A Corpus-based Study On C-E Translation Explicitation Of The Three-body Problem

Translation explicitation means that the translator expresses information of the source text in a more explicit form in the target text and add explanatory phrases or conjunctions to enhance the logic and comprehensibility of the target text in the translation process.Explicitation is not only a change in the form of connection,but also includes the transformation of meaning,which means adding explicit expressions in the target text that help readers understand,or making the information implicit in the source text explicit in the target text.At present,most of the studies on translation explicitation mainly focus on E-C translation,but few on C-E translation.This thesis chooses the first book of the Chinese science fiction series Santi and its English version The Three-body Problem as research objects.Based on the self-built Chinese-English parallel corpus,this study explores explicitation of The Three-body Problem under the guidance of Hu and Zhu’s(2008)classification of explicitation:ideational metafunction explicitation,interpersonal metafunction explicitation,and textual metafunction explicitation.This study adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate explicitation in three aspects above.In addition,based on the results,this study also explores the factors influencing explicitation in The Three-body Problem.Results of the study show that explicitation exists in the English translation of Santi in three aspects above.In terms of ideational metafunction explicitation,the translator usually chooses to add explanations,explain words and phrases,and add the conductor and the receiver of actions.In terms of interpersonal metafunction explicitation,explicitation of character’s relationship and evaluative meaning is not evident in The Three-body Problem,while the explicitation of modal meaning is evident,mainly reflected in the numerous modal verbs in The Three-body Problem.In terms of textual metafunction explicitation,this study mainly focuses on conjunctions and finds that the frequency of conjunctions in The Three-body Problem is higher than that of the source text,which makes logical relations in the translation more explicit.Based on data and example analysis,this study concludes that the factors causing explicitation in The Three-body Problem mainly come from differences between Chinese and English,translator’s subjectivity,cultural differences and reader’s acceptance.To conclude,this thesis confirms explicitation hypothesis in C-E translation of Santi by adopting a method combined with qualitative and quantitative analysis,explores the factors influencing explicitation,and therefore contributes to the study of Chinese literary work translation.