Abstract
Based on a corpus-driven analysis of two translated versions of Hongloumeng (one by David Hawkes and the other by Xianyi Yang and Gladys Yang) in parallel corpora, this article investigates the use of lexical bundles in an attempt to trace the stylistic features and differences in the translations produced by the respective translators. The Hongloumeng corpus is developed at the sentence level to facilitate co-occurrence of the source texts and the two corresponding translations. For this purpose, the three-word and four-word lexical bundles were first extracted and then analyzed with respect to the functional classification proposed by Biber et al. (2004). The results of the study show that Hawkes' translation is embedded with a greater number and variety of lexical bundles than the one by the Yang couple. The study also identified the differences between the two versions which can be traced back to the deployment of different translation strategies of the translators, appearing in turn to be influenced by the language backgrounds of the translators, the translation skopos and settings, and the social, political, and ideological milieu in which the translations were produced.
Highlights
Hongloumeng (《 紅 樓 夢 》), known as The Story of the Stone(Shitouji 《 石 頭 記 》), has long been acclaimed as one of the greatest masterpieces of Chinese literature because of its kaleidoscopic depiction of almost every aspect of Chinese culture
The main goal of the current study was to investigate the “translator’s style” (Baker, 2000) in two English versions of Hongloumeng, by addressing the following two research questions: (1) How are lexical bundles differently represented in the two English translations of Hongloumeng? (2) What are the possible factors that lead to such differences between the two translation versions of Hongloumeng?
The analysis shows that the lexical bundles account for a much greater proportion of the text in Hawkes than they do in Yangs
Summary
Hongloumeng (《 紅 樓 夢 》), known as The Story of the Stone(Shitouji 《 石 頭 記 》), has long been acclaimed as one of the greatest masterpieces of Chinese literature because of its kaleidoscopic depiction of almost every aspect of Chinese culture. The various themes covered by the novel, including a love tragedy, Daoist–Buddhist enlightenment, social observation, the decay of an aristocratic family, and even a veiled attack on Manchu rule, have made it a pearl of Chinese literature. It has been translated into almost all the major languages in the world because of its literary status in China. As Hongloumeng depicts so many aspects of Chinese cultural life, the translations, to a certain extent, reflects the many core problems frequently debated in the field of translation studies.
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