A Study On The Chinese Translation Of English Abstract Nouns Of Action

How to translate abstract nouns of action from English to Chinese has been studied for a long time.The previous research mainly focuses the translation strategies on scientific and technical texts and political texts,while those on literary works are rarely involved.What’s more,the translation methods provided still can’t solve the questions that the translation of different types of abstract nouns of action.Hence,the thesis explored the translation of abstract nouns of action from English to Chinese based on four Chinese versions of Heart of Darkness from the perspective of Adaptation Hierarchy.The research procedure is as follows.(1)The thesis classified abstract nouns of action under the criteria of Zhang Jin and Liu Guangyao,namely,partially concrete abstract nouns,non-concrete abstract nouns of action,and concrete abstract nouns of action.(2)A quantitative study of the translation strategy of abstract nouns of action was conducted within the Extension Strategy for E-C translation proposed by Wang Jianguo,aiming to discover the specific translation methods of three sub-class abstract nouns of action,also the similarities and discrepancies between four translations.(3)The factors affecting the translations were summarized within the framework of the Adaptation Hierarchy proposed by Wang Jianguo.The findings of the thesis are:(1)Extension and Compression are often used in translating abstract nouns of action from English to Chinese.Extension Strategy is the main translation strategy,including marker-removing,explicitation,addition,and backward processing;(2)marker-removing is the primary extension method of partially concrete abstract nouns of action and non-concrete abstract nouns of action,and all translators tend to use four-character phrases;explicitation is the main extension method of concrete abstract nouns of action,and the result of the action is frequently extended;(4)Huang Yushi’s translation and Zhi Liang’s translation are more extended than that of Ye Lei and Sun Lizhong.From the viewpoint of Adaptation Hierarchy,the above different translation methods can be regarded as the choices made by translators in the adaptation process and manifest in the dynamic adaptation from the macro to the micro level.The translators adapt to the contextual relations of thinking modes,aesthetic views,and pragmatic principles at the macro level,and then they get into the micro adaptation of the structural objects at the textual,syntactic,and lexical levels.The four translators show roughly the same degree of adaptation at the macro level.This thesis is of theoretical and practical significance.On the one hand,the thesis provides a theoretical framework reference for the research on E-C translation of nouns of action.On the other hand,the thesis further clarifies the translator’s dynamic adaptation hierarchy and examines the adaptation factors in the translation of nouns of action.