| Chinese modern essays are rich in fuzzy language due to aesthetic artistic conception and other factors. Consequently, how to deal with fuzzy language in the process of translation turns to be a heart problem. The Selected Modern Chinese Essays rendered into English by Zhang Peiji has won great popularity in the circles of translation and foreign language research since it’s published, which must shine light on translation of fuzzy language in modern Chinese essays. Therefore, translation of fuzzy language in Selected Modern Chinese Essays is studied in order to guide translation of fuzzy language in other Chinese modern essays.Fuzzy language in Selected Modern Chinese Essays originates from linguistic nature, culture, context in text, as well as aesthetic charming, based on which, fuzzy language in Selected Modern Chinese Essays can be divided into four levels, namely, linguistic level, cultural level, contextual level and aesthetic level. Each dimension is then further divided into several subtypes. Fuzzy language at linguistic level involves the hedges, fuzzy numeral words and continuum(such as time words, color words and age words); fuzzy language at cultural level concerns fuzzy culture-bound words and expressions, fuzzy historical and religious expressions; fuzzy language at contextual level relates to fuzzy expressions in context of the text; fuzzy language at aesthetic level is manifested by abstract words, reduplicated words, four-character expressions and rhetoric devices.In ways of descriptive approach and literature study, the author conducts a quantitative and qualitative analysis of translation methods and strategies of fuzzy language of 52 essays in Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1.At linguistic level, most of hedges adopt literal translation and few are replaced by other hedges depending on the context. Fuzzy numeral words which express rough estimation are inclined to be translated into quantity expressions to modify nouns and appropriate adverbs and prepositional phrases to modify verbs, and some are expressed in another way in compliance with national psychology and language habits. Literal translation is also widely adopted in translation of continuum, though few have to be replaced by other expressions due to the limitation of language and difference in culture, for example, some color words are substituted by things in those colors.At cultural level, if culture-bound words or phrases don’t affect the accessibility of English readers, they are directly transliterated or transliterated with annotations; otherwise, they employ free translation and explanation. As for ancient books or texts and quotations concerning historical culture, they mostly adopt literal translation and add explanations if necessary. Fuzzy religious expressions are all substituted by religious expressions in the target culture because of different belief.At contextual level, translation of fuzzy language aims to illustrate the illocutionary meanings by means of inference and construction of context in the text. While at aesthetic level, abstract words, alliteration and rhetorical devices are used to reproduce the original beauty of artistic conception and achieve fuzzy equivalence as far as possible.The translation methods in Selected Modern Chinese Essays adopted by Professor Zhang Peiji account for translation strategies of dealing with fuzzy language: transliteration and translation, and a small amount of free translation, aims at transferring fuzzy language into the corresponding fuzzy language; substitution, explanation and addition of annotations transforms fuzzy language into precise language; Omission means to delete the fuzzy language.By studying translation methods and strategies of fuzzy language in Selected Modern Chinese Essays, the author suggests some principles for guiding translation of fuzzy language in other Chinese modern essays: firstly, fuzzy language should be transferred to achieve fuzzy equivalence as far as possible; secondly, when fuzzy language is inconsistent with context, fuzzy language should be inferred the illocutionary meanings depending on the context; thirdly, when differences or conflicts exist in culture and language, fuzzy language should be rendered into corresponding expressions in the target language. |
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