A Contrastive Analysis of Lexical Features of Government Work Report for 2020 and Its Translation—From the Perspective of Halliday’s Three Meta-Functions Theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1210.21Keywords:
ystemic functional grammar, three meta-functions theory, government work report, translationAbstract
The translation of government work report (GWR) should not only be faithful to the spirit of the original text, but also close to the stylistic features of target language and the context. These features correspond to the Ideational, Interpersonal and Textual functions of Three Meta-functions Theory, which is of great research value in the current circumstance beset by COVID-19. Taking 2020 GWR as the research material due to its special social environment, this paper makes a systematic comparative study of lexical features between the source text and its English translation based on three meta-functions theory. Through quantitative statistics and qualitative text analysis, the realization and distribution of three meta-functions in the source text and its translation are discussed. At the same time, the reasons for the equivalence and non-equivalence between two texts are explored to summarize corresponding modification suggestions and translation strategies. Through comparative analysis, it is found that for ideational process, the discrepancy is significant in terms of material and relational processes between the source text and its translation. For interpersonal function, the source text mainly uses modal operators of high value while the translation the median. And for textual function, there were many additions of first-person plural pronouns in translation due to its writing habits. These findings can help better understand the language mechanism and connotation of the translation of GWR, thus enriching their research perspective to some extent.
References
Baker, M. (1992). In other words: A coursebook on translation. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press.
Bassnett, S., & lefevere, A. (1996). Translation, history and culture. New York: Continuum.
Bell, R. T. (1991). Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice. London and New York: Longman.
Cheng, Z. Q. (2003). The Translation of Political Articles Should Focus on Politics. Chinese Translators Journal, (03): 20-24.
H, Z. L. (2008). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Grammar. Beijing: Peking University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Hatim, B., & Mason, I. (1997). The Translator as Communicator. New York: Routledge.
Hodge, R., & Kress, G. (1979). Language as Ideology. London and New York: Routledge.
Hu, K. B., & Tian, X. J. (2018). A Corpus-based Study of the Linguistic Features and Textual Effect of the English Translation of the Government Work Report. Foreign Languages and Literature, 34(05): 1-11.
Hu, Z. L. (2015). Linguistics: A course book (5th ed.). Beijing: Peking University Press.
Huang, Y. Y. (2004). Adhere to the Principle of “Three Approaches to External Publicity” and Deal with Difficulties in the Translation. Chinese Translators Journal, (06): 29-30.
Li, G. Q. (2009). A Discussion of the Genre’s Social Purpose ans the Translation Strategy Choice of the Interpersonal Metafunction Oriented Pun Advertisements from the Perspective of Halliday’s Functional Approach. Foreign Language Research, (05): 133-136.
Li, X. Q., & Hu, K. B. (2017). Keywords and Their Collocations in the English Translations of Chinese Government Work Reports. Foreign Languages in China, 14(06): 81-89.
Liu, R. Q., & Wen, X. (2006). Linguistics: A New course book. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Munday, J. (2001). Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. London and New York: Routledge.
Wu, G. J., & Zhao, W. J. (2013). A survey of readership in Translating Chinese political literature into English—Take the English Version of the 2011 Government Work Report as An Example. Foreign Languages Research, (02): 84-88.
Yang, X. Z. (2010). James R. Martin’s Development and Application of Register Theory. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, (10): 39-42+63.
Zhu, X. M. (2011). A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis of the English Translation of Report on the Work of the Government (1): First Person Plural Pronouns. Foreign Languages Research, (02): 73-78+112.
