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Discussion published In:
Target
Vol. 22:2 (2010) ► pp.331–346
Discussion

Indeterminacy, multivalence and disjointed translation

| Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao

One of the most prominent linguistic features of classical Chinese poetry is syntactic indeterminacy, which brings about multivalence, i.e. multiplicity of connotation, and poses a great problem as well as daunting challenge to Chinese-English translators, for English is basically a language with syntactic determinacy. This paper examines two aspects of indeterminacy involved in classical Chinese poetry, arguing that ‘disjointed translation’ is probably the most inspiring way to cope with Chinese syntactic indeterminacy.

Keywords: indeterminacy,, translation,, classical Chinese poetry
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.What is indeterminacy?
  • 3.Multivalence from indeterminacy
    • 3.1Indeterminacy from absence of pronouns
    • 3.2Indeterminacy resulting from absence of connectives
  • 4.Disjointed translation: A mimesis of syntactic indeterminacy
  • 5.Summary
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 January 2011
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.22.2.07jia
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