Translator's Subjectivity in the Three-body Problems from the Perspective of Semiotics

Abstract

The Three-Body Problems is a representative work of Liu Cixin, who is a Chinese science fiction writer. This novel tells that humans have triggered the signal of contacting with the three-body civilization outside the universe, so they start a desperate struggle to save the earth. The translation of this book won the 73rd Hugo Award for Best Novel after translated by Liu Yukun, who is a Chinese-American writer. The translator adopted different translation methods to represent the original text to improve the readability and appreciation of the book. The readers not only can obtain the content and but also can feel the writing style of the author while reading. At the same time, the popularity of its English version of also promotes the international process of Chinese science fiction. From the perspective of Morris' semiotic, this article analyzes some cases in English version of this book through semiotic trichotomy to discuss the role of the translator's subjectivity. Morris explained the concepts of syntactics, semantic and pragmatics, which refer to the relationship between the different signs, the signs and referent, signs and interpreter respectively in the Foundation of the Theory of Signs. Translator's Subjectivity refers to a kind of subjective initiative shown by the translator who is the main part in translation process and wants to achieve the translation aims. The author of this article finds some translation phenomena that the translator changes the original content appropriately, resolves the differences between different culture by exerting his creative role in the translation to make the translation closer to the culture and reading habits of target readers. Therefore, the author categorized these different translation phenomena according to the linguistic meaning, designative meaning and pragmatic meaning: Firstly, it is divided into recombination of science fiction elements and synesthesia of dynamic parts of speech according to the relationship of different language signs. The writer often creates some science fiction words that are beyond the real world. The translator uses the method of word-building and reorganizes the root and meaning while dealing with such words. Focusing on some words that the original author uses ABAB-type words to simulate the sound effect, the translator adopts the descriptive explanation to reach the semantic equivalence trough the verb nominalization. Secondly, Referential meaning and literal meaning are not equivalent because of the difference between the language and culture according to the relationship of signs and referents. This article analyzes the translation method of idioms and a two-part allegorical saying in source text. The translator must possess bilingual language and cultural knowledge, analyzing the referential meaning of source text and giving the interpretant by considering context in different language culture, so that reach the equivalence of designative meaning and make up the language vacancy. Thirdly, it is divided into adjustment of chronological order and structure in text as well as annotation on diachronic words. The writer adopts the narrative method of interposition. The translator adjusts the time and space development order of the narrative and revises the frame structure of the original text narrative without changing the meaning. And the translator also divides the article into three parts which reflect the translator's understanding and recreating for source text. In recent years, most of domestic researches focus on the theoretical interpretation and application of Saussure and Pierce's semiotics. There are relatively few literatures that combine Morris semiotics with translation. Moreover, there is no research that combines semiotics with translator's subjectivity. It is a new field to study the literary translation by using semiotics. It is helpful to study the literary translation due to the strong practice guidance and operability of Morris' semiotics. The research in this article expands the research scope of semiotics to a certain extent. It also enriches the research field of semiotics and provides a new theoretical perspective for translation research of science fiction literature.