved is a unique novel of Toni Morrison, who is a contemporary African American female writer. Because the language of this novel has the typical characteristics of black English, and the black characters in this novel are very rich and unique. Therefore, based on the Chinese translation of the Beloved of Toni Morrison, a famous African American female writer, this paper analyzes the translation strategies and characteristics of Beloved from the perspective of Catford's Translation Shifts Theory, so as to better understand the theme of love and self in the work and the living conditions of black Americans under slavery.

Translation Shifts Theory is a theory that translator Catford explains the phenomenon of formal deviation from the source language to the target language in the process of translation from the perspective of linguistics. According to the theory, Translation Shifts fall into two categories: Level Shifts and Category Shifts. In terms of Level Shifts, it includes the transformation of number, tense and aspect. Category Shifts cover four aspects: (1) Class Shifts, (2) Unit Shifts, (3) Structure Shifts and (4) Intra-system Shifts. Taking Beloved as an example, this paper analyzes the characteristics of its corpus from the aspects of vocabulary and syntax, and discusses the shift strategies and methods in the process of literary translation combined with Catford's Translation Shifts Theory, thus analyzing its feasibility in the literary translation.

Key words

Translation Shift Theory; Beloved; Black English

Introduction

The selected text of the translation study is a literary novel written by the African American writer Toni Morrison, which was named Beloved with the themes of love and self. It mainly talks about Seth, a female slave, who was chased on the way to escape with her daughter. Because she didn't want to see her child become a slave again, she resolutely strangled her young daughter. Eighteen years later, slavery had long been abolished, and the baby girl she killed came back to punish her mother's behavior day and night. This book is full of vivid characters, richly detailed descriptions and passionate emotions. The most important feature of the book is there is a range of slang in Afro-American English, which shows language features and reflects characters’ images.

In order to have a better understanding of Beloved and Translation Shifts Theory, the author study the Chinese translation of Beloved from the perspective of Catford’s Translation Shifts Theory. The appearance of Catford’s Translation Shift theory can be traced back to 1950s. Instead of talking about formal equivalence, Catford’s theory stresses meaning transmission. It is the typical reflection of the principle that form is not as important as content. The theory, devoted to two aspects, namely level shifts and category shifts, is becoming one of the most practical and influential theories in the studies about translation shifts. Correspondingly, the author writing this report will probe into the utilization of the translation shifts theory which Catford initiated, particularly, the category shifts in the studying.

The report is structured as follows: the first part is the introduction of information about the source text, the guidance theory of the translation work and the report outline, followed by the second part which focuses on the linguistic features of Beloved. As for the third part, there provides a theory introduction, namely, Catford’s Translation Shifts Theory which covers level shifts and category shifts. The fourth part is the case analysis of Beloved from the perspectives of this theory. Finally, the report ends with a conclusion, in which the whole report and several deficiencies are briefly reviewed.

Introduction to Beloved

In this part, the author will roughly introduce the main content of the novel Beloved and analyze the linguistic features of the text , laying a solid foundation for the following steps.

Main Content

Beloved tells about a black slave named Seth who fled from a Kentucky farm to a Cincinnati farmhouse alone in order to gain freedom. A month later, she was chased by slave owners. For freeing her child from the tragic fate of being a slave, she resolutely cut her throat and buried her. The child who died miserably in the hands of his own mother was named Beloved. Because she killed her children herself, the mother has been hated and rejected by the people in the community and endured the torture of conscience and great loneliness. Beloved returned to the world 18 years later. She turned into a girl, disturbed her mother, and destroyed her mother's stable and warm life.

Based on the life of a small town in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1873, the novel shows the great spiritual crisis left by slavery to American blacks through the story of a young black woman who has been reborn and a black mother who has suffered psychological suffering. It also reveals that slavery still has a strong influence on black people after the abolishment of slavery.

Linguistic Characteristics

The selected text used for this report is the literary novel Beloved and its Chinese Translation by Pan Yue and Lei Ge. This part introduces the linguistic characteristics of the source text from lexis, syntax and discourse specifically.

Language features are determined by the specific group, culture, and context. Beloved, written by an African American Writer who has a totally different writing style from normal American writers. The excerpted text has the following linguistic characteristics: In the first place, regarding lexis, many words in the novel are common, but the collocation and usage of these words are not. The words used are exaggerated and humorous, involving a large number of slang words, close to life.

Secondly, in terms of syntax, The structure is not rigorous and standard. The omission of be verbs is one of the most prominent features of black English. In addition, double negation is also a common phenomenon, which has obvious characteristics of black English sentence patterns. Finally, in terms of discourse, this book is in the form of dialogue, very colloquial and close to life, therefore the selected text is very smooth and natural. The plot of the story is complicated, twists and turns, exciting and fascinating.

