Adaptation Of Contextual Correlates In Three Chinese Versions Of Anne Of Green Gables

Context is the environment in which language uses. It exerts great effect on languageusers as to language expressing and understanding. Context of a novel is the specificenvironment in which the language of a novel uses and it plays a significant role inshaping characters and constructing the plot in a novel. It also constitutes one specialpart of the novel. In spite of being derived from original works, a translated novel isan independent work. It thus has dual contextual characteristics respectively from theoriginal text and the target text. This also affects language users as to languageexpressing and understanding. Therefore, contextual elements are supposed to betaken into account by translator in the process of novel translating. In addition, theclassification of context by previous researchers is so complex that it is difficult forthe author to define and analyze contextual elements while studying context of anovel.With some further study on interpretation power of pragmatics on translation,Adaptation Theory has been selected for a study. Adaptation Theory was proposed byJef Verschueren to understand and interpret pragmatics from a brand new perspective.Jef Verschueren believes the process of language use is that of language selection forlanguage has three properties–variability, negotiability and adaptability. These threeproperties make it possible for language users to make negotiable linguistic choicesfrom a variable range so as to meet communicative needs. These choices can be madeat every possible level of structure and they need to adapt to the contextual correlates.Translation, as a means of cross-culture communication, is also a kind of language use. Therefore, it is of great significance to apply Adaptation Theory to the study oftranslation.This thesis first makes an introduction to the research background, research objectives,research significance and thesis structure. Then, it reviews the study of Anne of GreenGables and context before giving a theoretical foundation which covers the proposalof contextual correlates of adaptability and the applicability of the theory ofcontextual adaptation in novel translation. Considering the complexity of context of anovel and the central role that the original author, the translator and the target readerplaying in the adaptation of contextual correlates in novel translation, the authordivides context of a novel into context out of a novel and context in a novel. In thelight of version proposed by Verschueren to illustrate the adaptation of contextualcorrelates, this thesis also initiates an interactive mode of contextual correlates ofadaptation in novel translation to help the translator understand the internal mode ofcontextual correlates of adaptation in the process of novel translation. After this, thethesis makes a comparative analysis of adaptation of contextual correlates in threeChinese versions of Anne of Green Gables from the perspectives of the contexts bothin and out of a novel and points out that achievement in adaptation of contextualcorrelates in novel translation does help target readers understand the customs,practice, personality, mental state and the development of the story.In the end, the thesis comes to a conclusion that the theory of adaptation provides atheoretical framework for novel translation. It is helpful to distinguish between thecontexts out of a novel and the contexts in a novel in the study of adaptation ofcontextual correlates for novel translation. More importantly, several strategies areemployed to present a target text with its adaptation of contextual correlates at a highlevel as follows: On the one hand, for the contexts out of a novel, a translator shouldgrasp the scale with which to convey the original author’s intention to the targetreader as much as possible. On the other hand, contexts in a novel have beenclassified into non-linguistic contexts and linguistic contexts. For non-linguisticcontexts, a translator should adopt correspondent strategies on the premise ofguaranteeing the consistence with contextual features of the novel. For the physical world, a translator had better completely render the information rather than delete oradapt the original text so as to adapt to the background information; for the socialworld, the translator had better explain the cultural meanings by giving footnotes orother ways so as to achieve the effect that young readers can absorb these foreigncultural and social elements and then enrich their knowledge; for the mental world,translator had better adapt to the mental context before considering the adaptation inlanguage forms. For the linguistic context, the translator should adapt to languagestructure at every level. Only in this way can the target readers understand the targetversions, and then the cross-cultural communication can be successful.