从《红楼梦》看人名双关语在文学作品中的特点及翻译策略研究

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摘 要

“双关语”指在一定的语言环境中，利用词的多义和同音的条件,有意使语句具有双重意义，言在此而意在彼的修辞方式。字面的意思及本身的含义是次要的或不是强调的重点,言外之意是说话的真意或强调的重点。这种辞格的恰当运用特别是在文学作品中恰当的运用双关语更能加强语言的美感和魅力。因此，双关语一向深受文学家的喜爱和关注。许多文学大师如我国的曹雪芹，英美国家的欧·亨利、马克·吐温等，特别是英国语言大师莎士比亚,都熟练使用双关语进行文学创作，在人物命名上尤其如此。

人名作为一种文化载体，具有丰富的文化内涵，集中体现了民族的文化特点。在文学作品中，不少人物的命名都暗示了其性格、身份甚至命运，体现出作者的独具匠心。受到文化背景和语言差异的影响，双关语的翻译本身就是一个难点，而对于人名双关语的翻译更是难上加难。有关双关翻译的研究仅仅停留在实践层面，即只是探讨其实际翻译策略，尚缺乏理论支持。此外，目前从文学作品人物名称中双关语翻译问题作为切入点的研究相对较少，且多为针对单一文学作品中双关语的使用及翻译的研究。

本课题通过研究《红楼梦》的不同译本，参考其他经典文学作品的译本，比较中外文学作品中人名双关语的翻译方法，归纳出三种主要的翻译技巧，即，直接翻译（音译）、直译加注和意译，并总结了人名双关语在文学作品中的作用。本文旨在顺应全球化趋势，促进世界文化交流，实现文化发展的共赢。

关键词：双关语； 人物；文学作品；翻译策略；《红楼梦》

Table of Contents

Abstract i

摘要 ii

Chapter One: Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Research Objective and Significance 2

Chapter Two: Literature Review 3

2.1 Definition of Pun 3

2.2 Classification of Puns 4

2.3 Studies on Pun Translation at home and abroad 5

2.4 Application of Pun in the Naming of Characters in Chinese and Foreign Literary Works 7

2.5 Translation Strategies of Puns 8

Chapter Three: Translation Strategies of Puns in Characters’ Names in A Dream in Red Mansions 10

3.1 Direct Translation 10

3.2 Literal Translation with Annotations 12

3.3 Free Translation 14

Chapter Four: A Comparison and Contrast of Translation Strategies for Puns in Characters’ Names in A Dream in Red Mansions 16

4.1 The Same Translation Strategies in Two Versions 16

4.2 Different Translation Strategies in Two Versions 17

Chapter Five: The Function of Puns in Characters’ Names in A Dream in Red Mansions 19

5.1 Prefiguring Characters’ Fortunes 19

5.2 Unveiling Characters’ Traits 21

5.3 Suggesting Characters’ Castes 21

Chapter Six: Conclusion 23

6.1 Summary 23

6.2 Suggestions for Future Research 23

References 25

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Research Background

As a common linguistic phenomenon and rhetorical device, puns, widely used in news coverage, advertisements, jokes and literary works, are attracting linguists’ and other scholars’ and researchers’ attention. Proper use of this kind of rhetoric, especially in literary works, enhances the beauty, charm and ingenuity of language. Therefore, puns have been favored and drawn on by writers for a long time. Many literary masters, such as Cao Xueqin, O. Henry, Mark Twain, and especially the English language master Shakespeare, were skilled in using puns, especially in characters’ naming, for special literary effects.

As a cultural carrier specific to a certain nation, the name of a person contains rich cultural connotation and embodies the characteristics of his national culture. It has a wide range of etymology, allusions, cultural capacity, and variation. The name of a person is not only a sign of the language that distinguishes one person from another, but also contains information about history, religion, customs, morals and other aspects of different nationalities. In the translation of people’s names, some well-known names that have been used for a long time should follow the well-established and well-accepted names, such as Confucius, Mencius, Chiang Kai-shek and so on. Other names, especially the names containing implicit meanings, should be translated by drawing on appropriate translation strategies.

