





































Education, Language and Sociology Research 

ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 6, No. 3, 2025 

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166 
 

Original Paper 

A study on the Foregrounding Language in the English 

Translation of Happy Dreams 

Hanchao Liu1 

1 School of English Studies, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an, China  

 

Received: August 21, 2025   Accepted: September 5, 2025     Online Published: September 18, 2025 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v6n3p166    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v6n3p166 

 

Abstract 

Jia Pingwa’s rural novel Happy Dreams portrays the lived experiences of marginalized groups through 

the urban dream of the protagonist Liu Gaoxing, a scavenger. The novel employs a significant amount of 

foregrounded language, which serves as the central means of character construction. Drawing on 

Leech’s theory of foregrounding as its analytical framework, this paper examines both the original text 

and its English translation Happy Dreams (translated by Nicky Harman), focusing on the translation 

strategies applied to various forms of foregrounded language, specifically lexical, grammatical, and 

dialectal foregrounding, through close textual analysis and comparative study. The findings reveal that 

the translator mainly adopts the domestication strategy, prioritizing reader accessibility. While this 

approach somewhat diminishes the rural authenticity and cultural otherness of the source text, it 

successfully facilitates cross-cultural communication, offering valuable insights into balancing literary 

integrity and readability in the translation of rural literature. 

Keywords  

Happy Dreams, Jia Pingwa, foregrounding, Leech 

 

1. Introduction 

Happy Dreams is a rural novel that tells the story of a scavenger named Liu Gaoxing’s urban dream from 

a first-person perspective. Jia Pingwa is good at using various forms of foregrounded language, such as 

using “dog hair” to describe “talkative” as a lexical foregrounding, breaking grammar rules like “Why 

did Wufu still bring her to me if she knew I didn’t want her?”, dialect foregrounding such as “shouhuo”, 

a dialect term, and register foregrounding formed by citing allusions from classics. These foregrounded 

language forms pose a significant challenge to literary translation. Based on this, this study focuses on 

two core questions: first, what types of foregrounded language exist in the text of Happy Dreams, and 

what functions do they serve in narrative and character development; second, which translation strategies 

does translator Nicky Harman usually adopt when translating these foregrounded languages to balance 



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the literary nature of the original text and the readability of the target language. The author analyzed 38 

cases of foregrounded language translation in Chapter 3 of Happy Dreams as valid samples. The results 

show that the application of domestication strategies accounts for about 73.7%, while foreignization 

strategies account for about 26.3%. This data clearly indicates that domestication strategies are the 

dominant strategies most frequently adopted by translator Nicky Harman in translating the foregrounded 

language of Happy Dreams. Theoretically, this study further enriches the case analysis of Leech’s 

foregrounding theory in the study of rural literature translation into English, providing a theoretical 

analysis perspective for the cross-cultural transformation of “linguistic foregrounding” in literary 

translation. Practically, its research results can provide a reference strategy model for the translation of 

rural literature into foreign languages. 

 

2. Foregrounded Language 

Foregrounding is the core concept of functional stylistics, and its theoretical origin lies in the formalist 

concept of Defamiliarization. Mukarovsky first applied the concept of foregrounding to stylistic studies 

in his book Standard Language and Poetic Language. Subsequently, scholars such as Jakobson, Halliday, 

Leech, and Short continuously enriched and developed the theoretical connotations of foregrounding. 

Mukarovsky (1964, p. 28) believed that foregrounding is a distortion of conventions and traditions, 

characterized in language by defamiliarization and anti-conventionality that challenge established norms, 

allowing readers to experience the unexpectedness, unusualness, and uniqueness brought by reading. 

Jakobson, from another perspective, emphasized another aspect of foregrounding, namely parallelism, 

and proposed two stylistic devices of foregrounding, variation and parallel structure. Halliday further 

pointed out that foregrounding is motivated prominence, meaning that only language prominence or 

foregrounding that is helpful for text comprehension can lead to foregrounding, while unmotivated 

prominence does not fall within the scope of foregrounding. Linguist Leech (1969) further divided 

foregrounding into qualitative foregrounding and quantitative foregrounding. Qualitative foregrounding 

refers to the foregrounding of the language code itself, in other words, the foregrounding of the 

conventional patterns of language, violating grammar or established cultural expressions is qualitative 

prominence. Quantitative foregrounding refers to the foregrounding of the expected frequency (Leech & 

Short, 2001, p. 48), in short, it is the intentional overuse or underuse of a certain language structure. 

