The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui
Hong Lou Meng (abbreviated as HLM) is a novel written by Cao Xueqin (1715-1763) in Qing dynasty. As one of four of the most famous and greatest novels in China, HLM enjoyed high reputation in the history of Chinese literature. In HLM, the description of appearance of young women characters is any...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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2019
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| Online Access: | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/ http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/1/Wang_Hui.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/2/Wang_Hui.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848774831097511936 |
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| author | Wang , Hui |
| author_facet | Wang , Hui |
| author_sort | Wang , Hui |
| building | UM Research Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Hong Lou Meng (abbreviated as HLM) is a novel written by Cao Xueqin (1715-1763) in
Qing dynasty. As one of four of the most famous and greatest novels in China, HLM
enjoyed high reputation in the history of Chinese literature. In HLM, the description of
appearance of young women characters is anything but prevalent; Cao used rhetoric
devices of metaphors and similes to present abstract beauty into something visual.
However, it is not an easy task to deliver the beauty related concepts into another language,
as English and Chinese literatures do not share the same standards of beauty and the
choice of images; instead the translation of metaphors is influenced by differences
between them. For example, if the image in the source text (abbreviated as ST) is kept in
the target text (TT), it is difficult for the target language (TL) readers to understand if
they do not have the knowledge of the source language (SL) culture; at the same time, if
the image is in ST is abandoned in the TT, the beauty of it is lost. To investigate the
translation of “women’s beauty”, this paper concentrated on translation of metaphor
utilized in describing the beauty of all females, into English by David Hawkes and John
Minford (1986) (abbreviated as DH) and Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang (1978)
(abbreviated as YY). Adopting the theoretical framework of domesticating and
foreignization proposed by Venuti (1995) and Cui (2012), this study aimed at explaining
ways the two selected English versions of HLM translated the abstract image of women’s
beauty. After examining the translation of metaphors related to “feminine beauty”, the
result confirmed that DH and YY were likely to employ foreignization in translation,
respectively at 55.9% and 64.9%. At the same time, both YY and DH applied a good
combination of domestication at 34.2% and 43.2%, respectively. Through this study,
neither foreignization nor domestication was applied on shared metaphors, in this case,
the researchers employed "neutral" as a new category. Yang and David Hawkes employed
neutral at merely 0.9%. Furthermore, in the translation of the three metaphor types:
dominant metaphor, recessive metaphor and compound metaphor in both versions of
novel, the translators were likely to adopt strategy of foreignization in translating dominant metaphors, compared with the other two types of metaphors, as there were
connective words in dominant metaphor, thus, they paid more attention to the cultural
aspect as well as have a tendency to retain the image of ST to TT. In addition, it was
found that YY and DH tended to utilize similar strategies in translating metaphors related
to beauty, accounted for up to 73%; conversely, 27% was a percentage representing YY
and DH employing different translation strategies.
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| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T14:04:33Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | um-13322 |
| institution | University Malaya |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T14:04:33Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | um-133222022-05-19T18:38:27Z The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui Wang , Hui P Philology. Linguistics Hong Lou Meng (abbreviated as HLM) is a novel written by Cao Xueqin (1715-1763) in Qing dynasty. As one of four of the most famous and greatest novels in China, HLM enjoyed high reputation in the history of Chinese literature. In HLM, the description of appearance of young women characters is anything but prevalent; Cao used rhetoric devices of metaphors and similes to present abstract beauty into something visual. However, it is not an easy task to deliver the beauty related concepts into another language, as English and Chinese literatures do not share the same standards of beauty and the choice of images; instead the translation of metaphors is influenced by differences between them. For example, if the image in the source text (abbreviated as ST) is kept in the target text (TT), it is difficult for the target language (TL) readers to understand if they do not have the knowledge of the source language (SL) culture; at the same time, if the image is in ST is abandoned in the TT, the beauty of it is lost. To investigate the translation of “women’s beauty”, this paper concentrated on translation of metaphor utilized in describing the beauty of all females, into English by David Hawkes and John Minford (1986) (abbreviated as DH) and Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang (1978) (abbreviated as YY). Adopting the theoretical framework of domesticating and foreignization proposed by Venuti (1995) and Cui (2012), this study aimed at explaining ways the two selected English versions of HLM translated the abstract image of women’s beauty. After examining the translation of metaphors related to “feminine beauty”, the result confirmed that DH and YY were likely to employ foreignization in translation, respectively at 55.9% and 64.9%. At the same time, both YY and DH applied a good combination of domestication at 34.2% and 43.2%, respectively. Through this study, neither foreignization nor domestication was applied on shared metaphors, in this case, the researchers employed "neutral" as a new category. Yang and David Hawkes employed neutral at merely 0.9%. Furthermore, in the translation of the three metaphor types: dominant metaphor, recessive metaphor and compound metaphor in both versions of novel, the translators were likely to adopt strategy of foreignization in translating dominant metaphors, compared with the other two types of metaphors, as there were connective words in dominant metaphor, thus, they paid more attention to the cultural aspect as well as have a tendency to retain the image of ST to TT. In addition, it was found that YY and DH tended to utilize similar strategies in translating metaphors related to beauty, accounted for up to 73%; conversely, 27% was a percentage representing YY and DH employing different translation strategies. 2019 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/1/Wang_Hui.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/2/Wang_Hui.pdf Wang , Hui (2019) The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya. http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/ |
| spellingShingle | P Philology. Linguistics Wang , Hui The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui |
| title | The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui |
| title_full | The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui |
| title_fullStr | The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui |
| title_full_unstemmed | The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui |
| title_short | The translation of metaphors related to beauty in two English versions of Hong Lou Meng / Wang Hui |
| title_sort | translation of metaphors related to beauty in two english versions of hong lou meng / wang hui |
| topic | P Philology. Linguistics |
| url | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/ http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/1/Wang_Hui.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/13322/2/Wang_Hui.pdf |