Comparison Of The Three Translated Versions Of A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

Nowadays, translation has been historically brought forward by scholars in China and other countries to be an independent subject of translatology. This involves a complete series of scientific and systematic theories of its own. However, the research of the translating theories cannot be separated from other sciences as the connection with other sciences is significant. As a matter of fact, there have been many scholars trying to find out the translating theories in virtue of linguistics. And among all sorts of linguistics, the theory of metaphor absorbs more concentration from scholars. Metaphor is to gain the vivid expressive function through the connection of two things with different natures, metaphorizing one thing as another using the similarities in a certain context. There are two systems of cognitive reflection relations---space and time. Furthermore, metaphor represents nationality, visualization and psychological factors, i.e. psychological realism, different from the metaphor in traditional rhetoric. Languages express the cognitions of people to the world and metaphor is one fundamental way of language expression. Languages and metaphors are interacting. All the languages bear metaphors.In light of the theory of metaphor, this dissertation makes a comparative study of some extracts from three Chinese versions of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The aim is to search out practical modes from the totally mew perspective of metaphor and push the concretion of the translation standards and the development of translation theories forward. Meanwhile, the feasibility of the modes is proved in the course of the analysis.This dissertation consists of four chapters. The first gives a brief introduction to the aim, structure and significance of the dissertation and a summary of each chapter. The second chapter introduces the author, theme and writing styles of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. As the core of the dissertation, there is a detailed comparison between three Chinese versions (by Huang Yushi, Xu Xiaowen and Li Jingmin) in the third chapter, based on the metaphor-transferring modes. In the first section of Chapter Three, the metaphor-transferring modes are presented, making preparation for the next section. In the second section of Chapter Three, a comparative study is carried out in terms of sentences or paragraphs from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man on the basis of the metaphor-transferring modes, which is tested here as well. The third section offers the illumination of the relation between metaphor system, metaphor-transferring modes and translation. The last chapter is a sum-up of the whole dissertation, which emphasizes the relation between the original work, the three Chinese versions, metaphor-transferring modes and the state of translation in China. That will give a clear and general idea of the relation between them. As a result of the comparative study, the following conclusions are submitted:â…°Metaphor-transferring modes are practical during translation. The four modes have their order of usage by translators.â…±Thorough understanding of the original meaning is the necessary starting point in translation. Readers are the aim of translated versions and the recept of readers should be paid the most attention to.â…²Science calls for the innovation and scholars must be careful and precise.â…³Translators need to be knowledgeable, skillful and circumspective to avoid inadequate translation.