The application research of foregrounding theory in linguistics, stylistics, and literary creation has a long 

history. At the beginning of this century, scholar Ye Zinan (2001) proposed the theoretical assumption of 

foregrounding translation studies. Since then, a wave of research on foregrounding translation has 

emerged in China, with many scholars discussing topics such as Foregrounding Theory and Translation 

Criticism, Translation Stylistics Research, Literary Aesthetics and Foregrounding Theory, and 

Foregrounding Theory and Translation Strategies. In the past five years, most of the review literature has 

focused on the translation and introduction of Happy Dreams and its translation strategies, such as by 

Cui Li, Wang Qianyu, and Liu Lu (2023), Ji Changju (2022), etc. Others, such as Shi Mengjia and Wang 



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Lijun (2023), Zhang Sijia (2024), mainly explored the translation of culture-loaded words from the 

perspective of relevance and Newmark’s translation theory. Tang Lixian (2021) studied the overseas 

dissemination mechanism of Happy Dreams from the perspective of adaptation theory, while Ma Rutao 

and Feng Zhengbin (2021) and Shi Chunrang (2023, 2024) from the perspective of sociology translation 

studies, Zhu Fangping (2021) from the perspective of translator subjectivity, and Liu Yuan (2022) from 

the perspective of Eco-translatology studies. However, current research has not systematically explored 

the translation strategies of foregrounded language in Happy Dreams. In view of this, this study mainly 

focuses on the qualitative foregrounding framework of Leech and Short, concentrating on the 

foregrounded language translation strategies in Jia Pingwa’s novel Happy Dreams and its English 

translation, and explores the role of foregrounded language in literary expression and its translation 

practice in a cross-cultural context. 

 

3. Analysis of Translation Examples in Happy Dreams 

In his book A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, Leech summarized the stylistic features of language 

foregrounding from the aspects of form, application and semantics, and proposed that foregrounding is 

a purposeful foregrounding of art. At the same time, eight different forms of foreboding were summarized: 

lexical foregrounding, phonological foregrounding, grammatical foregrounding, graphological 

foregrounding, semantic foregrounding, register foregrounding, dialectal foregrounding and historical 

period foregrounding. As Tan Xiangheng pointed out, Jia Pingwa is adept at pursuing a alienated aesthetic 

effect through abnormal expression techniques. In Happy Dreams, Jia Pingwa extensively employs 

foreground language, and each type of foreground language is involved to varying degrees. The following 

is a detailed analysis of five types of prospective languages: lexical foregrounding, phonological 

foregrounding, graphological foregrounding, register foregrounding, and dialectal foregrounding. 

3.1 Lexical Foregrounding 

Source Text: 但人家要说起来了，我肯定得寸进尺，话多得像狗毛。(Jia Pingwa, 2012, p. 138) 

Translated Text: but the minute she spoke, I couldn’t help myself. Words came tumbling out. 

There are common metaphors such as “as many as cow hairs” and “stars” to describe a large quantity. 

Jia Pingwa breaks the conventional combination by using dog hair as a metaphor, which belongs to 

lexical foregrounding. Dog hair is a common image in life, which fits Liu Gaoxing’s identity as a 

scavenger and his plain language style, and is closer to the protagonist’s original state. The narrator is 

closer to a standard English speaker, adopting a domestication strategy, discarding the original image of 

dog hair, and retaining the core meaning of being talkative. The English idiom “words came tumbling 

out” conveys the uncontrolled state of language, and the add-on translation of “couldn’t help myself” can 

explain the psychological motivation. However, the foregrounding of the vocabulary also weakens the 

rustic texture of dog hair and the humorous color of the character’s self-deprecation through dog hair. 

 

 



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3.2 Dialectal Foregrounding 

Source Text: 那男的哎哎叫着要扑出来，我拦住了，我说你别惹他，他是二杆子！ (Jia Pingwa, 

2012, p. 69) 

Translated Text: and the man shouted, “Hey!” He was about to launch himself at Wufu, but I stood in his 

way. “Don’t go getting on the wrong side of Wufu. He’s got a temper like a mad bull!” I warned. 

The translator extracted the core meaning of “two poles”, and replaced it with the familiar colloquial 

metaphor “temper like a mad bull” for English readers. Nicky Harman adopted the domestication strategy, 

using “got a temper” and “mad bull” to retain the warning meaning of the original sentence and avoid 

the translationese. English readers may not be familiar with the dialect meaning of “two poles”. The 

metaphor of “mad bull” is a successful case of cross-cultural transformation. 

