| Hong Lou Meng, the masterpiece of classical Chinese literature, enjoys great reputatign at home and abroad. The studies on Hong Lou Meng and its translation have always been hot issues in academic circles, and among those studies, translation studies of Hong Lou Meng cover a broad range with various theoretical bases.It is believed that in Hong Lou Meng, the author cao Xueqin has created hundreds of characters and his skills at characterization have impressed readers deeply. In the source texts (ST) of Hong Lou Meng, dialogues take up almost a half content of the novel (朱邦国, 1995: 1-2) and play a very important role in characterization. However, researches and studies on dialogue translation of Hong Lou Meng are inadequate and deserve further attention. Dialogues in ST are so brilliant that how to reproduce characters in the target texts (TT) of Hong Lou Meng through dialogue translation becomes the concern of this thesis.Nowadays, Translation Studies is going, interdisciplinary and there are tendencies to combine linguistic theories with dialogue translation studies. This thesis draws on register theory originating from sociolinguistics. According to M. A. K. Halliday, a famous linguist, a register includes three variables: field, tenor and mode. This thesis aims to prove the feasibility and practicability of guiding dialogue translation with register analysis through analysis and comparison of selected dialogues of typical characters in two translated versions of the novel. Examples were selected from Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and David Hawkes respectively. The results prove that register analysis is effective in criticizing and guiding dialogue translation in fiction. What is more, vivid characters can be reproduced in TT of Hong Lou Meng by analyzing the "register markers" in ST. However, this thesis also concludes that absolutely equivalent characters can not be reproduced because the registers are complex and variable in ST. Moreover, some cultural and language differences between Chinese and English also become blocks in reproducing absolutely equivalent characters. Register analysis can only act as one of the supporting strategies in reproducing characters in TT.There are four chapters in all in this thesis excluding the introduction and conclusion.Introduction briefly introduces the aims, theoretical basis, main structure and significance of this thesis as well as the questions to be resolved.Chapter 1 reviews history of Hong Lou Meng studies and the translation history of Hong Lou Meng with special reference to the two complete translated versions. It also briefly introduces history and current situations of studies on dialogue translation of Hong Lou Meng.Chapter 2 defines "dialogue" and analyzes its importance in fiction. Then it discusses the features of dialogues in Hong Lou Meng and analyzes main strategies in dialogue translation of fiction and Hong Lou Meng. Chapter 3 describes language variety and register analysis theories, exploring the practicability and advantages of applying register analysis into dialogue translation.Chapter 4 is a case study on ST and TT of selected dialogues of typical characters in Hong Lou Meng, demonstrating the effect of register analysis on guiding dialogue translation through comparison between TTs.The conclusion summarizes the whole thesis and answers questions raised in introduction. What is more, it presents the limits in this thesis and explores the potential application of the results from this thesis as well as tendencies of further studies.
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