摘 要

现如今，人名翻译在文学作品翻译以及文化交流中都扮演着越来越重要的角色。 其主要原因是作者们往往将他们的观点蕴含于人名之中。 若译者在翻译人名时简单地用拼音法将其转化，那么外国读者们将会失去在人名中发现言外之意的乐趣。尽管人名翻译取得了一些比较大的进步，但目前仍没有形成一个系统的人名翻译的指导性理论。本文以莫言代表作《蛙》和《红高粱》为例，探讨了两部作品中人名的文体特征，例如语言学特征、文化特征、社会特征和宗教特征等等，并对译者在翻译这两部作品时所采取的翻译方法进行了一个分类说明。

本文分为五个部分。第一部分介绍了人名翻译及莫言的作品。第二部分描述了人名翻译的发展过程及现状。第三部分从文体特征的几个方面详细分析了两部作品中的人物名称。第四部分讨论了以上分析对人名翻译和文章翻译的影响。最后一部分得出结论，并指出本文所存在的局限。本论文的分析旨在推动读者对人名翻译重要性的认识以及为构建指导性理论系统提供一定的参考。

关键词：人名翻译；《蛙》；《红高粱》

Abstract

Name translation plays a more and more important role in literature translation and cultural communications nowadays. Because the authors often design names containing implications and connotations to express their views. If the translators only use Pinyin to transform personal names, sometimes foreign readers will lose the fun of finding the hidden meanings in those names. Though large progress in name translation has been made, there still exists the lack of systematic theories and principles for name translation. This paper, taking the examples of Mo Yan’s most popular works-Frogs and Red Sorghum, analyzes personal names characterized by the linguistic features, cultural features, social and religious features in those two works and classifies the name translation methods used by the translator.

This paper will be generally divided into five parts. The first part is introduction to name translation and Mo Yan’s work. The following part is literature review over the present situation of name translation. In the third part, personal names in literature works will be analyzed in detail from the perspective of feature study. The fourth part discusses the effects of analysis above for the name translation and the novel translation. The last part is the conclusions, including some limitations. The analysis of this paper is aimed at raising readers’ recognition of the importance of name translation and providing a certain reference for forming a system under a set of name translation principles.

Key Words: name translation; Frogs; Red Sorghum

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

3 Feature Study of Name Translation 5

3.1 Linguistic Feature 5

3.1.1 Name as a Sign 5

3.1.2 Name as an Image 6

3.1.3 Name as a Context 7

3.2 Cultural Feature 8

3.2.1 Name for Indication 8

3.2.2 Name for Satire 9

3.2.3 Name for Symbolism 10

3.3 Social Feature 11

4 Effects of the Feature Study 13

4.1 Effects for the Name Translation 13

4.2 Effects for the Novel Translation 14

5 Conclusions 16

References 17

Acknowledgements 18

The Feature Study of the Name Translation in Mo Yan’s Works

——Based on Frogs and Red Sorghum

1. Introduction

With regards to the Chinese culture, one of the most extensive and profound cultures in the whole world, there exist plenty of difficulties in translating Chinese literature. In the history of literature translation in China, name translation is a part most likely to be ignored for it is more difficult, sophisticated and subtle, especially when the original version includes many slangs, local idioms and so on. However, names in Chinese literature play a vital role in works, in representing Chinese culture or featuring characters in a piece of work.

In 2012, Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, being the first Chinese to show the whole world the traditional Chinese-style literary works. Consequently, his works become very prevalent in translation circle. Mo Yan’s works, which belongs to a special genre called native-soil literature, mostly describe the sufferings and hardships of peasants with the topic of village life, making his works full of Chinese traditional cultural features, especially those names of characters. These personal names not only are some symbols identifying each person, but also represent their respective characteristics. When translated to other languages, there is no doubt that name translation can be a tough task. The translated names should convey their deep meaning in Chinese to readers while being translated under the general translation principle.