| The dissertation is a descriptive study of the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng, namely, Bencraft Joly's version published in 1892 to 1893 and David Hawkes'version published in 1973 to 1980. Taking the analysis of kinship terms and their translations in the novel as a starting point, the dissertation conducts an exhaustive statistical and quantitative study at the micro-level first and points out the characteristics of each version and the differences between them. Then, in the theoretical framework of descriptive translation studies, supplemented by a sociolinguistics approach, the dissertation explores the social and historical reasons for the differences in the social context of the target culture.Throughout human history people have sought to identify themselves and others in social contexts. As we learn to identify and categorize the world around us, we also learn our place within it. Our name sets us apart from every other human being. Just as our individual names connote our uniqueness within society, so do the kinship terms applied to us. Each culture has defined their own set of kinship terms and the roles they serve in society. Kinship terms may be influenced by culture, philosophical or religious assumptions, environment, or any number of factors. Through kinship terms, it is possible to understand a culture, particular interpersonal communication patterns, and normative elements of the family system, structure, and functions.Kinship terms are the lexically identical terms and unique terminological systems labeled with a distinctive social and cultural nature. In different societies and cultures, there must be different systems of kinship terms. Chinese kinship system is a unique form of Chinese indigenous terms that has its roots deep in Chinese culture. It is the product of an agricultural society, a family-centered economy, and a hierarchical family system, and it is also one of the most complex systems of kinship terms in the world.Hong Lou Meng, a milestone in the history of Chinese novel, is a masterpiece written in the mid-18th century during the Qing dynasty. The novel is remarkable not only for its huge cast of characters and psychological scope, but also for its precise and detailed observation of the life and social structures typical of 18th-century Chinese aristocracy. Over the past century, there was not a single subject in the Chinese academic community like the study of Hong Lou Meng, which caught the interest of large numbers of experts and scholars as well as the general readers and fans, and the interest never faded away. It seems that the whole of China can be found in this work, and every Chinese can find himself in it.The novel provides a detailed, episodic record of the four wealthy and aristocratic families - Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue, especially the Rongguo House and the Ningguo House of Jia clan, two large, adjacent family compounds in the capital. Their ancestors were made dukes, and the two houses are among the most illustrious families in the capital. One of the clan's offspring is made an Imperial Consort. The novel describes the Jias'wealth and influence in great naturalistic detail, and charts the Jias'fall from the height of their prestige, following some thirty main characters and over four hundred minor ones from the imperial family to the poor rural small households. The relationship of the characters, especially the relatives is extremely complicated. Specifically, from a vertical perspective, there is a description of five generations of Jia clan from the"water"Generation to the"grass"Generation; from a lateral perspective, there are complicated relations by blood and marriage among the four clans—Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue Thus, the system of kinship terms in Hong Lou Meng which reflects this complex relationship is naturally complicated as well. In the process of communication, with the involvement of social relations such as sovereign and subject, master and servant, colleagues and friends, the address terms used between relatives do not exactly accord with the rules of kinship terms, which makes the system even more complex. The meticulous system of kinship terms in this novel basically reflects the kinship terms in Chinese feudal society. Therefore, the author chooses the kinship terms and their translations as a starting point of the dissertation, and then discusses the relationship between language and society.The research object of the dissertation are Joly's and Hawkes'versions of Hong Lou Meng Considering the social context of the target culture, the focus of the study is the relationship of the language in the translation and the target society. Whether a century of social changes in the target society could be seen in the language of the two different versions of translation is the fundamental question to be answered. In view of the importance of"social","cultural"and"historical"factors, the author chooses the paradigm of descriptive translation studies which satisfies the need of this study from a macro perspective. The previous prescriptive translation studies mainly concern with a simple shift of language, the style of the literary texts or the standard of translation at the micro-level; while descriptive translation studies emphasize on the interaction between language and cultural factors, which provides translation studies with social, historical and cultural dimensions at a macro-level, coinciding with the focus of this study. As Professor Lin Kenan (林克难) says, prescriptive translation studies and descriptive translation studies are not contradictory. Descriptive translation studies, offering a macro framework, complement prescriptive translation studies perfectly. The two combining together can well reveal the whole of translation. Therefore, the starting point of the dissertation is the study of the language in translation, which is the noumenon in translation studies. The study of kinship terms is a key issue in the filed of sociolinguistics. There are numbers of literature on kinship terms or the way in which people in a certain area address their blood relations or relations by marriage. Sociolinguists believe that the study of the different systems of kinship terms help people understand their own language and culture in a more objective way. In addition, they also point out that through social changes, if the society has (or had) a complete set of kinship terms system, the changes could be reflected in the language. From the perspective of sociolinguistics, the system of kinship terms in social context can reveal the relationship of language form and social meaning which is instructive for the study of the translation of kinship terms in the dissertation. Thus, descriptive translation studies and sociolinguistics together serve as the theoretical basis for the study.Descriptive translation studies was first introduced by James S. Holmes, and then further developed with an emphasis on"function"by Gideon Toury in Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Toury emphasizes approaching translation within a target-oriented framework, for he considers translations as facts of a target culture. Scholars of literary translation have found the approach particularly productive, notwithstanding criticism of the over-emphasis on the text and target-orientedness, especially when the corpus invites a longitudinal and historical approach. Toury believes that there is no way a translation could share the same systematic space with its original. He points out,"a translation would never be in a position to bear on the source culture again, on occasion even on the source text itself. Text, and hence the cultural systems which host them, have been known to have been affected by translations of theirs. It is nonetheless significant that any such practice involves a reversal of roles, in full accordance with our starting point: while genetically a translation, the affecting entity no longer functions as one. To be sure, it is not just any translation that would exert an influence on its original. Rather, it is a fact of a particular target culture, which is, moreover, regarded as privileged for that precise reason. The fact that translations often serve as a basis for further acts of translation is no refutation of the target-oriented assumption either: a translation does function as a source text in a such instances, it is still a fact of a former target culture now turned into mediating one, and it is picked up and assigned the role of a source text not because of anything it may inherently possess, but in accordance with the concerns of a new prospective recipient system"(Toury Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond 26-27). He reformulates his point as follows:"translations are facts of target cultures; on occasion facts of a special status, sometimes even constituting identifiable (sub)systems of their own, but of the target culture in any event (ibid 29)."This reformulation implies that, while certainly indispensable, establishing the culture-internal status of a text as a translation does not in itself provide a sufficient basis for studying it as one. Any attempt to offer exhaustive descriptions and viable explanations would necessitate a proper contextualization (ibid 29). Toury has been credited and criticized for shifting the focus of research in translation studies from the source text and culture to the target text and culture. When researchers take inspiration from Toury's publications, they invariably emphasize the target translation and how it functions in the target system, the link obviously being made between Itamar Even-Zohar's literary polysystem and Toury's work on how translations function within the target system, especially in relation to target system constraints. Descriptive translation studies theory is a logically self-consistent model for describing the behavior of a related set of translation phenomena. It is supported by Toury's own experimental evidence and is testable. Through his work on descriptive translation studies, Toury contributed to the interest in the sociology of translation and translator behavior by laying the foundation for a social orientation in translation studies.The primary concern of sociolinguistic scholarship is to study correlations between language use and social structure. Its focus is different from other disciplines that take an interest in language. Sociolinguistics is concerned with describing language use as a social phenomenon and, where possible, it attempts to establish causal links between language and society, pursuing the complementary questions of what language contributes to making community possible and how communities shape their languages by using them. Kinship is one of the universals in human society and therefore plays an important role in both the regulation of behavior and the formation of social groups. Kinship systems depend on the social recognition and cultural implementation of relationships derived from descent and marriage and normally involve a set of kinship terms that define the universe of kin and that may be extended metaphorically to non-kin. The description and analysis of kinship terms has traditionally assumed a central place in sociolinguistic studies, and considerable progress has been made in their classification and analysis. Kinship terms, according to Leach (143) are"category words by means of which an individual is taught to recognize the significant groupings in the social structure into which he is born". In most societies, kinship terms are utilized in daily life, both in reference and in direct address, and often their use is required by custom, which are found to vary in different societies with respect to a number of characteristics. The terminological system frequently represents a distinctive subset of the lexicon, and the linguist can provide greater understanding of it by componential analysis, formal analysis, and historical reconstruction of earlier forms. The kinship system has various and complex relations with the social institutions that together make up the total social system, or social structure. Because kinship enters into economic, political, legal, and ritual relationships in various societies, there is sometimes a tendency to ignore or underestimate its significance. The function of kinship terminology in interaction is a symbolic one. When it is used it defines for the participants the general mode of behavior to be followed in particular social situations. The universality and enduring character of kinship suggest its importance in binding men and women together in society and providing a foundation for the building of more specific social structures. Thus the change of kinship terms could be a possible evidence for social and cultural change.Although descriptive translation studies and sociolinguistics belong to different disciplines, they share similarities in theory origin and research method. Both attaching great importance to social and cultural factors, they can well work together to provide theoretical support for this study. Descriptive translation studies provide the theoretical framework at the macro-level. That is to say, the comparison between the two English versions is not to discuss the norm of the translation or judge or criticize the different versions with a universal standard, but to explore the causes of the differences through the analysis of the translation of the kinship terms from a social and historical perspective. Description and explanation are the ultimate goals of the study; while sociolinguistics gives theoretical guidance at the micro-level, namely, how to explore the relationship of kinship terms and the society.The dissertation, making a complete and systematic description of kinship terms in Hong Lou Meng and its two English versions, is a qualitative study by nature. On the basis of the description, the study aims for the exploration of the underlying causes of the differences. In addition, a quantitative research method is adopted