A Report On The Translation Of The Sympathizer (Excerpts)

From the perspective of the Language Adaptation Theory,this paper attempts to study the translation of The Sympathizer(excerpts)which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016.In The Sympathizer,by rebelling against American-centric worldview of works,the Vietnamese-American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen narrates the wartime service in Vietnam and the legendary experience in the United States of an anonymous double agent.Nguyen gives voice to the previously voiceless Vietnamese,with the aim of getting readers look at the horror of the Vietnam War and its aftermath,as well as the marginalized status of Asian immigrants in the immigrant country.It is hoped that the translation of the novel can enhance domestic readers’ understanding of the Vietnam War,and provide research material for studies on war fiction,immigrants and theotherculture.Language Adaptation Theory,proposed by Jef Verschueren in 1999,is a linguistic theory which explains language use from cognitive,social and culture aspects.According to Language Adaptation Theory,the use of language is a process of making multiple choices based on internal and/or external reasons for the purpose of meeting communicative requirements.The choice-making process is made sense by three properties of language,namely,variability,negotiability and adaptability.In essence,translation is a communicative activity where the translator uses the target language to interpret the source culture.Besides,both the target language and the source language possess variability,negotiability and adaptability.Therefore,Language Adaptation Theory has explanatory and guiding competence on translation.The translation of The Sympathizer(excerpts)is accomplished under the guidance of Language Adaptation Theory.In this paper,an analysis of the author’s translation practice is conducted,from the aspects of linguistic and communicative contexts.The analysis illustrates how the author conveys the ideas of the original text and reproduces its linguistic style,in the dynamic process of composing its translated version,by adapting to the cognitive contexts of English and Chinese.This paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is an overview of the practice,including the background of the practice,the introduction to the source text and its author,etc.The second chapter is a description of the translation,including the process of the translation,the difficulties that the author encounters and the correspondent solutions that she finds.The third chapter is an introduction to the theoretical basis,where the basic viewpoints of Language Adaptation Theory and its application in translation are reviewed,before the guiding strategies for the practice is outlined.The fourth chapter is a case analysis which explores the translation practice from the aspects of linguistic and communicative contexts.The fifth chapter is a conclusion that briefly summarizes the whole report and states the gains and limitations.