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1、A STYLISTICS STUDY ON THE CHINESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATIONOF XIEHOUYU IN CHINESEI. Introduction1.1 Definition of Xiehouyu Xiehouyu (Xhy) is defined in H. A. Giles A Chinese English Dictionary (2nd Rev Enlarged.; shanghai, China, and London, 1912; reprinted in Taipei; Cheng-Wen Publishing company 1967) as
2、 “set phrase of which only the protasis is uttered, the apodosis is understood by the speaker, not literally but in a punning sense.” This definition will be more appropriate if it were defined that the apodosis is understood by the listener; and Xiehouyu are not necessarily understood through their
3、 punning sense. Xiehouyu are sayings heavily loaded with Chinese culture and the Chinese way of life and thinking. Therefore they are difficult to translate and it is probably for this reason that not as many studies as those on other Chinese sayings have been done in this field. However, Xhy are ex
4、tremely popular in Chineses daily, verbal conversation and in literature. It is an intriguing language phenomenon in the Chinese language. They play such an important role that a translator cannot afford to neglect them. 1.2 Historical overview of the studies on Xiehouyu Many a Chinese scholars has
5、conducted a large variety of researches on various aspects of Xhy and has scored great achievement. In the winter of 1920, a committee was established for the study of Chinese folksy culture in BeiJing University (北大歌谣研究会). Since then Xhy, as a form of folksy culture, came to scholars attention. Esp
6、ecially during the 1930s, there was a heated debate over the name for this type of common sayings. Now people generally agreed to name them as Xiehouyu in Chinese, based on their special formation and usage1. Currently there are also splited opinions over the English translation for Xhy. There are s
7、uggestions such as “Chinese Quiz-Cracks”, “Chinese folk wisecracks” and “Chinese enigmatic folk similes”, etc. But the most influential one is the one to leave it as the Chinese Pin-yin form. It is recommendable, since Xhys are something unique in Chinese culture, like “Chinese Gongfu”, “Yumcha”, “e
8、rhu”, etc. Apart from the controversies over the Chinese and English names for Xhy, other studies before 1949 are mainly focusing on Xhys nature, structure, creation and history. After the establishment of the P. R. China, there is a new round of intense studies on Xhy in late 1950 to early 1960, ma
9、rked by Xiehouyu in Chinese (literal)歇后语by Ma Guofan(马国凡)、Gao Gedong(高歌东)、An Overview of Xiehouyu in Chinese (literal)谚语歇后语概论by WangQin (王勤) 、 Xiehouyu in Chinese (literal)歇后语by Wen DuanZheng(温端正) and A New Study on Xiehouyu in Chinese (literal)歇后语新论by Tan YongXiang(谭永祥). 99Overseas there are schola
10、rs from Japan, Pankratov professor from former U.S.S.R and Fancoise Sabban who conducted research on Chinese Xhys. Still these studies are of the similar focuses of those carried out Chinese scholars. At the beginning of the new centuries, scholars started to touch on this area again, and try to exp
11、lain this language phenomenon through an interpretive perspective by applying new language theories. The latest one (I can find) is a thesis written by Zhao XiuQin, “Understanding Chinese Xiehouyu From a Pragma-Cognitive Perspective of Relevance Theory.” The paper interprets the understanding of Xhy
12、 by applying relevance theory and psycholinguistic instrumentation. This paper is a good example of intersectional research between psycholinguistics and pragmatics and cognition.1.3 Purpose of the thesis The purpose of this thesis is to study the Chinese-English translation of Xhy in a stylistic pe
13、rspective so as to provide more insights of the distinctive features of Xhy and the effects of those stylistic features on the Chinese-English translation. Stylistics, as proposed by H. G. Widdowson (Style and the Teaching of literature), involves both literary criticism and linguistics, as its morp
14、hological making suggests: the “style” component relating it to the former and the “istics” component to the latter”.2 Translating Xhy from Chinese into English is not a mere simple matching of words and forms between these two languages. Because there are many discrepancies between meanings and str
15、uctures of different languages, which make some people think translating Xhy is impossible. The main reason for adopting the stylistic approach is to analyse language habits of using Xhy by Chinese to identify, from the general mass of their conversation, those stylistic features; to explain why suc
16、h features have been used as opposed to others; to classify these features into 4 levels: lexical, phonological, syntactic and semantic based upon a view of their function in the social context and utilise this information to improve the understanding of Xhy, which in turn will help improve Xhys Chi
17、nese-English translation. According to Mr. Wang Zuoliang（王佐良）, the highest standard for judging the quality of translation is the faithfulness to its source.4However, according Eugene Nida, “the most difficult task for the translator is to understand thoroughly the designative and associative meanin
18、gs of the text to be translated.”5 Therefore, the adequate and thorough understanding is a prerequisite of acceptable translation. It is hoped that the stylistic study of the text to be translated will become a potential tool to facilitate a translators understanding and improve the quality of the t