in the collection and analysis of the initial data.The specific steps of this study are as follows:First, select the two Chinese editions of Hong Lou Meng published by people's literature publishing house and Shuangqingxian publishing house. Collate the two editions and make the collation table, then highlight the address terms in the collation table for future reference.Second, taking people's edition as the Chinese source text, find out all the address terms in the first 80 chapters and their English equivalents in Joly's and Hawkes'versions. Then apply statistical procedures to process text into word frequency list and make the table with each entry form in both Chinese and English.Third, divide all the address terms into two categories: kinship terms and social terms. Kinship terms are subdivided according to its characteristics. Then comparison is made between Joly's and Hawkes's versions in each category aiming to identify similarities and differences.Fourth, set Joly's and Hawkes'versions in the target society in which they are hosted - the late 19 century's Britain and the late 20th century's Britain. Through a methodological approach of historical materialism, analyze the British society during these two periods, particularly family life and social relations, and then find out, from the perspective of sociolinguistics, that if social changes cause the change in language forms in the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng. Finally, in the theoretical framework of descriptive translation studies, discuss the social and historical impact on translation.In this study, the following hypotheses are made:1. Assume that differences exist in the translation of kinship terms in the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng;2. Assume that social changes in target society during different periods of time can be reflected in the language of the translation.The findings are as follows: First, there are differences between Joly's version and Hawkes'version as far as the translations of kinship terms are concerned. The differences are mainly in two aspects: 1. the choice of words, Joly tends to use archaic and formal words; while Hawkes'version is full of modern and colloquial vocabulary. 2. translation strategy, Joly's version emphasizes greatly on the"faithfulness"to the original text; while Hawkes'is much more flexible, which appears more consistent with the western way of expression. The latter is the more obvious of the two differences. Second, social changes in target society (i.e. the British society) and the characteristics and differences of the two versions are closely related. From the point of view of sociolinguistics, the different vocabulary in the translation reflects the change in British family relationships. From the perspective of descriptive translation studies, employment of a certain strategy in the process of translation has its profound social and historical reasons. Third, there are more archaic words in Joly's version than that in Hawkes'one, but the total number is very small. When the source text is a classical work in the 18th century, translators tend to use some old-fashioned words so that the target text will reads like a classical one as well. Therefore, even if translators live in different times, the number of the archaic words used in translation does not show much difference. Fourth, kinship terms, as the product of the many-year formation of rules and custom of human society show great stability in a certain historical period. Although Joly's version is nearly a century earlier than Hawkes', there is hardly any difference when the vocabulary itself is concerned.This dissertation is divided into five chapters.Chapter 1 is an introduction. It briefly introduces the background, origin, significance, research purposes and the major questions to be answered. It also includes the explanation of the basic concept of"kinship terms", definition of the subject areas and clarification of the choice of the Hong Lou Meng versions. Then, based on an overview of the development and major points of descriptive translation studies and sociolinguistics, the author discusses how to combine the two theories that serve as the theoretical support of this study, and puts forward the hypotheses.Chapter 2 is literature review. It reviews the relevant literature on kinship terms and their translation at home and abroad. From the perspective of statistical characteristics, the distribution of the subject and the content of the previous studies, the author discusses the findings in the field of sociolinguistics and anthropology. Through the analysis of the existing shortcomings in former research, the author brings out the innovation of this study.Chapter 3 is the description and analysis of kinship terms and their translation in Hong Lou Meng on the basis of five systematically divided categories--paternal side, maternal side, side of husband, side of wife, and a special small group, kinship terms that refer to a number of people or used to address each other. .Chapter 4 is the discussion of the relation between target text and target society, which is the core part of the dissertation. The author examines British society in the late 19th century and late 20th century in which the two English versions are hosted respectively, and explores the social and historical influences on Joly's and Hawkes'versions.Chapter 5 is the conclusion. The author summarizes the findings of the study and points out the significance and limitations with suggestions for further research.The discussion on the translation of kinship terms in this study is based on the comparison between Joly's and Hawkes'versions of Hong Lou Meng. Few academic work has been conducted on the comparative study of the above two versions, but even fewer studies on Joly's version. The dissertation is written in the hope of breaking this pattern of imbalance; at the same time, the exhaustive statistical work done on kinship terms in the first 80 chapters of Hong Lou Meng and its two English versions, providing more comprehensive and detailed data, makes up for the shortcomings of previous studies. In addition, the study is the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Although the descriptive translation studies is the main theoretical framework of the dissertation, the starting point of the study is the description of the shift of language in source and target texts. The study, starting from the description of the static and closed language system, and ending up with an analysis of the external system, shows that even to discuss external factors, there is still the need for the description and analysis of the source language and target language in the context of the source and target culture. The study of language is always the foundation of translation studies. In this way, the study demonstrates the feasibility of combining normative translation studies and descriptive translation studies, which provides translation studies with an effective paradigm.
|
PDF Full Text Request