Research On The Translation Of Sino-Japanese Homograph In Selected Works Of Deng Xiaoping From Functionalist Translation Theory

In Chinese and Japanese,a large number of homographs are a special linguistic phenomenon between these two languages.In general,Sino-Japanese homographs have provided great convenience to Sino-Japanese translation,but they also have differences in many other aspects such as meaning,collocation,style,or tone,thus,mistranslation or improper translation frequently occurs in the translation process.This research intends to study the translation of Sino-Japanese homographs in two Japanese translation versions of Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping(1975—1982)from a multi-dimensional perspective,including translation purposes,expected readers,translation strategies and methods,different acceptance effects and their causes.It aims to explore the influence of different translation purposes on translation strategies and methods,to analyze various factors that would affect the readers' acceptance of homographs translation by combining sepcific examples,and to propose a new classification for the method of translating homographs based on the functionalist translation theory.This research is assuredly of great guiding significance and referential value for later translators to deal with the translation of homographs in both CPC literatures and other documents,and it proposes the principle that translators should select proper translation strategies and methods based on the pre-established translation purposes.Therefore,the study of Sino-Japanese homographs in two Japanese translations of Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping would not noly benefit the translation study of political literatures,but enrich the study of homographs themselves.It does have a high research value both in the translation of political literatures and in other kinds of texts.By accessing to relevant historical materials and interviews of the principal translators and relevant persons of the two Japanese translations of Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping,the author has analyzed the backgrounds,purposes,processes,expected readers,etc.of the two translation versions,and explored the influence of these elements on the translators' decision-making and reflection in the translation process of homographs.The Sino-Japanese translation of CPC literatures,especially the leaders' works,are innovative and has considerable historical value.Research methods like translators' interview help the paper make clear that the two Japanese translations published respectively by Fubaisha and Foreign Language Press have differences in translation strategies and methods for homographs due to the different translation purposes and expected readers.And the paper also discusses the scientific guiding significance of functionalist translation theory in the selection of translation strategies and methods for homographs in CPC literatures and other documents for the future.Then,a comparative study is conducted on homographs of the two Japanese translations in audience questionnaire surveys.234 Japanese audience members are surveyed this time,and the scientificity and objectivity of the results are ensured because of the relatively balanced distribution.In the translation study of homographs,this is the first time that such a large-scale questionnaire survey is conducted.The specific method is firstly to extract a part of expressions that are translated into Sino-Japanese homographs and other words respectively in two Japanese versions,and further to select some typical ones for comparison.Based on the result of the comparative analysis,the author has designed a questionnaire and conducted it on a large scale among the target audience.According to the survey findings,the author has made a comprehensive analysis of the readers' reception differences on the translation of homographs in the two Japanese versions,and attempts to explore the reasons why there are differences in reading effects mainly from the words' meaning,collocation,style,tone,etc.Finally,the research method of comparison of translations has promoted the depth and breadth of the translation of homographs.In accordance with the functionalist theory,the translation methods of homographs in this paper are summarized as the following six for the first time:(1)transplantation,(2)annotation,(3)amplification,(4)translate into other Chinese words,(5)translate into non-Chinese words,(6)omission.Among them,(1)to(3)belongs to the foreignizing translation strategy,which shall retain the form of homographs;while(4)to(6)belongs to domesticating translation strategy that is oriented to the target language.Thus,the author on this basis trys to reflect the differences and diversities in translation methods of homographs in the two versions,and also makes concrete analysis based on the translations.This research achievement not only reveals the diverse translation methods of homographs,but provides the specific strategies and methods for Japanese translation of homographs both for CPC and other literatures.This research finds that the two Japanese translations of Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping by Fubaisha and Foreign Language Press have different translation purposes.The former mainly hopes to meet the needs of the audience who were interested in Chinese society and politics at that time and had a higher level of knowledge based on “Kanbun Kundoku”.So it tends to foreignizing Sino-Japanese homographs during the translation because of the readers' expectations,and the specific translation method is more about direct “transplantation”.The questionnaire on present readers,however,shows that most of the surveyed homographs that are directly used in the Japanese translation by “transplantation” will cause problems such as meaning unclear,collocation improper,style inconsistent,Sino-Japanese homographs with different tones,and then affect the comprehension of the readers.The Foreign Language Press expects to enable the Japanese people to better “understand the changes of China's history over the years and the development in the future” without limiting the people's competence on “Kanbun Kundoku”.Therefore,they adopt both foreignization and domestication strategies in translating Sino-Japanese homographs,and use more flexible and various translation methods instead of “transplantation”.And as the questionnaire indicated,the translation by Foreign Language Press is more understandable and readable for Japanese audience.