On The Translation Of Irony In Pride And Prejudice

Irony is a common used rhetoric device and language form.It indicates the contradiction between literary meaning and thought contents,which means “a positive intentional meaning content is expressed in negative wording” or “a negative intentional meaning content is expressed in positive meaning”.Irony widely exits in British and American literature because of its unique linguistic style and social function.Due to a large quantity of irony in the novel,the writing style of Pride and Prejudice is natural and fresh.Moreover,irony has become one of the most distinguished linguistic features.Functional Equivalence Theory(FET)emphasizes that translators should strive to convey the closest and natural equivalence.The translation of irony also stresses TT(target language)should restore the “saying this but refer to that” in ST(source language),which proves the feasibility of FET applied in the translation of irony.The complexity of irony translation and the shortcomings of traditional translation methods produce the rarity of studies in terms of irony translation.Therefore,the present thesis explores the translation of irony in two Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice under the guidance of FET.The research mainly draws the following conclusions.Firstly,two versions merely convey the surface meaning of irony but it loses deep meaning of irony.Therefore,two Chinese versions fail to realize functional equivalence in terms of irony translation.Secondly,there are many reasons of mistranslation,such as putting too much emphasis on syntax and ignoring culture.Third,FET can be a very efficient way evaluating quality of irony translation and appreciating literary works.This research aims at providing insights for the translation of irony,giving reference for literature appreciation.Irony translation is a complicated process,which not only demands translators considerate the surface structure of irony,but also the deep meaning of irony by combining the context and speaker's personality.In this way can translators proximately transmit the deep meaning of irony.