| Intended to evidence the fuzzy orientation in literary translation, this dissertation presents a corpus-based research on the important numerals in Xi You Ji or Journey to the West and their English translation in the hope that the comparative studies, both qualitative and quantitative, can shed some light on the inherent fuzziness of literature and the pragmatic fuzziness of numerals as well as the penetration of fuzzy theory into literary translation in terms of both practice and theoretical study.Numerals have been a personal interest for many years not only because we now live in a "digital era" where the numeral or "digitalization" permeates our daily life but also because numerical expressions help men of letters discover another dimension in their literary creations, that is, they enable the readers to feel the "fuzziness" and "emotional touches" of the originally precise numbers. It is a long-cherished wish, which dates back at least to my MA studies in SISU, to elaborate on that personal interest, develop it into a longer paper and in the meantime to embark on a new journey of discovering the mysteries behind the culture-laden numerals.Both as linguistic and cultural icons, numerals boast a long history behind themselves, whose presence can be felt in almost every major field of human culture, such as philosophy, religion, ethics, politics, economics, military affairs, literature, folklore and so on. Through a comparative study about the numerals and the numerical expressions in different cultures we can develop a better sense of the differences and similarities among people from another perspective. Take Chinese culture for example, the Chinese people seem to have a special liking for numbers in that there is a much higher frequency of numbers and numerical expressions in the literary works, such as Xi You Ji or Journey to the West. However, after a literature review, I come to the pitiful conclusion that the relevant studies deserve much more attention because the previous studies are limited not only in amount but also in the ways they are done, which is totally out of proportion to the significant role that numbers have played in the plot construction, characterization and thematic manifestation of Xi You Ji or Journey to the West.Xi You Ji or Journey to the West is one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature, a fantastic tale recounting the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the Tang Monk (596-664), one of China's most illustrious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disciples in quest of Buddhist scriptures. For nearly a thousand years, his exploits were celebrated and embellished in various accounts, culminating in the hundred-chapter Xi You Ji, which combines religious allegory with romance, fantasy, humor and satire. The first seven chapters relate the birth of the Monkey King and his rebellion against Heaven. Then in chapter eight to twelve is explained how Tang Monk was born and why he is searching for the scriptures as well as his preparation for the journey. The rest of th story describes how they vanquish demons and devils, overcome many dangers, eventually arrive at the destination and find the Sutra.Among other things, Xi You Ji or Journey to the West is chosen as the subject for the case study due to the following three reasons: firstly, ever since my childhood Monkey King has always been an idol and a symbol of a "super hero with a strong sense of responsibility and justice", who is as popular as the book and the television series based on it; secondly, numerals are more frequently used in this book than in the other classics, namely, Hong Lou Meng or A Dream of Red Mansions, San Guo Yan Yi or The Romance of The Three Kingdoms and Shui Hu Zhuan or The Outlaws of the Marsh, and are usually loaded with Chinese flavors and to some extent reflect the essence of the three major religions in China, that is, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taosim; thirdly, the comparison between the original and the translated versions is feasible not only because many English versions of Xi You Ji are available but because two full versions are published now, one from W.J.F. Jenner a British scholar who has spent many years working in China, the other from Anthony C. Yu a Chinese who has been teaching for many years in Chicago University in the USA.In terms of methodology, this dissertation is an attempt to be part of the unfolding descriptive translation studies with the aid of parallel corpus, which is so far the best instrument for quantitative analysis. Since the late half of the 20th century, scholars have diverted their focus from the traditional prescriptive studies of the principles or techniques of translation to an interdisciplinary approach, which develops into the current corpus-based translation studies, a combination of corpus linguistics and descriptive translation studies. Internationally, Mona Baker's Corpus Linguistics and Translation Studies: Implications and Application (1993) marks the beginning of the new field of study, which is in essence an empirical study about the translation process and its final product with both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Armed with this new instrument, scholars are supposed to broaden their horizons, attempt new approaches and conduct more empirical studies, but after a general review of the domestic academic publications in the related field, I come to the conclusion that we have not yet brought into full play the potentials of corpus as a tool in quantitative studies, especially in the field of translation studies. The conclusion is based on the theme and the number of the papers previously written, which is far from a good sign for the domain as a whole but for me an opportunity because this dissertation is intended to be a case