CuiXia Lu

A STYLISTICS STUDY ON THE CHINESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION

OF XIEHOUYU IN CHINESE

I. Introduction

1.1 Definition of Xiehouyu

Xiehouyu (Xhy) is defined in H. A. Gile’s A Chinese –English Dictionary (2nd Rev
Enlarged.; shanghai, China, and London, 1912; reprinted in Taipei; Ch’eng-Wen
Publishing company 1967) as “set phrase of which only the protasis is uttered, the
apodosis is understood by the speaker, not literally but in a punning sense.” This
definition will be more appropriate if it were defined that the apodosis is understood
by the listener; and Xiehouyu are not necessarily understood through their punning
sense. Xiehouyu are sayings heavily loaded with Chinese culture and the Chinese
way of life and thinking. Therefore they are difficult to translate and it is probably for
this reason that not as many studies as those on other Chinese sayings have been done
in this field. However, Xhy are extremely popular in Chinese’s daily, verbal
conversation and in literature. It is an intriguing language phenomenon in the Chinese
language. They play such an important role that a translator cannot afford to neglect
them.

1.2 Historical overview of the studies on Xiehouyu

Many a Chinese scholars has conducted a large variety of researches on various
aspects of Xhy and has scored great achievement. In the winter of 1920, a committee
was established for the study of Chinese folksy culture in BeiJing University (北大歌
谣研究会). Since then Xhy, as a form of folksy culture, came to scholars’ attention.
Especially during the 1930s, there was a heated debate over the name for this type of
common sayings. Now people generally agreed to name them as Xiehouyu in
Chinese, based on their special formation and usage1. Currently there are also splited
opinions over the English translation for Xhy. There are suggestions such as “Chinese
Quiz-Cracks”, “Chinese folk wisecracks” and “Chinese enigmatic folk similes”, etc.

Page 1
 CuiXia Lu

But the most influential one is the one to leave it as the Chinese Pin-yin form. It is
recommendable, since Xhys are something unique in Chinese culture, like “Chinese
Gongfu”, “Yumcha”, “erhu”, etc. Apart from the controversies over the Chinese and
English names for Xhy, other studies before 1949 are mainly focusing on Xhy’s
nature, structure, creation and history. After the establishment of the P. R. China, there
is a new round of intense studies on Xhy in late 1950 to early 1960, marked by
Xiehouyu in Chinese (literal)《歇后语》by Ma Guofan(马国凡)、Gao Gedong(高歌东)、
An Overview of Xiehouyu in Chinese (literal)《谚语歇后语概论》by WangQin (王勤) 、
Xiehouyu in Chinese (literal)《歇后语》by Wen DuanZheng(温端正) and A New
Study on Xiehouyu in Chinese (literal)《歇后语新论》by Tan YongXiang(谭永祥).
99Overseas there are scholars from Japan, Pankratov professor from former U.S.S.R
and Fancoise Sabban who conducted research on Chinese Xhys. Still these studies are
of the similar focuses of those carried out Chinese scholars. At the beginning of the
new centuries, scholars started to touch on this area again, and try to explain this
language phenomenon through an interpretive perspective by applying new language
theories. The latest one (I can find) is a thesis written by Zhao XiuQin,
“Understanding Chinese Xiehouyu – From a Pragma-Cognitive Perspective of
Relevance Theory.” The paper interprets the understanding of Xhy by applying
relevance theory and psycholinguistic instrumentation. This paper is a good example
of intersectional research between psycholinguistics and pragmatics and cognition.

