A Study On Translating Of Nouns In Three English Versions Of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi

This thesis is a research on "translating of nouns" which means "noun-translation", and it chooses a famous Chinese classical work Liao Zhai Zhi Yi and three versions of it as its research objects. With their specific features, different source-texts have different aspects of value for translation research. Hence, Chapter One mainly analyzes the features of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi, which are relevant to the difficulties in noun-translation mentioned in the following chapters. Chapter Two is the literature review which talks about the relevant studies on Liao Zhai Zhi Yi and the development of research of noun-translation.In Chapter Three, the thesis chronologically and particularly introduces the information about noun-translation’s background so as to emphasize the innovation of this thesis since the content of this research is different from the historical studies on noun-translation. Nouns studied in this paper can be common nouns and proper nouns as well, and the feature of those nouns is that they are all culture loaded words. What’s more, this paper restricts the range of the research target, because the noun-translation refers different emphases that it may cause some confusion. Most importantly, it analyzes the difficulties translators have had in noun-translation of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi from three major perspectives:culture differences, time gaps and space gaps. Only with a clear understanding of those difficulties in noun-translation in Liao Zhai Zhi Yi can people appreciate the English versions better and admire the diligent and wise translators.Owing to such a complicated situation and big differences the between two languages existing in the noun-translation of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi, effective strategies were used by Giles, Yang Xianyi and Minford to conquer the seeming untranslatability, and these strategies are great resource for future translators. In Chapter Four, seven typical categories applied in noun-translation are illustrated and some of them are evaluated, and the comparisons of three versions for nouns do not aim at finding a best version but mainly lies in presenting the diversity of strategies used in translating the same noun. Although every strategy may have some shortcomings, they are the ways translators manage to present us with a whole unbroken translation of the story, and with different considerations, the different choices translators made reveal their different background and leave to the world florid works.The author holds a point of view that the weaker translation is always a foundation for a later and better one, so, this thesis is not to criticize any one’s translation or to support any one’s translation style, but with an objective presentation of the strategies used by different translators to show the progress and diversity of translation methods so as to inspire translation scholars to take examples while translating nouns with difficulties. No matter whether perfect or flawed, each translation of the three versions has played an important role in spreading Chinese literature throughout the world, and there has already been the significance for its existence.