| In the information society, reading news is one of the main channels to know information. And the main function of news headlines is to summarize the content of news with concise and striking language, so that readers can obtain the most information in the shortest time. In consideration of the important role of headlines in news reporting, news headline translation has been paid more and more attention. Along with the frequent exchanges between China and Western countries, Chinese readers have more opportunities to have access to authentic English news. However, due to the constraints of language, information transmission channel and other factors, Chinese readers feel it somewhat difficult to access English news. Therefore, this thesis takes English news headline translation as the research object so as to allow Chinese people to better understand the world.According to memetics, the meme is a unit of cultural transmission or a gene of cultural replication and its core is imitation. The process of news headline translation can be seen as a transmission process in which the source meme takes its translation as a medium of expression to transmit itself to the target meme. The news headline translation aims at making the news content transmit widely, which is similar to the transmission characteristic of memes. When the news headline language has the features of memes, it will spread quickly and widely. Then, the purpose of news dissemination can be achieved. Therefore, memetics provides a new perspective to news headline translation.This thesis takes as the theoretical framework the life circles of memes and the subjective selection criteria formulated by Francis Heylighen, the features of strong memes proposed by Richard Dawkins as well as the relationship between news headlines and language memes, and then analyzes the news headline translation from the perspective of memetics. This study believes that the news headline itself is a kind of language meme and the process of news headline translation is that of creating strong news headline memes. Through an introduction of the meme replication process and the features of strong memes in memetics, the author expounds that creating strong news headline memes must consider the copying-fidelity, fecundity and longevity of news headline memes.In order to improve the quality of translation, this thesis gives an in-depth analysis of English news headlines. According to the inherent linguistic features of English news headlines, the author of this thesis analyzes their language features based on rich examples with respect to their vocabulary, grammar, rhetoric, form and style. Furthermore, according to the relationship between news headlines and language memes, the author divides news headline memes into two types, namely genotype and phenotype. Then, she analyzes the main features of strong memes based on the subjective selection criteria, including simplicity, novelty, coherence and utility.Based on the above analysis, the author proposes some strategies for translating English news headlines into Chinese, including repetition strategies and analogy strategies. Repetition is a kind of foreignizing translation strategy. It means repeating the source language meme through retaining its sound, form, image, or all of them, aiming at converting the source language meme into a strong meme in the target language. Analogy is a kind of domesticating translation strategy. It means deducing a new meme variant on the basis of the source language meme by changing its pronunciation, image or structure and retaining the content of the source meme, with the purpose of making full use of the existing memes in the target language. Based on the analysis of a large number of news headline translation examples, the author attempts to sub-divide the above global strategies:repetition is divided into slight repetition and considerable repetition; analogy into direct quotation, homophony, homographs and isomorphic association.The research findings of the present study show that the theoretical framework of news headline translation based on memetics is clear, straightforward and applicable; the application of genotypical and phenotypical memes to news headline translation to create strong news headline memes increases the potential of news headline translation and enriches news headline translation versions; a dynamic interactive relationship can be established between news headline translation and memetics, which can provide a solid basis for further research on news headline translation. In short, memetics can play a significant role in guiding news headline translation. |
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