An Analysis Of The Translation Of The Fuzzy Numerals In The Art Of War

As an ancient Chinese military treatise written by Sun Tzu, The Art of War or Sun Tzu is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. As a world classic, it has many different English versions. Now there is much research on the book. However, the translation of the fuzzy numerals has not been valued enough.This thesis analyzes Sawyer’s The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China (1993) and Griffith’s Sun Tzu The Art of War (1963) translation of the book from the perspective of fuzzy semantics, and the reasons and effects of their translation strategies based on the types and rhetoric functions of fuzzy numerals. The thesis attempts to inspire readers to better translate fuzzy numerals so as to introduce more Chinese classics to the world.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One provides a brief introduction to purpose and significance of the research and framework of the thesis. Chapter Two is literature review of The Art of War, its English translations, previous research on the English versions and research on fuzzy numerals. In Chapter Three, the theory of fuzzy semantics and fuzzy numerals are introduced. Chapter Four is an exploration of the way to translate fuzzy numerals by comparing Sawyer’s and Griffith’s translation of fuzzy numerals in terms of literal translation, free translation and translation plus annotations. Chapter Five is the summary of some conclusions, among which the basic is:when thinking a fuzzy number as a real number, a translator tends to use literal translation. Otherwise, free translation. When there is uncertainty, the translator may add annotations.