A Comparison Of Novel Translational Norms Between The Early 1980s And The New Century

The theory of descriptive translation studies encourages the change in translation researches from prescriptive method to descriptive method. Based on descriptive methodology, this thesis conducts a comparative research on two E-C translations of the Catcher in the Rye published respectively in 1983 and in 2007 from textual and extratextual factors on the theoretical framework of Toury's theory of translational norms.Through a comparison of two complete translations respectively by Shi Xianrong and Sun Zhongxu, differences will be shown as follows:1) In terms of matricial norms, syntactical structure of the English original has been retained more in Shi's translation because syntactical features are in conformity with those in the original version; however, there is a marked tendency toward making short and simple sentences in ST into one sentence with a semantic unity in Sun's translation. In addition, there is a substitute of marks in Shi's TT for the corresponding linguistic materials in ST while no such translation phenomena occur in Sun's translation. Nevertheless, there is a strong tendency to retain foreignness more in Shi's 1983 translation version in the aspect of syntax.2) In terms of textual-linguistic norms, four-Chinese-character expressions have been used in larger quantity in Sun's translation than those used in Shi's translation leading to different lingua-styles between two translations. Moreover, figurative materials have been literally translated to their corresponding linguistic elements in Shi's translation which brought freshness to target readers while phrases readily available in target language are applied in Sun's translation version. Then, when dealing with foul language, linguistic elements in the original are replaced with a cross, which helps to retain the implication of offensive language while the offensive words have been explicitly rendered in Sun's translation. Given different solutions to this translation situation, a conclusion can be drawn that there is an obvious tendency to retain more foreignness in stylistic and linguistic respects in the 1983 version by Shi Xianrong than that in Sun's 2007 translation.3) In the aspect of initial norms, a conclusion can be drawn that the translation in the early 1980s comes much close to the pole of adequacy, with due consideration of acceptability, while Sun's translated work in the new century comes much close to the pole of acceptability, with due consideration of adequacy.Through the examination of two translation events from extratextual factors, it can be concluded as follows:In terms of preliminary norms, both translations are directly translated from the English original. Besides, the early 1980s saw a single type of publications in translated works and a limited choice of foreign texts while the period from 1990s to the new century witnessed diverse types of translation publications and various options for source texts.