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The Loss of Textual Function Caused by Passive Voice Translation
HUANG Xiao-zhi, GAO Wen-cheng
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2023.03.009
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
Passive voice is an important grammatical phenomenon, and the translation of English passive voice is a hot issue in translation research. In translation, some linguistic phenomena of the source language cannot be expressed in the target language, and the translation has limits of translatability. However, fewer scholars have studied the loss of textual function caused by the translation of passive voice. The authors argue that the conversion of voice in the translation process can, to a certain extent, cause the loss of meaning. In this paper, the authors analyze the loss of textual function caused by the conversion of English passive voice to Chinese active voice from the perspective of the limits of translatability. The authors believe that this phenomenon is common and unavoidable. Therefore, when dealing with the passive voice, the translator should preserve its discourse function as much as possible, rather than just “converting passive to active voice”.
passive voice, textual function, the limits of translatability
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, March 2023, Vol. 13, No. 3, 184-189
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