摘 要

平行结构作为一种常用的修辞手法被广泛地应用于中英文学作品中。英文作品中常用的平行结构和汉语中的排比、骈偶手法有着类似的结构特点和效果。作为中国四大名著之一的《三国演义》是一部章回体历史演义小说，其语言采用半文半白的形式，有着“文不甚深，言不甚俗”的基本风格。其中平行结构的应用是《三国演义》突出的语言特点之一，不仅起到加强语势的作用，也使表达更加简洁精炼，生动传神。通过定性研究和对比研究的方法，本文基于罗慕士的《三国演义》全英译本，探讨《三国演义》中平行结构的英译策略。本文以直译和意译的翻译策略为依据，通过例证探讨《三国演义》中五类平行结构的英译策略；从文化和交际两个层面，批判性地阐释了罗慕士版《三国演义》中平行结构英译策略的选择缘由及作用。本文从文化层面上,探讨平行结构中一些汉语特有词汇以及蕴含中国文化的相关翻译；从交际层面上，本文采用对比的研究方法，通过例证分析翻译本土化的应用在平行结构英译过程中所起的作用。本文旨在为中国传统经典作品中平行结构的翻译提供借鉴，从而进一步推动中国传统经典文化的弘扬与传播。

关键词：《三国演义》；平行结构；翻译策略

Abstract

Parallel structure as a common rhetoric device is widely used in both English and Chinese literature due to its linguistic features. Although there is no identical definition of parallel structure in English and Chinese, the parallelism in English and Paibi, Pianou in Chinese have similar structural features and effects. As one of the four famous novels of China, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical novel uses half literary and half vernacular language with the basic style of the “not very deep but not vulgar”. The application of parallel structures is one of the prominent linguistic features of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which not only plays an important role in strengthening the language, but also makes the expression more concise and vivid. Through the methodologies of qualitative study and comparison, this paper aims to discuss different translation strategies applied in the translation of parallel structure based on Moss Roberts’ translation version. Moreover, the examples of parallel structures which fall into five categories are listed and analyzed from the aspects of literal translation and free translation. Then the paper critically elucidates the effects and reasons of different translation strategies from the perspective of culture and communication. On the cultural level, the translation of special vocabularies and related translation of Chinese culture used in parallel structure are discussed. On the communicative level, the paper discusses the effects of the localization of translation employed in the translation of parallel structure through example illustration. Generally, the paper tries to provide referential value for the translation of parallel structure in other Chinese classics and further promote the popularization and dissemination of Chinese traditional classical culture.

Key Words: the Romance of the Three Kingdoms; Parallel structure; Translation strategy

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Background and Significance of the paper 1

1.2 Structure of the paper 3

2 Literature Review 5

2.1 Definition of Parallel Structure 5

2.2 Linguistic Features of Parallel Structure 7

3 Analysis of Translation Strategy of Parallel Structure 9

3.1 Literal Translation of Parallel Structure 9

3.2 Free Translation of Parallel Structure 13

4 Effects and Reasons of Different Translation Strategies 17

4.1 On the cultural level 17

4.2 On the Communicative level 19

5 Conclusion 21

5.1 Findings 21

5.2 Limitations 21

References 23

Acknowledgements 25

Study on the English Translation Strategy of Parallel Structure in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms

1 Introduction

This Chapter will introduce the research background and significance as well as the structure of the paper, for the readers to have a preliminary understanding of the study and the contents of this paper.

1.1 Study Background and Significance

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the earliest historical novel with captions for each chapter in China (Sun amp; Wang, 2007), which represents the highest achievement of ancient historical novels. At present, it has two recognized translation versions in English, that is, C.H. Brewitt-Taylor’s translation and Moss Roberts’ translation, respectively. With the great change of the historical background and social context, the application of translation strategies in these two versions is different to a great extent. C.H. Brewitt-Taylor is the first translator of this novel, whose translation is divided into two volumes. In 1925, his translation is released by Kellyamp;Walsh Ltd.. Decades later, Tuttle Press in 1995 publishes his translation again and reprints in 2002. C.H. Brewitt-Taylor’s translation is the only English version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for 66 years. His translation also wins him an important position in the contemporary sinologists. In 1992, a famous sinologist, from Department of East Asian languages of New York University, Moss Roberts completes the full English version of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. And Moss’s translation version is finally jointly released by University of California Press and China Foreign Press. So far, his translation version is considered to be the most outstanding one in Chinese and foreign academic fields .

The reasons for the emergence of different versions of the same work are very complicated. A new version appears in different era or decades later often due to the great changes in the social context and the literary environment with the great change of reading expectation of the target readers. Although the translations of Brewitt-Taylor and Moss Roberts have achieved success in their own era, only by constantly renewing the translation can the literary classics keep their literary value at the present time. The new translation usually can better satisfy people’s expectation of reading in the contemporary society.