A Study Of Translation Strategies Of Nominalizations In Political Discourse From The Perspective Of Systemic Functional Linguistics

Political discourse mainly pertains to policies and guidelines of a country or a political party,and expresses its attitude and standpoint regarding various issues.The construction of political discourse is both a linguistic and social process.It bears strategic importance for a country because its translation directly influences the communicating effect with other foreign countries.In China,the priority of political discourse translation study is given to the Chinese to English（C-to-E）translation of major political documents issued by the central government and the central committee of Communist Party of China（CPC）.Senior translators,government officials and staff related to foreign publicity,and scholars of translation studies have all contributed to the large body of research conducted at different levels and in different dimensions,with their special interest in and focus on personal experiences of translating political documents,major principles and objectives of political discourse translation,and specific translation strategies and techniques.However,most of the previous research has addressed these issues with some general discussion and case analysis,thus lacking descriptive and explanatory adequacy.In addition,much attention is paid to the structural differences between Chinese and English language,neglecting the meaning-making role of choices in translation in constructing target text（TT）.As a meaning-making resource for reconstruing experience,nominalization can ideationally recontrue a process or quality into a thing by changing verbs and adjectives into nouns.In SFL theory,nominalization is the most powerful resource of grammatical metaphor,and it plays an important role constructing discourse,especially scientific discourse（Halliday,1994;1998a）.In Chinese political discourse and its English translation,there is abundant use of nominalizations,such as“现代化”modernization,“可持续发展”sustainable development,“党的建设”Party building,etc.However,systematical studies have not yet been attempted in relation to the translation strategies and the constructive role of nominalizations in political discourse.Some practical questions in translation practice are still left undiscussed,such as how to translate nominalizations in source text（ST）,how to translate expressions into nominalizations in TT as well as the underlying motivation and function of choosing certain translation strategies and techniques.Taken the above limitations into consideration,it is academically significant to conduct research on nominalizations in political discourse and its translation,in order to further our understanding of the use of nominalization and its translation methods,and to reveal its role in constructing political discourse.This study aims to explore the use of nominalization in Chinese political discourse and its English translation in terms of its distribution and translation strategies.Through generalizing its translation pattern,analyzing its underlying motivation,this study offers a functional interpretation of the role nominalization plays in meaning and social construction,providing valuable suggestion and reference for translation practice and teaching.The research questions of the present study are threefold:（1）What are the distributional and typological features of nominalizations in Chinese political discourse and its English translation?What are the translation patterns and regularities with reference to nominalizations in political discourse?（2）What are the features and constructive functions of equivalent translation stragegy with reference to nominalizations in political discourse?How are nominalizations with characteristics specific to Chinese political discourse translated into English?（3）What are the features and constructive functions of shifted translation stragegy with reference to nominalizations in political discourse?What are the influencing factors of their translation shift?In order to address the questions scientifically and systematically,the current study has developed a descriptive framework for describing the translation strategies of nominalizations based on grammatical metaphor theory in SFL and Matthiessen’s（2014）assumption of“translation equivalence—translation shift”cline.Furthermore,the current study also developed an interpretive framework for the analysis of influencing factors in the translation process that affect choices of translation strategies and techniques.A parallel-corpus based approach is adopted for the identification of instances of Chinese and English nominalizations.Both quantitative and qualitative analysis is conducted for the exploration of the distribution and translation patterns of nominalizations in political discourse.The parallel corpus built for this study is composed of 47 important political documents of the CPC and the central government since the 18^th National Congress of the CPC,covering multiple topics such as politics,economics,diplomatic,military,and environmental affairs,etc.The overall size of the parallel corpus amounts to nearly 1 million tokens in total.The major findings and conclusions are as follows:（1）Nominalizations are widely distributed in Chinese political discourse and its English translation.Results of frequency show that the use of English nominalizations in TT is more than that of Chinese nominalizations in ST,but their relative frequencies is quite similar,which indicates the degree of metaphoricity in TT remains mostly the same as that in ST in political discourse translation,achieving equivalence in discourse style.Moreover,the distribution of different types of