On Chapter Titles Translation Of San Guo Yan Yi From The Perspective Of Foregrounding Theory

The aesthetic perception of literary works lies not only in the meaning it conveys,but also the forms of expression. The unconventional language use, selected andrefined by writers on purpose, is considered as the foregrounding linguistic features.The chapter titles in San Guo Yan Yi are antithesis with concise content andcomplicated forms. The translation of chapter titles in Chinese classical novels hasbecome a hinder for translators. The previous studies on chapter titles translation aremostly based on traditional framework like Adaptation, Skopos. Foregrounding theory,combining linguistics and literary criticism, is rarely been taken into account inliterary translation.Under the perspective of foregrounding, this thesis attempts to compare thecomplete chapter titles translation of San Guo Yan Yi between Roberts and Taylor andput forward a new foregrounding linguistic analysis model in literary works: authorialdetermination-textual presence-reader’s interpretation. With the aid of quantitativeand qualitative analysis, foregrounding linguistic features in chapter titles of San GuoYan Yi will be summed up at the phonological level, graphological level, lexical level,semantic level and grammatical level. After the discussion on the translation offoregrounding deviations and overregularities in chapter titles of San Guo Yan Yi, itcomes to the conclusion that manifesting the integration of forms and content,foregrounding theory is feasible to chapter titles translation of Chinese classicalnovels. Translators should conserve the forms of source text at utmost level under theprecondition of rendering accurate meaning.