Pragmatic Analysis Of Dialogue Translation In A Dream Of Red Mansions

This thesis focuses on the dialogues in A Dream of Red Mansions and its two English versions translated by Yang Hsien-yi & Gladys Yang and David Hawkes. Pragmatic theories of Speech Acts, Gricean Maxims and Politeness are comprehensively employed to analyze typical translated dialogues and to evaluate whether the pragmatic effect of the translation remain identical to the original. On the theoretic basis of pragmatics, the thesis also analyzes discourse macro-structure, register and conversation structure from the perspective of discourse reconstruction. To avoid similarity or repetition of the given examples, inductive approach is adopted to collect related examples from a certain range of discourse so as to explain translation strategies and different styles of the translators. Meanwhile, the successful treatments in dealing with specific problems also serve as reference for the solution to similar problems.Chapter One focuses on translator's efforts in transmitting illocutionary forces of the original dialogues with Speech Acts Theory. Besides the consideration of cultural acceptance of the readers, translator is also expected to differentiate the speech acts based on situational and textual contexts. Translator should utilize different translation strategies and adjust utterance propositions. In the analysis of the transformed propositions, three main reasons are mainly, different understanding of specific words, explanatory amplification and different compensation strategies. Combining pragmatic force and its utterance proposition, the verbs of say and laugh in Chapter 40 are under analysis. Statistics and tables reveal the strategies utilized in transferring invisible illocutionary verbs in illocutionary sentences into visible English verbs.Chapter Two analyzes how to convey the context information and implicature in dialogues with the theories of Gricean Cooperative Principles and Politeness. Gricean Cooperative Principles help study translators' efforts in delivering conversational implicature. Under the judgment of speaker's intention and implicature, translator can flexibly adopt strategies of addition and footnote based on the pragmatic. Politeness plays an important role in transmitting pragmatic information of Chinese expressions of respect and modesty. On basis of context and circumstances, translator should ensure politeness reappear in translation by choosing cultural filter or finding equivalent expressions of modesty and respect in the target language.Chapter Three centers on the discourse reconstruction in aspects of macro...