On The Use Of Interpersonal Metaphor In Two English Versions Of Hongloumeng-a Corpus-Based Comparative Study

Systemic functional linguists represented by Halliday believe that metaphor exists notonly on the lexical level but also on the grammatical level. The use of grammaticalmetaphor exerts great impact on the conveyance of meaning in discourse. Meanwhile,representation of the meaning of the original text is the foremost task and purpose of atranslator, so the use of grammatical metaphor in translation to some degree illustrates howthe translator reads the source text and consequently influences the representation of themeaning in the source text. As one of the three types of grammatical metaphor,interpersonal metaphor in the target text plays a great role in conveying the interpersonalmeaning of the original. It is from this perspective that the present study sets out to explorethe representation of the interpersonal meaning of Hongloumeng in its two Englishversions.Acknowledged as one of the best masterpieces in world literature, Hongloumeng neverfails to attract its readers both home and abroad. Among its various English versions, thetwo translated by Yang Xiang-yi and his wife Gladys Yang and David Hawkes and JohnMinford are most widely read and accepted. Studies on the English translation of the novelmainly focus on the two. Based on a parallel corpus of Hongloumeng, this paper comparesthe use of interpersonal metaphor in the two English versions and employs discourseanalysis to analyze Wang Xi-feng’s speeches. Conclusions drawn from the combination ofquantitative and qualitative research are: speeches made by the characters in Hawkes’version are more euphemistic and more polite and as a result more easily accepted byEnglish-speaking readers. Besides, flexible changes in mood in Hawkes’ translation areconductive to a vivid and more understandable portrait of personality and social status ofdifferent characters in the novel and their interpersonal relationship with each other. Bycontrast, Yangs’ translation basically confirms with the original in terms of the use of moodand modality system. Characters’ speeches employ more strengthening mood systems andconvey higher degree of assertiveness and confidence in Yangs’ translation. Consequently,social status and interpersonal relationship among different characters are more sharplycounter posed and more explicitly depicted, and the personalities of different characters are more sharply featured. The findings show that Hawkes’ translation is more reader-targetedand the strategy of domestication is employed during the process of translation. However,the accordance with the original text in the use of interpersonal metaphor shows that Yangspay more attention to the original text and employ more frequently the strategy offorignization during their translation with an aim to present its western readers aHongloumeng with its original flavor. In conclusion, the use of interpersonal metaphor notonly exerts great impact upon the representation of the interpersonal meaning of theoriginal text but also demonstrates the translation strategies adopted by translators drivenby different purposes, which deserves due attention in both translation practices andassessment.