Functional Theory Approaches To Translations Of Tom Jones:A Comparative Study

This thesis conducts a comparative study on the three Chinese versions of Tom Jones from the perspective of the functional translation theory.With quantitative and qualitative research methods,a relevant deductive analysis will be supported by data analysis from corpus-based translation study in the thesis.It aims to analyze respective intended readers and different translation types of the three versions so as to achieve a rich analysis and description.Emerging in the 1970s,German school of functionalist translation theory takes more factors such as translators,translation brief,initiators and addressees into consideration.In particular,a model for translation-oriented text analysis proposed by Christiane Nord provides a brand-new macro perspective for translation criticism.This thesis examines three translations of Tom Jones translated respectively by Zhang Guruo,Xiao Qian and Li Congbi,and also Liu Suzhou.The source text(first published in 1749 in London)is generally considered as the greatest book written by Henry Fielding,a prominent English playwright and novelist.In the thesis,three target texts of the novel are examined.The first translation of Zhang Guruo was published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House on October Ist,1993.The translation by Xiao Qian and Li Congbi was published by People's Literature Publishing House in 1984.The last version of Liu Suzhou was published by Huacheng Publishing House in 2014.This thesis falls into six parts beginning with a brief introduction to the research background,significance,hypothesis and thesis structure.Its literature review covers the previous studies on functional translation theory,the three target texts of Tom Jones,and the three translators.Then based on Nord's translation-oriented text analysis model and the functional typology of translation,the thesis examines the three translations of Tom Jones from the perspective of intended readers and translation types,concluding as follows.Firstly,all the three translations direct at their specific intended readers according to the comparative text analysis of the extratextual factors.Secondly,the three translations show diverse characteristics in different linguistic level according to the data analysis.Thirdly,all the translators adopted both documental and instrumental translation types with their own emphasis.Owing to the limited resources,time and the capability of the author,there are shortcomings of the comparative study.It is suggested to launch further studies on more extratextual and intratextual factors of the three target texts in order to achieve more comprehensive and deeper investigation.