On The Limitation Of Translatability Of Appellation In The Legend Of Zhen Huan Based On Skopos Theory

Appellation, the first step of communication, is a reflection of national culture. As an indispensable part of language, its function in social activities cannot be ignored. Different appellation reflects the communicators’ identity and social status, and the relationship between them. However, due to the different language and cultural background, as well as the influence of certain social context, it is not easy to translate appellation. This thesis tries to analyze the limitation of translatability of appellation used in The Legend of Zhen Huan.Brief introduction is made firstly, including aims and purposes, research background and significance. History of studying appellation is firstly referred, including the classical theoretical accomplishments and recent study trend. Then, theoretical framework is found. From the cross-cultural perspective and on the basis of skopos theory, the author tries to study the limitation of translatability of the appellation. And then, study of The Legend of Zhen Huan is made to analyze the characteristics of the appellation used in it, and study the reasons behind the limitation of translatability. At last, the author introduces some transforming strategies.The main conclusion drawn from the research is that translators should choose proper translating strategies according to different translating skopos, as this kind of special appellation is influenced by many factors. Foreignization is applied to keep the original language’s implication; domestication to show the target language’s advantage, or both combined together.Previous researches on appellation mainly focus on kinship terms and social appellation, but studies about appellation used in the palace are not easy to be found. The innovation of this thesis lies in that the research subject is the appellation used by people in the imperial harem.