Comparative Studies On The Two English Versions Of The Analects Of Confucius

The Analects of Confucius is one of the most important Chinese Confucian classics, and the translations of it are also of great importance for the cultural exchanges between China and the west. This thesis makes a comparison between two representative English versions translated by Ku Hung-Ming, a famous Chinese literati, and Roger T. Ames, a noted American sinologist and philosopher. Based on the German Functionalist Approach, this thesis makes comparative studies between the two versions in their culturally-loaded words and expressions, such as the proper names, material culture, social culture and religious culture, and probes into the two translators'different translation strategies----domestication or foreignization. In this way, this thesis attempts to explore the applications of different translation strategies for translating Chinese classics.This thesis comprises four chapters. The first chapter gives a brief introduction about the main content, the linguistic features and the translations of The Analects of Confucius. The second chapter makes a comparison between the two versions in the linguistic aspect, based on the two translation modes (semantic translation and communicative translation) put forward by Peter Newmark. The following chapter analyses the different translation strategies taken by Ku and Ames when translating the culturally-loaded words in the original text, and attempts to find out the reasons for the different strategies. The final chapter draws a conclusion that when tranlsating the Chinese classics into foreign languages, translators should choose appropriate translation strategies in accordance with their translation purposes and the texts'functions in the target culture.