Translation of social deictics between English and

1OnTranslationofSocialDeicticsBetweenEnglishandChineseIntroductionDeixisisauniversallinguisticphenomenon.Itisthesinglemostobviouswayinwhichtherelationshipbetweenlanguageandcontextisreflectedinthestructuresoflanguagesthemselves.AccordingtoFillmoreandLevinson,deixiscanbeclassifiedintofivetypes:persondeixis,timedeixis,placedeixis,discoursedeixisandsocialdeixis.Socialdeixis,inFillmore’sview,concerns“thataspectofsentenceswhichreflectorestablishoraredeterminedbycertainrealitiesofthesocialsituationinwhichthespeechactoccurs”①.Hegoesfurthertoincludeinsocialdeixismuchofthespeechacttheory,towhichLevinsondisagrees;Levinsonbelievesthatthetermshouldberestrictedto“thoseaspectsoflanguagestructurethatencodethesocialidentitiesofparticipants,orthesocialrelationshipbetweenthem,orbetweenoneofthemandpersonsandentitiesreferredto.”②Inspiteofthedisagreementontherangeofsocialdeixistheproblemproperisnotwhatthisdisertationbotherstosolve.WhatitattemptstodoistoprovidesomeusefulsolutionsfromtheperspectiveofcontextandculturaldifferencestotheproblemswhichmayariseintranslationbetweenChineseandEnglishdeictics.Sincethereislessdifficultyintranslatingpersonalpronounsandnames,whichsomelinguistsattributetosocialdeixis,theyarenotincludedinthesocialdeicticwordsandexpressionswhichthisdisertationisdevotedto.Languageisthemediumofculture.DifferencesbetweenEnglishandChineseculturesmanifestthemselvesintheEnglishandChineselanguages.Socialdeicticsareoneofthedifferencesreflectedinthetwolanguages.WesternersliketheBritishandAmericanpeopleattachgreatimportanceto2individualism,whichcontributeslargelytothenon-typicalnessofEnglishsocialdeictics.Incontrastwithwesterncountries,Chinaisacountryinwhichetiquetteisstressed.Thedifferentiationsbetweentheoldandyoung,andbetweencloseanddistantrelationsareamongsocialnormsoneissupposedtofollow.TheChineselanguagethereforeaboundswithtypicalsocialdeicticswhichareloadedwithstrongnationalflavor.Therearerespectfultermsreferringtotheaddresseeorthethirdpersoninadirectway,like兄台，贵府，令郎；thereareself-depreciatorytermsusedtoexpresstheaddresser’srespectfortheaddresseeinanindirectway,like小生，鄙人，奴才,tonamejustafew.Socialdeicticsasacomponentpartoflanguageareobviouslyrelatedtoculture,thereforestudyingthetranslationofsocialdeicticswouldbedoingtheimpossibleunlessculturaldifferencesareconsidered.Languageoperatesincontext,socontextisindispensibleinunderstandingthereferenceandillocutionaryforceofasocialdeicticwordorexpression.Strawsonaffirms(Zabeeh,1974:161),thoughinpassing,theimportanceofcontextwhenhementionsthedifferentreferencesof‘thewhale’insentences‘Thewhaleismammal’and‘Thewhalestrucktheship’.Levinson,indiscussingdeixis,alsoattachesgreatimportancetocontext,sayingthatdeixis‘concernswaysinwhichtheinterpretationofutterancesdependsontheanalysisofthatcontextofutterance.”③Sincecontextplayssoimportantaroleintheinterpretationofsocialdeictics,andthecontrastformedbythenon-typicalnessofEnglishsocialdeicticsononesideandavastvarietyoftypicalChinesesocialdeicticsontheotherdefiesattemptstofindallthetimesemanticequivlenceofsocialdeicticsinthesetwodeicticsystems,itisjustifiabletoapproachtranslationofsocialdeicticsfromcontextualperspective,adoptingpragmaticsolutionstotranslationproblemsinthisdomain.Thisthesis,therefore,approachestranslationintermsofculturaldifferencesaswellascontext.3Asforthedistinctivetreatmentgivenheretocultureandcontext,itisnecessarytomakesomeadditionalremarks.Asfarastheextentanddivisionofcontextareconcerned,differentlinguistsandscholarshaveproposeddifferentviews.Forexample,JohnLyonshasgeneralizedsixaspectsofknowledgeundertheconceptofcontext(Lyons,1977:574)andProfessorHeZhaoxiongregardscontextasconsistingofthreebroadaspects(何兆熊，1998:25)：Linguisticknowledge,situationalknowledgeandbackgroundknowledge.Underbackgroundknowledgeheplacesculturalfactors.Inthisthesis,however,theauthorhasnointentiontojoininthedebateaboutwhatanextentcontextcoversandhowtoclassifycontext.Thedifferentiationmadeinthethesisbetweencultureandcontextismainlyfortheconvenienceofstudyingtranslationinthesphereofsocialdeictics.Context,whichislimitedheretothenarrowsenseoflinguisticcontextandsituationalcontext,iscomparativelymorechangeablethanculture,Which,synchronicallyspeaking,isstable.Itistruethatcultureofteninterweaveswithcontextindeterminingthemeaningsofwords,butsometimescultureplaysauniqueroleindependentofcontext.InChineseculture,forexample,‘寡人’，‘贱内’invariablyrefertotheaddresserandtheaddresser’swiferespectively,regardlessofwhatcontexttheyareputin.Therefore,specifically,thisthesisistoapproachtranslationofsocialdeicticsfromthreeperspectives:culturaldifference,linguisticcontextandsituationalcontext.4ChapterOneContextandReferenceIntranslatingsocialdeicticstranslatorsareconfrontedwiththeproblemofascertainingwhichpersonacertainsocialdeicticwordorexpressionrefersto,thefirstpersonorthesecondpersonorthethirdperson.ThisproblemsometimesprovestobedifficultespeciallyintranslationofChinesesocialdeictics,becauseChinesesocialdeicticsystemisvariedandcomplicatedandtherearenotonlysocialdeicticswhose