Sound Symbolism And Its Translation Compensation-With Special Reference To Onomatopoeia

There are two controversial schools of thoughts concerning the relationship between sound and meaning, namely Conventionalists and Naturalists, or to put it more concretely, arbitrariness and non-arbitrariness. The former holds that there is no intrinsic connection between sound and meaning, that the relations between sound and meaning are conventional and arbitrary; and the latter insists that the connection exist, first and foremost, in onomatopoeia, that the origin of language lies in onomatopoeia, that people begin talking by creating iconic signs to imitate the sounds heard around them in nature. Whether or not there is a natural connection between sound and meaning remains unsolved and will be a hot issue under debate for years to come. However, it goes without saying that the effective use of sound has great impact on the expression of meaning, which can be testified by many examples in English and Chinese literary texts as well as ordinary discourses, as we shall cite in this dissertation, that sound is, if not meaning-bearing, certainly meaning-enhancing.According to Eugene A. Nida, the significant features of sound consist primarily of repetitions, e.g. alliterations and rhyme; punning, that is the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning, and sound symbolism, which is the use of words with sounds that reinforce lexical meaning, e.g. snip-snap, zig-zag, jim-jams, the fl-sound in flare, flash, fly, flutter, fitter, flicker, or the use of the s- sound to suggest the activity of a snake, as in hissing, slithering, slippery, sneaking. Alliteration and rhyme have been analyzed constantly in the discussion of English poetry and many insightful views have been contributed to this area; meanwhile, punning has arrested everlasting attention in the research domain of translation studies for its divertingness and complexity; whereas sound symbolism, though arousing much interest in the linguistic circles, is still a fresh ground in the translation studies field.This thesis focuses on sound symbolism in English, which refers to some certain English sounds or properties of sounds and their partial or systematic correspondence with their meanings, and its translation strategies into Chinese. Since sound symbolism exists in many English language resources and is diversified in forms, we will choose onomatopoeia, the most direct and imitative representation in particular for the convenience of our discussion. The thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter One explains the purpose and significance of the present research. It contains a brief review of the previous study on sound symbolism and its translation as well as the object and research methodology of this thesis.Chapter Two begins by an investigation of the sound/meaning debate in linguistic history and follows by the generalization of the three leading schools of thoughts. Then a detailed illustration is given about sound symbolism in English and its major traits; meanwhile, the possible existence of sound symbolism in Chinese is also discussed. By a comparison between English and Chinese writing system the author concludes that sound symbolism is typical in English and has apparent significance in its literal expression, while Chinese is weak at this point.Chapter Three examines the translatability of sound symbolism and its compensation strategies. Most of the translators hold that sound effects are untranslatable since English has a totally different sound and spelling system from Chinese. However, still many argue that sound effects are frequently created by English writers to reinforce their meaning or convey aesthetic feelings. A translator cannot ignore these sound effects and focus sorely on the transference of meaning. If he does, he will sacrifice the aesthetic aspect of the original work. Therefore, the transference of sound effects is very important in the translating process. Nevertheless, theorists holding the above view are not at all blind to the difficulties in the transference of sound effects. As a result compensation theory is put forward as a solution. Firstly the author introduces the form/meaning paradox in translation and the limitations in translating sound effects. Then he discusses compensation theory and its possible application in communicating sound effect between different languages. Finally the author tries to summarize some feasible ways in the transference of English sound effects into Chinese.Chapter Four chooses onomatopoeia as the basis of discussion about the translation of sound symbolism and its concrete compensation strategies, since onomatopoeia is the most direct and basic representation of sound symbolism and exists both in English and Chinese. The author probes into the characteristics of onomatopoeia and gives a simple comparison between English and Chinese onomatopoeic words. Then he explores different methods in the translation of English onomatopoeic words into Chinese and the use of compensation strategies. In the end, the author offers some useful hints in the translation of sound symbolism, which might shed some light on the future study in this area.Chapter Five concludes the dissertation with a summary of the main discussions of the present work and suggests the topics that need further study in the future.Sound symbolism is a very important property of English language and has hitherto been employed by many insightful authors to impress those sensitive readers and add aesthetic value to their writing. Successful translators are keen to these sound effects and are ready to rack their brains to convey them, if not possible, at least they may use other equivalent means to compensate for those effects in return. It is these efforts interweaved into a translation that makes it lasting and analogous to the original. And it is in dealing with these translation works that we can tell a truly gifted translator from a mere translation craftsman.