Interpretation To Realization Of Equivalence In Pragmatic Values Of Expletives In The Story Of The Stone:under The Guidance Of The Theory Of Adaptation

Expletives have always been unduly excluded from the academic researches on account of its rudeness and inelegance. It is not until in the recent decades that it began to draw more and more attentions from the academia as a significant language phenomenon thanks to the rapid development of linguistics in the late of last century. In China, there are a number of linguistic scholars regarding Hongloumeng as an ideal corpus of Chinese expletives, which symbolizes the apex of Chinese classical literature. They have studied expletives in Hongloumeng from the following respects:etymology, categorization, lexicology and pragmatic functions; whereas few researchers devoted themselves to the English translation of expletive in Hongloumeng.This thesis elaborates on David Hawkes’translation of expletives in The Story of the Stone from the pragmatic perspective. Firstly, expletives in Hongloumeng were classified into four categories in terms of pragmatic value:expletives to express anger and resentment, expletives to express favor and intimacy, expletives to express depression and sorrow, expletives to express jealousy and irony. Then, this thesis will tries to give a thorough introduction to the theory of adaptation proposed by Jef Verschueren with an emphasis on the concept of contextual correlates of adaptability. Furthermore, the application of this theory to translation studies is realized in the establishment of the mode of translational contextual correlates of adaptability. Based on this mode, the scope of translational context is divided into three worlds:the discourse world, the mental world and the social world as well. During a translating activity, the translator makes constant adaptations to these three worlds in a bid to satisfy his translational intention. In this sense, translational context is no longer a static one but treated as a product of generating process as every adaptation was able to bring about a reformed context. On the basis of this conclusion, examples of translated expletive extracted from The Story of the Stone are discussed with detail on the purpose to explain how the translator achieved equivalence in pragmatic value of the expletive through making dynamic adaptations to the changing translational context.Distinct from previous studies, this thesis studies with a dynamic and microcosmic means the translation of expletive in The Story of the Stone—a widely acclaimed English version of Hongloumeng, with the help of Jef Verschueren’s theory of adaptation, especially his idea about contextual correlates of adaptability. This is a bold move to explore the feasibility of application of pragmatic theories to translation studies on literary works. Such explorations made in this thesis not only offers a more comprehensive and flexible framework of translational context in the theoretic aspect, but also enhances the possibility for translators to exert their originality in the practical term.