The Influence Of Context At The Semiotic Level On Translation

Chinese classical works, crystal of human intelligence, are one of the greatest treasures in the civilization history of the world. Zhouyi is not only a book of divinatory symbols, but also a philosophical one with deep and unique thoughts. It represents the finest cultural bearings and deepest wisdom of ancient China. Early in the Warring States Period, it was a classic and it stood out among all the classics in the Han dynasty. From ancient time till now, plenty of scholars have made a lot of researches on it. This thesis compares the two English versions of Zhouyi by James Legge and Wang Rongpei & Ren Xiuhua from the perspective of context at the semiotic level. Exactly it analyzes the influence on translation of co-textual context or historical context, existential context or cultural context, intentional context, and psychological context of the receivers.American scholar Charles Morris holds the view that semiotic process involves three basic factors that is sign system (S), user union (U) and world (W) and the combination of these three factor leads to six subjects: syntactics, semantics, pragmatics, praxeology, sociology and physics. Zhao Yiheng points out in a book Literary Semiotics that pragmatics deals with the circumstance under which the interpreter interprets the meaning of the signs and utilizes that relation between signs and the circumstance. From pragmatics, he divides context which has an inhibiting effect on meaning into five kinds: co-textual or historical context, existential or cultural context, situational context, intentional context and psychological context of the receivers. Situational context will be omitted because it mainly influences the translation of dialogue. The section of historical context indicates that time influences the wording and phrasing of the translator and the long history of Chinese characters will possibly lead to mistranslation; the section of cultural context shows that religion contributes to the religious color infiltered in the translation; the section of intentional context displays that different intention affects the translation method and style; the section of psychological context indicates that in the process of translation the translator will adopt different translation strategies by considering different psychology of the receiver.As for research method, such methods as descriptive, comparison, analysis and exemplification will be applied. Regarding the significance of this thesis, it is good for promoting the translation of Chinese classics. Chinese classics are one of the most extensive and magnificent treasures, but its translation is a weak link in the translation in China. Researching on classics is good for expanding Chinese culture and enhancing cultural communication among different nations.The whole paper can be divided into five parts:The first part is a brief introduction to the contents, purpose, significance and method of the research.The second part is the introduction to Zhouyi and its research, including the contents, author, feature and influence of Zhouyi and its translation research at home and abroad.The third part expounds the origin, initiator, development, target and function of the theory and its development and application in China.The fourth part, the main one of this thesis, expounds the influence of context on the translation of Zhouyi, including historical context, cultural context, intentional context, and the receiver's psychological context.The last part is a conclusion. By discussing the two representative English versions of Zhouyi, the author comes to the conclusion that because of different historical, cultural, intentional context of the translators and different psychological context of the receivers considered by the translators, the translation will emerge with diversified appearances. However, in spite of the differences, the two English versions of Zhouyi can be regarded as good translation at certain times and for certain people. Consequently when we compare several versions, only by considering various factors, can we make fair and reasonable comment, and retranslation of a work especially the classics like Zhouyi has great significance.