Translation Studies Of Discourse Marker Well In Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone

Under the guidance of Eugene A. Nida’s Functional Equivalence theory, this thesisstudies the translation of the discourse marker Well in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’sStone.The success of Harry Potter series is due to many reasons, apart from the novelitself, the role of translation cannot be ignored, and the translation of discourse markerWell is of great importance as well. As a common language phenomenon, discoursemarker Well can frequently be seen in the dialogues among the characters in HarryPotter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Discourse marker Well implies abundant pragmaticfunctions, therefore, it is very helpful for reader’s understanding of this novel. If theunderlying semantic and pragmatic functions of discourse marker are not fullytranslated, the accuracy of translation often will be affected. Since no agreement hasbeen reached on the definition and classification of the discourse marker, current studieson it mainly focus on its functions, which can be treated as the standpoint of this study.Nida’s Functional Equivalence theory puts emphasis on the principles of functionalpriority, the closest natural equivalence to the source language message and givingprominence to equal effect of receptor’s response, which lays the theoretical foundationfor the present study on the translation of discourse marker Well.In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Well is found altogether103times,71times of which function as a discourse marker. After collecting the71cases both in theoriginal and the translated text, the functions of Well are classified into3subcategories:structural function, informative function and emotional function. After comparing theoriginal and translated version, it is found that Su Nong’s version adopts threetranslation methods which meet the requirements of Functional Equivalence theory:translating Well into interjection, phrase and non-translation. But there are still someshortcomings, and the corresponding translation methods are put forward to improvethese shortcomings. The present study would offer help to the understanding of thefunctions of discourse marker Well, as well as the improvement of the translationaccuracy of the translated version and is believed to prompt the further study ondiscourse markers.