On The Translation Of Chinese Reduplicated Adverbs In The Story Of The Stone

Reduplication is an important morphological process in the Chinese language. It can apply to words of different classes, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, etc. The reduplication is endowed with meaning of various kinds, which include tentativeness, liveliness, short period of action, etc. Among the different types of reduplicated words, adverbs take up a very large proportion. According to spirit of Cognitive linguistics, every form is paired with a particular meaning. Therefore, a problem that arises is that how the meaning conveyed by reduplication adverbs is realized in another language, say English, where adverbs don't typically reduplicate.With this problem in mind, a research will be conducted to see how the Chinese reduplication adverbs are translated into English. The research is based on the comparison of the Chinese classic novel The Story of the Stone and its English translation by Hawks. This novel is chosen because it is written in standard Chinese and the language is not subject to European influence. First, all the sentences in the original containing reduplicated adverbs plus their English translations are singled out and put together. Then, the translation strategy of each sentence is indicated in brackets. Afterwards, the sentences are reorganized according to the translation strategies they employ. Finally, analysis is given as to why a particular translation strategy is employed in a certain situation.The theory of Cognitive Grammar and the theory of Dr. Eugene A. Nida's"Dynamic Equivalence"and"Formal Equivalence"are invoked for the discussion of results. According to this theory, the meaning of an expression is what it designates within a conceptual base. It is always possible to conceive the same thing in alternate ways as long as they involve the same conceptual content. Translation, therefore, is the process of finding different expressions for the same thing. When it comes to reduplication adverbs in Chinese, it is no surprise that English use different strategies to convey the same idea. Seven strategies of translation are identified, namely (1) AVâ†'V; (2) AVâ†'PP; (3) AVâ†'Prepositional Phrase; (4) AVâ†'the Structure of Adjective + Noun; (5) the Rhetoric Device of Alliteration; (6) Combining; (7) Force enhancers and (8) other methods. Untranslatability and Translatability of Chinese Reduplicated words are also discussed.It is found that except some special cases English could also effectively convey that meaning displayed by Chinese reduplication adverbs, further supporting the idea that translation is possible as long as the same conceptual content is shared. In addition, context plays an important role in determining which sense of an adverb is invoked, as polysemy is a common feature that characterizes many reduplication adverbs. Although the present study sheds light on the translation of reduplication words from the perspective of structural analysis, one potential disadvantage is its confinement of scope to only one novel. In future studies, the corpus should be substantially extended.