On Name Translation In Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Functionalist Translation Theory

Due to globalization, cultural communication gets rapidly growing attention and consequently, translating Chinese literature works has become a trend. Since names of literary figures which are loaded with profound connotations and communicative functions, play essential roles in the whole novel, name translation is considered to be a tricky but critical issue.It is universally acknowledged that the more than400names of characters in HLM represent the artistry of Chinese naming culture for names of characters of this novel are systemic, connotative and interconnected. Therefore, names in HLM can be used as representatives of Chinese names and researches on name translation of HLM contribute to the generation of the most practical and effective name translation strategy.Although a lot of scholars have done researches on name translation of the great novel HLM, they carry out these researches in a general way without focusing on one specific translation theory. These researchers often analyze the translation of a translator in the first place and then choose one or several translation theories to describe their translation action. As a result, the unsystematic research results are explanatory and they do not generate a translation strategy which is highly applicable and effective and provide practical value and guidance to researches on name translation in the future.In this thesis, the author analyzes name translation from the perspective of Functionalist Translation Theory on the basis of two English versions of HLM respectively produced by David Hawkes and Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. The author follows the translation procedures proposed in Functionalist Translation Theory to prove the feasibility and effectiveness of translation strategies in the framework of Functionalist Translation Theory in name translation. At first the author analyzes name systems in HLM, figuring out the connotative meanings and communicative functions of these literary names, next explores the skopos of these translators, and then studies their translation strategies in accordance with their translation skopos and at last probes into the actual translation action, evaluating their translation effects. The findings are as follows:First, Yang&Yang used documentary translation including literal translation, philological translation and foreignization to preserve the exotic flavor of Chinese names to English readers so that the target audience can know the true features of Chinese names and enjoy their artistic beauty. David Hawkes employed instrumental translation including domestication with English and domestication with multi-languages to adapt most Chinese names to norms and conventions of English naming culture in order to make sure that all the intended readers understand the connotative meanings and communicative functions of these names easily. In addition, he adopted documentary translation to translate names of people of high social status. Since functionalist translation theory enlarges the scope of translation practices by stating that "translation skopos justifies translation strategies" or "the end justifies the means", which means any translation method can be justified as long as the translated version produced by means of this method realizes the skopos of the translation, the criticism about inconsistency of translation methods adopted by David Hawkes and Yang&Yang to translate names in one book can be explained and eliminated because their translation skopos which is compatible with that of the original book is fulfilled.Second, functionalist translation theory is a general and practical theory for different text types with different strategies in different translation situations. Since source texts are "dethroned" and skopos of a translation action is predominant in the process of translation, translators should take into consideration many factors such as intentions and functions of target texts and source texts, participants involved in the process of translation, the cultural and social backgrounds, experience and expectations of intended readers and etc. Only by this way can the purpose of translation be fulfilled and a good translated version can be obtained.Third, the author of this thesis follows the procedures of translation and adopts translation methods proposed in Functionalist Translation Theory to make contrastive analysis of examples of name translation by David Hawkes and Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and she recognizes that purposes of translation of these translators have been realized despite of some minor imperfections. Accordingly, this thesis comes up with the conclusion that the following translation procedures and translation methods are feasible and effective in name translation, which provide guidance and inspiration to future name translation and keep theories of name translation updated.①Analyzing names in the source text, figuring out their connotative meaning and communicative function;②Determining the skopos of translation;③Adopting translation methods in accordance with the skopos of translation (documentary translation or instrumental translation);④Performing the actual translation action.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One is an introduction to the background, objective, significance, methodology and layout of this paper.Chapter Two is the literature review which demonstrates characteristics of Chinese names.Chapter Three introduces main concepts of Functionalist Translation Theory in accordance with its different developmental stages, providing theoretical instrument for contrastive analysis of name translation in English versions of HLM.Chapter Four makes analysis of the name system in HLM, figures out the skopos of translation, selects the optimal translation strategies and carries out a contrastive analysis of name translation on the basis of two English versions of HLM produced respectively by David Hawkes and Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang from the perspective of Functionalist Translation Theory.Chapter Five summarizes the main findings of the thesis and points out limitation and openness of this paper.