A Study On Translation Of Children’s Literature From The Perspective Of Register Theory

Children‘s literature is composed specially for children, which has unique artisticqualities and rich values. As one part of children‘s literature, the translation works ofchildren‘s literature are of great importance to the enrichment and development ofchildren‘s literature, which also play a significant role in the growth of children.However, this undertaking doesn‘t attract enough attention owing to its particular groupof readers—children. Nowadays, there are various translation works in the book market,some of which are of good quality while others are not. Therefore, how to evaluate theirqualities and what criteria should be followed to produce better translation works, havebecome an urgent issue that needs scholars‘concern. At present, studies on children‘sliterature translation are conducted under the guidance of the following methods:skopos theory, reception theory, functional equivalence and translators‘subjectivity.This thesis is aimed at probing into the translation of children‘s literature by adoptingregister theory.Register theory is one of the most important theories in systemic functionalgrammar, which is improved and enriched by Halliday and other linguists by combiningthe study of language with social context. It reveals the general principles that governlanguage variables in different situations. Language varies in accordance with itsfunction, so register is used to refer to language variable according to its use. Register iscomposed of three variables: field, tenor and mode. Field refers to what is going on aswell as the environment. Tenor refers to who the participants are and the relationshipbetween them. Mode refers to the channel or medium of communication. All threelanguage variables have their respective characteristics in vocabulary, grammar andother linguistic levels.This thesis conducts a comparative study on the two versions of A LittlePrincess—a famous novel by American writer F.H. Burnett, which proves the validityand superiority of register theory when applied to the translation of children‘s literature.It analyzes whether the translations are in accordance with source text‘s theme andcontext from the perspective of field, whether the language is appropriate according tothe characters‘roles and status from the perspective of tenor, and whether the language type used in the translated versions conforms to the original style from the perspectiveof mode. The study concludes that register analysis is really helpful to preserve the styleand meaning of source text in translation. At the same time, translators‘subjectivity canbe reduced to the minimum while the accuracy of translation is improved. As a result,qualified translated versions are created.The innovation of the study: the thesis makes use of example analysis andcomparative study to demonstrate the arguments, analyzing the novel A Little Princessfrom the perspective of field, tenor and mode and take into consideration the form andmeaning of source text in translation. This is also valuable for the future studies in thefield. The study serves as a new perspective for the research on children‘s literaturetranslation, which employs register theory, a method of linguistic theory, in translation.Compared with traditional literary theories, register theory is more objective andpractical so as to better the translation practice.