| The thesis mainly discusses relevant issues about Yang Xianyi’s English translation of euphemism from the perspective of Chesterman’s models of translation ethics.Euphemism serves as a “lubricant” in communication,which can be seen everywhere both in literary works and daily communication.As a profound cultural and psychological phenomenon,euphemism embodies a nation’s internal culture and ways of thinking.Yang Xianyi’s translation works mainly focus on classical Chinese literature which contains a large amount of euphemism.Qualified euphemism translation can retain the style of the original works and be accessible to the western readers at the same time.Therefore,it is of substantial significance to study how Yang Xianyi deals with the issues of euphemism translation and how he displays the essence of traditional Chinese euphemism to the greatest extent as possible.As a leading authority in the field of translation,Yang Xianyi is known as the one who translates the whole China.He and his wife Gladys Yang have translated hundreds of Chinese works.They have made great contributions to the translation of Chinese literature.However,researchers have focused more on Yang Xianyi’s certain translation works,and few have paid attention to Yang Xianyi’s personal translation styles and characteristics.A research on how Yang Xianyi deals with the English translation of euphemism can generalize,more or less,his translation thoughts and methods.So far,studies on Chinese euphemism translation have mainly been conducted from the perspectives like skopostheorie,equivalence theory,pragmatics,etc.In contrast,the thesis tries to explore translation of euphemism from the perspective of Chesterman’s models of translation ethics.Based on value,Chesterman’s models of translation ethics regulate the translator’s behavior in terms of ethics of representation,ethics of service,ethics of communication,norm-based ethics and ethics of commitment.Models of translation ethics make it clear that a translator’s translation activities can be positioned.The positioning not only provides a comprehensive guidance for translation principles and strategies,but also reflects the value of translation behavior.This thesis employs some qualitative research methods including induction,deduction,analysis and integration.Accordingly,a large number of examples are introduced to demonstrate the basic viewpoints of the translator.By combining translation theory with translation practice,the thesis explores the translation strategies,translation styles and thoughts of Yang Xianyi’s euphemism translation.Besides,the thesis attempts to summarize the internal relationship among Chesterman’s five models of translation ethics and the choice of relevant translation strategies.This thesis introduces the background and the significance of this research firstly,and then points out the objectives and methodology of the research.In literature review,the thesis briefly conducts a survey of previous researches on euphemism and translation ethics at home and abroad.It also probes into Yang Xianyi’s English translated works and his translation thoughts.With an analysis of studies at home and abroad,the existing problems and gaps of present studies are illustrated.In this sense,this thesis then makes a concrete study of Chinese euphemism to discuss Yang Xianyi’s translation strategies and personal translation thoughts of euphemism.Finally,this thesis explicates how Chesterman’s models of translation ethics regulate the behavior of translation.Based on that,an analysis of the relationship between translation strategies and models of translation ethics will be involved.In the meantime,restriction and balance among Chesterman’s five models of ethics will be further explored as well.There are some findings in the study listed as follows: 1)Chesterman’s models of translation ethics perform an important function to translation practice.A translator has the tendency to choose different translation strategies guided by different translation models;2)when translating Chinese euphemism,Yang xianyi adopts strategies such as literal translation,literal translation with footnotes,free translation,amplification,omission,image transformation and so on.It can be seen that Yang Xianyi puts more emphasis on foreignization and also takes domestication into account;3)Yang Xianyi prefers to adopt foreignization translation strategy for the reason that he always bears in mind a translator’s mission of spreading traditional Chinese culture.He insists on the translatability of euphemism and lays stress on “faithfulness” and “expressiveness” in euphemism translation;4)there are some conflicts among Chesterman’s four models of translation ethics.When confronted with these conflicts,a translator needs to conform to ethics of commitment to coordinate.Yang Xianyi adopts different translation strategies by flexibly tending towards relevant models of translation ethics.He always abides by the professional oath to strive for excellence.The significance of the study: the research expounds Yang Xianyi’s specific strategies in translating Chinese euphemism from the perspective of Chesterman’s models of translation ethics.And it also probes into the translation thoughts and styles of Yang Xianyi’s English translation of euphemism,which provides some insights for scholars to delve into euphemism translation and Yang Xianyi per se in the future.This thesis also makes attempts to dig into the limitations of Chesterman’s translation ethics and Yang Xianyi’s solution,rendering some reference for the theoretical research of translation ethics.The innovation of the study: this thesis employs the case analysis to demonstrate the arguments and then extends relevant researches on Yang Xianyi and his euphemism translation strategies,thoughts and styles.Besides,the thesis indeed serves as a new perspective for the research on translation of euphemism,which is conducive to guiding translation practice and inspires the future study on Chesterman’s models of translation ethics. |
PDF Full Text Request