A Corpus-based Study On Translator's Style Of John Minford

Louis Cha,one of the most famous writers of Chinese martial arts fiction,creates his martial arts myth by 15 classic works,which have always been the focus in the aspects of filming or translation from all walks of life.The research objectives of this study are the translator John Minford and his translation The Deer and The Cauldron,and it aims to figure out the translator's style of Minford from that work.Based on the corpus-based translation theories,this study establishes a research framework,analyzes quantitative data and qualitative results,summarizes the translator's style of Minford and discusses the causes of formation of it.The major findings of this study are as follows.Firstly,based on the quantitative research,data from lexical,syntactic and textual levels are obtained and discussed.In terms of vocabulary,it can be found that Minford tends to use more diverse words than that of native English literature.Due to the influence of the original text,Minford's translation has a higher lexical density,especially in the description of location,scene,action,etc.In the aspect of syntax,he uses complex sentence patterns appropriately.To conform to the habits of English readers,Minford carefully considers and modifies the position of original punctuation marks,thus making his translation more clear and readable.From a textual level,Minford adjusts the paragraphs of the original work greatly,who uses a great number of cohesive devices for reference.The Flesch-reading test and sales data show that the readability of The Deer and The Cauldron ranks second among the four published martial arts translations.Secondly,in the aspect of qualitative research,this study analyzes the chapter headings,preface and postscript,translation strategies and methods through the case study.Minford has his inimitable translation of chapter headings,which are tidy and unified as a whole.In preface,he makes notes on the historical era,main characters and place names involved in the book,taking these as catalogs separately.In terms of translation strategies,he uses domestication and foreignization flexibly.When it comes to the translation of “Kungfu” words,he prefers to use the foreignization strategy,while he tends to use the domestication strategy for translating “Xia”.Poems in his translation follow the Aesthetic Principles of Liu Miqing,while the dirty words and phrases are translated perfectly to follow cultural differences in translation.Combining quantitative research and qualitative research,this study finds that Minford's translator's style not only keeps the essence of the original work,but also pursues a close relationship with the original English text,and also cares for the target readers.Finally,this study discusses three main factors affecting his translator's style,restrictions of the original text,individual factors of translator and cultural constraints respectively.Apart from the influence of the original work,Minford's family background,his mentor Hawkes and his long-term translation experience equip himwith his inimitable style in translation.Last but not least,in the context of modern social and cultural backgrounds,Minford gets used to the translation trend,which polishes his translation and promotes the effective dissemination of Chinese martial arts culture to the world.