A Study Of C-E Translation Of Attitudinal Resources In Chinese Literary Works

This thesis,on a basis of attitudinal system,aims to study the translation techniques of attitudinal resources in Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang's English version of The New-Year Sacrifice in 1980 by quantitative and qualitative research methods,with the intention of contributing to the translation of attitudinal resources in Chinese literary works.Attitude refers to lexicogrammatical resources for construing various kinds of feelings and value-loaded evaluations,and it is the core resources for expressing evaluative meaning in discourse.Scholars in the field of translation have long attached great importance to the translation of attitudinal resources,and how the attitudinal meaning is successfully transferred from the source text to the target one is deemed as a vital factor that cannot be neglected in the process of translation.Nevertheless,present studies of the translation of attitudinal resources fail to conclude accessible translation techniques to guide specific translation practice.In addition,most of those studies are concerned with non-literary texts,not paying enough attention to Chinese literary works.Attitudinal system provides a scientific analysis tool for attitudinal resources.It is one of three sub-systems of appraisal theory,which is put forward by Martin and White,evolving from interpersonal meaning interpreted by Systemic Functional Linguistics.Attitudinal system itself comprises three semantic regions: affect,judgement and appreciation.Affect deals with resources for emotional reactions;judgement deals with moral evaluation of behavior;and appreciation deals with aestheticassessment of the value of things.Attitude can be positive or negative and can be expressed explicitly or implicitly.This thesis,taking attitudinal system as its theoretical framework,attempts to explore the Yangs' translation techniques of attitudinal resources in The New-Year Sacrifice.The result shows that the original text is full of attitudinal resources,among which,judgement ranks first,followed by affect and appreciation.Furthermore,negative attitudinal resources are more than positive ones,and the majority of attitudes are explicitly expressed.By comparing the distribution of attitudinal resources between the ST and TT,it is found that correspondence takes the priority in the Yangs' English version,which makes attitudes transferred faithfully in terms of meaning and style.And other translation techniques,including shift,addition and omission,are also flexibly adopted on the condition that meaning and style cannot be conveyed simultaneously,which assures the reproduction of attitudinal meaning to the greatest extent.The factors influencing the Yangs' decision-making for attitudinal resources are also discussed,primarily consisting of translation purposes,translation thoughts,language differences and translator's subjectivity.This thesis,applying appraisal theory to translation studies,intends to provide some reference values for the C-E translation of attitudinal resources in Chinese literary works by describing and analyzing the Yangs' translation techniques of attitudinal resources,which is conducive to the “Going Out” of Chinese literature.