On The Influence Of Translation Upon Ideology In Light Of Functional Linguistics

Usually people tend to discuss the influence of ideology upon language and its manipulation upon translation practice, yet they seldom focus on the influence of language upon ideology. In the end they ignored by large how ideology comes into its present state owing to a mere attention to the manipulation of ideology on discourse power.This thesis tries to demonstrate the shaping power of translations upon ideology from the Hallidayan perspective of systemic-functional linguistics. As the thesis volume is limited, a comparison is made only between Buddhist scripture translation from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty and the Western technological translation during the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty in terms of social-cultural environments and ideologies in particular, etc. This thesis also touches on the influence of translation upon ideology in the process of translating the Other into our culture.Besides Introduction and Conclusion, the whole thesis consists of three chapters. The introduction gives a brief review of the relevant research in terms of translation theory, functional linguistics and ideology. The first chapter is the theoretical frame of the whole thesis, which mainly introduces the theories put forth by Halliday, Martin, Eagleton, Bahktin, Lefevere,Venuti, Munday, House, Hu Zhuanglin etc. in the fields of translation theory, functional linguistics and ideology. It also focuses on the social semiotic meaning of the translated text from the Hallidayan point of view. In this thesis the comparison is also made between the context models by Halliday and Martin. The second chapter is a detailed illustration of the two major translation waves of the Buddhist scripture translation and the Western technological translation, and how they have influenced ideology. The third chapter is the key part of the thesis, which mainly dwells on the shaping force of language upon ideology and vice versa. It also discusses the translation's function of self-interpreting and acculturation of the Other.Judging by the two major translation waves we can see the great influence upon ideology exerted by translation, the shaping force of which inevitably influenced the Han nationality and its language, which finally led to a new and heterogeneous ideology. The formation of Zen after long years of Buddhist scripture translation is a fine example to prove itself. Besides, the translation of Western science and technology at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty is just like a dose of sober-up medicine, which has eventually made those people with insights realize that the maladies of our nation and opened their eyes to the outer world. It is the first time Chinese have acknowledged that there were really powerful civilizations existing in foreign territories.Though the translation practices during the two periods are the same in form, they are quite different in meaning. Their influence on the social-culture environments and ideology of the target language is much different, which proves the functionalist view regarding the steady influence of language upon ideology by the process from register to genre and then to ideology from the perspective of language as social semiotic. So we get an observation that Buddhist scripture translation movement might be over translation while the missionary translation led by Matteo Ricci might be a more positive one for it influenced the Chinese by a much larger and broader view of the real world. In light of the context models from the functional linguistic point of view this author believes that in the social development process language does influence ideology and vice versa through register and genre with a shaping force or even a force of subversion.The creative work of this thesis lies in the further research of the influence of language upon ideology and vise versa while many scholars merely dwell on the manipulation of ideology upon translation action. This author also puts forth the modification of the context models of Martin, Munday, House, etc. that all elements inside the context interact with each other. The significance of this research is the introspection upon translation strategy from ideological sense, which sheds light upon our selection of source texts and translation strategy.