A Study On The Translation Of Fictional Style Based On The Linguistic Adaptation Theory

The linguistic adaptation theory, put forward by Jef. Verschueren, Secretary-General of the International Pragmatic Association, is a new pragmatic perspective and explains language use from cognitive, social and cultural aspects and assumes that language use is a continuous process of choice-making with different degrees of salience for the purpose of adaptation to communicative needs. Under the framework of the linguistic adaptation theory, translation can be understood as a process of language transference and cultural transmission consisting of a continuous choice-making process with adaptation to the context and the structure of the target language consciously or unconsciously.Style translation is an important factor of quality of the translated work and a disputed subject all the time. Different from the traditional style researches, modern theories lay special emphasis on language analysis of the text. The Chinese translation theoretician Liu Miqing treats style as a symbolic system including two genres: formal markers and non-formal markers. The former focuses on the linguistic deviation and the latter the aesthetic effect. The research target for style translation in the present study is two Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice, the representative work of Jane Austen, and they're respectively translated by Wang Keyi and Sun Zhili.This thesis aims to offer a systematic and comparative study of style reproduction of the two Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of the linguistic adaptation theory, with the purpose of proving the feasibility and efficiency of the linguistic adaptation theory into the translation of fictional style. First there is a comparison of style reproduction of the two Chinese versions, studying under Liu Miqing's theory of system of stylistic markers. Next is an analysis of linguistic adaptability of the difference of style reproduction between the two versions, a pragmatic investigation from Verschueren's four pragmatic angles.Through comparison and analysis, the following conclusions can be obtained: The biggest barrier for style translation is the structural difference between the source language and the target language; Translators should put enough consideration and stress on the inner qualities of the work and the factor of readers for they are important components of non-formal markers which play a vital role in the conveyance of style; The transformation of stylistic markers should be a dynamic adaptation to the context and the structure of the target language with various degrees of salience in the process of style translation.The thesis is made up of seven parts. The introductory chapter includes three components: the research background, aims and significance, thesis structure. In the second chapter literature review, studies are respectively concluded on the application of the linguistic adaptation theory to translation, on style translation and on Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. The third chapter is the theoretical framework, offering brief explanations of Verschueren's linguistic adaptation theory and Liu Miqing's theory of system of stylistic markers. The following research design chapter gives an account of research questions, research methods, data collection and data analysis. Chapter five focuses on the difference of style reproduction between the two Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice, studying under Liu Miqing's theory of system of stylistic markers. Chapter six explores the pragmatic reasons for the difference concluded from the last chapter and gives a pragmatic analysis of the difference, from the four angles for pragmatic investigation. The last chapter is the conclusion of the whole research.