OntheApplianceoftheSkoposTheoryintheTranslationofChildren"sLiterature

ZhangLihua

【Abstract】This paper analyses the Chinese version of Alices Adventures in Wonderland based on the Skopos Theory in Germany and the basic features of Childrens literature.Discussing the translation strategy that translators take for the aim of translation.The analysis of the Chinese version of Alices Adventures in Wonderland embodies that Skopos theory is applied in the process of translation.

【key word】Skopos Theory； Childrens literature； Alices Adventures in Wonderland

【摘要】本文从德国功能论的译文目的论出发，针对儿童文学的基本特征，对《爱丽斯奇境历险记》的译本进行分析、比对，探讨在翻译过程中为实现译文的目的，译者所要采取的翻译策略。充分体现了目的论在翻译过程中的应用。

【关键词】目的论 儿童文学 《爱丽斯奇境历险记》

The outstanding children's literature version can not only provide the materials to rich spiritual life to children in our country，but also inspire the children's literature creation of our country.From the latter Qing dynasty，there are the foreign children's literature work to be introduced one after another to the general Chinese readers.In numerous versions，such as“Little Prince”，“Alice Wonder world Adventures”and “Harry potter” were classical textbook which can satisfied with Childrens demand，but many cannot satisfied with Childrens demands.It is related to studies which children's literature translation cannot obtain now enough attention，Up to now there are still not complete expert guidance to children's literature translation's system，only several excellent children's literature versions are also translated according to the wise experience of translators，it is not a systematic.Based on the above reasons this article tries to seek for one translation theory to be used to guide the children's literature translation.This article will take the English-Chinese as the example，and prove the Appliance of the Skopos Theory in the Translation of children's literature .

The Skopos theory is the translation theory a proposed by German Functionalist School.This theory is the important breakthrough of traditional translation theory.It is not only take into account the equivalent translation，but thinks that the translator may do suitably change to meet reader s ' needs.The teleology requests translators before beginning to translate grasp clearly about the translated edition goals，then this goal must run through the translating process，the choice of translation strategy is based on this goal completely，while the translation goal primarily is decided by readers.Regarding the children's literature translation，besides the small part of adult readers，children is mainly readers.Owing to Childrens limited experience，the language standard and acceptance ability are in the low level.A important principle in Skopos theory，“intratextual coherence” requests version at least must be understood by the target readers.Therefore，a qualified translator first basically must guarantee that the version can be accepted by the children.

1.Introduction to the Skopos Theory

Skopos is the Greek word for ‘aim or ‘purpose and was introduced into translation theory in the 1970s by Hans.J.Vermeer as a technical term for the purpose of a translation and of the action of translating .Translation is considered not only as a process of translation，but also as a specific form of human action.In the frame work of this theory，the most important factors determining the purpose of a translation is the address，who is the intended readers of the target text with their world language.Vermeer regards it as an “offer of information” that is partly or wholly turned into an “offer of information”for the target audience.There are three main rules which are Skopos rule，coherence rule and fidelity rule.

2.Appliance of the Skopos Theory in the Translation of Children's Literature

The Skopos theory has three principles，namely Skopos rule and coherence rule and fidelity rule.The Skopos rule have been introduced.What the continuous principle refers to is language intratextual coherence，namely a translation should be acceptable in a sense that it is coherent with the receivers situation，being part of the receivers situation.Fidelity rule refers to intratextual coherence，namely a translation should be as faithful as possible to the original，but this kind of faithful degree and form the understanding to the original text jointly decided by the translation goal and translator.This article takes two translated editions of the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland an example.The author will take the three rules as the foundation，and study the translated edition whether has realized the translation goal or not，and transmit the culture function in the version.

After definiting the purpose of version，what translation methods should the translator adopt and how to deal with some issues，this must be explained through using the coherence rule and fidelity rule .

（1）Coherence rule

Coherence rule refers to the translation being probable to tally translate the language and the expression，let the receiver be able to understand the translation.Regarding the translation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland，what the translator first considered is the translation receiver.Translation receiver for age about 10-year-old Chinese child，then the translator should understand the acceptance characteristic of children's reader.Children's thought gives priority to the thinking in images，its abstract logical thinking still had the big concrete iconicity.When this characteristic requests the translator to be at translation，the attention language's image，concrete and vivid.Not only children's literature's language body has the high request to language anglicizing，the request language must be full of the significance，moreover must be straightforward，English.The children's literature translation requests the translator to pay attention to the characteristic of children's language body，translates to suit the Chinese children to appreciate the taste the work.They are necessary to create a special fantastic，humorous and delightful atmosphere.The description of fairy tale multipurpose folds the word and interjective and has the color words and expressions .Moreover the word usage is simple，tries best to avoid the words and expressions that is abstrusely difficult to speak.

e.g.…；and Im sure I cant be Mabel，for I know all sorts of things，and she，oh，she knows such a very little！

a：……我也敢保证，我不可能是梅布尔，因为我懂得许多东西，可她却是一问三不知！

b：……我肯定不是玛贝尔，因为我知道各种各样的事情，而她，哼！她什么也不知道。

In the original text has used an interjection “oh”，contrasted two kinds of translations，the first translation has abbreviated this interjection，but the second translation uses an interjection that has corresponded in Chinese，the latter has achieved the coordination with the original text，realizing the function that the version want to transmit.This interjection expressed vividly that Alice is not convinced and not believe Mabels the innermost feelings，and has vividly transmitted Alices self-confident to the reader.The persona appears lifelike through this interjection.But method of the second translation actually appears somewhat light，and has not realized the translation goal very well.

（2）Fidelity rule

A version should be as faithful as possible to the original.But in the Skopos theory，faithful rule belongs to the goal principle，namely the faithful degree is decided by the version goal.If the goal of translation demand to change the texts function，the translation is impossible to be faithful to the original text.In brief，the language must service for the translation goal，otherwise，this kind of translation is meaningless.

Eg：“Curiouser and Curiouser？”cried A lice（she was SO much surprised，that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English）

a.“越来越离奇了？”爱丽丝嚷道（她惊异之下竟然忘了正规的英语语法）。“越来越离奇”的原文是curiouser and curiouser。英语习惯：形容词和副词如超过三个音节。比较级不在字尾加er后缀，而在字前加more。

b.“越变越稀怪了，越变越奇罕了！”（因为爱丽斯自己诧异到那么个样子，连话都说不好了）

In translated edition a，although the translator explained the correct view about “curiouser and curiouser” in annotation，but actually lost the mood“strange”in the original text，moreover the readers is hard to understand the content in the parenthesis with the connection of front content .Furthermore，the annotation not only diverted the children's reader's attention，causes its reading to lose the continuity，but also has no any help to the understand the content to the readers ：it is the possibility that due to the readers' knowledge to English is limited，even does not understand completely，then such explanation possibly does not have the significance even to make it more difficult to understand.Comparatively speaking，the second translation made one quite satisfied in processing of here：He combines two words “strange” and “rarity ” and confuses them，and transmits that Alice cannot reach an agreement in great surprise with the one kind of dislocation expression of Chinese under the words .Like this both maintained the continuity of translation，and simultaneously let the readers understand the interest of original text.

3.Conclusion

To sum up，the successful usage of the Skopos theory in the translated version contributes to the success of the Chinese version of Alices Adventures in Wonderland.What's more，the purpose of the target text expresses exactly what the author wants to express to original readers.Due to the guidance of the Skopos theory and the skillful translation on the rhetorical devices，the Chinese version is a good one.

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