1.3 Purpose of the thesis

The purpose of this thesis is to study the Chinese-English translation of Xhy
through in a stylistic perspective so as to provide more insights of the distinctive
features of Xhy and the effects of those stylistic features on the Chinese-English
translation. Stylistics, as proposed by H. G. Widdowson (Style and the Teaching of
literature), involves both literary criticism and linguistics, as its morphological
making suggests: the “style” component relating it to the former and the “istics”
component to the latter”.2

Page 2
 CuiXia Lu

Translating Xhy from Chinese into English is not a mere simple matching of
words and forms between these two languages. Because there are many discrepancies
between meanings and structures of different languages, which make some people
think translating Xhy is impossible. The main reason of for adopting the stylistic
approach is to analyse language habits of using Xhy by Chinese –to identify, from the
general mass of their conversation, those stylistic features; to explain why such
features have been used as opposed to others; to classify these features into 4 levels:
lexical, phonological, syntactic and semantic based upon a view of their function in
the social context and utilise this information to improve the understanding of Xhy,
which in turn aim to will help and improve Xhy’s Chinese-English translation.
According to Mr. Wang Zuoliang（王佐良）, the highest standard for judging
the quality of translation is the faithfulness to its source.4However, according Eugene
Nida, “the most difficult task for the translator is to understand thoroughly the
designative and associative meanings of the text to be translated.”5 Therefore, the
adequate and thorough understanding is a prerequisite of acceptable translation. It is
hoped that the stylistic study of the text to be translated will become a potential tool to
facilitate a translator’s understanding and improve the quality of the translation.

1.4 A Sample of Xiehouyu and Quantitiva Quantitative Appendix

In order to summarize the stylistic features of Xhy in Chinese, a sample with a size
of 108 xhy has been extracted from a book called As The Saying Goes by C.C.SUN
(University of Queensland Press, 1981) (Appendix one) and some statistic analyses
have been conducted on this sample as shown in Appendix 2 – 5.

II. Stylistic Overview of Xiehouyu in Chinese

2. 1 General Nature of Xiehouyu

Xhy are formed by two parts, with the former called protasis and the latter
apodosis which is usually unuttered. “The humorous touch is the most important

Page 3
 CuiXia Lu

feature of Xhy and it is achieved by these means: (a) the apodosis, though by no
means irrelevant to the protasis, is understood from a rather unexpected angle, or (b)
the apodosis is understood in a punning sense”6 They are generally colloquial in style
and, at time, may even be a little bit vulgar. Xhy are able to greatly reinforce the
power of utterances either in a humorous way or in an ironic or satirical way, but such
effects will become overt until xhy are understood. They are mostly found in people’s
daily conversation and in novels. When they were found in literary writing, it is
usually because the writer deliberately uses them to shape his certain character in his
novel or distinguish his friendly and humorous writing style or to make his work more
acceptable to common Chinese. An abundant of examples of Xhy can be found in
novels, such as, Dream of the Red Chamber（NewYork：Twayne， 1959） (《红楼
梦》)，All Men Are Brothers（NewYork：John Day，1968）（《水浒传》），The
Golden Lotus (London: Rouledge and Kegan Paul, 1953)(《金瓶梅》).

2.2 Lexical level features

On the lexical levels, nouns and noun phrases can be found almost in every Xhy.
They represent the most familiar images, such as, domestic poultry and historical
characters, etc. in ordinary Chinese people’s mind. These images reflect the Chinese
way of thinking, their mentality, and their perceptions. (Please support your
argument by your own description of some specific examples.)

2.3 Phonological level features

The punning sense created by homonyms in Xhy is the ultimate touch of

humor in people’s conversation. However, when the homonyms are applied in the
apodosis, Xhy will become more difficult for the listeners to comprehend. If the
translator were asked to translate it from Chinese to English, these phonological
features would make the Chinese-English translation more challenging. This is
simply because the pair of words or phrases which is homonyms in one language is
very unlikely to be homonyms in another language. (Please support your argument

Page 4
 CuiXia Lu

by your own description of some specific examples.)

2.4 Syntactic level features

Xhy as a type of common sayings in Chinese distinguish themselves from
Chinese proverbs by their unique syntactic features. Xhy are formed by two parts,
usually only the first part is uttered leaving the second part to be figured it out by
the listener himself. According to Gile’s A Chinese – English Dictionary, as
mentioned above, the former part is called protasis and the latter part is called the
apodosis. As a rule, the second part is the complements or further modification of
the first part, and therefore constitute a lose sentence structure. This structure helps
to create a light and relaxing ambience for conversation. But such a structure will
be disturbed when they were translated into English; and the original flavour will
lost. (Please support your argument by your own description of some specific
examples.)

