Font Size: a A A

A Prototype-Theoretical Approach To Domestication And Foreignization

Posted on:2013-03-15Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:T PengFull Text:PDF
GTID:2235330362475278Subject:English Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Domestication and Foreignization are the main and much-debated translation strategies inthe act of translation, a study of which is closely related to the whole field of translation theoryand practice. Through theoretical deduction and/or empirical studies, as J. R. Taylor concluded,translation is a prototype category, and a prototype analysis of the STs (source texts) as well asthe TTs (target texts) can be more effective. As the focus strategies to deal with the culturecommunication, D&F also belong to a prototype category, presenting a prototype effect. Aprototype-theoretical study of translation strategies of D&F may bridge the gap between thelinguistic school and the cultural school.This thesis will make a prototype-theoretical study of D&F through a prototype analysisof the source and target texts, aiming to break the traditional dualistic-opposition situation of D&F. As a continuum of translation strategies, D&F can be regarded as a pair of correlated andinterchangeable entities in certain conditions. The research on this hybrid phenomenon willfurther confirm the significance of prototype theory in translation. Under the guidance ofprototype-theoretical view of translation strategy, better translations may be achieved intranslation practice. And based on the empirical study of the corpus, the thesis intends toconclude a standard prototypical view on translation criteria at the same time.There are numerous prototypes in the world. A prototype view of Noun entails that somenouns are better examples of the category, while others have a more marginal status.Significantly, the closeness of an item to the (semantically characterized) prototype tends tocorrelate, in many instances, with its closeness to the prototype defined on purely syntacticcriteria. Almost every category in the cognition is a prototypical category, with the feature ofclear and definite central prototype and marginal members of gradable fuzziness. Twocategories are associated with each other by the related entities and constitute a continuum, ofwhich two poles present a clear prototype, but the sphere between two poles is full of fuzziness. There is no clear and definite boundary between D&F, but rather a continuum of them. Atone pole there are those entities with the higher closeness to the source language and culture.These are what we called foreignization. Domestication, on the other hand, refers to theattributes with higher closeness to the target language and culture.Based on a corpus study of Zhao Fa’s translation, the thesis will be devoted to the analysisof translation strategies of D&F about verbs in the corpus, the prototype of dialogues, and theprototype of scenes in translation. It hopes to conclude a typical translation strategy of thetranslator and prove that D&F are not in a dualistic position, but in a continuum, and can bemutual inclusive in certain conditions.
Keywords/Search Tags:Domestication, Foreignization, Prototype Theory, Continuum, Fuzziness
PDF Full Text Request
Related items