Fuctional Representation Of Adjectives With Endigngs-Able Or-Ible-A Case Study Of Tess Of The D'Urbervilles And Its Translations

The thesis is to focus on the novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles (hereinafter called Tess) and translation of adjectives with endings of -able or -ible in this novel. The suffix -able or -ible in English, as Otto Jespersen and other linguists indicate, has passive meaning in most cases. It was produced originally by the addition of -bilis (Latin) -ble to verbs with a- stem, but extended to verbs with other stems, and to substantives as well. The meaning in new formations is now always passive, but the active meaning, always formerly possible, is seen in agreeable, answerable, capable, comfortable, suitable, etc. As the suffix -able or -ible has great semantic significance and strong verbal notion, and the thesis shall, on the basis of data collection, analyze how adjectives with endings of -able or -ible are dealt with when they are put into Chinese.Many scholars and translators have approached the novel Tess, either the original text or the translated text, from various perspectives. At the level of the original text, there are articles such as A Requiem for the Pilgrim—an Analysis of the Tragedy in Tess of the d'Urbervilles (2005) by Sun Yihong; Tess: a Tragedy under the Collision between Tradition and Modernity (2003) by Pan Hongli; at the level of the translated text, the available article such as The Inadequacy of Equivalent Dialect Translation - - a Case Study (2002) by Han Ziman.The current study takes a linguistic standing, a perspective not in great numbers so far, and the aim is to see how well the vivid expressions of adjectives with endings of -able or -ible are translated into Chinese and how this is achieved. As to the translated text, the version translated by Zhang Guruo is selected for the current study, which is the most widely read and the most authoritative. The study shall lead to deeper understanding of adjectives with endings of -able or -ible as well as their equivalent Chinese expressions. It is hoped that such an analysis can help the understanding of the language.The study is an experimental one based on the collection of data which adopts a linguistic perspective. In the study, data of adjectives with endings of -able or -ible in the novel Tess and their translations are collected and analyzed before a conclusion is made about the English and the Chinese language. The development of the thesis is as follows: Chapter 1 is the introduction, which include etymological explanation of the suffix -able or -ible, the passive and verbal notion it involves, the previous studies on the novel of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, along with the claims of the thesis. Chapter 2 deals with adjectives with endings of -able or -ible conveying passive notion and their translations, where adjectives conveying passive meanings are divided into two parts: those with the negative prefix and those without; Chapter 3 deals with adjectives with endings of -able or -ible suggesting no passive notion and their translations, In this part, the translations of such adjectives are classified into four categories and explained in detail. Chapter 4 is about functional realizations of passive meanings in the translation of Tess. There are some adjectives with endings of -able or -ible suggesting the passive meaning which are not translated literally as their passive meanings suggest. This is partly due to the difference between the English and the Chinese language. Chapter 5 is a conclusion drawn upon the basis of the former chapters.