A Study Of English Translation Of Chinese Classics In The Perspective Of Interpretant Theory

In today’s globalization, it is of great importance to translate Chinese classics into majorforeign languages to promote national culture, accelerate cultural harmony and keep inherentcultural identity of China. This thesis focuses on the evaluating function of the “InterpretantTheory” that Venuti particularly proposed for the translation of classics with the example of theEnglish versions of Chinese Shi Jing. In order to reveal the specificity that differs the translation ofclassics from general translation, the Interpretant Theory has made use of several concepts ingeneral linguistics, semantics and philology and divides the whole process of the translation ofclassics into three orders (Foreign Text, Translation as Metalanguage and Translation as Axiology)in which the order of Translation as Axiology is the most significant. A couple of concepts, signifierand signified, for example, are considered to be the central points in all the three orders, and thenew concept “interpretant” proposed by Venuti is defined as somewhat a social system that links thethree orders. Therefore, by the Interpretant Theory, translations of classical works can be studiedfrom the linguistic perspective, and the process of evaluating translation is better directed for thedivision of three orders.The thesis introduces translation theories at home and abroad concerning the translation ofclassics. Then, the structure and basic concepts in the Interpretant Theory are demonstrated in detailin order to lay the theory foundation for the textual analysis that follows. To study the evaluatingfunction of the Interpretant Theory, four English versions of Guofeng in Shi Jing are selected andthree orders of the translation of classics are exemplified by different annotations or translations ofthe same Foreign Text. In the evaluating process, signifier and signified are considered to be the main criteria as better corresponding translation that can better transmit the signified of the ForeignText and continuously accumulate the classical value. Therefore, the examples of various historicalannotations are listed in the study of the order of Foreign Text, and different handlings ofannotations, preface and postface in the four English versions are compared in the order ofTranslation as Axiology. What is more, the translations of rhythms, words, lines, stanzas and themesare evaluated in the order of Translation as Metalanguage.With systematic comparison and evaluation, the thesis reaches the conclusion that Waley’sversion best interprets the signifier and signified of the order of Foreign Text and best accumulatesthe classical values in the rereading process for it has better combined the formal and thematicinterpretants while the other three versions all put more emphasis on one of them.