On The Translation Of Fuzzy Language In Literature From The Perspective Of Translation Aesthetics:

Fuzziness is an inherent nature of human cognition and language. With its very property of semantic indefiniteness, fuzzy language contributes greatly to the variety, flexibility and efficiency of language expression. It is quite a common case that even accurate language is purposefully fuzzified for certain special rhetorical effects.The rhetorical functions of fuzzy language are executed most markedly in literary works, where the indeterminacy and implicitness of fuzzy language moves the imagination of the readers with expressions of vividness and aesthetic appeal. Thus an appropriate handling of fuzzy language is highly desirable in literary translation.Meanwhile, the semantic indeterminacy of fuzzy language, while making it more difficult for the translator to understand its meaning, allows him more freedom to give full play to his initiative in translating it flexibly. Therefore, special attention should be attached to the relatively more complicated case of fuzzy language in literary translation.Translation aesthetics, an interdisciplinary integration of aesthetics and translation studies, is devoted to the aesthetic representation of literary translation. Liu Miqing’s theory of translation aesthetics, with its perception of the meaning levels of language, and its emphasis on the importance of context and imagination in translation activities, provides an illuminating perspective for the study of the multiplex implication of fuzzy language as well as its representation in literary translation.Bian Cheng, a masterpiece of Shen Congwen, is reputed as a poetic novel with high aesthetic value. Its poetic and highly connotative language, and its pure and exquisite artistic mood, impart to it a strong hazy beauty. The case study of this thesis is based on the textual analysis of The Border Town, the English version by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang of this novel.In the light of Liu Miqing’s translation aesthetics theory, this thesis explores fuzzy language translation through an analysis of the handling process and methods of fuzzy language in The Border Town.The main body of this thesis is composed of three chapters. Chapter One gives a literature review of fuzzy linguistics, translation aesthetics, and researches on the English translation of Bian Cheng. In Chapter Two, the theoretical basis, founded on a combination of fuzzy language study and translation aesthetics, is introduced through a clarification of key concepts and theories. Chapter Three carries out a case study on The Border Town with a discussion of the aesthetic representation, as well as a summary of translation methods, of fuzzy language on different meaning levels. The thesis concludes that the elaborate classification of meaning levels by the meaning hierarchy theory provides the translator a useful reference for both the comprehension and representation of the multiplex implication of fuzzy language, and that fuzzy language on different meaning levels requires different translation methods. Meanwhile, the context and imagination are of great significance in fuzzy language translation. These are the enlightenments from translation aesthetics for the translation of fuzzy language in literature.