3.3 Phonological Foregrounding 

Source Text: 一辆大车呜儿呜儿叫着从兴隆街拐了进来，以为是消防车，哪儿有火灾了？(Jia 

Pingwa, 2012, p. 22) 

Translated Text: and the man shouted, “Hey!”He was about to launch himself at Wufu, but I stood in his 

way. “Don’t go getting on the wrong side of Wufu. He’s got a temper like a mad bull!” I warned. 

The function of onomatopoeic words is to transform sounds into written symbols and evoke auditory 

imagination through visual text. The reduplicated and erized sounds of “wuer wuer” are simulations of 

the horn sound when a large vehicle is in motion. Such phonetic visualization can enhance the reader’s 

senses. Nicky Harman adopted the domestication strategy, using the present participle phrase “horn 

blaring” to echo the grammatical function, avoiding the lengthy explanation of “making a ‘w ‘er’ sound”, 

maintaining the fluency of the sentence and not disrupting the reading rhythm. The cross-cultural 

transmission of literary effects has been successfully achieved through semantic compensation. 

3.4 Graphological Foregrounding 

Source Text: 有姑娘抱着狗走过了，走得婀娜多姿，那群人突然齐声吆喝：舒——服！ (Jia Pingwa, 

2012, p. 22) 

Translated Text: A girl came by, walking gracefully with a dog in her arms, to a chorus of catcalls from 

the drunks. 

By using dashes to separate “shu” and “fu”, this writing form mimics the prolonged tone of “that group 

of people” to convey the unrestrained nature of the common folk. Nicky Harman abandoning the 

alienated “comfortable” (unable to convey “jeering or teasing”) and opts for the domestication strategy, 

choosing “catcalls” (whistles or strange calls made for teasing or mocking), capturing offense and 

frivolity. Under the domestication strategy, the image of “that group of people” translated is more in line 

with the ill-educated group in the lower classes of the common people It is consistent with the overall 

character development of the novel and the ecology of the lower society. 

3.5 Register Foregrounding 

Source Text: 我甚至还要举例说……但五富只读到小学就辍学了，他肯定不知道，对牛弹琴，我

就不说了。(Jia Pingwa, 2012, p. 18) 



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Translated Text: It was like playing your lute to a cow, talking to Wufu, and I shut up. 

Liu Gaoxing quoted allusions from classic to demonstrate that he had a certain level of literary 

accomplishment. However, Wu Fu’s “not understanding” contrasts with Liu Gaoxing’s “understanding”. 

Although they are at the same social status, the two have a spiritual deviation, avoiding homogenization. 

Wufu dropped out of school after primary school and has a relatively low cognitive level. Here, the 

register foreground language creates a dislocation between “elegant expression” and “insufficient 

reception ability”, highlighting the ineffective communication between the two. If classics are distorted, 

English readers may fail to understand their connotations due to their unfamiliarity with the background 

of classics. Nicky Harman retains the core metaphor of playing the lute to a cow, omits cultural details, 

adopts a domestication strategy, focuses on ineffective communication, and avoids reading obstacles for 

foreign language readers caused by cultural background differences. However, the domestication strategy 

also weakens the register foregrounded effect of the original text, English readers cannot perceive the 

contrast between the refined register and the popular register through the allusions in classical art.  

 

4. Analysis of Nicky Harman’s Common Strategies for Translating Prospective Languages 

The author listed the number of foreground languages in 10 chapters and compared the original text and 

translation of Chapter 3, where foreground languages appear most frequently. The data is as follows: 

 

Table 1 

Chapter The number of foregrounded language 

Chapter 1 28 

Chapter 2 19 

Chapter 3 45 

Chapter 4 26 

Chapter 5 37 

Chapter 6 29 

Chapter 7 34 

Chapter 9 21 

Chapter 10 20 

Chapter 11 19 

 

Table 2 

Source Text Translated Text Translation Strategy 

汗出了一层又出一层 he started to pour with sweat domestication  



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楼是一幢一幢高低胖瘦往空

中戳着 

There were block after block of 

buildings, big and small, fat and 

thin, poking up into the sky. 

foreignization  

曲里拐弯 twisting and turning. foreignization  

在人和车搅和得像蚂蚁窝一

样的闹市里 

Downtown was like an ant’s 

nest, a hurly-burly of humans 

and cars, all mixed up together. 

domestication 

我得轻松一下， I tried to lighten the mood. domestication  

哈娃你能！我当然能。 “You’re a smart guy, Hawa!”  

