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学校代码10463

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硕士学位论文

语料库文体学视角下刘宇昆英译《三体》与

其原创科幻小说的差异研究

作者姓名韩林君

指导教师沈国荣

学科门类文学

学科专业外国语言文学

培养单位外语学院

完成时间二〇二三年六月II

A Corpus-based Stylistic Study on the Differences Between

Ken Liu’s Translated The Three-Body Problem and His

Non-translated English Science Fictions

A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Master

Candidate:Han Linjun

Supervisor:Shen Guorong

School of Foreign Languages

Henan University of Technology,Zhengzhou,ChinaV

CONTENTS

Chapter One INTRODUCTION................................................................................1

1.1 Research Background.......................................................................................1

1.2 Research Objectives and Significance..............................................................2

1.3 Research Questions...........................................................................................2

1.4 Thesis Structure................................................................................................3

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................1

2.1 Previous Studies on Ken Liu’s Science Fictions..............................................1

2.2 Previous Studies on The Translation of The Three-body Problem...................4

2.3 Corpus Stylistics...............................................................................................6

2.3.1 Previous Studies on Corpus Stylistics Abroad........................................6

2.3.2 Previous Studies on Corpus Stylistics at Home......................................9

Chapter Three RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................14

3.1 Theoretical Principles.....................................................................................14

3.2 Research Materials..........................................................................................16

3.3 Research Tools................................................................................................18

3.4 Research Methods...........................................................................................19

3.5 Research Procedure.........................................................................................19

Chapter FourRESULT AND DISCUSSION...........................................................14

4.1 Lexical Level..................................................................................................14

4.1.1 Keywords..............................................................................................14

4.1.2 Type Token Ratio..................................................................................17

4.1.3 Lexical Density.....................................................................................19

4.1.4 Word Length.........................................................................................20

4.1.5 Summary...............................................................................................21

4.2 Syntactic Level...............................................................................................22

4.2.1 Mean Sentence Length..........................................................................22

4.2.2 Coordination.........................................................................................23VI

4.2.3 Subordination........................................................................................24

4.2.4 Summary...............................................................................................26

4.3 Textual Level..................................................................................................27

4.3.1 Readability............................................................................................27

4.3.2 Punctuation...........................................................................................29

4.3.3 Text Fragmentation...............................................................................31

4.3.4 Summary...............................................................................................32

ChapterFive CONCLUSIONS....................................................................................34

5.1 Major Findings................................................................................................34

5.2 Limitations......................................................................................................36

5.3 Suggestions.....................................................................................................36

References...................................................................................................................37

Appendix.....................................................................................................................43VII

摘要

2015年，由美籍华裔作家刘宇昆翻译的科幻作家刘慈欣的小说《三体》获得

世界科幻协会雨果奖“最佳长篇小说”奖，成为中国科幻文学“走出去”的成功

典范，其中刘宇昆的翻译贡献功不可没。国内外学者对刘宇昆《三体》英译本展

开研究的，多从翻译策略、译者主体性、文学分析等角度切入，从语料库文体学

角度开展研究的较少。语料库文体学兼具定性研究和定量研究的优势，其分析结

果相对客观可靠。本文从语料库文体学角度，对比刘宇昆翻译的《三体》英译本

和刘宇昆原创文本写作的差异，发现了译者翻译中的简化特征。

本文试图探索刘宇昆的英文翻译作品与其英文原创作品在语言层面上存在

的差异。作者将刘宇昆《三体》英译本创建成观察语料库，同时将其5部原创英

文科幻小说创建为参照语料库。通过采用语料库工具，结合定性和定量研究，结

果发现，与刘宇昆科幻小说相比，词汇层面，《三体》英译本词汇使用比较稳定，

词汇丰富度和词汇密度都较低，可理解性较高；句法层面，《三体》英译本句子

长度较短，减轻了读者的阅读负担；语篇层面，《三体》英译本阅读难度较低，

刘宇昆善于巧妙运用标点符号，文本风格较正式。

这三个层面的差异印证了翻译简化趋向，用客观数据揭示了刘宇昆的译文特

征与其写作风格存在显著差异，比主观分析更直观、有说服力。建议以后的研究

可以通过增加对译者，文化和社会因素的分析来探究更多影响文体特征的原因。

关键词：科幻小说；文体特征；语料库文体学VIII

Abstract

In 2015,The Three-Body Problem won the World Science Fiction Society’s Hugo

Award for“Best Novel”,which demonstrates that Chinese science fiction literature

has begun to stand on the world stage.Ken Liu,the translator of this science fiction,

gets all the credit.Domestic and global scholars have studied the English translation

of The Three-Body Problem from several perspectives,like translation strategies,

translator’s subjectivity,and literature analysis,while few have from the perspective

of corpus stylistics.The advantage of corpus stylistics is that it can function

qualitatively and quantitatively and provide objective and reliable statistical analysis.

