Equivalence-based Approach to the Studies of Translation: A Cases Study of Charlotte's Web

Autor: Yung-chih Cheng, 鄭詠芝
Rok vydání: 2012
Druh dokumentu: 學位論文 ; thesis
Popis: 101
The equivalence theory has been a vital principle in translation studies ever since its introduction. As the debate over literal and free translation did not end with a certain conclusion, the equivalence principle provides a new perspective for people taking part in translation actions with a clear standard for judging the quality of translation. However, various theorists have been dedicated to the discussion, and each looks from different perspective. Briefly examining the major theories by Jakobson, Nida, Newmark and Koller, we conclude that equivalence principle is a reachable goal in translation. Then, we proceed by adopting Baker’s bottom-up approach in examining translation, and propose to use the first three levels in attaining “relative equivalence”, which are equivalence at word level, above word level, and at the grammatical level. As Baker (1992) rightly suggests, “though equivalence can usually be attained to some extent, it is influenced by a variety of linguistic and cultural factors and is therefore always relative” (p.6). To explore how the proposed model is utilized in translation practice, we choose E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web as the research material, which is a classic of children’s literature. There are two reasons for this decision; for one thing, White’s language is comparatively simple, and yet full of play on words; for the other, the story itself presents some cultural issues, which deserves some careful examination. Two Chinese versions are chosen for the current study, which are the 1998’s bilingual version (TT1) translated by Liu Yi-hui and published by Cave Books, and the 2003 version (TT2) translated by Huang Ke-fan and published by Linking Publishing Company. As the second version was translated by Huang when she was an 11-year-old girl, this brings intriguing issues worthy of discovery, and significant difference for the selection of techniques between the adult and child translator are examined. Since Charlotte’s Web belongs to the genre of children’s literature, it is suggested that careful employment of adaptation technique is required in translating this genre under the scope of equivalence principle. The findings of the study are three-fold. First, relating to equivalence at word level, the adult translator, as assumed, shows a clear preference for adopting adaptation technique, aiming to enhance readers’ identification with the original. It is nevertheless important that such uses should not interfere with the TT readers’ opportunity to explore the new. Also, the adult translator outshines the other by adopting the particularization technique. At the second level, we find that the child translator employs more of the idioms, but in some situation, literal translation is employed to preserve the imagery of the original while the adult translator adopts less often the literal translation technique. Finally, it is found that the adult translator does a better job by reaching relative equivalence at the grammatical level. Having better understanding of the grammatical system of the two languages, the adult translator is able to aptly employ modulation technique and the like to produce natural language, and fewer grammatical mistakes can be spotted. When the grammatical level is concerned, TT2 author does show some room for improvement to fully harness the related techniques. However, taken as a whole, there has been plenty to admire in TT2, and the language itself is rather fluent. Being a preliminary study that takes a bottom-up approach to tackle translation equivalence, the higher levels regarding textual and pragmatic equivalence are not covered, and these two levels should be explored in the future. Keywords: equivalence principle, relative equivalence, Charlotte’s Web, translation of children’s literature
Databáze: Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations
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