A Study On The Translation Of Idioms In Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives Of Windsor:from The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of the comedies by Shakespeare which differs from other comedies in that it is a realistic comedy full of life and vigor, and the language of this play has the highest percentage of prose of all of Shakespeare’s plays. This is possibly why idioms account for a considerable percentage in this play. As a language Master, Shakespeare puts the idioms of his age into creative use and fully demonstrates their rhetorical characteristics, making it a great challenge for translators to maintain their rhetorical effects in the target text. Since Shakespeare’s plays are phrased as both literary and theatrical arts, the target texts are supposed to have dualistic purposes:to serve in the literary system for the target reading public and to function as an element in the theatre discourse. Thus, it makes sense to explore the translation of idioms in this play from the perspective of skopos theory.Skopos theory is a translation theory developed by Hans Vermeer. It defines translation as a purposefully action. For different translation purposes, translators may employ different translation strategies. According to skopos theory, in order to realize the function of the target text and to meet the communicative needs of the intended receivers or audience, the translator should place himself into the target readers’ position in the process of translation and adopts translation strategies in accord with the expected function of the target text. According to this proposition, Nord suggests two types of translation strategies:documentary translation and instrumental translation.Under the framework of skopos theory, this thesis gives a descriptive study on the translation of idioms in the comedy of The Merry Wives of Windsor. It provides a literary review on previous research on idiom translation, surveys the rhetorical functions of idioms in the source text, and applies the skopos theory to compare and evaluate with detail sample analysis three of their Chinese versions by Liang Shi-qiu(梁实秋),Zhu Sheng-hao(朱生豪)and Fang Ping(方平)It attempts to look for a rhetorical access to idiom translation by exploring the realization of rhetorical effects in the target text.This thesis finds out that, the translation strategies adopted by these three translators for translating idioms in this play are differentiated since their translation purposes differ dramatically. For Liang Shi-qiu, the purpose of translating Shakespeare is to faithfully replicate the first-rate literary works for the readers, so he is inclined to adopt documentary translation strategy. While Zhu Sheng-hao and Fang Ping aim to translate them for common readers or audience, so they prefers instrumental strategy a lot. But comparatively speaking, Fang Ping places special significance on translating them for theatrical performance in a way suitable for actors’performance and the target audience’s appreciation, so he attaches more attention to reproducing the humorous elements of dramatic dialogues and the audio effect of dramatic language.This thesis suggests that a good translation version of Shakespeare should be feasible both for readers and audience. The rhetorical effects of the idioms should be well preserved in the target text. According to the translation purpose of the translator, the rhetorical purpose or function an idiom is expected to play in the target text, and the purpose aimed at by a strategy itself, translators can choose between documentary translation strategy and instrumental translation strategy.