A Study On Revising Si Xianzhu’s Translation Quality Assessment Model

Translation criticism is an important link between translation theory and translational action,and it is an significant component in translation studies, so translation quality assessment involved in translation criticism becomes the focus of translation studies. The study of translation quality assessment is the inevitable requirement of development of translation studies, and it is helpful to regulate the translational action and improve the quality of translations and translation assessment. By reviewing the studies of translation quality assessment at home and abroad, it is found that House’s functional-pragmatic translation quality assessment model and Reiss’ model based on the text typology are most influential, and domestic scholars mainly establish new models through absorbing the foreign theories of translation criticism, such as Wu Xinxiang’s model based on translation equivalence, Fan Shouyi’s model based on fuzz math, Gu Zhengkun’s model based on plural complementarism of translation standard, Si Xianzhu’s model based on functional linguistics. Among these models, Si’s model is more objective, more systemic and more feasible. Therefore, the thesis focuses on Si’s model from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics, its theoretical basis and defects, then revising Si’s model.Si Xianzhu’s model from the perspective of functional linguistics is established on the basis of House’s model and Reiss’ text typology. Although Si’s model possesses the advantages of concise parameters designing, obvious operating steps, concrete operational tools and also takes the dominant function of text into consideration, it is still flawed in neglecting the analysis of deviances and false equivalences in the textual function between the source text and target text.According to systemic functional linguistics, a good target text should be equivalent with its source text in the ideational, interpersonal and textual function. Therefore, the study revises Si’s model by adding the parameter of textual function and finally tests the revised model’s feasibility by analyzing Peter Harmil’s short novel Going Home and its Chinese translation.Through the case study, the study finds that the revision of Si’ s model is necessary and the revised model is feasible in evaluating the translation quality of a short novel. Theoretically, the defects in Si’s model are remedied, and practically, this study may provide the reference for the English-Chinese translation quality assessment of literary texts. Despite all this, the case study merely makes the analysis of literary texts, and it is not necessarily suitable for the revised model to be used to analyze other types of texts. To make the translation quality assessment more objective and more scientific, it is necessary to do the study based on translational corpus and establish the grade standard of translation quality assessment.