英语专业毕业论文通过《红楼梦》两个英译本探究动物隐喻翻译.doc

北京外国语大学毕 业 论 文题目：通过红楼梦两个英译本探究动物隐喻翻译系 别： 英语学院 英语系专 业： 英语语言文学 姓 名： 攻 读 学 位： 学 士 导 师： 定稿日期：2008年5月19日On Translation of Animal Metaphor through a Study of Two English Versions of Hong Lou MengByA Thesis Submitted tothe School of English and International StudiesBeijing Foreign Studies Universityin Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsSupervised byMay 2008Acknowledgements I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the following persons for their help and support during my research and writing of the thesis.First of all, I want to thank my thesis advisor, Ms. Liang Hao, who has helped me a lot during the whole thesis-writing process. She has provided me with inspiring instructions and thought-provoking suggestions on my research ideas and approaches. Without her guidance, the completion of the present thesis would have been impossible. Secondly, I would like to thank my classmates for sharing with me a large amount of useful information regarding thesis-writing. Their patience and encouragement are of great importance to my current and further study. Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to my parents for their consistent support and unreserved help. Responsibility for any remaining errors and limitations of the data collection in this thesis is mine alone. Table of Contents. Introduction 1. Literature review 2A. Animal metaphor and culture influence2B. Translation of animal metaphors in Hong Lou Meng .3. Analysis of Animal Metaphors in Hong Lou Meng and two English versions.5A. Methodology .51. Selection of data for further analysis.52. Source text analysis on the functions of animal metaphors.6B. Data Analysis.8. Translation strategies of animal metaphors in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng in relation to different functions .11A. Categorization of translation strategies.111. The animal image being kept completely.11 2. The animal image being kept with the meaning explained.133. The animal image being replaced with a corresponding image in target language .144. The animal image being abandoned and the meaning being rendered.14B. Primary reason that has caused different translation strategies in two versions15. Conclusion.17Appendix .19Works Cited.34摘要动物隐喻在人类语言中起着很重要的作用，自古以来，人们在与动物的接触中，观察动物的外表、行为和生活方式，发现动物与人类本身和人类生活有很多相似之处，于是开始在语言中使用动物形象作为隐喻来表达某种抽象的概念。但是，和其它类型的隐喻一样，动物隐喻也承载着一定的文化，每个民族的语言都有它不同的文化特色和不同的表达方式。红楼梦是中国古典文学中最优秀的作品之一，与整个中国民族文化紧紧联系在一起。通过分析红楼梦中的动物隐喻，本文作者将红楼梦中所使用的动物隐喻大体分为修辞功能和认知功能，修辞功能是为了使语言更加形象生动、通俗易懂，而认知功能更多的是约定俗成的表达方式，隐含着深厚的民族文化特色。红楼梦中动物隐喻的翻译需要译者将文化因素考虑进去，在翻译动物隐喻时，要充分体会动物隐喻本身的隐含义，然后选择正确的翻译方法把动物隐喻隐含的意思翻译出来。对于有的动物隐喻可以直接保留动物形象，而对于其它的动物隐喻则不能一味地保留动物形象。本文通过对红楼梦的两个英译版本的分析和比较，将红楼梦中动物隐喻的翻译方法划分为四类：（1）完全保留动物形象；（2）保留动物形象，并解释隐含义；（3）将原动物形象转换成目的语中对应的形象；（4）舍弃动物形象，仅翻译隐含义。这四种翻译方法并不是绝对的、固定的，具体翻译方法的选择不仅取决于动物隐喻的功能，还取决于译者的意图更忠实于源语言文化或者更接近目标语言文化。关键词：动物 隐喻 红楼梦 翻译AbstractAnimal metaphor plays an important role in human language. For a long time, during the experience with animals, people observe the look, behavior and habit of those animals and have found many similarities between animals and human life. Animal images have then been used metaphorically to convey abstract ideas. However, just like other types of metaphors, animal metaphor is also a carrier of culture. People in different culture might have different cultural characteristics and different ways of expressions. It is very possible that people in different culture use the same animal images to convey different abstract ideas.Hong Lou Meng is one of the masterpieces among all the Chinese classics. It has close connection with Chinese traditional culture. Through analyzing the animal metaphors in Hong Lou Meng, the author of this thesis has categorized the animal metaphors based on two functionsrhetorical function and cognitive function. Animal metaphors with rhetorical function make the language more vivid and more colloquial, while those with cognitive function are more about a way of literal expression that has become a part of language. The translators should take cultural differences into consideration while translating animal metaphors in Hong Lou Meng. Translating animal metaphors should be based on the accurate understanding of the metaphors and the choice of translation strategy. For some of those animal metaphors, the translators can keep the animal images in the source text, but for others, the animal images might be abandoned in order to make a precise translation. By analyzing the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng, the translation strategies concerning animal metaphors can fall into four categorizations: (1) The animal image being kept completely; (2) The