A Research On The Translations Of Emily Dickinson's Poems From The Perspective Of Pragma-markedness Equivalence Principle

In recent years,a great number of translated versions of Dickinson's poems have been published and well received by Chinese readers.However,the quality of the translated versions needs to be improved in general.Currently,there are few comparative studies and theories which provide relative reference for the future translations of Dickinson's poems.The highest criterion of Pragma-Markedness Equivalence Principle is that the markers in the original text are completely reproduced in the translation and the number and degree of pragma-markers are exactly equal to that of the source text.The purpose of Dickinson's poems translation is to mirror her poetic style and restore beauty of the poems,which is consistent with the emphasis the Pragma-Markedness Equivalence Principle.This thesis selects the five translations by Tu An & Zhang Yan(co-translated),Xu Chungang,Wei Huan,Wang Jinhua and Jiang Feng,which are popular among readers and have been comparatively studied by fewer scholars at present.Taking Hou Guojin's Pragma-Markedness Equivalence Principle as the guiding theory and translation criteria,and combining with the theme of Dickinson's poems,the paper compares the tendencies and strategies of the five translations in dealing with specific translation,thus providing a new way of thinking for other literary translation practice from the perspective of Pragma-Markedness Equivalence Principle.From the detailed analysis of the five translated versions of Dickinson's four poems in terms of five of the twelve rules of PMEP namely wording,syntax,rhetoric,coherence and style,the conclusions have been drawn as follows: in the comparison of markers in wording,the number and degree of markers in Jiang Feng and Xu Chungang's version are more similar to that of source text,conforming to wording markedness equivalence of PMEP.In terms of syntax,Jiang Feng and Wei Huan focus more on syntax markedness equivalence,and the markers in the translations are virtually the same as the original text.Jiang Feng and Wei Huan attach great importance to discourse markedness equivalence,whose scores in the comparison of markers in discourse are relatively higher than other three translators.Finally,in terms of comparison of style,Wei Huan,Xu Chungang,Tu An & Zhang Yan are dedicated to restoring original feature of Dickinson's poems as the markers in their translations are equal to that of source text.As for translation strategy,Jiang Feng is adept at combining free and literal translation,while Xu Chungang is tend to faithful to the original text.Wei Huan's flexible handling of sentence structure with translation strategies like omission,conversion,repetition,impresses readers most.Wang Jinhua prefers translation that is easy to understand,so he is inclined to creative translation when dealing with some key points.Tu An & Zhang Yan concentrate on sentence structure,using inversion to make translation more readable.At last,Xu Chungang and Wang Jinhua add annotations to explain cultural difference,which is also consistent with what Hou Guojin proposed in closest markedness principle.For literary translation practice,after judging the degree and number of markers in source text,translators are suggested to take the rules of PMEP into consideration,especially rule 3,4,6,7,8,12,which are all significant elements for literary text.After translation,it is indispensable to compare the markers in the target text with that of source text to further evaluate the quality of translation,which is conducive to revise and polish.Theoretically,the application of Pragma-Markedness Equivalence Principle to poem translation enrich research content of the principle.Practically,the principle not only provides certain reference standards for the evaluation of translation but also enlightens future translators of Dickinson's poems.