A Comparative Study On Two English Versions Of Shuihuzhuan From The Perspective Of Deceptive Equivalence

Shuihuzhuan,as the first vernacular chapter hero legendary novel,bestows great historical and cultural heritages in Chinese literature.It preserves abundant descriptions of customs,social realities and surviving conditions and ideals of low-born people in Song Dynasty.It applies varied styles of language to shape 108 vivid characters with different backgrounds and various characteristics.Vernacular adopted in the novel makes the language lucid,clear and expressive.However,it's hard to retain the original aesthetics of the language and thematic effects when translating due to the cultural differences between China and the west.If indication of the language is missing,deceptive equivalence occurs.This thesis applies deceptive equivalence to compare and analyze two translated versions of Shuihuzhuan-Shapiro's Outlaws of the Marsh and Dent-Young's The Marshes of Mount Liang.It breakthroughs the limitation of many theories focusing on thematic meanings and arouses the attention of readers and scholars to language.Besides,published during1999 to 2002,Dent-Young's The Marshes of Mount Liang is the newest version of Shuihuzhuan,which was previously researched singly,so it is rear to be compared with another English version as this thesis does.This thesis utilizes description,comparative analysis and specific examples to do research on the equivalence of thematic effects and language.On the basis of deceptive equivalence,it firstly introduces the background,significance,innovation points and methodology of the thesis,and presents brief introduction of characteristics of Shuihuzhuan and the theory of deceptive equivalence;then it compares the treatment of the two versions in illogicality,objectivity,and unreliability in lexical expressions,in pace,prominence and parallelism in syntax,and in speech and thought presentation;consequently,it concludes the previous analysis,summarizes the limitation and puts forward translation suggestions to avoid deception equivalence.Through detailed comparison from different angles,it can be concluded that Shapiro's version is more clarified with excellent realization of illogicality,emotion,quick pace,prominence and speech and thought expression;Dent-Young translates the novel more thoroughly,retaining the original illogicality,objectivity,unreliability,slow pace and parallelism.With the direction of the theory and analysis,it's suggested that translators should retain particular elements in the original novel,such as illogicality and objectivity,do research on the deep connotation of the thematic effects and the language,and translate freely on the basis of preserving the original structure to realize the aesthetic meanings of the theme and language.