A Comparative Study Of The Translations Of Bacon's Essayes From The Perspective Of The Hallidayan Model Of Language And Discourse

As a versatile writer and a pioneering philosopher, Francis Bacon is well-known to the Chinese readers. Since the 1930s, his Essayes have been rendered into Chinese by many translators. All these translation works have introduced the thoughts and values of Francis Bacon. Besides that, they have also provided valuable data for translation studies.The present thesis is a study of the translations of five pieces of Bacon's Essayes for the purposes of comparing three Chinese versions, identifying certain differences and testing the feasibility of the application of discourse analysis to Chinese translations with different styles of writing and across a long time span. The research is conducted within the Hallidayan model of language and discourse, mainly on the level of lexicogrammar (transitivity, thematic structure and cohesion).On the basis of this study, we can find that, concerning transitivity, the choice of main verbs of processes is the basis of translation and the best way to arrive at equivalence in meaning and function between the source text and target text. In dealing with the thematic structure, we should attach great importance to the transformation between the subject/Theme in English and the Topic in Chinese in various cases. And as to cohesion, reference, conjunction, ellipsis and lexical cohesion—such cohesive devices are of great importance in achieving coherence in the target text. Moreover, the different characteristics of English and Chinese as well as their own ways of expression also play a directive role in translation. Bearing the abovementioned factors in mind, we are likely to reproduce the translation equivalent both in meaning and function.