A Corpus-Based Study On Translation Styles Of Two English Versions Of Tao Te Ching From The Perspective Of Translator Behavior Criticism

Tao Te Ching,also known as Laozi,is a philosophical masterpiece attributed to Laozi,a prominent philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period in ancient China.It holds a significant place in Chinese history as a fundamental classic,encompassing 81 chapters divided into two parts.Tao Te Ching serves as a comprehensive representation of Taoist philosophy during that period.Since its first English translation by John Chalmers in 1868,Tao Te Ching has been translated into English for over a century,with a vast array of translations available today.The concise and profound language of the text not only carries immense philosophical value but also stands as a remarkable literary achievement.Consequently,conducting research on English translations of Tao Te Ching plays a vital role in promoting Chinese culture “going-global”.This study focuses on the research of two influential translations of Tao Te Ching: Paul White’s English translation in 2019 and Zhao Yanchun’s English translation in 2018.Despite their significance,there is currently limited research available on these translations,making them highly valuable for investigation.The study is based on Zhou Lingshun’s Translator Behavior Criticism theory proposed in 2014,using corpus tools to compare and analyze the translation styles employed in these two versions and summarizes the translator behaviors of the two translators.The analysis encompasses two levels: intra-translation behavior and extratranslation behavior.The thesis is structured into six chapters.The first chapter introduces the background,significance,and importance of the study.Chapter two comprises a comprehensive literature review,comparing the current status of research on translator style both domestically and internationally,as well as the existing research on translations of Tao Te Ching.Chapter three presents the theoretical framework,focusing on the theory of translator behavior criticism and the “Truth-Seeking-Utility-Attaining” Model of Continuum.Chapter four details the research design,provides an overview of the research questions,research tools,and research steps employed in the study.In chapter five,using corpus tools,conducts a comparative analysis on the Paul White and Zhao Yanchun translations of Tao Te Ching,exploring lexical,syntactic,and textual levels of translation based on the “Truth-Seeking-Utility-Attaining” Evaluative Model of Continuum.Additionally,the study examines the extra-translation behavior of both translators as “social beings”,focusing on the influence and changes brought about by the translator’s cultural background,the translator’s ability,the translation purpose and the target readers on the English translation of the two translations.Finally,by combining the factors of intra-translation and extra-translation behavior of the two translators and utilizing the Translator Behavior Criticism theory,this thesis evaluates the rationality of Paul White’s and Zhao Yanchun’s translator behaviors respectively.Chapter six concludes the entire thesis,presents the limitations of the study,and provides suggestions for future research directions.The study found that Zhao Yanchun’s translation and Paul White’s translation exhibited different translation styles and translation behaviors,with Paul White’s translator behavior tending towards “Truthseeking” and Zhao Yanchun’s towards “Utility-Attaining”.This thesis also explored the impact of extratranslation factors on the translator behaviors.The results indicate that extra-translation factors such as translator’s cultural background,the translator’s ability,the translation purpose and the target readers deeply influenced the two translators’ adjustment of the text.Overall,the translation behaviors of the two translators are in a reasonable range.The significance of this study can be mainly divided into two aspects: on the one hand,it can enrich the guidance of Chinese local translation theories in the research of English translation of Chinese classics to some extent.On the other hand,it can provide a reference for future translations of classical by evaluating two English translations objectively.