A Study On Michael Berry's Translation Of To Live In The Light Of House's Model For Translation Quality Assessment

Yu Hua,a writer who embodies the avant-garde genre,was formally introduced to the literary world with the publication of On the Road at Eighteen.To Live,one of his masterpieces,received mixed reviews when it was first released due to its deep insights into Chinese history and human nature.However,with time passing by,especially after the film version was released in 1994,people started to reconsider the value of the book.More and more researches have been done on its literal and social significance,yet the translation of the book has not been fully explored.By comparing and analyzing the source text(ST)and the target text(TT)on the dimensions of Field,Tenor,Mode and Genre,House's model for translation quality assessment(TQA)aims to pick out the matches and mismatches arising from the translation process,and assess the realization of functional equivalence in the translation.After the introduction of House's model for TQA,the present author applies it to the translation of To Live to assess the quality of the translation version.By adopting various methods,the translator basically realizes the ideational functional and interpersonal functional components.The present author holds the view that the translation of the report is of high-quality,though there are slight mismatches in terms of the dimensions of Register and Genre.After an all-around assessment of To Live's English version,the present author proposes related suggestions for further improvements,which is in the interests of the development of literature translation.What's more,this study also points out some defects of House's model for TQA,hence making contributions to the refinement of this model.