On Chinese-English Translation Of Dui Ou Sentences From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

From 1994 to 2002,a five-volume English version of The Marshes of Mount Liang,co-translated from the Shui hu zhuan by British translators John Dent-Young and Alex Dent-Young,had been published by the Press of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.The greatest merit of this English version is its readability.The fact that it retains 75% of the original poems makes the whole story truer.A large number of Dui Ou sentences make the images of Mount Liang heroes are deeply rooted in people's hearts and increase the artistic appeal.Meanwhile,due to the unity of content,form and logical relationship,the translation of Dui Ou sentences become increasingly difficult.The translation purpose of John Dent-Young and Alex Dent-Young's English version is to make it readable.So,the present thesis,guided by the Skopostheorie and based on the textual material of the Shui hu zhuan and its English version The Marshes of Mount Liang,explores the translation of Dui Ou sentences through a comparative study between the original and the target text.According to the three principles of the Skopostheorie,that is,the Skopos rule,the coherence rule and the fidelity rule,the present thesis adopts the research methods of translation case study,literature review,textual close reading,generalization and reasoning,and so on to analyze the regular patterns of translator's Dui Outranslation and to figure out how to achieve the purpose of readability by applying the three principles of the Skopostheorie in translating Dui Ou sentences.Skopostheorie views all translation actions as purposeful activities,and the translator should choose the most appropriate translation strategy and method according to the actual situation to achieve his/her translation goal.It is found that no matter what translation strategy and method the translators choose,their translation choices always serve their translation purpose,that is,the target reader's comprehension and acceptance.When both form and content can be accepted by the target reader,the translator retains both form and content for the reader and employ English couplets to replace Dui Ou sentences in Chinese;when the language form obstructs the transmission of content and it is not easy for reader to accept,the translator renders Dui Ou sentences into scattered English sentences;when the content needs to be expressed accurately and the linguistic form should be as neat as possible,the translator adopts the method of approximate Dui Ou sentences as far as possible.