Abstract: The study of translation has undergone a shift from language-level analysis to a cultural turn and, subsequently, a return to a more macroscopic social perspective. As social research in translation primarily targets external factors, it falls under centrifugal research in translation studies. To sustain the vitality of translation studies, there is a need for a balanced approach, combining centrifugal research with centripetal research. Moss Roberts’ translation of San Guo Yan Yi is initiated by China Foreign Language Press and co-published by China and the US presses in 1991. It is considered the most academic complete English version of San Guo Yan Yi. Drawing on the social practice theory of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this study analyzes Moss Roberts’ translation practices of and the influence of capital in the English translation and dissemination field. It attempts a micro-level and reverse study of sociological aspects of translation by examining three key aspects: the influence of cultural capital, the impact of social capital, and the manipulation of power capital. The results showed that Moss Roberts’ translation practices are deeply influenced by his cultural, social and power capital. Among them, his cultural capital enables the translation to be academic; his social capital empowers it to be accurate and faithful; and his power capital manipulates it where religious information arises.
Abstract: The study of translation has undergone a shift from language-level analysis to a cultural turn and, subsequently, a return to a more macroscopic social perspective. As social research in translation primarily targets external factors, it falls under centrifugal research in translation studies. To sustain the vitality of translation studies, there i...Show More
Abstract: The past 20 years have seen significant advances in the corpus-based studies on translator’s style, an important subfield of corpus-based translation studies. However, there is still a lack of a coherent and clear understanding of the research models, objects of study, and methodologies. This paper classifies different research models, reviews the representative achievements of the studies, analyzes the limitations of current research, and provides suggestions for future studies. This paper argues that the existing research methods need to be expanded, the objects should be enriched, and the research model requires further investigation. Studies in the future should expand the current research methodology from primary quantitative studies to semantic, pragmatic and socio-cultural parameters. Greater focus should be placed on analyzing the translator’s style as demonstrated by linguistic features, such as language collocation and semantic prosody, as well as the subtext of the translated work, and non-linguistic features, such as the translator’s choice of material for translation. Furthermore, attention must be paid to the examination of both the preferred linguistic patterns that the translator uses to reproduce the source text and the recurrence of these patterns across the translator’s other translations of works by different authors.
Abstract: The past 20 years have seen significant advances in the corpus-based studies on translator’s style, an important subfield of corpus-based translation studies. However, there is still a lack of a coherent and clear understanding of the research models, objects of study, and methodologies. This paper classifies different research models, reviews the ...Show More