On Weng Xianliang's Style In Translating Ancient Chinese Poems Into English

This research,aiming to reveal Weng Xianliang's translation style in his English translations of ancient Chinese poems and the underlying factors helping to shape his translation style,is a descriptive study with analytical framework borrowed from corpus-based translation studies.The primary task for this research is to find out what is translation style and how to operationalize translation style so that it can be measured quantitatively.Based on previous studies,this research defines translation style as a way of translating which is recognizable across a range of translations by the same translator and constitutes a coherent pattern of choices at both linguistic and non-linguistic level.According to this definition,this research discovers that translation style has three attributes:action attribute,textual attribute and personal attribute.And based on these three attributes,this research decides to observe translation style from three dimensions.The first dimension is related to the action attribute of translation style,focusing on the way one translates.It is about observing translation strategies or specific techniques adopted in dealing with different elements,like imagery and allusions.Through observing translation style from this dimension,this research has discovered that: 1)Weng prefers conversion and literal translation method in rendering universal images while being more inclined to use cultural equivalence and liberal translation technique to translate national or historical images.2)He favors liberal translation method in rendering allusions.The second dimension is related to the textual attribute of translation style,on one hand,aiming to observe how the TT deals with different elements in the ST like text structure,rhyme and title,on the other hand,aiming to verify certain hypotheses about the TT's possible features.Through observing translation style from this dimension,this research has discovered that: 1)Weng translates ancient Chinese poems in prose-style.Meanwhile,in segmenting his translations into differentparagraphs,Weng is free from the constraint of the ST's textual arrangements.2)Weng prefers to rewrite the ST's titles.3)Weng's translations have three characteristics: explicitation of subjects,logicalization of sentences and precision of the signified.The third dimension is about the personal attribute of translation style,focusing on habitual traits of the translator,including both the linguistic and non-linguistic choices.And through observation,this research has discovered that: Weng likes to use interjections,fronting,parallelism,repetition,exclamation mark and dash when composing his translations.And the factors working to shape Weng's translation style include: his translation ideology,stylistic difference between English prose and ancient Chinese poems as well as thematic and aesthetic motivation.