A Study Of English Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In The Version Of Zhongyong By Ames&Hall

Zhongyong as a part of Confucian classics not only has a profound impact on the ancient Chinese education and culture but also has guiding significance for today's social practice.The English versions of Zhongyong have been continuously published since the 19^thcentury.The English version of Zhongyong by Roger T.Ames and David Hall in the early 21st century has always been the focus of scholars since its publication.Especially,their unique interpretation of culture-loaded words in Zhongyong sets off a hot discussion about Chinese philosophy in the Western academic circles.As we all know culture-loaded words with rich cultural connotations is one of the major features of Chinese classics.Properly conveying the cultural connotations behind these culture-loaded words is of great benefits to the translation of Chinese classics.From the perspective of descriptive translation studies,this thesis makes an intensive study of English translation of Zhongyong.DTS was born in the 1950s which adopts a target-culture oriented approach and explores factors beyond the text that influence translation behaviors such as history,culture,politics,and ideology.Israeli scholar Gideon Toury is one of the representatives of descriptive translation school,who believes that in the actual translation process translators are usually subject to the three norms:preliminary norms,initial norms and operational norms.The translation norms theory,as the generalization of Toury's translation thoughts as well as the core of DTS,has a great influence on the development of translation studies.Specifically based on Toury's translation norms theory,this thesis analyzes English translation of culture-loaded words in the version of Zhongyong by Ames and Hall.Firstly,from the perspective of preliminary norms,this thesis explores the factors that have influenced Ames and Hall's choice of source text.Secondly,from the perspective of initial norms,this thesis analyzes the translation strategies that the two translators choose to adopt in translating culture-loaded words and the reasons behind their choice.Finally,according to operational norms,this thesis discusses the translation methods and techniques employed by the two translators in translating culture-loaded words.After the study of Ames and Hall's translation of Zhongyong,the major findings are as follows.In terms of preliminary norms,the two translators'choice of Zhongyong is related to social cultural background,personal purpose and the publishing house.Nowadays,more and more Western scholars want to know about the Chinese culture.Moreover,Zhongyong as an excellent philosophical classic can provide a way of thinking for solving Western social contradictions.As far as the translators themselves are concerned,they hope to change Western readers'misunderstanding of Chinese culture through cooperation.In terms of initial norms,both domesticating and foreignizing translation are adopted by the two translators.In order to convey the uniqueness of Chinese language and culture,Chinese pinyin and gerunds are widely adopted in their translation.At the same time,in order to ensure the acceptability of their translation,they draw analogies between Chinese philosophy and Western process philosophy and pragmatism.Finally,in terms of operational norms,the translation methods and techniques employed by the two translators in translating culture-loaded words include literal translation,transliteration,addition and omission,through which they aim to preserve cultural characteristics of the source language as well as increase readability of their translation.The descriptive and analytical study of Ames and Hall's translation of culture-loaded words from Zhongyong explains the socio-cultural factors which influence the translators'decisions.Based on Toury's norms theory,this thesis provides a new perspective for the study of Ames and Hall's translation of Zhongyong and guidance for English translation practice of Chinese classics.