Good morning, everyone. My name isXX. The topic of my paper is ‘Analysis of Fanny’s characteristics in Mansfield Park’. I choose this as my topic due to the following reasons. Firstly, I appreciate the works of Jane Austen, so I determinate to write one of her novels as my Graduation Thesis in that time. Secondly, I was watching the film of Mansfield Park in accidental circumstances, and I was quite impressed by plot. It was quite a coincidence that Mansfield Park’s author is Jane Austen. For the above facts, I select the subject of ‘Analysis of Fanny’s characteristics in Mansfield Park’ as the title of my paper.

The intention of this study is to analyze the transformation of Fanny’s character in Mansfield Park, I hope by the studying of topic we can know disposition determines fate. The Mansfield Park was published in 1814, which mainly described the love of young people. Some viewers thought that it was the most unpopular works by Jane Austen. But actually this novel has most mature mind and has modern character of her novels. Especially the novel’s mental depict and narrative techniques have been improved significantly. Much more critics were convinced that the skill of objectification in Mansfield Park was a new milestone in the history of English novels. As we know, Jane Austen is a famous novelist at the end of the 18th century to the early 19th century and her historical statue was equal to William Shakespeare. Fanny is Jane Austen’ important Actress in Mansfield Park and the most controversial heroine in

Mansfield Park. Commentators pointed out that fanny's character is complicated and discerning, and at the end of the story shows her courage and pride. But Jane Austen’ mother dislikes her and thought that the character of Fanny is so insipid. Once more the famous writer named Qu Weilin called Fanny as ‘the woman hero’, and make sure that no one will enjoy her. In analysis of the Mansfield Park, much more reviewers put the novel and figures in that special historical background, and analysis the author’s writing techniques, feminism, moral value judgments and much more profound implication. My attention is to construe the transition process and cause in Fanny’s characteristics, according to this figure we not only see the author’s moral standards and spiritual world, but also find that good personality will give the great influence to everyone.

In the main part of this paper, I divided it into six parts. Part one presents an introduction to the background of literature and literature review. Part two analyze the Fanny’s experience and the relationship with other figures. Part three construe the transition process and cause in Fanny’s characteristics. Part four discuss the Relations between author and Fanny. Part five presents the reason of Fanny’s final success. Part six draws a conclusion that your character is your destiny.That’s all above my content of thesis proposal.

In addition, please oblige me with your valuable comments, and point weakness out directly, I will change it in right way. That’s all, thank

you.

 

第二篇：英汉语文化限定词方言的特色翻译 开题报告

宁波理工学院

毕业设计（论文）开题报告

（含文献综述）

题 目 英汉语文化限定词方言特色的翻译 姓 名 黄潮锋 学 号 3080311029 专业班级 2008级英语1班 指导教师 郭小春 分 院 外国语分院 开题日期 2011 年10月 07日

Literature Review

1 Introduction

Culture is a complex integrity that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society [1]. The material wealth and the spiritual wealth created in the process of practice in social history constitute the culture. Language is an important organic component of culture, recording the history of culture and manifesting the fruits of civilization. In addition, language is an important vehicle for social culture, which is rich in meanings, that is to say, language is a tool for culture to pass down, communicate and develop. In the course of development, language profoundly reflects special culture tradition. In language, words and expressions is the most flexible and active. Thus, the words and expressions containing cultural implications, called culture-loaded words, should be analyzed and compared firstly in translating activities. Being a group of culture-loaded words, they can not only directly reflect the objective world, but also social changes and cultural diversities.

Nowadays, due to the widespread trend of economic globalization, intercultural communication is becoming increasingly frequent around the world. Great importance should be attached to the translation of culture-loaded words, especially the translation of the dialects, because culture-loaded words could best reflect the difference of cultures between different nations. With a long history and abundant heritage, those countries have numerous culture-loaded words, i.e. words and expressions specific to their own culture in the fields of economics, politics and social life which may pose an obstacle for cross-cultural communication and exchange. There exists a huge difference in culture between China and Western countries. Therefore, a large number of culture-loaded words depending very much on the cultural background cannot be found in the target language, which is equivalent to the source language. For translators, it is a high standard to understand the meaning of the dialects of culture-loaded words in one country.

