An Eclectic And Ethical Approach To Translation

Peter Newmark is a famous British linguist and translation theorist whose translation theory has exerted a profound and far-reaching influence on the field of translation studies. Although Newmark's views on translation have often been quoted and discussed by translation scholars both in the west and in China, there are many deficiencies in the previous studies on Newmark's translation theory. This dissertation reexamines Newmark's translation theory by analyzing its nature, its basic assumptions, its linguistic-philosophical foundations, its validity and range of application in an attempt to make a comprehensive, objective and systematic study on Newmark's translation theory.The basic argument in this dissertation is that Newmark's translation theory is an eclectic and ethical approach to translation in nature. Newmark's translation theory is eclectic because it manifests the following features: firstly, Newmark's translation theory draws on doctrines, ideas and methods from many other disciplines. Secondly, Newmark's translation theory attempts to narrow the gap between the source-text orientation and the target-text orientation in translation studies. Thirdly, Newmark's translation theory emphasizes the link between translation theory and translation practice. Fourthly, Newmark's translation theory endeavors to cover a wide variety of text categories rather than a single category of texts. Lastly, Newmark's translation theory attempts to account for the medial forces or factors involved in the translating process besides the basic dualistic factors such as the source language and the target language, the source culture and the target culture, the source text author and the target text reader. Newmark's translation theory is also an ethical approach since it is greatly concerned with translation standards, value-judgments in translation and the duties and rights of the translator. In the framework of Newmark's translation ethics, translation is a noble truth-seeking profession as well as an instrument of linguistic, literary and cultural criticism.There are four chapters in this dissertation. Chapter One makes a survey of the research work done by the western and Chinese scholars on Newmark's translation theory, pointing out the deficiencies in the previous studies.The eclecticism in Newmark's translation theory can be firstly demonstrated by the fact that it originates from many sources of language philosophy. Chapter Two reveals the linguistic-philosophical foundation of Newmark's translation theory. Newmark's translation theory is built on the language philosophy of Gottlob Frege, Karl Buhler, Roman Jakobson, Lev Vygotsky, J. L. Austin, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf. Firstly, Newmark's three levels of translating: the textual level, the referential level and the subjective level are based on Frege's Sinn, Bedeutung and Vorstellung. Secondly, Newmark categorizes texts into the expressive, the informative and the vocative on the basis of Buhler's organon model of language and Jakobson's model of communication. Lastly, Newmark's distinction between semantic and communicative translation is based on Vygotsky's distinction between internal speech and external speech, J. L. Austin's distinction between "constative" and "performative" and Sapir and Whorf s propositions on linguistic relativism. As Newmark's translation theory always explores the connection between language, mind and reality in the translating process, it takes an affirmative attitude towards translation and towards the communicability of human common experience.Chapter Three centers on the eclecticism in Newmark's translation theory. The first section of this chapter summarizes the eclectic features in Newmark's translation theory. The second section analyzes Newmark's conception of translation theory: Newmark's viewpoint on the nature, formation and functions of translation theory, characteristics of Newmark's translation theory, basic assumptions in Newmark's translation theory on the nature and essence of translation, on word, text and context and on language, culture and translation. The third section deals with the shift from dualism to eclecticism in Newmark's translation theory. Firstly, semantic and communicative translation are reexamined. The basic features of semantic and communicative translation are summarized, semantic and communicative translation are contrasted with House's covert and overt translation, Nord's documentary and instrumental translation and Gutt's direct and indirect translation, and the deficiencies in semantic and communicative translation are listed in detail. Secondly, Newmark's correlative approach to translation is analyzed in comparison with both Newmark's own semantic and communicative translation and with Jiri Levy's minimax strategy to find out the modifications Newmark has made in his translation theory in order to bridge the gap between translation theory and translation practice.Chapter Four revolves around Newmark's translation ethics. The first section of the chapter focuses on the three main components of Newmark's translation ethics: "ultimate purposes of translation", "close translation" and "the five medial truths" and draws the conclusions that Newmark's translation ethics is a modified version of the model of representation, that Newmark's conception of truth is a combination of correspondence theory and consensus theory, that Newmark's translation ethics is personal ethics rather than professional ethics, and that his translation ethics is deeply influenced by F.R. Leavis' theory of literary criticism. In the second section, a comparison is first made between Newmark's "five medial truths" with Nords' "functional plus loyalty", Pym's "intercultural space" and Chesterman's "four values" and then another comparison made between the four ethical models represented by the four ethical theories: model of representation, model of service, model of communication and the norm-based model. Then through a critical analysis of the four ethical models and the four ethical theories, the ethical foundations, ranges of applications and limitations of the four models are pointed out and the paradigms of translation ethics are tentatively constructed.In summary, this dissertation reveals the linguistic-philosophical foundation of Newmark's translation theory and discusses the eclecticism in Newmark's translation theory and Newmark's translation ethics to help to contribute to a better and clearer understanding of Newmark's translation theory.