A Comparative Study On Two Chinese Versions Of Gulliver's Travels From The Perspective Of Toury's Translational Norms

In the 1980 s, Giden Toury, a famous Israeli scholar, put forward the Translational Norms Theory which promoted the development of descriptive translation studies. Toury pointed out translation is a decision making process which is marked with target oriented features and the process is influenced by various social and cultural factors. Toury defined such factors as translational norms and divided them into three types: the preliminary norms, the initial norms and the operational norms. Preliminary norms which influence the choice of source text include translation policy and directness of translation. Initial norms decide the overall tendency of translation. Operational norms determine the matrix of a translated text as well as certain strategies adopted by translators.Basing on the theoretical framework of Toury?s Translational Norms Theory, the study takes a comprehensive analysis of two Chinese versions of Gulliver's Travels written by Jonthan Swift. The two versions are Lin Shu?s version and Zhang Jian?s version in different time. According to the classification of norms by Toury, the thesis first analyzes how the social-cultural factors, such as historical background, mainstream ideology and readers? expectation affect translators? choices of the source text. Secondly, the study discusses and compares the original norms that the two versions conform to and further explains their different tendencies with specific examples. Finally, at the micro level the thesis studies the operational norms by analyzing additions and omissions in the two versions, and analyzes their differences on word choices and sentence structure. Besides the study also makes a further analysis on how the cultural and language norms cause their differences.The result of the study shows that translation is a norm-governed behavior, the whole process of translation is constrained by various norms in the social, cultural, language context. Both translators? choices of the source text are impacted by the historical and political factors. Lin Shu?s choice of translating Gulliver's Travels is conform to the demand of learning from western world and enlightening Chinese people. Zhang Jian?s choice of translation Gulliver's Travels is to faithfully represent the critique and satire on the British society in the original work. Lin Shu?s version shows an inclination to acceptability but Zhang Jian?s version shows an inclination to adequacy. Lin Shu adopted the strategy of free translation. In Lin?s version omission, addition and adaptation that embody the norms in traditional Chinese are often seen. Zhang Jian adopted the strategy of literal translation. His version keeps the completeness of the source text. The layout of paragraphs, the word choice and sentence structure conform to the norms in source language.Studying translation activity from the perspective of Translational Norms Theory can deepen the understanding to the nature of translation activity. The study has instructive significance for the translation practice, and it also shows certain value for reference on the further study in this literary translation study.