An Analysis of Two Chinese Translations of Motion Events in The Call of the Wild from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

¹ School of Foreign Languages, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou 310015, Zhejiang Province, China; Hangzhou Collaborative Innovation Institute of Language Services, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou 310015, Zhejiang Province, China,

² School of Foreign Languages, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning Province, China,

JCER 2025 , 9(2), 143–163; https://doi.org/10.26689/jcer.v9i2.9415

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Abstract

This article centers on The Call of the Wild, an English novel by American author Jack London, alongside two Chinese translations by Dajie Liu and Menglin Zhang, and Rongyue Liu. Seventy sentences containing motion events and their corresponding translations were randomly selected for analysis. The study focuses on the primary elements of motion events—manner, path, and ground—and examines their Chinese translations through the lens of Skopos theory. Skopos theory emphasizes whether translators can adopt appropriate translation strategies according to various contextual factors during the translation process. Compared to verb-framed languages, satellite-framed languages possess a richer vocabulary for manner verbs, express more detailed manner information, use more satellite words to indicate paths, and incorporate more background information. Verb-framed languages, by contrast, typically express manner information only when necessary and tend to include less background information. The analysis reveals that both Chinese translations embody the core principle of Skopos theory: translation strategies are determined by their purpose. To fulfill the novel’s translation objectives, the translators adeptly adjust their strategies for motion event components based on different contextual needs. It is noted that the Chinese translations do not fully retain the characteristics of English as a typical satellite-framed language. This observation aligns with Skopos theory’s purpose-oriented approach, which prioritizes translation goals over strict adherence to source text characteristics.

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