A Comparative Study On Lin Wusun’s And Griffith’s English Translations Of Sunzi Bingfa From The Perspective Of Semantic And Communicative Translation

Sunzi Bingfa written in the spring and autumn period is the earliest and most valuable Chinese treatise on military science extant. Representing the essence of Chinese military thinking, it not only reveals the nature and rules of warfare but also summarizes the rich experiences of ancient wars and analyses them from political, economic, social and cultural angles. Because of extensive contents and profound thoughts, it is honored as "military canon" and highly praised by later generations. Since the first English translation came into being in 1905, Sunzi Bingfa has been paid more attention to in the western world. Especially in the 1980s, many English versions sprung up in succession at home and abroad. As thus, the study of the English translation is increasingly attached more importance to by academics. To sum up, these studies mainly focus on the evaluation of translation quality and the discussion of translation techniques, etc. Research perspectives involve the Skopos Theory, Relevance Theory, Hermeneutics, Critical Theory, etc. However, few people apply Newmark’s semantic and communicative translation theory to the comparative study of the English translation of Sunzi Bingfa. Hence, much space has been left for further study in this field.Given this, the thesis selects the English versions of the senior translator Lin Wusun and American brigadier general Griffith as textual materials. Under the guidance of semantic and communicative translation theory, it conducts a comparative analysis on the two translators’ treatments in the vocabulary, syntax and culture information from the linguistic and cultural dimension. As a result, it is concluded that Lin Wusun and Griffith adopt totally different strategies in the processing of translation. The former is more inclined to use semantic translation, retaining the original content and sentence structure to the greatest extent, in order to keep the uniqueness of source language culture and introduce the authentic Chinese culture to western readers, while the latter more often exercises communicative translation, resorting to the expressions according with thinking mode and habits of the target language readers with the purpose of reducing their reading barriers and underlining their comprehension and acceptance. In addition, on the basis of that, the author also probes into the reasons leading to the two translators adopt different translation strategies and figures out that their personal experiences, different social and cultural background and personal translation motivations are main factors influencing the translators’ translation methods.This thesis not only demonstrates the explanatory power of Newmark’s semantic and communicative translation theory in Chinese classical literature works, and but enriches the contents and perspectives of the study on the English translation about Sunzi Bingfa. Meanwhile, the thesis author hopes that it will provide some references for the English translation studies of other Chinese classics as well as the related researches on "Chinese culture going out".