A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Lun Yu From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

The "German School" of Functionalist translation came into being in the1970s with Skopostheorie as its core theory, which could be regarded as a great breakthrough from the traditional equivalence-oriented translation studies to the function-oriented translation studies. In Skopostheorie, the prime principle which determines the whole translation process is the Skopos of the translation action. The translator should choose translation strategies in accordance with the translation brief so as to produce a translation sufficient enough to undertake its pre-determined functions.Lun Yu, one of the most important Confucian classics, has been translated into English versions by numerous Chinese and Western scholars with different translation strategies. Researches on these translated versions mainly fell into three categories, namely, researches on the target-texts, researches on the translators and researches on culture-loaded keywords. So far few researches were conducted on the purposes of the target text and the intentions behind the different interpretations, and even fewer researches were conducted on Ku Huamgming and D. C. Lau’s versions of Lun Yu. In this thesis, the present author intends to carry on a comparative study of Ku Huangming’s version and D. C. Lau’s version of Lun Yu from the perspective of Skopostheorie, and tries to analyze the translation strategies adopted in these two translated versions.In this thesis, mainly four research methods are adopted, namely, analysis, deduction, comparison, and illustration. Through the conduction of this study, the present author reaches a conclusion that in translating Lun Yu, Ku Huangming adopted the Domesticating strategy while D. C. Lau mostly adopted the Foreignizing strategy. The differences in the strategies of these two translators are mainly determined by their respective Skopos of the translation, and. as long as the translated texts could fulfill the intended functions in the target culture, they both should be considered adequate and successful. Besides, readers could also choose the translated versions in accordance with their own interests and purposes.