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However, though a mass of culture-loaded words have been translated catering to the needs of other countries’ people, the job is far from satisfactory. Two reasons give rise to the situation that culture-loaded words’ meanings have been changed in the process of translating and lost their original meaning. On the one hand, English and Chinese belong to different language systems. The former is part of Indo-European family while the latter, Sino-Tibetan family. On the other hand, due to translators’ lack of an awareness of cultural difference, some poor-quality versions of culture-loaded words can be seen everywhere. Those ambiguous translations not only cause misunderstanding among other nations, but also hinder the intercultural communication and, to some extent, damage a very effective way of obtaining knowledge. Hence, it is necessary to further study the translations of culture-loaded words in dialects. Apart from intercultural awareness, translators must master translation techniques when rendering the source language into the target language so that culture-loaded words will be translated accurately and timely in the international communication.

From the above analysis, this thesis attempts to explore some effective strategies and methods applied to the translation of culture-loaded words in dialects. It is of great importance for translators to comprehend and render such words as well as possible; thus, the target reader can easily know the meaning of translation and strongly understand exotic cultures and traditions. In this sense, a good translation will promote culture communication and international friendship as well as the mutual understanding between different countries.

2 Current Research

2.1 Research Abroad

Since the 1960’s, Eugene A. Nida, an outstanding American translation theorist and linguist, in his book Language and Culture: Contexts in Translating puts forward the concept of functional equivalence to replace the dynamic equivalence. Nida considers that functional equivalence has a minimal and maximal definition. The 2

former could be stated as “the readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of text must have understood and appreciated it, while the latter could be stated as “the readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did” [2]. From the maximal definition, we can conclude that theory requires translators’ bicultural competence should be as good as his bilingual competence.

According to another famous scholar Lawrence Venuti, resistant translation should be practiced which retains “foreignness” and diversity in order to preserve the precise flavor of the original. In the book titled The Translator’s Invisibility, He also declares that:

A translated text should be the site where a different culture emerges, where a reader gets a glimpse of a cultural other, and resistance, a translation strategy based on an aesthetic of discontinuity, and can best preserve that difference, that otherness, by reminding the reader of the gains and losses in the translation process and the unbridgeable gaps between culture [3].

Later, the Skopos theory solves the controversy between foreignization and domestication strategy in the process of translation. In Nord’s book Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained, the Skopos rule thus read as follows: translate/ interpret/speak/write in a way that enables your text/ translation to function in the situation in which it is used and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function [4].

In his volume A Textbook of Translation, Peter Newmark states that semantic translation attempts to reproduce the exact contextual meaning of the original into the target language within the constraints of the target language grammatical structures [5]. From his point of view, semantic translation transfers culture-loaded words and preserves the foreign flavor in the translation, intending to be faithful to the SL writer. Furthermore, words are sacred, semantic translation attempts to preserve the content and form, including the writer’s idiolect, his peculiar form of expression excluding the 3

culture implication of a particular culture-loaded words.

2.2 Domestic Research

As early as in the late 19th century, the Chinese distinguished translator Yan Fu puts forward his translation criteria; that is, the three standards for translation-faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance, which has posed a significant influence on translation in the later time China. Subsequently, Liu Yingkai, the first professor who challenged the choice of domestication and foreignization in Chinese translation field, published his article Domestication: a wrong track in translation in 1987. He holds the view that the overuse of four-character phrases, Chinese archaisms, the abstract method, the substitution method and groundless use of images and idioms has distorted the original and erased its national identity [6].

“The toughest thing in translation is not language itself but the cultural connation it bears.” [7] Sun Zhili says in his book Culture and Translation. As a tool of the reflection of culture, culture-loaded words are required of translating accurately in case of misunderstanding the target text readers. In his book Multiperspective Research into Language《多角度研究语言》，Professor Wang Dechun also points out that:

“The so-called translation is the transformation of language loaded with information. The cultural information loaded with Chinese language can be transformed into English or into another language, making the intercultural verbal communication and cultural communication among different nationalities possible.”

[8]

Another scholar Wang Zuoliang explored the problems in culture translation from the perspective of stylistics in his book Translation: Experiments and Reflections. He maintains that culture-loaded words in different types of writing should be translated with different strategies. In translating bulletin boards, notice, regulation or introduction of the commodities, we should try to find equivalent expression in target language instead of using literal translation, while translating 4

documents, political articles or classics of Marxism, literal translation should be used to show its unique cultural identity [9].

However, Hu Kaibao, in his article Foreignizing Strategy in Translating Culture-Bound words in A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary, insists that the use of foreignization strategy will promoted the spread of the Chinese culture and the development of China English as well[10].

