On The Translating Pattern Of Indigenous Concepts In Sheng Si Pi Lao

Sheng Si Pi Lao is one of the masterpieces written by Mo Yan. This book, which tells the history and culture of Gaomi northeast township, contains a lot of indigenous concepts. However, there are limited researches on its English version and nearly no research on its indigenous concepts in previous studies. Thus, this research chooses Sheng Si Pi Lao translated by Howard Goldblatt as the research object on the basis of the Conceptual Mapping Theory put forward by Professor He Yuanjian, then analyzes statistically the cognitive translation strategy of six types of indigenous concepts (linguistic, material, social, religious, political and ecological indigenous concepts) in the self-built database and summarizes its translating pattern. This study has enriched the translating pattern of indigenous concepts.To be specific, six types of indigenous concepts in Sheng Si Pi Lao are classified, and then a statistical analysis of translation strategies in these types of indigenous concepts is made according to Dr He Yuanjian’s strategic of translating unshared concepts. Then a comparision with He Yuanjian’s and Zhuang Yali’s findings are made. The findings in this study can be concluded as following:(1) there are 327 indigenous concepts in Sheng Si Pi Lao. Among the translation strategies,trans-coding is the most frequently used strategy and 155 cases are translated with trans-coding; paraphrasing takes the second place and 106 cases are paraphrased; 41 cases are substituted; 17 cases are deleted; 8 cases are translated with combination. Thus, the translating pattern of this novel can be summarized as:trans-coding> paraphrasing> substitution> deletion> combination. (2) Compared with the findings of He, this study finds that the translating pattern of this study shares a little difference with that in He’s finding. The use of trans-coding is more than that of paraphrasing, which is related to the translator’s intention. (3) Compared with Zhuang Yali’s fingdings in Feng Ru Fei Tun, this study shares roughly the same translating pattern as it. However, the use of combination has appeared in Sheng Si Pi Lao, which is ascribed to the maturing of the translator’s view and his knowledge of Chinese culture. Besides, the use of trans-coding has relatively decreased, as the translator is influenced by his wife’s translation view. Then, the use of substitution has relatively increased, because the translatior has taken the market needs and his cultural indentity into consideration. The translator thinks that translation is a betrayal, so the use of deletion has increased in linguistic indigenous concepts.Through the study on the indigenous concepts in Sheng Si Pi Lao, it can be concluded that the translation intention and views of the author and the cultural specificity of the concepts can affect the choice of the translation strategy in the process of translating indigenous concepts.