19、ranslation. 1.4 A Sample of Xiehouyu and Quantitative Appendix In order to summarize the stylistic features of Xhy in Chinese, a sample with a size of 108 xhy has been extracted from a book called As The Saying Goes by C.C.SUN (University of Queensland Press, 1981) (Appendix one) and some statistic
20、analyses have been conducted on this sample as shown in Appendix 2 5. II. Stylistic Overview of Xiehouyu in Chinese2. 1 General Nature of XiehouyuXhy are formed by two parts, with the former called protasis and the latter apodosis which is usually unuttered. “The humorous touch is the most important
21、 feature of Xhy and it is achieved by these means: (a) the apodosis, though by no means irrelevant to the protasis, is understood from a rather unexpected angle, or (b) the apodosis is understood in a punning sense”6 They are generally colloquial in style and, at time, may even be a little bit vulga
22、r. Xhy are able to greatly reinforce the power of utterances either in a humorous way or in an ironic or satirical way, but such effects will become overt until xhy are understood. They are mostly found in peoples daily conversation and in novels. When they were found in literary writing, it is usua
23、lly because the writer deliberately uses them to shape his certain character in his novel or distinguish his friendly and humorous writing style or to make his work more acceptable to common Chinese. An abundant of examples of Xhy can be found in novels, such as, Dream of the Red Chamber（NewYork：Twa
24、yne， 1959） (红楼梦)，All Men Are Brothers（NewYork：John Day，1968）（水浒传），The Golden Lotus (London: Rouledge and Kegan Paul, 1953)(金瓶梅). 2.2 Lexical features On the lexical level, nouns and noun phrases can be found almost in every Xhy. They represent the most familiar images, such as, domestic poultry and
25、historical characters, etc. in ordinary Chinese peoples mind. These images reflect the Chinese way of thinking, their mentality, and their perceptions. (Please support your argument by your own description of some specific examples.)2.3 Phonological featuresThe punning sense created by homonyms in X
26、hy is the ultimate touch of humor in peoples conversation. However, when the homonyms are applied in the apodosis, Xhy will become more difficult for the listeners to comprehend. If the translator were asked to translate it from Chinese to English, these phonological features would make the Chinese-
27、English translation more challenging. This is simply because the pair of words or phrases which is homonyms in one language is very unlikely to be homonyms in another language. (Please support your argument by your own description of some specific examples.)2.4 Syntactic features Xhy as a type of co
28、mmon sayings in Chinese distinguish themselves from Chinese proverbs by their unique syntactic features. Xhy are formed by two parts, usually only the first part is uttered leaving the second part to be figured it out by the listener himself. According to Giles A Chinese English Dictionary, as menti
29、oned above, the former part is called protasis and the latter part is called the apodosis. As a rule, the second part is the complements or further modification of the first part, and therefore constitute a lose sentence structure. This structure helps to create a light and relaxing ambience for con
30、versation. But such a structure will be disturbed when they were translated into English; and the original flavour will lost. (Please support your argument by your own description of some specific examples.)2.5 Semantic featuresAccording to Noam Chomskys transformational-generative grammar, every se
31、ntence has two levels of structures surface structure and deep structure. 14 Syntactic level features of Xhy are mainly concerned their surface structure. However, acceptable translation will hinge upon the understanding on part of the translator of the deep structures, which is the abstract meaning
32、 of the utterance; however, translators comprehension of the deep structure of Xhy will be based on his cognitive experience accumulated through his interaction process in society. The translation of Xhy will be challenging if the translator lacks an experimental basis for the meaning of them. (Plea
33、se support your argument by your own description of some specific examples.)III. Lexical Features of Xiehouyu (concepts)3.1 The pervasive use of certain conceptsOn the lexical level, the most salient characteristic is the use of nouns to represent the most familiar images, namely animals and charact
34、ers, in ordinary Chinese peoples mind. These images reflect the Chinese way of thinking, their mentality, and their perceptions. 7 (The principle of mirror theory). According to the statistic analysis on the sample collected, around 54% (58 out of 108) of the xhy use the character images. Among them
35、 26 use the images of supernatural beings, the most famous fictitious characters and historical characters, such as, Zhangfei (a famous general during the period of the Three Kingdoms), Pig Monster (a character in the novel Mokey/ Tripitaka and Other Piece) and Lord Yama (the God of Death, who reign
36、s in Hell, is equivalent to the Angel of Death, to bring in the spirits of those people whose life-spans have expired according to his registry book.)7; and 32 out of the 58 employ images related to those who are young, or old, or sick, or weak and those with distinctive features (see: Appendix 2).
