"Survival Of The Fittest":A Study Of Translation From The Ecological Perspective

In the past half century,translation studies have undergone from the perspectives of linguistics, art, culture, communication, skopos theory, polysystem theory to deconstruction by way of support and influence each other. The presentation of multiple theories mushrooming in translation studies has driven a quick development and advancement of translation activities. However, it is obvious for us to see the defect and limitation of translation theories based on the researchers'differences from interest, nationality, culture, language, and education background.Along with the profound studies of scientists on ecology, people have already started to examine translation from the perspective of ecological analysis which aims not only to bridge natural science and social science and humanities but to offer a new sight for translation studies to solve the problems and to set up the new theoretic system on the basis of ecological holism and Darwin's evolution theory. It is a complex consisting of various translation phenomena and their explanations.Translation ecology, according to Xu Jianzhong, originated from the study of Michael Cronin, Dean of Translation and Discourse Research Center, Dublin City University, and whose theory has devoted a lot both to cross-disciplinary development and to new approach extension of translation studies.Many translators and scholars abroad and at home have ever conducted such similar studies as ecological analogy. They have applied ecological terms and concepts to describe translation interaction and have laid a solid foundation for further translation studies. Yet, translation studies on ecology, though after about 10 years, are still in the process of exploration and initiation with obvious limitation and defect including the co-relationship, similarities and so on between translation ecological system and natural ecological system with few works on comprehensive analysis and inter-disciplinary research of translation ecological system.There are, up to now in China, two sides of translation studies based on ecology. One is Translation Ecology by Xu Jianzhong (2009) whose Translation Ecology published by SanXia Publishing House in 2009 is highly valued and widely attracted for its new sight in translation studies. Another one is Ecological translation by Hu Gengshen whose researches have won the highest national fund support in 2008 with several pieces of articles published afterwards.According to Hu's An Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection, translators have to adapt and select once situated in the eco-environment in order to keep their survivals and otherwise they will be eliminated through selection. He puts forward the ecological translation theory on the basis of adaptation and selection theory to expect a return of translation studies to nature. He compares translation eco-environment with natural eco-environment, conducts a study on the whole system and focuses on the relationship between translators and translation eco-environment and even the development of the translators and their abilities in translation.The translation history has already proved that translators'studies have exactly followed translation interactions including their function, standards, subjectivity and predominance. The author believes that a translator's quality and ability such as languages level, cultural background, performance on spot, psychological feature, adaptation to the instantaneous changes and so on are bound to affect the effect and quality of translation work. Compared with translators, oral interpreters, if located into the complicated eco-environment of interpretation, usually accept more challenges and also interpreting is greatly influenced by interpreter's ability of adaptation and selection in the eco-environment. Therefore, interpreters must practice and train hard to meet the higher need of the society and to be qualified for interpretation profession and practice.This dissertation attempts to explore the supports of interpretation as a family member for translation theory from the perspective of eco-translatology by three hypotheses:1. Eco-environment of interpretation matches the natural and objective eco-environment of translation.2. Eco-translatology explains the innate character and essence of interpretation.3. Interpretation effect and quality depend on the interaction of interpreters and the eco-environment involving interpretation.Research method: literature review; hypothesis;conceptual analysis;deductive argumentation; empirical study;The dissertation can be divided into five major chapters excluding introduction and conclusion. Introduction provides a brief account of the history of translation studies, especially the background, and present situation of ecological translation studies. Generally illustrate the significance,the outline and the value of the dissertation based on the author's thought.Chapter one is the study of translation theory from different perspectives. By analysis and summarization in details of the translation theory and viewpoints based on perspectives of linguistics, art, culture, communication, skopos theory, polysystem theory and deconstruction, the author puts forward her own ideas. She then discusses translation studies from the new perspective --- ecological approach and outlines the writing of this dissertation involving theoretic value, method, and content. The author believes that translation study from the ecological perspective desiring to return objectively to nature is a must in translation research.Chapter two explores translation ecology from a macroscopic ecological perspective. It studies the definition, the terms, such as food web, ecological niche, ecosystem, ecological balance, ecological crisis, ecological evolution; the related theories as translation ecology, An Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection, biodiversity, language diversity, and ecological holism; the principles as multi-effects, inter-related principle, ecological factor, Shelford's law of tolerance, Flowerpots effect and Darwinian Natural Selection to set up a ladder or bridge theoretically for translation studies of Chapter three.Chapter three is an important part since it focuses on translation studies based on the concept of ecology. The author first distinguishes translation from translatology; and science of translation from discipline, or a branch of learning. While others define the nature of translation as an art, a science, or a skill, the author, however, believes it as the specific act which involves an individual or group who can gather, learn, and occupy.It deals with the relationship between a translator or translators and the way to keep their occupational or domain survivals. The chapter highlights the practice of some famous translators and introduces their theoretical achievements and translation thoughts to guide the followers the path to evolve in ability from practitioners to theorists. Finally in this section, the author argues about the theory of translator-centeredness to prefer ecological holism as the positive ways of eco-translation studies. The author tries to set up a framework of interaction of translation subjects. Chapter four is the study of interpretation based on eco-translatology. First, it summarizes the studies of interpretation as a family member of translation, from perspectives of translation, linguistics, cognition, philosophy, communication, and psychology. The author illustrates the definition, the nature, the features and the classification of interpretation. Most important of all, the basic features of interpretation eco-environment, such as sudden change, time instant, space interrelationship, individual performance, and effect remedy have been discussed. For the development and restoration of interpreters'ability, the author analyzes the interrelationship of the interpreters and their interaction. A laboratory test has been conducted and achievements test scores have been analyzed.Chapter five answers the three hypotheses of the previous part in description. The author suggests:1) Interpretation coincides with the natural eco-environment of translation.2) Eco-translatology can explain the factual process and feature of interpretation.3) The theory of"survival of the fittest"can indicate subjective function of interpreters.4) There are some defects in"Interpreter-centeredness"theory. To correct ,interpreter's function is more acceptable as a term in wording or diction.The last is the conclusive section. The author gives an overall conclusion of the whole dissertation. And she hopes to attract more studies and great attention to translation and interpretation studies from ecological perspective.