On The Relationship Between The Source Text And The Target Text From The Perspective Of Prototype Theory Of Translation

The relationship between the source text and the target text is one of the important topics in translation studies. The traditional translation theories, both Western and Chinese, are source-oriented. They argue that the target text depends on the source text. The source text and the author are the absolute authority, and the target text should be subordinated to the source text and be faithful to the author. Deconstructionism believes that the source text depends on and decides the target text; it shifts the focus from the author and the source text to the target text, and elevates the status of the target text and the translator. This thesis starts from a new perspective and take the translations of Sheng Sheng Man for example to analyze the relationship between the source text and the target text. The interpretations of readers or translators on Sheng Sheng Man form the exemplars of the source text prototype, and numerous exemplars integrate into a source text prototype. Various kinds of translations form the exemplars of target text prototype. Both the source text and the target text are fixed, whereas the source text exemplars and the target text exemplars change constantly. With the increase of the source text exemplars and the target text exemplars, the integrated source text prototype and target prototype evolve accordingly. Therefore, there are correspondences rather than dependencies between the source text and the target text, and the degree of correspondences is different. The thesis discusses the implications and limitations of these findings for further research.