3 Questions for Further Research

Based on the above analysis, it is quite clear that a large number of research works have been done by famous linguists and professors, and great accomplishments have already been achieved and practiced in the translating. However, there are still some problems and controversies emerging from it. Firstly, it is difficult to distinguish which is better from many Chinese versions of some English literature works, because in China, dialects are completely different between the differences of nations. Secondly, the standard of translation is inconsistent between different scholars, even some of them hold the same meaning but stated from different perspective so that many strategies illustrated by scholars are just overlapped. Thirdly, it is quite hard to regard one Chinese version of English dialects of culture-loaded words as the standard, that is to say, different versions of translation might be created in different regions. These are all theoretical discussion, so combining these theories many banks can be further explored in practice. In order to clarify the translation methods, we should conduct a large number of studies and cases and finally we will reach an agreement about how the dialects of culture-loaded words should be properly and correctly translated.

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References

[1] TYLOR, E.B. Primitive Culture [M]. New York: Harper of Torchlooks, 1871.

[2] NIDA, E.A. Language and Culture: Contexts in Translating [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001: 87.

[3] VENUTI, L. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation [M]. Shanghai: Foreign Language Education Press, 2004: 306.

[4] NORD, C. Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches

Explained [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001: 29.

[5] NEWMARK P. A Textbook of Translation [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001: 46.

[6] 刘英凯. 归化-翻译的歧路[J]. 现代外语，1987（2）: 32-36.

[7] 孙致礼. 文化与翻译[M]. 上海: 上海外语教学出版社，2000: 359.

[8] 王德春. 多角度研究语言[M]. 北京：清华大学出版社, 2002 : 171.

[9] 王佐良. 翻译:思考与试笔[M]. 北京: 外语教学与研究出版社, 1989: 29.

[10] 胡开宝. 论异化与《新世纪汉英大词典》中文化限定词的翻译[J]. 外语教学2006, 27（1）: 55-60.

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Research Proposal

1 Research Background

Culture is a complex integrity that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society [1]. Culture and language have intimate relationship. Language is a mirror of a nation’s culture; in turn, culture shapes and decides the structures and characteristics of a language. Words and expressions are the most flexible and active in the structure of language, especially culture-loaded words, loaded with specific national culture. Culture-loaded words not only directly or indirectly reflect the objective world, but also social changes and cultural diversities. Since the implement of Reform and opening up policy, culture communication between China and Western countries is becoming increasingly frequent. China has 56 nations in which a large number of culture-loaded words will be found. Thus, in the field of economy, politics, literature, those words will be translated specifically as well as western countries’ words. Moreover, owing to different traditions and customs, there is a great diversity of dialects of culture-loaded words. This difficulty will pose an obstacle for people trying to understand another culture. Therefore, a lot of researches are being done to deal with dialects of word-loaded culture.

In western countries, before the 1970s, domestication translation strategy is the dominant position in the field of translation. Eugene A. Nida , as a major figure of this method, , put forwards the concept of functional equivalence to replace the dynamic equivalence so that the readers of a translated text could appreciate and understand it in the same manner as the original readers did. While another famous scholar, Lawrence Venuti advocates that translation texts should be preserved the flavor of foreignness so that other countries people understand culture of the source language countries. Later, Nord proposes the Skopos theory according to the goal of text translation, the translator adopt different translation strategies to achieve their aims Thus, the Skopos theory could better solve the controversy between foreignization

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and domestication. Peter Newmark, in his volume A Textbook of Translation, states that semantic translation attempts to reproduce the exact contextual meaning of the original into the TL within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures.

In China, many professors also hold different views about translation strategy. Liu Yingkai considers that pursuing excessively the expressiveness and elegance of text translation results in erasing source language identity. Sun Zhili firmly believes that the toughest thing in translation is not language itself but the cultural connation it bears. Professor Wang Dechun also agrees Sun Zhili’s viewpoint and points out the so-called translation is the transformation of language loaded with information. Another scholar Wang Zuoliang explored the problems in culture translation from the perspective of stylistics in his book Translation: Experiments and Reflections. He maintains that culture-loaded words in different types of writing should be translated with different strategies. However, Hu Kaibao insists that the use of foreignization strategy will promote the spread of the Chinese culture and the development of China English as well.

Though a large mass of research have been done by famous linguists and professors, and great accomplishments have already been achieved and practiced in translating. However, there are lacking of necessary cases about studying the dialects of culture-loaded words.

