A Skopos-Theoretic Analysis Of Euphemism Translation In The Yangs' A Dream Of Red Mansions

Euphemism is a linguistic phenomenon as well as a widespread social phenomenon. Euphemism oils the human relationship in communication and helps to save face of communicators. Hong Lou Meng is full of euphemisms involving aspects of death, disease, sex and human interaction etc., which reflect rich connotations of Chinese culture. From a specific linguistic phenomenon of euphemisms in Hong Lou Meng, western readers can catch a glimpse of rich and complicated cultural connotations in psychology, modes of thinking, social behavior and value standards of Chinese nation. It is vital to unveil cultural connotations of euphemisms with Chinese characteristics in translation to every possible means.Many linguists and scholars have studied translation of euphemisms from different angles, such as rhetoric, semantics, pragmatics, social linguistics, psychology and so on. German Functionalist Translation Theory emerged in 1970s in Germany; it points out that translation is an action, and is a purposeful action. Skopostheorie, core theory of German Functionalist Translation Theory, provides a different theoretical framework and perspective for the study of euphemism translation. According to Skopostheorie, translating is a purposeful activity based on the source text and the prime principle determining any translation process is the purpose (Skopos) of the overall translational action, which says that a translational action is determined by its Skopos; that is, "the end justifies the means" (Reiss & Vermeer 1984: 101). Coherence rule and fidelity rule are also important rules in Skopostheorie. The coherence rule means that any translation should be acceptable in a sense that it is coherent with the receiver's communicative situation, that is, the receiver should be able to understand the target text; it should make sense in the communicative situation and culture in which it is received. The fidelity rule means that the target-language text or the translated text must be faithful to the corresponding source language text. As far as the relationship among the three rules is concerned, the fidelity rule is subordinate to the coherence rule, and both are subordinate to the Skopos rule (Nord 2001). In terms of the political atmosphere and other factors such as roles of agents, translation brief and Skopos, it's deduced that the Yangs regarded faithfulness to the original text to a large extent and disseminating Chinese cultural connotations embedded in Chinese euphemism as their prime purpose, which decided the focus on mainly following fidelity rule in euphemism translation. Furthermore, coherence rule is also the rule the Yangs would follow. In other words, euphemism translation is also comprehended and received by the western readers. More and more western readers are paying attention to the Chinese euphemism to finally carry out the purpose of the disseminating Chinese cultural heritage of the Yangs.The purpose of writing this thesis lies in adopting a different perspective, namely, Skopostheorie, in the analysis of euphemism translation in Hong Lou Meng.The thesis falls into three chapters. Chapter 1 mainly discusses the theoretical framework of Functionalist Translation Theory: Skopostheorie. It concretely elaborates the background and development of Functionalist Translation Theory and basic rules of Skopostheorie. Chapter 2 generally studies euphemisms, further researches into classifications and functions of euphemism in Hong Lou Meng and then analyzes the feasibility of the application of the Skopostheorie to the euphemism translation. In Chapter 3, the core of the thesis, the author of this thesis examines different roles of agents, translation brief and Skopos in the translational process and cites examples from A Dream of Red Mansions by the Yangs to demonstrate mainly following the fidelity rule in euphemism translation. Then comments are made on the euphemism translation of A Dream of Red Mansions, that is, although it can be seen from cited examples that Skopostheorie has its own limitations, euphemism translation is basically successful from the angle of translation criticism-adequacy.Through the analysis of euphemism translation of A Dream of Red Mansions by the Yangs, the author of this thesis considers that the first thing to be taken into consideration is translation Skopos of the translator when discussing the translation of cultural elements because Skopos is main decisive factor in the translational process that determines translator whether focus on fidelity rule or coherence rule. Skopostheorie provides a different perspective for the analysis of translation study of other linguistic phenomena.