AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

This paper is mainly based on Brown and Levinson’s negative politeness strategies and Mona Baker’s translation strategies to analyze how the translators of the Chinese novel, Honglou meng, employ these strategies to render honorifics and self-deprecatory expressions in Honglou meng from Chinese into English. It compares the two English translations and observes the translators’ tendencies in both translations. The findings suggest that David Hawkes’ translation is esthetically crafted language and more target-oriented, whereas Yang Hsien-yi and Glays Yang’s translation is not such natural-sounding English and more source-oriented. This paper also states that a comprehensive theoretical frame in this area is yet to be established.