A Comparative Pragmatranslatological Perspective On Deviations In E.E. Cummings’ Poetry As Translated

As an unconventional expression technique used in all languages and all genres,deviation is expected to decrease the understandability of languages or texts.Deviation often occurs in English poetry,let alone in E.E.Cummings’(usu.spelt as e.e.cummings),like “rIvInG.gRrEaPsPhOs”,“PPEGORHRASS”(George,1994: 135),which undoubtedly challenges understanding,not to mention Chinese translation.Then how to well translate the deviations in Cummings’ poetry?Guided by Pragmatic Markedness Equivalence Principle(PMEP hereafter)of pragmatranslatology(part of the pragmatic approaches to translation studies),this thesis comparatively analyzes ten representative samples of Cummings’ poetry and two Chinese versions by Guojin Hou(Hou hereinafter)and Zhongzhi Zou(Zou hereinafter),attempting to address the following three questions: 1)What are the main types of deviations that abound in E.E.Cummings’ poetry? 2)What strategies,methods or skills are employed by Hou and Zou in the translation of deviations in E.E.Cummings’ poetry? 3)How to evaluate Hou’s and Zou’s versions of deviations in E.E.Cummings’ poetry?For question 1),this study finds: a)that lexical deviation in Cummings’ poetry falls into two types: nonce formation and nonce meaning;b)that grammatical deviation includes capitalization,punctuation marks,and sentence structure;c)that graphological deviation is reflected in glyphs,distance,and overall layout;d)that semantic deviation mainly contains ambiguity caused by the lack of punctuation marks and irrationality or ambiguity of the sentence itself;For question 2),this study finds that Hou and Zou are consistent in translating grammatical deviation and graphological deviation by adopting strategy of foreignization,methods of zero translation and free translation,and skills of addition and conversion while there are differences in translation methods used in lexical deviation and semantic deviation;For question 3),this study finds: a)that Hou’s and Zou’s versions have reached different degrees of functional equivalence and dynamic equivalence,while in view of PMEP,Zou’s version is better;b)that Hou cares more about the target readers’ acceptance while Zou focuses on reproduction of the ST,and both translators adopted foreignization and domestication when translating;c)that in view of readers’ response,for the original texts that deviate much from the regular grammatical writing,expression etc.,readers for the questionnaire do not choose any translation;For the original texts not so difficult,most readers choose Hou’s version with strategy of domestication and method of literal translation.For source texts easy to understand,readers tend to choose Zou’s version by method of free translation and strategy of foreignization.Based on the PMEP of pragmatranslatology,this thesis studies four main types of deviations in Cummings’ poetry,discusses the Chinese translation in strategies,methods and skills of Guojin Hou and Zhongzhi Zou,as well as evaluates the two versions from perspectives of PMV and readers’ response,hoping to make some achievements in translation of Cummings’ poetry.