In literary works, the naming of many characters conveys their personality, identity, and even destiny. In the novel A Dream in Red Mansions, most names are taken from ancient poems or with homophonic allegorical meanings, and conform to the characteristics, identity and fates of the characters. The naming of the characters reflects the originality of the author. It is very difficult to translate its hidden cultural connotations with only a few words, either in transliteration or free translation.

Due to the influence of cultural backgrounds and language differences, pun translation becomes a difficult undertaking, and the translation of personal pun is even more difficult. If the translator does not deal with it properly, it will affect the expression of the main idea of the whole literary work and hamper the cultural exchanges and communication between China and other countries. At present, there are few researches on puns in personal names.

1.2 Research Objective and Significance

The objective and significance of this paper can be described in the following two aspects.

The first purpose of this paper is to find out strategies and ways of pun translation in characters’ names in literary works by choosing two English versions of A Dream in Red Mansions, and comparing the pun translation of characters’ names.

Secondly, the study of pun in characters’ names helps promote cross-cultural exchanges. With the rapid development of international cultural exchanges between the east and the west, more and more literary works are translated into different languages. Pun is a rhetorical device frequently used in literary works. However, the differences in culture and language make pun translation a challenging and difficult task for translators.

Through a comparison of two translation versions of A Dream in Red Mansions on the treatment of puns in characters’ names, this paper sums up the most important translation strategies, and suggests solutions to difficulties in translation, thus helping remove language barriers which result in a variety of cultural exchange confusions to promote cultural exchange programs.

Chapter Two: Literature Review

2.1 Definition of Pun

An early definition of pun in China can be found in Chen’s article, who thinks that pun is a figure of speech that uses one word to express two different things at the same time”(Chen, 1997). According to Ci Hai (1980, p.482), an authoritative Chinese dictionary, pun refers to one of the rhetorical devices, making use of the relationship of homophones or synonyms in language to give an expression two meanings. It is a rhetorical mode in which an expression is intended to have double meanings in a certain context by using polysemy and homophony of words. Pun makes language expressions implicit, and often humorous; the author deliberately and cleverly ingeniously manipulates the meanings to achieve specific effects or impress readers.

The word “pun” in English is first seen in John Dryden’s article published in 1662, and its origin and definition are not easily verified now. In the Oxford Encyclopedia of English Literature, pun is considered as the Greek paronomasia, or Latin adnominatio. For the term adnominatio, the Roman philosopher Cicero (1954) gave the following definition, “Similar words involve different things through minimal changes in spelling and pronunciation”.

With the development of research, the recent definition is more specific. The definition in The Oxford English Dictionary (Vol.X) is “the use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations, or the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous effect”. This definition is different from the above two: First, it gives a detailed description of the pun word which may be polysemous, or may be homophonous, having the same sound with another word. Second, where Cicero’s “involve different things” differs from Chen’s “focus on two things” is that this definition proposes the idea of “different meanings” and “different associations”. Third, this definition adds a new perspective: pun achieves a humorous effect.

To sum up, pun may be defined as an expression that has two or more meanings by using polysemy or homonym in language to produce a special, usually humorous effect.

2.2 Classification of Puns

In Chinese, scholars have divided pun into two types: homophonic pun and semantic pun.

Homophonic pun is the pun that contains the same or similar pronunciation. Here is an example.

Example 1: 东边日出西边雨，道是无晴却有晴。（《竹枝词》）

晴(Qing) means sunny literally, and it is pronounced the same as 情(Qing), which means affection and feeling. This poem describes the psychological activities of a girl in her first love.

Semantic pun is meant to use the polysemy of words or sentences to form pun in a specific context. Let me explain it with an example.

Example 2: 将那三春看破，桃红柳绿待如何？把这韶华打灭，觅那清淡天和。（《红楼梦》）

In this poem, 三春(Sanchun) has two layers of meaning. First, it refers to late spring literally. Second, it suggests 元春(Yuanchun), 迎春(Yingchun), and 探春(Tanchun)’s fates in A Dream in Red Mansions.

