Abstract:Lao She is the first writer to get the title “people’s artist” in new China. Luotuo Xiangzi is one of his most famous works. Lao She, born in Beijing and growing up in Beijing, was very familiar with the traditional local opera, let alone the Beijing dialect. Luotuo Xiangzi has distinct Beijing flavor, from the description of people and their language, to that of the environment and social life.

With the spread of Chinese culture, more and more Chinese literary works have been translated into foreign languages. How to translate the dialect and the culture-loaded items is always the most difficult part for translators. This thesis is to evaluate two English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi from the perspective of functionalism. And the writer hopes to understand the translation of Lao She’s works better, and to make contributions to dialect translation in them.

From the analysis of the thesis, it can be found that functionalism plays a significant part in the translation of dialect and the culture-loaded items. The success of the English translation can be attributed to the consideration of the principles of skopos theory and other theories in functionalism. Since every theory has its limitations, only the essence or good part of it should be applied.

Keywords: Luotuo Xiangzi; dialect translation; skopos theory; version comparison

Contents

中文摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 Literature Review-3

2.1 Background of Functionalism-3

2.2 The Details of Skopos Theory-3

Chapter 3 Dialect-5

3.1 Definition of Dialect-5

3.2 Beijing Dialect in Luotuo Xiangzi-5

3.3 Dialect Translation-5

Chapter 4 Dialect Translation in Two English Versions of Luotuo Xiangzi-7

4.1 Food, Clothes and Housing-7

4.2 Proverbs, Idioms and Conventional Expressions-9

4.3 Characters’ Names-10

4.4 Customs-10

Chapter 5 Conclusion-13

References-15

Acknowledgements-16