A Comparative Study Of Dialect Translation In Three English Versions Of Luotuo Xiangzi

Entitled as"People's Artist", Lao She is one of the most notable representatives of Chinese Modern Literature in 20th Century. His works are famous for humorous style and strong local color, especially Beijing dialect. Luotuo Xiangzi is such a representative. In Luotuo Xiangzi, Beijing flavor can be found from the descriptions of people and environment to the reflection of social life and people's language. How to translate the genuine Beijing dialect is a problem faced by the translator. This thesis is to evaluate the renderings of dialect in three English versions on the basis of Nida's translation theories. By employing Nida's theories, the author analyzes the translation strategies and compares the merits and demerits of three versions.The thesis is divided into six chapters. Through renderings of dialect and culture, it evaluates the translators'strategies.Chapter one introduces the research background, methodology, literature review and significance of this study.Chapter two introduces Nida's translation theories and summarizes his research in linguistic and culture. Functional equivalence is Nida's major contribution to translation theories."Translation consists in reproducing in the language the closet natural equivalence of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style."Chapter three introduces Lao She's profile and his Beijing complex and summarizes typical features of his works. We also examine three English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi and translation strategies.Chapter four evaluates the dialect in Luotuo Xiangzi and summarizes the translation strategies and their use in dialect translation. Lao She was born into and spent most his life in Beijing, so naturally his novels are enrooted in Beijing culture. Luotuo Xiangzi is set in Beijing in which the typical features of Beijing local novel can be found: from characters'language to the culture implications. Three English versions were translated respectively by Evan King, Jean M. James and Shi Xiaojing. Chapter five evaluates the cultural translation in three versions. Culture has the features of distinctive nationality and local color, which is also the difficulty for translators. Beijing dialect has its unique vocabulary and cultural implications. How to keep the local color is a problem considered by the translator. In order to achieve different goals in the rendering, the translator should employ different strategies.Chapter six is the brief summary. It gives merits and demerits of three versions and significance of the study.