| Semantic translation and communicative translation have drawn a lot of attention from translation researchers in the past decades.The communicative translation differs from the former in that it stresses more the “effect” and the “response” of a message than the message itself.Linguistically,the effect and response of the message which audiences can generate in the C-E translation could be maximized by taking into consideration the feature differences between English and Chinese.This thesis conducts a case study of “yǒu” sentences in Pacing Back and Forth to analyze,from the perspective of communicative translation,the strategies which translators adopted in their translations and to reveal why they employed such strategies.The analyses of diversified connotations of “yǒu” sentences in Chinese and their transcriptions demonstrate that:(1)“yǒu” sentences with existence connotations can be translated into “there-be” sentences,adverbials introduced by prepositions,and sentences with detailed verbs;(2)those with possession connotations can be translated into sentences with animate and impersonal subjects,and their negative meanings in Chinese can be transformed into positive ones;(3)sentences with estimation connotations can be translated into adjective or adverb phrases;(4)those with subordination connotations can be translated into adverbials,subordinate clauses,absolute structures,and some of them can even be omitted;(5)“yǒu” sentences with occurrence connotations can be translated by focusing on the verbs next to the Chinese character “yǒu”.The “yǒu” sentences are rendered differently because English and Chinese exhibit feature differences in each specific type:(1)for the static feature of English,translators adopted non-dynamic phrases or sentences to translate“yǒu” sentences,such as “there-be” sentences,“prepositions”,and “be+adjectives”,etc.;(2)for the impersonal feature of English,translators employed the transformation from personal subjects to inanimate ones,and the replenishment of the omitted subjects;(3)for the compact feature of English,translators selected the central predicate for the target text and then integrated the rest segmented structures and minor sentences by inflected marks;(4)for the indirect feature of English,translators interpreted “yǒu” sentences positively and conversely,especially those with negative connotations.This thesis contains dual facets of significance.Theoretically,the perspective it takes extends the study scope of “yǒu” sentences.Practically,it enhances the reader’s understanding of “yǒu” sentences and removes the stereotype of the translation equivalence between “yǒu” sentences in Chinese and “there-be” sentences in English. |