2.5 Semantic level features

According to Noam Chomsky’s transformational-generative grammar, every

sentence has two levels of structures – surface structure and deep structure. 14
Syntactic level features of Xhy are mainly concerned their surface structure.
However, acceptable translation will hinge upon the understanding on part of the
translator of the deep structures, which is the abstract meaning of the utterance;
however, translator’s comprehension of the deep structure of Xhy will be based on
his cognitive experience accumulated through his interaction process in society. The
translation of Xhy will be challenging if the translator lacks an experimental basis
for the meaning of them. (Please support your argument by your own description of
some specific examples.)

III. Lexical Features of Xiehouyus (concepts)

3.1 The pervasive use of certain concepts

Page 5
 CuiXia Lu

On the lexical level, the most salient characteristic is the use of nouns to
represent the most familiar images, namely animals and characters, in ordinary
Chinese people’s mind. These images reflect the Chinese way of thinking, their
mentality, and their perceptions. 7 (The principle of mirror theory).
According to the statistic analysis on the sample collected, around 54% (58 out
of 108) of the xhy use the character images. Among them 26 use the images of
supernatural beings, the most famous fictitious characters and historical characters,
such as, Zhangfei (a famous general during the period of the Three Kingdoms), Pig
Monster (a character in the novel Mokey/ Tripitaka and Other Piece) and Lord
Yama (the God of Death, who reigns in Hell, is equivalent to the Angel of Death,
to bring in the spirits of those people whose life-spans have expired according to
his registry book.)7; and 32 out of the 58 employ images related to those who are
young, or old, or sick, or weak and those with distinctive features (see: Appendix
2). Among them the most frequently used images are those disabled, who are
either dumb, or mute, or blind, or extremely short, or lame, or pock-marked, or
hunchbacked … In old China, it was believed that one’s disability is the “fruit” he
received from the guilt he committed in his former life. Hence instead of showing
sympathy for those disabled, other people tended to pour score upon them. Also in
the old class feudal society, it is a common way for people to release their angers
and dissatisfaction for when being suppressed by their upper classes, which
originated from the ingrained mentality among Chinese, i.e., “气人有，笑人无”
(qirenyou, xiaorenwu) ， 8 which means to be angry for others getting what you
don’t possess, and to laugh at those who don’t possess what you have.
(Chinese pinyin is needed to describe the Chinese characters phonologically.)
3.2 Problems arising from translating these concepts

Concepts associated with these images are one of the major factors to be
considered in the literal translation process from Chinese to English, especially for
those images representing the supernatural beings, historical characters and
fictitious characters. Since a According to cognitive theory, the lack of

Page 6
 CuiXia Lu

experimental basis of understanding will make it difficult for the cross-culture

cultural translation. Since for the In the course of translation of translating Chinse
xhy, the translator is not merely translating the utterance but also transferring
Chinese culture and history as well. Fore example in the translation the Xhy of 张
飞 抬 曹 操 , 一 举 两 得 ( 德 )(ZhangFei tai CaoCao, yijuliangde). In the case of
General Zhang carrying Cao Cao, there will two "De" -with only one doing the
lifting (in one action). However, such a translation doesn’t really make a lot of
sense to the English-speakers. Since the audience speaking the target language
don’t have the equivalent knowledge of these two characters, not to say their styles
(a second but unofficial name) which give rise to the punning interpretation for the
second part. That is also the reason why Eugene Nida in his work Language and
Culture – Contexts in Translating suggested that the most difficult situation for a
translator to deal with the associated meanings of the text to be translated.

