A Study on Translation Strategies of Figure of Speech in Zhang Peiji s Selected Modern Chinese Essays开题报告

Though I only choose a part of the SelectedModern Chinese Essays, they contain quite a lot of figures of speech that aretypical. With the help of translation strategies, I can analyze what kind oftranslation strategy Zhang Peiji has chosen to translate the figures ofspeech in the best way.

The essay focuses on the figure of speech usedin the translation. The essay is divided into four parts. Chapter one is mainly about the literature review andcurrent studies of the Selected Modern ChineseEssays. Besides, it includes a briefintroduction of the research methodology and purpose. Chapter two and threeare the main body of the essay.

Chapter two includes the study history offigures of speech. In chapter three, it introduces comparisons in figures ofspeech between English ones and Chinese ones, so that readers can have abetter understanding of figures of speech. Then the essay will analyze thestrategies used by Zhang Peiji. In chapter four, it consists of a briefsummary of the essay, limitations and expectations of the study ontranslation of figure of speech.

In recent years, great achievements have beenmade by scholars both at home and abroad in the studies of Zhang Peiji aswell as his works.

The whole essay is based on the Skopos theory. Interms of Skopos theory which is proposed by Hans Vermeer, this theory holdsthat 'translation is a text produced for a certain purpose and targetaudience in the target language situation”. That is to say, the purpose oftranslation determines translation strategies.

Speaking of translation strategies, there areonly two ways: one is foreignization which leaves writer in peace and movesreaders towards him, the other is domestication which turns oriented languageinto targeted language.

The translation of figures of speech dependsmainly on four ways: free translation, literal translation, set translation and creativetranslation.

Famous Chinese scholar Feng Qinghua classify thetranslation of figures of speech into three categories: translatable, untranslatableand hard for translation. While he pointed out that appropriate methodsshould be adopted in translation, so that the rhetorical effects of sound,form and meaning are transmitted to the targeted language as perfectly aspossible.

Chen Shuhua (1990) stated the importance ofrhetorical devices and their translation methods. She also discussed therelationship between rhetorical devices and translation.

Chen Ding''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''an (2004) discussed the translation ofrhetorical devices from different angles, such as image, semantics and phrasestructure. Meanwhile, he listed some examples on how to translate differentrhetorical devices.

Feng Xiuwen (2006) thought during the process oftranslating rhetorical devices in Chinese literature, all kinds oftranslation methods should be applied by the translator. He also stated sometranslation strategies such as domestication and foreignization to translatefigures of speech in Chinese literature, and he gave some examples on how to translatepuns, similes and Chinese idioms.

Zhang Fen (2007) studied how to translate therhetorical devices in advertisements. She thought modern Englishadvertisements often use some rhetorical devices to enhance the propagandaand persuasion，and there was a need to study the translation ofthe rhetorical devices in advertisements. She introduced some commonrhetorical devices in advertisements such as pun, rhyme, personification, hyperboleand contrast. Later, she also applied such translation methods as literaltranslation，free translation, and supplement to show how totranslate these rhetorical devices in advertisements.

Xie Xiyan (2008) discussed the translatability ofrhetorical devices in Harry Potter Series which is based on functionalequivalence theory. She used detailed case study of the translation ofrhetorical devices in three books, such as how to translate puns and personification.According to the comparison with same translation of rhetorical devices indifferent books, she concluded the better way to translate rhetoricaldevices.

Huang Mulan (2011) studied the specifictranslation strategies of rhetorical advertisements from the perspective ofrelevance theory through abundant cases. She introduced three levels ofrhetorical devices: those on phonetic level, on semantic level and onsyntactic level. Rhyme, pun, metaphor, antithesis, parallelism and otherrhetorical devices as well as their corresponding translation strategies areintroduced systematically. The author divided the strategies into three majorcategories, that is, to translate into the same type of rhetorical device，flexibletranslation of rhetorical advertisements and non-rhetorical advertisements torhetorical advertisements translation.

Liu Jinlong (2011) discussed how to translate therhetorical devices in English news headlines. He talked about two types ofrhetorical devices in English news headlines. One was communicative rhetoric，andthe other one was aesthetic rhetoric. He listed some common translationmethods in the process of translating rhetorical devices in English newsheadlines，such as literal translation and free translation，andhe also discussed some other translation strategies.

At abroad, Translatability is an issue that hasbeen studied a lot in the field of translation. It is the interchangeabilitybetween source language and target language, the extent to which the sourcelanguage can be translated into the target language. Translatability isbelieved to have limits in practice. J. G. Catford distinguishes two types ofuntranslatability in his book: linguistic and cultural untranslatability:“Translation fails—or untranslatability occurs—when it is impossible to buildfunctionally relevant features of the situation into the contextual meaningof the TL text. Broadly speaking, the cases where this happens fall into twocategories. Those where difficulty is linguistic and those when it is cultural”.According to Catford, linguistic untranslatability exists' becausefailure to find a TL equivalent is due to difference between the SL and theTL'(ibid.: 98). What leads to cultural untranslatability is 'asituational feature, functionally relevant for the SL text, is completelyabsent from the culture which the TL is a part'(ibid.: 99).