The Appliance Of The Register Theory To The Re-translation Of Literary Works

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill(30 November,1874-24 January,1965),born in a noble family,is a British politician,historian,artist,public speaker,writer and journalist.Widely acknowledged as one of the most important leaders since the twentieth century,he led British people to the victory of the Second World War.He also wrote many literary works,such as A History of the English-Speaking Peoples and The Second World War.The latter was greatly approved by scholars and earned him a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953,though its current Chinese translated versions have much more to improve.Winston has used refined and accurate words and expressions during his work,not to mention his eloquence which inspired people with hope during the dark times.Despite the fact that a great deal of researches on his work has been carried out,only very few tend to use functional grammar to analyze his literary works,especially the translated versions.In order to put more weight on the research field,the author adopts the comparative method so as to make a detailed analysis of both the source text and the translated version.The practical analysis demonstrates that though the work translated by the Southern Press has made great contributions in presenting Churchill's main ideas and opinions in the Second World War to the Chinese reader,there are still some mistakes in the translation which include mistakes in understanding,appropriate expression and in sentence logical deliverance.The author of the dissertation is to find out these mistakes,and attempt to correct and improve them within the theoretical framework of Halliday's register theory by proposing a more reasonable version.The major findings of the research is that re-translation is of great importance in the understanding of literary works,and register theory is a powerful tool in guidance of the translation work.This article has five chapters.The first chapter is a brief introduction,which clarifies the motivation of this research,corresponding methodology,research questions etc.The second chapter is a literature review on current research on re-translation and Churchill's The Second World War both within the domestic and overseas academia.The third chapter is the theoretical framework on Register,which serves as the theoretical foundation of this research.The fourth chapter is about case studies which focus on both the analysis of Churchill's The Second World War and its corresponding translated version from the perspective of Field equivalence,Tenor equivalence,and Mode equivalence.The last chapter is the Conclusion.Based on the analysis in Chapter four,the author draws a conclusion that re-translation is very important in analyzing literary works and register theory is a powerful tool in guidance of the translation work.