A Study On Strategies For C-E/E-C Translation Of Allusions From The Conveyance Of Pragmatic Implicature

Allusions, as a particular kind of language, indicate the distinctive features of culture. Both Chinese and English languages abound with allusions, whose succinct forms and profound meanings make themselves more condensed and expressive. However, allusions, as embedded in specific cultures, have caused insurmountable problems in cross-cultural translation, which were not only linguistic problems, but also problems largely embodied on the cultural level, for the cultural connotation of allusions is not always identifiable; it is rather implied or remains implicit and approachable only to those readers who are grounded in the same culture. The implied meaning of an allusion here refers to the pragmatic implicature which includes its metaphorical, associative meanings and its cultural connotation. Therefore, how to convey the pragmatic implicature of the source-cultural allusions to the target language readers comprises the most important step in translating allusions. This thesis intends to study strategies for C-E/E-C translation of allusions from the conveyance of pragmatic implicature.This thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter I is a brief introduction to the whole thesis. It states the objective and reasons of the study. And finally it gives the outline of the whole thesis.Chapter II is mainly about definitions, sources, forms and characteristics of allusions. The sources of allusions are the focus in this chapter, which forms an indispensable factor in understanding allusions.Chapter III is the theoretical foundation of this thesis. Firstly, it introduces what pragmatic implicature is. Then different views holding by Prof. Qian and Prof. He on the treatment of pragmatic implicature in translation are compared. Each of these two arguments has their merits and demerits in translation. The author suggests a well manipulation of these two provide a pathway for the conveyance of pragmatic implicature of allusions. As allusion translation is cultural transmission to some extent, these two orientations--domestication and foreignization can shed light on the allusion translation. And it is suggested that foreignization should be the prime resort for allusion translation while domestication is treated as the supplementary guide in order to propose culture exchange and dialogue between China and the western countries in the age of globalization.Chapter IV is the bulk of this thesis. It is mainly about the guiding principle and specific strategies for translating allusions. In order to present the source-language culture for the target language readers, allusion translation should be conducted under the guiding principle,'cultural facsimile'. And in order to convey the pragmatic implicature of allusions, a wide range of strategies for translating allusions are discussed, for example, literal translation, contextual amplification, annotation, replacement, paraphrasing, re-creation, omission etc. The authentic examples mainly taken from different magazines and novels are used in order to check up these strategies in the C-E/E-C translation of allusions.Chapter V is the conclusion. No matter what strategy is adopted, the pragmatic implicature of allusions should be faithfully conveyed in the target language without bringing cultural dislocation and distortion.