A Study On The Translation Of Chinese Auditory Verbs From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Since the auditory sense is an important channel to obtain information, the auditory verb occupies a paramount position in a linguistic system. According to the classification of auditory verbs made by Zhao Yanchu & Huang Jianhua, auditory verbs can be classified into three subcategories:auditory verbs of action, auditory verbs of perception and auditory verbs of copula. Then, with the data collected from The Selected Works of Luxun, Selected Works of Mao Zsu-Tung, Deng Xiaoping's Selections, Law of China's Mainland and Fortress Besieged, this study answers three questions:What are the translation characteristics of each category of Chinese auditory verbs in texts of three genres? What are the translation characteristics of three categories in texts of each genre? What are the general translation characteristics of these Chinese auditory verbs in texts of three genres? The findings are as follows:For Chinese auditory verbs of action in political and literary writings, literal translation occupies a much higher proportion, accounting for 50.86% and 57.45% of the total amount. However, in legal genres, the proportion of free translation (metaphorical translation and omission) is more than that of literal translation, taking a percentage of 55.07% of the total amount. In addition, free translation of Chinese auditory verbs of action is mainly metaphorical, of which the proportion is more than that of omission in texts of three genres.Chinese auditory verbs of perception take a higher percentage in these texts of three genres. However, in legal genres (only in the thesis), only literal translation is adopted.Chinese auditory verbs of copula only appear in literary genres and are dealt with by means of free translation, of which omission is employed and the percentage is 100%. The omission of auditory verbs results from the differences between the two peoples' ways of thinking mode.As to the translation characteristics mentioned above, the explanations are made based on the adaptation theory and some findings are as follows:Due to the similar cognition and embodied experience of hearing in different nations, the correspondent translation can be found in target texts not only in form but also in meaning. In such circumstances, literal translation is likely to be adopted, which can be faithful to the source text. However, when no equivalence is available in the target language, the original form is always abandoned by the translator in order to achieve the equivalence in meaning. From the perspective of adaptation theory, adaptations to contextual correlates are made in the linguistic context and communicative context.Besides, the reasons for the omission of auditory verbs mainly fall into two. One is due to the different expressive practices caused by the discrepancies of subjective consciousness and objective consciousness of Chinese and Western people. The other is that "?" carries the inducement mechanism of cause and effect, thus it is always omitted.Based on the findings in the thesis, the theoretical significance are:firstly, through the studies on translation characteristics of auditory verbs of action, this thesis further presents some disparities of subjective consciousness and consciousness between Chinese and Western people in using auditory verbs. Secondly, the process-oriented Chinese and the result-oriented English are further proved by the translation study of auditory verbs of perception. In practice, this thesis also offers some guidelines for translation practice.