3.3 Analysis of translation aimed to deal with these concepts

There will are two feasible strategies to fill the culture cultural gap between
Chinese and English. One is to make annotations in brackets after the literal
translation, explaining the associated information. With the same example above,
the supplemented information will be: the styles of both Zhang Fei and Cao Cao
share a same character “德”, the pronunciation of which is the same as that of the
charater “得”, which means “gain” or “achieve”. Therefore, the second part of the
sentence 两 得 may be interpreted as “two gains”. Thus 一 举 两 得 may be
interpreted as “killing two birds with one stone”.
The second approach is to search for the English common sayings with the
similar meaning. Through this approach, the translation can be “Killing two birds
with one stone”. There are many a coming sayings with similar meanings in both
languages that they can be match as pairs. Such as, “ 猫 哭 耗 子 , 假 慈 悲 ” and
“Shed crocodile tears.”; “毛驴上马掌, 小蹄(题)大做 .” and “(to) make a
mountain out of a molehill”; “张飞请李逵, 黑 吃 黑 ” and “One robber robs the

Page 7
 CuiXia Lu

other.”

3.4 Concluding Remark

There are both advantages and disadvantages for both approaches. The former
one can help to spread Chinese heritage, but such translation is hardly practical in
daily conversation, therefore, it is mostly restrictive to written form. While for the
second approach, the translation is effective and the intended meaning can be
easily be understood by the audience; however, the trade-off would be that the
English audience may lose the opportunity of appreciating Chinese wit.

IV. Phonological Features of Xiehouyu

4.1 The extensive use of “homonyms” (incl. homophony and homograph)

In the study, the word “homonyms” refers to both homonyms and homographs.
The statistic study on the sample shows that 30.56% or 33 of the 108 Xhy
embedded with homonyms and they are found solely in the apodosis. (Please
support your argument by your own description of some specific examples.)

4.2 Reasons for using “homonyms”

The high frequency of the application of homonyms can be attributed to the

purpose of using Xhy -- to dramatize (either humorous or satirical) one’s
conversation and show his wit. This is related to the Chinese philosophy of
language, which believes that words are art and signs of wisdom and words can
provide enjoyment to life; and such enjoyment is accomplished through a
variety of forms of expressions, where Xhy is one of them. And one way for the
Xhy to achieve this effect is through the employment of homonyms. In Chinese
language, characters are monosyllabic (that is, single character with one sound
and one meaning) with the limited number of tonal categories and are non-
inflectional (that is, verb forms do not change for persons or tenses, while
nouns, whether singular or plural, maintain the same form). This makes it

Page 8
 CuiXia Lu

possible to associate diverse meanings with the same sounds, which makes it
possible to create meaningful puns or double-entendres. That is the reason why
Xhy are filled with verbal games using homophones. (See: Appendix 3)

4.3 Translating difficulties created by this phonological features

Xhy “何仙姑嫁给了姓郑的,郑何氏(正合适).” is a good example of the use of

homonyms to create punning sense. The literal translation is: The immortal
lady, He, is married to a person by the surname of Zheng and becomes Mrs.
Zheng, nee He. English audience won’t be impressed by such a saying uttered
by the speaker. For it is only a logical statement what will happen to a woman’s
name after she is married. However, for a Chinese audience, he/she may burst
into a big laughter upon hearing this. Since in Chinese, the pronunciation of 郑
何氏 is exactly the same as 正合适, which means “it fits perfectly”.
There is a thesis on “Understanding Chinese Xhy – From a Pragama-Cognitive
Perspective of Relevance Theory.” by Zhao XiuQin in 2004.99 In this thesis, it
is stated that with homonyms being used in Xhy, more factors have to be
considered in order to figure out the intended meanings and it presumed that
homonyms take the audience more cognitive procedures to find out the optimal
assumption than to deal with the Xhy without homonyms used within. The
employment of homonyms in Xhy is “intellectually challenging, which is not
exceptional for translators. And it seems that homonyms make the literal
Chinese-English translation notoriously difficult for if they are translated
literally, then either the intended meaning will lose or the translation will
become non-sense in English. This is because the pair of words or phrases
which sound the same in one language is very unlikely to be the same in
another language.

