Object Selection In C-E Translation From The Perspective Of Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies

The research on object is relatively insufficient, compared with those of other syntactic constituents. Neither is the research on the dissimilarities of use of object between Chinese and English, let alone any research related to contrasts of object between the two languages. The Chinese classics of Hong Lou Meng and its two English versions of Yang Xianyi’s A Dream of Red Mansions and Hawkes’ The Story of the Stone (mainly Chapter Three) are selected. Based on Chinese-English grammar, Toury’s descriptive translation studies and the theory of Chinese as a process-oriented language while English a result-oriented one, and the two translations are contrasted to find similarities and dissimilarities in object selection.Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are adopted. Besides introduction and conclusion, the main body of the thesis includes:first, collections of the object in the source text and discussions on what constituent objects in the source text are translated into English; second, collections of object in the translations, and discussions on which constituent objects in the target translations come from. At the same time, with the description of the cited examples, explanations have been presented theoretically. And it has made generalizations regarding the decision-making process of the translator. At last, the norms of translation behavior on object selection in C-E translation are obtained using Toury’s descriptive translation studies.By the contrastive study, the thesis finds that there are some similarities and dissimilarities of object selection in two English versions. And the similarities overwhelm the dissimilarities. As observed, the dominant culture is one of the main factors for similarities in object selection, the two versions catering to the target culture. Other factors such as political, social and ideological explain the dissimilarities in object selection. These dissimilarities are attributed to deviation of norms. The main operational norm in C-E translation on object selection is to shift from the process-oriented to the result-oriented in translating Chinese into English. However, information position and subjectivity and so on affect the two versions in object selection.