A Comparative Study Of The Two English Versions Of Chang Hen Ge From The Perspective Of Three Metafunctions

According to M.A.K.Halliday,the meaning of language can be defined according to its function in performance.he put forward three metafunctions of language in Systemic Functional Linguistics(SFL),which are the ideational function,the interpersonal function and the textual function.As an activity of meaning transferring,theoretically speaking,translation should achieve the perfect equivalence of three metafunctions between the source text and target text.Therefore,many scholars have applied the theory of three metafunctions to the evaluation of the translation of different types of text,including literature works,advertisements,political speeches,movies and so on.Chinese poetry is a distinctive art form in Chinese literature.It is concise in language,strict in rhythm,abundant in emotions and rich in images.Attracted by the mysterious glamour of poetry,many scholars have put great effort into its translation study.Scholars represented by Huang Guowen have verified the feasibility of applying SFL into the translation of poetry.The development of Chinese ancient poetry reached its peak in the Tang dynasty.There were many great poets and significant works during this period.Bai Juyi,as one of the greatest realistic poets in this dynasty,has gained great achievements in poetry composition.He is known as “Shi Mo”,which refer to people who can compose poems like magic.Chang Hen Ge(literally translated as “A Song of Everlasting Sorrow”),a long narrative poem,is one of his masterpieces.It narrates the love tragedy between Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei.In 1901,the first English version of Chang Hen Ge was translated by the British sinologist Herbert A.Giles(Giles).Dozens of different translated versions have been published since then.In this thesis,the author will choose the version translated byGiles and the version translated by Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Yang(the Yangs)as study corpus.With different cultural backgrounds,growth experiences and different understandings of the source text,translators may adopt different translation strategies in the realization of metafunctional equivalence.The author will conduct a comparative study of the two translated versions of Chang Hen Ge from the perspective of three metafunctions.Through the data analysis of the transitivity system,the mood and modality system and the theme-rheme structure,the author intends to evaluate the two translated versions objectively.The major findings are as follows:Firstly,from the perspective of the ideational function,the ranking of the proportion of the six processes in the source text and the two translated versions are the same.Material process is the main form in this narrative poem and the two translated versions.Besides,the function of each process in both translated versions stays the same as that in the source text.Based on their different understandings of the original text,the translators make different adaptations in their translations.The overall data shows that the Yangs' translation of the process is more faithful to the source text.Secondly,from the perspective of the interpersonal function,Giles and the Yangs have achieved the general equivalence of the mood types.Most clauses in both versions are declarative clauses.While in some cases,translators may change the mood types to strengthen or weaken the expressions based on their understanding of the source text.In addition,among the 9 examples that contain modal words,there are 3examples in which the Yangs' version achieve a better effect of equivalence.Therefore,generally speaking,translators are able to choose proper modal words to achieve the equivalence of interpersonal function while the Yangs' choice of the modal words can be more proper in a few cases.Thirdly,from the perspective of the textual function,simple theme is the most common types used in the source text and the two translated versions.Since the ways of expressions between Chinese and English are of great difference,all translators have made great adjustments to the theme-rheme structure in the source text.Compared to the source text,there are more multiple themes and clause themes in the two English versions.In addition,unmarked themes have a higher proportion in both translatedversions.This thesis offers a new perspective of the evaluation of the translations of Chang Hen Ge,further proving the guiding role of three metafunctions in the translation of Chinese poetry.For translators,the study of transitivity can help them get a thorough understanding of the internal thoughts and external experience of the author of the poem.Besides,the interpersonal function reflects the author's attitudes,opinions,evaluations,also the communication role adopted by the author in the text.Therefore,the choice of the mood and modality should be consistent with the source text.Moreover,since there are great differences between Chinese and English,it is necessary to make some adjustments to the theme-rheme structure to improve the naturalness and smoothness of the translated text.