A Comparison Of Translation Of Linguistic Deviation In Ulysses From A Functionalist Perspective

As an important means of the technique of stream of consciousness, the linguistic deviation, mainly including phonological deviation, graphological deviation, lexical deviation, syntactic deviation and semantic deviation, is widely used in the novel Ulysses. It constitutes an indispensable part of the special style of Ulysses. Therefore, some scholars proclaimed in the evaluation of different versions that a translator should retain the linguistic deviation so that the version can be faithful to the source text and the Chinese readers can respond to the linguistic deviation in substantially the same manner as English readers appreciate the linguistic deviation. Meanwhile, the Chinese readers are offered an opportunity to appreciate the peculiar style of Ulysses. It has proved that retaining linguistic deviation helps the transference of the original style; however, the literary translation undertakes various functions, the translational activities bear different intentions and the criteria of evaluating versions should be diversified. It is inappropriate to apply the principle of equivalence in the evaluation of all versions without taking those factors into account. A further study of the methods of translating linguistic deviation and the assessment of the styles of different versions is needed due to the difference between English and Chinese.Taking German functionalist translation theory as the theoretical guidance, the present study deals with a comparison of the translation of linguistic deviation in two Chinese versions of Ulysses, one translated by Xiao Qian and Wen Jieruo and the other by Ji Di, so as to assess the two versions and explore the translating methods of linguistic deviation and the causes of different styles. This theory, mainly embracing Skopostheorie and loyalty, claims that the prime principle of determining any translation is the purpose of the overall translational activity. Skopostheorie consists of the Skopos rule, intratextual coherence and intertextual coherence, taking the Skopos rule as its top-ranking rule and superordinate to the latter two rules. When a target text shares the same function as that of a source text, equivalence can be taken as a criterion. When the two texts have different Skopoi and functions, the loyalty principle claims that the translator has a duty to explain the reason for doing so.Under the framework of German functionalist translation theory, this thesis interprets different styles of the two versions and the reasons for the adoption of different translating methods before giving a comparative analysis of examples of the translation of the linguistic...