Practice Report Of The Translation Of The Hunter’s Wife Under The Guidance Of Sociosemiotic Approach To Translation

The Hunter’s Wife is an American modern short story written by Anthony Doerr, a prominent novelist in the U.S.. Anthony Doerr’s writings are of peculiar characteristic, the major concern of which is mankind’s spiritual world and sentimental relation, along with revealing the beauty and cruelty of the natural world. This novel is one of the representatives of Anthony’s works, the figures of which are endowed with distinctive personalities, whose relationship has undergone a complicated and changeable process. Therefore, the primary task in translating this short story is to represent the distinctive individualities and precisely retrieve their emotions hidden beneath each stage, so as to ensure that target-language readers share similar response and appreciation with the source-language reader, without sacrificing any essential artistic value of the original work.During the translating of the novel, the translator has found numerous proper nouns such as names of plants, animals, and so forth, as well as several culture-loaded words concerning the discrepancies lying between Chinese and Western culture, together with the author’s deliberate wording and phrasing, all of which have stuck the translator to assert the precise meaning of the original text and to choose the corresponding expression in the target language. Those difficulties in question may be tackled by adopting social-semiotic translating approach. Firstly, the approach demands the translator to associate with specific context so as to analyze the meaning and function of the original text respectively. Secondly, it engages the social and cultural background knowledge during the analysis of meaning and function. Thirdly, the approach entails a thorough understanding of the meaning and function of original text at different levels, emphasizing the influence of social and cultural discrepancies toward translating. Moreover, the approach offers us with an integrated and multi-dimensional guidance during our translating process and translation studies.In a word, on the basis of sociosemiotic approach to translation, the thesis aims to analyze the ways of realizing the significance and function of the translated work, together with illustrating the translating methods that the translator has employed to solve the problems encountered during the translating process, with a hope of enlightening subsequent translating practices of short stories.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one introduces the background, content and significance of translating practice towards the short story. Chapter two systematically introduces sociosemiotic approach to translation, elucidates core concepts and criteria of translating practice. Chapter three illustrates the process of the translating practice in details, in respect of its preparation, process and auditing procedure. Chapter four analyzes the realization of the meaning and function of the translated work, as well as the translating methods employed according to the phonological, lexical, syntactic and rhetorical features of the original work.