On Translation Of Alice’s Adventure In Wonderland: From A Perspective Of Dynamics Of Adaptability

Alisi Man You Qi Jing Ji, the first Chinese translation of Alice’s Adventures inWonderland, was rendered by Chao Yuenren and published in1922by CommercialPress. The book is one of the most famous translation works in modern China. Sinceits publication, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into Chinese bydozens of translators. These new versions are beautifully printed and artisticallydesigned. However, most of them are just simply based on Chao’s translation, inwhich few highlights of translation could be found. The improvement of contents ofChinese translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has already been abottleneck.Based on Verschuren’s adaptation theory, this study intends to carry out a brandnew and different research on how Chao makes adaptation according to differentsituation. Making choices and adaptation run throughout the translation process, andthe translator has to make unceasing choices and adaptations in both comprehendingthe source text and rebuilding the target text, which making dynamics of adaptabilitythe core of translation process. Moreover, the core concept of adaptation theory isapplied to inspect how dynamics of adaptability is realized in Chao’s translationfrom the following aspects: temporal dimension, contextual correlates and linguisticstructure. In consideration of the fact that Chao’s translation was created at certainhistorical period, the temporal dimension should take account of the specific social,historical and cultural environment as well as the particular readership. Thecontextual correlates are mainly focused on external-linguistic elements, includingthe adaptation to mental world, social world and physical world. The structuraladaptation is concerned with internal-linguistic elements, which include adaptationoccurs at choice of code and different layers of linguistic structure: phonological,lexical, syntactic and semantic. With the multi-angle analysis, the author proposes that translation by nature is asophisticated activity which involves continuous choices making, in which translatordynamically makes adaptation to external-linguistic contexts and internal-linguisticstructure with certain degrees of salience for certain purpose. Consequently, whenapplied to translation studies, adaptation theory is not only of great explanatorypower but also provides a new perspective and deepens the translation studies.