nominalizations between Chinese and English in political discourse is significantly different.Chinese discourse uses far more converted nominalizations,and English discourse is rich in derivational nominalizations,which is mainly attributed to typological differences between the two languages.The most frequently used derivational suffixes in the translated English texts are-tion/-sion、-ment、-ance/-ence、-ty、-ing,and those in Chinese source texts are“-性”,“-率”,“-力”,“-化”,“-主义”.The growing tendency of derivational nominalizations in modern Chinese can be credited to the language contact between Chinese and English as well as the development of the society.The most frequently used converted nominalization in Chinese political discourse are“发展”,“建设”,“工作”,“改革”,and“安全”,and“NP+VP”is the most frequently used grammatical construction for converted nominalization.Converted nominalizations in English are mostly with single or double syllables,and the use of“reform”,“work”,“support”,“use”,and“control”ranks top of the frequency list.Despite of their dual grammatical function,the majority of the usage of these words are nominal,which indicates that their metaphoricity is weakened from a synchronic perspective.Nominalizations at phrasal level are“NP的VP”and“V-ing of”.The whole construction serves as a nominal,usually with ad hoc VP as their components.Compared with other nominalizations at lexical level,phrasal nominalizations retain more process meaning in itself.（2）The translation strategies of nominalization can be generalized as metaphorically equivalent translation and metaphorically shifted translation.Equivalent translation retains the nominalized construction of ST in TT,while shifted translation changes the contrual pattern and reconstrues meaning in TT.Drawing on the data,it is found that equivalent translation of nominalization is the most commonly adopted strategy in translating political discourse,accounting for 47.7%of the sample cases.This reveals,on the one hand,the universality of Chinese and English nominalization in its meaning and function.On the other hand,it shows the preference of the translator’s choice in keeping the same metaphorical form in order to achieve equivalence in construal pattern of meaning when translating political discourse.It is also found that equivalent translation of nominalization has two alternative forms representation,“systemic”and“instantial”.The former are usually between highly correspondent nominalizations in Chinese and English,such as“重要性”“importance”,“全球化”“globalization”;the latter involves ad hoc use of nominalizations in consideration of the specific context of translation,such as“环境治理”“environmental improvement”.However,not all Chinese nominalizations in political discourse are suitable to be translated into an equivalent nominalization in English,“化”construction and“numeral phrase”are cases in point.These constructions are specific to Chinese language and political system.Therefore,systemic equivalents are sometimes not available,or it is improper for foreignizing translation.In such cases,the translator will have to apply strategies that yield metaphorical shift.Based on the ideational function of nominalization,the current study argues that equivalent translation of nominalizations plays the role of refining expressions concerning Chinese concepts,Chinese paths,and core values in constructing foreign-oriented political discourse.（3）With regard to shifted translation strategy,it can be further divided into metaphorical shift and de-metaphorical shift.Metaphorical shift involves the translation of a non-metaphorical construction in ST into a nominalization in TT,while de-metaphorical shift involves a reversible change.Both can be realized by shifting with other groups,up-ranking into a clause,or down-ranking into zero correspondence lexicogrammatically.Quantitative analysis shows that metaphorical shift occurs more often in political discourse translation,almost three times more than the proportion of de-metaphorical shift.This illustrates that choices of nominalization in English are more abundant and that it makes greater contribution in the construction of English political discourse.Qualitative analysis demonstrates that factors related to language system,discourse type,situational context,and sociocultural context will exert influence on the translator’s choice when translating political discourse.Shift in contrual pattern enables TT to conform to the norm of expressions in target langauge and adapt to its contexts,enhancing its acceptability among readers of target langague community.The current study holds that metaphorically shifted translation in political discourse play a part in restructuing the messages and expressions in ST,simplifying TT,generalizing messages in context in both ST and TT,and paraphrasing complex meaning in ST,and hence increases the“visibility”（i.e.comprehensibility）of foreign-oriented political discourse.The current study further extends translation studies of nominalization in its adoption of the theoretical perspective,research method,and data genre.The study generalizes features and regularities of translation pattern of nominalization in political discourse,and both language internal and external factors are analyzed in order to deepen exploration of the constructive function of the translation strategies and techniques in higher order semiosis.The findings should have implications and reference value to translation practice and teaching,and increase the translator’s awareness of meaning construction and subjectivity.Meanwhile,it also expounds on the linguistic aspects of constructing foreign-oriented political discourse,complementing existing research on the building of discourse systems.