The Consistency Of Yan Fu, Nida And Newmark's Translation Theories

The question of how to establish China's own translatology has been discussed for a long time. There are two opposite ideas. One holds that China has already formed its complete translation theory system, and there is no need to introduce Western translation theories; the other holds that there is not a complete translation theory system in China yet, so Western translation theories must be taken as the very basis to establish China's own translatologyThe author of the dissertation holds that though Chinese and English belong to two different language families and take on different characteristics under the influence of different types of mode of thinking, language universals far outweigh the divergences and people's understanding of translation's nature and function is rather identical. Therefore, basic theories on translation in China and the West are similar and the core of the two systems should be consistent. To prove this, the author chooses Yan Fu, Nida and Newmark torepresent Chinese and Western translation theories respectively and tries to probe into the consistency of their translation theories.The paper is divided into six parts.Chapter One is a brief introduction to the significance of the comparison between the Chinese and Western translation theories and their respective characteristics.Chapter Two is a general survey of Yan Fu. Nida and Newmark's basic translation theories. The chapter serves as the theoretical basis for the comparison that follows.Chapter Three is the nucleus of the paper to make a tentative study of their translation theories with some illustrative examples to show that though their translation theories are expressed differently, the core of them is consistent. They all agree that:a), a translation must be faithful in spirit to the originalb). a translation must be as expressive as the original and can change the forms if necessaryC). a translation must have the same kind of impact on the receptor as theoriginal Chapter Four further analyzes the consistency of Nida andNewmark's theories.Chapter five is to review the development of China's translation theories in the recent years and the development model: reflection-reference-assimilation-innovation.Chapter Six is just a conclusion of the whole dissertation.Yan Fu is to China what Newmark to Britain and Nida to the U.S.. Although the three masters approach translation criteria from different perspectives and in different ways, the content and basic theories are alike. Sothe right way to establish China's own translatology is to inherit the traditional Chinese translation theories and borrow the useful parts of the Western translation theories. The aurhor sincerely hopes the dissertation will make certain contribution to the solution of the long-existing debate on the construction of translatology in China.