Reduplication is a common language phenomenon, which exists in many a language. However, it varies a lot both in forms and functions from language to language. Compared with that in English, reduplication is used with a much higher frequency in Chinese, with a wider variety of forms and rhetorical effects, such as form beauty, sound beauty, and sense beauty. This is because Chinese words are monosyllabic and easy to duplicate, while English words are mostly multisyllabic words and difficult to duplicate. This paper first makes a contrastive study of reduplication between Chinese and English, including their forms, functions and scopes of application. While offering a brief discussion on their similarities, the author focuses on their dissimilarities. Then the author proceeds to investigate into the translation of reduplication, listing out ten different methods. At the end of it is a discussion of the loss or compensation for reduplication in translation, as well as its untranslability.
Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Zhu Changbo, for all the help he has offered me during the preparation and writing of this paper and for all the pains he took in reading and correcting my drafts. It is obvious that without his patient instruction, helpful suggestions and constant encouragement, I could not have fulfilled this task as successfully as I wished. His willingness to give his time so generously has been very much appreciated. Secondly, I wish to express my thanks to all those who have helped me in the preparation of this thesis. In the past two months, I have received considerable help from the teachers and the other faculty members and the other students in different departments of Hunan University of Technology, without which, the completion of this paper would have been impossible.
Finally, I am also grateful to all my teachers who have taught me how to study and what to learn, which helped me a lot in the writing of the paper. And I would also like to thank all my fellow classmates, who have given me great support in the course of the paper writing and during all four college years.
CONTENTS
1 Introduction.........................................................................1
2 A Contrastive Study of Reduplication Between Chinese and English.....................2
2.1 Similarities of reduplication between Chinese and English..........................2
2.2 Dissimilarities of reduplication between Chinese and English.......................2
2.2.1 Different definitions............................................................3
2.2.2 Different forms..................................................................3
2.2.3 Different applications and functions.............................................6
3 Rhetorical Effects of Reduplication in Chinese.......................................8
3.1 Sound beauty.......................................................................8
3.2 Form beauty........................................................................9
3.3 Sense beauty.......................................................................9
4 Translation of Reduplication and Its Limitations....................................10
4.1 Translation of reduplication......................................................11
4.2 Limits of reduplication translation...............................................17
5 Conclusion..........................................................................18
References............................................................................20
Appendix1 Japanese Text...............................................................21
Appendix2 Chinese Version.............................................................25
