A Sociolinguistic Perspective To The Translation Of Vulgar Words And Expressions In The Republic Of Wine

The Republic of Wine was written by Mo Yan in 1988.Translated by Howard Goldblatt,this novel cut a figure under the international limelight.Many researchers have made the studies on the English version of The Republic of Wine.However,most of them apply a certain translation strategy to interpret the translated version,and very often make the discussion on a broad view of entire novel,which all come to the superficial and similar conclusions.Only a few choose to make the study from a cutting-in point.Among all the points,the author notices that none of the research studies the vulgar language,one of the typical features of Mo Yan's novels,in the English version of The Republic of Wine.The researches on vulgar language gradually change from focusing on language level to the function and culture,but still few makes the discussion in the perspective of sociolinguistics.The author believes that a new perspective might be found for the translation of Mo Yan's novel if the translation of vulgar language in The Republic of Wine is analyzed in the perspective of sociolinguistics.Sociolinguists argue that people's choice of language style is jointly determined by two factors,social identity and context.Both the speaker and the addressee's social identities matter in analyzing the language style of a conversation,and social identity is constructed by a series of elements such as gender,age,ethnicity,etc.The context will result in the incompatibility between the language style and the speaker and the addressee's social identities.Then,the author classifies the vulgar language in The Republic of Wine into three categories,and discusses why the translator should search for the equivalent of SL vulgar words and expressions in the same category.Combining it with sociolinguistic viewpoints,the author proposes three approaches to analyze the vulgar language in The Republic of Wine,and further puts forward a three-step strategy to translate the vulgar language:(1)to figure out the main influential factor in the vulgar language conversation by analyzing the speaker and the addressee's social identities,context and literary effect;(2)to determine the category of the vulgar language according to its function;(3)to represent the main sociolinguistic influential factor in the translation,without changing the function of vulgar language.With this vulgar language translation strategy,the author explores the translation features and weakness of Goldblatt's translation of vulgar language in The Republic of Wine from approaches of different influential factors.