animal image being kept with the meaning explained; (3) The animal image being replaced with a corresponding image in target language；(4) The animal image being abandoned and the meaning being rendered. The four translation strategies are not absolute and fixed rules. The choice of translation strategies not only depends on the function of the animal metaphor but also depends on the translators intentionwhether to be source language culture-oriented or target language culture-oriented.Key words: animal metaphor Hong Lou Meng translationOn Translation of Animal Metaphor through a Study of Two English Versions of Hong Lou Meng. IntroductionSome animals are peoples friends, and some are human enemies. But no matter they are friends or foes, animals are often personalized by people because they have some similarities with people or human life. It is not surprising to know that despite cultural differences, animal terms do not only contain their “literal meanings”(Goatly 15) but also have “metaphorical meanings”(Goatly 15) that are formed by people. Animal terms are very frequently used as symbols and metaphors in different languages. Metaphorical meanings are given to animal terms in terms of the animals image, characteristic and living habit. Although animal metaphors in English and Chinese are similar to a certain extent, many aspects of them are culture-specific. There are semantic overlaps in metaphorical meaning of some animal terms in Chinese and English because it is very possible that people have the same cognition towards a certain image , but also there are semantic discrepancies between these two languages due to different cultural contexts. Hong Lou Meng is a masterpiece in Chinese literature which has enormous significance in understanding Chinese traditional culture. The life that has been depicted in Hong Lou Meng is typical Chinese traditional lifestyle. Characters in Hong Lou Meng are varied in social status and personalities, thus the language used in Hong Lou Meng combines colloquialism and elegance, which is worth studying and analyzing. Animal metaphors, as a way of expression and language enrichment, are used in a large amount in Hong Lou Meng. By comparing Hong Lou Meng with its two translated versions, one translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang and the other translated by David Hawkes and John Minford, we will have a better understanding of the language differences in animal metaphors and thus adopt translating strategies concerning these differences. There are many existing published papers discussing metaphor translation in Hong Lou Meng, but rarely any of them has specifically touched upon strategies of translating animal metaphors. In this thesis, sentences that contain animal metaphors with specific animal images in the original text of Hong Lou Meng as well as the corresponding translations of these sentences in two English versions have been selected. These animal metaphors in the source text are counted in order to give readers a general idea of animal metaphor and its functions in language. Then, translations of those animal metaphors are analyzed in detail and translation strategies are categorized based on how the translators deal with the animal images in their translations. . Literature reviewA. Animal metaphor and culture influenceMetaphor is pervasive and indispensable in human language. It is an instrument of perceiving and conceptualizing the world. According to Lakoff and Johnson, “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”(Lakoff and Johnson 5). The theory of conceptual metaphor put forward by Lakoff and Johnson involves a mapping from a source domain to a target domain. The source domains are often familiar physical world. The target domains are abstract conceptual domains, frequently of the internal mental and emotional world or unseen and unknown domains of the physical world (Lakoff and Johnson 117). Since the source domain is directly connected with the concrete concepts, a metaphor is often related to how people perceive a certain object or image. Animal images, like other source domains, also project target domains. It is not hard to understand that since human beings always have inseparable relations with animals, for a long period of time, people have come to observe those animals, about how they look, how they live and how they behave. They have found similarities between the animals and other abstract concepts in their life. Thereupon, people have begun using animal images metaphorically in their languages to refer to something abstract in their mind. According to Speaking of AnimalsA Dictionary of Animal Metaphors, an animal metaphor