A Context-focused Comparative Study On The Translations Of Six Chapters Of A Floating Life

Language is a social phenomenon. When people use language to convey message, the specific context should be taken into consideration. In the study of language and translation, the researches show that context values high. Generally speaking, translation begins with the analysis of the SL text, then the information transformation and the restructure of the TL text. During this process, the accurate understanding of the SL text and appropriate expression in the TL text depend largely on context.The thesis focuses on a context-oriented comparative study on two versions of the translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life by Lin Yutang and Shirley M. Black, with the aim of emphasizing the importance of context in translation. The study will show that, though the translators are from different cultural background and adopt different strategies in dealing with the same SL text, they can both achieve cross-language and cross-cultural communication with different TL texts. So comes the charm of the literary translation - diversity and universality.There are five chapters in this thesis.In the first chapter, a historical survey of the studies of context is presented. The definitions and classification of context and the importance of context in translation are also discussed.The second chapter holds an introduction of Six Chapters of a Floaitng Life and its translations.The main parts of the thesis, including chapter three, four and five, conduct the comparative study of the two versions of the translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life from the angle of linguistic context, situational context and cultural context respectively.The conclusion part embraces the evaluation of the two versions. By research on the master's translation of a masterpiece, we can get inspiration to do our own translation practice for promoting cross-cultural communication.