A Study On The Equivalent Effect Of Character Utterance Translation In David Hawkes' Version Of Hong Lou Meng

Measurement of a nation's comprehensive strength depends on both its “hard power” represented by the military and economic strength and its “soft power” represented by the cultural strength.In recent years,China has achieved preliminary results in its strategy of “going global”,which,however,are still far from satisfactory.As a monument of Chinese classical literature,the literary value of HLM is incomparable and its study has also been a hot issue in the domestic academic circles.In HLM,hundreds of characters,major or minor,are created and their utterances make up almost half of the length of the whole work.Those utterances play an indispensible and crucial part,which can shape the characters,develop the plot,etc.The outward dissemination of Chinese culture lies in the successful translation of literary works,while equivalent effect determines the translation quality.An good translation not only conveys the meaning but also transfers to the reader the beauty of the original work.In view of this,this thesis aims at studying the equivalent effect of character utterance translation in David Hawkes' version so as to explore the reception psychology of Western readers and provide references for the translation of other Chinese classical works and modern literature,which answers to the needs of the national cultural strategy and have epoch-making significance.The Register Theory,an integral branch in Systemic-Functional linguistics,has been widely applied to translation studies and remarkable accomplishments have been achieved in this regard.Halliday holds that register is composed of three variables(field,tenor and mode),which will vary accordingly with the changes in the situation,the relationship and the way of speaking.Those changes are directly reflected in character utterances,an accurate understanding of which can help one gain a deep insight into the image of the people concerned.In view of this,this study adopts comparative method and qualitative analysis to explore the achievement of equivalent effect in the translation of typical character utterances.To be specific,this study focuses on the following aspects.Firstly,the register of the ST is analyzed so as to discover the register features and language functions.Secondly,a comparison is made between the ST and the TT in the aspects of register features and language functions by focusing on the lexical and syntactic level so as to analyze the gains and losses of the TT.This study reaches the following conclusion.Firstly,equivalent effect is operative and executive,which requires the TT to be as close as possible to the ST in language,content,artistic conception and artistic skills.Hawkes' version has faithfully reproduced the content and style of the ST and grasped the subtle changes in characters' psychology and attitude.The artistic effect is realized to a great degree so that the TT reader can experience equivalent effect as the ST reader.Secondly,some losses still exist in Hawkes' version;this is mainly embodied in the achievement of tenor.The three variables will vary accordingly with the changes in the situation,the relationship and the way of speaking,which sometimes makes it difficult to conform to the ST so that the TT reader cannot experience equivalent effect as the ST reader.Lastly,four translation methods are proposed,namely,borrowing,transposition,modulation and adaptation,with a hope to provide some advice for better translation of character utterances and outward dissemination of Chinese literature.The outward dissemination of Chinese culture lies in the successful translation of literary works,while equivalent effect directly determines the translation quality.In view of this,this study discusses the achievement of equivalent effect in the translation of character utterances to explore the reading habits and reception psychology of Western readers so as to provide reference for the “going global” of Chinese literature.