2 Significance of the Research

Nowadays, due to the widespread trend of economic globalization, intercultural communication is becoming increasingly frequent around the world. In the field of translation, great importance has increasingly been attached to the translation of culture. Translation is not only an interlingual activity but also an intercultural activity. The transference between two languages is the surface meaning of translation while the essence of translation is the culture exchange. With a long history and abundant heritage, Chinese boasts a large number of culture-loaded words that do not have equivalence in another language. It is said that rendering of culture-loaded words is one of the most difficult points and major barriers in Chinese-English translation, but

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the translation of Chinese culture-loaded words is no easy job. Those words originate from daily life, history, customs, religion, politic and so on. Thus, culture-loaded words are the reflection of culture and convey rich meanings. In respect of culture-loaded words, some words are dialects which cover different habits of speaking. Studying these words will contribute to the development of linguistics, and promote communication between different cultures.

3 Research Creativity

Concerning the creativities of the research, it can be concluded in four aspects. First, other papers pay much attention to how the Chinese culture-loaded words should be translated into English; however, my paper attaches importance to the translation of both Chinese and English culture-loaded words. Second, the words collected from different regions have a characteristic of dialect and they can best reflect the folk traditions and customs. Third, the paper refers to a number of explanations to each translation strategies, strongly supported and illustrated by effective examples. At last, the author does not talk about pure theory but focuses on specific point—the translation strategies of culture loaded words with dialectal meaning which is a blank research.

4 A Brief Outline of the Research

The research paper is composed of the following five chapters:

Chapter One is the general introduction of culture and the presentation of relationship of culture, language and translation.

Chapter Two presents the categories of culture-loaded words in terms of conceptual meaning and associative meaning.

Chapter Three focuses on the translation strategies for the Chinese and English culture-loaded words from dialects.

Chapter Four focuses on the translation strategies for the Chinese and English culture-loaded words from dialects, and adopting the techniques of transliteration, transliteration with annotation, literal, literal with annotation, paraphrasing and 9

adoption strategy to translate these words correctly.

Chapter Five sums up the translation strategies of the cultural-loaded words with dialectal meanings.

5 Research Methods

In order to accomplish the thesis, some methods the author has adopted during the research to support his point of view.

First is the materials collection. The author finds out twenty passages of culture-loaded words, Chinese and English, from the magazines, newspapers and Internet. Then, the author also consults a large number of books in the library and selectively notes down translation theories and strategies written by famous scholars at home and abroad. Thirdly, comparison is made between them and the author asserts that foreignizination translation is an important strategy to translate the culture-loaded words. At last, in the process of translating, the author makes many explanations after each technique.

6 Research Goal

Based on the above analysis, this thesis attempts to explore some effective strategies and methods applied to the translation of Chinese and English culture-loaded words. Thus, a good translation will not only make the target reader comprehend the meaning of translation and strongly understand exotic cultures and traditions, but also promote the culture and international friendship as well as the mutual understanding between different countries.

7 Research Schedule

(1) May 25, 2011 – June 30, 2011: meeting supervisors, collecting materials and thinking about the title of the thesis;

(2) July 1, 2011 – Sept. 15, 2011: writing the first draft of literature review and research proposal;

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(3) Sept. 16, 2011 – Oct. 20, 2011: deciding the title of the thesis and writing the second draft of literature review and research proposal, and drawing out the outline of the thesis;

(4) Oct. 21, 2011 – Dec. 30, 2011: writing the first draft of the thesis;

(5) Jan. 1, 2012 – Mar. 15, 2012: revising the first draft and finishing the second draft of the thesis;

(6) Mar. 16, 2012 – Apr.15, 2012: finishing the third draft of the thesis;

(7) Apr. 16, 2012 – May 15, 2012: blind review and improvement of the thesis;

(8) May 16, 2012 – June 10, 2012: preparing for the thesis defense.

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References

[1] TYLOR, E.B. Primitive Culture [M]. New York: Harper of Torchlooks, 1871.

[2] NIDA, E.A. Language and Culture: Contexts in Translating [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001: 87.

[3] VENUTI, L. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation [M]. Shanghai: Foreign Language Education Press, 2004: 306.

[4] NORD, C. Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001: 29.

[5] NEWMARK P. A Textbook of Translation [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001: 46.

[6] 刘英凯. 归化-翻译的歧路[J]. 现代外语，1987（2）: 32-36.

[7] 孙致礼. 文化与翻译[M]. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社，2000: 359.

[8] 王德春. 多角度研究语言[M]. 北京：清华大学出版社, 2002 : 171.

[9] 王佐良. 翻译:思考与试笔[M]. 北京: 外语教学与研究出版社, 1989: 29.

[10] 胡开宝. 论异化与《新世纪汉英大词典》中文化限定词的翻译[J]. 外语教学2006, 27（1）: 55-60.

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