4.4 Analysis of translating attempts in this respect

Is it possible to create the same punning effect in translation while

Page 9
 CuiXia Lu

conveying the same meaning of the Xhy? Some believe it impossible, yet more
and more successful translating has been done. In order to cope with the similar
problems while translating Xhy, some scholars suggested that to find out all the
relevant or synonyms for the intended meaning, and try to mimics the effect of
the original expression. For example “绱鞋不使锥子, 针(真)好！”, someone
translated it as “A sherbet in a midsummer night's dream: cool!” Even though it
is not a literal translation, it coveys the same meaning without losing the
punning effect. “Cool” here can mean either the temperature of the sherbet or
the good feeling of taking a sherbet in a hot day.
However, it may be too time-consuming if the translation is just for the
purpose of conveying an idea. An alternative is to explain its punning sense
created by the homonyms. But in a conversation, this approach would not be
welcome by the listener. So Therefore, again - indirect translating approach can
be used, i.e. only to translate its intended meaning, which is also the most
frequently-used strategy adopted by interpreters, since daily conversation is
characterized by its simplicity and effectiveness, and a long tedious explanation
does not seem to be necessary. For the last approach, with the same example
above “何仙姑嫁给了姓郑的, 郑何氏 (正合适)”, it can be directly translated
into “fit perfectly”.

4.5 Concluding Remarks

The there methods mentioned above is equally important. It will be depend
on the actual context to determine which one is better.( What do you mean by
these two sentences?)

V. Syntactic Features of Xiehouyu

5.1 Brief introduction of the two-part structured Xiehouyu

Xhy as a type of common sayings in Chinese distinguish themselves from

Page 10
 CuiXia Lu

Chinese proverbs by their unique syntactic features. Xhy are formed by two
parts, usually only the first part (protasis) is uttered leaving the second part
(apodosis) to be figured it out by the listener himself. Usually the second part is
the complements or further modification of the first part, therefore constituting a
lose sentence structure. This structure helps to create a light and relaxing
ambience for conversation. (Please support your argument by your own
description of some specific examples.)

5.2 The sentence patterns of the former and the latter parts of the Xiehouyus

In terms of their syntactic features, Xhy are not difficult, which also reflects
the fact they are created from the verbal conversation and are used so frequently
in it. The grammatical structure for the first part / protasis is usually of a simple
syntactic structure following the pattern: “subject (sb/sth) + verb. + object
(sb/sth)” together with some cases where the indefinite agent is omitted. In the
sample, 91 out of the 108 follow this grammatical structure (also called “surface
structure” under Noma Chomsky’s transformational-generative grammar,
(Syntactic Structure, 1957)), such as 泥菩萨过海,” , “老鼠拉龟” , “哑巴吃黄
连”, etc. Others (17) are generally just a noun phrase in the first part, such as
“梁山的军师”, “属夜猫子的(人)”, “电灯胆(C )”, etc. While for the second
part, most of the examples are the modifiers or interpretation for the first part,
through ways of extracting the characteristics of the subject matter mentioned in
the first part, or inference derived from an unexpected angle. Say “电灯胆(C )-
唔通气 ” . This is a Cantonese Xhy. The intended meaning of it is “insensitive”.
That is because in the first part, it mentioned “light bulb”, which is air-tight.
When the air is not circulating, it becomes stagnant and “dull”. A dull person
also means a person with little or no sense; therefore, insensitive.
Taking the two parts together, we can see that Xhy are of a loose sentence
structure (a complex sentence in which the main clause comes first and
subordinate clause follows), where, usually, the first part is heavier and the latter

Page 11
 CuiXia Lu

part much lighter and to supply new information. Loose sentence structure is
believed to be able to create relaxing atmosphere by allowing more time for the
speaker to supplement more details or information in the following. With the
virtue of the lose structure, Xhy help the speaker to produce tension and
suspense by holding the intended meaning at the end, unuttered or articulated
with a pause, which makes his utterance more intriguing and engrossing to the
audience.

