An Analysis Of The Translation Of Foregrounding Language In Fortress Besieged

“Foregrounding”means to make an expression“unusual and unconventional”^[1].In literary works,foregrounding usually takes the norm language as a basis and adjusts it for a special purpose,deviating from the norm and serving to emphasize its“prominence”.In the translation of foregrounding language,translators should not only translate the meaning but also translate the style and emotion of the original text,to promote readers’understanding.Fortress Besieged,a famous Chinese novel written by Qian Zhongshu,contains a lot of foregrounding languages.Its English translation,translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao,has achieved great success.Thus,it is necessary to learn how these two translators deal with foregrounding languages.The objective of this research is to study the translation strategies and methods used for different types of language deviations in the English translation of Fortress Besieged,and the implications for the translators dealing with foregrounding languages in literary works.There are three research questions in this paper:（1）What are the specific categories of foregrounding language in Fortress Besieged?（2）What translation strategies and skills do translators adopt?（3）What are the effects of different translation strategies on character building and plot development of the novel?According to Leech’s classification of language deviation,foregrounding language in Fortress Besieged can be divided into phonological deviation,lexical deviation,graphological deviation,semantic deviation,deviation of register,dialectal deviation,and deviation of historical period.Among them,lexical deviation can be divided into neologism,coinage and rare arrangement;semantic deviation can be divided into metaphor,simile,synaesthesia,transferred epithet,oxymoron and abnormal collocation.Translators mainly adopt three translation strategies for foregrounding languages:reserving foregrounding,restoring foregrounding and omitting foregrounding.There are conclusions through the study of examples:Reserving foregrounding strategy is mostly used in phonological deviation,graphological deviation,neologism in lexical deviation,rhetorical devices in semantic deviation and deviation of historical period.When the deviation fails to reserve the foregrounding features,restoring foregrounding strategy should be considered.Omitting foregrounding strategy can be given priority to ensure the accurate transmission of the original meaning in translating lexical deviation,abnormal collocation in semantic deviation and dialectal deviation.While reserving foregrounding,translators tend to adopt literal translation,transliteration and annotation.When the foregrounding features cannot be reserved by the above skills,the translator can restore foregrounding and translate or annotate the foregrounding language freely according to the target reader’s culture,so as to retain the features of the original text.Due to the differences between Chinese and English languages,some foregrounding effects cannot be reserved or restored in order to ensure that the translation retells the meaning of the original text as much as possible.In this case,the translator needs to omit foregrounding.In this novel,the translator omits the foregrounding feature by means of omission,literal translation or free translation.