2.1 Background Information    4
2.1.1 Information about the Novel and the Novelist    4
2.1.2 Brief Introduction of Different Versions of the Translation of the Novel    4
2.2 The Theory Framework    4
2.3 Current Studies    6
Chapter Three Methodology    9
3.1 The Research Hypothesis    9
3.2 Data Collection and Data Analysis    9
Chapter Four Results and Discussions    10
4.1 Comparative Analysis of the Translation of Address terms    10
4.1.1 Kinship Address Terms Analysis    10
4.1.2 Social Address Terms Analysis    14
4.2 Reasons for the Translation Differences    17
Chapter Five Conclusion    21
5.1 The Conclusion of the Thesis    21
5.2 The Limitations of the Thesis    23
5.3 The Suggestions on the Future Study    23
References    24
On the Translation of Address Terms in Hong Lou Meng from the Perspective of Communicative Translation Theory
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background and Research Question
Hong Lou Meng is a remarkable work in Chinese classic novels by Cao Xueqin.  It describes a vivid picture of four feudal families and hundreds of characters, reflecting the complex relationship in old society. On one hand, because of the cross blood-tie of the four families — Jia, Wang, Shi and Xue, the kinship terms are of various kinds; on the other hand, social address terms are also highly used for the classes of characters, even they are relatives.
Taking Peter Newmark’s Communicative Translation Theory as the framework of this thesis, this thesis makes analysis on the translation of address terms in two most well-known translation versions — Yang Hsien-yi’s and Hawkes’ English Version. In other words, the researcher of the present thesis would try to solve the following two questions:
 1. What are the differences in the translation of kinship address terms and social address terms in Yang’s and Hawkes’ version?
 2. Why would there be such differences?
1.2 The Significance of This Research
This research is both theoretically significant and practically significant. Since the success of Hong Lou Meng, a new school — Redology comes into being. Redologists study many aspects of Hong Lou Meng, including clothing, poems, architecture, and also address terms. For address terms translation researches, domestic researchers mainly focus on the choice of appropriate translation strategy, the dialect influence, with the direction of Nida’s Equivalence Validity, Thick Translation, Adaptation Theory, or J.C. Catford’s Limitation of Translatability Theory. However, there are very few researches relating to social address terms and this thesis would give a descriptive study on the translation of address terms, both in kinship and social address terms, taking Peter Newmark’s Communicative Translation Theory as the framework. By comparing the differences, the thesis aims to give a explanation of these differences from the perspective of cultural gap. The present thesis will, to some extent, enhance the study of the rich culture suggested by Hong Lou Meng, push forward the intercultural exchange and provide a new perspective to study the translation of address terms.
1.3 The Overall Structure of the Thesis
The thesis consists of five main parts except the abstract and references. They are Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Result and Discussion and the Conclusion.
In chapter one, the researcher of present thesis gives an introduction of the thesis, including the research background, research question and the significance of the research.
In chapter two, the researcher gives a literature review about the novel, the novelist, two translation versions, the theory framework and the current situation of the research. 从交际翻译理论看红楼梦称呼语的翻译(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_24922.html