Analysis Of Zhang Peiji's Selected Modern Chinese Prose Writings From Adaptation Theory

Back to the Spring and Autumn Period, China witnessed the first selected historic prose Shang Shu. Since then, prose has always been considered as a significant style to record events. Compared with poems and novels, the study on the C-E prose translation is much backward, and notable achievements are numbered. Fortunately, Prof. Zhang's Selected Modern Chinese Prose Writings has aroused people's interest in prose translation once again. In this series, Prof. Zhang selected about ninety modern Chinese essays, most of which are written by famous writers after the May Fourth Movement. Each essay is endowed with distinctive features by the writer. These essays cover all walks of life, and advocate personality liberation and science against the feudal ideology. Since the publication of the first volume of the Selected Modern Chinese Prose Writings, it has continuously received appreciative criticism. For one aspect, the Selected Modern Chinese Prose Writings is considered as the model text in prose translation studies; for another, translators and English learners can refer to this series in study. Although many researchers have got engaged in studies of Zhang Peiji's translation, it is still difficult to make notable progress. The reason is that their studies are pressed for the theoretical framework. Therefore, the author holds that a systematic study will benefits translation lovers to treat translational issues comprehensively and scientifically. What's more, it may promote the prose translation studies in the long term.In Understanding Pragmatics, Jef. Verschueren proposes that pragmatics is a perspective on language. Still, that book interprets the Adaptation Theory comprehensively. According to the Adaptation Theory, language use is a process of making choices, and meaning generation is a dynamic process. When using language, people's salience of adaptation to language will affect the context and the structure. Under the guidance of the Adaptation Theory, the author holds that the translation is also a process of making choices. In the process of translation, the translator is confronted with various choices, such as the source text, translation skills, words, sentence structures as well as the publishing houses. All choices made by the translator are not arbitrary but in adaptation between the translator and the text. Meanwhile, quality of the translation is influenced by the translator's judgments of the target readers'expectations, the translation purpose, and cross-cultural awareness, which are reflected in adaptation to the context and the structure.Therefore, the analysis of Prof. Zhang's prose translation not only helps readers to understand the choice-making process in prose translation, but also helps them to comprehend the translation skills systematically. It hopes that a systematic study will be helpful for readers in translation practice.