Communicative Rhetoric In Literary Translation

Communicative rhetoric, as a linguistics phenomenon, aims at enhancing the expressiveness of language. In his seminal book, On Rhetoric, the Chinese rhetorician Chen Wangdao notes that communicative rhetoric lays particular stress on clearness and fluency in expressing the content, on precision and appropriateness in the formal structure, and on strict logic, accurate narration and overall relevance to give full play to the communicative function of language (Chen Wangdao, 2001:47).A work of literature is presupposed to boast exquisite linguistic expression as well as an appealing plot. So during the process of translating a literary work, the translator must first and foremost try to comprehend the communicative rhetoric employed in the original and then try to reproduce the original linguistic features with the help of communicative rhetoric of the target language. Pride and Prejudice, a world classic, not only has an interesting plot but the story itself is told in a witty, sparkling language. Therefore, during the process of English-Chinese translation, the Chinese translator should be aware of the basic principles of rhetoric at work in order to achieve maximum effects of linguistic expressiveness.Therefore, it's highly necessary to probe into the importance and specific application of communicative rhetoric in both Chinese and English languages. The scholars both at home and abroad have done a lot of studies on rhetoric; however, they fail to show adequate concern for the associative study between communicative rhetoric and literary languages. In fact, there are some Chinese documents on the application of rhetorical means in literary languages, but they pay too much attention to aesthetic rhetoric, considering that rhetoric equals aesthetic rhetoric, that is, the use of figures of speech; or that aesthetic rhetoric is superior to communicative rhetoric in many ways.Taking this situation into consideration, the author attempts to make a tentative study, based on the comparison and contrast of the three Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, of the significance of communicative rhetoric in language reproduction and transmission, which mainly includes the important roles the choice of words, sentence variety and rhetoric of discourse plays in reproducing the original style and the particular characteristics of the main characters.This thesis consists of five chapters in addition to the introduction and the conclusion. The thesis begins with introduction, which introduces the research background briefly, the objectives, significances as well as the structure of the thesis. Chapter one is a brief review of the past relevant research. It mainly includes the relevant translation thoughts about Pride and Prejudice and the previous studies of the Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice from different perspectives. Chapter two is mainly about the origin and the development of communicative rhetoric and its use in the composing of literary works, and its function and importance in translation. Chapter three is the analysis of the practical application of communicative rhetoric in the reproduction of Pride and Prejudice based on the comparison and contrast of the three Chinese versions in terms of the choice of words in translation for reproducing style and its association with the context. Chapter four moves on to the role that sentence variety play in recreating the particular characteristics of the main characters in Pride and Prejudice. Chapter five is mainly about rhetoric of discourse from the perspectives of cohesion and coherence. The conclusion generalizes the whole thesis briefly, giving the main viewpoints of the author and pointing out the contributions as well as limitations of this research.