A Study Of The Translation Of Nicknames In Literature

Nicknames are named on the basis of the person's appearance, character, specialty, hobby, occupation, region, special experience etc. and have some praise or denigration from the public opinion and therefore constitute a part of the social judgment mechanism in some degree.Though nicknames exist in both Chinese culture and English culture, the factures such as different linguistic typology, history, living custom and religious belief are barriers to the C-E translation.The first difficulty comes from the great difference between the two languages. The second difficulty is those nicknames are culturally loaded. For nicknames in Shui Hu Zhuan, on the one hand, they are a kind of name, they have the features and functions of Chinese name; on the other hand, most of them are culture loaded expressions. Problems like whether they are translatable, can equivalence be got, which one is more important: function equivalence or formal equivalence, what methods and strategy should be used to translate them and how to deal with the problems caused by culture difference are waiting to be dealt with.With those difficulties and problems, many discussions about translation problem may occur. Traditional translation studies merely regard it as a linguistics-oriented problem and put emphasis on equivalence, which tends to get the corresponding rendition in target language. Those studies combine translation theory with semantics and analysis of grammar function and discuss translation from the perspectives of language features and the skills of language using. They believe that the purpose of translation is producing the TT which is equivalent with the ST and try to discuss how to get such equivalent text from linguistic level such as lexical and grammar.But those debates will never end if those discussions still confined in linguistics, because they only focus on texts, and different translator in different time with different background may hold different opinion to the same text. The process of translation is in fact a choice-making process. During the whole process, the translator makes decisions about choosing ST to translate, the strategy he will use to deal with culture difference, and the dictions etc. What we see and discuss should not only stay at the results of those choices, but the reasons and factors caused the translators make those different choices.Since translation studies took its "cultural turn", translation problem has been studied in a large cultural and historical background. With the help of the Polysystem theory and rewriting theory, we know that literary translation is neither simply a work of transformation, nor a pure literary action.Lefevere believes that any literature must live in certain social and culture environmental. Its meaning and value, its understanding and reception will be reflected and controlled by a serious of factors which related to each other. Those factors include those within and outside the literary system. Therefore, for translation, the study of nickname translation will not end up in the questions about whether TT and original text is equivalent in linguistic level or how to get the equivalence etc. but the culture problems which are related directly or indirectly with the translating activity.For nickname translation of Shui Hu Zhuan by Shapiro and Pearl Buck, the factors should be concerned are the ST, the translators, the patronage and the readers and so on. Apart from introduction and conclusion, the whole thesis is composed of three parts.Throughout this paper, the translations of Pearl Buck and Shapiro will be used as examples. Since no material about another translator Jackson can be found at present condition except his translation of Shui Hu Zhuan, nicknames in his translation are only used as examples for several times, and no more study about this translator is done in this thesis. Because Pearl Buck translated it into All Men Are Brothers while Shapiro translated the title of Shui Hu Zhuan into Outlaws Of The Marsh, in this paper, when this book is mentioned, Shui Hu Zhuan is used to refer to the source book.The introduction outlines the theme and the structure of the thesis.Chapter one introduces the definition of nickname in both Chinese and English, the brief history of Chinese nickname and the usage of nickname in daily life and literary works including in Shui Hu Zhuan. Besides, the existed studies concerned about nickname are introduced briefly.Chapter two discusses the translation problems from linguistic view. The linguistic features and culture elements of nicknames are analyzed as the base for the discussions about translatability, equivalence, translation strategy and methods. Though a variety of theories are put forward, it is impractical anymore for them to be reproduced with complete fidelity, for translation is far from being merely a linguistic transfer. Translation problem should be studied in a large cultural and historical background.Chapter three introduces the Polysystem theory and Lefevere's rewriting theory and attempts to analyze the factors which affect Buck and Shapiro's translation, which are the ST's position in translator's view, the patronage, the translator's individual knowledge and translate intention and the readers.A conclusion is drawn in the end to show that the studies from linguistic view and the culture both have their contribution to study of the translation of nicknames. While the "linguistic" approach reveals a great deal about forms and meanings, the "cultural" approach allows us to examine the subject against a broader background, and to derive some insight on why certain forms and meanings are preferred.