A Study On C-e Translation Of The Vulgar Language In Shuihuzhuan From The Perspective Of Sociosemiotics

Vulgar language is the language which is crude or obscene and generally offensive with its relation to things disgusted by people. Although it doesn't appeal to the refined taste, it is an organic part of human language. The use of vulgar language contributes a lot to portraying personality of typical characters in some literary works. It is particularly impressive as it is a kind of natural and genuine colloquial language. The use of vulgar language not only reveals information about social status, educational background and personality of certain characters but also reflects specific cultural features, including moralities, values, religious belief, aesthetic standards as well as social stratification. How to correctly comprehend and translate vulgar language is of vital importance in reproducing the personality of characters in the target language. Therefore, it is a tough job for translators because of the social and cultural features of the vulgar language.This thesis attempts to carry on a tentative study on the translation of the vulgar language in Chinese classic novel Shuihuzhuan under the guidance of a sociosemiotic approach to translation based on the two English versions by Shapiro and Buck.Sociosemiotics is a discipline which deals with all the systems of signs used by human societies, among which language is the most complex one. Meaning, which is a sign relation, not only exists in linguistic sign system, but also exists in other non-linguistic sign systems. Interpretation of meaning of signs must be put into social and cultural contexts. Sociosemiotics goes out of the scope of pure linguistic studies and focuses on other signs such as culture, context, style and register. Thus a sociosemiotic approach to translation is more holistic and advantageous. In the light of this approach, translation is translating meaning, including designative meaning, linguistic meaning and pragmatic meaning; besides, translation should also reflect linguistic functions of the ST; translation is a process of decoding and encoding in social context; non-linguistic signs should be reproduced in the target language. According to these above-mentioned principles, the author of this thesis makes a detailed analysis of the vulgar language in Shuihuzhuan and their translation based on the two English versions by Shapiro and Buck. A discussion of their methods for translating vulgar language can also be found in this thesis.Through the analysis, this thesis attempts to draw such a conclusion: a sociosemiotic approach to translation is doubtlessly helpful to reproduce possible meanings as well as linguistic functions reflected in vulgar language; because of the differences of the relevant cultures and languages, sometimes loss of meaning is inevitable; translation criterion in the light of a sociosemiotic approach to translation provides the basis for adopting appropriate translation methods which can maximally avoid the loss of meaning and function. In a word, this approach proves to be practical and helpful in translating the vulgar language in Shuihuzhuan.