Language, Logic And Scientific Spirit

Since 1920's, a great deal of research has focused on Yan Fu's adaptedsocial evolutionism as well as his translations and his counter-translationalstrategies, which lays the basic foundation for us to further understand Yan Fu'sthought system and evaluate his translations.Besides his adopted Social evolutionism contained in Tan Yan Lun, whatYah Fu valued most was Western logic, and he once rendered two Western logicworks: Mu Le Ming Xue (the translation of A Logic System) and Ming Xue QianShuo(the translation of Primer of Logic), into Chinese. But compared with theresearching heat of Tan Yan Lun, Yan Fu's logic translations have never receivedpertinent attention. In order to have a further understanding of Yan Fu's ideasand thought, the author of this thesis selected one of Yan Fu's logic translations-Ming Xue Qian Shuo for close examination. In view of current trend ofcross-cultural communication and action theory of translation, this thesis, basedon the comparison and contrast of the ST and TT, will put its emphasis on thestudy of Yan Fu's purpose of translating logic, the way by which he crossed theculture-language barrier to absorb Western logic, and of the academic andsocial function of Ming Xue Qian Shuo.Firstly, this paper unravels the current study on Yan Fu and his MingXueQian Shuo, and unfolds briefly the action theory of translation since the 1970s.Secondly, a detailed analysis is offered of the culture background ,thatdetermined the translating selection of Yah Fu. On the one hand, Yan Fu'stranslation is conditioned by the features of TL culture. On the other hand, histranslation influences many aspects of the TL culture. In order to achieve thebeneficial interplay between translation and the TL culture, this thesis alsounravels Yan Fu's great effort and cultural awareness which are reflected in his two translation strategies of substitution and linguistic instrument. Among thefactors that determined Yan Fu's cultural awareness and translation strategies,namely Western logic, Chinese logical thought, the similarity and dissimilaritybetween them as well as ancient Chinese prose and cultural phenomena, the lastone is the focus of concern.Above all, this thesis will expound the influence that Yan Fu exerted to thedevelopment of Chinese logic and other academic and social function of histranslation. This paper suggests that as an essential part of translation studies,translation criticism should be adjusted to go with the cultural turn and theevaluation should give great priority to the translator's cultural backgroundand the influence of the TT.In view of the interrelationship between translation, culture and thetranslator and the present situation in China, the paper offers its idea that MingXue Qian Shuo is an influential work in developing Chinese logic and othertheories. It does deserve much more attention and effort. By viewing the trendof contemporary translation studies and culture construction, the thesisaddresses its limitations and suggestions for future researches.