从功能对等理论看《红楼梦》中颜色词语的翻译
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Abstract
Hong Lou Meng is widely regarded as one of the greatest literary works. Nowadays, this book has become a strong trend in China or abroad on the study of the original novel and its translated versions. There are a lot of color words can be found in Hong Lou Meng. They have been applied in the description of clothing, the arrangement of object and scenery. Most of the previous researches on color words are a general analysis of the overall style of the novel; few focus on the color word translation.
In 20th century, the theory of functional equivalence became popular in western translation. Equivalence in translation not merely involves equivalence at the levels of syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and it also has lot to do with the equivalence in cultural messages. As a translator, one should try to establish cultural equivalence between the source text and the target text and try to find out the cultural differences of color in values, thinking, imagination, and linguistic application. By means of exemplification in A Dream of Red Mansions, the author tries to find out importance of equivalent theory in the translation of color terms to improve the great influence of the functional equivalence in the practice of translation.
Key Words: functional equivalence, Hong Lou Meng, color words, translation, culture
摘要《红楼梦》是中国古典文学中最优秀的作品之一。如今，《红楼梦》及其翻译作品的鉴赏与解读已在海内外掀起了一片学习的热潮。在这本书中也随处可以发现大量颜色词的存在，例如在描绘人物服饰，室内陈设，自然风景等等。以往的《红楼梦》翻译研究大多是就整本小说的翻译风格而论，而单独针对其中颜色词的翻译的甚少。
在二十世纪初，功能对等理论在西方翻译界受到广泛关注，该理论认为翻译中的对等不仅包括语言学、语义学、语用学方面的对等，而且还包括文化信息方面的对等。在翻译过程中，译者要尽可能地建立起源语和目标语之间的文化对等。本文将关注于《红楼梦》中的颜色词语翻译，旨在探求颜色在价值观、思文方式、想象以及语言运用方面的不同所带来的文化差异。通过对众多译例的分析，我们可以发现对等理论在颜色词语翻译中的重要作用，旨在从宏观上证明功能对等之于翻译理论和翻译实践的建构意义。
关键词：功能对等理论，《红楼梦》，颜色词，翻译，文化