A Study of the Chinese Translation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from the Perspective of Skopos Theory_英语论文

摘要

哈利波特系列丛书自出版以来一直是最受欢迎的儿童文学作品，它主要是由两家公司翻译引进中国的，一个是大陆的人民文学出版社，另一个是台湾的皇冠出版公司。本文将以第二部小说《哈利波特与密室》为例，从翻译目的论的视角分析比较两个中文译本。

目的论于20世纪70年代提出，这一理论对翻译和欣赏翻译具有重要意义。目的论要求译者在翻译时考虑到翻译的目的，因此会影响到译者采取合适的翻译策略和方法。另一方面，目的论也可以作为翻译的评价指标，来指导本文作者对两种不同的译本进行比较。

目的论主要有四个基本规则，即目的规则、连贯性规则、忠实性规则和忠诚规则。基于这四个基本原则，此次研究又将从四个层次上对两个中译本进行对比。从比较中我们可以看出，两位译者在翻译时都考虑到了原作的目的。然而，由于他们对翻译目的的理解和侧重点的不同，他们采取了不同的翻译策略和方法, 如直译法与意译法，增译法与省译法，宜化法和异化法等，相应地，这也产生了不同的效果，如宜化法的使用能使目标读者更能结合自身的民族文化来理解原文内涵，而异化法能使得翻译文本与原版本所传达的文化信息达成一致。

关键词：目的论 翻译 儿童文学 对比研究 《哈利波特与密室》

Abstract  

The series of Harry Potter has been the most popular children’s literature since its publication. It was mainly translated and introduced to China by two companies. One is the People’s Literature Publishing House from the mainland, and the other is Crown Publishing Company from Taiwan. This thesis will compare the two different Chinese translations by taking the second novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for example from the perspective of skopos theory.

The skopos theory was put forward in the 1970s, which has great significance for translation and appreciation of translation. It requires translators to consider the purpose of translation, which can influence translators to use appropriate translation strategies and methods. On the other hand, skopos theory can be the evaluation indicator of translation, which can help the author of this thesis to compare the two different Chinese versions.

The skopos theory has mainly four basic rules, including skopos rule, coherence rule, fidelity rule and loyalty rule. The comparative study is divided into four levels based on the basic rules of skopos theory to compare these two translations. From the comparison, we can see that the two translators both consider the skopos theory in their translation. However, because they have different understandings of the purpose of translation and different emphases, they adopt different translation strategies and methods, such as literal translation and free translation, amplification and omission, domestication and foreignization, which bring about different effects. For instance, the use of domestication makes it easy for target readers to understand the meaning of source text by connecting with their own culture. On the other hand, the use of foreignization makes the translated text consistent with the source text in terms of the information that they transmit.

Key Words：Skopos Theory; Translation; Children’s Literature; Comparative Study; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets  

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the Research 1

1.2 The Purpose and Significance of the Research 3

1.3 The Structure of This Thesis 4

2 Literature Review 6

2.1 Introduction to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 6

2.2 Introduction to Two Chinese Versions 8

2.3 Previous Studies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 9

3 Theoretical Framework 11

3.1 Overview of Skopos Theory 11

3.2 Basic Rules of Skopos Theory 12

3.2.1 Skopos Rule 12

3.2.2 Coherence Rule 13

3.2.3 Fidelity Rule 13

3.2.4 Loyalty Rule 14

4 A Comparative Study on the Two Chinese Versions 15

4.1 The Purpose of Two Chinese Versions 15

4.2 The Comparison of the Two Translations 16

4.2.1 Analysis at Lexical Level 16

4.2.2 Analysis at Syntactic Level 19

4.2.3 Analysis at Rhetoric Level 21

4.2.4 Analysis at Cultural Level 24

5 Conclusion 27

5.1 Major Findings 27

5.2 Limitations of the Study 28

5.3 Suggestions for Future Research 28

Bibliography 30

Acknowledgements 33