A Study of the Culturally-Loaded Words in the English Translation of Zibuyu from the Perspective of Eco-Translatology开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

Zibuyu is oneof the most famous novels in the Qing Dynasty. The author, Yuan Mei, was afamous poet in the Qing Dynasty. He collected many mysterious stories heardfrom others out of sheer interest. Thus, there is an abundance of words thatcarry profound cultural connotations in the text. Those culturally-loaded wordsare worth further discussion in the course of translation study of the book.The only complete English translation was published by an Italian sinologistPaolo Santangelo in 2013. It helps to arouse interests in Chinese traditionalculture among foreign audiences and researchers. But, so far (until November30, 2021, in CNKI), there is no research focused on the culturally-loaded wordsin the English translation of Zibuyu.

Eco-Translatologytheory was proposed by a Chinese scholar, Hu Gengshen, and it was also thefirst oriental theory contributed to the area of translation. As time passesby, many Chinese scholars of translation joined in related researches tofurther develop the theory. As there are more successful applying cases andmore researches that are going deeper, Eco-Translatology now has an increasingimpact on translation area worldwide.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

my aim isto study the culturally-loaded words in the english translation of zibuyu with the method of three-dimensional transformation stated in eco-translatologytheory.

to makea piece of translation work successful, a translator needs to deal with culturally-loadedwords carefully to reflect the connotations in the source language. andeco-translatology theory offers overall criteria on the translation work involvingthe translator’s cultural background, language competence and so on. with thattheory, i will evaluate the english translation of the culturally-loaded wordsin zibuyu, and figure out how the translator conveyed culturalconnotations through expressions in target language.

outline:

3. 国内外研究现状

eco-translatologytheory is a translation theory originated from china. ecology was first putforward by a zoologist from germany in order to study the interrelationsbetween organisms and their environments. finding the adequacy and appropriacy ofthis theory, hu applied it to translation and combined it with chinese ancientecological wisdom (hu, 2010).

the theory ofeco-translatology is of high value for translators to study. based on conscientiousstudy, hu introduced the theory of eco-translatology systematically in hisarticle “understanding eco-translatology” that eco-translatology focuses on therelationships between the translator and the translationaleco-environment (hu, 2008). it has a great significance for remedying thelimitations of the prevailing translation approaches. the linguistic approachesto studying translation theories are limited to the bilingual transference,form and context. the philological theories have ambiguous criteria and canbarely guide the non-literary translation, while the communicative translationtheory mainly focused on the communicative function of the text without consideringthe aesthetic function… (hu amp; tao, 2016)

three-dimensionaltransformation is an important method in eco-translatology theory. as thetheory of eco-translatology has developed gradually, the number of relatedtheses published every year is increasing. according to the statistics,“three-dimensional transformation” is a popular research object ineco-translatology studies (mu, chen, yang, 2021). three-dimensionaltransformation is a method of translation that contains the transformation oflinguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions. the dimension of linguisticsrefers to the transformation between two different language forms. thedimension of culture means the explanation of cultural connotations in the sourcelanguage. and the dimension of communication implies the realization ofcommunicative purpose in the target text (hu, 2011). furthermore, there aremany theses analyzing culturally-loaded words in translation works in terms of three-dimensionalprinciple. for example, huang analyzed the culturally-loaded words’ translationin chaozhou opera, finding that when translators balanced the three dimensions inthe course of translation, audience would understand the cultural backgroundbehind the culturally-loaded words better (huang y.x. amp; huang j.f., 2019).in another thesis which analyzed culturally-loaded words in translation, theauthor listed many successful examples, including the original text andcorresponding translation, to show that the translator of red sorghum familyinitiatively and creatively transformed the text from three dimensions (liu,2021). and in the thesis about translation of the journey to the west,the author not only gave examples which show transformation of the threedimensions, but also categorized the examples in a more detailed way. forinstance, there are idioms and allusions under the category of the linguisticdimension, ecologic and religious nouns under the cultural dimension, andrhetoric under the communicative dimension (wang, 2019). in a word, to analyzethe text from the three-dimensional transformation is feasible.

4. 计划与进度安排

First,I will read the original and English translation of Zibuyu and take culturally-loadedwords down. Second, I will categorize all of the words into three dimensions,namely, linguistics, culture and communication. Then, I will analyze whatmethods the translator used to transform the cultural connotations intoexpressions in the target language. Finally, I will state my findings in thedissertation based on typical examples listed.

5. 参考文献

hu, g. s., amp; tao, y. (2016). eco-translatology: a new paradigmof eco-translation——a comparative study on approaches totranslation studies. sociology (05), 115-132.

liu, f. (2021). a study on the translation of “red sorghum family”from the perspective of three-dimensional transformation of eco-translatology. openjournal of social sciences (09), 25-31.

mu, j.f., chen, y.y., amp; yang, g. (2021). a scientometric analysis of research advances in china’s eco-translatologystudies (2008-2021). open access library journal (8), e7791.