study of Xi You Ji aided by parallel corpus with a view to evidencing the fuzzy orientation in literary translation, a typical case of empirical study. And thanks to the teachers from University of Shaoixing (in Zhejiang Province of China), a Chinese-English parallel corpus of Xi You Ji is available online, which is a perfect platform for the comparative study of the numerals in Chinese and their counterparts in English.Theoretically, the "fuzzy set theory" advanced by L.A Zadeh(1965) is adopted in this dissertation to illustrate the point on the following two accounts: for one thing, "fuzzy set", originally a mathematical term, has now gone far beyond the domain of mathematics and has been widely applied in both sciences and humanities and labeled as a revolution in our way of thinking; for another, translation as the most complicated inter-linguistic and inter-cultural activity, is by nature fuzzy both in the way it is practiced and theoretically studied, indicating that the only feasible way to describe it is the fuzzy approach. As a matter of fact, along with people's ever deeper insight into the fuzzy quality of human language grows the interest in the inter-textual or inter-lingual or inter-cultural rendering of the fuzziness, which gives rise to, justifying in the meantime, the fuzzy approach in translation, especially in literary translation. Another important concept is "fuzzy logic" which is a form of many-valued logic derived from fuzzy set theory to deal with reasoning that is fluid or approximate rather than fixed and exact. In contrast with "crisp logic", where binary sets have two-valued logic, fuzzy logic variables may have a truth value that ranges in degree between 0 and 1. Put more simply, fuzzy logic is a superset of conventional logic that has been extended to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely false. To sum it up, the two major contributions of "fuzzy set" or "fuzzy logic" to translation and translation studies are: firstly, the quantitative study of translation is made possible. For example, the most widely observed translation standard "faithfulness" can be quantified from "0.1" to "0.9"; secondly, the seemingly differences and conflicts between different schools of thought or different translators can be reconciled since "fuzzy logic" suggests that it is no longer a case of "either A or B" but a case of "neither A nor B" or "both A and B" in that in most cases the truth is only partial truth, or in other words, the truth always lies somewhere in the middle. Thanks to the first contribution, translation studies is getting even closer to being acknowledged as science in that the way it is studied can be quantified and explained in a scientific model. Equally important is the second contribution for the reason that to some extent it marks a departure from the traditional "true or false" way of thinking and pulls people back into the right track in recognizing the inherent fuzziness in everything, including translation, so as to cease the unjustified pursuit of "precision" or "perfect match" or "100 percent faithful" in translation.Translation, like human language itself, is multi-faceted, dynamic and holistic, which renders it unscientific and unreasonable to lay down the specific or even absolute rules for translators to follow as the traditional translation studies used to do for so many years. All things said and considered, the core value of "fuzzy set theory" lies in that it leads us to the true nature of translation: translation is fuzzy, whether when the fuzzy content in human language is translated or when translators decide on the"proper" (notice, this word is fuzzy, too) method to do the translation or to study the translations. It holds true for literary translation, in particular. literary translation, which is more often than not confusedly equivalent to translation both at home and abroad, possesses its own distinctive characteristics. Based on the previous studies, the dissertation proposes a definition of literary translation with an aim to bring out its fuzzy implications. The definition goes like this: As one category of translation, literary translation shares all the features of translation, which in essence is to transplant the meaning or sense in one language in another, but literary translation differs from other types of translation in that the translated version must be as literary as the original and convey all the intentions of the author, including the emotions, the thoughts, the linguistic style and most important of all, the total effect, which determines the dual quality of literary translation, that is, on the one hand, it must be creative because it possesses such features as artistry, creativity and vividness typical of literature and on the other hand it must be dependent on the original like any other type of translation. Looked at from the perspective of the translator, literary translation is an endless pursuit of resemblance on linguistic level and reconciliation on cultural level through the interpretation of each link in the chain that defines the whole process of translation, namely, "world-- author-- original work-- translator-- translated work-- reader" .When it comes to the organization, the dissertation consists of seven chapters. Chapter I is Introduction, which provides some background information about the origin and the orientation of the dissertation with the focus on its methodology and significance. Chapter II is Literature Review, which presents a brief survey of the previous studies in the related fields: the fuzzy numerals in literature and their translation, the corpus-based translation studies, the translation of Xi You Ji into English and its related studies, and the fuzziness in literary translation. Then comes the core of the dissertation, which is divided into four parts. Chapter