A Study On Humboldt's Conflicting Views Of Translation Based On His Language Theory

This thesis is to make a study on von Humboldt's conflicting views of translation by probing into his language theory. Wilhelm von Humboldt is well-known in the fields of both language and translation. Many of his language theories enjoy the popularity in theoretical studies and practical applications home and abroad. However, at least till now there are fewer researches on Humboldt's views of translation even though they have aroused more and more attention, especially the domestic scholars are short of all-round understanding about some of them. Both views of untranslatability and translatability could be found in Humboldt's translation theory, in response, there are quite different assessments from scholars venturing to resolve the contradiction. The author thinks that each view of Humboldt is irrefutable, and tries to look for their theoretical basis in Humboldt's language theory. In details, during the process of analyzing and reasoning from his theories of language to his views of translation, the author is to explore how each one connects with the other and try to find the points of the coherence between them. Based on that, the author is to make evaluations on how the two opposites are combined together, on how to look at his conflicting views of translation, and on what in this case Humboldt contributed to translation theory.This thesis proceeds on the basis of theoretical analysis and logical deduction. In Humboldt's statements of translation, it seems that the elements of national character and the general linguistic capacity play an important role in translation. Then the author is to look for their theoretical basis from his language theories about national spirit and language-making power, etc. During the careful analysis of his language theory, the author is to make the logical deduction from his conflicting views of language to that of translation. In details, it will be done as follows:The first chapter is to give a general introduction of research background, objective and significance of the study, research methodology, and the organization of the thesis.In chapter two, the author is to give a brief introduction to Humboldt and a review of current studies on his theories, in which the research direction and content of this thesis raise.In chapter three, some detailed points of his language theories are discussed. During the theoretical analysis of those basic views, it could be found that all of them contain Humboldt's dialectic thought that every theory is a unity of opposites. That's the preparations for the next work.The fourth chapter focuses on the study of Humboldt's views of "untranslatability/translatability" based on his dialectic concept of language discussed above. The author tries to find the linguistic basis of untranslatability and translatability respectively from the contradictions in his language theory, and makes the deduction from the latter to the former. Then to enrich the theoretical analysis, the author gives the example of poetry translation, since both the translatability and untranslatability of poetry could find their grounds in Humboldt's language research of the character of poetry. At last, the author is to summarize the coherent points between his views of language and translation.Chapter five presents the author's evaluations, according to the work above, on Humboldt's conflicting views of translation, including the dialectic relation between them, what attitude should be taken towards them, and Humboldt's contribution to translation theory.Chapter six is the conclusion part, based on the above analysis, deduction and evaluations, summarization and suggestions on further research efforts are to be made finally.