Abstract
Over the past few centuries, dichotomy has been playing a dominant role in the field of translation, which has made significant contributions to the development of translation practices and studies. Nonetheless, its weakness has been gradually realized due to the complex, ever-changing nature of language. The proposal of the Trichotomy Paradigm in translation studies provides a new perspective into translation, giving both a fresh insight into its theoretical exploration and an original understanding into its practice. As a comprehensive system, the Trichotomy Paradigm can be divided into three levels: namely, the macro-level, meso-level and micro-level, among which the meso-level is concerned with translation strategies. Borrowing from Reiss’ text type theory to the mesoscopic research of the system, this article analyses the Chinese-English translation strategies of <i>Dr. Zha’s Diary of Fighting the COVID-19</i>. By analyzing ten typical examples of how Reiss’ text types---- the informative text, the expressive text and the operative text are applied to the translation of the book, the author points out Reiss’ text type theory is well adapted to the Trichotomy Paradigm, which as a three-dimensional and comprehensive dynamic translation framework can provide guidance and insight for translators to engage in translation practices as well as translation studies. This article will shed some light on these new perspectives in translation studies.
Highlights
Over the past few centuries, scholars have focused on translation as a process or as the result of that process [1], in which dichotomy has been playing a dominant role in such fields as literal and free translation, formal and dynamic equivalence [2], semantic, communicative [3] and covert translation [4], as well as what Lawrence Venuti [5] has called domesticating and foreignizing translation
In the Trichotomy Paradigm, the macro-level includes ontology, values, methodology, epistemology and category systems; the meso-level is characterized by translation strategies, focusing on less abstract translation issues; the micro-level is the embodiment of the meso-level combined with the summary and sublimation of practical experience, giving more attention to detailed issues in the translation process
According to the Trichotomy Paradigm, the meso-level is concerned with translation strategies, which concentrate on the translation of texts, so the translator needs first to sort out the text types
Summary
Over the past few centuries, scholars have focused on translation as a process or as the result of that process [1], in which dichotomy has been playing a dominant role in such fields as literal and free translation, formal and dynamic equivalence [2], semantic, communicative [3] and covert translation [4], as well as what Lawrence Venuti [5] has called domesticating and foreignizing translation. According to Fang Mengzhi [9], the macro-level, as the core, is in the higher echelon of the theory, which focuses on universal problems in applied translation; the meso-level is concerned with translation strategies, schemes, modes, modules, plans, and so on; the micro-level studies translation methods, skills and techniques, which exist on the operational level With his new theory, this article intends to explore whether Fang’s Trichotomy Paradigm is better in translation practices than the Dichotomy Paradigm by analyzing specific cases in the translation of Dr Zha’s Diary of Fighting the COVID-19. The concept of the Trichotomy Paradigm is the construction of the translation system, which enables translators to observe and solve problems from multiple dimensions, as a whole and in all directions
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