符号学视角下《红楼梦》“姊妹”英译研究——以杨、霍译本为例

On the English Translation of Zimei in Honglou Meng from the Perspective of Semiotics—Exemplified with the Yang's and the Hawkes'Versions

“姊妹”属于江淮方言常用词,在《红楼梦》中出现频率较高。依据自建“《红楼梦》江淮方言汉英平行语料库”,从符号学视角分析“姊妹”所指多元特征,采用文本细读和比较法,结合具体案例重点剖析杨、霍译本中“姊妹”英译的异同。两译本“姊妹”英译在词频和选词上具有一定共性,但是,在“姊妹”数目、指称、性别等方面,存在较为明显差异。

Zimei,a common phrase in Jianghuai dialects,is frequently used in Honglou Meng,one of the most famous Chinese classical novels.Based on the self-made Chinese-English Parallel Corpus of Jianghuai Dialects in Honglou Meng,the paper analyzes the multiple features of Zimei from the perspective of semiotics.And it focuses on the similarities and differences concerned with the English translation of Zimei in the two translated English versions,i.e.the Yang's and the Hawkes'by scrutinization of the original texts and the method of comparison.As a result,the paper holds that the two versions share some common features in the translation of Zimei in terms of word frequency and selection,and that they differ from each other in terms of number,signification,and gender of Zimei.