摘 要

List of Tables iv

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Purpose of the Study 2

1.3 Organization of the Thesis 2

2. Literature Review 3

2.1 Review of Previous Studies on the Translations of the Zhuangzi 3

2.2 Research Gap 4

3. Data and Methodology 5

3.1 Data 5

3.2 Methodology 5

4. Analysis 7

4.1 Translation of Rhetorical Questions in the Monologues 7

4.2 Translation of Rhetorical Questions in the Dialogues 10

4.3 Discussion 14

5. Conclusion 16

5.1 Summary of Major Findings 16

5.2 Significance of the Study 16

5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Study 17

参考文献 18

致谢 21

Abstract

This thesis examines how rhetorical questions in the Zhuangzi (4th c. B.C.), a classic Daoist text, have been rendered into English in three popular translations (Legge 1891a, b; Watson [1968] 2013; Wang 1999). Despite their interrogative form, rhetorical questions are non-information-seeking in nature as their corresponding answers are presupposed in the immediate context and can hence be analyzed pragmatically as indirect speech acts inferentially requesting some mental response (e.g., Meibauer 1986; Frank 1990; Ilie 1994). Critically, rhetorical questions are highly successful discourse strategies, as they are important for presenting the argument (e.g., Ilie 1994; Pascual 2002, 2006b). An accurate translation of such questions is thus non-trivial.

When it comes to the translation of rhetorical questions in the Zhuangzi text, translators face at least three challenges. Firstly, Zhuangzi is skeptical about language (e.g., Zhu Shuran2018) and consequently the ultimate Dao is unspeakable. Secondly, despite the presence of various distinct markers for rhetorical questioning in classical Chinese (e.g., Wang Haifen 2015), the identification of rhetorical questions, due to the grammatical underspecificity of the language (Bisang 2008, 2013), is still largely context-dependent. Last but not least, the original text is unpunctuated, which makes it difficult for translators to interpret the illocutionary force of linguistic forms.

My analysis of the 419 instances of rhetorical questions in the Zhuangzi text and their corresponding English translations shows that the interrogative forms are mostly kept with occasional renderings into declarative and exclamatory sentences and that context of various types (e.g. interactional context, constructional context and cognitive context) constrains the reconceptualization of a message in translation (cf. Lewandowska-Tomaszczy 2010). In this paper, I argue that the interrogative form of rhetorical questions in this particular text should always be retained given the various pragmatic functions that these questions can serve and the philosopher’s mysticism which implies that the form is the message. I further propose that recontextualization constitute an indispensable step in translation. This involves translators making mental contact with the writer’s common ground and engaged in sophisticated perspective taking through mental simulation (e.g. Markman et al. 2012).

Keywords: rhetorical questions; underspecificity; context; recontextualization; mental simulation, the Zhuangzi

中文摘要

本文考察了中国古代道家哲学文本《庄子》一书中修辞性疑问句在三个广受欢迎的英译本（Legge 1891a，b; Watson [1968] 2013; Wang 1999）中的翻译情况。尽管采用的是疑问形式，但修辞性疑问句实际上是无疑而问，这是由于它们相应的的回答已经预设在当前的语境中了，因此在语用层面上我们可以将其分析为需要受话人在头脑中做出回应的间接言语行为（例如，Meibauer 1986; Frank 1990; Ilie 1994）。需要指出的是，修辞性疑问句是非常成功的话语策略，因为它们对于陈述说话人的论点具有重要的作用（例如Ilie 1994; Pascual 2002, 2006）。因此，准确翻译修辞性疑问句就显得尤为重要了。