A Study On Transaltion Effect Of Selected Prose Of Chen Zhongshi From The Perspective Of Shifts

As the only published English version of Chen Zhongshi's prose,Selected Prose of Chen Zhongshi has been published for six years.However,rare studies on it are related to its translation effect from the perspective of shifts so far.This thesis,grounded on Catford's theory of translation shifts,studies two questions on Selected Prose of Chen Zhongshi.The first is how the translation shifts are used in translation of Selected Prose of Chen Zhongshi;the second is through these shifts to what degree the meaning and style of the translated version are consistent with the original text.In this thesis,a comparative descriptive approach is adopted to study the application of shifts and shift effect in the translated version with quantitative and qualitative analysis from four aspects:level shifts and the first three shifts in category shifts,class-shifts,structure-shifts and unit-shifts.The comparative approach is designed for the identification of shifts with quantitative analysis being adopted to explore the statistics of shifts in the.translated version.The descriptive approach with qualitative analysis is adopted for the explanation of the shift effect in the translated version.319 parallel sentences of the source texts and the target texts are chosen from 14 articles of the book.The data are collected by manual work upon the research scope which is the types of shifts in Catford's model by the combination of comparative approach and statistical method.The thesis,through the quantitative analysis on the data obtained,gets that in level shifts,shifts in number have the highest percentage point of 52%with the lowest percentage in shifts in mood which is 6%.In class-shifts,shifts from verbs to nouns or noun phrases enjoy the majority of class-shifts which are 61%with the lowest percentage in shifts from verbs to adjectives or adjective phrases which is 16%.In structure-shifts,shifts from the prepositional modifiers to the post-positional modifiers occupy the highest percentage point of 33%with the lowest percentage in shifts from animate subjects to inanimate subjects which is 9%.In unit-shifts,shifts from sentences or clauses to phrases have the highest percentage point of 37%with the lowest percentage in shifts from words to phrases which is 9%.Through the qualitative analysis on data it is found that since there are distinct differences between Chinese and English application of shifts are very common in the translated version,these shifts match the features of English language and the thinking way of English-native speakers to a great degree.Through the analysis of the examples,it shows that the majority(80.85%)of words and sentences achieve a good effect in the translated version:they convey the meaning of the original in words and sentences and reproduce the style of the original faithfully.It is concluded that from the angle of shift the translated version is faithful to the original in words and sentences to a great degree.Through this study,the researcher hopes that it can provide translation beginners with some help in their practice of English translation of Chinese prose and provide a new research perspective for the studies on English translation of Chinese prose.