In English, puns are generally classified into three types: syllepsis, antanadasis, paronomasia (Shu, 2000).

Syllepsis means a single word that governs or modifies two or more others must be understood differently with respect to each of those words (Dupriez, 1991). Here is an example.

Example 3: He lost the game and his temper.

Lost takes “the game” and “his temper” as its objects. In the first phrase, lose means “to not win”; in the second one, lose means “to become angry”. So，here one word means two different things.

Antanadasis refers to the repetition of a word or phrase whose meaning changes in the second instance (Dupriez, 1991). Here is an example.

Example 4: Your argument is sound … all sound. —— Benjamin Franklin

The first sound means “reasonable and sensible”, and the second sound means something that can be heard.

Paronomasia uses words that sound alike but differ in meaning (Dupriez, 1991). Here is an example.

Example 5: Seven days without water make one weak.

Week and weak is a pair of homophones. Weak is pronounced exactly the same as week. Seven days make one week. If one does not drink water for seven days, he or she will become weak.

From the two different classifications of pun in Chinese and English, it can be found that: first, homophonic pun in Chinese basically corresponds to paronomasia in English, both of which use homophones to form pun. Second, syllepsis and antanadasis cannot find their basic corresponding classification within the scope of Chinese pun. Neither of them corresponds to the semantic pun in Chinese. But there are some relations between them and semantic pun: semantic pun is formed by the duality in the meaning of words; syllepsis pun and antanadasis pun are formed by ambiguity. They are all premised on different meanings of a word.

2.3 Studies on Pun Translation at home and abroad

There have been a lot of researches on pun for a long time. These studies are scattered in some rhetoric books and journal articles. At present, the research results of pun can be divided into four main aspects: definition and classification of pun, its pragmatic analysis, its cognitive mechanism and its translation strategies.

As for the translation of pun, the translation strategies of pun discussed by domestic scholars are basically based on the three aspects of “equivalent translation into pun, compensating pun and zero translation pun”, but the specific classification is not very similar. Xu (1988) puts forward four pun translation methods: coincidence translation, compensation translation, emphatic translation and annotation translation.

Delabastia (1997) thinks that pun is a kind of language phenomenon, which not only depends on the potential ambiguity and creativity of the language as an abstract system, but also depends on the intentional discourse environment (language environment and the situational context. According to form similarity, puns may be divided into four kinds: homonymy, homophony, homography and paronymy. He proposes nine pun translation strategies with a significant number of examples supplied to prove the feasibility of English and Chinese pun translation.

Some scholars believe that pun translation should focus on retaining the meaning in the language (i.e. pun form), even if the loss of the referential meaning and pragmatic meaning is desirable; other rhetorical devices should be used to compensate for the loss of meaning.

Puns have appeared in literary works as early as in Homer’s age (6th century AD). The study of puns in literature mainly involves novels, essays and poems. Ambiguity in literary works is often generated by polysemy or homonym. Existing literature has discussed the puns in domestic and foreign literary works, for example, Shi (1984) discusses the manifestation and rhetorical function of pun in Russian literature; Hua (1991) analyzes the pun in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by selecting an example; Liu (2001) discusses the rhetorical effect of pun in Shakespeare’s plays; Lukes (2013) studies the puns in a political comedy Prime Minister, and argues that the puns do not only smoothly run through Shakespeare’s play, penetrating every pore of the drama, but are especially useful in depicting the traits of the characters involved. Literary masters like Cao Xueqin are skillful at marrying pun with his characters’ naming to implicitly convey their personality, destiny, etc.

It can be seen that the research on pun translation only stays at a practical level, that is, it only discusses its practical translation strategies, but lacks theoretical support. In addition, there are relatively few studies on the translation of puns in names in literary works, and most of the research focuses on the use and translation of pun in one single literary works, but is not specially dedicated to naming-related puns.

2.4 Application of Pun in the Naming of Characters in Chinese and Foreign Literary Works

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