A Comparative Study On English Versions Of Xiyouji From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Xiyouji is the first romantic novel about deities and demons in Chinese literature.It integrates traditional Chinese culture of Buddhism,Taoism and Confucianism,which is both serious and humorous.Among its many translations,British translator Arthur Waley’s Monkey occupies an important position,which has been republished,reprinted and even re-translated to other languages for many times since its publication in 1942.Eighty years later,British sinologist Julia Lovell published Monkey King: Journey to the West,promoting the spread of Xiyouji further.Appraisal theory consists of attitude,engagement and graduation system.And attitude system,being the core of appraisal theory,is further divided into three sub-systems of affect,judgement,and appreciation,which concerns evaluations of behaviors,text/process and phenomenon based on emotion,ethics and aesthetics.The transmission of appraisal meaning is essential in discourse translation,which contributes significantly to the reproduction of interpersonal meaning of the source text.Therefore,this thesis,based on appraisal theory,analyzes Xiyouji and the two translations by Waley and by Lovell with a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.It compares the distribution of attitude resources in the source text and two translations,and discusses the factors that lead to relevant differences.It is found that:(1)There are 918 affect resources,1390 judgement resources and 565 appreciation resources in the source text,which decrease to 687,1046 and 499 in Waley’s translation,and740,926 and 497 in Lovell’s translation.(2)For the distribution of overall attitude resources,in both two translations,the amount of judgement resources ranks the first,affect resources the second,and appreciation resources the last,which is consistent with that in the source text.(3)For the reproduction of attitude resources,most attitude resources in the source text are reproduced in both two translations.But there are more reproductions in Waley’s translation and more deviations in Lovell’s translation.(3)For the deviation of attitude resources,there are differences of attitudinal force,omissions,amplifications,and shifts to other attitude resources in both translations.And there are more differences of attitudinal force,omissions and amplifications of attitude resources in Lovell’s translation but more shifts of attitude resources in Waley’s translation.Differences in attitude resources of the two translations are related to the following factors:language and text features,translators’ aesthetic standards and translation principles and social and cultural context.It is suggested as follows:(1)The source text presents unique language and text features in formulaic expressions,verse and poems and repetitious narration.In both translations,such language and text features are decreased,which results in major omissions of attitude resources in both translations.(2)Lovell pursues the economy of translations which is realized via compression and recombination of dialogues and plots,chooses dramatized language and overuses adjective and adverbs and emphasizes inter-annotations to improve readability in her translation.But Waley stresses the emotional equivalence between the source text and the translation and reproduces the information faithfully.Such differences contribute to more attitudinal deviations in Lovell’s translation.(3)Under the background of World War II,readers expect an entertaining novel and Waley himself interprets Xiyouji as a folklore.But in the new century,there has been many translations of Xiyouji and related cultural products to be spread in Western world,improving readers’ inclusive acceptance of Xiyouji.Therefore,compared with Lovell’s translation,there are more omissions and shifts of religion-related attitude resources in Waley’s translation to reduce the religious elements of the source text.