Move Analysis Of Translators’ Prefaces And Postscripts In Chinese Translations Of Foreign Literary Texts

Since Swales and Swales(1990)proposed move analysis as a method of discourse analysis,many domestic and foreign scholars have applied this method to analyze a variety of corpora from different fields,yielding fruitful results.Meanwhile,as the "paratext" theory has matured,a considerable number of scholars have used it as a research object to analyze move and discourse features of paratexts,in particular prefaces.Such analyses have been enlightening for related fields and the creation of similar texts.In recent years,translators’ prefaces have become a popular topic in paratext research.Scholars have conducted extensive research on the content of translators’prefaces based on specific corpora.However,most of the existing research primarily focuses on English translators’ prefaces,with corpora usually containing fewer than 100 prefaces.In contrast,studies on Chinese translators’ prefaces have mainly concentrated on content,with only a few examining form and discourse characteristics.This study aims to analyze the translators’ prefaces and postscripts in Chinese translations of foreign literature using the theory of paratext and move structure.A corpus of 165 texts was collected for the analysis.Based on the self-built corpus,this study adapts the existing move structure appropriately.The focus is on exploring the structure and textual features of the translators’ prefaces and postscripts in Chinese translations of foreign literary works.The analysis of translators’ prefaces and postscripts in Chinese translations of foreign works revealed that they can be broadly classified into five moves and subdivided into 11 steps.However,not all texts contain all moves,with most texts having only two or three of them.There are five texts without any one of the five moves.This study demonstrates the richness of information on translation philosophies and practices that can be gleaned from analyzing translators’ prefaces and postscripts.As a largely untapped repository of translators’ commentaries on their craft,these paratexts yield insights into the cultural and sociological contexts of translation at a given time and place.This thesis represents an initial effort in unlocking these insights,but more work is needed to develop a fuller understanding of shifts in Chinese translators’approaches over time and in comparison with translators of other linguistic and cultural traditions.