A Study Of Translator's Style In View Of Horizon Of Expectation

This paper intends to investigate a translator's style in view of Horizon of Expectation with a corpus-based case study of two English versions of Cha Guan.It explores the stylistic features of two English versions of Cha Guan.As modal particles are frequently used in dramas and play a significant role in revealing the character's personality as well as pushing the plots.Thus,the author intends to retrieve and analyze the frequencies and usages of modal particles in Cha Guan,making up for the quantitative deficiencies of this study.Finally,guided by the factors of the translator and readers,the author has ventured the reasons behind each translator's style features.Through the statistical analysis and discussion,this research shows that two translators demonstrate distinctive translation style in two English versions.In terms of keywords analysis,Ying Ruocheng's translation is featured with Beijing dialects,colloquialism and concise words because of his living habits.While Howard focuses on the Chinese literature so as to have a good mastery of grammar knowledge as well as vocabulary use.In addition,he tends to add "eh" at the end of sentences to convey the meaning in the source text.Howard's translation style features with explicitation by the use of dash.In terms of modal particles.As Ying intends to remain the personality of characters and reproduce the stage effects,he adopts the omission of modal particles and translates in a simple and positive way.While Howard pays attention to the literary research and leaves much room for the readers,thus he prefers to the transformation of modal particles into modal particles and to render in a euphemistic way.Finally,the author attempts to explore the reasons of the formation of translator's style in view of Horizon of Expectation.In terms of the translator,as a playwright,he tends to reflect the colorful personality of characters and reproduce the stage effects.While Howard is crazy about Chinese literature and tries his best to convey the mood in the source text in the hope of carrying the Chinese culture forward and attracting more and more people to learn Chinese.Thus he translates modal particles into modal particles.In terms of receptor subjects,the former is mainly for audiences,actors or actresses,directors,so Ying Ruocheng translates for the purpose of facilitating their understanding and stage performance.While the latter is for the fanciers and researchers for the Chinese literature.It is expected that the research results of this thesis can help us to know more about the concept of translator's style and provide references for the future drama translation studies.Meanwhile,this study has provided positive guidance for the Teaching Chinese as a Second Language.Moreover,the research methodology of this paper opens a new perspective for the research of application of corpus into translation studies.