A Research On Prosody In Translation Of Classical Chinese Drama From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Adaptation theory stresses lingual structure should adapt to its contexts dynamically. Prosody as the inner phonetic structure of dramatic languages plays a decisive role in pronunciation, singing, emotion and etc. In translating classical Chinese drama works into English, the adaptive degree of the original prosody largely decides the transmission of the Chinese cultural-linguistic-specific theatrical features, and consequently determines the success of stage performance. In retrospect, previous studies on drama translation more often than not concentrate on literal equivalence, pragmatic factors in discourse or culture comparison, while the prosody of the librettos has been neglected. In view of this undue neglect, this research investigates the adaptation of prosody from structure and contexts in the translations of Chang Ting Song Bie of Xi Xiang Ji, within the theoretical base and methodological framework of adaptation theory and prosodic phonology.To make this research as much objective as possible, a corpus–driven investigation is conducted on Xi Xiang Ji, annotated by Wu Xiaoling, and its three English versions translated by Xiong Shiyi, Stephen H. West and Xu Yuanchong respectively as research materials. The speech synthesis, InterPhonic 5.0 is used to transform texts into audio files; then Praat is employed to collect automatically the data of duration, starting pitch, ending pitch. The adaptive degree of prosody to the original will be analyzed according to the data discrepancy. Duration and Pitch are chosen as parameters to compare the source text and target texts.As is shown in the research results:(1) in terms of duration structure, Xiong‘s translation tends to explain the meaning of the original texts which leads to the longest average duration among the three, with as many as 76 shortest clauses in it, while West‘s translation is the shortest one on average among the three target texts. 40 clauses are selected from Xu‘s translations, 33 clauses from Xiong‘s. However, given certain contexts, it is found that excessive short sentences in West‘s translation actually serve as an obstacle for the emotional expression. Hence, the number of most adaptive translations is reduced to only 38 from West‘s translation. Contradistinctively, that of Xiong‘s and Xu‘s translation increase to 44 and 69, which better adapt to the original on duration and emotions.(2) In terms of pitch, the tone ranges of Xu‘s translations, compared with those of Xiong‘s and West‘s, fluctuate more drastically which are more adaptive to the need to represent original emotional changes. Furthermore, the pitch position and semitone undulation in Xu‘s translation in clause are in accordance with that of the original source text, which are more adaptive to the stage performance.To sum up, from the perspective of duration and pitch, Xu‘s translation is more suitable for stage performance due to its highest adaptive degree to the original on prosody. Based on Adaptation Theory, with the study method in prosodic phonology, the research establishes a corpus-driven study and investigates the translation norm on prosody in classical Chinese opera. It is of great value to translation studies and dissemination of traditional Chinese culture.