The translation of taboo language in fictional dialogue: the case of Jin Ping Mei

This paper examines the way in which swearing and other forms of taboo language in fictional dialogue are rendered in translations from Chinese into English. To conduct this study, two English translations of the classic novel Jin Ping Mei are described and analyzed. Based on the paradigm of descriptive translation studies, the paper resorts to a mixed-method design which combines quantitative data with qualitative textual analysis. It aims to identify how the translators deal with swearing in the fictive dialogue, to determine any translational patterns in the way taboo language is treated and to analyze the effect of translation strategies used on certain aspects of the novel. Through the above mentioned methodology, this paper finds that swearing at times comes across quite differently in English compared to the original, which inevitably influences the target reader’s perception of characters and their verbal interactions in the novel. KEYWORDS: Swearing; Emotion and Affect; Fictional Dialogue; Translation; Prose Fiction