This thesis finds the simplification features in translator’s translation from the

perspective of corpus stylistics by comparing the differences between The Three-Body

Problem translated by Ken Liu and his original texts.

This thesis attempts to explore what exact differences in language style between

Ken Liu’s translation and his non-translated works.The author constructs Ken Liu’s

The Three-Body Problem into an observation corpus and his five original English

science fictions into a reference corpus,and the results are as follows.At the lexical

level,lexical variety,lexical density and information carried by vocabulary in The

Three-Body Problem are lower than the reference corpus,and the comprehensibility is

higher.At the syntactic level,the sentence length of The Three-Body Problem is short,

reducing the reading burden of the readers.At the textual level,The Three-Body

Problem is easier to read than the reference corpus.Ken Liu is good at using

punctuation skillfully,and the text style of The Three-Body Problem is formal.

Moreover,the differences in these three levels confirm the trend of translation

simplification,and the objective data are used to reveal the significant difference

between Ken Liu’s translation features and his writing style with advanced intuition

and reliability.It is suggested that future studies should explore more reasons

affecting stylistic features by expanding the analysis of translators,cultural and social

factors.

Keywords:Science fiction;Stylistic features;Corpus stylisticsIX

List of Tables

Table 4.1 Top Frequent Keywords in The Two Corpora.....................................15

Table 4.2 General Lexical Information of Two Corpora.....................................18

Table 4.3 POS Statistics and Lexical Density of the Two Corpora.....................19

Table 4.4 General Lexical Information of Two Corpora.....................................20

Table 4.5 Basic Information of Sentences of Two Corpora.................................23

Table 4.6 Distribution of Coordinators in The Corpora.......................................24

Table 4.7 Distribution of Subordinators in The Corpora.....................................25

Table 4.8 Level of Flesh Readability Ease..........................................................27

Table 4.9 Readability of the Two Corpora...........................................................28

Table 4.10 Common punctuation in Two Corpora..............................................29

Table 4.11 Punctuation Indicating Pause in Two Corpora...................................32X

List of Charts

Chart 4.1 Concordance Plot of“Wang”in The Three-body Problem..................16

Chart 4.2 Concordance Plot of“Ye”in The Three-body Problem.......................16

Chart 4.3 Concordance Plot of“Shi”in The Three-body Problem......................16

Chart 4.4 Concordance Plot of“Yang”in The Three-body Problem...................17

Chart 4.5 Concordance Plot of“trisolaris”in The Three-body Problem.............17

Chart 4.6 Concordance Plot of“wenjie”in The Three-body Problem................171

Chapter One INTRODUCTION

This chapter demonstrates the research background,research questions,research

objectives and significance,and the structure of the present thesis.

1.1 Research Background

Science fiction emerged as a new genre of modern western literature in the

nineteenth century and played an essential role in literature development after the

capitalist industrial revolution.This type of fiction was mainly based on the

hypothetical exploration of the universe or the future and described the effects of

imaginary science or technology on society or individuals(Guo,2004).The

translation of western science fiction catalyzed the spreading of Chinese science

fiction,and more and more writers were inspired to create science fictions on their

own(Guo,2004).As Chinese science fiction spread around the western world,more

and more works went viral,drawing scholars’attention.

A series of awards for Chinese science fiction has opened the eyes of western

readers and publishers to its great potential,which has become an excellent

opportunity for Chinese science fiction to go abroad.In 2015,The Three-body

Problem translated by Ken Liu won the Hugo Award marking a giant leap in Chinese

science fiction.The Hugo Award has supercharged domestic academic enthusiasm for

Chinese science fiction.Since 2015,foreign translation research has increased,and

the primary research object is English translation work(Gao&Wang,2021).Later in

2016,Chinese writer Hao Jingfang’s Folding Beijing won the Hugo Award for best

novelette again,and Ken Liu also translated its English version.Therefore,Ken Liu’s

translation gets all the credit for these achievements.

After the publication of The Three-Body Problem,various research and

comments arose,most concerning the translation of culture-loaded words,strategies,

and simplification.Besides,research into Ken Liu’s translator style is also conducted.

Although some scholars have begun to conduct empirical research,more of the

studies related to the The Three-Body Problem are needed.Indeed,corpus stylistics

emerges as a new discipline combining stylistics and corpus linguistics,where2

corpus-based analysis has become an important method for studying literary works.

