A Comparative Study On The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer English-Chinese Translation From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Nowadays, cultural dissemination and exchange have become a trend of thedevelopment the world. Children s literature, as a part of culture, is also actively involvedin the trend. Under this circumstance, translation is particularly important, because it cannot only achieve the dissemination and exchange of children s literature but also providecredible material for the creation and the development of the theories of children sliterature. However, owing to children s special position, children s literature translationhas not been treated equally and is still scarce in practical and theoretical aspects. A largenumber of translated children s books are flood in the book market in China, most ofwhich are rewritten ones with poor quality. So, children readers can t understand thespirit and fun of the original. Therefore, the study of children s literature translation isvery necessary.According to Jef Verschueren s Adaptation Theory, language use is a process ofmaking choices constantly to meet communicational needs. From the perspective ofAdaptation Theory, there are differences between the source text and the target text incontext, linguistic, translators consciousness and times. So it is difficult to reproduceinformation of the target text. The enlightenment of dynamic adaptation to translation isthat translators can use strategies flexibly and select proper methods to complete thetranslation of text based on the specific context of cross-cultural communication. Theprevious studies on Adaptation Theory were mostly applied in the field of linguistics,stylistics and sociology. Few are involved in literature, especially, children s literature.This dissertation is tentative to make comparison between two Chinese versions of TheAdventures of Tom Sawyer under guidance of the Adaptation Theory.This dissertation is composed of five chapters. The first chapter offers a generalintroduction of the purpose, significance, research methodology and structures of thedissertation. The second chapter is literature review, including researches on children sliterature translation at home and abroad, researches on the Adaptation Theory andresearches on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its Chinese versions. Chapter Three istheoretical framework, in which four dimensions of Jef Verschueren s Adaptation Theory:contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, the dynamics ofadaptability, the salience of adaptation process are elaborately expounded one by one.The fourth chapter is the main body of the dissertation. Based on the Adaptation Theory, this chapter compares the two Chinese versions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyertranslated by Chengshi and Yan weiming at four dimensions: context, linguistic, dynamicadaptation and translators consciousness. Then, some findings of the research,limitations and suggestions of the research are expounded in Chapter Five.It can be found that: translators have to make choices and adaptations at all levels inthe process of children s literature translation, containing the levels of contextualcommunication, language structure, the salience of adaptation process and dynamicprocess. At the level of contextual communication, children readers are not able to digestand absorb exotic cultures. Besides, their mental world is underdeveloped, so translatorsshould adapt to children readers social world and mental world. As far as languagestructure is concerned, children readers language, style, expressions and the habit ofspeaking have to be considered by translators to make the version be understood andaccepted. With reference to the salience of adaptation process, translators should putthemselves in children s shoes to understand the world, at the same time, they have tomaintain childlike innocence to resonate with little readers thoughts. As for dynamicadaptation, a series of elements of children readers, such as, their understanding abilities,receptivity, aesthetic expectation, should be taken into consideration, translators need tomake dynamic adaptation in the process of translation. In the process of children sliterature translation, the above mentioned four aspects are related with each other. Onlywhen translators have a mastery of the four aspects, can they make choices appropriately,to make texts equivalent.This dissertation hopes that only when the translators can understand accurately andappreciate the source text, can their versions be suitable for children readers expectationsand be understood by them, through a comparative study of two Chinese versions of TheAdventures of Tom Sawyer. So, different versions have their own values.