| The dissertation conducts research mainly on the issues about reference，senseand meaning of proper names in Journey to the West and Chinese-English translationof these proper names. The issue on reference and sense of proper names, as one ofthe core issues in the field of language philosophy studies, remains one of the hottestproblems in linguistic studies. Based on the Text World theory from cognitive poetics,this dissertation provides a comprehensive and meticulous study of classification ofproper names in Journey to the West, and through textual analysis, proposes a newviewpoint about proper name’s meaning that from the perspective of Text Worldtheory, every proper name, especially empty name in literary works, constructs aquasi-text world in which the proper name not only possesses its reference andreferent, but also holds its own connotation, or referential sense, referring to theessential attributes of the referent, and the meaning, also called the textual meaning,referring to the occasional attributes of the referent. According to the new viewpointof proper name’s sense and meaning, this dissertation believes that it is expected touphold a diversified translating strategy of applying literal translation as a principlemethod with other strategies such as free translation and transliteration, etc. assupplements. This dissertation consists of the following chapters:Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the background and the significance ofthe subject, the contents, methods and the objectives of the research. The classicalstudies of names in China enjoy a long history but are confined more to the study ofdistinguishing proper names from general names and the relationship between namesand their referents, less to the reference and meaning of proper names. Originatingsince the ancient time, the proper name study in the west has confronted manychallenges. In this chapter, the research intention has been emphasized that the TextWorld theory is applied in re-examining the reference, sense and meaning of propernames in Journey to the West, based on which, the strategies in translating Chinese proper names, especially empty names will be revealed, thus promoting thedevelopment of investigating reference theory of proper name and its Chinese-Englishtranslation practice.Chapter two chiefly reviews the research situation of proper name, empty namein particular at home and abroad, including the main existing problems, and makes adetailed explanation about the main contents and major opinions in the Text Worldtheory. The Emphasis of this chapter is laid on the explanatory power of the TextWorld theory in analyzing the reference, sense and meaning of proper names inliterary works and their textual process of communication.This dissertation uses chapter three for, first of all, an overview of the presentresearch achievements about proper names in Journey to the West and their translation,then systemizing and classifying all proper names in the novel by the lights of thediscourse world level from the Text World theory into three aspects: proper names inthe discourse world of situational and background knowledge, proper names in thediscourse world of participants and proper names in the discourse world of time andspace. This chapter also involves an interpretation of the communicative process ofproper names in literary works and the idea of “a proper name reflects a quasi-textworld”.Chapter four witnesses a new statement on the reference, sense and meaning of aproper name, describes the translating process of proper names in literary works andpresents the principles and strategies in translating these proper names from Chineseinto English.On the basis of the classification of proper names in Journey to the West inprevious chapters, chapter five employs the three English versions of proper names inthe novel respectively translated by Anthony C. Yu, Jenner W.J.F and Arthur Waleyas corpus, compares and analyses the three versions from mainly three aspects ofstrategy selection, convey of referential sense and textual meaning of the proper nameand expression way of translated versions. The chapter, furthermore, discovers someexisting problems in current English versions and attempts to provide a promisingsolution. The dissertation concludes in chapter six that the Text World theory serves as afundamental theoretical frame in which all proper names in Journey to the West havebeen systematically and comprehensively classified and analyzed, meanwhile, a newidea of “a proper name generates a quasi-text world” has been put forward and fromthe comparison and investigation of three different English versions of proper namesin the novel, an improved opinion about translation strategies of proper names inliterary works has been advocated. The research in this dissertation, on one hand,confirms the practicality of the Text World theory and takes efforts in facilitating thedevelopment of the theory, on the other hand, tries to improve the reference theory ofproper name and provide a reference for the future translation studies onChinese-English proper names. |
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