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

Register theory is one of the most important theories in systemic-functional grammar.It reveals the general rule of the language varieties under different situations--the language changes with the changing of functions and the language variety divided by its function is called register.Register involves three variable: field,tenor and mode of discourse.The three variables of register all have their own features at lexical,grammar and other linguistic levels,and different language features can lead to the appearance of register markers at various linguistic levels in both Chinese and English.The register markers plays an essential role in identifying the register.The vivid animals with distinct characteristics,different relationships among these little animals,the application of rhetorical devices,and the adoption of many literary forms such as dialogues,descriptive language and the ditties in The Wind in the Willows all make this book suitable to be studied from the perspective of register theory.Therefore,this study chooses Yang Jingyuan’s Chinese version of The Wind in the Willows as the case,combining with concrete examples and adopting the method of qualitative analysis,to analyze Yang Jingyuan’s translation of The Wind in the Willows from the three variables of register--the field,tenor and mode,hoping to analyze how Yang’s translation achieves this kind of register equivalence,aiming to enrich the studies of The Wind in the Willows--one of the classic works of children’s literature,and at the same time provide a new perspective for studying the translation of children’s literature and further extend the application of register theory in translation studies.With the help of the register markers in both English and Chinese at various linguistic levels,this study firstly analyzes the language features of the original text,and thus identifies the register of the original text,then,combining with the register markers in Chinese,analyzes how Yang’s translation achieves the register equivalence.By analyzing and concluding the concrete examples,this study concludes that the register theory has certain significance in guiding the studies about the translation of children’s literature,and tentatively concludes some translation techniques under the register theory,aiming to provide some advice for translators to translate the works of children’s literature.