On The English-Chinese Translation Of Proverbs From The Perspective Of Speech ACT Theory

Proverbs are the language wealth of a nation. They are keys for people to get a betterunderstanding of the history, culture and social information of a nation, for they are a crucialportion of the culture and history of a society. In light of the importance of proverb translation,plenty of scholars have made intensive and extensive research, mostly from the perspective ofculture and the characteristics of the proverbs, but ignoring the context in which a proverb isused and the speech acts a proverb can perform. Therefore, the thesis tends to study theproverb translation from the perspective of Speech Act Theory, putting stress on context atthe same time.The thesis categorizes the proverbs into three groups, then, applies the locutionary act,illocutionary act and perlocutionary act to proverb translation process. The questions that thethesis tries to answer are: Can Speech Act Theory help translators to better understandproverbs, thus making preparation for proverb translation? If the answer is yes, then How canthe Speech Act Theory be applied to achieve a better understanding of proverbs?Beginning with a review on the definition and characteristics of proverbs, and a reviewof the current studies on proverb translation in China and the Speech Act Theory, the thesisputs forward the application of Speech Act Theory to proverb translation. By comparingseveral groups of sample proverbs in different contexts, analyzing their locutionary act,illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act, especially the illocutionary act, the thesis illustrateshow the meaning of certain proverb may vary because of the change of the speakers’relationship, the speaker’s emotion, the discussed topic and so on, which lead to the differentunderstandings of the same proverb and different versions consequently.The thesis tries to analyze the process of translation from a pragmatic perspective andhighlights the importance of contexts. With the analysis of the three speech acts in differentcontexts, translators may⑴get a better understanding of the literal meaning of the proverb;⑵have a comprehensive mastery of the implied meaning conveyed in the proverb, namely,the speaker’s real intention, emotional state and so on which is the meticulous preparation work before the proverb translation. At last, the conclusion can be drawn: the application ofthe Speech Act Theory can help translators get the deeper meaning of proverbs appearing indifferent contexts, thus understand the proverbs accurately, which is a preparing step for thework of proverb translation.