从“视界融合”解析Alice's Adventures in Wonderland的两个中译本

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 The Hermeneutic Concept Fusion of Horizons
Hermeneutics is a branch of philosophy probes into human understanding andinterpretation of meaning. The word originates from its root “Hermes”，which is a nameof God's messager responsible for sending God's decree as well as explaining it to thehuman world. So the basic meaning of "hermeneutics" is to change message from onestrange world to a world that we are familiar with by means of interpretation. It beginswith the biblical interpretation and other classical literature, getting its remarkableprogress in the 18 and 19^ centuries. In the 18century，Schleiermacher broadened itsscope, changing it into a kind of methodology and established a general hermeneutics.Heidegger put forward the development of this discipline，shifting it from methodologyto ontology and initiating the contemporary hermeneutics. As his student, Gadamercarried on Heidegger's thought and led a new trend of modern western philosophy. Thefamous work Truth and Method was published in 1960s，standing as one of notablelandmarks in the progress of philosophy, which is the symbol of the establishment ofsystematic philosophical hermeneutics.One of Gadamer's great contributions is bringing language into the system ofhermeneutics. He thinks that language is our second nature，being that can beunderstood is language. He endowed understanding with ever great significance，givingit a universal and philosophical perspective. This made this discipline become a realphilosophy concerned with understanding and interpretation. As a key point ofinterpretation, understanding is a task filled with constructive efforts made by theinterpreter，not a passive copying of the text. It is a matter of negotiation between oneand his partner in the hermeneutical dialogue until the two parties come to an"agreement". This agreement means establishing a common framework or "horizon".
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1.2 Fusion of Horizons and Translation Studies
In essence, hermeneutics focuses on interpretation and the shift of language. Theequivalent verb of "hermeneutics" in Greek is "hermenew", which has three meanings:the first one is speaking loudly with words; the second is explaining some problem; thethird meaning is translation. This shows the genetic affinity of translation withhermeneutics. Moreover, the relative verb of "hermeneutics" in Latin is “interpretari，，，and in English is "interpret". The meaning of all the three words is beyond only“explanation,，，but also has the meaning of "translation". So from the etymologicalperspective，hermeneutics has an inborn relationship with translation.Hermeneutics is an art of understanding, interpretation and translation. Gadamerexplains their correlation. Interpretation is a manifestation of understanding，andtranslation is the expressive form of understanding. Both interpretation and translationare taken language as their medium，with much attention to the understanding ofmeaning in the text. They are situated in the same study background. So "everytranslation is at the same time an interpretation."(Gadamer 1992: 346) On the premiseof understanding, translation is an activity aiming at the shift from one language intoanother with the original meaning preserved and expressed within a new linguisticworld. Therefore, translation and hermeneutics are disciplines that focus on meaning,and dealing with understanding and interpretation of the meaning in a certain text.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

Since hermeneutics is a subject about history, tradition, time and being as well astheir interaction with individuals，which is inevitably related with language. AfterGadamer introduces language into hermeneutic study, many scholars begin to touch thisnew field，and philosophical translation comes into being. George Steiner proposes ahermeneutic approach of translation in his work After Babel: Aspects of Language andTranslation，which indicates the understanding school of translation study present to theacademic stage. He describes the hermeneutic translation model called hermeneuticmotion in his book - initiative trust，aggression, incorporation and compensation.Initiative trust is a belief that the translator thinks the original text is meaningful and canbe explained. The second step "aggression" means an analysis of the text and possessesthe centered meaning in it. In the third step，the target culture is enriched by the foreignculture or it will reject the foreign one. This will lead to the imbalance of the innersystem, which needs the last step "compensation".George Steiner's philosophical summary of translation process initiates thecontemporary theorists to apply hermeneutics into translation studies. Paul Ricoer, PeterNewmark, Delisle J, Frederick M. Rener and many other scholars have beenenlightened by that, concerning on the applicability and significance of hermeneutics intranslation studies.
In China, the earliest paper introducing hermeneutics into translation fieldappeared in 1980s. The first one is Yang Wuneng, publishing his work in 1987. Hethinks translation is a recycle of interpretation, reception and recreation. The wholeprocess of literal translation is: the writer - the original work - the translator - thetranslation work - the target reader. The translator is centered as an interpreter as well as狂 receptor，who must totally understand the original work. That requires the translatornot only to be well cultured in literature as the writer，but also to have sensitivitytowards arts and appreciation of beauty. In 1991，Yuan Honggeng discussed therelationship of hermeneutics and translation. In his opinion, interpretation may notnecessarily need translation, but translation must be backed by interpretation, andinterpretation is a key part in translation. The basic goal and task of translation inhermeneutic view is understanding，whereas understanding is limited by a certain timeor historical condition，so it cannot be perfect at some time. But with time passing by, the translation work of the same original text will be better and better.
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Chapter Three The Comparison of the Two Chinese Versions.........10
3.1 Phonetic Translation........10
3.2 Word Translation........13
3.3 Syntax Translation........16
3.4 Context Translation........20
3.5 Rhetoric Translation........23
Chapter Four The Reasons Behind the Differences in the view........26
4.1 The Historicity of Understanding........26
4.2 The Subjectivity of Understanding........27
4.3 The Creativity of Understanding........29
Chapter Five Conclusion........32

