An Analysis of the Translation of Characters' Names in A Dream of Red Mansions from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory_英语论文

摘要

文学作品中姓名的翻译往往采取最直接的音译，但姓名不仅仅是人的代号，它同时也具备了丰富的含义。文学作品中的人物姓名往往与故事的剧情或人物的特点有关。因此在翻译此类人名时，需要尽量使译名更加贴近原名。本文以美国翻译理论家尤金•奈达所提出的功能对等理论为依据，以《红楼梦》为载体，对姓名翻译进行研究。本文分别从杨宪益、戴乃迭所译版本和戴维•霍克斯所译版本中选取译名进行比较。姓名翻译主要有三种策略：音译、意译和注释译法。本文主要分析两个译本的姓名翻译分别采用何种策略以达到不同的对等目的，并分析不同翻译策略的优缺点。最终，文章总结认为姓名翻译策略需以音译为主，意译和注释译为辅。

关键词:  姓名  汉英翻译  功能对等理论  《红楼梦》 

Abstract

In literature works, characters’ names are always transliterated by translators. However, a name is not only a code of a person, but also rich in its connotation. Characters’ names have a close relationship with plots or characters’ features in literary works. Translators should try to ensure that the translated name and the original name are similar in meaning. From the perspective of Eugene Nida’s functional equivalence theory, this paper attempts to analyze the translation of names in A Dream of Red Mansions. The names under discussion are from two different translated versions of the novel. One is Yang’s version, A Dream of Red Mansions. The other one is Hawkes’ version, The Story of the Stone. Three strategies are generally adopted to translate names, namely, transliteration, free translation and annotated translation. This paper tries to analyze what translation strategies are adopted in each version by the two translators in order to achieve their different level of equivalence. Moreover, it analyzes advantages and disadvantages by adopting different strategies. Finally, this paper suggests a suitable strategy of name translation, that is, transliteration as the primary method which is supplemented with free translation and annotated translation.

Keywords:  Name  Chinese-English Translation  Functional Equivalence Theory   A Dream of Red Mansions

Contents

1   Introduction 1

1.1   Background 1

1.2   Significance 2

2   Literature Review 3

2.1   The Translation of Names 3

2.2   Functional Equivalence Theory 3

3   Methodology 5

3.1   Research Questions 5

3.2   Research Method 5

4   The Contrastive Analysis of Name Translation 6

4.1   The Equivalence Achieved on the Form of Names 6

4.2   The Equivalence Achieved on the Meaning of Names 9

5   Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Translation Strategies 14

Conclusion 16

Acknowledgements 17

References 18