An Analysis Of "Unfaithful" Translation From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Since its inception, Appraisal Theory has been widely applied into different discourses analysis. However, few researchers endeavor to conduct the investigation of "unfaithful" translation from the perspective of Appraisal Theory. Therefore, this paper takes Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out as the research material to analyze "unfaithful" translations in the Attitude system, in order to figure out the reasons that lead to "unfaithful" translation and testify the feasibility of Appraisal Theory in translation field.In this study, both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are involved. Firstly, the attitude resources of both the original text and the target text are identified and tagged. Secondly, based on the unfaithful translation adopted by the author of the essay, the "unfaithful" translations in Attitude system are identified. Then the author attempts to analyze how the translator rationalizes the "unfaithful" translations and find out the reasons for "unfaithful" translations.In the English version, most parts of Goldblatt’s translations are faithful to the original, which reflects his own viewpoints of translation, such as regarding faithfulness as the first guidance in translation. Nevertheless, "unfaithful" translations usually appear in translations of names, idioms, culture-loaded expressions. Goldblatt adopts different translation strategies according to specific situations. When translating the parts with strong Chinese flavor, Goldblatt prefers to adopt integration or addition; for those plots which contain non-essential language units and block target readers’ comprehensions, Goldblatt usually employs omissions; besides, he also makes some adjustment on the form or style to present a fluent version to satisfy the target readers. Through the cases studies, the author of this essay find out three reasons that lead to "unfaithful" translations:firstly, for the sake of the acceptability of target readers, such as their reading habits and aesthetic tastes, translators need to make some appropriate adjustments on the content, form or style. Secondly, translators will inevitably involve their own attitude or evaluation, ideology, cultural values and aesthetic orientation during the comprehension and appreciation of the source texts. Lastly, the linguistic difference between Chinese and English is also the key reason that leads to "unfaithful" translations.This paper testified the feasibility and applicability of Appraisal Theory in the study of translation. Appraisal Theory is an effective tool to analyze the evaluative resources and meanings in Chinese and English translation. In addition, the author of the thesis hopes to provide a new perspective to the studies of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out and enables Appraisal Theory to gain more attention and application in the field of translation.