A Study On Translation Of Fictional Dialogues In Biancheng From The Perspective Of Conversational Implicature Theory

Shen Congwen,known as the “Father of Local Literature,” created numerous literary works featuring an emphasis on Xiangxi life and culture.His best-known piece,Biancheng,has a distinctive flair.He was once referred to as a “Stylistic Writer,”because of the various structural and stylistic forms among them,the “dialogue-style novel,” that his works took.Richly implicated dialogue was an essential element in shaping characters,stimulating the story,and arousing readers’ interest.Dialogue in Biancheng take up about one-third of the novel and was notable for its variety of forms,including a mixture of colloquial and classical Chinese and culture-loaded words with distinct regional features arising from Xiangxi folk culture.These factors not only endowed the novel with unique charm but also making the interpretation and translation more challenging.As for the study on Biancheng,there were few records on fictional dialogues,and the research was primarily concerned with the dialogue itself rather than the meaning behind it.As a result,based on Gricean conversational implicature theory and its cooperation principle,this thesis analyzed the illocutionary information of the dialogue centered on the protagonist Cuiui in the first translation.In the study,implicature was compared between the source text and target text and analyzed in terms of how it was produced and reproduced.It outlines the translation principles and methods adopted by the translators,together with the effects they were able to achieve.In this study,case analytic method and the comparative analysis method were adopted.The former was used to infer and assert the generation and transmission of implicature,while the latter was used to evaluate the conveyance and effect of implicature in target text.The study found that the implicature originated from the context,folk culture,and specific communicative purpose,as well as the intentional violation of the cooperative principle.Translators were impacted by the publication T’ien Hsia Monthly,which aims to introduce China to the West in English.Therefore,the translation retained the folk culture and national characteristics of the novel.Translators respected the form and content of the original text,striving to reproduce the implied meaning behind the words in an obscure way.In the form of translation,translators maintained the word,style,and rhythm rather than changing or replacing them.The other one was to retain the cultural factors of the original text.Alternately,without impairing the flow of communicative information,the implicature could still be communicated subtly in the translation.Under the guidance of conversational implicature theory and textual features,this thesis put forward general principles for fictional dialogue translation,and summarized the translation methods according to the various sources of implicature.Overall,this thesis was conducive to expanding the study of “implicature” and “illocutionary information” in dialogue.It enlightens translators to pay attention to illocutionary information in translation,balance meaning and hidden meaning,and reproduce the implicature of the original text into the translation as possible to ensure quality translation.