A Study on Four-Character Structure Translation of Spells in Harry Potter from the Perspective of Skopos Theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62051/jedss.v1n2.08Keywords:
Skopos Theory, Harry Potter, Spell translation, Four-character structureAbstract
This study examines the translation of spells into Chinese four-character structure in the simplified Chinese version of Harry Potter from the perspective of Skopos Theory. As a vital element of the magical world and one of the most distinctive linguistic features in the series, spells present significant challenges in cross-cultural translation due to their etymologies, semantic structures and magical connotations. Drawing upon the three core principles of Skopos Theory – namely the Skopos Rule, the Coherence Rule, and the Fidelity Rule – this paper analyses the translation strategies employed by the translators of Chinese mainland edition. By examining the strategies through textual analysis and case studies, this research finds that Chinese four-character structure expressions are extensively adopted because they reproduce the brevity, rhythm, imagery, and performative force of the original spells while simultaneously in accordance with Chinese linguistic conventions and aesthetic preferences. The study further reveals that spells demonstrate a notable affinity with this structure at both linguistic level, including phonology, semantics, and pragmatics, and cultural level that four-character structure has long been rooted in Chinese expression and rhetorical aesthetics. It conjectures that these compatibilities encourage translators to adopt the four-character structure into translation. The thesis not only offers fresh insights into employing the four-character structure in English-to-Chinese translation but also presents new ideas for applying Skopos Theory more broadly in literary translation studies.
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