Studies On C-E Translation Of Tang Poetry: Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Classical Chinese poetry (CCP), as the quintessence of Chinese culture, is imbued with cultural connotation and artistic enchantment. Tang poetry represents the highest achievement of CCP, so the Chinese-English translation of Tang poetry can greatly spread Chinese culture and improve cross-cultural communication.Verschueren's Adaptation Theory (AT) is a relatively new pragmatic theory, giving an overall systematic description of linguistic communication from social, cultural and cognitive aspects. In AT, Verschueren assumes language use to be a continuous language choice-making process with various degrees of salience for the purpose of successful communication. And translation, a special form of language use, is a cross-cultural communication, which therefore can be approached by AT.Viewed from the angle of AT, this thesis studies Tang poetry translation from social, cultural and cognitive aspects and examines the peculiarity and complexity of it so as to channel Tang poetry translation into a coherent and integrated framework. First, it presents a literature review of Tang poetry translation, studying its significance, history, principles and approaches. The translatability of Tang poetry and its limitations are also discussed. Next, it makes clear an overall description of AT, including its origins, characteristics, key notions, and related previous studies. Then, grounded on the framework of AT, it elucidates the feasibility and function of AT in translation by cross-disciplinary transplantation approaches. Through the analysis of translating process from the perspective of AT, the significance and necessity of choice-making and adaptation are demonstrated. Finally, this thesis probes into the adaptability of Tang poetry translation from four angles, which are contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability as well as salience of adaptability. Based on case study, this thesis analyzes the adaptability of Tang poetry translation at various levels and from different aspects, such as wording, rhyme, rhetorical devices, grammar, style, and cultural factors.AT provides Tang poetry translation with a very useful perspective, and helps construct a systematic and coherent framework so as to improve the quality of versions and better the spreading of Chinese culture. The author holds that translation in essence is a cross-cultural communication realized by continuous linguistic choice-making with the translator's different degrees of salience.