A Study On Tao Te Ching Translation From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Tao Te Ching (TTC) (道德经) has nourished and influenced generations of Chinese people, and meanwhile, it attracts scholars at home and abroad to translate and give new interpretations.Adaptation Theory (AT) initiated by Belgian Jef Verchueren as an overall systematic pragmatic theory mainly describes linguistic communications. In AT, language use is considered to be a process of making choices continuously for the needs of communication under different degrees of salience. In the macro-level, AT makes an overall investigation from cognitive, social etc. perspectives; in micro-level, it researches on the linguistic adaptation from varied structures and layers of language. While, translation, a special usage of language on the cross languages and cross cultures communication, can be inquired into by AT, since it involves the code shifts microscopically, and takes consideration of the effect of cognitive, social factors macroscopically.Based on the examples in Alexander, Waley and Gu Zhengkun's translated versions of TTC, the present thesis studies TTC translation and explores the complexities of it to bring the TTC translation into a integrated frame work as well as extending the research scope of it. Chapter one presents a general introduction of the thesis, besides, it is the significance of the present paper, as well as the data collection and research method. Chapter two shows the literature review of TTC translation and AT in translation studies. Chapter three introduces the theoretical origins of AT and some crucial concepts concerned, as well as the three properties of language, and the four angles of investigation of AT. In chapter four, the thesis applies the four dimensions of contextual correlates adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability and salience of adaptability of AT to explain and analyze the TTC translation at various levels from different aspects such as, cognitive, cultural and social factors, as well as word, sentence, text and rhetorical devices. Chapter five is the conclusion.