Application Of Analysis Of Contextual Features To Translating Classical Chinese Poetry Into English

Translating is a complicated process of intercultural communication. Translatingpoems is considered the most difficult sphere of the event. Quite different translationsare often produced because translators have different ideas about translating anddifferent interpretations of one and the same poem. Different results also come from thefact that translators adopt different methods, rendering a metrical verse either intometrical verse or free verse or even prose. Translators often have different ideas abouthow to transfer images that are culture-loaded and culture-specific and about how todeal with ambiguity in poetry. What's more, criticism of poetry translation is oftenconfusing and learners of this art are often at a loss as to which way to follow. In anattempt to solve the above problems, the author of this dissertation introduces acontextual approach, which puts the interpretation of a poem, the choice of translatingstrategies and the criticism of translation all into the framework of analysis ofcontextual features. Though the author of this dissertation confines his discussionmainly to the translation of classical Chinese poetry into English, he suggests that thecontextual approach be applied to all kinds of translation.Translators work on the interpretation and the transfer of various texts. Texts aretherefore the direct object in translating. But as textlinguistics shows that any text isproduced in a specific context and thus context has become an essential factor in theunderstanding of texts. Some scholars both at home and abroad have noticed theimportance of context centuries before. But it was not until Malinowski put forward hisconception of context of situation in 1923 did linguists begin to show increasing interestin the study of context and they now are attaching more and more importance to it. Firth,Hymes, Sperber, Wilson, Halliday and Hasan all made some contribution to the study ofAbstract55context. In an attempt to build Malinowski's conception of context of situation into aspecifically linguistic theory, Firth considered it not as a concrete term but as an abstractschematic construct consisting of a group of related categories. Halliday and Hasanproposed their `register' theory which gives a detailed study of the three dimensions oflanguage variation膄ield of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse. The`register' theory is actually a context theory, for factors like `field', `tenor' and `mode'resemble much Firth's `a group of related categories'. Sperber & Wilson with theirrelevance theory have called people's attention to cognitive context and enlarged thescope of our context studies. Hymes specified some of the contextual features for ouranalysis. These contextual features mainly include: `addressor', `addressee', `topic',`setting', `channel', `code', `message-form'. `purpose', `effect' and `assumptionFindings of context studies of these scholars throw more light on the nature of languageunderstanding and on that of communication, including intercultural communication. Indoing translation, translators also find the vital importance of knowledge of context, buttheir attention has been mainly confined to the understanding of certain lexical itemsand to the resolving of multiple meanings of some sentences.In this dissertation, however, the author suggests that we apply the findings oflinguists on context studies to the translation of classical Chinese poetry into English,making a thorough and detailed analysis of the related contextual features to arrive at amore reasonable interpretation of the ST, a more proper choice of translating strategiesand a more comprehensive criticism of translation. He points out that since rhyme is oneof the most prominent features of classical Chinese poetry, the translation in the...