A Corpus-assisted Study On The English Translations Of Color Terms In Tang Poetry

Tang Poetry, as a brilliant gem of Chinese literature, is high-profile in the translation sludies at home and abroad. Color terms, connected with natural phenomenon and almost every aspect of people’s lives and mental world closely, have been employed by a number of poets in their works to achieve the supreme state of the poetry, i.e."there is painting in poetry and there is poetry in painting". Therefore, this study,on the basis of qualitative and quantitative research method, under the framework of Susan Bassnett’s Cultural Translation Theory, examines the translation of color terms in300Tang Poems, comparing Xu Yuanzhong’s and Bynner’s versions, to provide a new angle of appreciating Tang Poetry and promote the cross-cultural communication.This thesis is composed of six parts. Firstly, the research significances, research scope, research questions have been mentioned; meanwhile the general overview of Tang Poetry and the corresponding translated versions have also been provided. The second part is literature review, mainly introducing the role color terms play in Tang poems and reviewing the related studies of color terms both home and abroad. The next part presents the theoretical foundation of this study including Susan Bassnett’s Cultural Translation Theory and Corpus-based Translation Studies. The fourth part introduces the research methodology of the present study, which gives a detailed account of the research objects, research questions, research tools and procedures. The fifth part presents the results of this study and the qualitative analysis. The last part is the conclusion of the thesis, pointing out the major findings, the limitations and future studies. The main conclusions drawn from this study are;1) According to quantitative data and chi-square test, the lexical features of Xu Yuanzhong’s and Bynner’s version can be summarized as follows:a. From the perspective of types of color terms, there are no significant differences between the two versions;b. From the perspective of frequency of color terms, there are significant differences between two versions;c. From the perspective of lexical variety, Xu’s version employs more varied color terms than Bynner’s version.2) Both of the two translators are more inclined to adopt foreignization to translate the color terms in300Tang Poems.3) When the color terms in Tang poems have been employed to depict some items without strong cultural connotations, such as natural sceneries, the literal translation has been usually adopted to maintain the color images of the original text.4) When confronted with color terms equipped with strong and specific cultural values. the translator tends to adopt some domestication measures to achieve the clear understanding with minimum ambiguity.