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1、A STYLISTICS STUDY ON THE CHINESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATIONF 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; reprined 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 p
3、unning 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 extr
4、emely 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 co
5、nducted 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. Espec
6、ially 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 sug
7、gestions 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”, “erh
8、u”, 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, mark
9、ed 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 scholars
10、 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 expla
11、in 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 b
12、y 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 through a stylistic
13、 perspective 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 m
14、orphological 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
15、structures of different languages, which make some people think translating Xhy is impossible. The main reason of 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 s
16、uch 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 aim to help and improve
17、Xhys Chinese-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 associativ
18、e meanings 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
19、of the translation. 1.4 A Sample of Xiehouyu and Quantitiva 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 stat
20、istic 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 imp
21、ortant 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
22、 vulgar. 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 i
23、s usually 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（NewYo
24、rk：Twayne， 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 level features On the lexical levels, noun and noun phrases can be found almost in every Xhy. They represent the most familiar images, such as, domestic
25、poultry and historical characters, etc. in ordinary Chinese peoples mind. These images reflect the Chinese way of thinking, their mentality, and their perceptions.2.3 Phonological level featuresThe punning sense created by homonyms in Xhy is the ultimate touch of humor in peoples conversation. Howev
26、er, 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-English translation more challenging. This is simply because the
27、 pair of words or phrases which is homonyms in one language is very unlikely to be homonyms in another language.2.4 Syntactic level features Xhy as a type of common sayings in Chinese distinguish themselves from Chinese proverbs by their unique syntactic features. Xhy are formed by two parts, usuall
28、y 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 mentioned 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
29、further modification of the first part, and therefore constitute a lose sentence structure. This structure helps to create a light and relaxing ambience for conversation. But such a structure will be disturbed when they were translated into English; and the original flavour will lost. 2.5 Semantic l
30、evel featuresAccording to Noam Chomskys transformational-generative grammar, every sentence 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 understa
31、nding on part of the translator of the deep structures, which is the abstract meaning 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 cha
32、llenging if the translator lacks an experimental basis for the meaning of them. III. Lexical Features of Xiehouyus (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 ch
33、aracters, 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
34、 them 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
35、reigns 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
36、 2). 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
37、instead of showing sympathy for those disabled, other people tended to pour score upon them. Also in the old class society, it is a common way for people to release their angers and dissatisfaction for being suppressed by their upper classes, which originated from the ingrained mentality among Chine
38、se, i.e., “气人有，笑人无”，8 which means to be angry for others getting what you dont possess, and to laugh at those who dont possess what you have. 3.2 Problems arising from translating these conceptsConcepts associated with these images are one of the major factors to be considered in the literal transla
39、tion process from Chinese to English, especially for those images representing the supernatural beings, historical characters and fictitious characters. Since according to cognitive theory, the lack of experimental basis of understanding will make it difficult for the cross-culture translation. Sinc
40、e for the translation of Chinse xhy, the translator is not merely translating the utterance but also transfering Chinese culture and history as well. Fore example in the translation the Xhy of 张飞抬曹操,一举两得(德). In the case of General Zhang carrying Cao Cao, there will two De -with only one doing the li
41、fting (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 equivalent knowledge of these two characters, not to say their styles (a second but unofficial name) which give rise to the punn
42、ing 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 for a translator to deal with the associated meanings of the text to be translated. 3.3 Analysis of translation aimed t
43、o deal with these conceptsThere will two strategies to fill the culture gap between Chinese and English. One is to make annotations in brackets after the literal translation, explaining the associated information. With the same example above, the supplemented information will be: the styles of both
44、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 second 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”. T
45、he 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”. 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
46、“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 advantages and disadvantages for both approaches. The former one can help to spread Chinese heritage, but such translation is hardl
47、y practical in daily conversation, therefore, it is mostly restrictive to written form. While for the second approach, the translation is effective and the intended meaning can be easily be understood by the audience; however, the trade-off would be that the English audience may lose the opportunity
48、 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 of the 108 Xhy embedded with homo
49、nyms and they are found solely in the apodosis. 4.2 Reasons for using “homonyms” The high frequency of the application of homonyms can be attributed to the purpose of using Xhy - to dramatize (either humorous or satirical) ones conversation and show his wit. This is related to the Chinese philosophy of language, which believes that words are art and signs of wisdom and words can provide e
