A Study Of Translationese In Light Of Aesthetics Of Reception

We have been beset with transaltionese in the practice of English– Chinese translation. In our daily life, we can easily find translationese in translations, such as in literary works, movie titles, slogans, public signs, newspaper, magazines, periodicals and even in some textbooks. Translationese in translations on one hand affects the purity and beauty of Chinese, and on the other hand does harm to the cultivation of qualified translators. At the same time, its inadaptation to the target language both at linguistic and cultural level often leads to poor readability and acceptability of translations.Fan Zhongying defines translationese as: translationese is the common problem existing in translating practice with the characteristics of mechanical transference of linguistic elements, expressions, and syntactic structures from the source language to the target language, which results in the expressions of translations inadaptable to the target language. Translationese features clumsy expressions, imitation of superficial meaning and structures of the source language, ignorance of the linguistic characteristics and habitual usage of the target language. The translations with translationese are unnatural, unsmooth, rigid, obscure and difficult to understand. (范仲英,1999:98)Many experts at home and abroad have conducted some studies on translationese and given related definitions, such as Nida, Shuttle & Cowie,Liu Miqing, Fan Zhongying, Cheng Xixu, Sun Zhili, Yu Guangzhong, and so on. But by synthesizing the above studies, we can see the current researches on translationese are still limited at certain levels or some points, which results in people's incomprehensive and unsystematic knowledge of translationese. These researches don't help much in solving translationese in translations.Based on the situations above, we introduce Aesthetics of Reception to this thesis. Breaking away from the traditional text - centered and author - centered literary research trend, Aesthetics of Reception stresses the status of readers. The theory of Aesthetics of Reception holds that the end of translation is to serve its readers and the acceptance of its readers is an important standard to judge whether a translation makes sense. According to Aesthetics of Reception, translations should care for readers'horizons of expectation and meet the readers'horizons of expectation at both linguistic and cultural level to improve the readability and acceptability of translations. Further, in light of Aesthetics of Reception, as special readers, translators should have the special qualities that are difference from ordinary readers.In light of Aesthetics of Reception, we should try our best to reduce the translationeese problems in our translations. For this purpose, this thesis proceeds in three perspectives: forms of translationese, causes of translationese and solutions to translationese.According to Aesthetics of Reception, a good translation should meet the aesthetic demands of readers'both in linguistic and cultural dimensions. In this way, this thesis analyzes the forms of translationese both at linguistic and cultural levels. Further, as special readers (readers of original texts), translators should have the special qualities that are different from ordinary readers. Therefore, in exploring the main causes of translationese, this thesis proceeds in three dimensions: linguistic differences, cultural diffenrences and translators'qualities. At last, regarding the main solutions to translationese, the linguistic and cultural differences between English and Chinese are the objective causes of translationese that we can't change. In this way, the main solutions to translationese are centered on translators'qualities.