A Corpus-based Study On The Translational Norms Of Contemporary Chinese Translated Fiction

This thesis is a corpus-based study on the translational norms of contemporary Chinese translated fiction. It applies corpus linguistic tools and methods to the description and analysis of the norms of translation. Translational norms are defined, in the thesis, as "the social reality of the correctness of translation, i.e. the common knowledge about how translation should be done within a social cultural context, which are acquired by translators in the process of socialization, under certain pressures, and represented by regularities in translational activities."Translational norms are thought to be the embodiment of translation action as a social communication, an essential aspect of translation. Translation per se is redefined as a tripartition of objective, social, subjective aspects based on the German social philosopher Jurgen Habermas' "Theory of Communication". Translation action is believed to be basically an act of communication, i.e. the communication between two subjects, who have equal competence in language and action, in order to reach mutual understanding. Translation action deals with the relationship among three worlds, i.e. the objective world constructed and represented by the Source Text, the social world where the Target Text exists, and the subjective world of the translator. As the subject of the action, the translator should coordinate the three worlds in order to reach the rationality of translation: (a) the facticity of translation, i.e. the relationship between the translator and the objective world constructed and represented by the ST. The translator should truthfully represent the facts and/or the structures of the ST; (b) the normativity of translation, i.e. the relationship with the social world, which consists of the readers of the TT, publishers, politico-economic structures, poetics, ideology, etc., by complying with effective social, moral and technical norms; (c) the sincerity of translation, i.e. the subjectivity of understanding and translating. The creation and representation of Meaning is not a purely objective process, but a process necessarily accompanied by the subjectivities of the interpreter. Accordingly, the translator should express his/her subjective experience and sense of the reality faithfully; in other words, the translator should convince the readers of TT that he/she has faithfully express his/her subjective world. The rationality of communication involves the comprehensibility of language, i.e. the comprehensibility of the Target Language in terms of translation. This thesis argues that the Theory of Communication and Rationality has offered a reasonable basis for research into translational norms. The facticity, normativity and sincerity of translation form the essence of translation as a Communication Action. Any ex parte emphasis upon one of the three fundamental aspects will result in incomplete understanding and partial...