More specifically, one of the most typical linguistic characteristics of this novel is black English. Black English is a kind of informal language that in novels can reveal different images and reveal the special culture of black English. Therefore, some words and phrases in this novel have their own slang meaning, making the characters rich and vivid.

Theoretical Framework

Translation theory guides translation practice as a whole or from a macro perspective. Some translation theories are directly connected with translation practice. In addition, the theory can also be used to guide the criticism and appreciation of the translation. Through the analysis and evaluation of the Chinese versions, we can explore the deep-seated reasons and promote the development of translation practice, which also reflects the promotion of translation theory to practice to some extent. In recent years, more and more scholars have tried to discuss the practical value of shift theory in English-Chinese translation and achieved some results. This paper attempts to use the Translation Shifts Theory to explore the guiding role of shift theory in English-Chinese translation practice through the analysis and study of beloved's translation strategies.

付红岩

A Comparative Study of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn‘s Translation on the basis of different Chinese versions

詹若萱

Chinese Translation of Subtitles of "Jane Eyre" from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Abstract

This paper attempts to discuss subtitle translation from the aspect of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory by meticulously selecting many fresh examples from a film “Jane Eyre” adapted from the well-known book “Jane Eyre”. Literary works are important subjects for film and TV dramas, and many of them are based on literary works. ”Jane Eyre” has attracted tens of thousands of readers, and its research value has been continuously shown. The subtitle translation of its adapted film“Jane Eyre”also contributes to the literary work’s popularity. This paper has 3 parts which carefully discusses subtitle translation, Functional Equivalence Theory and the translation methods of functional equivalence in subtitle translation. The research is of great significance to the development of subtitle translation. This paper provides a more scientific reference for film subtitle translation, making the Functional Equivalence Theory more mature in the practical application of subtitle translation, and provides a more effective explanation for the application of Functional Equivalence Theory in subtitle translation. It contributes a lot to promoting the vigorous development of film subtitle translation.

Key words

"Jane Eyre";Subtitle trabslation; Functional Equivalence Theory

摘要

本文根据奈达的功能对等理论，从电影《简爱》中精心挑选了大量新颖的字幕翻译实例，论述了如何根据功能对等理论进行字幕翻译。文学作品是影视剧拍摄的重要题材，很多影视剧作品都是根据文学作品改编而来的。《简爱》自问世以来，吸引了数以万计的读者，其研究价值也不断地显示出来。字幕翻译也促进了文学作品的传播与受欢迎。本文分为三个部分，分别对字幕翻译、功能对等理论以及功能对等理论在字幕翻译中的应用进行了详细的论述。本文为电影字幕翻译提供了更为科学的参考，使功能对等理论在字幕翻译实践中的应用更为成熟，并为功能对等理论在字幕翻译中的应用提供了更为有效的解释。

关键词

《简爱》；字幕翻译：功能对等理论

Introduction

With the implementation of the Chinese economic reform and the development of the trend of global integration, the commerce and trade cultures of different countries have more chances to intermix with each other. Where movies and TV shows have become one of the main art forms in daily life, it makes sense as an important carrier of culture. In recent years, more and more English movies and TV plays have been introduced into China, which not only play the role of entertainment products, but also become a window for Chinese audience to understand English-speaking countries. Because of the language barriers, the audience often needs the help of subtitle translation to understand the dialogue, background and other information of the specific film and TV show, which is the foundation for audience to understand the direction of the plot, characters and other contents. If the translator cannot convey this information to the target audience properly by subtitles, it will make the target audience can not enjoy the same fun as the native audience. Nowadays, people are eager to watch more movies and TV series which have their own unique characteristics. And people’s need for subtitle translation is larger both in quality and quantity. The quality of the subtitle translation has large influence on people’s watching experience and their perceptions of the cultural and social connotations the film conveys. Therefore, the importance of film translation is self-evident. Although film translation has a great influence on today's society, it is different from other forms of translation. The history of film and television translation is still very short. While subtitle translation, seen as the most direct way of film translation, has not yet formed the systematic and theoretical system, it still relies on experience and perception in translation. With the help of Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory, this paper chooses Jane Eyre,a film adapted from the famous English novel Jane Ayre. This paper analyzes the translation strategies by listing many representative practical examples, and concludes whether the translation meets the objectives of TV drama translation and the audience's expectations. This paper hopes to provide some examples to better promote the development of subtitle translation of literary works from the perspectives of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory. In addition, this paper also hopes to arouse more scholars’ interests to explore the subtitle translation of literary works based on the Functional Equivalence Theory, and this paper also serves to enrich the studies of subtitle translation of literary works in E-C translation to promote the cross-cultural communication.

Brief Introduction to Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory

Enlightenments of Functional Equivalence Theory

===Application of Functional Equivalence Theory in subtitling "Jane Eyre"