A Study On Illustrative Example Translation In The English-Chinese Learner's Dictionary

As a bridge between two different languages and cultures, the bilingual dictionary serves as an indispensable tool for the foreign language learning. A major part of compilation of a bilingual dictionary is, actually, a process of translation. For an English-Chinese bilingual learner's dictionary, the primary task of such a translation is to find the Chinese equivalents for the entry item and its illustrative examples. To do so, it is in fact an operation in the domain of translation. Therefore, this thesis could be identified as an interdisciplinary research in the scopes of both bilingual dictionaries and translation studies, focusing on the translation problems in bilingual dictionaries, particularly those of the illustrative examples.Definitions are the core in a dictionary, while the illustrative examples, which can be seen as the extension of them, make a supplement to the core. That's why dictionary reviewers often remark that "Illustrative examples in a dictionary are just like the flesh or blood in a human body",, which clearly emphasizes on the importance of the illustrative example. Consequently, the translating of the illustrative examples has always been given special attention during the process of bilingual dictionaries compilation.However, some traditional views still assert that the illustrative example translation in bilingual dictionary is similar to, even the same with literal translation. We think such disappointing ideas are not well grounded due to their lack of theoretical and practical basis, so it is quite easy for misleading dictionary users. Therefore, based on the contextual theory and equivalence theory, the thesis aims to, tentatively, disclose the general features of the illustrative example translation in bilingual dictionaries and distinguish it with those in the general translation. Illustrative example translation is different from general translation in at least seven aspects:translation backgrounds, translation units, pragmatics aspect, translation referentiality, expressive means, expressive contents and aesthetic principles. Furthermore, it proposes that the dictionary translation is more semantic-oriented, aiming at static equivalence, with more emphasis on the science of translating, while general translation is more pragmatic-oriented aiming at dynamic equivalence with more emphasis on the art translating. The thesis firstly makes a detailed introduction to the bilingual dictionary (BD for short hereafter) and illustrative examples translation by providing the definitions of both and lists the functions, and types of them. Then it goes to state the characteristics of the illustrative example. By making a comparison and contrast between the dictionary translation and general translation, it argues that, inadequacy in context, systemic feature and LSP are three main characteristics of the illustrative example. The "Context Theory" and "Equivalence Theory" have been taken as the guiding principles for translation of BD, particularly that of the illustrative example. So the example translation should sometimes also be contextually marked as general translation and fairly descriptive to convey the reality of the entry word, so as to remain to be authoritative. Translation with explicit syntactic and semantic structure is also greatly needed. In the meantime, culture specific entry item should be carefully translated so as to facilitate the cross cultural communication.