A Comparative Study On Vocabulary Richness In Two English Versions Of Tao Te Ching

In order to explore the vocabulary richness in two translated versions of Tao Te Ching translated by the famous Sinologist Waley and the expert in theory of Lao Tzu in Taiwan,Wu Yi,this thesis takes vocabulary variability,density,complexity,frequency as measurement indicators to vocabulary richness,applies softwares to collect data and to test the significance,and does a qualitative analysis based on Hemeneutics.The results are as follows:(1)In vocabulary variability,native-speaker Waley has no advantage over Wu and the variabilities are both lower than that of English Corpus BNC.By comparing 10 core concepts,Waley’s vocabulary variability is much higher than Wu’s,however,the consistency of core concepts is destroyed.(2)In vocabulary density,Wu’s density is a little bit higher than Waley’s.But the difference is not significant.After comparing the density of nouns,verbs and adjectives,we find Wu’s version conforms more to original philosophical work.And his version has a higher descriptivity and lower activity.Meanwhile,the nominalization in his version is much more.(3)In vocabulary complexity,the complexity of two version are both low and Wu’s version is higher than Waley’s.Further analysis shows that Waley’s complexity reflects in his foreignization strategy while in Wu’s version,it reflects in the choice of low frequent verbs and the consistency of terms.And their different understandings of Chinese culture contribute to the difference in the vocabulary complexity.(4)Comparing the high-frequent vocabulary,two translators apply the identical words to construct a similar philosophical world.However,Wu’s consistent translation of terms makes a stronger philosophical system while Waley understood“德”“大”“善”as common words which decreases his version’s philosophy.Moreover,Wu’s massive uses of negative expressions convey Lao Tzu’s thoughts of“无为”and“不争”which does not reflect clearly in Waley’s translation.All of these have an impact on the spreading of Taoism.Above all,nationality may not be the key factor in deciding the vocabulary richness,but profession and the awareness of culture of target language matter.