Application Of Communicative Translation Strategies To The Science Fiction Translation

Science fiction represents one kind of popular fiction and features perceptible characteristics. It is creative, science-related, amusing and popular. It has a wide range of readers who seek to obtain entertainment and recreation and enjoy the magnificence and grandeur of the unknown. From these points, science fiction is exactly the vocative text proposed by Peter Newmark, who advocates that communicative translation which attempts to produce in its readers an effect as close as possible to that of the readers of the original is the most appropriate strategy for translation of vocative texts where the focus is on the response of the readers. Translation means translating meanings, as Nida puts it. Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. Communicative translation, therefore, means translating meanings too. What is meaning then? Meaning is the relationship between signs and other things. Morris proposes that a sign system involves three main components:the sign vehicle, represent of the sign and the interpretant. Relations between two of the components are the three aspects of a sign’s meaning. Therefore, the meaning of a language sign is composed of three aspects:denotative meaning (the relationship between sign vehicles), referential meaning (the relationship between sign vehicles and the objects referred to by the sign vehicles) and pragmatic meaning (the relationship between signs and their interpreters). A good translated text should be equivalent to the source text in denotative meaning, referential meaning and pragmatic meaning, which is also true for science fiction translation.In this thesis, the author applies Newmark’s communicative strategy to the translation of five short science fiction stories by Margaret Atwood. By classifying words and sentences according to Charles Morris’s referential meaning, denotative meaning and pragmatic meaning, the author applied communicative translation strategies in the translation work and found that communicative translation is a major strategy for science fiction translation. In addition, during the course of translation, it is of importance to attach prominence to the referential meaning, denotative meaning and pragmatic meaning of words and sentences. As communicative translation requires a bold attempt to clarify the meaning, including the correction of factual mistakes and slips in the original, translators using this strategy pay attention to distinguishing the referential meanings of words or phrases in science fictions; communicative translation makes the translation fluent, idiomatic, and easy to read, so translators using this strategy attach importance to the communication of the denotative meaning in science fictions; communicative translation attempts to produce in its readers an effect as close as possible to that of the readers of the original, which is exactly the right strategy for pragmatic meaning translation.