An Analysis Of The Reader's Horizon Of Expectation On The English Version Of Teahouse From The Perspective Of Modality System

Interpersonal function is one of Halliday's three meta-functions.Modality is an important tool to realize the interpersonal function because speakers can interfere his or her discourse to express attitudes or change others' beliefs and status by using the modality.Modality system,represented by Halliday,is of great applicability.It can be applied to many fields,including translation studies.Translation,as a special cross-linguistic/cultural speech act,occurs in the context of the target culture.Naturally it should give full consideration to the target readers.And the translation of modality should also pay attention to readers' reading habit or their literary experience that is linked with their horizon of expectation,because the reader's horizon of expectation directly affects the transmission of communicative intentions and the realization of spreading culture.As is known,Teahouse is a classic representative of Chinese drama and a treasure of art palace.The short three-act drama reflects profound historical and cultural connotations and has high artistic value.It plays an important role in spreading Chinese culture.As a classic representative of Chinese drama,the English version of Teahouse also arouses people's attention naturally.In the process of translation,due to the different reading habits and literary experiences of target readers,the modality adopted in the English version of Teahouse will change accordingly when compared with the modality in Teahouse to realize certain translation purposes of modal meaning.According to that,this thesis adopts a combination of quantitative method and qualitative method to explore the relationship between modality choice and reader's horizon of expectation in Howard's English version of Teahouse.This thesis intends to solve the following questions:(1)In order to realize the communicative intention of modal meaning in source text,whether the modal choice satisfies the target reader's directed expectation or not?(2)In order to realize the cultural characteristics of modal meaning in source text,whether the modal choice satisfies the target reader's creative expectation or not ?Through detailed analysis of the above questions,the thesis comes to conclusions as follows:Firstly,the thesis analyzes modality which conveys different communicative intentions including persuasion,request and requirement.Some typical examples are analyzed to explore the relationship between modal choice and reader's directed expectation.In Howard's English version of Teahouse,the communicative intention of persuasion and request are often expressed by modality with median or low value,which achieves form equivalence with source text.Then,the communicative intention of requirement is often expressed by modality with high value or modal expressions which express robust attitude in source text while in target text Howard doesn't choose form equivalence but uses the modality of metaphor or other expressions that covey milder attitude to meet target readers' directed expectation.In a word,through the analysis of these three aspects,it can be concluded that the translation achieves the communicative intention of the source text and satisfies the reader's directed expectation through formal equivalence.But sometimes formal equivalence is not accord with readers' directed expectation.Adding modal expressions,deleting modal expressions or changing the modality type,orientation and value are also used to meet target reader's directed expectation and help readers to accept and understand the meaning of the source text in the three aspects.Through the analysis of the relationship between the modal choice of its English version and reader's directed expectation,it can be concluded that the modal choice not only conveys the author's original intention,but also conforms to the reader's directed expectation.Secondly,the thesis explores the relationship between modal choice and creative expectation from three aspects: address terms,idioms and greetings.First and foremost,according to the context or other modal expressions in the same sentence,readers always understand the modal meaning that address terms embody.However,the translation of address terms keeps the form of source text,which has differences with target language culture.It is new information for target readers.Then,idioms often embody the Chinese values in source text.Howard tries to keep the form equivalence when he translates idioms.Target readers can learn about the literal meaning.However,due to the cultural difference,target readers' worldview is different from the worldview that idioms convey in source text.At last,readers can understand the modal meaning that the greetings embody.But greetings in source text often show the unique way of Chinese to greet.Howard tries to keep it when he translates the greetings while there isn't such way to greet in target language culture.Hence,the translation of greeting surpasses target reader's directed expectation.Through the analysis of the three aspects in Howard's English version of Teahouse,we can find that Howard tries to keep the Chinese culture.Target readers can understand the modal meaning that the address terms,idioms and greetings contain.However,target readers are not familiar with the form or the way of these expressions and the worldview that address terms,idioms and greetings convey.The culture that address terms,idioms and greetings contain is different from target reader's directed expectation.Target readers need to accept them dynamically.It's new information for readers and it surpasses reader's directed expectation,but it's accord with reader's creative expectation.This thesis provides a new angle for study of the English version of Teahouse.At the same time,it assists translators to choose modality better when they translate literary works and helps readers to understand literary works better.