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A Study of Hsiao Ch’ien’s Self-Translation from the Perspective of Gideon Toury’s Norm Theory

Author: ZhongHui
Tutor: ZhangBaoHong
School: Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: descriptive translation research translation norms Hsiao Ch’ien Selected Masterpieces by Hsiao Ch’ien self-translation reconstruction
CLC: H315.9
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2009
Downloads: 285
Quote: 2
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Abstract

Translating has a very long history which can be traced back to at least 2000 years ago,and researchers have done lots of studies of the field since the second half of the twentieth century.However,within the numerous studies of translation, self-translation has long been neglected in translation theory and translation studies, but there are several outstanding Chinese self-translators who play a positive role in promoting the culture communication between China and the West.This paper takes Hsiao Ch’ien’s self-translations as its research object,for Hsiao Ch’ien was the accredited journalist of Takungpao at Britain reporting the British Isles during the World War,and his several works introducing China to the British were published during that time,which made a contribution to promoting the culture communication between China and Britain.The paper does a case study of the thirteen passages from Selected Masterpieces by Hsiao Ch’ien published by Beijing Language and Culture University Press in 2001.The thirteen passages were Hsiao Ch’ien’s self-translations published in China But Not Cathay and The Spinners of Silk in London during the World WarⅡ.The research is guided by Gideon Toury’s norms theory to reconstruct the preliminary norms,initial norms and operational norms,through the case study of Selected Masterpieces by Hsiao Ch’ien and the analysis of translation purpose, translation policy,the translator’s view on translation and translation comments from British publishers and critics.Based on the study of Hsiao Ch’ien’s view on translation,translation purpose and the translation reviews published in Britain,there comes the conclusion that Hsiao Ch’ien strikes a balance between adequacy and acceptability with acceptability being the first and adequacy being the second,which constructs the initial norms.The factors governing the choice of text-type,even of individual text and the directness of translation include the very limited communication between Chinese literature and British literature and the war situation in Britain and China,which are the content of preliminary norms.The case study shows that the textual-linguistic norms include the element of target readers’ psychological needs and the purpose of translation. According to the research,the matricial norms include following factors:①target readers’ expectancy of reading translated works;②target readers’ difficulty in reading the content with Chinese characteristics;③the purpose of translation is to eliminate prejudice between British and Chinese and promote the communication between the two countries;④the feature of target readers:they are experiencing war and need positive and optimistic messages to go through the hard era;⑤the target readers’ thinking pattern and expressing habit.Except the third factor which is originating in the source culture,the other four factors are originating in the target culture.Moreover,the three reconstructed norms:the initial norms,preliminary norms and operational norms intersect with each other and are closely related.Because of the specificity of the research target,i.e.self-translations of Hsiao Ch’ien,there are only thirteen articles available for research,which would undoubtedly lead to the limitation of the research findings.However,the contextualized study of Hsiao Chi’en’s self-translations helps to reconstruct the norms Hsiao Chi’en adhered to,which would help to predict the factors which would govern translators’ decision if the translation will be done in the similar circumstance as Hsiao Chi’en’s.Therefore,the research is still valuable.

A Study of Hsiao Ch’ien’s Self-Translation from the Perspective of Gideon Toury’s Norm Theory

Abstract

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