An Empirical Study Of Two Translation Versions Of Teahouse In The Perspective Of The Horizon Of Expectation Theory

Taking readers'horizon of expectations as the theoretical basis, the author illustrates the styles and translation methods used in Teahouse's two translation versions assisted by relevant computer software and instruments; Furthermore, this thesis further explores the reasons for translators'different choices of translation methods based on the two conceptions of "horizon of expectation" and "aesthetic distance". The statistics and descriptive studies of their different translation methods and styles at the linguistic and cultural levels disclose the relation between readers' horizon of expectations and translators'choices of translation methods; In addition, the application condition and the "quantities" of the utilization of literal translation and free translation are also illustrated. By doing so, a new perspective of deciding the translation methods is provided for translators.Teahouse, language master Lao She's peak literary creation, contains rich linguistic expressions, like Beijing dialect & idioms, and rich culture in various historical periods. Thus, the study on Teahouse at the linguistic level (lexical,syntactical & textual) and cultural level can effectively reflect the beauty of Chinese language. What's more, Ying's and Howard's translation versions are with different reader groups, which laid a solid foundation for the further illustration of the relation between the above mentioned two aspects.As far as the research method is concerned, the empirical method is adopted in this study. By compiling Ying Ruocheng Version Corpus (YVC) &Howard Gibbon Version Corpus (HVC), and by utilizing relevant computer software and instruments, the author clearly shows the features of the two translation versions at linguistic and cultural levels. By analyzing the reasons for these features, the relation between the readers'horizon of expectations and translators'translation methods are uncovered.