A Translation Appreciation Of Two Chinese Versions Of Just So Stories From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Just So Stories is written by Rudyard Kipling in 1902 with the aim at creating some bedtime stories for his daughter Joseph.This book is a collection of twelve fantastic origin short stories for children and its target readers are teenagers aged from six to twelve.Since the establishment of its first Chinese translated version in 1929 by Zhang Yousong,Just So Stories has had more than twenty Chinese versions of translated works,covering all kinds of compiled,illustrated,bilingual,abridged and co-translated versions.Under the guidance of Skopostheorie,this thesis has selected examples from two translated versions respectively translated by professor Cao Minglun and professor Liu Jingzhong,analyzed and discussed the specific applications of three rules from the perspectives of lexis,syntax and rhetorical devices,aiming at explicating their respective translation purposes and methods through comparison and testifying the suitable degree of both versions to realize their translation purposes by the standard of three rules of Skopostheorie so as to evaluate the quality and explore the demonstrating values of the two versions.After a comparative analysis evaluated by three rules of Skopostheorie,the author of this thesis notices that Cao Minglun's version of Just So Stories has taken three aspects into full consideration,namely Chinese children's reading abilities,their linguistic features,and acceptance capabilities of culture,which all help to attain the aim of attracting children.This version has mainly adopted the translation methods of free translation and omission,and more attentions have been paid to its linguistic rhythm and rhyme,which can be regarded as the true model of musical language.While on the other hand Liu Zhongjing believes that the images spread by Just So Stories are of fundamentally educating meanings.In another word,the interesting stories in this book are aiming at educating adults rather than just being told to the children.Therefore,the translator himself preferred to employ literal translation as far as the translation method is concerned.All in all,this thesis holds that both Cao Minglun's and Liu Zhongjing's versions have generally reached their respective translation skopos,and the translation practice has not only proved the feasibility and validity of Skopostheorie used to guide the translation of literature for children but also displayed the significance of selected translation strategies and methods from both excellent versions to the present translation practice of literary works for children.