5.3 Analysis of the sentence structure of the translation (parallel structure, and the use

of apostrophe)
Such a suspended effect of Xhy is hard to be translated, which can be attributed
to the following reasons. Firstly, it may be impossible to be inferred to the same
conclusion (the second part/ the intended meaning) from literally translating the
first part. Secondly, the suspense will lose when Xhy were translated because of
the different language character. It may be the case where the first part will be
turned into a subordinated clause and the second part becomes the main clause,
thus constituting a periodic sentence. The indicators of the transition are shown
by the adverbial clauses introduced by “if”, “when”, “as”, “just as” or “in case
of”, or an ing- form accompanying circumstance, or an indefinite adverbial at the
very beginning. (Please support your argument by your own description of some
specific examples.)
(Please describe each of the following by Chinese pinyin.)
E.g.: “城门楼上吊嗓子, 唱高调”
[T]: “If one practices scales on top of the tower of a city gate, the tune
sung will be high.”
“外甥打灯笼, 照舅(旧)”
[T]: “When a sister's son holds a lantern, he is light up (the way) for his
maternal uncle(sounds like "keep to the same" in Chinese).”
“头顶生疮脚底流脓, 坏透了.”
[T]: “As the ulcer is growing on the head and the pus is flowing from

Page 12
 CuiXia Lu

the sole - the system has become rotten through and through.”
“张飞抬曹操, 一举两得(德)”
[T]: “In the case of General Zhang carrying Cao Cao, there will two
"De" -with only one doing the lifting (in one action).”
“拉着何仙姑叫二姨, 乱认亲戚”
[T]: “Pulling at He, the immortal lady, and calling her one's aunt, is
only to claim relationship at random.”
(Please refer to “literal translation” in Appendix one)

Thirdly, provided the loose structure can be followed and the same intended
meaning can be interpreted from the translation; the apodosis may lose its spirit
or forcefulness.

E.g.: “老寿星玩风车, 人老心不老”

[T]: “The old Star of Longevity is playing with a windmill - though he is
aged, he is young at heart.”
“猫哭耗子, 假慈悲”
[T]: “A cat weeps over the death of a mouse - pretence of being
sympathetic.”
“死鬼要账, 活该”
[T]: “The ghost of a dead person comes to demand repayment of a debt -
a sum owed to him when he was alive.”

5.4 Concluding remarks

Yet there are still successful translation regardless difficulties created by Xhy’s
loose syntactic features, e.g. “大姑娘坐花轿, 头一回”, [T]: “The young girl riding
in the decorated sedan chair - the first time.
The extent of difficulty of translating each Xhy differs, and the context they
are used may differ as well. Translators should be aware of the context they are
used and weigh the necessity between direct translation and indirect translation.

Page 13
 CuiXia Lu

VI. Semantic Features of Xiehouyu

6.1 Semantic overview of Xiehouyu
According to Noam Chomsky’s transformational-generative grammar, every
14
sentence has two levels of structures – surface structure and deep structure. Deep
structure is the meaning of a sentence (semantic). Acceptable translation will hinge
upon the understanding on part of the translator of the deep structure, which is the
abstract meaning of the utterance. Xhy are usually spoken without uttering the
second part, which is treated as redundant by Chinese, as Chinese usually assume
(even take it for granted) that the listener has the same knowledge and can derive
the parallel meaning by himself. However, such a form of expression makes the
deep structure much harder to comprehend than the normal expression. Therefore, a
relatively simple message carried by Xhy can be difficult to convey in English, for
the reason that there is a tremendous amount of cultural redundancy which is
implicit in the conversation. 15 This problem has to be solved by the translator so as
not to leave the English audience in bewilderment. (Please support your argument
by your own description of some specific examples.)

