从目的论看林语堂《虬髯客传》英译本的变译_英语论文

A Study on the Variation in Lin Yutang’s English Version of Curly Beard from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

摘要

《虬髯客传》讲述一名为真命天子李世民建国立业而捐赠全部财富的英雄的故事。《虬髯客传》以其优美的语言、具有启发性的故事内容深深吸引了林语堂的注意，让林语堂注意到了二战后西方读者精神上的失落，致使林语堂希望为西方读者借向西方介绍中国文化的这个机会，为失落的西方人提供一个具有精神寄托作用的超乎现实的世界。

林语堂在他的英文版本中运用了大量的变译，其中包括扩译、缩译等手法。林的这些编译手法在传统翻译理论中是难以被理解与接受的，是有悖于传统翻译理论的“信（忠实）”原则的，可这样的译作在西方国家却获得了很不错的反响。这对中国传统翻译来说是一大谜团。

然而弗米尔的目的论却将林的英译版《虬髯客传》为什么在西方大受欢迎作出了很好的解释——因为《虬髯客传》讲述的是中国传奇的小说故事，因此行文在语言以及文化上和西方语言及文化存在着很大的差异。通过目的论，我们可以看到因为林秉持着让西方读者读懂中国传奇小说及感受到其中所蕴含的中国文化，所以他在译文中有技巧性地运用了大量的变译手法，将复杂难懂的中国文化有效地传达给了西方读者，如此一来不仅达到了自己的翻译目的（向西方读者宣传中国文化），而且还让西方读者通过阅读接受到了中国文化的熏陶，渐而建立起个人的自我精神世界。

关键词：编译；目的论；翻译目的

Abstract

Curly Beard is a story with unique features in literature history. Its simple language and inspiring contents attracted Lin when he noticed the lost westerners after the World War Second who have lost their belief to the world as well as to their life. Under such a circumstance, Lin aims at introducing Chinese culture to the West, to provide a spiritual world for those lost westerners out of their confused world. 

There exist a great number of adaptations, such as amplification, deletion and so on, in Lin’s English version of Curly Beard. Those adaptations are hard to be accepted by traditional translation theories, which are believed to disobey the loyalty rule of traditional strategies. Nevertheless, it is such adaptations employed by Lin that make the story well-accepted by western readers, which has left a mystery to the traditional translation in China. 

However, Vermeer’s skopos theory has made a good step to explain the mystery existing in the traditional translation about the popularity of Lin’s version in the western countries – Curly Beard is a legend story about ancient Chinese, whose language and characters in culture are totally different from those in western countries. Hence, in order to make the western readers better understand the culture in the story, Lin has skillfully applied lots of translation variation techniques, making it successful to convey the culture contented in the story to his western readers. From the perspective of skopos theory, it can be explained that Lin’s version has attained its purpose for introducing the Chinese culture to the western readers; on the other hand, it has provided a platform to the western readers about building up their spiritual world out of the confused outside world after the war.

Key Words: translation variations; skopos theory; translation purpose

Contents

摘 要 2

Abstract 3

Chapter One  Introduction 5

Chapter Two  Literature Review 7

2.1 Previous Studies on Skopos Theory in China 7

2.2 Previous Studies on Famous Chinese Short Stories 8

2.2.1 Studies on Famous Chinese Short Stories Abroad 8

2.2.2 Domestic Studies on Famous Chinese Short Stories 10

Chapter Three  Translation Variation 12

3.1 Definitions of Translation Variation 12

3.2 The Essence and Requirements of Translation Variation 13

3.3 Variation Measures of Translation Variation 14

Chapter Four  A Study of Lin's Translation of Curly Beard from the Perspective of Skopos Theory 17

4.1 Theoretical Framework: Skopos Theory 17

4.1.1 Definitions of Skopos Theory 17

4.1.2 The Three Basic Rules and their Relationship 18

4.2 Purpose of Lin’s Translation 19

4.3 Lin’s Translation Variation from the Perspective of Skopos Rule 20

4.3.1 Amplification 21

4.3.2 Deletion 22

4.3.3 Adaptation 23

4.4 Lin's Translation Variation in Curly Beard from the Perspective of Intratextual Coherence Rule 23

4.4.1 Amplification 24

4.4.2 Deletion 25

4.4.3 Adaptation 25

4.5 Lin’s Translation Variation in Curly Beard from the Perspective of Loyalty Rule 26

4.5.1 The Retaining of Place Names 26

4.5.2 The Retaining of Names of Persons 27

Conclusion 28

References 29