A Comparative Study Of The English Translation Of Nicknames In Shui Huzhuan

Talking about Shui Huzhuan, the heroes come to people's mind first. The heroes all have their own characteristics and leave deep impression on the readers. Sometimes, their nicknames are more attractive than their names. In Shui Huzhuan, there are many nicknames, which is one of its linguistic features.Nicknames are named by others and recognized by the public, they do not depend on the person's will. Nicknames are named on the basis of the person's appearance, character, specialty, hobby, occupation, region, special experience etc. and have some praise or denigration from the public opinion and therefore constitute a part of the social judgment mechanism to some degree.Though nicknames exist in both Chinese culture and English culture, but Chinese and English formed their own styles in the long history. Because of the different linguistic typology, psychology, history, religious belief and living custom, the nicknames contain distinct national cultures and characteristics.Approaches to cultural elements involved in translation may be divided into two strategies:SL (source language) culture oriented and TL (target language) culture oriented, that is, foreignization and domestication. This thesis analyzes the classic Chinese novel Outlaws of the Marsh translated by Sidney Shapiro and All Men are Brothers translated by Pearl S Buck in aspect of culture transmission and comments on the uses of strategies of domestication and foreignization to deal with cultural message. Furthermore, this thesis analyzes the factors that affect the adoption of translation strategies such as social and cultural contexts, translators'cultural consciousness and orientation that may influence translators'choice of translation strategies.On the basis of the analysis of Shapiro's and Pearl's translations, it is reasonable to draw a conclusion that domestication and foreignization, which represent two different orientations, do not opposite with each other. With the development of the economic globalization, cultural communication will be developed. Finally, the discipline of translation can develop fully and systematically on the basis of translation theory and translation practice.