Gaps-Filling: A Dynamic Construction Of Meaning In Literary Translation

Translation is involved with the expression of the information of one language by another language. It is the re-representation of meaning of the original text by way of the shift between languages. In literary translation, the literary work as the original text is the starting point of translation, and, equally important, the source of meaning. The translator can understand the meaning of the original text from different angles and facets, but the understanding can only be one of the possibilities of meaning, which is presented through literal expression of language. The tension between literal expression and meaning in literary works is the representation of"gaps", indicating a continuous producing process from meaning to literal expression. Grounded on this understanding, this paper, taking Gadamer's concepts"pre-understanding"and"fusion of horizons"as the departure of the analysis and hermeneutic as theoretical framework, has an exploration of phenomena of gaps in the literary works on four levels of phoneme, lexeme, syntax and text, with an aim to reveal that the translator's understanding of meaning can only be seen as gaps-filling and the dynamic construction based upon the human's epistemology.This paper is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction part. It firstly points out that the issue on the translatability and untranslatability is the argument on"gaps", and on a series of the phenomena of"absence of equivalence", like non-equivalent words and semantics, caused by language and culture in translation. Secondly, this chapter testifies the necessary existence of the"gaps"in its relations with the investigation of the nature of language and culture, and further proposes that how theory of gaps can shed light on the process of the meaning of original texts can be re-represented in another language.The second chapter deals with the literature review of"gaps"in translation theories. It categorizes contemporary translation theories into two main schools:...