Of course I am. 

domestication  

紧天火炮的，脸憋成紫黑。 How he needed to go so bad, his 

piss was going to hit the 

ceiling.He was purple in the 

face from holding it in. 

domestication  

抬蹄割掌哩！ “It’s a dog-eat-dog world 

here!” 

domestication  

我们怀疑鬼在日弄我们， it seemed like they were 

messing with us. 

foreignization  

巷道就狭窄幽深。 and the lanes between them 

were narrow and dark. 

foreignization  

这楼坍得下来？ “Will those buildings fall 

down?” 

foreignization  

半空的电线像蜘蛛网，天就成

了筛子。 

I looked up at the spiderweb of 

electric cables overhead, 

crisscrossing the sky like a 

sieve. 

foreignization  

一捆葡萄酒 a bottle of wine domestication  

送人酒不送个起子？！ “I hate it when people give you 

wine but don’t give you a bottle 

opener!” 

domestication  

打手机， he was on the phone. domestication  

一人得道鸡犬升天么。 you’ve made it, so now 

everyone else wants to get in on 

the act! 

domestication  



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老虎吃天没处下爪么， We’re like tigers, hungry 

enough to eat the sky. We just 

don’t know where to start. 

domestication  

你干啥我们在你手下混个嘴。 We’ll do whatever you tell us. domestication  

哄谁去！ Who’re you kidding? foreignization  

清风镇人来这里凭啥哩， People come here from 

Freshwind with zero—no skills, 

no money.  

domestication  

你卖×呀？！ Do they expect to sell  

their asses? 

domestication  

讲的是拾破烂的大千世界。 Then Han started to instruct us 

in the world of trash 

collection.He made it sound as  

complicated as the realms of 

Buddhist cosmology, and by the 

time he’d finished, I was an 

initiate. 

domestication  

蛇皮袋子 a big laundry bag  domestication  

一把铁钩 a garbage-picker hook. domestication  

架子车 three-wheeler domestication  

转悠 you could pull your cart  

or pedal your three-wheeler 

around the streets, but only on 

your allotted patch. 

domestication  

蝗虫不能吃过界。  You couldn’t descend  

like locusts anywhere you 

wanted. 

domestication  

不辛苦跑街了  didn’t need to do street 

collections. 

domestication  

眼活嘴乖， sharp-eyed, domestication  

耍大了 the big guys domestication  

进贡 pay them regular kickbacks. domestication  

破烂王 The Kings of Trash foreignization  

大拿 Power. domestication  

啊哈， Yup. foreignization  



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他银盆大脸呀，一颗一颗麻子

都放着光彩。 

He had a big broad face, dotted 

with gleaming pockmarks. 

foreignization  

用碟子去盛水怎么也不如碗，

可碟子就是装大菜的。 

plates might not be as good as a 

bowl for water, but plates were 

what you needed for a feast. 

foreignization  

好猫牌。 Lucky Cat! domestication  

恁贵？ Aren’t they expensive? foreignization  

要贵！ We want expensive ones! foreignization  

最窄狭也最僻背 s a long way from  

anywhere, and very narrow. 

domestication  

简易屋 brick-built rooms domestication 

叮咛得乏了 I was tired of listening  

to his instruction. 

domestication 

 

According to the classification of the two translation strategies of domestication and foreignization 

proposed by Lawrence Venuti in The Translator’s Invisibility in 1995, combined with the analysis in the 

above Table2, it can be concluded that when Nicky Harman translated the foregrounded language in 

Chapter Three of Happy Dreams, the domestication strategy was dominant. Among the 38 valid 

translation examples, those related to domestication strategies accounted for approximately 73.7%, and 

those related to foreignization strategies accounted for approximately 26.3%. For visually striking 

expressions that can be understood without cultural background, such as “high, low, fat and thin”, 

translator Nicky Harman tends to adopt an foreignization strategy to balance readability and the 

characteristics of the source language. For expressions with dialect, regional characteristics and 

colloquial expressions such as “tight sky cannon”, “lifting hoof and cutting palm”, “snake skin bag” and 

“setting up a cart”, translator Nicky Harman tends to adopt a domestication strategy, transforming them 

into concepts familiar to English readers to avoid understanding obstacles caused by cultural differences. 

 

5. Discussion 

This study takes Leach’s Foregrounding theory as the framework to explore the English translation 

strategies of foregrounded languages in Happy Dreams and its English translation. The author believes 

that Jia Pingwa wrote about Leach’s eight foregrounded languages to varying degrees in Happy Dreams, 

while translator Nicky Harman often used the domestication strategy when translating. This study 

enriches the case support of Leach’s Foregrounding theory in the English translation of local literature 

and can provide strategic references for subsequent related translations. 

 

 



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