To verify the simplification features in the translator’s translation from the perspective

of corpus stylistics,this thesis chooses The Three-Body Problem translated by Ken

Liu and his non-translated science fictions(all texts are English versions)as the

research materials to compare and analyse their stylistic features,aiming to explore

the similarities and differences as well as the reasons.

1.2 Research Objectives and Significance

There are two objectives.The first one is to reveal the stylistic features and the

role of language use in The Three-body Problem by making a comparison between

The Three-body Problem and Ken Liu’s non-translated science fictions.The second

one is to find the reason for the stylistic differences,whether it is dominated by the

translator’s style or influenced by the translator’s non-translated versions.

The research of this thesis is of great importance.First,it can enrich translation

studies and inspire translation researchers to pay attention to the stylistic features of

science fiction.Second,it is designed to provide a comparative study on the English

translation and original English works created by Ken Liu based on quantitative

methods,emphasizing the role of language use in literary texts to explore the stylistic

features of these texts and revealing the simplification trend in The Three-body

Problem.

1.3 Research Questions

Considering the previous research on The Three-Body Problem,most studies

adopted the paradigms about translation strategies,literary analysis and its

dissemination abroad.Few studies paid attention to the stylistic features of science

fiction,even though corpus-based methods are one of the most critical ways to

evaluate literary works objectively.Moreover,most previous research was qualitative

research and case studies,whereas quantitative methods were rare,let alone

corpus-based methods.Corpus tools can reveal stylistic features systematically and

comprehensively.An observed corpus must be compared with a corresponding

reference corpus.If the scope of the research contrast is narrower,the stylistic features

of a writer or a writer’s work can be more precise(Leech,1981).Therefore,this thesis3

chooses Ken Liu’s non-translated English works to make the research results more

precise and reasonable.

Thus,this thesis explores and analyses the differences between Ken Liu’s

translated work The Three-Body Problem and his non-translated science fictions and

the stylistic features of The Three-Body Problem with corpus stylistics.The author

build two corpora(observed and reference corpus)based on Ken Liu’s translated

novel The Three-Body Problem and his non-translated science fictions including

Mono No Aware,The Grace of Kings,and The Paper Menagerie,The Veiled Throne,

and The Wall of Storms.This thesis aims to deal with the following issues:

(1)At the lexical level,what are the differences between Ken Liu’s translated

work The Three-Body Problem and his non-translated science fictions?

(2)At the syntactic level,what are the differences between Ken Liu’s translated

work The Three-Body Problem and his non-translated science fictions?

(3)At the textual level,what are the differences between Ken Liu’s translated

work The Three-Body Problem and his non-translated science fictions?

1.4 Thesis Structure

There are five chapters.

Chapter One includes the research background,research objectives and the

significance,research questions and the thesis structure.

Chapter Two is the literature review.Previous studies on Ken Liu’s science

fictions,previous studies on the translation of The Three-body Problem,and an

overview of the previous studies of corpus stylistics are shown in the chapter.

Chapter Three presents the research methodology used in the thesis.Firstly,the

theoretical principles and research material are presented.Secondly,data analysis

includes research tools,research method,and research procedure are shown in this

chapter.

Chapter Four shows a detailed analysis of the collected data to explore stylistic

features of The Three-body Problem from lexis,syntax,and text.

Chapter Five concludes the thesis,including major findings,research limitations

and suggestions for future research.1

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous Studies on Ken Liu’s Science Fictions

By imagining other space-time and possible futures,science fictions lets us to

view our present-day situation with greater detachment and perspective.Science

fiction has a hundred years of history,but in China its identity has yet to be

recognized in mainstream academic circles(Liang,2019).Research on it was often

placed in a marginal position,and its academic status and influence cannot be

compared with other literary studies.The subsequent development of science fiction

has been slow notwithstanding,there are still some researchers willing to explore this

type of literature.Moreover,more writers were inspired to create fictions with

powerful and unconstrained imagination(Wang,2022).

Since the 21st century,science fiction’s situation of marginalization has

improved,and it has begun to enter the field of mainstream literature.As the number

and influence of science fiction grew,it attracted more scholars to diversify the

content of this field(Fang,2022).With the increasing number of Chinese and foreign

versions of science fiction,the translation of them has become a new highlight.Liu

Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem was the first to win the Hugo Award,marking a

milestone in China’s science fiction industry.The following year,Hao Jingfang’s

Folding Beijing went viral and won the Hugo Award again.Secondary creations

around these sci-fi works,such as short videos,songs,radio plays and animations,can

be found everywhere on the Internet.Keywords such as“Liu Cixin”,“Ken Liu”,“The


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