A Study On Translation Faithfulness From The Perspective Of Leech’s Classification Of Meaning

This thesis will discuss the core problem of traditional Chinese and western translation theory of faithfulness, and point out the contradiction of translation faithfulness standard, reflecting the faithfulness standard from the perspective of Leech’s classification of word meaning. The purpose of reflection is not to give it up, but to clarify its inner essence: relativity, dynamic and multi-dimension. Color is a perception of the objective world; people’s real life is closely related to the color, and human beings live in a world that filled with different colors. These words have rich cultural connotations. The founder of the modern abstract art Wassily Kandinsky(1987: 12) once pointed out in his famous works On the Artistic Spirit, “The color directly affects the spirit”. In human languages, there are a lot of expressions to record color; and they are color words. Color words are the indispensable part in human life and language communication; therefore, they inevitably reflect the culture of human society. According to the research study from Key & Mc Daniel(1978: 613): both in the Chinese and English languages system of color words, there are six basic color categories, namely, black, white, red, green, yellow, and blue. At the same time, G. Leech believed that basic color category is a weak common phenomenon rather than strong common phenomenon. Because the basic color words in each language are certain subsets extracted from common set of human language. What is worth noting is that the perception of all sorts of colors is not the same in cross-cultural communication, due to the different nationalities, and different cultural backgrounds, or even the same nationality and cultural background, but belongs to different social groups or social classes’ member. This difference has positive significance in linguistics, which makes the color words have various associative meanings. Then how to translate these meanings relevantly and pertinently becomes a question. Briefly speaking, when one translates color words, he or she should take faithfulness criterion into clear consideration.It is of great importance to adopt an appropriate method, because it is the prerequisite of analyzing a complex object thoroughly and scientifically. In order to choose a proper method, the chief thing to do is to recognize the object clearly. The present thesis will employ the documentary study, qualitative and the descriptive approach in order to systematically analyze translators’ faithfulness from the angle of Leech’s classification of meaning. This is also reasonable for translation study. The present thesis will employ the documentary study, qualitative and the descriptive approach in order to systematically analyze translators’ faithfulness from the angle of Leech’s classification of meaning. Leech’s seven types of meaning constructed the main theoretical framework in the thesis for the analysis. First through collecting various kinds of related documents, papers, monographs, periodicals and so on, and then by analyzing these data, we get informed of the former situation and the future progress of the study both in our Chinese and western countries, with the aim to supply theoretical guidance and study background for this thesis.The British linguist G. Leech’s seven types of word meaning once again points and confirms the realism and idealism of faithfulness standard of translation theory. At the same time, from the perspective of Leech’s classification of word meaning, the criterion of faithfulness is not absolute, one hundred percent loyal; but progressive and permanent. In the practice of translation, absolute faithfulness does not exist, therefore we should try our best to pursue the maximum faithfulness; in the evaluation of translation; we should also be tolerant and understand those not very faithful translations, but not to veto or cancel the faithfulness standard only because of these unfaithful or having difficulty being faithful examples. In the process of translation practice, we should be strict with one’s demands of the spirit, and strive to make the translation not only faithful but also vivid, in order to preserve the original works’ spirit, flavor and style, which is the exact embodiment of the translation faithfulness principle. Faithfulness is a great unattainable ideal; its existence value lies in its guidance and having pointed out a clear direction for translators, which need translators to try their best to understand meanings comprehensively.