English Translation Of Linguistic Deviation In Wei Cheng-from The Perspective Of Foregrounding Theory

Linguistic deviations are usually adopted to achieve novelty and aestheticperception, and linguistic deviation is becoming an increasingly fascinating subject inliterature field. Nevertheless, complicated linguistic deviation may be the hinder forsuccessful reproduction of the original work in the target language. Studies ondeviation in novels are still incomplete and contentious. Therefore, this paper attemptsto analyze the translation of linguistic deviation in Wei Cheng under the guidance offoregrounding theory, based on five chapters’ linguistic deviations in Jeanne Kellyand Nathan K. Mao’s translation as the corpus.Based on Leech’s and Liu Shisheng and Zhu Ruiqing’s classification, the thesissystematically concludes the categories of deviation in the novel. The concept oflinguistic deviation is investigated, with illustration on its features at different levelsand a tentative translation model under the guidance of foregrounding theoryproposed. Through the comparative study on specific examples in Wei Cheng and itsEnglish version, the results judge whether the foregrounding process of linguisticdeviation in the novel has been handled properly in translation, demonstrating theapplicability of foregrounding theory to translation practice.The results of discussion reveal that to successfully represent the stylistic effectof foregrounding, it is significant to retain linguistic deviations of the source text inthe target text; meanwhile, sometimes appropriate alterations are necessary. Thus, itcan be concluded that foregrounding theory provides stylistic effect for literatureappreciation and it is an important guidance for translation activities.