III elaborates on the fuzzy orientation in literature by analysing the fuzziness in the creating process, the language and the reception of literary works: the fuzziness in the creating process lies in the way the world is and the way the author conceives it, the fuzziness in the language is explained from the perspective of its origin and the ways it is manifested (sound, meaning, rhetorics and punctuation) and the fuzziness in reception is illustrated from the fuzzy nature of literature appreciation, of the theme, of the literary image and the differences between the readers. Chapter IV defines the numerals under discussion, compares numerals in English and Chinese, elaborates on the typical usage of numerals on both linguistic and cultural levels (linguistically, numerals are employed to count, to classify, to generalize and to form words; culturally, numerals are deeply rooted in religion, superstition and convention and thus become culture-laden and culture-specific ) before concentrating on the fuzzy quality of numerals in literary works, which is approached from the following aspects: the causes, the classification, the rhetorical effect (typically for hyperbole, metonymy, contrast, metaphor, euphemism and pun ) and the aesthetic value (the peculiar charm about the numbers employed in the literary works for their brevity in form, vividness in image creation and the humorous effect ). Chapter V proposes the fuzzy orientation in literary translation, which begins with a redefinition of literary translation based on the previous studies. And that is followed by the evidence-searching process that covers the three major fields of literary translation, namely, translation criteria, translation practice and translation theory. A whole section in this chapter is devoted to the discussion of the fuzziness, consciously or unconsciously, behind the translation criteria put forward in the major domestic and foreign translation theories, which is followed by a section on the fuzziness in translation practice in terms of the translation process, the methodology in translation and the orientation of the translator and another section on the fuzziness in the two essential elements of any translation theory, that is, translation standard and translation criticism. The conclusion in Chapter V, resulting from theoretical analysis, will be further evidenced in Chapter VI by the omnipresence of fuzzy numerals not only in the original but also in the English version of Xi You Ji, which is based on the qualitative and quantitative comparitive studies of the key numerals. Then in Chapter VII the Conclusion, all the major findings in the previous chapters are summed up and the pun in the title is explained: by " numerals" is meant that on the one hand the dissertation is written "from the perspective of fuzzy numerals" and on the other hand is meant that the methodology employed is corpus-based, which presents another dimension to the studies on the fuzziness in literary translation by providing "data" and "quantitative analysis" complementary to the traditional qualitative studies.Based on the previous related studies and further evidenced by the author's research, the following conclusions have been reached in this dissertation. Firstly, literary works have an inherent fuzzy nature in that everything about literature is fuzzy, from its conception to its expression and finally to its reception by the readers. The conception is a process where the author's senses, feelings and associations are rationalized and finally materialized into concrete words, which also take on a fuzzy layer of meaning so as to match the fuzzy things they describe and the aesthetic effect that literary works aim to achieve. The reception is also a fuzzy process where the readers try to make the best use of their imagination to fill in the gaps deliberately left by the author and to determine the "indeterminacy" in the works, which is bound to be fuzzy because of the inevitable differences between the reader and the author as well as between the readers. It can be argued that it is nothing but the fuzziness that gives life to the everlasting literature in that the fuzziness or indeterminacy or the vagueness embedded in it gives birth to innumerable possibilities, which accounts for the fact that the classics can be interpreted in as many different ways by as many different readers and on as many different occasions. Dialectically speaking, being fuzzy is the only feasible way for literature to be precise and effective in conveying the meaning or achieving the aesthetic effect. Secondly, the numerals widely used in literary works, more often than not, take on the fuzzy look for the following reasons: the disparity between the limitedness in the words in human language and the limitlessness in the world around human beings, the fuzzy way of thinking innate and further acquired and sharpened in the human mind and the cultural associations endowed upon numerals and passed on from generation to generation. And thanks to the fuzzy aspect of the numerals, used alone or in combination with other words, literature is further enhanced in its expressing effectiveness: numerals play an irreplaceable role in helping achieve the rhetorical and aesthetic effects which are vital to any form of literature. Thirdly, literary translation is in essence fuzzy. Ironically, while scholars both at home and abroad are trying to come up with a universal and definite translation standard, they are tragically bogged down in fuzziness, unconsciously or later consciously. Traditionally and strongly influenced by the "two-value logic", both authors and translators are precision-prone because any vague idea would be considered as a slap in the face or at least a compromise, which is contrary to the fundamental law of fuzziness. Like it or not, the