A Contrastive Study On The Two Chinese Versions Of Anne Of Green Gables Based On Skopos Theory

Along with the continuous development of translation theories, translation studies have been increasingly enlarging its research scope and such factors as extra-textual aspects are taken into consideration, which exerts a significant and important impact on translation studies. Skopos theory, generally thought to originate in the 1970s, developed from German functionalist translation theory. Different from the situation in which linguistics once dominated and people focused on the form in translation theories, Skopos theory emphasizes the studies of the function and social cultural factors related to translation activities. And Skopos theory advocates that translation is a purposeful cross-cultural activity. In the process of translation, the translators are continually influenced or constrained by a combination of factors, and the Skopos (purpose) of the overall translation action determines the translation methods and strategies. Therefore, the purpose of translators is to adopt appropriate translation strategies according to the translation purpose, in order to reproduce the text suitable for the target readers and accomplish the intended communicative aims. Skopos theory also emphasizes the Skopos of the target text in the process of translation. In addition, one of the most important factors determining the purpose of a translation is target addressees, who are the intended receivers or audience of the target text with their culture-specific world knowledge, their expectations and their communicative needs. Every translation is directed at an intended audience, since to translate means "to produce a text in a target setting for a target purpose and target addressees in target circumstances". In a word, Skopos theory, on one hand, breaks through the traditional equivalence-based linguistic approaches, on the other hand, it is an important and great complement and offers a new perspective of the translation studies.On the basis of the three major rules of Skopos theory, the author of this thesis makes great efforts to make a contrastive study on the two Chinese versions of the famous novel Anne of Green Gables, illustrating mainly from the perspectives of paragraph, syntax, diction and rhetoric as well as notes and omission. Through the contrastive analysis of the purposes of the two translators, the author of this thesis concludes that based on the different purposes and different target readers, the two translators employ different translation strategies and methods and produce two different Chinese versions with different translation styles and effects. Ma Ainong's version aims at introducing and sharing the classical works with all Chinese readers who have great passion for literature, while the version of Ren Shanshan is to amuse the children readers in China. In general, the two translated versions have achieved the purposes of the target text, met the needs of different readers and successfully fulfilled the communicative aims.