A Study Of Translation Of Reduplicated Words In Qingtong Kuihua In Light Of "Three Beauties" Theory

As a special Chinese language phenomenon,reduplication is frequently employed in literary works,especially in children’s literature by virtue of the beauty in sense,sound and form.In children’s literature,beauty in sense reinforces lively and interesting portrayal;beauty in sound caters to children’s nature for imitation of sounds;beauty in form provides visual enjoyment in reading.All these three beauties give children readers childlike language and aesthetic experiences in reading.Therefore,it is a key issue to represent the beauty of reduplicated words in translating children’s literature.Qingtong Kuihua,one of the masterpieces by Cao Wenxuan,a celebrated contemporary children’s literature writer in China,presents a clean and pure world with beautiful and childlike language and is deeply loved by both children and adult readers.The English version Bronze and Sunflower,translated by Helen Wang a sinologist working at the British Museum,has won many awards,such as Marsh Award for Children Literature in Translation,and has been well accepted in the English-speaking countries.So far,many scholars have carried out extensive and various studies on Bronze and Sunflower.However,there are few studies on translation of reduplicated words in Qingtong Kuihua.Based on “Three Beauties” theory proposed by Xu Yuanzhong,this thesis explores the English translation of reduplicated words in Qingtong Kuihua by employing both qualitative and quantitative analysis,and analyzes whether the translator delivers similar aesthetic pleasure to the target readers and how to represent the beauty of reduplicated words in English,so as to shed light on translating reduplicated words in children’s literature.Besides the Introduction and Conclusion,the thesis is divided into four parts:the first chapter summarizes and analyzes previous studies on translation of reduplicated words and Bronze and Sunflower.The second chapter presents Xu Yuanzhong’s translation aesthetic thoughts and “Three Beauties” theory.The third chapter is a statistical analysis of reduplicated words.As the main body,the fourth chapter investigates how Helen Wang preserves the beauty in sense,sound and form of reduplicated words from the perspective of “Three Beauties” theory,and how to make translation compensation for translation loss due to great disparities between Chinese and English.The findings are as follows: firstly,compared with other children’s literature,Qingtong Kuihua contains abundant reduplicated words;the beauty of nearly half of reduplicated words are retained by various methods in translation.Secondly,beauty in sense is retained by use of rhetorical devices,amplification and idiomatic expressions;beauty in sound is transferred by use of phonetic stylistic devices including consonance,alliteration,assonance and onomatopoeia;beauty in form is represented by use of repetition and parallelism.Thirdly,the translation loss occurs when more than half of reduplicated words are not fully represented in translation.Hence,Helen Wang makes translation compensation in an effort to transfer similar aesthetic experiences to target readers in translation.This study tries to provide practical solutions to the translation of reduplicated words,and the endeavour of “going global” of Chinese children’s literature.