A Study On Paradox And Oxymoron In Shakespeare's Plays And Their Chinese Translations

Paradox and oxymoron are two rhetorical devices with connections and differences, which are of vital importance in Shakespeare's plays. In recent years, scholars at home and abroad have done massive studies on Shakespeare's rhetoric and gained plentiful results. However, literature searches show that these studies mostly concentrate on such common rhetorical devices as pun or metaphor, but rarely involve paradox and oxymoron. Therefore, it is completely necessary to conduct an integrated study on paradox and oxymoron in a relatively systematic way. Selecting Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet as corpus, the thesis will explore paradox and oxymoron from two aspects:similarities and differences, and Chinese translations.On one hand, both of paradox and oxymoron are conjoined by two opposing components which on the surface seems to be self-contradictory, but actually involve a philosophical point. The differences between them lie in that paradox is a sentential figure, and oxymoron is a phrasal figure. Through comparing similarities and differences between them in a relatively comprehensive and systematic way, it finds that paradox and oxymoron differ in formations. Based on syntactic structure, opposing components of paradox can be divided into words, phrases and sentences; oxymoron can be split into "noun+noun", "noun+of+noun","verb+verb", "adjective+adjective", "adjective+ noun" and "verb+adverb". Nevertheless, paradox and oxymoron are similar in semantic relations and rhetorical functions. They share semantic relations, that is, cause-effect, approach, and principal-subordinate, blending relations, and the means to construction of the plays'expressions, characters and themes. Thus it is beneficial to improve identification of these two rhetorical devices, and also helps us apprehend their infinite rhetorical charms and artistic appeals.On the other hand, in accordance with "translating methods of rhetorical devices", choosing five existing representative Chinese translation versions respectively by Liang Shiqiu, Zhu Shenghao, Bian Zhilin, Sun Dayu and Fang Ping, the author surveys the translating methods of paradox and oxymoron from different Chinese versions, and finds that all translators are inclined to use the method (A1) which keeps the forms and contents of original rhetorical devices. On the degree of affecting translations of paradox and oxymoron, the rhetorical form is greater than the rhetorical content, and rhetorical devices' own characteristics have bigger impact than translators' characteristics. In general, the thesis emphasizes on the rhetoric and Chinese translations of paradox and oxymoron in Shakespeare's plays. All in all, it is believed that it has positive meaning to Shakespearean language studies, especially rhetorical studies. Hopefully, it can be of certain enlightenment to relevant researches.