37、Among them the most frequently used images are those disabled, who are either dumb, or mute, or blind, or extremely short, or lame, or pock-marked, or hunchbacked In old China, it was believed that ones disability is the “fruit” he received from the guilt he committed in his former life. Hence inste
38、ad of showing sympathy for those disabled, other people tended to pour score upon them. Also in the feudal society, it is a common way for people to release their angers and dissatisfaction when being suppressed by the upper classes, which originated from the ingrained mentality among Chinese, i.e.,
39、 “气人有，笑人无” (qirenyou, xiaorenwu)，8 which means to be angry for others getting what you dont possess, and to laugh at those who dont possess what you have. (Chinese pinyin is needed to describe the Chinese characters phonologically.)3.2 Problems arising from translating these conceptsConcepts associa
40、ted with these images are one of the major factors to be considered in the literal translation process from Chinese to English, especially for those images representing the supernatural beings, historical characters and fictitious characters. According to cognitive theory, the lack of experimental b
41、asis of understanding will make it difficult for the cross-cultural translation. In the course of translating Chinse xhy, the translator is not merely translating the utterance but also transferring Chinese culture and history as well. Fore example in the translation the Xhy of 张飞抬曹操,一举两得(德)(ZhangFe
42、i tai CaoCao, yijuliangde). In the case of General Zhang carrying Cao Cao, there will two De -with only one doing the lifting (in one action). However, such a translation doesnt really make a lot of sense to the English-speakers. Since the audience speaking the target language dont have the equivale
43、nt knowledge of these two characters, not to say their styles (a second but unofficial name) which give rise to the punning interpretation for the second part. That is also the reason why Eugene Nida in his work Language and Culture Contexts in Translating suggested that the most difficult situation
44、 for a translator to deal with the associated meanings of the text to be translated. 3.3 Analysis of translation aimed to deal with these conceptsThere are two feasible strategies to fill the cultural gap between Chinese and English. One is to make annotations in brackets after the literal translati
45、on, explaining the associated information. With the same example above, the supplemented information will be: the styles of both Zhang Fei and Cao Cao share a same character “德”, the pronunciation of which is the same as that of the charater “得”, which means “gain” or “achieve”. Therefore, the secon
46、d part of the sentence 两得 may be interpreted as “two gains”. Thus 一举两得may be interpreted as “killing two birds with one stone”. The second approach is to search for the English common sayings with the similar meaning. Through this approach, the translation can be “Killing two birds with one stone”.
47、There are many a coming sayings with similar meanings in both languages that they can be match as pairs. Such as, “猫哭耗子,假慈悲” and “Shed crocodile tears.”; “毛驴上马掌, 小蹄(题)大做.” and “(to) make a mountain out of a molehill”; “张飞请李逵,黑吃黑” and “One robber robs the other.”3.4 Concluding RemarkThere are both ad
48、vantages and disadvantages for both approaches. The former one can help to spread Chinese heritage, but such translation is hardly practical in daily conversation, therefore, it is mostly restrictive to written form. While for the second approach, the translation is effective and the intended meanin
49、g can be easily be understood by the audience; however, the trade-off would be that the English audience may lose the opportunity of appreciating Chinese wit. IV. Phonological Features of Xiehouyu4.1 The extensive use of “homonyms” (incl. homophony and homograph) In the study, the word “homonyms” refers to both homonyms and homographs. The statistic study on the sample shows that 30.56% or 33 o
