Literary stylistics and translation : With particular reference to English translations of Chinese prose fiction.

Leaving aside the Introduction and the Conclusion, this thesis consists of two parts. Part One, composed of Chapters Two to Four, explicates the nature, function and validity of stylistics as an intermediary discipline (with reference to English only). This part focuses on three closely related aspects, starting in Chapter Two from an examination of the objects of investigation of stylistics, and proceeding to a consideration in Chapter Three of the stylistician's characteristic mode of argumentation, i. e. the progression in argument from one frame of reference, that of linguistic form, to another, that of literary significance. This is followed by a discussion in Chapter Four of the objectivity of the linguistic basis involved in stylistic analysis. Part Two, which comprises Chapters Five to Eight, argues for and demonstrates the usefulness of applying literary stylistics to the translation of prose fiction, an application that, in relation to English and Chinese at any rate, has seldom been undertaken. While Chapter Five discusses on a theoretical level the place of stylistics in fictional translation, the other three chapters present practical analysis, covering respectively aspects of syntax, of lexical expression, and of speech and thought presentation. Most of the data are drawn from English translations of Chinese prose fiction, especially Cao Xueqin's Honglou Meng (written in the middle of the eighteenth century) and the works of some modern Chinese writers, such as Lao She, Lu Xun and Mao Dun.