A Corpus-based Study Of Four Chinese Translations Of Wuthering Heights From The Perspective Of Feminism Translation Theory

Recent years,using corpus as a tool to study translation is becoming an important subject for translation studies.However,few have applied corpus linguistics to the study of feminism translation theory.Most of the researches focus on qualitative analysis which lacks the support of objective data.Therefore,researches of feminism translation theory combining quantitative and qualitative analysis are urgently needed.Wuthering Heights,written by Emily Bronte,is a classic novel full of feminism ideas and many researchers choose this novel as an example to fight against gehder discrimination.Based on feminism translation theory and the self-constructed corpus including the original text of Wuthering Heights and its four Chinese translations,this thesis adopts a method combining qualitative and quantitative studies,to compare different translation strategies between male and female translators in terms of the text formality and the use of vulgar words according to Simon’s(1961)conclusion of women’s translated works and Huang Fenbao’s(2000)classification of vulgar words.The research shows that 1)female translators’ translations are more formal than male translators’ translations because the mean word length and the mean sentence length of female translators’ translations are longer than that of male translators’;2)female translators are good at using phrases especially four-character phrases which means that female translators’ translations are elegant and formal according to Wang Zhending(2003);3)male translators adopt "direct,violent and equivalent" ways in the translation of"animate vulgar words" and "cursing vulgar words",while females’ translations are milder and more roundabout;4)female translators try to improve translators’ subjectivity and make themselves visible by using female speeches;5)the total number of male translators’translations of the "vulgar words relating to woman" are more than that of female translators’ translations.All these findings prove that the kernel of feminism translation theory is to improve women’s social status and eliminate gender discrimination.Female translators,who advocate feminism translation theory,try to use female speeches to change the world dominated by men.This corpus-based empirical study of feminism translation theory,combining quantitative and qualitative analysis,is helpful to explore the features of female translators’works.Meanwhile this thesis makes it possible to analyze female translators’ translations objectively and provides a new way of exploring feminism translation theory.