On the Translation of Allusions from the Perspective of Skopos Theory—-A Case Study of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms文献综述

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Previous study on allusion translation

In order to discover the previous study on allusion translation, the author searches in CNKI (National Knowledge Infrastructure) through the key words “典故；英译”, “典故；翻译”and designs the following table to make a detailed analysis about it.

Table 1: Research situation of C-E translation of allusions from1990 to 2019.

As shown from the table 1, we can see that during the last three decades there is a rapid increase in the translation of allusions, especially in the periodical paper and master thesis. Remarkable achievements on the research of C-E translation of allusions is achieved in the 21th century.

From 1990 to 1999, since the communications between countries are becoming more frequent, problems started to show off when it come to culture communication. Just like Ritva Leppihalme, a Finnish scholar writes in her book: Allusions are often translated literally while their connotative and pragmatic meaning is largely ignored. This frequently leads to culture bumps, which means that translations are confusing or impenetrable from the target readerrsquo;s point of view (Ritva Leppihahne, 1997:197). The main point of the papers during this time were largely about the differences between Chinese culture and Western culture and used some examples to approve it.

From 2000-2009, researches on C-E translation of allusion have been made from various aspect like method, principle, and criterion. Many hold that the difficulty of C-E translation of allusions lies in the transmission of cultural information. According to Andre Lefevere,“culture all develop their own lsquo;short handrsquo;, which is what allusions really are. A word or phrase can evoke a situation that is symbolic for an emotion or a state of fairs. The translator can render the word or phrase and the corresponding state of affair without much trouble. The link between the two, which is so intricately bound up with the foreign culture itself, is much harder to translate.”( Andre Lefevere, 2004:56)

Besides, newly developed pragmatics blazes another trail to give a reasonable explanation about the differences of cultural message of those with different background from varied perspectives. The main theories involved are relevance, dynamic adaptation, cognitive cultural schemata, intertextuality, pragmatic presupposition, speech act theory, etc. Cao Xuersquo;e (2008) probes into C-E translation of allusions from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition to cultural context. She holds that the pragmatic presupposition is an important factor to cause difficulties in allusion translation. Appropriate transference of pragmatic presuppositions can help the target readers understand the connotative meaning of allusions while retaining their cultural flavor, so that it can make the translated text faithful to the source text and promote the exchange and spreading of cultures (Cao Xuersquo;e, 2008). Research objects range from classical poetry, and literary works, opera to practical style. such as Translation of Allusion in the Ads (Hu Yun, 2007).

The period from 2010 to 2019 is a milestone for allusion translation. Research methods tend to be more scientific, systematic and pluralistic. Wei Xiaoqing (2015) adopts the method of qualitative and quantitative to analyze allusion translation in two English versions of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi. Research scopes are further being expanded from principle, criterion, method and technique to the classification, application and comparison in the C-E translation of allusions. Li Yudan (2017) analyzes the allusion translation on subtitling. You Jie (2010) compares allusion translation in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng. More translation strategies are concerned. In Liu Jianyun (2013)rsquo;s paper, only three translation methods are mentioned (literal translation, free translation, substitution). In Wang Jie(2019)rsquo;s paper, more methods have been used, such as adaption, addition, annotation. New theories were adopted in the research of allusion translation.such as functional equivalence, skopos theory.

But there still exists some limitations as to research depth. The classification of allusion is not unified or sometimes the allusion is in the wrong category due to authorrsquo;s knowledge. In a simple classification of allusion, Leppihalm（1997）divides them into proper name and key phrase allusion and the degree of fidelity to the performed wording versus modified allusions. On lines of metaphor studies ( Brook-rose, 1958) other possible criteria could be, for example, the word class or phrase type of the allusion, leading to such category as noun phrase allusion(伯乐); verb phrase allusion(从长计议); adjective phrase allusion(金碧辉煌), etc. But sometimes itrsquo;s impossible to apply this classification. Take “良药苦口利于病，忠言逆耳利于行” for example, it doesnrsquo;t belong to any category. Or classification could be based on syntactic function, with such categories as premodifying allusion; subject complement allusion, etc. Some scholars abroad and home tend to classify them according to their source. But the sources are lightly different. Bao Huinan (2001) classifies the allusions into ten categories, for example, historical allusion, literary allusion, legend allusion, fable allusion, plant and animal allusion, religious allusion etc. Most of the theses home apply this classification. Just like what Li Yudan did in her master thesis. There are too many of them, besides some categories overlap each other. Ghanooni (2006) categorizes them into four groups:historical allusion, literary allusion, biblical allusion, mythological.

Previous study on San Guo Yan Yi

The author makes an exhaustive investigation on previous study of allusion translation through the key words “三国演义”, “三国演义；翻译”，“三国演义；典故/文化翻译” in CNKI (National Knowledge Infrastructure) and designs the following table to make a detailed analysis about it.

Table 2: Research situation of San Guo Yan Yi

From the table 2, we can see that “though translation practice of San Guo Yan Yi abroad is more desirable, and over 20 translators offer their translation of the novel, for example, George Carter Stent, C.H. Brewitt-Taylor, Samul Well, Herbert Allen Giles, Moss Robert, and etc. However translation study of the novel and its international receptions are ignored in the western countries. Only a few scholars who just briefly introduce the popular English translation of the novel without detailed and systematic studies into those translated version, even though the western countries are becoming increasingly interested in Chinese novel. Comparative, it is a hot issue at home”(Luo Haihui, Wang Haiyan, 2012:150). A large scope of researches have been conducted, such as translation strategies, comparative study of different versions, cultural study, the image of certain character, etc. But scholars and translators seldom involve in translation practice of this novel. Nie Chunyan(2015) discusses the women image and concept of women in San Guo Yan Yi. Yin Xi(2011) makes a comparison of San Guo Yan Yi and Homer Epics. Among all these papers about San Guo Yan Yi, only 216(6%) are about translation, including C-E translation, C-T Translation, C-J translation. Even fewer research has been on the allusion translation, only 5 papers. Li Yudan(2017) conducts a research on San Guo Yan Yi allusion subtitling from the perspective of Skopos Theory. But as she said, there are a few mistakes in English and Chinese subtitles in the TV series RTK, so the subtitles are expected to be corrected. More excellent English translation of Chinese allusions is expected with the unique Chinese characteristics. (Li Yudan,2017:66) The version of San Guo Yan Yi translated by Moss Robert is widely accepted Which Meng Li(2009) respectively appraises the cultural image in the Three Kingdoms from culture,religious customs and illocutionary factor. Liu Hongui(2012) compares two versions of A Romance of Three Kingdoms, one is translated by Moss Robert, the other C.H. Brewitt-Taylor, and he concludes that when it comes to the transmission of Chinese cultural background, origination, and connotation, Moss Robert has done a better job. In this case, the author decided to take his version as a case study. So the author decides to analyze the allusion translation based on Moss Robertrsquo;s version.

资料编号：[274125]

Previous study on allusion translation

In order to discover the previous study on allusion translation, the author searches in CNKI (National Knowledge Infrastructure) through the key words “典故；英译”, “典故；翻译”and designs the following table to make a detailed analysis about it.

Table 1: Research situation of C-E translation of allusions from1990 to 2019.

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