A Key To Imagination: Rewriting Of The Associative Meaning In The Chinese Version Of The Chronicles Of Narnia

The word “association” originally derives from Latin “associo” which meansconnection or relation. Association in linguistic fields means that the symbols of languagearouse language users to think of relevant information stored in their brains. When in aparticular cultural context, people usually summarize their own perceptual and emotionalexperience for the world, imposing connotations of kindness, evil, beauty, ugliness, etc. onthe words, which produces associative meaning. English linguist Geoffrey Leech made anin-depth research into the associative meaning. He discussed seven types of meaning inSemantics published in1981. According to Leech, connotative meaning, social meaning,reflected meaning, affective meaning, collocative meaning all have same open-ended,variable character and can all be brought together under the heading of associativemeaning. In different languages or cultures, the same thing may cause completely differentassociations and thus has different associative meanings. The well-known scholar of theSchool of Cultural Translation Andre Lefevere thinks that translation is a rewriting of anoriginal text and translators produce the target text in a certain time and cultural situationunder many constraints. Therefore, in translation of children’s literature, translators haveto make an appropriate rewriting of associative meaning in some culture-loaded words inorder to facilitate children readers’ understanding of the source text and inspire theircorresponding associations in the target culture.The Chronicles of Narnia is written by British writer Clive Staples Lewis which isconsidered to be a classic of children’s literature in the world. It is a series of seven highfantasy novels full of rich imagination and appealing plots. This thesis, based on therewriting theory of Andre Lefevere and associative meaning defined by Geoffrey Leech,explores how translators make adaptations in the associative meaning of some words orexpressions in the translated version of The Chronicles of Narnia due to differencesbetween the target culture and the source culture. Through the analysis of comparison between the original text and target text, the thesis elaborates on the rewriting ofassociative meaning from three aspects: color words, animal words, and plant words.Translators make different lexical choices for the similar color words in the translation,which are more specific and figurative and stimulate children’s space imagination. Besides,animal and plant analogies are frequently adopted in the adaptation of the source text,which are close to children’ life and easily restore the vivid images in the target childrenreaders’ minds. Therefore, it can be concluded that appropriate rewriting of the associativemeaning in color words, animal words and plant words are essential and accessible forchildren readers to inspire their imagination, arouse their reading interests, promote theircognitive development and broaden their cultural horizon.