《弃儿汤姆·琼斯的历史》两个中译本风格研究

刘昭 高存

Abstract：The present paper has chosen The History of Tom Jones，a Foundling，Henry Fieldings representative，as the subject of the study.And it also selects the two Chinese versions of Zhang Guruo and Xiao Qian as samples.With the help of Liu Miqings translation stylistics system，it compares and studies the translation styles of the two versions.In the first part，the paper makes a simple introduction to the original author and works.The second part reviews the previous studies on translation style and the translation styles of the two versions.The third part discusses the translation stylistics system of Liu Miqing.In the fourth part，it discusses the styles of two translators and compares translation styles of the two versions at register，lexical and syntactic levels.The last part is the conclusion.The study can not only help us appreciate the original flavor and find appropriate style of the original，but also guide our translation practice.

Key words：the History of Tom Jones；a Foundling；Zhang Guruo；Xiao Qian；translation style

1 Introduction

A brief introduction to Henry Fielding and The History of Tom Jones，a Foundling

Fielding is the most outstanding British novelist and dramatist in eighteenth century.His greatest contribution to literature is the realistic novels.Fielding，Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson are three founders of British modern novels.

The History of Tom Jones，a foundling mainly tells the story of an abandoned child.He was adopted by rich Mr.Allworthy.When grew up he fell in love with Sophia，a neighbors daughter，but it was opposed by Sophias parents.Mr.Allworthys nephew，Blifil framed Tom repeatedly so his foster father threw him out of the house.However，regardless of familys opposition，Sophia went out to look for Tom，and finally two people got into marriage after a long experience.

This paper tries to research the translation style of The History of Tom Jones，a Foundling by the method of comparing the two Chinese versions of Xiao Qian and Zhang Guruo.And all this will help us grasp more original style of works objectively and do some scientific analysis of translation style，and get into a new study of translation.After the analysis，it can be answered that the translation style of the two in their practice and literary value of translation style.

2 Previous studies on translation styles

The word “style” is from Greek originally and then came into China.In the Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics，style is “the manner of expression in writing or speaking which changes at all times according to the actual situational elements，e.g.the participants，time，place，topic，etc.of the communicative event，from very formal to very informal”.（馮庆华，2002：38）

For translators style there are two kinds of views，one is the translator should not have his own style，and people who are in favor of this view believe “the tracks showing in the translation process，will make a habit of expression and develop a new style in the translation practice.However，the tracks or the habits of expression are not real style of the original，but the translators own style.” （郑海凌，2000：44）The second is every translator has his or her own style of translation，these think “translators have their own style of translation，without the style of translation cannot be included in the national literature” （张今，1987：58）

3 A comparative study on the translation styles of the two Chinese versions of the work

This paper takes the completeness of various versions and the acceptability of the readers into account.Based on translation style theory，it discusses from three aspects of the formal markers in the translation stylistics system.In the aspects of register，lexicon and syntax，it compares whether the versions show the style of the original accurately in target language or not.

3.1 Analysis at the lexicon level

Lexicon used can reflect authors inclination of diction and refer to idiolect.And they belong to the scope of authors favorites.The writers use some kind of words frequently，such as adjectives，adverbs，participles and so on.（劉宓庆，2003：222）

Example 2

...as the proverb says，it is easy to find a stick...（Fielding，1996：19）

……俗话说的好“有心打人，不难找到棍子”。（萧乾、李从弼，1994：117）

像那句格言所说的那样，要想找到棍子是很容易的。（张谷若，1993：166）

In lexicon，the “proverb” Xiao and Zhang have different understanding.The “格言” seems more formal，while “俗话” is more simple and appropriate for the original，and Xiao puts some personal feeling to it in this version，we can find that from the word “好”.The saying of example is “it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog”.Xiao Qian retains the “stick”，but “dog” does not appear in the text，so there is no mention in the translation.Zhang Guruo also maintains the “stick” in the body of translation.But we all know that Zhang falls in love with extensive comments，so he makes them to explain the English proverb.In his note we can know the original English proverb completely and something more about foreign culture.It not only helps reader understand more deeply and better，but also improve the readers literary attainments invisibly.But if we just want to understand the sentence，Xiaos version is enough.

3.2 Analysis at the syntactic level

The syntax focus on the frequent application of certain sentence structure with the emotion of author，such as，subordination，coordination，antithesis，parallelism，omission，addition，repetition，interrogative sentence，imperative sentence，syntactic sentence，ambiguous sentence，idiomatic sentence and so on.（刘宓庆，2003：222）

Example 3

Mrs.Deborah no sooner observed this than she fell to squeezing and kissing，with as great raptures as sometimes inspire the sage dame of forty and five towards a youthful and vigorous bridegroom...（Fielding，1996：39）

德波拉大娘一看小姐这般光景，自己也就赶忙把孩子搂住，连连亲吻。那一瞬间的狂热情景，宛如一位四十五岁的淑女遇上了一位生龙活虎般的年轻的新郎。（萧乾、李从弼，1994：20）

玳菠萝阿姨一见这样，马上就把孩子又使劲地搂，又使劲地吻，她那种狂欢大喜的样子，只有一个明哲干练，深通人道的妇人，在四十五岁的年纪，碰到一个年轻力壮的新郎，才能有时并发出来。（张谷若，1993：26）

In the above sentence，we can find the love of Mrs.Deborah to the little baby.However，she is not really like the baby but to flatter Bridget.In syntax，this example uses omission and addition.We can find that Xiao and Zhang all use some notes，but in totally different place.In the beginning of the sentence，Xiao adds “光景” into his version.This makes the sentence more vivid and fluent.While in the next sentence，he uses total different method，omission.He doesnt consider the words “inspire the sage” into his text.However，in order to show the sentence completely，Zhang does not leave out any word，even put some addition to convey the meaning，like “只有一个明哲干练，深通人道的妇人”.From this example，we also can find that Mr.Zhangs favor of four-character words and phrases and his deep knowledge of literature.Xiaos version is concise and enough for Chinese readers to get the information conveyed.

4 Conclusion

In this paper，for the two versions of same book，Xiaos translation is fluent，concise，and read like books written by Chinese and non-translated works.Sometime with wit and humor，and he strengthen the individual character of works.However，Zhang Guruo is different，and the language of he is full of antique flavor and beauty，almost half of classical Chinese.He also uses many four-character words and phrases and does lot of notes （the same almost classical Chinese...）.So combination of the style of Fielding，we can find that the version of Xiao is a little close to the original.If the first time to read，Zhangs version is not easy to accept.So it is more suitable for further more study.But if we just want to know something about Henry Fielding and The History of Tom Jones，a Foundling，Xiaos translation is strongly recommended to be read.

References

[1]Henry Fielding.The History of Tom Jones，a Foundling [M].Oxford：Oxford University Press，1996.

[2]Michael Halliday.An introduction to functional grammar[M].Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2000.

[3]馮庆华.文体翻译论[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002.

[4]刘宓庆.当代翻译理论[M].北京：中国对外翻译出版社，2003.

[5]萧乾.弃儿汤姆·琼斯的历史[M].北京：人民文学出版社，1994.

[6]张谷若.弃儿汤姆·琼斯的历史[M].上海：上海译文出版社，1984.

[7]张今.文学翻译原理[M].开封：河南大学出版社，1987.

[8]郑海凌.文学翻译学[M].郑州：文心出版社，2000.

作者简介

刘昭（1990—），女，汉族，陕西人，硕士在读，翻译理论与实践，天津商业大学。

高存（1979—），女，山东人，大学外语教学部副教授，博士，西方翻译理论，文学翻译实践，天津商业大学。