Research On The Transformation Method Of Original Information In Japanese-Chinese Translation

Translation is the process of transmitting the information of a source text through linguistic transfer.The information of a literary work includes the author's use of language to express the creative intention,the writing style and other information.This thesis makes a study on the translation of the novelette Botchan(also translated as Young Master)written by the Japanese Meiji writer Natsume Soseki by taking the three Chinese versions translated by Liu Zhenying,Lin Shaohua and Fu Yuhong as the research contents and by taking the related theories of translation as the theoretical basis.The analysis is made from the information transfer of words and sentences,discourse and rhetorical devices in Japanese-Chinese translation.The purpose of translation is to reproduce the semantic expression,cultural connotation and writing style of the source information for the target reader to read and appreciate.Therefore,in the process of translation,in order to reproduce the information and style of the source text and to ensure the faithfulness and smoothness of the translated text,the translation method is particularly important.This thesis mainly studies the Chinese versions of Botchan by using the equivalent and functional translation theories.Equivalence translation theory was put forward by American scholar Nida in the 1960 s.Nida advocates the “two basic directions” or “equivalence type” of equivalence,that is,formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence.Among them,formal equivalence emphasizes the form and content of the information itself.The main concern is that the information in the target language should be consistent with the different elements in the source language as much as possible.Therefore,formal equivalence requires the translated version to be close to the structure of the source text,which has a great impact on the accuracy and correctness of translation.Dynamic equivalence is based on “the principle of equivalent effect”,which requires that “the relationship between the target language recipient and the target text should generally be equivalent to that between the source language recipient and the source text”.The information needs to be adjusted according to the linguistic needs and cultural expectations of the recipient,“designed to achieve the fully natural expression”.(Jeremy Mundy,2009)The modern functional theories of translation emerged in Germany in 1970 s.The representative of Functionalism is Reiss.She put forward the rudiment of functional derivational theory in 1971.Reiss identifies with the equivalence theory of taking the source text as the center,that is,the source text and the target text should achieve the equivalence in ideological content,language forms and communicative functions.She further advocates that in translation,the source text and the target text should have different functions according to the specific needs.Therefore,Reiss thinks that the functional principle of translation is superior to the equivalence principle.At the same time,she believes that the text type can help translators to determine the equivalence principle needed for a particular translation purpose;the analysis of the text type is helpful for translators to choose the appropriate translation strategies.She classifies the texts into three types: the informative type,the expressive type and the operative type.And later Reiss adds the fourth type of text,namely,the audio-medial text which is also called hypertext.Therefore,text type is not only the premise and basis for translators to choose translation strategies,but also the criteria of evaluating translation.Skopos theory emphasizes that translation should take the purpose or function as the standard of the target version.Based on the full understanding of the source information,translators should bring their initiative into full play,choose the translation strategies flexibly,pay attention to the effect of the readers' acceptance and convey the source information accurately to achieve the purpose of translation.Based on the above-mentioned Nida's and Reiss' s translation theories,this thesis makes an analysis on the three Chinese versions of Natsume Soseki's Botchan from the perspective of formal equivalence,functional equivalence and text type,aiming to prove that in the course of translation,owing to the differences in the translation purpose,the target readers and text function,translators will adopt different translation strategies,which leads to different versions.The analysis starts with words and sentences.In the translation of words,considering the acceptance of the target readers,translators will choose words that conform to the culture of the target language;in sentence translation,attention should be paid to the different word order between Japanese and Chinese,to properly adjust the sentence structure of the source language,and it is necessary to add or delete some information of the source text.Then the discourse form is analyzed.In the aspect of discourse information transfer,attention should be paid to reproducing the textual coherence in target context,supplement the omitted parts,and use transitional words appropriately.Finally,the author analyzes the source language information transfer in three dimensions: rhetorical information,text and rhetoric,the purpose of which is to explore the translation methods adopted in the different Chinese versions towards the same linguistic information,and to see which method is more in line with the expressions of target language.In the translation of rhetorical devices,one should grasp the characteristics of Japanese and Chinese rhetoric,consider the acceptance effect of the target readers,to retain or adjust the rhetorical information of the source text,to express the implied cultural information.All this depends largely on the translator's subjectivity and artistic reproduction.