inconvenient truth is that translation, literary translation in particular, as a complicated, dynamic and holistic process, is doomed to be fuzzy. Any attempt to circumscribe literary translation by prescribing some exact and precise criteria is against both science and the nature of translation because precision is relative and conditional while fuzziness is absolute and universal. Seen from this perspective, the significance of introducing fuzzy theory into the practice and studies of literary translation is that it helps scholars depart from the traditional "neither A nor B" or " either A or B" pattern and take a fresh and fuzzy look at translation as it is and make the impossible possible by enriching translation with another dimension. After all, translation is all about reconciliation. As it is the soul of literature, so is creativity the soul of literary translation, which means that the translated version must live up to the requirements of any literary works and that there are no set rules to frame the creative process. The fuzzy nature of literature allows for different interpretations and this difference underpins the creativity from the translator's side. By acknowledging the fuzziness in language and in translation, translators can bring into full play their potentials in creating the closest equivalent of the original and being comfortable with the fact that there is always room for improvements since everything about translation is fuzzy. To sum it up, the translated version is to the original what the mosaic to the archetype: if observed too closely they don't match, but they do resemble each other when observed from a certain distance. And that is the essence of fuzziness: the truth always lies in the middle of truth and falsehood or faithfulness and unfaithfulness. Fourthly, the major differences between numerals in English and Chinese are summarized and evidenced through the qualitative and quantitative case study of Xi You Ji. In terms of their usage, numerals in English and Chinese differ from each other in the following ways: the numerals in Chinese are more uniform in form and a single Chinese character for a numeral has a higher repetition frequency due to the fact that there are no inflections in Chinese, unlike those in English; when it comes to the numbers indicating a large amount, the Chinese is multiplied by "ten thousand" while English by "thousand"; the Chinese people have a preference over numbers and numerical expressions when compared with English-speaking people in that the overall appearance frequency of numbers in Chinese outdoes that in English; numerals are loaded with cultural associations and those associations vary between different cultures because of the differences in religion, superstition and convention and so on. In terms of the case of Xi You Ji, the abundant numerals and numerical expressions have their peculiarities in addition to the common features, and the most prominent ones are listed as follows: odd numbers are much more favored by the author and plays a more significant role in the novel, which is not in accordance with the Chinese tradition of preference over even numbers because of their associations of good luck and smoothness as well as symmetrical beauty; Xi You Ji is the best case in point that demonstrates the Chinese people's special liking for numbers because the novel hinges on some key numbers (such as one, three, five, seven and nine) in terms of plot construction, characterization and thematic manifestitation in addition to its common use in forming some idiomatic expressions and the proper names like the names of place, of people and of medicine; the key numerals embedded with the cultural associations and religious significance are not fully represented in the English version, which on the one hand indicates the differences in the fuzzy usage of numerals and on the other hand the inherent fuzzy nature of literary translation.The originality and significance of this dissertation, as the author sees it, lie in the following aspects. Firstly, the perspective chosen is original in that there are no previous studies on the translation of Xi You Ji from the angle of numerals, especially fuzzy numerals. Secondly, the methodology is original in that the corpus-based comparitive study presents a more objective and comprehensive view of the fuzziness involved in the key numerals in the original works as well as during the translation process. Thirdly, the theory behind the analysis is fuzzy set theory, which, according to the author's knowledge, has never been employed to conduct a systematic research on the typical usage of numerals in Xi You Ji and extended the case study to the whole domain of literary translation so as to serve as a solid evidence. Fourthly, deeply rooted in the previous related studies, this dissertation redefines literary translation and sorts through the major translation theories from the perspective of translation criteria.Admittedly, there is still much left to be improved or to be followed up, due to the limitations both subjective and objective. For example, the numerals chosen are only limited to Xi You Ji instead of covering the other three of the Four Major Classics (Hong Lou Meng, San Guo Yan Yi, Shui Hu Zhuan and Xi You Ji) or even extending into all the Chinese classics, which would be a more comprehensive and more convincing evidence to illustrate the omnipresent fuzziness of numerals in literature and literary translation. For another example, it would be a much better platform for the quantitative study of Xi You Ji if such a corpus were established that would include all the English versions of Xi You Ji parallel to its original. Hopefully, the above-mentioned fields will be taken care of in the near future, by the author himself or through cooperation.
|
PDF Full Text Request