An Interpretation Of W. E. Soothill’s English Translations Of Chinese Classics From The Perspective Of Domestication And Foreignization

Domestication and foreignization are translation strategies adoptedby translators to deal with the linguistic incompatibility and culturaldifferences between the source language and target language. At the macrolevel, translation strategies are determined by translation purpose, type ofthe source text, the expectations of readership and other factors. Based onthe translation theories of domestication and foreignization, this studyillustrates the factors that influence the translators‘choice of the translationstrategies. Through the detailed analysis of missionary translator W. E.Soothill‘s Chinese traditional classical translations The Analects ofConfucius and The Lotus of the Wonderful Law from the linguistic andcultural perspective, the thesis mainly discusses the translation strategies W.E. Soothill has adopted in the process of the translation. The purpose of thestudy is to find out how the missionary translators deal with the differencesof the language and the cultural conflicts in the process of translating theChinese Classics. It consists of six Chapters: Chapter one is an introductionincluding literature review, the methodology, the significance of theresearch and the framework of the thesis; Chapter two relates methodologyused in the thesis：domestication and foreignization, which includes theirdefinitions and relative academic argument; it also presents the factors that influence the choice of the translation strategies; Chapter three presents theW. E. Soothill‘s life, attitude towards religious culture, views on translation,his Chinese Classical translations The Analects of Confucius, The Lotus ofthe Wonderful Law, and factors that influence the choice of his translationstrategies. Based on the theory of domestication and foreignization,Chapter four presents the application of domestication and foreignization toanalyze the phrase structure, sentence structure and literary style ofSoothill‘s translations from the linguistic perspective; Chapter five probesinto the application of domestication and foreignization to study propernames, number and units of measurement, expressions concerning religiousbeliefs in Soothill‘s translations from the cultural perspective; Through thedetailed analysis of the translated version by using the translation strategiesof domestication and foreignization, Chapter six may conclude that W. E.Soothill has adopted both domestication and foreignization in the processof translating Chinese Classics, that in the terms of linguistic features,Soothill gives priority to domesticating strategy; regarding to literary style,he mainly uses foreignization, domestication is used as a supplement; whendealing with cultural information of the source text, such as the propernames, number and units of measurement, Soothill mainly adoptsforeignizing strategy. As far as the expressions concerning religious beliefare concerned, domesticating strategy is used. Although Soothill‘stranslation is not a perfect version, Soothill sets a good example inskillfully adopting translation strategies to introduce Chinese culture to theWest in spite of some flaws in conveying the cultural information. Throughthe study of Soothill‘s translated texts, to achieve the translation purpose byskillfully using domestication and foreignization, a translator should notonly have great bilingual proficiency, but also have a thorough andprofound understanding of the cultural differences.