6.2 The culture cultural value of Xiehouyu

Language is a carrier of culture. Xhy as part of Chinese language not only serve as
a simple carrier, but itself part of Chinese culture. Take Xhy “沙湾灯笼, 何府(苦)”
for example. The literal meaning is that “The lanterns in Shawan - (all marked)
"The House of Hoh" (pronounced same as "Why all the fuss?" in Cantonese)”. This
is a Cantonese Xhy. Its origin is like this: According to the custom before the
introduction of electricity, a lantern was lit in front of one’s house with the Chinese
characters 某府 (meaning “The House of X”) on it to guide visitors at night. It so
happens that all the families living in Shawan belong to the clan of He 何 ;
therefore all the lanterns in the area of Shawan (a town in the district of Panyu,
Guangdong) bore the Chinese character 何府 (meaning “The House of He”). The

Page 14
 CuiXia Lu

Cantonese pronunciation of is exactly the same as that of (meaning “why all the
fuss?”).

6.3 Problems arising from the culture cultural difference in translation

In the above example the problem of translating has been made complicated
by the implicit information of the assumed knowledge of the speciality of a certain
place and the involvement of Cantonese dialect. Were If a translator were not a
Cantonese, or have had never heard of this Xhy, he is would be unlikely to
understand the inter-relationship between the two parts of the Xhy, not to say he
willbeing able to derive the intended meaning by just hearing the first part. There
are quite a few Xhy which implicitly refers to Chinese traditional customs, history
and Chinese perception. Such as, “平则门下关 , 煤市(没事)”, “张飞抬曹操, 一
举两得(德)”, “死人灯笼, 报大数”, etc.

6.4 Analysis and strategies in tackling such problem

When it comes to the situation where the translator does not understand what the
a given Xhy really means, the strategy would be: to be humble and ask for the true
meaning from the speaker or search for information provided that the Xhy does
not appear in the conversation event. This is necessary, since on the one hand, it is
a manner of accountability towards the job of translation; on the other hand, it
helps the translating. (Please elaborate in what way it helps the translating.)

6.5 Conclusion

No one knows everything, so neither does the translator. But it is in important for
the translator to be more aware of the probabilities of encountering something he
has never heard of and pay more attention to the world around him and to acquire
more knowledge from all sources in his daily life. For a translator, it is essential to
know everything of something and know something of everything.(This paragraph
does not seem to convey any substantial idea.)

Page 15
 CuiXia Lu

VII. Conclusion
We have seen from the foregoing sections that the four distinctive stylistic
features discussed in this thesis are all liable to cause problems in translating
Xhy. The problems caused by some of them are stylistic in nature, whilst the
others are of cultural nature or both stylistic and cultural.
We can generally say that any translation problem is largely a matter of
comprehension, and comprehension problems emerged when translating Xhy are
a result of the following stylistic features of Xhy:
a) Xhy extensively apply common images unique in Chinese culture;
and/or
b) Xhy’s punning sense is created through homonyms, which are abundant
in Chinese for the unique character of Chinese language –monosyllabic,
limited number of tonal and inflections; and/or
c) Xhy’s loose structure; and/or
d) Xhy’s implicit assumed knowledge associated with Chinese way of life,
norms, customs, mentality, perception, value and history.
The overall strategies for tackling the above problems are:
(a) To read and learn extensively;
(b) To have a good comprehension through analysis before translating;
(c) To choose direct or indirect translation according to the context;
(d) To polish the translation if possible.
In fact, all translating involves differing degrees of paraphrase, since there
is no way in which one can successfully translate word for word and structure for
structure. This is also true for the translating of Chinese Xhy. But languages do
not differ essentially in what they can say, and the maxim for evaluating the
translation would be “the readers of a translated text should be able to understand
and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers.” This
maximal implies a high degree of language-culture correspondence in case of
Xhy’s translation, effective translation of which should be able to produce in
receptors the capacity for a response very close to what the original utterer/

Page 16
 CuiXia Lu

readers experienced.

Please revise the paper according to the required format by our English Department
and show me the full version together with the initial proposal.

Page 17