Chapter Four The Reasons Behind the Differences in the viewof Fusion of Horizons

4.1 The Historicity of Understanding
In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland，the translation of the character's name isaccording to their pronunciation. Chao and Wu choose the Chinese characters whichsound similar with its English pronunciation, yet their translation result is different witheach other in most cases. Chao's version is colored with classical Chinese, such as “毕二爷”(bi er ye). Today，this kind of address: a family name with an honorific title “爷”added is no longer popular in our life. Actually, it is in 1920s that Chao tries this book，which is a little far away from our today's life. Everybody's horizon is limited to acertain time or historic background. People will bring his own recognition affected bythe time, history, or environment into his horizon to understand the text. Then differentpeople living in different times will have different understanding. When the translator'soriginal horizon encounters the text's horizon，the results of fusion will diverse owing tothe factor of historicity. The examples in table 3 well reflect that. The meanings of thesewords are not changed，but they are endowed with different callings. For instance，“schoolroom” refers to a home school with a private tutor called “学堂”(xue tang) inold times，whereas now it is a place that government built for children to receiveeducation named “孝女室"(jiao shi). Moreover，the word “sister” in the novel means a girlor woman older than you, who has the same parents as you. The term in Chinese isaddressed “姊姊”(zi zi) previously but “姐姐”(jie jie) in today's vernacular. All thecases listed in table 3 typically illustrate the effect of time period and historymovements. Chao，s version impressed us a little antique while Wu's language is closerto our present life. That attributes to the diversity of their historic horizons and theirfinal results of fusion must be different.

Conclusion

This thesis applies the hermeneutic concept fusion of horizons to translationstudies. From the perspective of hermeneutic research direction, understanding is itsbasic goal and task, which is a necessary prerequisite in translation practice. So the coreconcept in hermeneutics - "understanding" echoes the "understanding" in translationpractice, and their ultimate purpose is to explore the intrinsic “meaning，，in the originaltext by interpretation. This shows that hermeneutics has a close relationship withtranslation in nature. Fusion of horizons actually is a process of understanding. The texthas its own horizon, so it is with every translator. Once the understanding begins, thetwo kinds of horizons approach to each other. After friction or conflicts if any, the twohorizons will finally fuse together, which implicates the accomplishment ofunderstanding. Therefore, the principle of fiision of horizons has an instructivesignificance for translation studies.The Chinese translation of Alice，s Adventure in Wonderland is taken as an exampleto illustrate the insights that fusion of horizons shed on translation field. Thecomparison is between Yuan-ren Chao's work and Wu Juntao's work，since they are thefirst translation and the newest one relatively. From the translation of phone，word，syntax, context and rhetoric，their differences can be presented. The reasons behind thedifferences are summarized as the historicity, subjectivity, and creativity ofunderstanding. Because the openness of horizon and the horizon usually affected bytime and historical movement, the understanding about the same image or objectbetween Chao and Wu is certain to be different. That is the reason why readers may feelWu's version is closer to our life. However，time is absolutely not the only factor thathas influence on the horizon, the translator's working motivation, consideration ontarget reader，cognition about the language itself will be brought into their horizons,which leads to their different translation strategies.
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