A Comparative Study Of The Translation Of Address Terms Used By Jia Baoyu In The Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng

Hong Lou Meng is one of the four great classical novels in China.It profoundly reflects the history and culture of the Qing Dynasty and is an encyclopedia of Chinese feudal society.There are several hundreds characters in this novel,the interpersonal relationship and address terms are complex and diverse.As the hero of this novel,Jia Baoyu is the central character in Jia Mansion’s intricate interpersonal network.Facing hundreds of characters in Jia Mansion,Jia Baoyu’s address terms is complicated,and the address terms used by Jia Baoyu reflects the traditional usage of address terms of feudal society to a large extent.Since address terms is an important carrier of social culture and play an important role in reflecting interpersonal relationship and social culture,through the translation of the address terms in literary works can provide a chance for different cultures to communicate with each other and build a bridge between different cultures.This thesis selects the first 80 chapters in Hong Lou Meng as research data.The English version selects two influential versions,which are A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang,The Story of the Stone translated by David Hawkes and John Minford.Under the guidance of functional equivalence theory,this thesis makes a comparative study on the translation of address terms used by Jia Baoyu in these two English versions by combining literal translation and free translation methods,foreignization translation and domestication translation strategies.The research object of this thesis is the English translation of address terms used by Jia Baoyu in Yang Xianyi and Hawkes’ versions.Because the number of address terms used by Jia Baoyu is large,in order to ensure the statistics,classification and analysis of the corpora clearly,the number of non-kinship address terms used to non-kinship relatives which are few and unsystematic is omitted.The research object is focused on a large number of systematic address terms for kinship and fictive kinship address terms used to non-kinship relatives with a total number of 237.Firstly,all the address terms used by Jia Baoyu were found in the original work,and a total of237 subjects were identified as the research object.Then,these Chinese address terms were divided into the address for peers and the address for elders according to the different objects in conversation.The address terms for peers and elders was further classified into four types: address terms used to kinship peers,address terms used to non-kinship peers,address terms used to kinship elders,address terms used to non-kinship elders.Then the author search and collect the corresponding translation of address terms in the two English versions and analyze them.Through comparative analysis,the author attempts to explore the similarity and difference in the translation of address terms used by Jia Baoyu in the two versions,as well as the different translation methods and strategies used in the two versions,and at the same time,to explore the influencing factors for the differences between the two versions.The research questions of this study include:(1)How are the address terms used by Jia Baoyu translated in these two English versions ?(2)What are the similarities and differences in these two English versions in the translation of Jia Baoyu’s address terms ?(3)What are the main translation methods and strategies of Yang Xianyi’s and Hawkes’ versions respectively ?This study conducted by combining quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis.Through comparative study,the author summarizes the findings of this study as follows:Firstly,in terms of the difference and similarity:Differences:First,Hawkes is more inclined to use people’s names or people’s names plus other modifiers to translate the address terms used by Jia Baoyu.Yang Xianyi’s uses of people’s names to translate the address terms is less than Hawkes.Second,Hawkes’ uses of pronouns to translate address terms and omits the translation of address terms are more than Yang’ version.Yang Xianyi seldom uses pronouns to translate address terms and not often omits the translation of address terms.Third,Hawkes’ version has more word categories than Yang Xianyi’s,and the word Hawkes uses is more westernized.Yang Xianyi’s word category number is relatively small,the translation form is simple to some extent and retained strong Chinese features.Similarity:In both English versions,the translation of address terms with numbers such as“大”,“二”are translated by omitting the numbers to achieve concise and clear translation effect.In this way,the cultural differences between Chinese and western address terms can be avoided while the target language readers reading this novel.Secondly,in terms of the main translation methods and strategies:By comparing and analyzing the translation of address terms used by Jia Baoyu in the two English versions,the author finds that Yang’s version tends to adopt literal translation method and foreignization translation strategy in the translation of address terms used by Jia Baoyu,and achieves formal equivalence in a large extent.Hawkes’ version tends to adopt free translation method and domestication translation strategy,which achieves functional equivalence in a large extent.Through a comparative study of the two English versions,we can find out the characteristics and limitations of the two versions respectively,so as to provide some suggestions for readers with different reading backgrounds and reading needs when choosing the English version of Hong Lou Meng.