On The Translation Of Speech Presentation Modes In Fortress Besieged

Speech presentation modes in fictions play an important role in depicting the characters'temperaments and in promoting the plot development. And they are often employed by fictionists to achieve stylistic and literary effects. In fiction translation, translators must fully comprehend these effects and try to render them to the maximum degree.Weicheng, one of the masterpieces of modern Chinese literature, has employed various speech presentation modes to portray the characters and promote the development of plot. The vivid characters and intriguing plot enable the novel to win warm welcome since its first publication. It can be said that speech presentation modes are indispensable to the success of this novel. In 1979, the English version of this novel, Fortress Besieged which was jointly translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan Mao, was published in America and has won a great fame for the novel in the world. The success of Weicheng and Fortress Besieged has attracted many scholars to carry out their studies on the novel. They have mainly focused on the translation of figures of speech, of culture and culture-loaded expressions, of humor and of pragmatic meaning in the characters'speeches. However, it seems that few scholars have studied the translation of speech presentation modes in Fortress Besieged.Against this background, this thesis attempts to study the translation of speech presentation modes in the novel and takes Leech and Short's theory of speech presentation modes and Shen Dan's theory of blend as its theoretical framework. With the theory, this thesis illustrates how these modes are translated in Fortress Besieged and what effects are achieved. Above all, it summarizes two translating principles of speech presentation modes, namely, emphasis on the context and on the equivalence of functions. It is found that Jeanne Kelly and Nathan Mao have maintained most of the speech presentation modes and have faithfully conveyed the stylistic effects embedded in the modes. Meanwhile, they have also made some adjustments based on the specific context, conventions of language, and reader's response. And these adjustments have not only conveyed the original stylistic effects, but also have added some new stylistic meanings to the novel.This thesis is composed of six parts. In the introduction, the thesis briefly describes the research background, research questions and research significance.The first chapter is literature review, covering previous studies on the translation of Fortress Besieged from four aspects, namely, translation of figures of speech, of culture and culture-loaded words, of humor and of pragmatic meanings of characters' speeches. This chapter summarizes the limitations of previous studies and emphasizes the necessity of this study.The second chapter is the theoretical framework. It mainly introduces Leech and Short's theory of speech presentation modes and Shen Dan's theory of blend. And above all, it explicitly points out the theoretical framework of this thesis.Chapter Three is the text analysis of Fortress Besieged. Under the theoretical framework, this chapter illustrates the translation of all the speech presentation modes in Fortress Besieged and the effects achieved in the translation.Based on the previous analysis, the fourth chapter points out that translation of speech presentation modes should put emphasis on the context and on the equivalence of functions.The last part is conclusion, illustrating the significant findings, limitations and implications of this study.