A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Xixiangji

The number of words on translation shift theory was dramatically increasing since Catford first mentioned the term “shift” in 1965. The problem, however, was that its emphasis on the shifts on the microstructural level hardly changed, at least not until van Leuven-Zwart commenced to shift its attention to the relationship between microstructural shifts and the macrostructure, especially the issue how the former consequently influence the latter.This thesis intends to further investigate the relationship between microstructural shifts and the macrostructure of the text by comparing Xixiangji with the two English versions of Xixiangji, respectively translated by S.I. Hsiung and Xu Yuanchong based on Zwart’s research. By comparison with the original, not only could Zwart’s idea that shifts on the microstructural level do exert a great influence on the macrostructure of the translation be testified, but also the hypothesis that translator’s overall manipulation of the text may profoundly affect the shifts on the microstructural level could be proved true to some extent.Apart from this, by comparing S.I. Hsiung’s version with Xu Yuanchong’s version, it could be concluded that there is a great difference in the choice or the decision that they make due to their distinctive manipulation of the macrostructure of the text, ranging from phonological shifts, syntactic shifts, semantic shifts to their specific treatment of those culture-bound elements, all of which are on the microstructural level. It informs the succeeding promising translators of the importance of bearing in mind the macrostructure of the text before making adjustments on the microstructural level in that it might lead to two completely different translated versions of the original work. In the meantime, enough attention to the specific microstructural shifts is necessary as well for the reason that different choices in the microstructural shifts will bring the readers different experiences of the text due to the direct effect of those shifts on the macrostructure.