Translation Strategies Of Culture-loaded Words Under Skopos Theory

Based on the Skopos theory, the practice and strategies of translation is decided by the purpose, or we can also say Skopos, of the original writer, the translator and many other people’s. Among other rules, the Skopos rule always ranks the first, which means that different translation methods should be adopted because of specific purposes or intended functions. Owing to the Skopos theory, studies on translation have been moved beyond the linguistic range and changed their stress on these extra-textual elements, especially the interact of the source language texts’author, the translator and the target language readers. The Skopos theory, which has broken out the traditional ideas of the equivalence theory and has been a valuable complement to translation theories, provides us with a more rational evaluation and opens up a new perspective for the translation practice and study.Within the theoretical framework of the Skopos theory, this thesis intends to study the English version of Big Breasts&Wide Hips translated by Howard Goldblatt to find out what kinds of methods have been frequently used in his translation of the Chinese culture-loaded words, which can be classified as five sub-types in accordance with Nida. Culture-loaded words are always a tough barrier in translation because of the cultural elements conveyed. In the process of translating culture-loaded words, various factors may have influence on translators’choice of translation strategies and accordingly on what effects of the translation version may achieve. Howard Goldblatt, as a prestigious and productive translator, has brought a large quantity of high-quality translations to readers both in China and overseas. His translations on Mo Yan’s works are particularly worth studying, considering the latter has gained increasingly popularity in the western countries nowadays because of Howard Goldblatt’s wonderful performance on the one hand. As one of the representatives of Mo Yan’s works, Big Breasts&Wide Hips is a good choice for such a study.Through a careful research, this thesis can be stretched into five parts. It starts with a brief introduction to the significance, objectives and the thesis structure as well in the first chapter. Then in chapter two, it goes on with a literature review of the previous studies on Big Breasts&Wide Hips at home as well as its translator Howard Goldblatt, and the translation of culture-loaded words. Chapter three reviews the Skopos theory and especially focuses on the Skopos rule, the theoretical basis of this thesis. Different translation strategies would also be defined and discussed hence. Considering the disputes over translation strategies, the justification of this research in the guidance of the Skopos theory would also be verified. Chapter four is about the process of data collection and methodology. First of all, the definition of culture and culture-loaded words would be given, along with these classifications based on different theories or theorists. Then six of the common translation strategies appeared the most frequently, such as free translation, omission, substitution, literal translation, transliteration, and annotation, would be defined and verified by200culture-loaded words appeared in Big Breasts&Wide Hips. The last chapter evaluates the result of this thesis by analyzing these data collected from the view of the Skopos theory. Examples of the three rules would be given respectively to verify that the analysis to the translation strategies adopted in translating culture-loaded words of Big Breasts&Wide Hips is rational and the result of it is reliable, too.