is “a word, phrase, or sentence that expresses a resemblance or similarity between someone or something and a particular animal or animal class.” (Robert 11). For example, when someone says “that person is a wolf”, the speaker doesnt mean that the person is a wolf instead of being a human. Here, “wolf” is being used metaphorically, referring to the similarities that this person might have with a wolf, such as ferocity. However, the statement “wolf is a kind of animal” is not a metaphorical expression but a literally true statement. The way that human beings interact with the physical environment is not random, but influenced by the cultural background they have. The cultural differences in metaphors also apply to animal metaphors. Since language and thought cognition are connected, human beings sometimes develop the common cognition of an animal image. It is true that people with different cultural background might adopt different target domains regarding the same animal images. This is consistent with what Zoltán Kövecses calls “universality in metaphorical conceptualization” (Kövecses 35). But he also points out that metaphor has “cross-cultural variation” (Kövecses 67).The kind of conceptual system we have is a product of the kind of beings we are and the way we interact with our physical and cultural environments (Lakoff and Johnson 119). Therefore, the connotations of animal metaphors in one language do not necessarily coincide with those in another. The mappings across conceptual domains are grounded in the cognition of animals and in the experience of a certain culture. Some experiences seem to be universal, others are culture-specific. Animal metaphors are widely used in both English and Chinese. Some animal metaphors are similar in both languages, but others quite different; some are directly opposite, while others have no equivalence.B. Translation of animal metaphors in Hong Lou MengSince specific culture has its influence on animal metaphors in different languages, translators should be very careful with their choice of translation strategies towards animal metaphors. It is the translators decision regarding whether to keep the animal image or to abandon the image and precisely convey the implied meaning of animal metaphors. Hong Lou Meng was published in the 18th century during the reign of Emperor Qian Long of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The novel provides a great deal of insight into the Chinese culture of the time in its descriptions of every aspect of Chinese society. In Hong Lou Meng, the author Cao Xueqin and Gao E used a large amount of animal images with metaphorical meanings. We can say that animal metaphors that are used in Hong Lou Meng are not only a language phenomenon but also a reflection of Chinese culture. While translating the animal metaphors in Hong Lou Meng, The translator should be conscious of the differences in idiomatic expression, connotation, emotion, and socio-cultural contrast between the source and target languages. Translation is communicating messages accurately, not matching similar words. It is the content that really matters and must be preserved at any cost (Nida and Taber 105). Whether to keep or abandon the animal images depends on the metaphorical meaning of the animal terms, the function of the animal metaphors in the source text and the intention of the translatorwhether to be source language culture-oriented or target language culture-oriented. Scholars who have studied the two English versions, one translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang and the other translated by David Hawkes and John Minford, generally think that the Yangs version is mainly source language culture-oriented while Hawke-Minford version is target language culture-oriented. Guo Jianzhong analyzed the translators intentions and concluded that the Yangs endeavored to present Chinese culture to the target readers while Hawkes and Minford intended to arouse the interest of the target readers (Guo Jianzhong 41). Although different intentions might cause different translation strategies adopted in the two versions, we can still find the similarities of translation strategies shared by the two versions concerning the translation of animal metaphors in Hong Lou Meng. By analyzing the translation of those animal metaphors, translation strategies that are used to translate animal metaphors can be divided into four categories according to whether to keep or abandon the animal images in the source text and how to keep or abandon while the intended meanings of animal metaphors can still be kept. The four strategies are: (1) The animal image being kept completely; (2) T