Study On Chinese Translation Of Shell Nouns In On The Origin Of Species

On the Origin of Species which is an emblematic scientific writing,deserves to be studied.It was written by Charles Robert Darwin and published officially in 1859,and has been translated into more than 30 kinds of languages insofar.In addition,there have been 32 Chinese translation versions up to now.Three Chinese translation versions of this book are involved in this thesis,including translation of Zhou Jianren,Ye Duzhuang,and Fang Zongxi published in 1954,translation of Xie Yunzhen in 1955,and translation of Shu Deganin in 2005,which are published in some special periods.The former two Chinese translation versions are the only two versions in the 20 th century which can be found,and there are many Chinese versions published successively after the latter version is issued.Therefore,the objectivity and comprehensiveness of the translation study can be ensured as much as possible by the choice of these three translation versions.The Chinese translation study of shell nouns in On the Origin of Species is beneficial for English learners to have a thorough understanding of shell nouns in English scientific texts,and provides some suggestions for the application of shell nouns in scientific translation and scientific writings in English.At present,studies regarding Chinese translation versions of On the Origin of Species mainly focus on two parts: one is the conclusion regarding translation practice,and the other is assessment of translation quality.However,there is no research relating to the Chinese translation study of shell nouns in On the Origin of Species.With Xiong Bing's concepts of translation strategy,translation method and translation technique as theory basis,the study in this thesis is practiced to exploit the translation strategies,translation methods and translation techniques of shell nouns in the process of their Chinese translation in On the Origin of Species,by the method of corpus.And the result shows that: During the Chinese translation of shell nouns,translation strategies such as foreignization and domestication both are involved,which is almost consistent in these three translation versions;translation methods,including literal translation and imitation,are adopted as well;and translation techniques mainly include translation in sequence of word order,reverse translation,part-of-speech shift translation,division translation,addition translation and omission translation.Among these translation techniques,part-of-speech shift translation,addition translation and omission translation are inclined to be applied in the translation of shell nouns,and the left translation techniques tend to be adopted in translation of lexical-grammatical patterns of shell nouns.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one gives a general introduction to this study,including research background,relevant concepts,research methodology,research significance,and outline of the thesis.Chapter two mainly covers the description of the source text—On the Origin of Species and its translation versions.Specifically,studies referred to the translation version,i.e.an introduction to the Chinese translation versions,are practiced and conducted.Meanwhile,studies regarding its translation versions are exercised as well.In Chapter three,shell nouns in the source text of On the Origin of Species are targeted.In addition,translation strategies,translation methods and translation techniques of shell nouns in On the Origin of Species will be described and analyzed in Chapter four.Chapter five is conclusion of this thesis.