On The Third Code In Foreign Literary Translation

Based on the theoretical framework constructed from current studies on universals of translation and the corpus-based studies on translated texts, this dissertation attempts to explore the features of the third code in foreign literary translation and unveil what lies behind.Explicitation, simplification, normalization and law of interference are the current findings of universals of translation. In this connection, a hypothesis on the features of the third code is proposed that the average length of sentence in translated texts is higher than non-translated texts in Chinese; conjunctions have a higher frequency in translated texts; foreignness, both linguistic and cultural, is another feature of the third code.Based on the previous hypothesis, this dissertation conducts a case study on two groups of literary English source texts along with their translated texts and Chinese non-translated texts. The literary works adopted in the same group are of the same genre and language setting for the sake of validity. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are adopted in the case study.Findings of quantitative analysis verify the hypothesis on the features of the third code: translated text has longer sentences than non-translated text of the target language in average; it has a higher frequency in conjunctions compared with non-translated text in the target language; it casts a feature of foreignness.The qualitative analysis reveals that explicitation, normalization and the law of interference are the three main causes that lie behind and make translated text sound like the third code.The conclusion is reached that in foreign literary translation, translated text shows features that distinguish itself from both the source text and the original target text, and thus stands in its own right as the third code.On methodology, a combination of both quantitative and qualitative analysis makes up for the disadvantages of corpus-based translation studies (CTS) in the discussion of length of sentences; a case study with materials of both norm and deviated gives new impetus in CTS. On theoretical findings, the features of translation universals are still controversial in the study field and this dissertation verifies three features and as well unveils the features that make translated texts sound like a translation, therefore confirms the third code in foreign literary translation. Hopefully, this study can shed some new light on translation strategies and approach the dispute on literal or free translation in a roundabout way.However, due to limited time and lack of access to corpus, this dissertation can not cover all aspects and only focuses on the features of the third code in foreign literary translation. More researches deserve to be conducted in the future studies.