Schema-theoretic Perspective On Humorous Language Translation Of Two Chinese Versions Of Pride And Prejudice

The concept of schema derives from cognitive psychology. Schema theory has been widely applied to the study of reading comprehension by linguists and foreign language teachers and it is increasingly used in translation study. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is well-known all over the world for its polished linguistic form and vivid characters. Particularly the humorous language makes the events and the characters lifelike; pungent criticism and clever dialogue show the author's ingenuity.This paper attempts to approach from a completely different angle how the translator transmigrate the humorous language of Pride and Prejudice into Chinese. Applied in my translation study are some basic prepositions of schema theory on the cognitive psychology. Two Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice are selected for comparing and analyzing.The thesis explores the issue of humorous language translation in the light of schema theory. In the process of translation, the translator subconsciously applies some methods to express the writer's humor. They are: 1) prototype matching; 2) template matching; 3) bottom-up process; 4) top-down process. All the samples are collected in advance from the two Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice.The thesis summarizes its research results from three aspects. First, within the framework of schema theory, humorous language translation is also a communicative activity involving three texts (original text, the schema text and the translated text) and three participants (the original writer, the translator and the target readers). The translator's primary concern is to adopt proper translation strategies to convey to the target readers the optimal renderings. Second, in the process of translation, the translator subconsciously uses his own schema knowledge and derives the effective expressions which are matched with original text. Third, according to his own schema knowledge, the translator should trigger the target readers'schema knowledge. He aims to communicate the author's intention to the target readers so that they can appreciate the humor in the same manner as the source readers did.This study bears theoretical significance in that it tests the validity of schema theory in the field of humorous language translation through comparative analysis of the two Chinese versions. In terms of practical significance, it offers to the translator several schematic strategies for achieving equivalence of the translated version and the original version.